Reliance Retail to open 100 stores in Mumbai soon

Reliance Retail is set to enter Mumbai's retail scene next month. Though a late entrant compared to other retailers, the Mukesh Ambani-promoted company plans to open nearly 25 Reliance Fresh stores within a month.

The retailer plans to have 100-odd stores by the year end in all the major suburbs of the city including Thane, Bandra, Andheri and so on. It has 201 Reliance Fresh stores across the country including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, NCR, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Pubjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, said sources close to the development. A spokesperon for Reliance Industries, promoters of Reliance Retail, declined to comment.

High realty prices and unavaibility of retail space had made the retailer wait for its Mumbai plans while expanding in other cities. It has 30-odd stores in Chennai, 50 stores in NCR and 30 stores in Hyderabad. The company is opening its first hypermarket 'Reliance Hypermart' in Ahmedabad.

Meanwhile, other retailers in fresh produce and convenience retail space have expanded aggressively in Mumbai market. Wadhawan Food Retail-promoted Spinach has 15 stores in Mumbai and plans to have 75 stores in the city by year end. The neighbourhood store-format retailer is planning to have 200 stores by year end. When asked about Reliance Retail's Mumbai entry, Dipankar Halder, CEO, Spinach, said: ''Mumbai market is large and there is enough scope for all the players.

Chennai-based retail chain Subhiksha is also planning to take the number of stores from 110 to 165 by year end in Mumbai. Subhiksha is also planning an IPO post-October to fund its expansion plans in the country.

Retail analyst Susil Dungarwal believes that Mumbai consumer will be the biggest beneficiary of Reliance entry since other retailers are also forced to increase the quality of their offering and competition in prices will set in. "Consumers and the industry has been waiting for the launch of Reliance Retail about which they have heard much about. I don't think there will be much competition among the retailers since they function in different formats. Subhiksha fits in convenience format, Spinach got into fresh produce and Bib Bazaar into hypermarket. But going forward, when the retailers get into different formats, competition may set in'', he said.