CEO Speakwith Mohit Kampani

THE RETEK REVOLUTIONIn conversation with Nirav Parikh

INSIDE THE COVETEDKBC CLUBOur top 5 SM KBC stores

SPREADINGPOSITIVE VIBESABRL Vibes 2016

ABRL INTERNAL MAGAZINE ISSUE 3

CONTENTS

Cover StoryCEO Speak withMohit Kampani01

03 IT FocusThe RetekRevolution

ABRL Pop QuizWin Exciting Prizes!!06

Store SpecialOur top 5 KBC Stores07

HR SpecialABRL Vibes 201614

ABRL WinnersAditya Birla AwardsFor Outstanding Achievement 201617

Acknowledgments18

New BrandLaunch‘more Life’16

KBC

best B2C retailer in India. We must seize the momentum and work hard toward delivering our aligned strategy. I look forward to your support in this journey. Retail is a multi-functional business and unless everyone plays their role to the best of their ability, we cannot be the best.

Who is your role model and what is the one thing that you have learnt from this person that you keenly observe in your day-to-day life?

It would have to be the late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Mr. Narayana Murthy. Though both have been highly accomplished in their respective fields, what sets them apart from others is their humility. I think this is one leadership trait which is an absolute must to embody. Leaders who are not humble will find it difficult to hear others and end up shutting themselves off.

How do you strike a work-life balance?

My family and close friends circle are very important to me. My three kids keep me busy and force me to switch off from work which is useful in striking a healthy work-life balance.

3. To make ABRL a stronger organization: We must passionately embrace digitization and analytics. More technology needs to come into the supply chain and we must start investing in it, with immediate effect.4. To make ABRL the best place to work: My personal vision is to make ABRL the best place to work for its people. We must hear what our colleagues and employees tell us and then work towards making this the best place to work.

Please share in a few words your message to employees?

ABRL has come a long way over the last few years. You should be proud of the strong and consumer focused organization you have helped build. Aditya Birla Group is strongly committed to help us fashion ABRL into the

baton forwardTAKING THE

team which is amongst the best in the Indian retail industry. The team is committed, self-driven, motivated and clearly works with a lot of passion. ABRL is a highly process - oriented organization that further raises the confidence of its stakeholders.

What are your top priorities as CEO?

My focus comes from our aligned strategy that is centred around four broad areas: 1. To build better customer centricity: We have embarked on a lot of exciting and new areas to understand our customer better. Some of these include Project Runway, Mission Happiness and Customer Journey Mapping. In other areas we need to work hard to strengthen our CVP (Customer Value Proposition) by focusing on building categories which we can be famous for, riding emerging trends, ramping up new stores and continuing to invest back in price. 2. To fast track profitability: We must wage a war against wastage, turn around loss-making stores, get more productive and efficient and find new ways to earn more.

It has been almost three months since you joined ABRL. What are your initial thoughts about the organization and its people?

ABRL is an exciting place to be a part of! I see a

CEO SPEAK Q&A with Mohit Kampani

Tall and decisive, Mohit Kampani cuts a distinguished figure, exuding confidence

with every stride. In his first exclusive interview for Xpressions, ABRL’s new

Chief Executive Officer sheds some light on the way ahead for the company,

explains why employees should feel proud to be a part of ABRL and talks about his

devotion towards a strong work-life balance

stores, get more productive and efficient and find new ways to earn more.

TOP PRIORITIES

To build better customer centricity

To make ABRL a stronger organization

To make ABRL the best place to work

To fast track pro�tability

important to me. My three kids keep me busy and force me to switch off from work which is useful in striking a healthy work-life balance.

UP, CLOSE & PERSONAL

PASSION : Music and Malts.

SPORT : Cricket

HOLIDAY DESTINATION : Goa

MOVIE : The Godfather

BOOK : The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders

01 02

Mohit Kampani with wife, Surabhi and kids,Ranvir, Naina & Vivaan

tracking of stocks that need to be replenished or are near expiry, fulfilling ABRL’s freshness and quality promise. Moreover, the beauty of this solution lies in managing new stores without having to invest in new IT backend infrastructure.

