Reliance Retail has made a new rule for all its upcoming stores. Now every new shop will be required to earn profit within 6 to 12 months. If this does not happen, then that shop will either be closed or some other type of store will be started there. Earlier the company used to wait for two years to see whether the shop would survive or not. Now this thinking has changed. The company is now paying more attention to profits and good margins, as it is preparing to enter the stock market (IPO) in the future.
Information on IPO will be available soon
In a private meeting, the management of Reliance Retail told analysts that information related to the IPO will be shared “at the appropriate time”. According to the report, the company which earlier used to open more than 1,000 stores every year, will now open only 500–550 stores annually. In the year 2022-23, the company had opened more than 3,300 shops. In the last three years, Reliance Retail has closed more than 3,650 loss-making shops.
Reliance Retail sells a variety of products—like electronics, grocery, clothing, shoes, jewellery, glasses, medicines and handicrafts. Its store brands are: Reliance Fresh, Digital, Trends and MyJio.
Now there will be no expansion without thinking
A person associated with the company told The Economic Times, “Now the phase of wild expansion is over, but the number of stores will increase every year. Otherwise the company’s earnings will slow down.” Now Reliance Retail does a complete analysis of the location before opening a new shop. “We are confident that more than 90% of the new shops will become profitable within the stipulated time. Some shops may be delayed as market conditions change quickly,” the person said.
As of March 2025, Reliance Retail had a total of 19,340 shops in India. Now the company is especially focusing on expensive products in grocery and fashion. Its premium brands like Freshpick and GoFresh are performing well.
Reliance is now bringing its budget fashion brand Trends in a new look so that the young customers like it more. Technology tools like Azorte will be used in this. The company’s profits have also improved in the last two years, as the company has improved its operations by closing loss-making shops.
Profit formula in online shopping also
Reliance now wants to make profits even in loss-making sectors like online shopping. The company’s CFO Dinesh Taluja said that its 30-minute delivery model will compete with ‘quick commerce’ and that too with profit. In this model, delivery will not be done from any particular warehouse, but from nearby shops. This reduces expenses and more sales can be made from a single shop.
First Published – May 2, 2025 | 3:48 PM IST
