Reliance fresh

Reliance Fresh stores already launched in Chennai, Hyderabad and Jaipur, Reliance Retail began its assault of the National Capital Region market with the recent opening of nine new stores in Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon.

The company is targeting to open 100 more Reliance Fresh stores in New Delhi alone within four months, and a 1,000 new stores in 35 cities nationwide by the end of the year with a built-up area of over 4 million sq.ft. An investment of Rs.8,000 crore is envisaged for the NCR region alone.

Reliance Fresh stocks fresh fruits and vegetables, staples, fast moving consumer goods and dairy products. The stores are already selling over 1,000 tonnes of fresh produce daily and also 250 categories of commodities. The company is approaching farmers directly for the procurement of produce, seeking to reduce the 40% wastage that occurs through the traditional supply chain.

The Reliance Fresh retail rush is on. The company opened six more stores at Saket, Dilsukhnagar, Bowenpally, Vengalraonagar, Miyapur and Uppal, taking the total to 17 in the city. According to company sources, “It is an ongoing process and only six more stores have been opened. But when we reach a substantial figure, we will definitely come out in a big way.”

The sources said that the 17 stores put together have been averaging around Rs 15-16 lakh daily and around 800-1,200 footfalls daily.

The six stores with a size of 2,500-4,000 sq ft each made around Rs 6.5 lakh in the first one week, he added. In the first phase, the company opened 11 pilot stores on November 3, offering fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers and grocery items. It plans to touch a figure of 40 stores in the twin cities in the coming days.
VISAKHAPATNAM : Reliance Retail Ltd., on Monday opened its first set of three pilot stores in the steel—port city at China Waltair, Murali Nagar and MVP Colony.

Talking to media persons at the China Waltair store on the occasion, its’ customer operations head, K.S. Venugopal, said Reliance Fresh would carry fresh fruits and vegetables, staples, top-up grocery, non-food items and dairy products and a whole lot of other categories at very competitive prices. All the stores opened in the city have an average area of about 1,800 sqft and an average of about 20 sales associates attending to customers in each store open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on all seven days of the week.

“I am glad we are opening about 40 stores in Andhra Pradesh alone by this March end. By June, we hope to open between 75 and 100 stores in the State on the Fresh format. There are 21 stores in Hyderabad, and seven in Vijayawada and Guntur bringing the total to 56 excluding the three opened here,” he said.

Vast stock

Replying to questions, Mr. Venugopal said all the stores there were roughly 200 varieties of fruits and vegetables at the stores . The stock value would be to the tune of Rs.25 lakhs on the average. Apart from the fresh vegetable and fruits procured within 50 km. of the stores, there were also many varieties from elsewhere in the State and country and imported apples from the US, grapes from California, and other parts of the world, he said.

On the forenoon of the inaugural day, the sales were to the tune of Rs.2 lakhs in all three stores, chief manager (Corporate Communications) of the company Sreenath N.C. said. The vegetables and fruits at China Waltair stores were fresh and inviting and some were priced less than city market rates. A striking example is Bangalore black grapes that were sold at Rs.19 a kg. The seedless black grapes were sold at Rs.42 a kg.

Competitive rates

And vegetables too were at highly competitive rates, with onions sold at 50p less than open market rates at Rs.15.50 a kg. for a quality variety. Cabbage was priced Rs.6.90, cauliflower at Rs.6.75, cu-ber Rs.8.90, beetroot Rs.9.90, yam (kanda) Rs.8.90, carrot Rs.10.50, green chillies Rs.15 and ash gourd Rs.7.70 for a kg. There are also quite a few varieties of the same vegetable – like in the case of brinjal long priced Rs.12.50, brinjal giant black Rs.25, brinjal purple Rs.12.50 a kg. And, baby (small round ones) potato is sold at Rs.7, potato economy Rs.5.50 and potato premium at Rs.6.50 a kg.

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