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Ex-Starcom hand Dupindera Sandhu joins Pantaloon Retail
Sandhu joins Big Bazaar, a multi-format retail chain floated by Pantaloon Retail India, as senior marketing manager on September 15, 2003
Here's another instance of a media professional moving on to take up a marketing role.
Dupindera Sandhu, who recently quit Starcom MediaVest, Delhi, as branch head, is joining Big Bazaar, a multi-format retail chain floated by Pantaloon Retail India, as senior marketing manager on September 15, 2003. He would be based in Mumbai and report to the head of marketing, Big Bazaar, Sanjeev Agrawal.
Sandhu won't be new to Mumbai. Before coming to Delhi a-year-and-a-half ago, he was serving at Starcom's Mumbai office.
Big Bazaar is chain of hypermarkets on a floor size ranging from 30,000-50,000 sq. ft. It sells everything from home appliances and utensils to luggage, cosmetics, jewellery, pharmacy and grocery items at a discount. Pantaloon has opened stores under Big Bazaar in major cities such as Mumbai (two stores), Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon (near Delhi). The Gurgaon outlet, which was opened recently, is the company's sixth hypermarket, and the first in north India. In some months from now, one more Big Bazaar is slated to open in Nagpur.
The need to do something different drove Sandhu to Biz Bazaar. "I wanted to explore new opportunities and getting into marketing gave that chance," he says. "And what attracted me to this particular industry is the fact that it is a sunrise sector poised for tremendous growth."
Sandhu started his career in market research. After a five-year stint with TNS (then TNS Mode), Sandhu joined Starcom's Mumbai office as senior media manager in July 2000. In January 2002, Sandhu was transferred to Starcom MediaVest, Delhi, as branch head. "My brief was to establish Starcom in Delhi. When I came to Delhi, Starcom hardly had any accounts. In one-and-a half-years, the Delhi branch grew from Rs 5 crore to Rs 100 crore," he told agencyfaqs! recently. Today, Starcom counts Dr Morepen, South African Breweries, Honda Siel, Sony Electronics, United Colors of Benetton, jewellery group Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy among its clients. © 2003 agencyfaqs!