The retail business of Reliance Industries has registered over Rs 10,000 crore in sales.
Reliance Industries’ retail business, that includes flagship stores Reliance Fresh and Reliance Trends, has already achieved a cash break-even of Rs 78 crore during 2012-13. This includes earnings before depreciation, finance cost and tax expense.
“We expect the retail business to deliver over 50 per cent revenue growth going forward,” Chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders at Reliance Industries’ 39th Annual General Meeting on Thursday.
The oil and gas major, which entered the organised retail space with Reliance Fresh about six years ago, has grown by over 40 per cent in the last fiscal as compared with the previous fiscal, across its several formats which include hypermarkets, digital stores, fashion and lifestyle and jewellery.
“Our new investments across manufacturing, retail and 4G digital services is set to spur growth in India,” Ambani said, adding that apart from the company’s own investments, “these sectors have high multiplier effects and will lead to secondary and tertiary economic investments and employment creation in a variety of sectors.”
“Our investments in retail integrate the agro sector with consumer markets and improve quality and efficiency.”
He assured shareholders that Reliance would stimulate growth in agriculture through retail and petrochemicals applications, industrial growth through energy and manufacturing and services growth through retail and broadband digital services.
On its various retail formats, Ambani said that the value format has further consolidated its position as the largest grocery retailer in the country by forging alliance with farmers and small manufacturers.
While, value formats grew by 19 per cent, digital grew 76 per cent and would be the major growth driver this year, he said, and added that lifestyle grew 45 per cent and jewellery 57 per cent.
Another major growth came from Reliance Brands at 82 per cent, which currently has a portfolio of 40 international brands and premium to luxury brands such as Superdry, Brooks Brothers and Steve Madden, amongst others.
During the year, Reliance added 184 stores across format sectors. The company now operates around 1,500 stores spanning 130 cities and covering an area of over 9 million sq. ft.