Reliance plans major expansion of fashion store business

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd plans to grow the number of low-cost Reliance Trends fashion stores across India to 2,500 from 557 over the next five years and integrate them with its online business, two people briefed on the plans said.

The expansion, which has not been reported before, is the latest move by the conglomerate’s billionaire owner Mukesh Ambani to grab a dominant share of Indian consumer spending in a struggle with rivals, particularly e-commerce giants Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc’s Flipkart.

Reliance’s plans to diversify into e-commerce and expand in fashion come on the heels of India’s new foreign investment curbs that have dealt at least a temporary blow to Amazon and Flipkart.