Reliance Retail will roll out its first store from Hyderabad by September this year.This was announced by Raghu Pillai, president and chief executive, operations and strategy of Reliance Retail, at the sidelines of a CII conference.Apart from targeting the rural markets and areas, Reliance will gradually move to urban areas. "We plan to be across the country," he said, adding the company was in talks with global brands to introduce them in the Indian market."We are talking to a variety of brands and the whole programme will be finalised in the next six months," he said.Pillai said the Reliance Retail strategy would be to "take out extra costs from the supply chain" in order to offer products at competitive prices.As part of backward integration to cut costs, the company is looking at partnering companies, including consumer durables, for direct procurements. Asked whether the company was also looking to source from foreign locations, including China, he said, "Why not? If we get a better price we will also do that."Asked whether the high real estate prices could act as a stumbling block to the company's roll out plans, he said, "Real estate prices fluctuate, but this is just one element of our entire capital expenditure plans."
