Introduction:

Reliance Retail Limited (RRL) is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, which is based in Mumbai. RRL was set up in 2006 and marks the foray of the Reliance Group into organized retail. RRL has been conceptualized to include growth for farmers, vendor partners, small shopkeepers and consumers. It is based on Reliances backward integration strategy, to build a value chain starting from farmers to consumers.

Business Divisions

Reliance Retail Ltd. has a number of company-owned outlets along with a franchisee format that would be incollaboration with Kirana shop owners. Its various divisions are:

1. Reliance Mart

It is designed to be an all under one roof supermarkets that again caters to household needs. RELIANCE RETAIL LTD. has launched its muchawaited hypermarket format (which also happens to be Indias largest hypermarket) called Reliance Mart at Iskon Mall, SG Highway, Ahemdabad on August 15. Spread across 165,000 square feet of shopping area, Reliance Mart will provide the shoppers a never-before-experienced shopping delight. The hypermarket will carry a range of over 95,000 products catering to the entire family.

Shoppers will have the option to choose from a wide array of products in every category ranging from fresh produce, food & grocery, home care products, apparel and accessories, non-food FMCG products, consumer durables and IT, automotive accessories, lifestyle products, footwear and much more.

The launch of Reliance Mart is yet another step by

Reliance Retail towards providing international shopping experience to all our customers at unmatched affordability, guaranteed quality and choice of products and services. Reliance Mart marks the achievement of another milestone in our effort to unleash a retail revolution in India.

Reliance Mart offers some unique services to the shoppers like tailoring, shoe repair, watch repair, a photo shop, gift services and laundry services, all within the store. The store also houses its own fresh bakery, serving hot, off-the-oven bread and bread products throughout the day and local savouries, an ice-cream train for the kids, a chakki, readymade batter and loose tea and pickle for the housewives. Reliance Mart will also sell fine jewellery and fashion jewellery as part of its lifestyle section.
The hypermarket also launched a host of Reliances own brands in select categories with superior quality and affordable prices like First Class, Network, Netplay, Team Spirit and Sparsh in Mens and Womens Formal / Casual and Ethnic wear, DNM- X in the jeans category for men and women, Panda for kids clothing and Grip in the luggage section. The footwear category will carry Zig in formal wear. Hi Attitude for semi -formal, Tosco for party wear and Monza for the sports enthusiast. There are many products that will be exclusively available in Reliance Mart stores only.

2. Reliance Fresh

Reliance Fresh was the first amongst various format stores to be launched by Reliance Retail Ltd. It currently has 453 stores operational across India and the ideology behind the initiative has been to bring Farm to fork thereby removing middle men and benefitting both farmer and consumer.

The stores would typically be of an area of around 3,000-5,000 sq ft. Each store is to provide fresh fruits, vegetables and also products of Reliance Select and other related groceries. Each store is to at least 50 employees, thereby giving employment to around 1,500 people in the 30 new outlets.

The retail major plans to have a total of 100m sq ft of retail space in 800 cities by the calendar year 2010 and generate revenues of $22 billion by the end of financial year 2011. Presently the Reliance Fresh store sizes are between 1100 sq ft and 7500 sq ft depending upon the location.

3. Reliance Super

Reliance Super will be a smaller version of the hypermarket format. It is to offer over 10,000 products in various categories like grocery, home care, stationery, pharmaceutical products, apparels & accessories, FMCG, consumer durables & IT, automotive accessories and lifestyle products.

Reliance Super stores are to be large supermarkets with an area of 4,000 to 10,000 sq. ft. and will not sell fruits and vegetables like Reliance Fresh.

4. Reliance Digital

Reliance Digital is a consumer electronics concept mega store. It is designed to be a one stop shop for all technology solutions in the field of consumer electronics, home appliances, information technology and telecommunications.

The stores are to cover an area of more than 15,000 sq. ft. and offer a variety of over 4,000 products spread across 150 brands along with solution bundles to meet diverse customer needs.

The staff will counsel and guide customers not only to buy products but also provide complete solutions to ensure consumers buy the right product at the right price. It will continue to offer Reliance One, a common membership and loyalty program across all formats, which follows the philosophy Earn Anywhere, Spend Anywhere. It shall also provide finance options for purchases. Reliance Digital is to be a large format store spread across 15,000 to 35,000 sq. ft. and is scheduled to come up in 70 cities in India in the near future.

5. Reliance Trends

Reliance Trends is a specialty apparel store that will sell men, women and childrens garments. The store will carry the best of national and international brands like John Players, Peter England, Indigo Nation, Wrangler, Reebok, and Lee, apart from in-house brands. The store layout is to compliment the evolving taste and preference of fashion savvy consumers, giving them an opportunity to view /shop with ease, along with well trained customer service associates, to compliment the entire shopping process.

By 2010, Reliance has planned to open 100 more stores across the country with focus on major cities. The company is targeting a turnover of Rs. 20,000 crore ($5 billion) from this format. This is a part of the US$ 25 billion (Rs. 100,000 crore) overall sales from retail business.

