Kishore Biyani with his book. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

The simple dukandaar who went on to create a dais for organised retail in the country, remains “indebted” to Calcutta for giving him the launch pad to get airborne. The managing director of Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, Kishore Biyani, has reiterated his commitment to “many more firsts” in the city.

“This is where everything started for us. The most important thing we learnt from Calcutta was you must emotionally connect with the consumer, which remains one of the prime recipes of our success elsewhere as well,” Biyani, in town for the launch of his book It Happened in India, told Metro on Sunday.

Biyani, who started off selling stonewashed fabric to small shops in Mumbai, says he owes it all to the Calcutta experience. “This city has always been special for us and we are looking at a Rs 1,000-crore business from Calcutta in 2007-08,” added Biyani.

His umbrella Future Group, set to become a “Rs 8,000 to 10,000-crore” conglomerate in 2007-08, will also launch its KB’s Wholesale Markets business in Bengal, an “essentially B2B” chain, with outlets in Burdwan and Raniganj.

Calcutta will also get a sizeable pie-share of the group’s emerging businesses in capital, insurance, media, logistics, and IT, Biyani promised. “Our capital business will be managing $1.5bn, our credit cards division will touch a million users and we will invest a lot more in consumer companies like VLCC, Biba, Liliput…”

Biyani, who partnered the retail revolution in Calcutta first through Pantaloons Gariahat and then 22 Camac Street, has learnt from this city “how pessimism can be changed to optimism”. He recalled how the contrarian in him helped rustle up the courage to come to Calcutta when others were scared of failure and stayed away.

“We realised people of Calcutta themselves didn’t believe in their city, although it had so much going for it. For us, it was a discovery. The book, a collection of thoughts, ideas and experiences, has a lot of Calcutta in it, and I wish it could have been titled It Happened in Calcutta,” he smiled.