India’s Reliance Retail opens over thousand new stores

India’s Reliance Retail opened 1533 new stores last fiscal year, taking its network to 11,784 as it boosts its strength across the food, fashion, and digital sectors.

In results published this week the company says pre-tax earnings grew 55.7 percent to Rs 9654 crore (US$12.75 million) on sales up 24.8 percent to Rs 1.63 lakh crore. Fourth-quarter revenue rose by 4.2 percent as lockdowns across the nation restricted customer footfall in stores.

However, grocery store sales reached record levels in March due to the advent of Covid-19 restrictions, but despite supply-chain challenges.

During the lockdown period, daily orders quadrupled, with the company’s Smart and Reliance Fresh chains leading the growth.

“In a response to the lockdown situation, all grocery stores were kept open for extended hours to provide access and availability of essential products to customers in these trying times,” Reliance Retail said in a results release.

Including the company’s fashion and lifestyle business, the year saw solid growth for the business, despite the “tepid” March, the company said.