Purvita \n Chatterjee\/M. Somasekhar, The Hindu Businessline<\/i><\/p>\n
Mumbai\/Hyderabad, \n 21 September 2014<\/i><\/p>\n \n
At a time when Swedish retailer Ikea is making big plans to \n enter India, the country\u2019s largest retailer Reliance Retail \n is winding up its furniture format under Reliance Living.<\/p>\n
All the stores under Reliance Living are now being shut down \n across cities such as Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 12 Reliance Living outlets across the country and \n most of them have shut down as furniture is no longer a focus \n area for the company,\u201d said an official from Reliance Retail.<\/p>\n
Reliance Living stores occupied large space across these metros \n stocking furniture, furnishing, home ware and kitchen items. Even \n other organised players such as Future Group\u2019s Home Town \n and Lifestyle Group\u2019s Home Centre have been struggling to \n make money from their respective formats.<\/p>\n
In the case of the Future Group, it had to merge its Home Town \n stores with its durable format under e-zone to help it break even.<\/p>\n
Slow churn<\/b><\/p>\n
According to Devangshu Dutta, Managing Director, Third Eyesight, \n a retail consultancy, \u201cThe slow stock turn is the biggest \n issue for furniture retailers as the inventory and retail space \n get locked up unlike in the case of fast moving categories such \n as apparel, food and grocery.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cBesides, competitiveness of the fragmented unorganised \n retailers is too strong for the organised players to make money \n easily. Indian furniture retailers have yet to discover a model \n which works for them.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Apart from furniture, last year, the multi-format retailer shut \n down its books and music format \u2014 Reliance Time Out \u2014 \n and even its non-vegetarian offerings under Delight. \u201cAlmost \n 40-odd stores under Reliance Time Out were shut since categories \n such as books and music have moved to the digital platform. We \n are constantly rationalising our formats depending on what works \n for us,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n
Value format<\/b><\/p>\n
However, other specialty retail formats such as Reliance Digital \n and Reliance Jewellery are helping boost margins and profitability \n for the company.<\/p>\n
Today, it is the value formats (Reliance Fresh, Super & Mart) \n which are the biggest growth drivers for Reliance Retail. Value \n retailing now accounts for 55 per cent of the company\u2019s ?14,500-crore \n turnover.<\/p>\n
It is in the process of expanding its value formats and e-commerce \n will be a major part of these. Damodar Mall, CEO \u2013 Value \n Format of Reliance Retail, said: \u201cWe are already doing a \n pilot among our employees for e-commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, its \u2018cash and carry\u2019 format under Reliance \n Market has established leadership position in the category with \n 32 operational stores and 1.2 million registered members.<\/p>\n
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