The Hindu Business Line : Reliance Retail in talks with global players for new store formats

The Lifestyle President and Chief Executive, Mr Bijou Kurien, told Business Line, "announcements may be made in the next few months," after discussion with European and US "retail players". It will take a further 18 to 24 months for the new store formats to open.

Mr Kurien was speaking as Reliance Retail launched its tenth different store format in North India on Thursday, with the opening of a 40,000 sq ft music and book specialist Reliance Time Out store, in the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon.

Time Out will vend stationery, toys and gifts in addition to its core business of CDs and books. Mr Kurien said the format will be unique, as the first chain in a market "until now dominated by independent retailers."

The Gurgaon store is twice the size of the first Time Out, a city centre outlet in Bangalore. A third, mid-size store, will open in Kochi in March. Another 45 stores are planned for the next two years, 10 in North India.

Future outlets may be smaller than 20,000 sq ft, Mr Kurien said. The three-store pilot will be used to investigate "how much the model can be minimised", and decide on optimal locations.

A total of Rs 25,000 crore has been set aside for investment in stores across Reliance Retail over three years. The share needed by Time Out will depend greatly on whether the company decides to purchase or lease properties, Mr Kurien said. Of the three pilot stores, only the Kochi property has been bought.

Formats

Reliance Retail has set up ten different stores formats, covering retail areas from health to apparel, since the subsidiary of the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries opened the first of 472 stores in November 2006.

Reliance Retail is expected to generate annual revenue of Rs 1,00,000 crore in three years, but there is no timeline for returning a profit. The financial support of Reliance Industries "means we are in a position to gestate different format ideas, and experiment on a large scale", Mr Kurien said.

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