Reliance Retail headed by Isha Ambani which is valued at $112 billion has surpassed the valuation of the biggest market players. The CEO of Reliance Trends, Akhilesh Prasad, has played a key role in taking Trends to greater heights and their recent venture premium fashion brand Azorte is all set to compete with leading brands like H&M and ZARA. After launching Reliance Trends in 2006, it has been a leading player in the fashion market catering to affordable fashion with both online and offline stores.
Azorte was launched under Reliance Retail last year, with the intention to transform the brand into a pan-Indian staple over the next four years, according to India Retailing. Through technological elements such as self-checkout kiosks, the new stores will be designed to integrate offline and online experiences and the man behind making this happen is Akhilesh Prasad.
Akhilesh Prasad, completed his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Delhi University and went on to study his Masters’s in Economics at Delhi School of Economics. He holds an MBA degree from the Institute of Rural Management. He joined Reliance in 2003 as the COO for Reliance and has held significant positions before becoming the leading man, president, and CEO in 2018. In a career spanning over 32 years, he has been focused on causing disruption in the Indian retail market by making Reliance Retail a top market player.
He is associated with Trends, Ajio, Ajio Business, Project Eve, and Trends Small Town, brands that have featured the creation of businesses that have broken industry historical practices, resulting in huge scale and the acquisition of leadership roles at an unprecedented rate throughout his career. With a dream to establish an Indian firm capable of competing with the best in the world and becoming the dominant player in the Indian fashion and lifestyle arena, he has been monumental in building Isha Ambani’s Reliance Retail.
Azorte aims to ring about a revolution in the shopping experience for consumers across the country. According to ANI reports, the new stores will be designed to blend the offline and online experience through technological features including self-checkout kiosks, mobile checkout, smart trial rooms, and fashion discovery stations among others.
Akhilesh Prasad told Business Today, “The mid-premium fashion segment is one of fastest growing consumer segments as millennials and the Gen Z are increasingly demanding the latest of international and contemporary Indian fashion,”
The $100 billion-plus valuation makes Reliance Retail the fourth-largest company in terms of market capitalisation on Dalal Street, valued much more than ICICI Bank (Rs 6.65 lakh crore), HUL (Rs 6.2 lakh crore) and ITC (Rs 5.8 lakh crore) as per the Economic Times report.
