Reliance in final talks to acquire nearly 30 niche brands to build consumer goods empire

Mumbai, 15/5:India’s biggest retailer Reliance will acquire dozens of small grocery and non-food brands as it targets building its own Rs 50,000 crore ($6.5 billion) consumer goods business to challenge foreign giants like Unilever, two sources familiar with the plan told Reuters.

 

Reliance, run by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, plans to build a portfolio of 50 to 60 grocery, household and personal care brands within six months and is hiring an army of distributors to take them to mom-and-pop stores and bigger retail outlets across the nation, the sources added.

 

The consumer goods push under a vertical named Reliance Retail Consumer Brands will come on top of Ambani’s brick-and-mortar store network of more than 2,000 grocery outlets and ongoing expansion of “JioMart” e-commerce operations in India’s nearly $900 billion retail market, one of world’s biggest.