Reliance Trends, the fashion apparel arm of Reliance Retail, which has so far been opening its own stores, may also adopt the franchise route to expand operations in the next fiscal.
“We plan to have 100 stores by the end of this fiscal (2011-12),” Mr Akhilesh Prasad, Senior Vice-President, Reliance Trends, told reporters on the sidelines of the East India Retail Summit 2012 here in Kolkata. He, however, did not give out investment figures for these additional stores.
By March 2013, the company plans to have 25 stores in the eastern region, Prasad said. In 2011-12 the company opened 11 stores in the region, he added.
FRANCHISE MODEL
According to Mr Prasad, plans are also on to roll out a franchise model. The franchise model is likely to come into operation in the next fiscal (2012-13). Pilot projects on this model have been carried out in Jabalpur and Bangalore.
“We have plans for starting some franchisees. There are a large number of people who have applied to us. We are taking our learning (and) perfecting our models,” Mr Prasad said.