Reliance Retail is an Indian

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

company and a subsidiary of

Reliance Industries Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Its businesses include energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, entertainment, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is the ...

. Founded in 2006, it is the largest retailer in India in terms of revenue. Its retail outlets offer foods, groceries, apparel, footwear, toys, home improvement products, electronic goods, and farm implements and inputs. it has over 245,000 employees at 18,000 store locations in 7,000

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

. the company is valued at $100 billion.

History

Reliance Retail was established in 2006 as a wholly owned subsidiary of

, with chairman

Mukesh Ambani Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born 19 April 1957) is an Indian billionaire and businessman who is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries. As of May 2025, he is the richest person in Asia and The World's Billionaires, 13th richest ...

announcing an investment of up to for the new venture at Reliance's 32nd annual general meeting in June 2006. The first set of

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lotter ...

s under the name Reliance Fresh were inaugurated in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

in November 2006. This was followed by entry into consumer electronics via

Reliance Digital Reliance Digital is an Indian consumer electronics retailer. It is a subsidiary of Reliance Retail, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries.. The brand opened its first store on 24 April 2007 in Delhi. My Jio Store was launched in 2013 ...

hypermarket A hypermarket or superstore is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full grocery lines and general merchandise. In ...

s under Reliance Mart, apparel with Reliance Trends, jewellery via Reliance Jewels, and footwear through Reliance Footprint, all in 2007. In 2008,

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

established a 51:49

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with Reliance Retail to open a chain of Marks & Spencer stores in India. In 2011, Reliance Retail started its wholesale

cash and carry Cash and carry (or inspect and pay) is a type of operation within the wholesale sector. Overview The main features of cash and carry are summarized best by the following definitions: *Cash and carry is a form of trade in which goods are sold ...

chain called Reliance Market. In 2013, the company stopped retailing non-vegetarian food items and shut down its 100-plus Reliance Delight meat and seafood stores, owing to opposition from shareholders, customers and

animal rights activists Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ho ...

. By 2014, it also closed its book and music stores called Reliance TimeOut, and furniture retailer, Reliance Living, in order to focus on value retailing and

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

. In 2016, Reliance Retail

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

its hypermarket and mini-hypermarket formats–Reliance Mart and Reliance Super–under the name Reliance Smart. In April 2016, it launched its online fashion retail platform called AJIO. Reliance Retail largely grew organically until 2019, when it acquired the multinational toy retailer

Hamleys Hamleys of London Limited, trading as Hamleys, is a British multinational toy retailer, owned by Reliance Retail. Listed in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' as the world's oldest toy store, it was founded by William Hamley as "Noah's Ark" in H ...

. In December 2019, the company

soft-launched A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it wid ...

its

online grocery An online grocer is a supermarket or grocery store that allows ordering via websites or mobile apps. The order can either be collected by the customer or delivered to the customer by drivers engaged by the grocer, a food delivery service, or by ...

service JioMart, followed by a wide launch in May 2020 amidst the

COVID-19 lockdown During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions), were implemented in numero ...

. In August 2020, Reliance Retail announced its acquisition of

Future Group Future Group was an Indian conglomerate, founded by Kishore Biyani and based in Mumbai. The company was known in Indian retail and fashion sectors, operating supermarket chains Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, lifestyle stores Brand Factory and ...

's retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing business for . However, the deal was called off in April 2022 after a prolonged legal dispute between Future Group and

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. Later, Reliance Retail took over more than 200 of Future Group's

Big Bazaar Reliance Smart Bazaar, formerly known as Big Bazaar, is an Indian retail chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. The retail chain was founded by Kishore Biyani under his parent organisation Future Group, which i ...