Briefly take us through the implementation process of Retek in ABRL.

Prior to implementing Retek, ABRL was using three different IT software systems, namely Navision for HM, BaaN for TSS Stores and Retek for SM. This caused a lot of inefficiency due to duplication of work, across formats. Thus, it was decided to integrate all systems under Retek. The entire transition process took approximately 16 months with a core team of 110 members involved in the implementation process, apart from hundreds of store staff and outsourced resources who were also part of this project at some or the other stage.The process of implementation was essentially divided into three stages. The initial stage consisted of Blue Printing or information gathering regarding business requirements. This was followed by the Design Stage wherein ABRL’s IT

Please tell us a little about Retek and how it is helpful for a retail business such as ABRL?

Retek is a software product from Oracle which provides tailor-made IT solutions for the retail industry. At ABRL, we decided to implement Retek with an aim to streamline and integrate all IT functions at the SM and HM stores level for greater efficiency. Thus, Retek provided ABRL with a single, easy-to-use, comprehensive software solution for easier tracking of stocks, automated generation of purchase orders and debit notes and seamless

team made necessary system modifications to ensure smooth transition to the new Retek system. Finally, the third stage consisted of master data approval and piloting the new system at select stores before final implementation of Retek across the store network.

How did other teams support IT with Retek implementation?

The Retek implementation was a long and detailed process involving multiple cross-functional teams, without whose support the project could not have been successful. While Business Control, Receiving Yard, Buying & Merchandising and Mapping, Planning & Replenishiment members were involved actively throughout the project across the three stages of transition to implementation, HR played a role in training new cashiers and ensuring seamless functioning of manpower across stores undergoing migration during the TSS phase of Retek migration. The store IT teams also supported the initiative and worked relentlessly during the implementation phase.

On a daily basis, how does Retek help employees?

IT FOCUS Q&A With Nirav Parikh

revolution THE RETEK

Ever wondered what goes on behind-the-scenes to ensure that fresh

F&V reaches more stores three hours after being harvested? Or how the F&V is

replenished with fresh stock at 5 pm? Well, ABRL’s Retek solution that integrates the IT backend seamlessly across SM and HM stores plays a powerful role in smooth

store operations and end customer delight. We caught up with Nirav Parikh, Head-IT, ABRL to see just how Retek is

helping ABRL fulfil its aim of ‘Making India Healthy and Happy’

Key Team Members involved in Retek Implementation

Nirav Parikh

Abhishek Shah

Prashant Bhoir

Kapil Deshpande

Kishore Thombare

Tania Saha

Yashasvi Sharma

Kandarp Asher

Sriram R.

Shyam Merchant

Nadeem Ahmed

Pooja Thampi

Dhiresh More

Dishob Nair

Nilesh Chafekar

Babu KB

Ranjan Swain

Swapnil Pednekar

Farooq Mullah

Umesh Varma

Sabu Oommen

Shrikant Tiwari

Ravi Tripathi

Nitesh Bhaskar

Nitin Sawant

RupendraNigam

Ravi Bahl

“Retek has improved efficiency across all IT backend processes of ABRL through its myriad benefits that include faster refilling of stocks, reducing wastage, data accuracy and much more. It has helped make all stakeholders more efficient resulting in happier and more satisfied customers for ABRL.”

