Reliance Retail

Reliance Retail is an Indian retail company and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Founded in 2006, it is the largest retailer in India in terms of revenue. Its retail outlets offer foods, groceries, apparel, footwear, toys, home improvement products, electronic goods, and farm implements and inputs. As of 2023, it has over 245,000 employees at 18,000 store locations in 7,000 towns. Apart from physical stores, the company also sells products on its e-commerce channels.

As of August 2023, the company is valued at $100 billion.

History

In August 2021, Reliance Retail announced that it would acquire the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing business of Future Group for ₹24,713 crore (US$3.34 billion). However, the deal was called off in April 2022 after a lengthy legal dispute between Future Group and Amazon.

In September 2020, it was announced that American investment firm Silver Lake has bought 1.75% stake in Reliance Retail for ₹7,500 crore (US$900 million) valuing the business at ₹4.28 trillion (US$51 billion). On 23 September, it was announced that KKR has bought 1.28% stake for ₹5,500 crore valuing the venture at ₹4.28 trillion or $58 billion.

In October 2020, Singapore's GIC bought a 1.22% stake for $752 million, while TPG acquired a 0.41% stake for $250 million giving Reliance Retail a pre-money valuation of $58.5 billion.

On 7 October 2021, the company announced its partnership with 7-Eleven to open its stores in India. The announcement came a day after Future Group announced the end of its partnership with 7-Eleven, citing the inability to meet the target of opening stores and payment of franchisee fees. The first 7-Eleven in India opened in Mumbai.

On 6 January 2022, Reliance Retail invested $200 million in Dunzo for a 25.8% stake.

In 2022, soft drink brand Campa Cola was acquired by Reliance Industries for ₹22 crores. In March 2023, Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), the fast-moving consumer goods arm and subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), announced the relaunch of Campa Cola in three variants (cola, orange and lemon) at select stores.

In February 2023, Reliance Retail began accepting India's central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Digital Rupee.

In August 2023, the Qatar Investment Authority invested $1 billion in Reliance Retail for a 0.99% stake in the company at a $100 billion valuation. In October 2023, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority acquired a 0.59% stake in the company with an investment of nearly $600 million.

In May 2024, it was announced Reliance Retail plans to sell Jio Leasing Services Ltd (JLSL), a subsidiary of Jio Financial Services, customer premises equipment, devices and telecom equipment worth $4.32 billion.

Reliance Retail has started a pilot program on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) using the Fynd retail platform. The pilot is live in Madurai. Reliance Retail will scale it up to five locations if it is successful, and eventually to 100 outlets on ONDC. All of Reliance Retail's brands will gradually launch on ONDC.

Financials

Reliance Retail had a turnover of ₹337 billion in the financial year 2016–17. Reliance Retail announced revenues of ₹450 billion for the nine months ended December 2017 for financial year 2017–18, showing over a 90% jump from the corresponding previous period. The company also reported a profit of ₹7 billion for the period.

Subsidiaries and divisions

There are over 45 subsidiaries and divisions of Reliance Retail.

Major divisions

Acquisitions

Products and services

Private label products

Although Reliance Retail's grocery businesses primarily markets products of third party FMCG players, they also sell inhouse brands including: Best Farms, Good Life, Enzo, Mopz, Expelz and Home One.

References