Reliance Retail hopes to break even in a year or two

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail (RR) expects to break even in a year or two with the help of better business efficiencies, said a top executive of the company.

In May, it had announced new growth plans after it had to scale back its expansion due to the economic slowdown which curbed consumer spending on goods and services. The plans included strengthening presence in multi-format stores, taking leadership position in fresh foods and putting in place world-class retail infrastructure.

RR was originally planning to break even in September last year. “We have learnt our lessons in the last three years and figured out what works and what does not work for our formats,” said Bijou Kurien, president and chief executive, lifestyle, for RR, on the sidelines of the India Retail Forum here.

RR did a business of Rs 4,500 crore in FY 2010 and currently runs over 1,000 stores across 19 formats such as Reliance Fresh, Reliance Footprints, Reliance Jewels, Reliance Digital and joint ventures with UK’s Marks & Spencer and Hamley’s, among others.

It plans to open 3,000 new stores in the country by 2014-15, Kurien said.