Reliance Brands to launch first Diesel store in March

One-and-a-half years after signing a joint venture (JV) with Italy's Diesel, Reliance Brands, part of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail, is set to open the first Diesel store in the country, in March.
Diesel is a top name in apparel and related personal consumer products. Headquartered in Molvena, northern Italy, it has presence in 80 countries, with 5,000 points of sale and more than 300 single-brand stores.More...

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Diesel fuelling denim aspirations in Indian market

Italian fashion brand Diesel will launch in India by the third week of March in partnership with Reliance Brands Ltd, a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd. Diesel SpA has been trying to enter India since 2007, but its previous joint venture with Arvind Mills Ltd fell through.

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Reliance Dairy Foods eyes larger slice of life- Retailing-Services

Reliance Dairy Foods, a subsidiary of Reliance Retail, is muscling into the country’s branded milk product market with a new brand that will take on established players such as Amul, Mother Dairy, Nestle and Gowardhan by offering higher margins to retailers and 10% extra milk to customers.

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Reliance Retail hiring professionals from Thailand

Reliance Retail is slowly filling its top slots with professionals from Thailand, a country whose retail market once used to resemble

India’s with its freshly-minted organised players hemmed in by a well-entrenched network of neighbourhood stores.

The firm has already hired at least 10 people in key roles — all of them from Thailand’s Tesco Lotus. Around 20-25 more are expected to join in the coming months to run its value formats, confirmed two persons on condition of anonymity since they are not authorised to speak to the media.

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VVF pips Reliance Retail to acquire 3 Henkel brands

Mumbai-based VVF Ltd beat Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail to acquire three brands from detergent and home care company Henkel India, namely Aramusk and Moloy soaps and Mahabringol hair oil.

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Reliance Retail Opens “istore” in Hyderabad

Reliance Retail today opens doors to one more of its Retail formats, the ‘iStore’, at Shop No.1C, Grd. Floor, Ashoka Metropolitan Mall, Rd. No.1, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. This format is an offering from Reliance Digital, the consumer durable information technology arm of Reliance Retail.

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Reliance Retail to get off the mark on Aug 1

RIL is set to make its retail foray on August 1, sources said. RIL may announce its retail plans at its AGM on June 29.

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Reliance Footprint brings in ASICS to India

Reliance Footprint, the footwear specialty store of Reliance Retail and ASICS Corporation Japan, one of world’s leading sporting manufacturers today (Jan. 12) announced an exclusive partnership between the two companies.

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Reliance Retail to open outlets at corporates' premises

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail has devised a new business model, under which it will open small outlets at the premises of large corporates.
The company, which is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, will soon approach big corporate houses with this proposal to implement the novel business plan, a top Reliance Retail Official said.

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Vision Express forays into Mumbai

Fastest growing eyewear retail chain in India opens 41st outlet in the country to mark its first anniversary.

Vision Express, the 50-50 Joint Venture between Reliance Retail and Pearle Europe, expands its base nationally on the occasion of its first anniversary, by foraying into Mumbai.

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Retailers mull new strategies for small stores

Large retailers are trying to make their small food and grocery stores viable by trying out new ideas. While some like Reliance Retail are converting most of these stores into a deep-discount value format, RPG Group's Spencer's is looking at the franchising route.

Anand Raghuraman, partner, The Boston Consulting Group, said it is extremely tough to make money on small food and grocery stores.

"It's a crisis situation, and retailers are trying to find answers to some fundamental questions." The problem is that retailers are straddled with a large base of small food & grocery stores -- nearly 700 of them.

Reliance's retail business reported an aggregate loss of Rs 557 crore (Rs 5.57 billion) on revenue of about Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) for the year ended March 2009. Half of these losses came from the food and grocery chain, Reliance Fresh, which reported a net loss of Rs 249.30 crore (Rs 2.49 billion) on revenue of Rs 1,778.06 crore (Rs 17.78 billion); the rest came from other formats.

Retailers have been trying to figure out how they can make the small stores viable. Industry sources said that Reliance Retail is now looking at a heavy-discount format; the stores will offer very little service, no air-conditioning but prices will be much lower than kirana stores.

A Reliance spokesman did not respond to an emailed query.

Similarly, Spencer's is looking at franchising these smaller stores. Devangshu Dutta, the chief executive of Third Eyesight, a retail consultancy, said this can work if the franchisee is involved in the operations.

"In food, the margins are very low. If it's a good site, you can offset lower margins with higher throughput,'' he said.

Franchising has worked well in footwear and apparel retail where margins are higher at around 25 per cent. In food and grocery, the average gross margins are around 15 per cent.

If food stores can achieve double the sales of apparel stores, they could be viable for franchisees. A brand like Spencer's would be able to drive-in footfalls.

A franchisee could be someone who has a space to rent out, an existing retailer, or a commodity trader entering the retail business. It can also be an existing kirana store owner who will gain from the marketing and the sourcing support of a retail chain.

"There are franchisees who have 15 to30 outlets and handle four to five brands. But for it to work in food, the franchisees need to be active and involved in operations,'' said Dutta.

If they are not, wastage, error and theft (which is very high in India) can eat into the net margins, and make the stores unviable.

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