Neeraj Pal Singh,Chief Information O�cer - Apparel & Retail Business, Aditya Birla Group

03 04

Top 5 bene�ts of Retek

1. A single, integrated so�ware solution

for SM and HM Stores

2. Robust IT processes across the organization creating a superb link between stores, head o�ces, regional o�ces as well as third-party vendors

3. Automated stock-keeping system helps more ful�l its freshness promise through faster replenishment of SKUs

4. Reducing wastage through identi�cation of near-expiry stocks in stores

5. Automated purchase order and debit note system

ABRL POP QUIZ

INSTRUCTIONS:• Your full name:• Your mobile number:• Your email id:• Your location:

Choose the right answer from options providedTop 10 winners will win exciting prizesSend entries to beryl.menezes@abfrl.adityabirla.comLast date for entries: Jan 30

3. How many GOLD stores are there in the network as of December 2016?

a. 492 b. 486c. 444 d. 461

4. How many WOW stores are there in the network as of December 2016?

a. 12 b. 7c. 9 d. 5

5. In which of these locations is PROJECT RUNWAY being currently piloted?

a. Chennai b. Mumbaic. Kolkata d. Assam

6. Who is ABRL’s Omni-Channel partner?

a. Groffers b. Big Basketc. ZopNow d. Swiggy

7. Which of the brands below are part of the Own Brands portfolio?

a. Yipee b. Selectac. Knorr d. Hamdard

8. Which of the categories below are the newest to be introduced in hypermarket stores?

a. Footwear b. F&Vc. Edible Oils d. Accessories

1. When did ABRL turn EBITDA positive?

a. January b. Marchc. December d. October

2. How many KBC SM stores (crossing Rs 1 crore in sales) does ABRL have as of December 2016?

a. 9 b. 5c. 15 d. 6

Retek brings in a system of checks and balances in terms of costs, margins and sales, besides ensuring that the transaction data is automatically available to the users. It also ensures that there is one single view of data updates to all relevant stakeholders. Furthermore, Retek has helped reduce the time required for receipt of fresh stocks and automated purchase order process through an auto-replenishment system. Moreover, Retek ties up with the vendor portal for automated debit note information to the vendors, as well.The other big advantage of Retek is our ability to scale up our store without significant investment

in our back-end manpower cost. As processes like auto replenishment, communication to vendors through vendor portal, etc become automated, we will be able to expand our network of stores with the same number of people managing backend operations.

Given that the rest of the retail industry also uses Retek or similar retail software, how will ABRL have a competitive advantage over its peers with Retek?

The two key differentiators for ABRL are its Freshness Promise and Availability.

Freshness Promise: ABRL has developed a Retek-based software application called ‘Proxima’ which can identify expired and near-expiry stocks at stores. Post identification of such items, the store team and Buying & Merchandising Team take corrective actions. Thus freshness of perishable products is ensured at all times – a driving force behind ABRL’s store success. Availability through Auto-Replenishment: With our best of breed Auto-Replenishment system, we are able to identify stocks that are running low and need to be replenished in a timely manner. We are also able to re-allocate stocks to various stores on urgent need basis through the re-allocation system. This way, we are able to ensure fulfilment of different requirements for each individual store in the network simultaneously.

05 06

Click here to take the quiz: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/B5BN9RJ

STORE SPECIAL

For ABRL, striving for excellence in store standards, quality, freshness and customer experience through initiatives like Project GOLD for Supermarkets has resulted in a number of such stores crossing the `1 crore sales turnover mark. We tracked five such KBC stores; namely SM Free School Street, SM Chilimbi, SM Gurgaon Sector 56 Huda Market, SM Radisson Blue and SM Crossing Republik who have consistently crossed the `1 crore sales mark during the past one year to discover their recipe for success and uncover useful tips for their peers. Read on to find out more…

KBC

INSIDE THECoveted KBC Club

“As we enter a new year, we must endeavor to continue the good work that has helped us break records and look for even more ways to achieve greater success. We need to set new standards for the rest of the retail industry to aspire for, by being the best. Achieving `1 crore plus sales turnover is no mean feat and speaks volumes of the team work and obsession for service excellence that these stores have achieved. Let’s applaud their efforts and encourage stores inching closer to the `1 crore mark, while we strive to turn all SM stores in our network into KBC stores.”

