Nuance reveals Indian sub-continent ambition

Gavin Lipsith

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The Swiss retailer talks to RavenFox.com about its joint venture with Shoppers’ Stop in the new retail contract at Bangalore International airport

The Nuance Group has described its recent victory in Bangalore International airport’s retail tender, in which it partnered with local domestic retailer Shoppers’ Stop, as the “first step in a long-term development process in the Indian sub-continent”.

Nuance Retail Services & Distribution CEO Carlo Bernasconi, formerly executive vice-president strategy and business development, told RavenFox.com that the joint venture was looking at a series of other opportunities. Among them are likely to be the forthcoming tenders at Hyderabad and Mumbai, where The Nuance Group and Shopper’s Stop’s 50:50 joint venture TNG India Services Co is based, with management functions including buying and logistics supervised from the new headquarters.

“Bangalore represents the first real public tender process of a privatised airport in India and therefore winning this concession was extremely important to us for entering the Indian market,” said Bernasconi.

Bernasconi also outlined the rationale behind the group’s proposal at Bangalore, and explained why domestic terminal retail business is a vital aspect of the retailer’s regional strategy.

For the full interview with Bernasconi and more on Nuance’s plans for Bangalore and its development in the Indian market, see DFNI February 15, out next month.