Reliance Retail tops list of 50 fastest growing retailers globally

Deloitte ranked 250 firms globally in its annual report based on their revenues for FY2018. The Indian retail major secured the 56th spot this year against the 94th rank the previous year.

“India-based retailer Reliance Retail jumped from sixth in the list in FY2017 to first position in FY2018, recording a 55.8 per cent CAGR,” Deloitte report said.

According to the report, Reliance Retail is the only Indian company to be featured in it. More than half the retail companies were from Japan, and almost a quarter are in China and Hong Kong.

Reliance Retail recorded retail revenue of $18.5 billion in FY2018, a massive increase of 88.4 per cent on its FY2017 performance. “The retailer also became the first Indian retailer to operate more than 10,000 stores in the country,” it said.

“Factors that enabled the company to achieve top spot were a strong focus on boosting e-commerce growth through its website Ajio.com; a push for sales of smartphones and other consumer electronics online; an aggressive pricing strategy across its offline stores; the acquisition of Hamleys, UK-based toy retailer; and new store openings,” the report said. Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing 2020 is topped by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, followed by Costco Wholesale Corp.

Amazon jumped to third position with the highest retail revenue growth amongst the top 10 retailers. Kroger (US) is the only retailer in the top 10 with no foreign operations.

Deloitte India spokesperson said, “Even as the economy is facing a prolonged slowdown, the resilience of the global retail sector is likely to be mirrored in India as well, especially given the tax sops announced for boosting investment in the Union Budget for 2020. Key initiatives taken by the Centre including liberalisation of FDI norms for select sectors; a rollback of the tax surcharge on FPIs; incentives to support industries; the amendment of insolvency and bankruptcy code enabling the resolution of financial companies, and a significant cut in the corporate tax rate are sure to show some green-shoots in the Indian economy leading to the boost of customer confidence.”