Project On “MARKET STATUS OF RELIANCE FRESH” SUBMITTED TO Punjab Technical University IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF Master Of Business Administration (MBA) BATCH (2008-2010) Submitted By Mohit watts Roll no :- 80802320212 RIMT – School Of Management Studies Mandigobindgarh 1 CERTIFICATE I, Dr. B.S Bhatia hereby certify that this Project report titled “Market Status Of Reliance Fresh.” has been successfully carried out by Mr. Mohit Watts . with Registration number – 80802320212 under my supervision and guidance during the months of April -2010.This project report is prepared in partial fulfillment of Master of Business Administration (MBA) to be awarded by Punjab Technical University ,Jalandhar. To the best of my knowledge ,this piece of work is original &no part of this report has been submitted by the student to any other Institute / University earlier. Dr.B.S.Bhatia RIMT-SMS,Mandi Gobindgarh 2 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the project report entitled ‘MARKET STATUS OF RELIANCE FRESH” submitted for the degree of Master of Business Administration, is my original work and the project report has not formed the basis for the award of any diploma, degree, associate ship, fellowship or similar other titles. It has not been submitted to any other university or institution for the award of any degree or diploma. Mohit Watts MBA- IV 3 PREFACE For a deep inclination into the managed concepts, practical training is an important talk. Theoretical knowledge without practical knowledge is of little value. Theoretical knowledge gives us the fundamental concepts of management and practical training teaches us those tact’s and skills, which are successfully employed to capture today’s competitive market. Theoretical lectures must be correlated with practical training to make learning process more effective and to provide a plate form to judge and apply theoretical knowledge to practical situation. Practical training thus plays an important role in developing and sharpening one’s skills in the field of business management and administration. I prepared this report for my two-year course in Master of Business Administration. The topic of my report is RELIANCE FRESH RETAIL. The project report includes general information about role of media among the college going students. Mohit Watts 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In this planet one owes a great deal to others, and I am no exception. With grace of the almighty, I express my profound gratitude and thanks to all individuals who have been extremely inspirational and have helped me in completion of this project. Firstly, I express my sincere thanks to our college RIMT-SMS for giving me the privilege of being part of this institute. Finally, just a word for my parents, if not for whom this would be pointless Mohit Watts 5 INDEX Contents Page No. Chapter I: INTRODUCTION 7 Introduction to Reliance Fresh 8-9 History of Reliance Fresh 10-31 Chapter II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 32 Objective of the study 33 Scope of the study 34 Research methodology 35-37 Chapter III: DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION 38-54 Chapter IV: Findings 55 Chapter V: Limitations 57 Chapter VII: Suggestions 58 6 Introduction 7 Introduction Reliance Fresh is the convenience store format which forms part of the retail business of of Reliance Industries of India which is headed by Mukesh Ambani. Reliance plans to invest in excess of Rs 25000 crores in the next 4 years in their retail division. The company already has in excess of 560 reliance fresh outlets across the country. These stores sell fresh fruits and vegetables, staples, groceries, fresh juice bars and dairy products. A typical Reliance Fresh store is approximately 3000-4000 square. feet and caters to a catchment area of 1-2 km. Reliance Retail Type Supermarket Founded 30 October 2006 Headquarters Mumbai, India Key people Mukesh Ambani, CEO Industry Retail Website www.ril.com 8 RELIANCE FRESH IN LUDHIANA After having opened five stores in Jalandhar , from where it began its foray into Punjab, Reliance ‘Fresh’ opened two stores in Ludhiana in june 2007. Two more ‘Fresh’ stores in the city became operational in the same year . “Retail offering will deliver a win-win partnership between farmers and customers,” said Rohit P.Jain, on the occasion. “On the one hand it will provide unmatched affordability, quality, choice of products and services to the consumers on the other hand it will bring prosperity to the farmers by giving them better value for their produce,” added Jain. Reliance ‘Fresh’ stores in Ludhiana occupy gross floor area of 12,000 sq.ft. and employ an average of 20 Sales Associates each. Reliance ‘Fresh’ is a part of the retail inititiave of the Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Group. ‘Fresh’ is a neighbourhood convenience format which apart from fresh vegetables and fruits stocks food, grocery, and dairy products. Reliance also offers select food products under the private label of ‘Reliance Select.’ Reliance offers Membership and Loyalty programme, “RelianceOne”, across all its retail formats and stores. The programme is meant for offering customised benefits to frequent shoppers. History 9 Post launch, in a dramatic shift in its positioning and mainly due to the circumstances prevaling in UP, West Bengal and Orissa, it was mentioned recently in news Dailies that, Reliance Retail is moving out of stocking fruits and vegetables. Reliance Retail has decided to minimise its exposure in the fruit and vegetable business and position Reliance Fresh as a pure play super market focusing on categories like food, FMCG, home, consumer durables, IT and wellness , with food accounting for the bulk of the business. The company may not stock fruit and vegetables in some states. Though Reliance Fresh is not exiting the fruit and vegetable business altogether, it has decided not to compete with local vendors partly due to political reasons, and partly due to its inability to create a robust supply chain. This is quite different from what the firm had originally planned. When the first Reliance Fresh store opened in Hyderabad last October, not only did the company said the store’s main focus would be fresh produce like fruits and vegetables at a much lower price, but also spoke at length about its “farm-to-fork’’ theory. The idea the company spoke about was to source from farmers and sell directly to the consumer removing middlemen out of the way. Reliance Fresh, Reliance Mart, Reliance Digital, Reliance Trendz, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Wellness, Reliance Jewels, Reliance Timeout and Reliance Super are various formats that Reliance has rolled out. In addition, Reliance Retail has entered into an alliance with Apple for setting up a chain of Apple Specialty Stores branded as iStore, starting with Bangalore Retailing Industry 10 India has often been called a nation of shopkeepers. Presumably the reason for this is; that, a large number of retail enterprises exist in India. In 2004, there were 12 million such units of which 98% are small family businesses, utilizing only household labour. Even among retail enterprises, which employ hired workers, a majority of them use less than three workers. Retailing is the combination of activities involved in selling or renting consumer goods and services directly to ultimate consumers for their personal or household use. In addition to selling, retailing includes such diverse activities as, buying, advertising, data processing and maintaining inventory. While sales people regularly call on institutional customers, to initiate and conclude transactions, most end users or final customers, patronize stores. This makes store location, product assortment, timings, store fixtures, sales personnel, delivery and other factors, very critical in drawing customers to the store. Final customers make many unplanned purchases. In contrast those who buy for resale or use in manufacturing are more systematic in their purchasing. Therefore, retailers need to place impulse items in high traffic locations, organize, store layout , trains sales people in suggestion , and place related items next to each other, to stimulate purchase. WHAT DOES THE RETAILING INDUSTRY INCLUDE? • Department Stores • Discount Stores • Clothing Stores • Specialty retailers • Convenience Stores • Grocery Stores • Drug Stores • Home furnishing retailers 11 • Auto Retailers • Direct Sales Catalog and mail order companies • Some e-commerce businesses THE IMPORTANCE OF RETAILING Organized retailing in India was estimated at Rs.18,000 crores in 2002-2003 and has grown at about 40% over the last 3 years (Source KSA Retail Outlook). Retailing has a tremendous impact on the economy. It involves high annual sales and employment. As a major source of employment retailing offers a wide range of career opportunities including; store management, merchandising and owning a retail business. Consumers benefit from retailing in that, retailers perform marketing functions that makes it possible for customers to have access to a broad variety of products and services. Retailing also helps to create place, time and possession utilities. A retailer's service also helps to enhance a product's image. In general, retailers perform four distinct function as, shown in Figure 1.1 below: 12 Retailers participate in the sorting process by collecting an assortment of goods and services from a wide variety of suppliers and offering them for sale. The width and depth of assortment depend upon the individual retailer's strategy. They provide information to consumers through advertising, displays and signs and sales personnel. Marketing research support is given to other channels, members. They store merchandise, mark prices on it, place items on the selling floor and otherwise handle products; usually they pay suppliers for items before selling ,,them to final customers. They complete transactions by using appropriate locations, and timings, credit policies, and other services e.g. delivery. Retailing in a way, is the final stage in marketing channels for consumer products. Retailers provide the vital link between producers and ultimate consumers.