Reliance Trends, which is rapidly expanding its network of retail stores across the country, on Monday announced the opening up of its 50th store and fourth in Hyderabad and said that it is poised to become the single largest such retailer with a century of stores by March 2012.

“The company also said that private brands, about 16 of them, are already contributing to 50 per cent of the business, which is growing at more than 100 per cent each passing year. Last year, we closed with revenues of Rs. 330 crore and expect to more than double it during the year, both due to growth in volumes and also number of stores,” said Mr. Arun Sirdeshmukh, Chief Executive, Reliance Trends Ltd.

Mr. Arun told Business Line “we will launch two more during the week at Siliguri and Bangalore, with the latter having its sixth store. We are confident of adding such huge number of stores as already work is underway. In fact, this number could also go up as the business model of offering products at affordable rates has been received well.”

“We do not get deterred by business down cycles as the planning is for long term. The learning from various group companies, particularly in the retail business comes in extremely handy. We will bring in more private brands. We prefer to call them brands as we design and have them executed. Others call them labels,” he said.

INTERNATIONAL BRANDS

Reliance Trends has tie ups with some international brands and several others are keen to be part of the growth story. Just imagine the access for any international brand at one go with 50 stores. Where else would they go? If you look at sales volumes of some of the brands with us, they sell more volumes than their own exclusive outlets, he added.

Performax is a sports apparel brand. See the advantage this brings to a buyer. As opposed to say Rs. 1200 for a sports shirt, if one could buy a similar one for say Rs.450 or Rs.500. What would you like to buy? That is the unique sales proposition-quality and affordability, he said.

“For the retail business, we are backed by promoters with deep financial background. Therefore, funding is no issue. We also do not want to comment on FDI in retail. A store of this nature could cost anywhere between Rs. 10 to Rs.15 crore. This provides some idea about the total investment we could make during the year,” said Mr Arun.

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