According to the report in FE, the company is believed to be revamping its business model. This move, though denied by the group, comes just two years after it began rolling out retail chains in November, 2006, from Hyderabad. The retail chain, which currently operates through 11 verticals has opened around 650 stores so far. Most of these stores are the convenience stores named as 'Reliance Fresh'. 'Reliance Trends, Reliance Time-out, Reliance Jewels, Reliance Mart are some of the other verticals.
The 'rightsizing' exercise of the company will mostly affect IT and contractual personnel working with the retail outfit. In fact, IT personnel could account for 1,000 of the 3,000 personnel who are being considered for sacking. It is also looking at rationalising the pay packets in line with other group companies.During the initial hysterical period when retail companies were establishing themselves, Reliance had offered hefty packages to draw people from related fields.
Until now, retail was viewed as a separate initiative of the parent company, Reliance Industries Ltd . But now, the overall restructuring plan of the retail venture will see it aligned in terms of salary structure and other practices more closely with RIL. RR has entered into several JVs. Sources say that the JVs too require the retail company to restructure its employee strength.
When contacted about the retrenchment, a company spokesperson denying the step according to the FE report, said, "Let me categorically deny this. We would like to further clarify and reiterate that there has been no realignment of our business strategy in any way. We continue to learn from our experience and sharpen our customer offerings. Our overall retail strategy and joint ventures are completely aligned with what our chairman stated in his AGM speech: that we will aggressively pursue partnerships wherever appropriate, which give us access to world-class scale in the supply chain end and best practices on the operations end." |