Vast, fragmented and unruly, India’s retail market is famously difficult to crack. Yet for one homegrown company, it has yielded an unparalleled bonanza.
Reaching into most aspects of an Indian consumer’s life, Reliance Retail sells everything from bargain-basement groceries to designer fashion with six-figure price tags. Its merchants have become so adept at navigating the local retail labyrinth that the company now leads most competitors by a wide margin.
“As the largest retailer [by revenue] in the country today — covering a diversity of formats and consumer segments — Reliance is a powerful platform for international brands, and one of the few that can enable rapid scaling,” says Devangshu Dutta, founder and chief executive of retail consultancy Third Eyesight.
Reliance’s fashion holdings range from mass-market in-house brands Trends and Azorte to investments in local designer labels like Manish Malhotra. International partnerships have led to the opening of Balenciaga’s first India store and a licensing agreement with ultra-fast fashion e-tailer Shein. At the same time, the company’s Reliance Brands Limited (RBL) unit has emerged as an important ally for luxury players, from Bottega Veneta to Tiffany & Co.
Though it is a $38-billion powerhouse, Reliance Retail is just one cog in an oil-to-telecoms empire worth around six times as much. The fortunes of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the retailer’s parent company founded nearly seven decades ago, have propelled chairman Mukesh Ambani to the top of Asia’s rich list with a net worth exceeding $100 billion.
The retailer’s boundless ambitions are evident everywhere in India, not least at RIL’s Mumbai headquarters where Mukesh’s daughter Isha outlined them earlier this year at the annual general meeting.
Isha Ambani, who serves as executive director of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), the holding company of all RIL retail businesses including subsidiary Reliance Retail, described the company as “a national movement.” Her bullish forecast rests on delivering at least 20 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in retail revenues over the next three years.
“This is not an aspirational slogan,” she said. “It is a prediction grounded in the scale of our capabilities and the depth of opportunity before us which no other retailer in India possesses. It is anchored in the fact that every engine of our growth — offline, online and B2B — is already proven, profitable at scale and primed for acceleration.”
The three-year time horizon is noteworthy as it aligns with widespread reports of plans for Reliance Retail to launch an initial public offering in either 2027 or 2028. While Mukesh Ambani has confirmed that RIL’s telecoms business Reliance Jio will go public in 2026, there has been no official word on a listing for his retail unit. The company declined BoF’s request for comment about a possible listing.
Yet signs of pre-IPO activity are not in short supply. Analysts point to an internal restructuring plan to spin off the company’s consumer goods unit as well as cost-cutting exercises including last year’s reported mass employee layoff, seen by some as an attempt to boost the company’s valuation.
Reliance’s strength comes from its ubiquitous presence which helps the retailer crowd out many of its peers. However, analysts say that size alone will not insulate it from rising competition, especially from nimble e-commerce players and q-commerce apps.
“It has the financial and management bandwidth to put behind brands and formats it believes in,” says Dutta. “However, at scale, there’s the need to constantly review unit economics and overall strategy. This will continue to create churns in the organisation and its business verticals, as it has in the past two decades.”
Even if Reliance falls short of expectations in certain segments or channels, it remains attractive to brands seeking an experienced partner for the rapidly growing India market. Brands that aren’t immediately swayed by its financial muscle or unrivalled reach see value in other areas like the synergies it offers across the wider group and the alliances it maintains, including some at the highest levels of national leadership.
Whatever people think of the company’s role in Indian business — whether they admire it for helping to transform the retail sector or criticise its tight grip on the market — its standing is rarely disputed. Reliance Retail is, after all, in a league of its own.
How Did It Get to the Top?
The Reliance Industries (RIL) story begins in 1957, with Mukesh’s father Dhirubhai Ambani’s yarn trading business in Mumbai. The company eventually evolved into Reliance Textile Industries, making a public debut in 1977.
In the subsequent decades, Reliance entered more sectors — establishing an energy empire featuring one of the world’s largest oil refineries. Through its petrochemicals business, RIL produces textiles, polyesters, polymers and fibre intermediates. Its Vimal fabric brand alone is exported to around 58 countries. The group also operates telecoms provider Jio and media and entertainment interests including JioStar, a joint venture with Disney, which runs streamer JioHotstar.
