Latest news with #DineshTaluja
Time of India
20-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Online & instant: Reliance Retail, More and Spencer's begin seeing dark stores in good light
HighlightsReliance Retail, More Retail, and Spencer's Retail are opening standalone dark stores to compete with quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and BigBasket, which have captured significant market share in urban areas. According to NielsenIQ, ecommerce has seen a substantial increase, with a 40% growth rate, while traditional trade has experienced a decline, indicating a shift in consumer purchasing behavior towards online grocery shopping. More Retail has successfully launched 45 dark stores, with plans for an additional 100, while Spencer's Retail is piloting dark stores to enhance its quick commerce capabilities in cities with high demand. Chains such as Reliance Retail , More and Spencer's have started to open standalone dark stores to match the speed of their online competitors, company executives said. They had initially resisted the quick commerce model. Quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto and BigBasket have eaten into the share of kiranas and retail chains in the top eight to 10 cities, as consumers seek instant gratification of what was their monthly grocery shopping. Dark stores are mini warehouses that typically serve a 2-3 km radius, allowing faster deliveries of online orders. Dinesh Taluja, chief financial officer at Reliance Retail, recently told analysts that while the retailer wants to deliver online orders in less than 30 minutes, it has started to set up dark stores in 'some dark pockets' where there's enough volume and which cannot be serviced from its store network in this timeline. He said the country's largest retailer is at present using its 2,000-odd stores to deliver within a 3-km radius, covering 4,000 pin codes. Vinod Nambiar, managing director of More Retail , said the company has just set up 45 dark stores, with 100 more in the pipeline. It has set up some of these in New Delhi. High Shopping Engagement Online The Amazon-Samara Capital-owned retail chain has exited its brick-and-mortar operations in Delhi. It is eyeing Mumbai too, where it has no operations currently. Nambiar said a dark store is viable in high-demand micro markets—with high population density and many high-rises—provided the rent is manageable. 'There are standalone dark stores in cities where we have no operations, while in cities where we have stores—such as Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Cochin—we will convert a hybrid store (which does both store and online business) into a dark store as the market matures into online,' said Nambiar. More is the largest preferred seller in Amazon's food and grocery business, Amazon Fresh, in India. NielsenIQ , FMCG market researcher, in its report for January-March, said there was a shift towards ecommerce in metros, with high shopping engagement impacting share of modern trade and kiranas. NielsenIQ figures show the growth of ecommerce was largely volume-driven — up 40 per cent compared to a 2.2 per cent fall in traditional trade growth rate and 7.7 per cent decline in modern trade. The researcher said this was supported by increasing online shopper penetration, more purchase occasions and increasing basket sizes, or more units purchased per shopper. Spencer's Retail chief executive Anuj Singh told analysts on Friday that though dark stores are not a focus area, it has piloted one in Kolkata, where it felt the store reach was not sufficient for a 30-minute delivery. He said the company's quick commerce service currently processes 1.7 lakh bills per month, which it wants to take up to three lakh per month in this fiscal, with expansion into markets such as Lucknow and Varanasi.
