Reliance Retail opens fashion apparel format ''Trends''

Launched in the national capital region at Gurgaon, the store spans 30,000 sq ft, and is the first of a 100 such stores that the company has planned to set up over a three year period.

The second and third stores are to be inaugurated at Delhi and Mumbai shortly, with the count going up to about 30 over the course of the next one year.

Reliance Trends is aimed at capturing a sizeable share of the rapidly expanding apparel industry in India.

According to Arun Sirdeshmukh, chief executive of the apparel and luggage business at Reliance Retail, the apparel industry is expected to grow to around Rs100,000 crore in three years, of which Reliance is targeting a "fair share" of the market. He added that the present growth rate of apparel industry in India is at about 12-14 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

Sirdeshmukh also said that in keeping with Reliance''s commitment to private labels, almost 30 per cent of Trends'' shelf space will be occupied by private labels such as Sparsh (Indian women''s wear), Networks (formal office wear), Netplay (casual collection for an evolving workplace) and Panda (kidswear), and even designer labels such as Anita Dongre''s AND.

Reliance Trends will house a cross-section of apparel brands, including the international ones such as Wrangler, Reebok and Lee, alongside indigenous brands such as John Players, Peter England, Indigo Nation.