Revolutionary retail initiative: Reliance Retail

11 Dec 2008

By Akansha Srivastava

The organised retail sector in India is no longer a sunrise industry. Rather it may be termed as one of the fastest emerging sector with various leading Indian and International players paying serious attention to this budding opportunity.

Reliance Retail Limited (RRL), a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Group was one such company set up to lead the country’s foray into organised retail to generate inclusive growth and prosperity for buyers and meet the increasing demand of consumers in the year 2006.

Today it operates over 850 stores in 60 cities, spanning 14 states with over 3.8 million square feet. According to Reliance Investment report 2007-08, the Indian retail industry is pegged at USD 300 billion and growing at over 13 per cent every year. In this, organised retailing is about 5 per cent which is expected to grow to 10 per cent by 2011.

RRL strategy includes a multi-format store strategy of opening neighbourhood convenience stores, hypermarkets and specialty stores across India. Reliance’s retail business is currently operated through 16 distinct store formats. These are:

Reliance Fresh: It was the first retail format by RRL launched in November 2006. Reliance Fresh stores are approximately 3000-4000 square feet and cater to an area of 1-2 kilometer providing fresh fruits, vegetables, staples, groceries, fresh juice bars and dairy products. Presently, it has spread over to 57 cities with the growing retail chain of over 680 stores and is still expanding its presence across India.

Reliance Super: Reliance Super is spread across 10,000-15,000 square feet and comes with a mini mart concept. It offers products in every category ranging from food and grocery, home care, apparel and accessories, non-food FMCG products, footwear, and wellness products. With more than 31 Super stores across the country including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and NCR, it also retails Reliance private label products.

Reliance Mart: Reliance Mart spread over 60,000 square feet carries a range of 30,000 products catering to the needs of the entire family. It also offers a cafeteria to entertain its customers along with special products and services such as membership, telecom services, sales finance services and apparels.

Reliance Digital: RRL launched its first Reliance Digital outlet in April 2006. Designed as a one-stop shop for all technological solutions for the consumer, it is spread over 15,000 to 30,000 square feet of space, with a range of 4,000 products from televisions to home theatres, refrigerators, air conditioners, cooking ranges, dishwashers, washing machines, computers, mobile phones and many more from across 150 brands. There are two Reliance digital stores which RRL plans to extend to 150 outlets by 2011.

Reliance iStore: As an offering from Reliance Digital, iStore houses the entire range of Apple products such as iMac consumer desktop computers, MacBook consumer notebooks, MacBook Pro, iPods and the entire suite of Mac software along with over 500 accessories and peripherals. RRL plans to open more than 20 iStores by March 2009.

Reliance Trends: A specialty store that offers a homogeneous mix of private brands and global brands in apparel, luggage and accessories for men, women and kids. The store carries 300 national and international brands apart from in-house brands and has seven outlets in Mumbai, Delhi and Gurgaon and across India. RRL plans to open 100 more outlets in next three years with an investment of 250 billion.

Reliance Wellness: Reliance Wellness is a chain of stores specialising in beauty and wellness products. The company has six operational Wellness stores and plans to open 150 by the end of 2008-09. Further, it plans to open 1,200 outlets in next three years and is expecting a revenue of Rs 60 billion. The wellness stores have four broad categories including health foods, personal care products, healthcare products and pharma products and sell nearly 8,000 items.

Reliance Footprint: Reliance Footprint is a destination of footwear for the entire family and has over 20,000 products including handbags and accessories and also offers products of renowned brands from Europe and America. It has 11 outlets across India including all the metros and there are plans to open 15 more by March 2009. Of the Rs 150 billion footwear market, expected to grow to Rs 250 billion in next four years, Reliance Footprint aspires for 10-15 per cent market share.

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