Reliance Retail plans to increase workforce to one million

NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding the unabated protests against its stores in some parts of the country, Reliance Retail is planning to increase its workforce to one million within the next four years.

"We will be having a million people working for us within the next four years. What took Wal-Mart to achieve in 30 years, Mukesh Ambani plans to do that in four years," Susan Bloch, chief culture officer of Reliance Retail Ltd., said at the Fortune Global Forum here.

Reliance Retail, which has earmarked an investment of $5 to 6 billion, launched its first fruit and vegetable stores called Reliance Fresh in November last year. Since then, the company has opened 300 stores in 30 cities.

In August it opened its first hypermart -- a mega store spread over 165,000 sq ft -- in Ahmedabad. It has plans to open hypermarts in Jaipur, Jamnagar, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai before the end of this year and have 500 such stores in the country by 2010.

The Fortune Global Forum, which brings the world's top industry leaders together, is being held in India for the first time.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com