Crossroads Inc. (Part B): In need of a strong supply chain in India

This is part of a case series. For the last few years, India had been one of the most attractive retail destinations worldwide because of its enormous untapped potential. Organised retail was projected to grow by over 40% in the next few years and still to reach just 7% market share of the entire retail industry. Crossroads Inc had entered the Indian retail space with an Indian joint venture partner and Jeff Mitchell, CEO of Crossroads Inc, had to develop company’s supply chain strategy for India. The initial results had been quite promising and Jeff considered this an ideal opportunity to further invest into the company’s Indian supply chain infrastructure in a big way. He wanted to build a robust and agile supply chain to help make the business profitable in the long run. The target audiences for the case are BSc and MSc students and management trainees who are interested in learning the fresh food supply chain management practices in India and also interested to know how the existing players in market are functioning and competitive advantage in this segment. Students need to have some basic understanding of the supply chain concepts and also about the challenges of doing business in emerging markets.