News: Seventy stores each for Mumbai, Delhi in Reliance Retail’s early push

(FE 28/08/2006) New Delhi - Although Reliance Retail plans to kick off its operations in Hyderabad, the real thrust of its retail push will be in the metros, particularly on, Delhi and Mumbai.

In the next 7 months, Reliance has targeted setting up to 70 stores each in Delhi and Mumbai and around 20 stores in Kolkata. The floor space per store will vary between 3,000 – 50,000 sq feet, depending upon the format. Over 3,000 people will be employed in national capital region for the retail and agri network, an official said.

To put things in perspective, the Rs 2,000-crore Pantaloon, presently the country's biggest retailer, took around 8 years to reach the 140 stores mark across the country.

However, Pantaloon too isn't sitting still. The Kishore Biyani-promoted retail chain, which is rolling out 40 stores in the national capital region by next June in over 18 formats.

Reliance Retail stores in or around Delhi will be evenly spread. While 40 will be in Delhi, 10 each will come up in Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Noida. Reliance officials says that these outlets would stock over a 100 international brands, currently unavailable in existing retail outlets.

According to sources, Reliance will not be offering its in-house label in the beginning. In the grocery segment, Reliance outlets will offer imported fruits, vegetables and staples at affordable rates by leveraging on the economies of scale in sourcing, officials said.

While most of the stores would be company-owned, a few will be under the franchisee model.