, Central and

Brand Factory Fashion Factory, formerly Brand Factory, is a chain of retail stores operated by Reliance Retail. It was formerly operated by Future Group. It offers a wide range of apparel brands in different categories for men, women, infants, accessories, ...

outlets due to Future Group's non-payment of lease, and reopened them as Smart Bazaar, Centro and Fashion Factory respectively. In October 2021, the company partnered with

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan, which in turn is owned by the retail holdings company Seven & I Holdings. The chain was founde ...

to franchise the latter's stores in India, opening India's first 7-Eleven in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. In July 2022, Reliance Retail entered a similar

franchising Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busines ...

agreement with Gap to bring Gap to India. In January 2022, Reliance Retail invested $200 million in

Dunzo Dunzo was an Indian E-commerce, e-commerce company that delivered fruits and vegetables, meat, pet supplies, food, and medicines in major cities. It also had a separate service to pick up and deliver packages within the same city. Dunzo provid ...

for a 25.8% stake. In 2022, soft drink brand

Campa Cola Campa Cola is a soft drink brand in India. It was a market leader in the Indian soft drink market in the 1970s and 1980s in most regions of India until the advent of the foreign players Pepsi and Coca-Cola after the liberalisation policy of the ...

was acquired by Reliance Industries for ₹22 crores. In March 2023, Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), the fast-moving consumer goods arm and subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), announced the relaunch of Campa Cola in three flavours at select stores. In May 2024, Jio Leasing Services Ltd (JLSL), a subsidiary of

Jio Financial Services Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL) is an Indian financial services company, based in Mumbai. Originally a subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), it was demerged as an independent entity and listed on the Indian stock exchanges in August 202 ...

, announced that it would lease customer premises equipment, devices and telecom equipment worth $4.32 billion from Reliance Retail. In February 2025, Reliance Retail re-launched

Shein Shein ( ; styled as SHEIN; zh, s=希音, p=Xīyīn) is a global e-commerce platform specializing in fast fashion. While the company primarily focuses on women's clothing, it also offers men's apparel, children's wear, accessories, cosmetics, ...

in India, nearly five years after the app was banned by the Indian government due to privacy concerns. This followed a 2023 partnership between Reliance Retail and Shein to source products locally from India.

Subsidiaries and divisions

There are over 45 subsidiaries and divisions of Reliance Retail.

Major divisions

Acquisitions

Products and services

Private label products

Although Reliance Retail's grocery businesses primarily markets products of third party FMCG players, they also sell inhouse brands including: Best Farms, Good Life, Enzo, Mopz, Expelz and Home One.

Fashion labels

Reliance Brands, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail, holds stakes in fashion labels such as Satya Paul (72%),

Manish Malhotra Manish Malhotra (born 5 December 1966) is an Indian fashion designer, couturier, costume stylist, entrepreneur, filmmaker, and revivalist based in Mumbai, India. The founder of the eponymous label, Manish Malhotra, he sometimes took part in t ...

(40%), and

Ritu Kumar Ritu Kumar is an Indian fashion designer. Early life and education The lack of educational opportunities in Amritsar led her to move to Simla for her schooling, where she attended Loreto Convent, Tara Hall, Shimla, Loreto Convent. She later stud ...

(52%).

Funding

In September 2020, American investment firm Silver Lake bought a 1.75% stake in Reliance Retail for 7,500 crore and

KKR KKR may refer to: * KKR & Co., a global investment firm *Kolkata Knight Riders, an Indian Premier League franchise * Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Plant (), first nuclear power plant in the former East Germany * Kalkara, Malta, postal code KKR *Kir-Bala ...

acquired a 1.28% stake for 5,500 crore valuing the company at $58 billion. In October 2020, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund

GIC GIC may refer to: Education * Ghana Insurance College, in Accra, Ghana * Government Intermediate College, a type of school in India * Grait International College in Nigeria * Gyosei International College in the U.K., defunct Finance * General ...

bought a 1.22% stake for $752 million, while TPG acquired a 0.41% stake for $250 million, giving Reliance Retail a pre-money valuation of $58.5 billion. In August 2023, the

Qatar Investment Authority The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA; ) is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. The QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new asset classes. In November 2024, the QIA had an estimated $526 ...

invested $1 billion in Reliance Retail for a 0.99% stake in the company at a $100 billion valuation. In October 2023, the

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, founded to invest funds on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi. It manages the emirate's excess oil reserves a ...

acquired a 0.59% stake in the company with an investment of nearly $600 million.

References

{{Authority control Reliance Industries subsidiaries Retail companies of India Retail companies established in 2006 Companies based in Mumbai Clothing brands of India Indian companies established in 2006 2006 establishments in Maharashtra Hypermarkets Discount stores Consumer electronics retailers Supermarkets of India Superstores Clothing retailers of India Convenience stores Online retailers of India Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies