Reliance woos locality kirana shops with franchisee plan

Mumbai: In the light of regional protests against its retail business, Reliance seems to be fine tuning its business model to keep it on track.

According to reports, the company is now looking at partnerships with local ''kirana stores'', while simultaneously pursuing an independent retail strategy for the larger format stores in the retail business, hypermarts.

Sources indicate that Reliance Retail has started sending out invitations to retailers and individuals to adopt the Reliance franchise model. They say that the plan is to let the company select and revamp the retail outlets, which would then be operated by the small retailers using a revenue sharing model, and will sell both Reliance''s as well as other brands.

Ostensibly, the company is looking for franchisee options across product categories, including cosmetics, jewellery, watches, books and toys.

Though the franchisee option does allow small-time retailers to upgrade their stores as well as simultaneously increase business volumes through stocking more brands, not everyone is buying the story.

Some sceptics amongst the industry argue that this move could more than just forecast good fortunes for the company, as it would allow Reliance to get the infrastructure in place, and at some time in the distant or not-so-distant future, allow it to compel the owners to sell their stores.