The retail business was only set up in 2006, significantly later than its competitors at the time. Future Group, for instance, was founded in 1987 and its hypermarket chain Big Bazaar opened in 2001. But it was Reliance that eventually acquired the debt-ridden group in 2020. Another rival, Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Limited (ABFRL), can trace its fashion interests back 26 years to the acquisition of Madhura Garments. Even so, Reliance has managed to outgrow ABFRL at a lightning pace.
The scale and complexity of the Reliance conglomerate is staggering. In the 2025 financial year, RIL’s consolidated revenue rose 7.1 percent to 10,71,174 crore rupees ($125.3 billion), while net profit grew 2.9 percent year-on-year to 81,309 crore rupees ($9.5 billion). As of March, RIL had a total of 291 subsidiaries, and 21 associates and joint ventures. RRVL, the holding company of all RIL retail companies including Reliance Retail, had over 80 subsidiaries.
Reliance Retail’s operations are currently under restructuring, with consumer products businesses set to be consolidated directly under RIL. The company is also transferring its FMCG business to Tira Beauty, which will be renamed New Reliance Consumer Products Limited.
What Does Reliance Retail Sell and Where?
Besides fashion and beauty, there is pharmacy chain Netmeds, electronics platform Reliance Digital, MyJio mobile phone stores, food-to-furniture e-tailer JioMart and a subscription service for groceries and essentials called Milkbasket. RBL’s portfolio includes local partnerships or interest in international retailers like Pottery Barn, West Elm and Pret A Manger. In 2019 Reliance Retail purchased British toy store Hamleys.
While the multi-pronged approach helps Reliance retain its dominant position in the retail sector, Karan Taurani believes the company is “into too many things right now. It is all about putting those [ventures] into one basket and making sure that they are able to take advantage of their scale,” says the executive vice president of investment banking firm Elara Capital.
Reliance Retail’s holding company RRVL has a formidable physical network of around 19,340 stores across 7,000 towns and cities. These go well beyond tier 1 and 2 cities, deep into the Indian hinterland. Physical stores now contribute about 70 percent of the retail unit’s total revenue, according to Isha Ambani who confirmed plans for a steady opening of 2,000–3,000 new stores annually.
For comparison, Reliance’s competitor ABFRL, which owns brands such as W, Aurelia and Pantaloons, has a retail footprint of just 1,187 brand stores.
Over the last two decades, Reliance Retail has capitalised on the growth opportunity presented by India’s organised retail segment. The result is a client base of 349 million registered customers across all formats, up 15 percent over last year, according to the firm. That opportunity is only going to grow for incumbents like Reliance who profit from India’s steady transformation from unorganised to organised retail.
Indeed, the unorganised sector still makes up around 80 percent of India’s overall retail market, currently valued at $869.5 billion and expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2028, according to Euromonitor International. The organised share of the market is forecasted to increase from around 20 percent today to 34-38 percent by 2030, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants.
What About Its Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle Portfolio?
The company’s interests in fashion are dispersed across various formats in the value, mid-market, premium and luxury segments spanning both domestic and international names.
More affordable fashion is available from the likes of Reliance Trends, Yousta, Azorte, traditional Indian wear from Avantra by Trends and Centro. There’s also a brand dedicated to Indian arts and crafts called Swadesh. Earlier this year, a beta version of Chinese online fast-fashion brand Shein also re-entered the Indian market after a five-year ban, through a partnership with Reliance Retail.
E-commerce platform Ajio, launched in 2016, brings local and international brands under one digital roof, including a special Ajio Luxe vertical which houses higher-end brands such as Cult Gaia and Amiri. The company also plays in the fine jewellery category through Reliance Jewels. In 2023, Reliance launched multi-brand beauty retailer Tira, followed by a strategic partnership with Sephora, making the company a potential competitor against category leader Nykaa.
