Case Studies

Opening up of FDI in Retail Sector was one of the factors that made Di Bella Coffee to invest in India. "Opportunities for Australian businesses in India are immense, considering sheer size of the burgeoning middle class", says Phil Di Bella' owner of Di Bella coffee brand.

Succeeding in India is not a cakewalk and Di Bella Coffee soon realised the challenges of dealing with different consumer culture, snail speed of government response, closet full of paperwork and the Indian stretchable time.

Di Bella Coffee acknowledged that recognising the differences and not finding problems in the Indian system is the key for moving faster along their learning curve. They decided to tackle each challenge one by one while working with the locals.

After he made up his mind to expand in India, Phil had the following burning questions for India Market Entry:

Key success factors for dealing with a drastically different market to home

Safeguarding Global Trade Mark/ Brand in India

Formalising a strategic licensing agreement with Indian partner

Best way to repatriate the surplus funds back to Australia

Efficient tax structure and exit options.

They chose Cerule Consulting, a specialised Australia-India business advisor as their strategic partners, to guide them patiently through each step of the process, while Phil focused on bringing the Arabica beans fragrance to the land of spices.

Di Bella is successfully running many outlets in Mumbai right now with state of the art customer ordering system. The staff is always upbeat and proud that the management has plans to open many more outlets in other cities across India. "The ambience is vibrant and the coffee is far superior to other foreign players", says Paresh Mehta, a Mumbai resident and a regular at Di Bella Coffee.

"Persistence, Patience and the trustworthy strategic Partner - the 3 P’s I believe are the key to success in the Indian market", says Phil, while leisurely sitting on the lounge chair of Hotel Oberoi in Mumbai and taking the final sip of his flat white.

"India needs 500 million skilled people and 250 million graduates by 2022" - when this was announced by Kapil Sibal HRD ministry in 2011, a large number of foreign educational institutes moved their strategic focus towards India."

However, First Impression Resources (FIR), an Australian institute specialising in retail education had got this right even before the Government of India had put their maths out in the public. "We have been exploring the Indian market since mid 2008 and foresee its huge potential in the Education sector", says Sue Freeman, Director of First Impression Resources.

FIR admits that the frustrating element for them was determining their model of delivery. There were multiple rounds of travel to India and it was a long process to find a suitable partner who had local knowledge, dedication towards retail education and the willingness to adapt to the best practices that FIR had developed with the retail sector over years of operations in the western world.

Little did they know that the challenges would not end after finding the right partner. Understandably with such a big skill shortage in India, it was't going to be easy for FIR to find resources of the quality they desired, and the capability to drive their Industry-led approach to skilling.

"It was not an easy process. We were learning along the way while dealing with the subtle differences in everything as compared to back home in Australia", recalls Mike Wallace, CEO of First Impression Resources. Mike considers FIR fortunate to have found Cerule Consulting to drive their on the ground activities in India.

The Cerule team set their guards together to work on the following:

 Putting the most effective entry structure for FIR and with their JV partners

 Assisting with the strategic expansion plans

 Keeping their interests intact with partners, bankers, suppliers, staff and government

 Providing cultural orientation to effectively deal with locals

 Guiding in each step of doing business in India

Fast forward and with Cerule’s support FIR is involved in two ventures in India, including the establishment of a joint venture, ARC India, operating in 5 cities. Their structure allows them to expand with the flexibility they desire, without having a need to go back to the drawing board. In the very first year of its operations, FIR has already contributed to the Indian economy by up-skilling the candidates and made them capable of finding the right jobs. Their ability to deliver competency training has led to a range of trainer development programs being taken up by the AP Government.

"Sue Freeman is a well known figure in the India-Australia education space, and many other institutes are closely following her footsteps", says a delegate at the Overseas Indian convention held in Sydney in November 2013. When asked if she would term all her visits to India as a success, Sue proudly responds, "Yes, when things in the skilling space get frustrating I can legitimately claim that shopping is research for our organisation - which in India is always fabulous!"

“Mr Vineet Aggarwal and his company,  Cerule Consulting have been one of the most professional and successful consulting groups we have worked with over our 16 years in the global medical technology business. We started working with Cerule in the beginning of 2012, and in a matter of months we were introduced to a very professional and successful Indian Distributor, based in Delhi with a network covering all of India.”, says Dr Michael Sinnott, Managing Director, Qlicksmart Pty Ltd.

The Distributor had an excellent understanding of both the selling and distribution processes and had a very extensive network that has facilitated a very good uptake of Qlicksmart’s products and in doing so improving the safety of staff and patients in India. Cerule was intimately involved in the negotiations that led to the signing of binding exclusive contract with the Indian Distributor, which has been running very successfully since then.