Reliance Retail plans consumer electronics brand

Reliance Retail, the subsidiary of petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries, will soon launch its own label of consumer electronics goods to complement its retail appliance stores - Reliance Digital - for tapping the country's $5.6 billion dollar durables market.

The company would be investing over Rs 1,000 crore over the next 3-4 years for setting up 150 such stores, the first of which was unveiled in the National Capital Region today.

"Reliance will launch its private label of consumer durables products... That is definitely in the strategy after we open 4-5 stores," Reliance Retail Ltd President and chief executive (Consumer Durables, IT and Telecom) Ajay Baijal said here.

The Reliance Digital stores will sell everything from TV sets, home theatre, refrigerator, cooking range and dishwasher to computers and mobile phones from across various brands.

"The stores, typically spread over 15,000-30,000 sq.ft, will have a wide assortment of products to cater to the tastes and requirements of customers," Baijal said. The domestic consumer electronics market, which is expanding by 10 per cent annually, is dominated by South Korean brands such LG and Samsung and Japan's Sony. But they have tough competition from homegrown names such as Videocon and BPL.