RIL's Reliance Retail enters NCR with 9 Reliance Fresh stores

New Delhi, Jan 29 (UNI) Riding high on the encouraging response in Hyderabad, Jaipur and Chennai, Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Fortune 500 company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), today expanded its wings in the National Capital Region (NCR) with the launch of nine pilot 'Reliance Fresh' stores by offering the daily kitchen needs at much cheaper and affordable prices.

For instance, cauliflower is being sold at Rs 3 a kg, onion Rs 10-13, cabbage Rs 4.75, greenpeas Rs 7, tomato Rs 10-13, raddish white Rs 3.90, brinjal Rs 10, bitter gourd Rs 11, carrot Rs 4, apple delicious Rs 45, spinach Rs 3.60, ginger Rs 16, mango tota pari and neelam varieties at Rs 62 per kg.

Of the nine pilot Reliance Fresh stores, with one already opened in Noida, two more will be rolled out across Noida and Greater Noida, four in Ghaziabad, and one each in Faridabad and Gurgaon covering a carpet area of about 19,000 sq feet and having an average 20 trained sales associates attending to the customers in each store.

The Reliance Fresh stores will offer 160 items of fresh fruits and vegetables alone, staples, top-up grocery, dairy products and will also carry 'Reliance Select' its own brand of offering.

Later, these stores will also sell FMCG items, pharmacy, apparels and other labellled products available within the country and from abroad too.

RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani in a statement said ''this retail offering will deliver a win-win partnership between farmers and customers with unmatched affordability, quality, choice of products and services to the consumer. Reliance is focused towards fine tuning their offering by listening to the consumers and learning from them.'' Reliance Retail plans to invest about Rs 25,000 crore over a period of three years to open more than 6,000 such stores throughout the country to clock a turnover of Rs 1,00,000 crore by 2009-10 to grab a substantial share in the 300 billion dollar retail market in India.

More than 100 Reliance Fresh stores will be in place in and around the national capital in the quarter April to June this year involving an investment of more than 1,000 crore.

Reliance Retail is building a business that would focus on competitive offerings to Indian consumers across several verticals ind iverse geographies through multiple formats. This will be built on an integrated platform with world class supply chain, logistics and information technology infrastructure.

''With the launch of these stores in the NCR, Reliance will be serving the growing Indian middle class, providing them an unmatched shopping experience,'' said Mr Adawal Shanker, RIL Group President, Corporate, and supporting Mukesh Ambani and Manoj Modi in land acquisition and regulatory issues.

Along with the launch of the stores, Reliance continues to offer its Membership and Loyalty programme, ''RelianceOne'', designed to deliver customised benefits to frequent shoppers. Till date there are about 200,000 proud Reliance loyalty customers. Customers can become members instantly in the state while they shop and can earn 1 RelianceOne Point for every Rs 100 spent.

Within three months of launching the Reliance Fresh stores, the total square footage of the 49 Reliance Fresh stores across the country is about 1,09,000 sq ft.

The roll out plans for Delhi and NCR includes convenience markets, hypermarkets and supermarkets and will spread across 50 million sq ft.

UNI