Retail to be major growth booster for RIL in coming years, says Mukesh Ambani

Ambani said that the overall business has nearly tripled in the last five years

Reliance Retail would become a major growth area for Reliance Industries, chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday.

Ambani said the overall business has nearly tripled in the last five years. 

"We have built the widest geographical footprint with physical stores now covering nearly 3,500 stores in 679 cities, spread over 13 million square feet and many more through our e-commerce reach," he said.

Ambani said Reliance would extend the distribution infrastructure of retail to a larger number of kiranas to cover products and services across all consumption baskets. 

"Our engagements with 25 lakh small businesses through our Reliance Market cash and carry stores has extended the gains of sourcing and modern supply chain, making them more efficient and productive," he said.

"We are making strategic investments for convergence of physical retail and e-commerce to establish leadership through an omni-commerce presence," he said.

For its online fashion portal Ajio.com, Reliance has tied up with 25 global brands.

"In order to support the entry of Jio, Reliance Digital has been aggressively expanding the network by a mix of own stores and supporting small retailers using our supply chain, technology and logistics infrastructure," he said.

We have successfully set up a large distribution network with a presence of over 500,000 retailers across the country for Jio. 

"We currently retail nearly 12 lakh handsets per month reflecting the strength of our distribution business," Ambani said.