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Our Bureau

Chennai, Aug. 1 Reliance Mart, the company’s first hypermarket, and what could be the country’s largest single store, sprawling over 1.65 lakh sq ft over three floors, is all set to open its doors by the middle of this month in Ahmedabad’s S.G. Highway locality, according to sources in the company.

A company official said the hypermarket, with 80,000 stockkeeping units across a variety of goods ranging from fruits and vegetables, grocery, apparel, durables and even scooters, stationery, toys and music, would well be the “mother of all stores” in the country.

The hypermarket would have large sections for apparel, stocking a range of private labels as well as mid-priced brands.

There would also be a large section devoted to consumer durables and IT products. However, the mart will not stock the more expensive brands of men’s apparel as the hypermarket is modelled on a discount format.

The official pointed out that once the hypermarket is up and running, the roll out of other such stores is expected to be rapid and Reliance would have 25 hypers by December.

The petroleum and retail giant has sewed up properties in sizes of 40,000 to 50,000 sq ft in the cities of Delhi and Bangalore and in States such as Punjab and Gujarat. “All other stores will be a sub-set of this store,” the official said.

The company has tied up with the trade and suppliers at margins which are higher than the market but not as high as envisaged earlier, according to the sources.

The retailer is going slow on goods imported from China till it ramps up volumes, as Chinese suppliers work on huge volumes which will come for Reliance only when the stores are rolled out.

The company already operates around 11 Reliance Fresh outlets in Ahmedabad.

More Stories on : Retailing | Gujarat | Reliance Industries Ltd

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