Reliance Retail Opens 30 Metro Stores in Q1, Total Count Crosses 200

The country's leading retailer Reliance Retail has added 30 new stores of Metro in the June quarter, taking the total count of the Cash & Carry outlets to over 200.

Reliance Retail had acquired the Indian operations of German firm Metro AG's wholesale operations in December 2022 in a Rs 2,850-crore deal. At the time of acquisition, Metro was operating 31 large formats located in prime locations across key cities.

"Grocery New Commerce business continued to expand its kirana partner base as Metro format scaled with 30 new store openings taking the count to over 200 stores with presence across 180+ cities," according to the earnings statement from Reliance Industries.

Metro stores come under the grocery division of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), which delivered another quarter of "steady growth", led by expansion in Tier-2 and beyond cities.

Reliance Retail opened 331 new stores, taking the total count to 18,918.

With this, the total retail area operated by Reliance Retail also increased 15.15 per cent to 81.3 million sq ft as of June 30, 2024.

In the fashion & lifestyle business, Reliance Retail is refreshing its assortment in line with emerging trends and expanding of store footprint.

"With customers continuing to enjoy their shopping in new formats for their fashion needs, business has been scaling up new formats such as Yousta, Azorte, GAP etc," it said.

Reliance also expanded its premium brands business and continued to lead the premium and luxury segments with its portfolio of brands.

The company, which has franchise rights to global beauty giant Sephora for the Indian market "added new brands and collections during the period to the Sephora business which is a destination for beauty shopping", it said.

It also added new stores to the network of UK-based coffee and food-to-go chain Pret A Manger to further strengthen its F&B business.

While, in the consumer electronics segment, Reliance Retail is expanding the play of its own private label and introduced several new products across categories.