The Ambanis have positioned themselves as “gatekeepers” for the influx of foreign brands seeking access to the colossal but complex India market, as a recent Financial Times report noted. The family firm is already a market leader in the luxury segment, where overall spending by Indian consumers is expected to more than triple between 2022 and 2030, reaching €25 to €30 billion ($27 to $32 billion) in 2030, according to Bain & Company.
How Did Reliance Become a Global Luxury Player?
Back in 2007, the firm established Reliance Brands Limited (RBL) to bridge the gap for international fashion brands looking to enter India. The late Darshan Mehta was instrumental in its formation and growth. RBL later acquired Sanjay Kapoor’s Genesis Luxury — which had already introduced a roster of brands like Giorgio Armani, Burberry and Michael Kors to India. In recent years, RBL went on an investment spree of upmarket Indian designer brands.
Among the 85 or so deals in that unit today are franchise agreements with Balenciaga and Tod’s; a distribution agreement with Valentino; and a partnership with accessible luxury group SMCP to bring Sandro and Maje to India. Other brand partnerships under the Reliance umbrella include Bottega Veneta, Tiffany & Co., Jimmy Choo, Canali, Coach, Versace and Zegna.
In 2019, RBL entered the multi-brand arena with its boutique The White Crow which stocks premium and upmarket brands such as Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney. That business has grown into a nationwide chain across multiple cities. More recently, parent RIL opened its first shopping mall Jio World Drive in Mumbai, followed by a more upscale counterpart Jio World Plaza, for luxury brand tenants like Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Dior.
Which Indian Designers Are Under the Reliance Umbrella?
Reliance’s investments in Indian designer brands fall under two categories — those made by RRVL and RBL. The former acquired majority stakes in Ritu Kumar’s parent company in 2021, in Abraham & Thakore in 2022, and in Bollywood star Alia Bhatt’s kids and maternity wear brand Ed-a-Mamma a couple years later.
RBL’s investment spree has been more widespread. In 2018, RBL and Italian luxury group Ermenegildo Zegna picked up a stake in menswear brand Raghavendra Rathore. In 2021, RBL acquired a 40 percent stake in Manish Malhotra’s company and a 60 percent stake in a joint venture with Anamika Khanna for her AK-OK label. A similar arrangement was inked with Rahul Mishra to launch ready-to-wear brand AFEW. RBL’s kitty also includes a 51 percent stake in couturiers Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla’s business.
Additionally, Reliance has stepped up as a key sponsor of major fashion events in India including a prominent deal with Lakmé Fashion Week, in collaboration with the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI). Reliance’s charged approach can be seen as a move to not just outrun its competitors but also anchor its portfolio in trusted legacy brands, and back them for global expansion. This, in turn, helps build the family’s image as patrons of Indian arts, culture and craft including the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre led by matriarch Nita Ambani.
But even with its sprawling portfolio, some of India’s marquee brands have been snapped up by Reliance’s rival ABFRL, namely Sabyasachi and Tarun Tahiliani.
Who Are Its Main Competitors?
Reliance continues to dominate the offline segment as “the intensity of competition has cooled off, with no one operating at [Reliance’s] scale,” suggests Taurani. He does, however, see contenders in e-commerce behemoths Flipkart, Amazon and Meesho, fuelled by changing business dynamics and disruption caused by the rise of q-commerce.
On the fashion front, Reliance Retail’s key competitors range from large conglomerates and online marketplaces to standalone domestic and international brands. Tata Group’s Trent is one rival in the masstige segment with its well-established high-street brands Westside and Zudio, as well as local partnerships with Zara and Massimo Dutti. Tata Group also competes in high-end categories with its multi-brand-retailer Tata Cliq Luxury offering everything from Bulgari to Sabyasachi’s line.
ABFRL, apart from its stakes in Indian designers, also rubs shoulders with Reliance through the latter’s Ajio Luxe and mall businesses. In November, ABFRL opened a branch of French luxury department store Galeries Lafayette in Mumbai. It also runs mass department store chain Pantaloons and multi-brand retail chain The Collective, which sells luxury brands like Ralph Lauren and Vivienne Westwood in over a dozen outposts across India.