Sashi Gumma, COO-HM&SM, ABRL

S M GURGAON SECTOR 56 HUDA MARKET

“What differentiates our store from the rest is the F&V focus, high quality store standards, world class customer service with effective and easy communication, effective manpower planning through duty roster, and last but not the least, team work and motivation, which is the key to success. My tip for other store managers would be proper planning and strictly following SOP execution and maintaining highest store standards at all times.”

Abhishek Tiwary, Store Manager

“Going forward, we are planning to touch `1 crore in F&V business alone, besides repeating our `2 crore sales turnover every month. We will do this by focusing on existing and new customers and fending off competition by looking into areas that need improvement in terms of store operations, while working towards making this store the best in the more network in terms of customer footfall, NOB and ATV.”

Inderjeet Kumar, Cluster Manager

Fast Facts• First store in ABRL network to cross

`2 crore in July 2016; touched `1 crore for the first time in July 2011

• Total Store Staff Strength - 40

• Achieved `1 crore through: a) Team work b) High volume of F&V sales c) Constant improvisation and improvement

of process flow

d) Effective mentorship and guidance

07 08

S M CHILIMBI

Fast Facts• Touched `1 crore for the first time in June

2014• Total Store Staff Strength - 28 • Achieved `1 crore through: a) Regular replenishment of stocks b) Adherence to store service charter c) Attractive VM and marketing display d) Customer interaction and maintaining

customer loyalty e) Focus on F&V, daily needs, seasonal

and exotic stock

“We were able to maintain `1 crore sales turnover through strong adherence to store service charter, customer delight through regular interaction and communication and last but not the least, a well-trained and motivated store team.”

Shravan Santosh Kumar, Store Manager

“Going forward, our aim is to achieve a new milestone of reaching `2 crore sales turnover. A few goals we have in mind to achieve this are doing things differently, ensuring store team awareness, strict adherence to store service charter by all store staff, building a loyal customer base, acquiring new customers and finally maintaining high levels of store hygiene with clutter-free aisles that will delight our customers.”

Manjunath DN, Cluster Manager

S M FREE SCHOOL STREET, KOLKATA

Fast Facts• Touched `1 crore for the first time in

August 2014

• Total Store Staff Strength - 24

• Achieved `1 crore through: a) Increased stocks of 500 top-selling items b) Attractive display c) Continuous refilling to ensure available stock at all times d) Conversion to Gold store e) Faster check-out/billing

“Deep and focused catchment analysis and regular communication with the category team, Mapping, Planning & Replenishment team and City Operations Manager were chief factors responsible for helping us achieve and maintain the `1 crore store turnover. Fast re-filling of shelves, attractive VM display to ensure shelves look fuller, rotation of cashiers for faster billing and lastly delivering as per store promise has helped retain store sales of `1 crore plus for the entire financial year.”

Krishnakant Tiwari, Senior Store Manager

“Going forward, we want to focus on seasonal SKUs like skincare, cosmetics, F&V, GM and Frozen, from which we think we can increase sales, judging by the demand for the same from our catchment analysis conducted recently.”

Arnab Bhattacharya, City Operations Manager- Kolkata

09 10

S M RADISSON BLUE

Fast Facts• Touched `1 crore for the first time in

December 2013

• Total Store Staff Strength - 43

• Achieved `1 crore through: a) Team work

b) Maintaining highest store standards

c) Daily tracking of sales numbers

“A determined, dedicated and motivated team, along with obsessive focus on maintaining the highest store standards, daily tracking of sales numbers and daily competition analysis with nearby rival kirana stores are the key factors that have helped us cross `1 crore consistently month-on-month over the past year.”

Satish Rajwania, Store Manager

“Staff happiness is equal to customer happiness, and this has been the key winning mantra of this store, looking at its substantially low attrition. Going forward, we will continue pushing towards bettering store standards and continuing to do what has helped us in the past as we push towards touching the `2 crore mark shortly.”

