The retail arm of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Reliance Retail has become the country’s topmost retail chain. The company led by Mukesh Ambani has reported growth due to its presence in numerous formats.
Reliance Retail announced revenue of Rs 3,474 crore for the quarter which is a 53 percent jump from the revenue earned in the same quarterduring last year. It has reported an operating profit of Rs 70 crore. “Reliance Retail’s faster growth is attributed to its presence in a large number of formats and its ability to scale fast,” said DhvaniBavishi, analyst at domestic brokerage ICICI securities.
The biggest drivers in this growth are cash-and carry stores developed by the retail chain. Known as Reliance Market, the first cash-and-carry store opened in Ahmedabad in September 2011. At the end of 2012-13, 56 percent of Reliance Retail’s revenue of Rs 10,800 crore came from its value segment that operated grocery chains like Reliance Fresh, Reliance Super and Reliance Hyper. The company is rapidly expanding its cash-and-carry segment. It has opened six stores in the June quarter, which helped the company to gain a 53 percent growth in revenue. The cash-and-carry segment in our country was previously dominated by global retail giants. The retail arm of Reliance is the first Indian company to have entered in this segment. Reliance Retail has been operational since last eight years and it has achieved the topmost position in the industry in a short span of time. The company is strategically divided in phases like 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 and caters in specified business segments like value, digital, lifestyle, jewellery and brands.
At the last annual general meeting, MukeshAmbani said, “We want to make retail business as one of our growth engines over the next few years. I am confident that our retail business would undertake multi-fold growth in the next few years by delivering over 50 percent revenue growth in various format sectors year-on-year and is on its way to achieve revenue target of Rs 40,000-50,000 crore as shared by me in our last AGM.”
As a part of its expansion strategy, RIL has added 184 stores across format sectors. It is also planning to capture the consumers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Currently, the company owns around 1,500 stores in 130 cities across the country. “Our multi-format strategy is paying huge dividends with most of the formats having positioned themselves as market leaders and is poised for strong growth in the future.” added Ambani.