Reliance Retail to launch FMCG business this year: Isha Ambani

Reliance Retail will launch a fast-moving consumer goods business this year, said Isha Ambani, addressing her first AGM after she was appointed as the chairperson of Reliance Retail. The objective will be to develop and deliver high quality, affordable products which solve every Indian's daily needs.

Additionally, it will soon start marketing quality goods produced by tribals and other marginalised communities across India. “This will not only provide these communities gainful opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship but also help preserve the incredibly rich talent, skill sets and knowledge base of our traditional Indian artisans, especially women,” she said.

She also mentioned that its digital commerce platforms reliancedigital.in and JioMart provide a comprehensive omni-channel network, enabling them to deliver 93% online orders from stores within 6 hours.

AJIO, its integrated omnichannel platform, witnesses 80% purchases from repeat customers. Last year, it sold over 43 crore garments, which is enough to clothe the entire population of the US and Canada. It entered categories such as Lingerie, Saree and Home Furnishing last year.

“Our strong design and sourcing ecosystem has enabled us to grow our own brands across Apparel and Footwear. Our own brands contribute to over 65% of overall revenues,” she said.

Last year it entered into the Pharmacy Retail segment with the acquisition of Netmeds. During the year, it launched New Commerce operations through Netmeds Wholesale and onboarded merchants across 1,900 towns.

She also announced the launch of the Meta and Jio Platforms collaboration to enable an end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp. Now consumers can shop from JioMart right within their WhatsApp chat. Consumers can browse through JioMart’s entire grocery catalog, add items to cart, and make the payment to complete the purchase – all without leaving the WhatsApp chat.

Addressing his 20th AGM as the chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani announced the launch of JIO 5G services. Reliance has committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore and prepared ‘the fastest 5G roll-out plan in the world’. By Diwali it will launch Jio 5G across multiple key cities, including the metropolises of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. By December 2023, it intends to deliver Jio 5G to every part of the country ‘connecting even those parts of the country where satellite technology was the only option’.

“Jio 5G will be the world's largest and most advanced 5G network. Most operators are deploying a version of 5G, called Non-Standalone 5G, which is essentially a 5G radio signal delivered over an existing 4G infrastructure. This Non-Standalone approach is a hasty way to nominally claim a 5G launch, but it won't deliver the breakthrough improvements in performance and capability possible with 5G. In sharp contrast, Jio will deploy the latest version of 5G, called Stand-Alone 5G, which has zero dependency on our 4G network. This gives Jio 5G a distinct competitive advantage over other operators,” Ambani said.

It will also be opening a Jio 5G Experience Centre in Mumbai for the public, where it will showcase many use cases and possibilities of Jio 5G. People can experience them firrst-hand before they are launched in the market.

Speaking about Reliance’s media business, he said it has achieved its highest growth last year, resulting in record subscriptions and advertising revenues.

“Our national channels, CNN-News18, CNBC-TV18, and News18 India are consistently ranked Number 1. Moneycontrol is among the world's most popular subscription products. Our news brands are innovating with novel story-telling methods across platforms, building deeper relationships with audiences – wherever they are and whatever device they use,” he said.

Its Entertainment arm, Viacom18, bagged IPL’s digital rights for 5 years. It already has sporting rights in Football, Badminton, Basketball, and Tennis. It is also aggressively investing in movie rights and original content for OTT. It hopes that its partnership with Bodhi Tree, James Murdoch, Uday Shankar and Paramount Global will help it with additional talent bandwidth and enable it to create a world-class Media & Entertainment business.

“In News, Entertainment, and Sports, digital is a core and fast-growing theme as we prepare to embrace the 5G revolution,” he added.