The Hindu Business Line : Reliance Retail looks at Town Centres, exclusive outlets

Focus on South: Mr Raghu Pillai, President and CEO (Operations and Strategy), Reliance Retail, announcing the launch of ’Reliance Mart’ in Tirupati.

K.V. Kurmanath

Tirupati, March 29 After opening 11 formats focusing on a variety of retail segments, Reliance Retail is now working on cash-and-carry cum entertainment malls for smaller towns and exclusive outlets to address all furnishing, kitchenware and building material needs.

Christened Reliance Town Centres, these outlets would come up in towns with a population of 1-4.5 lakh. “The first such centre is likely to come up in Haryana by the year-end,” Mr Raghu Pillai, President and Chief Executive Officer (Operations and Strategy) of Reliance Retail, said.

400 centres

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said the Town Centres would house cash-and-carry section, multiplexes, healthcare and financial services.

The company had plans to open 400 such centres in the next few years. He said there were about 700 urban centres in the country beyond the big 70 cities. “These centres would be located in centres that fall beyond the 70 cities,” he said.

Mr Pillai was here in connection with the launch Reliance Mart, the first hypermarket from Reliance stable in the South and the third after Ahmedabad and Jamnagar.

The next in the series would come up in Hyderabad and Bangalore. The 27,000-sq ft shop offers a range of 15,000 products in food, FMCG, apparel, books and footwear. “We will open 30 hyper markets in 2008. The number would go up to 250 by 2010,” he said.

In the next few weeks, the company would roll out four different formats that would exclusively focus on furnishings, kitchenware, home development and building material. Each of these formats would also give advice to the home buyers in selecting the right product for their homes.

Pan India plan

The Rs 25,000-crore initiative of Reliance Industries, which is present in 13 States and 56 cities, hoped to become pan-India by 2009-end, barring Uttar Pradesh and Kashmir.

It may be recalled that the company’s retail initiative had hit a roadblock in Uttar Pradesh last year, forcing the company to put off its plans for that State.

More Stories on : Retailing | Reliance Industries Ltd

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
‘Rural initiative boosting Maruti sales’

Reliance Retail looks at Town Centres, exclusive outlets