Rahul Mehta, City Operations Manager

SM CROSSING REPUBLIKFast Facts• Touched `1 crore for the first time in February 2016

• Total Store Staff Strength - 37

• Achieved `1 crore through: a) Customer loyalty through superior customer service b) Attractive Offers on F&V c) Thorough catchment analysis d) Rigorous staff training on VM, timely

stock replenishment, customer service and accountability

“Accountability and dedication with a singular focus of the store manager and store staff have been key to our success. Moreover, focus on F&V and BDF, as well as maintaining top store standards has led to our consistent sales turnover of over `1 crore per month for the past one year.”

Alok Singh, Senior O�cer

“Going forward, the focus is to take the store sales turnover to `2 crore plus in the next 6 months. To do this, we will re-look at inventory for slow-moving stocks occupying unnecessary space and replace them with fast-selling products or products that are in demand but currently not available at our store. We will also focus on GM assortment.”

Inderjeet Kumar, Manager

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HERE’S WHAT YOU HAD TO SAY

A whopping 96% of you (from close to 910) expressed your thoughts on how we can create a workplace where you feel energized, can contribute, learn and grow.

SPREADINGPositive Vibes

In its fourth year, Vibes 2016 has demonstrated just how ABRL has grown from strength to strength in terms of employee confidence, strict adherence to Group values, work culture, career opportunities and much more. We asked our leaders to share their valuable thoughts on the Vibes scores and what it means for ABRL…

`1 CR POTENTIAL STORES

0.93Patiala Urban Estate 2 1

GZB Indirapuram Ahinda Khand 2 2 1.84

GZB Vasundhara Sector 15 1 0.91

Store Name No of times (1 yr data)

Sales inCR

`1 CR SALES STORES

Store Name

Nalgonda

Chilimbi Sai residency'Boloor Village

Patil Palace Bavdhan

Free School Street

Gurgaon Sector 56 HUDA Market

Delhi Dwarka Sector 13 Radisson Blue

GZB Crossings Republik

Kothrud

KARWAR

Dutt Island

SM Hyderabad Proddutoor

Delhi Malviya Nagar

Khammam

Nellore – Maguntilayout

SM Bangalore TC Palya

3

11

8

12

12

12

11

3

4

3

2

2

1

1

1

No of times(1 yr data)

3.2

11.8

8.8

14.4

21.9

20.9

16.2

3.2

4.1

3.1

2.0

2.2

1.0

1.0

1.0

Salesin CR

HR SPECIAL

About Vibes

Started in 2012, Vibes is an Aditya Birla Group HR initiative conducted every alternate year to understand the pulse of each of the Group companies, from an employer and employee’s perspective. Capturing feedback across various metrics ranging from adherence to ABG Values and work culture to career opportunities, training, work-life balance and recommending the brand to outsiders, Vibes plays a vital role for each business in the Group. Vibes also highlights critical areas that need improvement, which the leadership team takes forward to formulate new policies and processes in alignment with the business goals and

employee requirements.

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Introducing 'more Life'ABRL's newest Own Brand

In line with ABRL’s vision of ‘Making India Healthy and Happy’, ‘more Life’ is dedicated to bringing in healthy products that promote healthy living. The essence of the brand is to ‘Live Healthy, Live Happy’.

‘more Life’ is rooted in the goodness of nature and draws from the untouched richness of its ingredients. Its endeavor is to bring you the means to a healthy life that lets you do more and be more, each day.

And now…’more Life’ is ready with its first-ever natural product……RAW CANE SUGAR!!

‘more Life’ has launched chemical-free, non-blended, and non-coloured RAW CANE SUGAR for the first time in

India!! It is sugar in its purest form, enriched with natural minerals – a healthy replacement to white sugar.

Lots more healthy new arrivalsfrom more Life…COMING SOON!!

is ready with its first-ever natural

has launched chemical-free, non-blended, and time in

more Vision StatementTo be the foremost Retail Brand which makes India healthy and happy, with an obsession to

provide wholesome and freshest foods.Passionately deliver convenient, competitive and meaningful solutions to the evolving regular

needs of the Indian consumer in a sustainable and responsible manner.

