Reliance Retail shuts 20 stores, to launch Reliance Smart

In the last nine months, more than 20 stores of Reliance Retail, which is the retail arm of Reliance Industries, have been shut across the country. These stores were mainly in the value (food and grocery) and jewellery formats. The company is trying to shut shops which are unprofitable and instead concentrate on a new concept called Reliance Smart.

As per sources, Reliance Smart stores will have clothing, accessories among others and will be spread out on areas ranging from 7,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet. It is said that the format will be bigger than Reliance Fresh but smaller than the hypermarket format of Reliance Mart. The plan, as per sources, is to rebrand the existing hypermarkets and supermarkets as reliance Smarts.

In December 2015, the company had 597 stores operational under Reliance Fresh, Reliance Mart, reliance Market and so on. In the value and other format, the company had 616 stores as of March 2015. In the fiscal 2015, the company has shut down over 100 stores, primarily in value and jewellery formats. But the company increased its overall store count from 2,857 at the end of September quarter to 3,043 stores at the end of December quarter as Reliance Retail added stores mainly in the digital and lifestyle formats.