Reliance Retail will launch into the apparel market later this month, with the first of its 115 apparel stores opening in the national capital region this month end. Another 10 stores will be up and ready before the end of this year, a company official told Business Standard today.
The Reliance apparel stores will stock all kinds of apparel, about 4,000 products across as many as 94 brands, manufactured exclusively for the company.
The stores will have separate men's, women's and kidswear categories, the official said.
The company has 211 designers and has tied up with a large number of apparel manufacturers for merchandise. Johnson & Johnson is one of the companies supplying kidswear.
The stores will also stock lingerie and dry knits at competitive prices. Reliance's apparel retail foray is led by Sriram Srinivasan, former managing director of Indian Terrain.
Consultancy firm KSA Technopak estimates the retail apparel market in India in the region of Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion), and the organised retail market at about 20 per cent of that.
Some big international apparel and accessory retailers that have entered the Indian market are Diesel, Tommy Hilfiger, Esprit, Louis Vuitton, FCUK, Lee Cooper, Escada and Dunhill, some of them through the franchise route others by the single-brand retailing route.
Reliance Retail has planned nine product formats. It is in the process of also launching Reliance Footwear, Reliance Lifestyle, Reliance Auto, company executive said.
The company has already launched Reliance Fresh, the chain of fresh produce stores, Reliance Digital, a consumer durables and information technology store chain, and the Reliancemart hypermarket chain. While it has about 330 Fresh stores, it has just one digital store and one hypermarket so far.
The company has also launched its B2B initiative, labelled Ranger Farms, that will cater to small retailers in Hyderabad. It has also introduced its own label in the staples category under the Reliance Select brand.
