Reliance Retail aims to record at least three-fold growth in the next three to five years and will make deeper investments to bolster its research, design, product development capabilities. The company will also build state-of-the-art supply chain infrastructure across India and continue to acquire suitable businesses to power its growth.
Reliance Retail will also focus on a multi-fold expansion of its store footprint this year to reach more merchants and customers while boosting its sourcing ecosystem by working closely with a host of partners including MSMEs, local and international brand companies.
“Growth in the retail sector will usher growth across the value chain — from raw material producers to large and small manufacturers, from logistics service providers to merchants, to consumers,” Mukesh Ambani, chairman & managing director, RIL said. “Reliance Retail continues to be amongst the fastest growing retailers in the world. We are committed to grow our business so that we are among the top 10 retailers globally. I am confident that Reliance Retail is on a hyper growth trajectory to grow at least three times in the next 3-5 years,” he said.
Reliance Retail plans to set up design, research, technology and innovation centres in key domestic and global locations to “develop differentiated offerings” for its “diverse customer groups”.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs are betting on RIL’s retail business (including e-commerce) to drive the next growth engine for the conglomerate. Retail Ebitda has the potential to grow as much as ten times over the next 10 years, they said. Analysts at the firm expect RIL core retail revenues to grow at a 36% CAGR over the next four years to $44 billion and e-commerce revenues to be 35% of total retail revenues in FY25, at $15 billion.
Reliance Retail reported revenues of Rs 1,53,818 crore in FY21, a marginal decline over revenues of Rs 1,63,029 crore posted in FY20, the firm said in its annual report.
Reliance Retail that took on e-tailers Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart with the launch of JioMart last year has set a daunting target to onboard over one crore merchant partners over the next three years to power its e-commerce venture. JioMart claims to have already partnered with over three lakh shopkeeper partners across 150 cities. The firm registered over 6.5 lakh peak orders (across categories) in a single day last year.
“JioMart’s growth is a testament to its already loyal customer base, 80% of whom are repeat shoppers,” Ambani said. Initially limited to grocery, JioMart has scaled up, expanding its offerings to cover more segments including electronics and fashion.
Reliance Retail has crafted a strategy of partnerships and acquisitions to grow its digital business and strengthen its omni-channel play. For instance, JioMart’s partnership with Facebook-owned WhatsApp, that has a user base of more than 400 million in India, gives the company the much needed leverage to deepen its network of kirana stores and consumer reach. The firm also acquired controlling stakes in Urban Ladder, Netmeds among others.
“We have launched an initial set of integrations between WhatsApp and JioMart on a trial basis and the response from WhatsApp and JioMart customers is encouraging. Our joint teams are actively developing the full New Commerce solution linking merchants and consumers, and we plan to progressively launch these over the next few quarters,” Ambani said.
The retailer said it currently employs over two lakh people and aims to generate employment for more than ten lakh people over the next three years.
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