Reliance Leverages Western Brands to cement its own position
EkaLore has occasionally written about the ongoing conflicts of Alien Invaders for the USD$1T (est) Indian retail economy. Conflicts surrounding Future Retail, Amazon, and Reliance Industries are in the news again. Here we take a quick look from a strategic perspective on business arrangements by Reliance Industries.
Reliance Retail Limited, the holding company for Reliance Industries’ retail enterprises, has entered into a franchise agreement with US-headquartered GAP Inc. The agreement focuses on introducing GAP products to Indian consumers thru multiple outlets:
Dedicated exclusive brand stores (like the high-profile stores operated by GAP in India now),
Multi-brand store locations
Online ecommerce focused on the Indian market.
This is similar to positioning by GAP with Next (UK) where Next operates local operations, online ecommerce, and backend-distribution and call-centers for the UK market while GAP retains creative controls and market mind-share. For Reliance Retail, this continues acquiring business arrangements like those with Pret-A-Manger and Office Depot. Reliance Retail Consumer Brands is pursuing business arrangements that look to combine the 30 local brands with up to 30 more in the next half-year period. Reliance Retail is pursuing a conscious strategy of business arrangements to combine into a much larger enterprise with the advantages of scale in the India retail market.
The next post discusses the scale at which Reliance is working. You can read the next post either at
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