Reliance Retail enters Bangalore

BANGALORE: With 11 pilot Reliance Fresh stores, Reliance Retail has finally made its grand entry into Bangalore. Expanding further into Karnataka Reliance Retail will launch its Fresh stores in tier II cities like Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Belgaum and Dharwad this year. After Hyderabad, Chennai and now Bangalore Reliance Retail plans to launch Fresh stores in Kerala as well by 2007-end. Currently there are 80 Reliance Fresh spread across Jaipur, NCR, Delhi, Ranchi, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Having carpet area of 2,500 sq ft each, Reliance Fresh will offer fruits and vegetables, staple, top-up grocery, dairy and bakery products. Reliance Fresh will also sell around 200 products under its own brand-Reliance Select. Wherever possible the store will have a separate enclosure for non-veg items along with separate exit and entry. Each store will have about 20 sales associates attending to the customers.

Speaking to mediapersons in Bangalore on Thursday, Gunender Kapur, President & Chief Executive-Foods Business, Reliance Retail said, "Each Fresh store will target 3,000 households in a 2 km catchment and the store will offer more than 150 variety of fruits & vegetables throughout the year." Only 30% of fruits & vegetables will be sourced from outside Karnataka for the Fresh stores in the state.

Reliance will also be offering membership and loyalty programme-Reliance One to its frequent customers. Members can avail loyalty points, vouchers, free home delivery and shop on the phone facility. Targetting national footprint Reliance Retail will invest Rs 25,000 crore over varied type of retail formats like hypermarket, supermarket, specialty stores and Reliance Fresh.