6. Reliance Wellness

Reliance Wellness is a chain of specialty wellness stores that would offer pre-emptive, curative as well as health and beauty solutions.

The store is to add value to peoples lives, by providing products and services that will proactively work to enrich peoples body, mind and spirit.

It is to house world class products under one roof and also educate consumers on their health needs, thus enabling them to take charge of their health. It will sell international and national brands like H2O, Neutrogena, Olay, Sports Nutrition, etc. They will also house alternate medicine, health books & music. The stores are to showcase Wellness Events, Seminars, Workshops and Advisory camps on contemporary wellness issues like diabetes, hypertension, fitness, diet and nutrition, weight management and skin care.

7. Reliance Footprints

Reliance Footprints is a specialty footwear store that would offer over 25,000 pairs of formal, casual, ethnic, party wear and sports wear in men, women and children footwear. The store is to be spread over 7,500 square feet and be dedicated to footwear, handbags and accessories. The design of Footprint was conceptualized by Pavlik of USA which is one of the best design houses in the world keeping in mind the taste and preferences of the Indian consumer.

It shall offer brands from Europe and America like Josef Siebel, Rockport, Hush Puppies, Lee Cooper Clarks, Levis, Nike, Adidas, Piccadilly, Dr. Scholls and more. For kids, Crocs and Disney will be showcased. The store plans a pan-India presence by opening over 15 more specialty stores.

8. Reliance Jewels

Reliance Jewels is a stand-alone fine jewelery format. It is to be a one stop shopping destination for fine jewelery. Reliance Retail ventured into gems and jewelery trade with the aim of launching 300 stores all over India within a 3 year time frame. With a growing demand for jewelery and lower competition, Reliance Retail Ltd. plans to overtake Tatas Tanishq by 2010.

The gold jewelery range shall include Kolkata Filigree, Rajkot minakari jewelery, Kundan from Jaipur, Temple jewellery from Kerala, Jadau from Amritsar and more. In Diamond jewelery, Reliance Jewels will offer the finest quality of diamonds and the widest range of daily wear, party wear and wedding designs.

9. Reliance Timeout

Reliance Timeout - With over 56,000 products Reliance Timeout will offer customer an extensive range of merchandise in books, music, stationery, toys and gifts.

It is to a format based on the ideology to provide a place where a consumer can unwind and relax, browse and buy a book, sample some music, choose a gift, and buy a toy or some exclusive stationery for themselves.

Reliance Timeout will offer a comprehensive range of products in these categories along with an attempt to create a fascinating customer experience with a warm, lively ambience.

Corporate Structure:

Reliance Retail Limited is the vision of Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani who is also the Chairman & Managing Director of RIL. The Executive Directors are Nikhil R. Meswani, Hital R. Meswani, Hardev Singh Kohli, PMS Prasad and R. Ravimohan. Ramniklal H. Ambani is the non-executive and non-independent director.

Key Executives for RRL are: Raghu Pillai Director, Chief Executive and President of Retail Operations & Strategy Ajay Baijal President of Corporate Planning Manu Kapoor Senior Vice-President of Corporate Affairs Division Bijay Sahoo Head of Human Resources

Stock : Listing and Performance over time

As Reliance Retail Limited is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited it is not listed separately on any stock exchange, it can only impact the prices of Reliance Industries Limited.

According to RILs annual report for 2008-09 Reliance Retail Ltd reported a net loss of Rs. 20.24 crore on a revenue of Rs. 622.31 crore, Reliance Fresh reported a net loss of Rs. 249.30 crore on a revenue of Rs. 1,778.06 crore, Reliance Hypermart Ltd reported a loss of Rs. 51.84 crore on a revenue of Rs. 372.32 crore.

Reliance Digital Retail Finance Ltd and Reliance Dairy Foods Ltd to reported losses.
Reliances retail businesses closed the year with an aggregate loss of Rs. 557 crore on a revenue of about Rs. 4,000 crore.

Growth is Life

Throughout the years RRL has been successful in setting up more than 900 stores in 80 cities across 14 states in India to facilitate its multi-format store strategy.

Various other subsidiaries listed under Reliance Retail Limited are: Retail Concepts and Services (India) Limited, Reliance Retail Insurance Broking Limited, Reliance Retail Finance Limited, RESQ Limited, Reliance Financial Distribution and Advisory Services Limited, Reliance Retail Travel & Forex Services Limited, Reliance Brands Limited, Reliance Integrated Agri Solutions Limited, Reliance Lifestyle Holdings Limited, Reliance Universal Ventures Limited, Strategic Manpower Solutions Limited, Reliance F&B Services Limited, Reliance Agri Products Distribution Limited, Reliance Leisures Limited, Reliance Food Processing Solutions Limited, Reliance Supply Chain Solutions Limited, Reliance Loyalty & Analylitics Limited, Reliance-GrandOptical Private Limited, Reliance Vantage Retail Limited, Reliance People Serve Limited, Reliance One Enterprises Limited, Reliance Nutritional Food Processors Limited, Reliance Petro Marketing Private Limited, LPG Infrastructure (India) Private Limited