Reliance Retail in hunt for 15 mn sq ft

Land to be used for convenience stores, hypermarkets.

Reliance Retail has kicked off the second round of land acquisition in 24 states and union territories. The target is to acquire 15 million sq ft of retail space for convenience stores and hypermarkets alone.

Adding the requirement for rural retail centres and malls, the company will buy 100 million sq ft of land across the country. In a smart move, the company is handling the entire land acquisition process on its own, through direct advertisement for space and negotiations with sellers etc.

In the current phase, Reliance is targeting to acquire land of a size ranging from 3,000 sq ft to 30,000 sq ft. Simultaneously, the company is also looking for land for its agriculture distribution centres, each of which require a minimum of 5 acres, totalling 1,600 acres of land. The big malls in metros will be spread over 100,000 sq ft each.

Real estate sources said the initiative to acquire so much land would push up prices substantially, no matter how efficiently Reliance managed it.

"The move would have a cascading impact on land in the neighbourhood of the Reliance properties. It has already happened in Ahmedabad where Reliance purchased land," they pointed out.

Reliance's plan to have a land bank of 15 million sq ft just for supermarkets and convenience stores in urban areas in the short term is far ahead of that of its competitors including Pantaloon, Shoppers' Stop etc.

Pantaloon currently owns 3.5 million sq ft space, which will go up to 30 million sq ft by 2010. Out of this, 10-16 million sq ft will be its own brand/retail space, while the rest will be malls being developed under the Kshitij Retail Destination brand.

Shoppers' Stop, which is currently at 1 million sq ft, will be ramping up to 2.5 million sq ft by 2008. Shoppers' Stop, however, also plans to expand HyperCITY, the group hypermarket. Each HyperCITY outlet will be in the range of 1,20,000-1,50,000 sq ft. The group plans to open 50 hypermarkets in the next 10 years.