Reliance Retail, the retail arm of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd, which had made a failed attempt to foray into the organised retail sector in India?s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, plans to relaunch its closed Reliance Fresh outlets as standalone niche specialty stores that would include formats like consumer durables, and apparels, amongst others.
The outlets, which have been lying defunct since the Mayawati government ordered their shutdown in August, will soon sell branded clothing, footwear and jewellery. Speaking to FE senior officials of the company admitted that they were definitely thinking on these lines and a couple of stores could start operations within FY08. To begin with, stores would be opened in Ghaziabad and Noida in the NCR region, on the outskirts of Delhi and later on in the other cities where Fresh stores had been shut down within 24 hours of their launch.
The company plans to make use of the outlets that had been taken on lease to open Reliance Fresh stores to showcase their other branded formats like Reliance Footprints, Reliance Jewels, Reliance Apparel, Reliance Digital, Reliance Hyper Mart, Reliance Trends and Reliance Apple. According to sources, senior officials of the company have already met to discuss this issue and debated on which stores should come up in place of the closed Fresh stores first. Reliance Fresh stores in the state were ordered to be closed by the Mayawati government in the backdrop of widespread protests, as ?they were posing law and order problems?. The government had also constituted a high-level committee headed by cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh to review the whole affair. But even after three months, the committee is yet to submit any report. Tight-lipped government officials refuse to comment, while one senior government functionary, on being asked the status of the committee said, ?referring an issue to a committee is a standard bureaucratic drill and the issue may well be considered closed?.
The government order had almost prompted Reliance to suspend its plans of investing around Rs 5,000 to 10,000 crore in the state, in which around 100 retail stores were to be launched in the first phase. Around 10 lakh youth stood to gain employment opportunities in this venture.
Reliance has also terminated the services of 870 employees in an indication that it is winding up operations in the state and had also shifted some of its logistics and commercial staff from Uttar Pradesh to other states. However, doing a rethink on the issue, it has now made up its mind to re-enter the state in formats other than the food and grocery chain, while it still waits for the government to spell out its verdict through the committee. ?The ball is now in the government?s court. We are willing to reopen the Fresh stores sans the fresh fruits and vegetable section,? said a Reliance Fresh officer.