Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) top boss Mukesh Ambani during the company’s 44th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday said the company’s retail wing Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) aims to be among the top ten global retailers. The RIL Chairman said he is confident that RRVL is on a “hyper-growth trajectory to grow at least 3x in the next 3-5 years”.
This he said will be achieved through aggressive innovation, a bigger sourcing ecosystem, strengthening of supply chain and acquisitions.
“Reliance Retail continues to be amongst the fastest-growing retailers in the world. We are committed to grow our business so that we are among the top 10 retailers globally. I am confident that Reliance Retail is on a hyper-growth trajectory to grow at least 3x in the next 3-5 years,” he said.
Despite a challenging year, the Retail wing churned out revenues of 153,818 crore and contributed EBITDA of Rs 9,842 crore to the conglomerate’s consolidated balance sheet.
Kirana business witnesses robust growth
Ambani hailed the company’s Kirana business as the driver of growth during the year, riding on its JioMart platform, which the company aims to expand across cities by onboarding record merchant partners.
The Retail arm’s Kirana business witnessed a growth of 3 times in the last year, thanks to returning customers and its increased footprint in tier-2 and tier-3 Indian cities. Grocery and daily needs retailer JioMart, the joint venture between Jio and Reliance Retail registered over 6.5 lakh peak orders in a single day during the year, Ambani said.
The platform which has high customer royalty with 80% repeat shoppers aims to transform and grow the small merchant ecosystem.
“Over the past year, over 3 lakh merchant or shopkeeper partners across 150 cities were enabled and empowered to transform their businesses both physically and digitally. Our promise to them is simple: ‘Customer Apka, Support Hamara (We support you, so that you can serve your customers better)’. Ambani said Reliance Retail plans to onboard over 1 crore merchant partners in the next three years in expansion across cities.
Apparel & electronics
The apparel business sold nearly 18 crore units during the year while lifestyle brand Ajio contributed over 25% to RRVL’s apparel business alone. In the consumer electronics segment, RRVL sold 4.5 crore units of electronics last year, the RIL CMD highlighted.
Reliance top boss further said Reliance Retail did not engage in job cuts, in fact created “over 65,000 new jobs”. It currently employs over 2 lakh people, he added.
“We added 1,500 new stores, which is amongst the largest retail expansion undertaken by any retailer during this period, taking our store count to 12,711. We continue to maintain and strengthen our leadership position. Today one in every eight Indians shops with Reliance Retail,” Ambani further said.
