Reliance FreshJump to: navigation, search Reliance Retail Type Supermarket Founded 30 October 2006 Headquarters Mumbai, India Key people Mukesh Ambani, CEO Industry Retail Website www.ril.com A Reliance Retail at Guntur. Reliance Fresh is the convenience store format which forms part of the retail business 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. [edit] History 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. [edit] ControversY…Recently their stores in Jharkand faced the ire of mobs comprising of local vegetable vendors. They vandalised and attacked the stores claiming that they were stealing their livelihoods.[1]In August 2007, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati ordered to close 10 new stores keeping view of Law & order situation. In November 2007, Reliance Fresh stores are attacked by Bharatiya Janshakti Party supporters headed by Uma Bharti. ‘Suicide’ squad against Reliance Fresh outlets Bhubaneswar: Traders and roadside vendors opposing the opening of Reliance Fresh outlets in Orissa on Saturday formed a “suicide” squad.“As many as 100 youth today joined the squad as they prefer to die while fighting rather than facing starvation,” All-Orissa Roadside Vendors and Small Shop Owners Association president Pratap Sahu said.[2]Reports said the vendors formed the squad soon after a meeting. — PTI.But some vegetable vendors don't want a job at Reliance, if offered one, because they want to be their own boss. Growth through Value Creation With a vision to generate inclusive growth and prosperity for farmers, vendor partners, small shopkeepers and consumers, Reliance Retail Limited (RRL), a subsidiary of RIL, was set up to lead Reliance Group’s foray into organized retail. With a 27% share of world GDP, retail is a significant contributor to overall economic activity across the world. Of this, organized retailing contributes between 20% to 55% in various developing markets. The Indian retail industry is pegged at $ 300 billion and growing at over 13% per year. Of this, presently, organized retailing is about 5%. This is expected to grow to 10% by 2011. RRL has embarked upon an implementation plan to build state-of-the-art retail infrastructure in India, which includes a multi-format store strategy of opening neighbourhood convenience stores, hypermarkets, specialty and wholesale stores across India. RRL launched its first store in November 2006 through its convenience store format ‘Reliance Fresh’. Since then RRL has rapidly grown to operate 590 stores across 13 states at the end of FY 2007-08. RRL launched its first ‘Reliance Digital’ store in April 2007 and its first and India’s largest hypermarket ‘Reliance Mart’ in Ahmedabad in August 2007. This year, RRL has also launched its first few specialty stores for apparel (Reliance Trends), footwear (Reliance Footprints), jewellery (Reliance Jewels), books, music and other lifestyle products (Reliance Timeout), auto accessories and service format (Reliance Autozone) and also an initiative in the health and wellness business through ‘Reliance Wellness’. In each of these store formats, RRL is offering a unique set of products and services at a value price point that has not been available so far to the Indian consumer. Overall, RRL is well positioned to rapidly expand its existing network of 590 stores which operate in 57 cities. During the year, RRL also focused on building strong relationships in the agri-business value chain and has commenced marketing fruits, vegetables and staples that the company sources directly to wholesalers and institutional customers. RRL provides its customers with high quality produce that has better shelf life and more consistent quality than was available earlier. RRL has made significant progress in establishing state- of-the-art staples processing centres and expects to make them operational by May 2008. Through the year, RRL also expanded its supply chain infrastructure. The Company is fully geared to meet the requirements of its rapidly growing store network in an efficient manner. Recognizing that strategic alliances are going to be a key driver to its retail business, in FY 2007-08, RRL established key joint ventures with international partners in apparel, optical and office products businesses. Further, RRL will continue to seek synergistic opportunities with other international players as well. This year, RRL will continue its focus on rapid expansion of the existing and other new formats across India. Date of 2006 Establishment Revenue Not Available Rs. 370,687.7 crores (April 11, 2008) (Reliance Industries Market Cap Ltd.) Reliance Industries Limited, Makers Chambers - IV, Address Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021, Maharashtra, India Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Branches Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Orissa, UP and West Bengal Mukesh D. Ambani - Chairman & Managing Director Nikhil R. Meswani - Executive Director Hital R. Meswani - Executive Director H.S.Kohli - Executive Director Ramniklal H. Ambani Mansingh L. Bhakta Management Yogendra P. Trivedi Team Dr. D. V. Kapur M. P. Modi S. Venkitaramanan Prof. Ashok Misra Prof. Dipak C Jain Dr. Raghunath Anant Mashelkar Overview Reliance Fresh falls under Reliance Industries. It is the first retail venture of the Group. The company offers fresh fruits and vegetables, staples, groceries, fresh juice bars, FMCG products and dairy products and non-vegetarian items. Reliance Industries has invested nearly Rs. 3,000 crores to expand the Reliance Fresh stores. Reliance Fresh directly buys stock from the farmers to cut down on the wastage. The stores work on The Ranger Format which means selling of fresh vegetables to the road sellers. Reliance Retail has signed a pact with Apple for the establishment of a chain of Apple Specialty Stores branded as iStore, starting with Bangalore.