There are other competitors too from Arvind Fashions, which operates a joint venture with Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein to department store chain Shoppers Stop. Brands like H&M, Uniqlo, Cos and the spate of domestic brands that make up the country’s unorganised retail sector are also in the mix. Online, it’s not just the aforementioned Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho but also Myntra and Nykaa that vie for a share of the same pie.
How Is Reliance Retail Performing?
In September, JP Morgan valued Reliance Retail at $143 billion. The financial services giant noted that Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio Infocomm jointly accounted for 54 percent of parent RIL’s consolidated EBITDA in the 2025 financial year, forecasting that the two companies will account for most of the group’s net EBITDA growth over the next three years.
In the 2025 financial year, Reliance Retail posted an 8 percent rise in revenue to 3,30,943 crore rupees ($38.7 billion), while EBITDA increased 8.6 percent to 25,094 crore rupees ($2.9 billion).
Who’s Running the Company?
The family remains at the head of both Reliance Retail and parent RIL, with patriarch Mukesh Ambani serving as chairman and managing director of the latter. His decades-long diversification drive has helped turn RIL into India’s most valuable company, with a market cap of more than $225 billion.
The family’s next-generation — the sibling trio of Isha, Akash and Anant Ambani — also hold key positions within the company. Akash serves as the chairman of Jio Infocomm while Anant is the executive director of RIL and sits across multiple boards.
But as the executive director of RRVL, Isha Ambani is the driving force behind the company’s retail ventures including Reliance Retail, and its e-commerce, luxury and beauty businesses.
Reliance Retail also employs a constellation of non-family executives, including the firm’s fashion and lifestyle business chief Akhilesh Prasad, RRVL managing director V. Subramaniam and Tira CEO Bhakti Modi.
Who Are Reliance’s Big Investors?
RIL holds 83.56 percent in RRVL, with the remaining 16.44 percent in the hands of outsiders including an impressive list of international investors. According to a recent Bloomberg report, foreign investors collectively invested $8.24 billion in RRVL between 2020 and 2023 for an 11.9 percent stake.
Its deals with sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and Southeast Asia have garnered a lot of attention, namely the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Saudi Wealth Fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Singapore’s GIC. Private equity and other investment firms have also been drawn to Reliance’s promising retail story, such as TPG, General Atlantic, KKR and Silver Lake Partners.
“India is being viewed as a must-enter market by global investors. Operationally, there are challenges, and [from an investor perspective] any decline in the value of the rupee hits returns. But the net impact is still positive for those that have the patience to reap the benefits,” notes Third Eyesight’s Devangshu Dutta.
In its mid-year outlook report for 2025, investment firm KKR said it continued to see India as “one of the most compelling strategic allocations within emerging markets” with “relative insulation from global trade friction”. However, this stability is threatened by US president Donald Trump’s imposition of steep tariffs on most US imports from India. In response, India has slashed its consumption tax to encourage domestic consumption and sought a more favourable trade deal.
While the situation is still unfolding amid ongoing negotiations, Taurani doesn’t foresee major concerns for investments in India’s retail sector. “Domestic consumption is reasonably good. Local luxury brands could be impacted by tariffs, but India [as a market] continues to do well compared to other developed and emerging markets,” he says.
What Would a Stock Market Debut Achieve?
India is seeing a blockbuster year for listings and, according to Dealogic data, it is one of the world’s largest IPO markets. Companies raised $6.6 billion from public flotation in the first half of 2025, compared to $5 billion over the same period last year. “The investor sentiment continues to be strong,” with market regulator SEBI streamlining approval processes, according to Karan Dhall, consumer industries and retail partner at Kearney.
Dutta believes there is strong appetite for new growth stocks within the Indian investor community. “Reliance Industries’ current market valuation as a conglomerate includes oil-to-chemicals, Reliance Retail, Jio (digital) and other businesses. The retail and consumer business can clearly unlock significant financial value for the group as a separate listed entity and also enable liquidity for some of the other investors,” he says.