Time of India
18-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Online & instant: Reliance Retail, More and Spencer's begin seeing dark stores in good light
Chains such as Reliance Retail , More and Spencer's have started to open standalone dark stores to match the speed of their online competitors, company executives said. They had initially resisted the quick commerce model. Quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto and BigBasket have eaten into the share of kiranas and retail chains in the top eight to 10 cities, as consumers seek instant gratification of what was their monthly grocery shopping. Dark stores are mini warehouses that typically serve a 2-3 km radius, allowing faster deliveries of online orders. Dinesh Taluja, chief financial officer at Reliance Retail, recently told analysts that while the retailer wants to deliver online orders in less than 30 minutes, it has started to set up dark stores in 'some dark pockets' where there's enough volume and which cannot be serviced from its store network in this timeline. He said the country's largest retailer is at present using its 2,000-odd stores to deliver within a 3-km radius, covering 4,000 pin codes. Vinod Nambiar, managing director of More Retail , said the company has just set up 45 dark stores, with 100 more in the pipeline. It has set up some of these in New Delhi. High Shopping Engagement Online The Amazon-Samara Capital-owned retail chain has exited its brick-and-mortar operations in Delhi. It is eyeing Mumbai too, where it has no operations currently. Nambiar said a dark store is viable in high-demand micro markets—with high population density and many high-rises—provided the rent is manageable. 'There are standalone dark stores in cities where we have no operations, while in cities where we have stores—such as Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Cochin—we will convert a hybrid store (which does both store and online business) into a dark store as the market matures into online,' said Nambiar. More is the largest preferred seller in Amazon's food and grocery business, Amazon Fresh, in India. NielsenIQ , FMCG market researcher, in its report for January-March, said there was a shift towards ecommerce in metros, with high shopping engagement impacting share of modern trade and kiranas. NielsenIQ figures show the growth of ecommerce was largely volume-driven — up 40% compared to a 2.2% fall in traditional trade growth rate and 7.7% decline in modern trade. The researcher said this was supported by increasing online shopper penetration, more purchase occasions and increasing basket sizes, or more units purchased per shopper. Spencer's Retail chief executive Anuj Singh told analysts on Friday that though dark stores are not a focus area, it has piloted one in Kolkata, where it felt the store reach was not sufficient for a 30-minute delivery. He said the company's quick commerce service currently processes 1.7 lakh bills per month, which it wants to take up to three lakh per month in this fiscal, with expansion into markets such as Lucknow and Varanasi.
India.com
05-05-2025
- Business
- India.com
Mukesh Ambani, Isha Ambani to spin off this division from Reliance Retail, it will become separate…
Reliance Consumer Products is the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) arm of Reliance Retail which has achieved growth in a short span of time. The company is now considering spinning it off into a separate entity, according to The Hindu Business Line report. It was launched in 2022 when Reliance Consumer Products was a big player in the FMCG sector. In its FY25 Q4 results, the company reported revenues of Rs 11,500 crore more than its other competitors. Over 60% of these revenues were generated by general trade and major contributions were from its in-house brands. Considering the possibility of rapid growth and strong performance, Reliance Group may spin off the business, according to media reports. 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)
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
02-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Reliance Retail targets new store profitability within a year or shut down
Reliance Retail has set a new rule for all upcoming stores: they must become profitable within six to 12 months. If not, they will be shut down or replaced with a different retail format, according to a report by The Economic Times. This is a big change from the earlier policy, which allowed up to two years to asses if a store could work. The move shows Reliance Retail is now more focused on profits and better margins, especially as it prepares for a future stock market listing (IPO). In a recent private meeting with analysts, the management said that details of the IPO would be shared 'in due course,' according to a company executive. The report mentioned that the company, which had a turnover of ₹2.91 trillion, will also slow down its store expansion. It now plans to open 500–550 stores a year, down from more than 1,000 earlier. In 2022-23, it had opened over 3,300 stores. In the last three years, Reliance Retail has also shut down over 3,650 stores that were not making money. Reliance Retail operates in many categories like electronics, groceries, clothes, footwear, jewellery, eyewear, medicine, and handicrafts. It runs stores under brands such as Reliance Fresh, Digital, Trends, and MyJio. 'The days of crazy expansion are over, but store count will definitely go up every year... Otherwise revenue growth rate will become slower,' a person aware of the company's plans told The Economic Times. According to him, the company is now more careful about where it opens new stores. 'With higher due diligence in location selection, over 90 per cent of the stores should achieve the breakeven target. Some may still not as market shifts by the time a store may come up,' he added. Reliance is also focusing on premium products, especially in grocery and fashion. Its high-end formats like Freshpik and Gofresh are doing well, said Chief Financial Officer Dinesh Taluja during an earnings call last week. It is revamping its budget fashion brand Trends to appeal more to young customers, using new technology similar to its other format, Azorte. Its profit margins over the last two years are improving too, due to a 'streamlining' process where it shut unprofitable stores and improved operations. Reliance also wants to earn profit in areas that usually lose money—like online shopping. Taluja said its 30-minute delivery model will compete with quick commerce 'in a profitable manner with a very strong unit economics.' He explained that deliveries will be made from nearby stores, not from special 'dark stores'. This helps cut fixed costs and allows extra sales with only small extra expenses.
India.com
02-05-2025
- Business
- India.com
Mukesh Ambani, Isha Ambani's BIG warning to Reliance Retail's…, says perform or…
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)
