Reliance Chalks Out Retail Blueprint

[Arun 795]

Mumbai, May 19, 2005 10:09 IST

Rediff.com

Ahmedabad will be the first among 18 cities where Reliance Industries Ltd will set up state-of-art shopping malls, to be named after its founder Dhirubhai Ambani. Mumbai, Jamnagar, Surat and Vadodara are prime targets of Reliance, which is ready with a blueprint.

This focus on Gujarat in its foray into retailing is in step with Reliance's tradition of investing heavily in the state. Reliance plans to invest about Rs 30-50 crore (Rs 300-500 million) in each mall, sources close to the development have said.

Real estate industry sources said that RIL is looking for 150-200 acre plots to set up these malls. It has plans for setting up hyper-malls in bigger cities like Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

When contacted, an RIL spokesperson denied to comment on the matter, though a company executive told Business Standard, "We are ready with the final plans for retailing and the malls will come up on huge plots of land. These malls will be modelled on those in Dubai and the Far East. The investment in each mall can be in the range of Rs 30- 50 crore, though it can be higher for a few where we are also planning to set up entertainment centres."

RIL will use these malls to showcase its own wares as well. "There will be separate exclusive showrooms of Reliance products, mainly garments, manufactured by RIL's textiles division at Naroda. We will also use these malls to sell fruits from our orchard in Jamnagar. Plans are also afoot to set up retail petroleum outlets close to the malls depending on the availability of land and clearance from local administration," the executive added.

Sources also said RIL initially had plans to open 'Webworld Stores' for Reliance Infocomm at the malls but, because of the family feud, the plan had been shelved. They also said the project to build these malls might be undertaken by RIL's own real estate and construction team.

A crack RIL team is said to be already acquiring land in an unobtrusive manner as the company fears that land prices will shoot if land owners get to know about its plans.

"We expect to complete the land acquisition process in two major cities in Gujarat shortly following which construction activities will be kicked off," said an RIL source.

It was also learnt that Reliance, which had begun opening its own food joints called 'A-One' at its petroleum stations on the National Expressway-1 connecting Ahmedabad with Vadodara, might open similar food outlets at the malls.

The gameplan

Reliance has identified 18 cities to set up malls

First mall to come up in Ahmedabad

Rs 30-50 crore to be spent on each mall

Reliance to showcase its textile products at the malls

[Dilbert 0]

Malls, malls, malls every where....

Is India ready for such kind of over bombardment of malls?? I dunno..

But being a retail professional I feel that malls are essential but the societal infrastructure in not yet ready to support malls..

Does anybody know the Gurgaon story??? That place is literally infested with malls. At the last report, one of the many malls had already started to close down..

Just see my point:

When was the last time you shopped?

Which place did you bought it from?

When was the last time you visited a mall?

What did you do in the mall?

What was the last item you had purchased from a mall??

I bet 90% of the people answering this question would say that they had visited the mall on a week-end, saw a movie in the multiplex, ate at the food court, brwsed the shop windows in the mall, but shopped from the place where they are used to shop since ages.

I do not mean that malls are a waste, just the thing is that people are not yet ready to buy from store in malls.

Ofcourse there are quite a many exceptions but they are far & few... So lets keep our fingers crossed & simply wait & watch...

[deepu 0]

I went to Shopper's Stop last month and found the place deserted!!!

[Dilbert 0]

Shoppers stop Andheri is a stand alone department store. Here I was talking about malls.... Malls a cluster of stores... e.g. Inorbit, crossroads, ansal plaza, DLF, spencers, forum mall etc etc

[city02 63]

Similar stories are playing out at Centre One in Vashi where there is no parking available on weekends.

Also R-Mall in Mulund which is infested with the 'ayah' types who enjoy the lights & AC (not that there is anything wrong with that).

They are the ones in large groups who keep stumbling onto the escalators with a truck load of kids!

This congestion forces out genuine shoppers so while footfalls sky rocket, conversion rates plummet.

A simple solution would be to have paid parking on weekends which can be stamped for a refund if you buy anything over a set amount.

Also a Rs. 5-10 (again refundable) entry ticket would cut down on the hoardes.

[Dilbert 0]

Also R-Mall in Mulund which is infested with the 'ayah' types who enjoy the lights & AC (not that there is anything wrong with that).

They are the ones in large groups who keep stumbling onto the escalators with a truck load of kids!

A simple solution would be to have paid parking on weekends which can be stamped for a refund if you buy anything over a set amount.

Also a Rs. 5-10 (again refundable) entry ticket would cut down on the hoardes.

32601[/snapback]

Yeah people had thought of these things but unfortunately people that use malls as a hangout seldom come in a car

In industry terms these are called "mall rats"...

[Basant 0]

In last 3 years there have been thousand announcements by Reliance-many business plans, schemes so on..............most of them have just died

The Company make such announcements frequently. Fact of the matter is that it is yet to stabilise its operations in basic (voice) telephony which the core of all its business plans.

No one need to take them seriously................!

[Dilbert 0]

No No I don't think thats the case.. Retail is the buzzword at the moment. Well & as usual you see Reliance cannot miss the bus...

[deepu 0]

Retail business is not something new to Reliance.

They have already tried it earlier to a smaller scale with their Vimal brand in Textile industry...

Now they are trying to start it on a big scale!!!