Reliance Retail’s first hypermarket – Reliance Mart – is set to open its doors in Ahmedabad anytime soon. The company expects to roll out 25 such stores by December 2007.
“Reliance Mart located on SG Highway in Ahmedabad occupies an area of 1.65 lakh square feet across 3 floors. The store will stock over 80,000 units across a variety of goods ranging from fruits and vegetables, and grocery, to apparels, durables, stationery, toys and music,” a company spokesperson told Indiaretailing.
The hypermarket will have large sections for apparel, stocking a range of private labels as well as mid-priced brands. However, the mart will not stock the more expensive brands of men’s apparel as the hypermarket is modelled on a discount format. There will also be a large section devoted to consumer durables and IT products.
It is learnt that Reliance Retail has bought land in the size range of 40,000-50,000 square feet in Bangalore, New Delhi/NCR and Gujarat. All other stores are expected to be smaller than the Reliance Mart in Ahmedabad.
The company has tied up with traders and suppliers at margins that are higher than the market, but not as high as envisaged earlier, according to industry sources. Reliance is not sourcing goods from China yet. The retailer is going slow on goods imported from China till it ramps up volumes, as Chinese suppliers work on huge volumes – this will come for Reliance only when the stores are rolled out, industry sources added.
The company already operates around 11 Reliance Fresh outlets in Ahmedabad.
– Vishnu Rageev R, Bangalore Bureau
