Reliance Retail is all set to step up its presence in Andhra Pradesh. As part of this plan, the company will pump in Rs 2,700 crore in the state. Part of it will go to a hypermart in Hyderabad. And the retailer will also open Reliance Fresh outlets across the state.
“We have earmarked an investment of Rs 25,000 crore in the retail segment, of which over 12% will go to Andhra Pradesh by 2010. The state has high potential for growth and is one of the fast growing regions in the country,’’ said Raghu Pillai, CEO (operations & strategy), Reliance Retail.
The company operates 45 Reliance Fresh outlets in Andhra Pradesh, of which 31 are in Hyderabad. “We are planning to open 65,000 square feet hypermart in Hyderabad by December this year. We are also looking at opening more stores in Tier II cities in Andhra Pradesh including Tirupati, Vijayawada Rajahmundry and Visakhapatnam,’’ said Mr Pillai.
The company had opened its first 1,65,000 square feet hypermart in Ahmedabad this week. It is also looking at opening similar stores in Jamnagar, Delhi, Chennai, Jalandhar and Jaipur.
The company aims to have pan India presence by December this year as well.
Its target is to have one million sq ft of hypermart space including about 30 stores in major cities by this year-end.
“We will have about 500 hypermart stores and 784 Reliance town centres in urban India by 2010,’’ he added. At present, Reliance Retail has over 208 stores in the country with 593,199 sq ft under its management.
Talking about the hypermart format, he said, the company offers easy finance options including monthly EMIs to customers for buying products worth over Rs 10,000.
Innovative services like tailoring, shoe repair shops, photoshop, home furnishing will also be in the offing in the hypermarts.
The proposed retail expansion is estimated to create direct employment to about 5 lakh people and indirect employment for 20 lakh in the country.
Currently retailing is the largest employer after agriculture.
“Given the rate of growth that Indian economy currently has, it is one of the most attractive markets in the world even compared to markets like Brazil, China and Russia. There is about 12% to 15% growth in the organised retail sector in India and it will become $60 billion industry in 5 to 10 years,’’ he said.
