Mukesh Ambani, Isha Ambani's BIG warning to Reliance Retail's…, says perform or…

India.com

02-05-2025

Reliance Retail is trying to be profitable and working on its operational efficiency before it goes for a potential Initial Public Offering (IPO). The company had earlier decided the period of break even after new stores are opened of two years but now it has shortened it to 6 to 12 months. Those stores who are failing to meet their target will be shut down or replaced with another retail format, according to the Economic Times report.
Earlier Reliance Retail opened 1000 new stores annually but has reduced it to 500–550. In FY23, the company had opened over 3,300 stores but also closed more than 3,650 non-profitable outlets over the last three financial years.
The company has 2.91 lakh-crore turnover and operates 19,340 stores across India as of March 2025. It sells products like electronics, groceries, apparel, footwear, beauty products, gold jewelry, eyewear, medicines, and handicrafts, in multiple formats like Reliance Fresh, Digital, Trends, and MyJio. Reliance Retail Premiumization Plan
Reliance Retail is focusing on premiumization in apparel and grocery retail. The luxury retail business, managed under Reliance Brands, has different brands like Armani Exchange and Hugo Boss. Premium grocery formats Freshpik and Gofresh were widely accepted.
Its value fashion store Trends is being rebranded to attract younger consumers, with the help of the latest technology similar to its Azorte format. Reliance Retail Q4 Results
In the March quarter, Reliance Retail saw over 2.4 times growth in terms of the number of orders, which is a significant scale-up, said its CFO Dinesh Taluja during the earnings call earlier this week.
'And we are seeing very strong traction with a 2.4x quarter-over-quarter growth in daily exit orders. And this number will scale up substantially in the coming year as well. We are also starting to proactively market this proposition, our proposition of no hidden charges, quick delivery, and no delivery fees continues to resonate very well with the customers,' said Taluja.
Reliance covers hyper-local deliveries, a sub-30-minute delivery, at 4,000 pin codes across the country through its network of existing stores, which has a much wider reach than any other quick commerce player in the country.
Through its JioMart app, Reliance Retail is offering quick and scheduled deliveries, which currently has three types of services.
There is an under-30-minute quick service, and second is a scheduled delivery, where the assortment is much wider, and then there is a subscription service, where a customer can subscribe and everyday goods are delivered at doorsteps early morning.
'All three are picking up very well. The average daily orders were up 62 per cent on a Y-o-Y basis,' he said, adding, 'Specifically, our under 30-minute offering, which has the widest network reach. We have almost 2,000-plus stores which are on the network, covering more than 4,000 plus pin codes. So this is much wider reach than any other quick commerce player. We have kind of re-pivoted our model completely to under 30 minutes delivery.
'There are some dark pockets where we will set up dark stores also, wherever there is a genuine requirement, there is enough volume and we cannot service it within 30 minutes, we may set up some dark stores as well. So that is on the quick commerce side of it.
'Our stores, purely on a standalone basis, are seeing double-digit like for like growth for last several quarters. So stores are also growing pretty rapidly. We are not seeing that impact either in metro or in any other city,' he said.
Similarly, for its online fashion business Ajio, Reliance Retail has launched same-day and next-day delivery across 26 cities. 'So, we are increasing the speed at which we are able to deliver the products,' he said.
(With Inputs From PTI)