IndiaRetailBiz

Reliance Retail, the retailing arm of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group, after a long wait since it was forced to abandon its retail plans in West Bengal, succeded on Friday the 1st, in opening three ‘Fresh’ stores at Budge Budge, New Town and Swabhumi in Kolkata on a pilot basis.

This became possible after it made an innovative arrangement with a local entrepreneur Mahendra K. Jalan, to sell fruits and vegetables from its stores. Jalan owns Keventer Fresh and Metro Dairy,

Keventer Fresh is a back-end supplier of fruits and vegetables to retail chains like More, Food Bazaar, and Spencer’s.

Under the arrangements made with Keventer, while, Reliance on its own will not to sell fruits and vegetables from its stores, it will allow Keventer Fresh to do so. To begin with, Keventer has decided to restricted itself with stocking high-end fruits like New Zealand Apples, Australian Grapes, American Oranges, Kiwi Fruit, Shimla Apples and Papaya. Keventer may eventually, though, offer high priced organically produced vegetables, as well.

Keventer Fresh already holds an APMC (Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee) Licence that allows it to trade in agriculture produce in the state. APMC had refused to issue such a licence to Reliance Fresh last year as All India Forward Bloc, a constituent of the ruling Left Front in the state, which also has a control of APMC, has been vehemently opposed to the entry of any big corporates in retail, including Reliance.

It may be recalled that Reliance Retail was forced last year to put its retail ambitions in West Bengal on a backburner after two of its six upcoming ‘Fresh’ stores in Uttarpara and Girish Park were vandalised by political activists of Forward Bloc. Even, Trinamul Congress and BJP, had also organised protests against entry of Reliance in the state. Reliance had then retrenched 400 of the 800 employees it had recruited for operating its retail business. Thirty of these employees have, however, now been called to operate the new stores.

Credit for entry of Reliance in the state toa large extent should, however, go to the quite efforts being made by the state’s Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. He has been persuading his partners in the government to allow modern retail in the state as it will ultimately help farmers in the state to realise better prices for their produce.

All India Forward Bloc, the main antagonist, while keeping its options open, has decided to discuss the issue at its national council meeting in Lucknow this month.