Reliance Retail plans fresh foray into UP, East

Reliance Retail, the wholly owned subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd, plans to expand operations in Uttar Pradesh and Eastern India, after its earlier foray into these markets ran into rough weather due to political opposition.

Reliance Retail wants to initially shore up its presence in speciality formats in markets such as Lucknow, Kanpur, Ghaziabad and Noida. It also plans to roll out grocery retailing once the state government policies become clearer.

"East India and Uttar Pradesh are two markets where we have the least penetration," said Reliance Retail president and chief executive (lifestyle) Bijou Kurien told newspersons in Kolkata on Friday. ''Now that the scenario has improved, we want to rapidly expand in these two markets.''

However, the company will have to wait till the Uttar Pradesh government revokes the ban on grocery retailing to expand value retailing business. Initial focus will be on apparel, jewellery and other speciality formats, Kurien said.

Reliance Retail is set to open 150 stores by March-end and double the number of stores across the country in all formats within five years. ''The target of clocking revenues up to Rs45,000 crore can be achieved only with doubling the number of stores over the next five years,'' said Kurien.

This will be a 10-fold increase in revenue for the chain, from the Rs4,500 crore of 2009-10.