Bangalore: Levi Strauss India on Thursday opened Levi's Square, said to be its largest store in the Asia Pacific region. The store on Brigade Road here spans three floors, a spread of 9,000 sq. ft. It offers international jeans wear and has been set up to appeal to fashion-conscious youth.

According to Shumone Chatterjee, Country Manager, Levis Strauss India, this store is the largest after the one in San Francisco in the U.S. Levi's Square spans three levels: the Lounge displays premium wear, the Campus presents the Sykes range and the Foundry showcases Red Tab and Workers collections.

With 90 stores in India, Levi's is looking at 110 by the end of the year with flagship stores in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai. There are 1,500 stores in the Asia Pacific, and Bangalore is the third largest in terms of revenue.

Levis is growing at five to 10 per cent a year globally, and the growth driving markets are China, Russia and India. It is growing at 30 to 40 per cent a year in India. Retailing is getting fairly organised and Levi's expects faster growth in Bangalore, according to Mr. Chatterjee. Levi Strauss India is a Bangalore-based, wholly owned subsidiary of Levi Strauss, and was established in 1994.

MICO workers to go on strike

Workers at the Bangalore plant of auto components maker Motor Industries Company (MICO) Ltd., the flagship company of the Bosch Group in India, has served notice on the company management that they will go on strike from May 16. They are demanding, among other things, that temporary workmen be made permanent, inter-plant disparity in prospective benefit and incentive rates and customary gift to employees.

MICO, the largest Indo-German venture with 60.5 per cent of the company owned by German industrial powerhouse Robert Bosch GmbH, is the largest manufacturer of diesel fuel injection equipment in the country. Responding to the strike notice, the company management has served notice of lockout, if need be, and requested the MICO Employees Association to withdraw the strike notice and resolve the issues through discussions. "The dispute has been taken up for conciliation by the Additional Labour Commissioner who has fixed a meeting on May 12," a company official said.

MICO employs about 9,853 associates and in 2005 generated net sales of Rs. 30,168 million with good growth in both automotive as well as the non-automotive businesses.

MICO's business areas include common rail injectors and components, diesel fuel injection equipment, industrial equipment, auto-electricals, gear pumps for tractor applications, electric power tools, packaging machines, security technology products and Blaupunkt car multimedia systems.

Bangalore-based MICO's state-of-the-art and ISO certified manufacturing plants are located at Bangalore, Naganathapura (near Bangalore), Nashik and Jaipur.

Worldspace subscriber base expanding

Worldspace Inc., one of the world leaders in satellite-based digital radio services, on Thursday reported its financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31. It finished the first quarter of 2006 with 153,437 subscribers. The company added 38,131 subscribers in the first quarter of 2006, an increase of 109 per cent over the 18,233 subscribers added in same quarter of 2005. In India, the company had 1,11,723 subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2006, up 50 per cent from 74,574 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2005 and a five-fold increase from 21,730 at the end of the first quarter of 2005.

At the end of the first quarter of 2006, Worldspace had rolled out its satellite radio services in ten cities in India: Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Kolkata.

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