<p>Reliance Retail, the retail arm of Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)has roped in ex – Wal-Mart China executives Rob Cissell, former COO of Wal-Mart China, as the new CEO of Reliance Retail while Shawn Gary, ex- vice president in-charge of store of the Wal-Mart China will join as the new COO of the retail subsidiary. Hiring ahead of the anticipated opening up of the retail segment to foreign players, Reliance Retail is gearing to face the challenge with a competitive edge of international business heads.</p>
<p>This is the second top-level churn in the last two years where Reliance Retail has roped in international heads to lead the Indian retail major. Gwyn Sundhagul, the serving CEO of the Mukesh Ambani’s retail firm will move on to head RIL’s most recent consumer business of insurance and telecom. In an effort to balance its portfolio and lower its dependence on its core business operations, RIL is changing its focus towards developing its consumer business functions – insurance, telecom and retail and it looks to restructuring its top brass with the finest from the world over. As India readies to open its food and grocery retail gates to foreign companies, Reliance Retail is all set to tackle the competition with a strong and well-equipped in-house team.</p>
<p>Earlier this June, chairman of RIL Mukesh Ambani expressed his plans of developing the company’s retail arm further more by venturing into ‘cash-and-carry,’ or wholesale business. The company, as of now, has no plans to tie up with foreign players in the event of entry of foreign companies into the retail sector of India.</p>
<p>Reliance Retail has a store presence (in each of value, specialty and luxury formats) of over 1000 count in 86 cities across the country. Its value chains include Reliance Fresh, Reliance Super and Reliance Hyper; specialty formats of Reliance Trends, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Jewels, Reliance Digital, and Reliance TimeOut; and high-end luxury brand tie ups with Timberland, Marks and Spencer, Paul & Shark, etc under the Reliance Brands umbrella.</p>