IndiaRetailBiz

“We are confident that the new growth drivers — oil and gas, organised retailing and agro-retail — will  take Reliance to a higher growth trajectory in the medium term.” — Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries Limited.

Reliance Industries Limited, India’s most valued company  announced over 40% growth in its Q1 (April-June) quarter in 2008 over the same period last year (Rs 41,805 cr against Rs 29721 crore).

Reliance, however, did not offer separate sales and financial details for Reliance Retail– its wholly owned retail subsidiary– that currently operates retail business under 13 distinct general and special formats. Reliance Fresh– a neighborhood, food & grocery,  convenience format– is the most prominent format of the company with maximum geographic spread across the country.

The company has, however, announced that up to the end of the June quarter, Reliance Retail had set up 735 stores operating across 70 cities. The retail business was occupying over 3.5 million sq ft of floor space (an average size of 4762 sq ft of floor space per store).

Despite facing a lot of opposition from political activists and small traders to its entry in retail business, Reliance Retail has taken just 20 months to register this impressive performance. Reliance had rolled out its first ‘Reliance Fresh’ store in Hyderabad on 3rd November, 2006.

In a change of policy of sorts, Reliance is aggressively persuing setting up business partnerships with global retail majors owning iconic brands, like, Marks & Spencer (UK) for apparel and homeware, Pearle Europe (Netherlands) for vision products, Office Depot (US) for office stationery and related products and Apple Inc (US) for consumer and professional electronic/ IT products.