GST Has Been A Catalyst For Our Expansion: Adeeb Ahamed, MD, Tablez, Lulu Exchange, Twenty14 Holdings

As the retailing sector in India expands, many global brands are foraying into the Indian market, which has seen an increasing demand for Western brands due to their aspirational value. In an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld, Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director, Tablez, Lulu Exchange and Twenty14 Holdings, as well as a board member of Lulu Group International, discusses his entrepreneurial journey, the global success of Lulu and Tablez, their future plans for expanding in India and policy catalysts which have aided their expansion. Adeeb has to his credit the establishment of the highly successful financial services firm, LuLu Exchange Holdings, with 140 branches across the globe within 8 years. He also heads Twenty14 Holdings, the hospitality arm of Lulu Group, which owns prestigious properties around the world including the Great Scotland Yard in London, the Steigenberger Hotel Business Bay in Dubai and Sheraton Oman in Muscat, among others. Edited excerpts:

Can you please give the brief highlights, overview and background of your entrepreneurial journey?

I started my stint in the year 2008 when we first opened our financial division, which is the Lulu Exchange side of the business. 2013 is when I entered the board for Tablez and then in 2014 we set up Twenty14 Holdings. It’s been 9 years of my run. Currently, I head three odd verticals and at the same point of time, I run multiple brands under these verticals. So I feel very fortunate, to have done this in a short period of time.

What were the key factors responsible for the global success of Lulu and especially Tablez? 

The era of Tablez can be taken up into two formats. One being its origin in 2010 in UAE, where it started as a food F&B brand retailing organization, where it had multiple brands under it and has around 35 odd outlets, restaurants in UAE as such. The second chapter for Tablez started in the year 2013-14, where it first opened its outlet in Lulu Mall in Cochin. The vision of Tablez in India is to become a full-fledged brand and retailing organization, touching many verticals like F&B, toy retailing, apparel retailing, and many more categories as such. Currently, we have a basket of 7 odd brands in India and total outlets close to 11 at this point in India. By the end of 2017, we look to having 20 to 25 outlets or points of sale in India, under the basket of brands we currently have. I think the reason why Tablez chooses to be in India for multiple brand retailing aspect is the timing aspect. We found that the timing was just about right to enter the market. The Indian consumer’s aspiration to the Western brands and their knowledge was very high, making it very easy for us to bring these brands to this market. Having been a retailing organization for 4 odd decades, this was a natural progression for us.  

What are Lulu Groups and Tablez's plans for investing in the Indian retail market?

When Tablez entered the market in 2014, we did make an announcement that we would be doing a 300 crore worth of investment in the market in India, bringing in respective brands in different sectors. It’s been around 4 years since the idea, we have done about 80% investments of what we had committed in India and we have bought around 7 odd brands across India. Currently, we are in the process of expanding these brands in India, because we are a very strong believer of brick and mortar retailing.

What are the plans of Lulu Exchange, your financial services firm for expanding in India? What sort of financial services does Lulu Exchange offer? 

Currently, we are a forex operator based out of India and have around 35 odd branches in different states across the country. We had approached for a small banking license, which we were unable to get. We are currently looking at what is the right approach, whether it is entering into the NBFC’s base or looking at other verticals or being a fin-tech operator in the market. So different prospects have been studied upon, and I think you would see that we would make a couple of announcements by the year 2018.

Do any of the current policy measures in India such as GST serve as impediments or as a catalyst for expansion in the Indian market?

GST has always been a catalyst more than an impediment to our expansion. I think we came in at the right point of time, where the rolling out of GST has helped us reduce the overall cost burden from the expansion strategy across India. I think as we progress, this is going to soften down, and it’s a two-way learning street. So while the Indian business society also learns out of this, there are changes which have to be adopted by the government also.  

Does Twenty14 Holdings have any future plans to venture into the Indian property market?

Twenty14 Holdings is a purely an asset-based organization for us. We are into asset creation and predominantly into the hospitality sector, so we only buy hospitality assets across the world. Currently, we have 3 properties in India (2 in Bangalore and 1 in Kochi), and yes in the coming years, we would be expanding by acquiring more assets.

What do you foresee as some of the challenges which can be faced with the expansion of Lulu in India?

On the retail side, land is always a problem. With the cost of land hitting the roof, building infrastructure becomes a very difficult scenario. We do not have enough good quality shopping malls across India and the focus should not only be on tier-one cities, it should be on tier-two and tier-three cities as well.