Reliance Retail, the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), is gearing up to move into the fast-moving consumer goods business after significant growth in its retail business.

“The goal of this business is to develop and deliver high-quality, affordable products that meet the daily needs of every Indian. As part of our commitment to India’s rich culture and heritage, we will soon begin selling tribes from India and other quality products. Marginalized communities,” Isha Ambani said at RIL’s 45th AGM on Monday.

Not only will this provide beneficial employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for these communities, but it will also help preserve the extremely rich talent, skills and knowledge base of our traditional Indian artisans, especially women, she said.

Speaking to shareholders, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said Reliance Retail is now one of the top ten retailers in Asia. Reliance Retail recorded a record turnover of Rs 2 lakh crore and EBITDA of Rs 12,000 crore.

This year, Reliance Retail’s brick-and-mortar stores and digital platforms served more than 200 million registered customers, equivalent to the combined population of the UK, France and Italy.

“Our digital commerce platform continues to grow, delivering nearly 6 lakh orders per day, a 2.5 times increase over last year,” said Isha.

She mentioned that JioMart, which offers delivery in more than 260 cities and towns, was named India’s number one trusted online grocery brand. JioMart uses a hyper-local delivery model and is India’s largest deployment of omnichannel capabilities.

“We opened more than 2,500 stores during the year, bringing our store count to over 15,000 and operating 42 million square feet. By adding store networks and merchant partners, we will continue to expand our reach to more customers,” Isha said.

Reliance Retail aims to serve more than 7,500 towns and 3 lakh villages over the next five years. Commenting on the grocery business, Isha said it is the largest in India, serving customers’ daily needs through a network of nearly 2,500 stores and digital commerce platforms, JioMart and Milkbasket.

Reliance Retail also launched Freshpik, a gourmet format for busy customers, in 2021 and 7-11. She further showed how the WhatsApp-JioMart partnership launching in 2021 could enhance customers’ shopping experience.

“Our reliancedigital.in and JioMart digital commerce platforms provide a comprehensive omnichannel network that enables us to deliver 93% of our online orders from the store within six hours,” she said.

Reliance Retail also launched the JioMart Digital (JMD) programme during the year. The platform enables small e-commerce retailers to sell Reliance Retail’s entire product portfolio in an assisted selling model, helping them deliver a superior customer experience and increase revenue.

Commenting on Reliance Retail’s overall growth, Isha said: “We have strengthened our private label business with the launch of 600 new SKUs in categories such as TV, home and appliances. Our fashion and lifestyle business has the widest range of entities stores, with nearly 4,000 stores in more than 1,000 cities and towns.”