News: Reliance to open retail store next month

(BL 18/08/2006) New Delhi - Kicking off its Rs 25,000 crore mega retail plans, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday announced that its first store would come up in Hyderabad next month, which will be a vegetable and food store.

"We will be opening our first store in Hyderabad in September and this will be a very large store with food, vegetables and staples," the Reliance Retail President and Chief Executive (Operations and Strategy), Raghu Pillai, told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference.

The Indian corporate giant had announced Rs 25,000 crore investment in the retail sector in June this year and said that it would be listing the company subsequently.

Reliance has already signed agreements with the West Bengal and Punjab Governments as it moves forward in tying up for procurements and roll out. "We are in talks with quite a few state Governments and cooperative chains for alliances," he said.

He said the company had plans to spread to other parts of the country "as soon as we can", though refusing to divulge details on the number of stores it hoped to close this fiscal year with.