“The Vibes Survey which is conducted every second year to gauge employee feedback about the organization, threw up some interesting results this year. It was truly overwhelming to see the 96% response rate to the Survey, which speaks volumes about how connected employees feel to their workplace. We have scored 89% on the engagement index (up by 4 percentage points from 85% in 2014), a crucial parameter of the survey. Recognizing concerns around the need for an improved employee orientation process and enhanced training, we will work towards strengthening this, to the best of our ability. This year, we shall be creating region-wise and function-wise action plans through Focused Group Discussions across our network, which we believe would give us a lot of insights into new action plans to help make ABRL a Great Place to Work! Reflecting on the overall parameters, however, it is heartening to note we all believe that ABRL has a culture that truly allows employees to evolve, by providing them with opportunities that bring their hidden potential to the forefront.”

K S Shashikanth, Head-HR, ABRL

“Vibes 2016 witnessed an overwhelming participation from the ABRL family with 96% employees partaking in this massive journey of transformation. The feedback has been truly discerning and insightful. We indeed take great pride in our strengths and look to continuously improve the relatively weaker areas in the organization. Your strong belief in our product quality, customer service and leadership vision is validated by the traction in current business performance. We will put our best foot forward in making careers exciting for the ABRL fraternity and providing enabling development opportunities. You can be rest assured that delivering on our Vibes action areas is core to our agenda of making ABRL a great place to work. We count on your active participation in implementing meaningful solutions and creating a vibrant and energetic workplace. Cheers!”

Chandrashekhar Chavan, Chief Human Resources Officer, Apparel & Retail Business, Aditya Birla Group

““ “Vibes is an excellent platform to help us gain useful employee insights about the organization; highlighting its strengths as well as underlining areas that need improvement. It was delightful to observe that a whopping 86% of Vibes respondents at ABRL are proud of the brand and would recommend it as a great place to work. At the same time, we have noted the areas of improvement that include better recognition of individual contributions and accomplishments and a healthier work-life balance. Let’s join hands to make ABRL a company where each individual feels inspired to deliver their best everyday, and take the company to greater heights.”

Mohit Kampani, Chief Executive Officer, ABRL

“At ABRL, we are constantly on the lookout for newer ways to provide our customers with world-class quality products. We are happy to launch ‘more Life’, a first-of-its-kind brand focused on natural and organic products. We firmly believe that ‘more Life’ will provide customers with more choices for a healthy and happy lifestyle”.

Sumit Chandna, Chief Merchandising Officer, ABRL

““

NEW BRAND LAUNCH

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LEADERS SPEAK

We would like to sincerely thank the following members without whom this edition would not have been possible

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

Janet Arole

Prasanna Venkatesh

Janu Jiandani

Beryl Menezes

DESIGN & ARTWORK:

Omnihub Marketing Services

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Anita Chandran

Apeksha Gupta

Jennifer Dcosta

Kshitij Pawar

Natasha Sawant

Raj Ahuja

Shashidhar Ballary

Shruti Nangia

Sachin Padave

Vijendra Verma

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ADITYA BIRLA AWARDS FOROUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT 2016

Pranab Barua,Business Director - Apparel & Retail Business,Aditya Birla Group

“The Aditya Birla Awards is the most prestigious platform for rewarding excellence and recognizing outstanding contributions to the business. My good wishes to Chandrashekhar, Apeksha, Manish, Kshitij and Manohar – winners of the Aditya Birla Awards For Outstanding Achievement 2016. I would also like to applaud all our nominees who have put their best foot forward in competing for the Awards. I urge every colleague to come forward and aspire to win this Award with equal zeal and passion. Dream BIG and work towards your goal!”

CHANDRASHEKHAR CHAVANAccomplished Leader

APEKSHA GUPTAExceptional Contributor

MANISH AGARWALDistinguished Achiever

KSHITIJ PAWAREmerging Professional

MANOHAR DEETIEmerging Professional

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