Reliance Retail to open 45 books & music stores by Dec 2014

MUMBAI:
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail Ltd plans to open a total of 45 stores of its
books and music retailing business — Reliance TimeOut — across India over the
next three to five years.

The multi-format retailer, which operates
seven stores of TimeOut, said it wants to tap India’s Rs 3,500-crore book
retailing industry, of which only 40 per cent is organised.

“In the
next 3-5 years (or December 2014), we will have a total of 45 TimeOut outlets
across four states – mainly in western and southern India. Our strategy is to
first saturate a town, then a state followed by the entire region,” Reliance
Retail, Business Head, Reliance TimeOut, Deepinder Kapany told
PTI.

He said the next couple of months will see five stores being
opened in Mumbai.

“The next few stores in (calender year) 2010 will
come up in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bangalore. We want to saturate Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Karnataka and the National Capital Region (NCR),” Kapany
said.

This is part of an overall aggressive expansion strategy by the
format, which will enter Pune, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Mysore, Mangalore, Ahmedabad,
Baroda and Jamnagar.

Reliance Retail will expand through the
cost-effective model of revenue-sharing format with property owners.