IndiaRetailBiz

With Reliance Retail’s food and and grocery chain which runs Reliance ‘Fresh’ neighbourhood, convenience stores having already been hived off as a separate company called ‘Ranger Farm,’ Reliance, in a big restructuring exercise, according to an Economic Times report, is mulling over splitting its retail business, in a phased manner, into 34 independent profit and loss centres, in the form of independent companies, to carry out their own procurement, supply chain, logistics and marketing activities.

Restructuring in the initial phase could include hypermarket chain (Reliance Mart), health and wellness chain (Reliance Wellness), durables chain (Reliance Digital), lifestyle chain (Reliance Trends) and the footwear chain (Reliance Footwear). While, all these formats have been rolled out, footwear chain is in the process of being launched.

While, enforcing independent accountability, the restructuring exercise could also be aimed at stemming political opposition that the group’s retail business has witnessed since its inception. This, perhaps, would help dilute the opposition only against the company’s food and grocery business.

The move could also help Reliance stitch joint ventures with single category retailers for its different formats as operating practices and operating margins differ widely for different retail formats.