Although the September 1 deadline has gone by, Reliance officials have confirmed that the company will be rolling out its first retail outlet in Hyderabad two weeks from now.
The central team working on implementing these plans has been given a clear roadmap: 30 stores by end of September, 260 by November 15, 1,000 by March and 3,000 by June. And this is the bare minimum, the company intends to roll out by then.
According to people on the central team, Manoj Modi, who is overseeing the retail plans, has given his final approval to these estimates late Saturday evening with additional instructions that the company should roll out far more stores than the numbers projected.
Raghu Pillai, chief executive, operations and strategy, Reliance Retail, said on the sidelines of the India Retail Forum earlier in the day that the first store, Fresh, would open in Hyderabad.
This would be a food and grocery store. At 2,000 square feet, this is the smallest store that the company will be setting up.
By June 2007, Reliance Retail intends to have a presence in at least 67 cities with places like Jallandar, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Jamnagar and Delhi being among the first few cities that the company is targeting.
"By November, there will be Reliance Retail outlets in 13 cities," said company officials.
The first hypermarket is slated to come up in Ahmedabad by December 15, which would be spread over 1 lakh square feet. Spread over three storeys, the hypermarket would also house a multiplex in addition to having facilities like an atta chakki, and auto accessory centre.
Reliance is believed to have acquired most of the real estate required for the 3,000 stores, but the directive from the top is clear. Wherever you can expand, expand.