Segment revenues for Relaince Retail’s FY18 grew by 104.9 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 69,198 crore from Rs 33,765 crore. The FY18 revenues are equivalent to US $10.6 billion, and Reliance is the first retailer in India to achieve this scale.
PBDIT for FY18 grew by 114.5 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 2,529 crore from Rs 1,179 crore. Segment revenues for 4Q FY18 increased by 134.1 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 24,183 crore from Rs 10,332 crore. PBDIT for 4Q FY18 grew by 208.5 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 1,086 crore from Rs 352 crore.
Reliance Fresh and Smart stores have recorded robust growth backed by strong supply chain and sourcing efficiencies in retailing fresh fruits, vegetables and items of daily use. The stores have strong customer loyalty and clocked a growth of 30 percent during the Republic Day sale period. Fresh and Smart added 11 stores during 4Q FY18. With net addition of 23 stores during FY18, Reliance Retail now operates 513 Fresh and Smart stores.
Reliance Retail was awarded a contract through a tender process to support fair price shops across 10 districts in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This is a voluntary program facilitated by the government of Andhra Pradesh. Reliance Retail has contracted for over 700 fair price shops and operationalized 41 shops during the quarter providing ~400 SKUs across staples, food, home and personal care.
Reliance Digital continued to outperform market growth across all key product categories and witnessed strong growth during the quarter. Further enhancing customer experience journey, Reliance Digital is creating personalised experience zones to allow customers to touch, play, feel and explore the latest technology and products across its stores. Reliance Digital and Jio stores added 20 stores during 4Q FY18. With net addition of 40 stores during FY18, Reliance Retail now operates over 2,000 Reliance Digital and Jio stores.
Reliance ResQ is India’s leading consumer electronics service brand. During the period, ResQ opened 6 customer facing service centres. It now has 70 service centres across the country serving over 3,300 customers every day.
The scale of new store opening undertaken by Reliance Retail during the period has been unprecedented. To further enhance its distribution reach for consumer durables and connectivity solutions, Reliance Retail has operationalised 3,736 Jio Points in over 3,700 towns. These towns are key feeder markets and would provide access to untapped semi urban and rural market for Reliance Digital. Jio points will serve as a nodal point for consumers to obtain and recharge Jio services and facilitate sale of mobility, connectivity and consumer durable products directly and through catalogues, kiosks and other modes.
Rapid expansion for Reliance Trends continued with 39 new stores opening during the quarter.
Trends has added over 100 stores during the year with nearly 1 million sq. ft. of retail space. This is the largest expansion by a fashion retailer in India in a year. Trends is a leader in fashion apparel with 458 stores across 223 cities in 28 states.
Project Eve, the differentiated experiential store concept launched during the year, rolled out 4 more stores during 4Q FY18 and is drawing strong customer affinity. Swadesh a pure play handloom brand developed by Reliance Retail was launched across all Project Eve stores during the quarter.
Ajio.com, the curated online fashion destination, continues to see rapid increase its active customer base. Ajio is gaining strong customer affinity and has reached to 2.5 million followers across social media. Ajio has enabled doorstep refund within 30 minutes of return pick up across 6 metros and provides best in class experience to customers through curated fashion, seamless buying and return process and much more.
Reliance Brands further augmented the store presence of its partner brands. It opened 7 stores during 4Q FY18 and 38 stores during FY18 led by Hamleys, Superdry and Scotch & Soda. Hamleys opened its 50th store in India and operates 51 stores, making it the largest toy chain in India. The portfolio of brands under Genesis Luxury Fashion also continued to broaden their reach through store expansion and operates 59 stores as on 31st March, 2018.
Reliance Retail further strengthened its presence through its partnerships. During the year, Reliance Brands acquired 46.6 percent stake in Genesis Luxury Fashion Pvt Ltd. Genesis Luxury is a leading player in the business of Luxury apparel and accessories retailing for some of the leading international Luxury brands like Armani, Canali, Michael Kors etc. Genesis Luxury exclusively retails the products for these Brands in India thorough a chain of Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBOs).
Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “FY 2017-18 was a landmark year for Reliance where we established several records on both operating and financial parameters. Reliance has become the first Indian company to record PBDIT of over US $10 billion with each of our key businesses – Refining, Petrochemicals, Retail and Digital Services achieving record earnings performance. Substantial synergies, productivity gains and production growth in our energy and materials business has allowed us to perform at very competitive levels despite the uptrend in oil prices through the year. We have established strong foundations in retailing and digital services business with world-class supply chain management and network infrastructure which will serve our customers well. It is very heartening to see the traction our service offerings are gaining, with discerning Indian consumers. The growing Indian market provides exciting opportunities to scale-up these businesses and maximize long-term shareholder value in the coming years.”
Reliance Retail operates 3,837 retail stores and 3,736 Jio Points in over 4,400 towns covering an area of 17.7 million sq ft as on 31st March, 2018. Reliance Retail operates 495 petro retail outlets as on March 31, 2018.
