Reliance Retail opens Metro Cash & Carry stores; to continue wholesale biz

Reliance Retail has opened the Metro Cash and Carry stores to all, as it was earlier opened only for business-to-business (B2B) customers.

As an Indian entity, Reliance did not need to comply with the foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, which only allow foreign companies to sell to B2B customers through stores and online in India, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET).

Reliance will do wholesale business from these outlets for B2B customers to fulfill its "new commerce" ambition of wholesale supplies of products to smaller stores in grocery, electronics, and apparel.

Executives said the company will provide more discounts for higher quantity sold, bulk packs apart from selling wholesale packs.

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Reliance will start the expansion of the business, and it will run under the Metro brand name for a couple of years under the deal, according to the ET report.

Last December, Reliance Retail Ventures acquired Metro Cash and Carry India for Rs 2,850 crore.

Reliance received 31 large format stores in 21 cities and a real estate portfolio as part of the deal.

An executive said, "Metro will focus on grocery new commerce business and also expand B2B supplies to kiranas, merchants, small stores, and others in categories like electronics and apparel."

In the last financial year, Reliance Retail reported nearly Rs 50,000 crore of sales from e-commerce and new commerce.