"We have more than 700 outlets at the moment and are looking to take this up to between 1,500 and 2,000 by the middle of next year," Reliance Industries Executive Director Hital R Meswani said.
The company, he said, was following a pan-India approach as part of its expansion plans. "It will be all over the country, wherever there is demand," he said.
"We have fuel stations and plazas which have hospitality services embedded within them and various other services which the transport sector can utilize," Meswani said on the sidelines of the 'Indian Retail Forum 2005'.
Elaborating on the current position, he said there were three types of outlets which Reliance was operating. "One, the plain fuelling stations, which also sell things like lubricants, tyres and other value-added stuff targeted at the same type of customers.
"Apart from these, we have highway outlets where we have hospitality services offered along with fuel. The third format are trans-connect outlets where you can buy fuel and do the filling," he said. The company also offers eating joints at some of the fuel stations, which it calls 'A1 Dhaba'.
On whether the company plans to have outlets like those of mainstream food retailers like McDonalds or Pizza Hut, he said "we are doing whatever makes sense in the overall petroleum context. Petroleum industry is full of alliances, but we have not figured out anything as yet."
Asked to specify the kind of investment Reliance was making in the petro retail, he refused to divulge figures. "Investments are part of our overall petroleum capital expenditure," he said.
By when Reliance would make a direct entry into the mainstream retail chain segment, he said it was not the focus at the moment. "We have no focus at that right now. We are only on petro retail, which we hope to complete by the middle of next year," Meswani added.