Last year, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Retail raised about $6.4 billion by selling a 10% stake to investors including Silver Lake Partners and KKR & Co Inc.
Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in India and also the wealthiest in Asia, is rapidly scaling up his retail business as the retail arm of Reliance Industries (RIL)—Reliance Retail—is poised to take on lifestyle retail chain Shoppers Stop of the Rahejas and Lifestyle International by opening a new premium department store chain early next year.
Citing mall executives, ET reported that Reliance Retail is in search of space in the range of 25,000-35,000 square feet for the proposed chain. The so-called bridge-to-luxury or accessible luxury format stores will deal with marquee global labels sold by Reliance Brands and Reliance Retail, the company’s private labels as well as foreign and Indian and brands outside of Reliance’s stable.
It is important to note that Reliance Retail last year raised about $6.4 billion by selling a 10 per cent stake to investors including Silver Lake Partners and KKR & Co Inc.
Reliance Brands, a subsidiary of RIL, sells high-end brands, markets Hamleys toys, Muji, Mothercare, men’s cosmetic brand Womo among other labels. At present, its existing portfolio of uber-luxury brands includes Armani, Burberry, Salvatore Ferragamo, Jimmy Choo and Diesel. Plus, it deals with other foreign and Indian luxury brands via its multi-brand store outlet—The White Crow. So far, Reliance Brands has opened four White Crow stores in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Surat.
Many analysts are of the view that Reliance’s focus on luxury brands at this juncture assumes significance as more Indians are spending on branded apparel and products.
Reliance’s new department store format will be a notch above Reliance Trends mass market department chain but just below The White Crow. Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle run over 80 stores each in dozens of cities. Iconic, a smaller player in the premium department store segment, has approximately 24 stores in cities including the National Capital Region, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad.
The financial daily quoted Harminder Sahni, co-founder of retail consultancy Wazir Advisors, as saying that there is adequate space for growth in India’s evolving retail market, adding that low-cost Reliance Trends sells products for the masses.
“The Indian market is getting segmented very sharply. That segmentation is happening in multi-brand apparel and lifestyle brands and it is necessary. You cannot have a shirt selling for Rs 500 and one for Rs 5,000 sitting in one same department store,” the publication cited him as saying.
In 2007, Ambani, 64, founded Reliance Retail, and it is India’s largest retailer by sales and the number of stores. Currently, it runs more than 12,000 outlets in over 7,000 cities and towns nationwide.
