Reliance Retail will open 7-Eleven stores in India after Future exit

BENGALURU, Oct. 7 (Reuters) – The retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS) announced Thursday it would launch 7-Eleven Inc convenience stores in India, days after Future Retail Ltd (FRTL.NS) signed a similar deal with the US chain.

Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd will open the first 7-Eleven 24-hour convenience store in a neighborhood in India’s financial capital Mumbai on October 9th.

The deal is the latest deal by the Reliance Group, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, to quickly grow their retail and e-commerce businesses to better flipkart in with Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Walmart Inc (WMT.N) India to compete in trillion dollar retail market.

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate’s $ 3.4 billion deal for the Future Group’s retail assets stalled after Amazon’s legal challenge. Continue reading

7-Eleven Inc., based in Irving, Texas, known for its iconic products like the Slurpee, operates and maintains more than 77,000 stores in 18 countries and regions.

Future Retail announced Tuesday that it had amicably terminated an agreement with 7-Eleven because the companies failed to meet their goals of opening stores and paying franchisee fees. Continue reading

In 2019 Future Retail – India’s second largest retailer with more than 1,700 stores including the popular Big Bazaar supermarkets and local chains Food Hall and Nilgiris – announced that it would be opening 7-Eleven stores from scratch and remodeling some of its existing ones Stores in the US brand.

The unit, which was formed to operate 7-Eleven stores in India, had reported a loss of Rs 173 million without opening any stores, Future Retail’s annual report showed.

Reliance stocks rose 1.22% in morning trading, while Future Retail stocks rose 3.7% in a strong market.

Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; Edited by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Sriraj Kalluvila

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