News: Now, Reliance eyes consumer electronics

(BL 24/04/2007) New Delhi - Reliance Retail, the subsidiary of petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries, will soon launch its own label of consumer electronics goods to complement its retail appliance stores - Reliance Digital - for tapping the country's $5.6 billion durables market. The company would be investing over Rs 1,000 crore over the next 3-4 years for setting up 150 such stores, the first of which was unveiled in the National Capital Region today. "Reliance will come out with its private label of consumer durables products... that is definitely in the strategy after we open 4-5 stores," Ajay Baijal, President and Chief Executive (Consumer Durables, IT and Telecom), Reliance Retail Ltd said here. Reliance Digital stores would sell everything from TV sets, home theatre, refrigerator, cooking range, dishwasher to computers and mobile phones from across brands. "The stores, typically spread over 15,000-30,000 sq.ft, will have a wide assortment of products to cater to the tastes and requirement of customers," Baijal said. The domestic consumer electronics market, which is expanding by 10 per cent annually, is dominated by South Korean brands such as LG, Samsung and Japan's Sony. But they have tough competition from home grown names such as Videocon and BPL. The first store, located at Shipra Mall in Ghaziabad, would be followed by another pilot outlet in NCR and 3-4 more in the country's south in the coming days. Baijal said the stores, which would be set up at an investment of Rs 4-7 crore each, would also offer post-sales services.