Reliance Trends seeks 100-% revenue growth with 50 new stores

Reliance Trends, the apparel, luggage and accessories speciality format of Reliance Retail, an arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), hopes to post a 100-per cent growth in sales this fiscal as it plans to double the number of its stores from 50 to 100.

After inaugurating the company's 50th store in Hyderabad, Arun Sirdeshmukh, chief executive officer of Reliance Trends, told the media that the division is geared to touch the 100-store landmark by the end of this fiscal.

"We are still small in terms of size of the business. But we are on a very strong wicket; and Rs330-crore business (in the last fiscal) was on the back of doubling of turnover every year. So we should exactly be there this year as well (doubling revenues)," he said.

"We have been able to open 50 stores in the past 50 months. This was possible because of the huge demand from consumers who look at affordability and accessibility. The company is technology and innovation driven, and this helps us offers better value deals,'' he added.

Sirdeshmukh said a great many of the stores are located in the smaller cities and towns, dubbed tier-II and tier-III in Indian marketing parlance.

The current ratio of metros and smaller cities is 60:40. "This year we will take it to 65:35. While we are looking at opening new stores in places like Bhimavaram (in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh), we will also penetrate in major cities to strengthen reach for the customers," he said.