Reliance industries in India has rejigged its fuel retail business to hive off the fuel retail outlets owned by the company and merge them with its organised retail arm as part of its strategy to develop retail offerings at these petrol pumps.
RIL has merged its 361 'company owned-company operated' fuel retail pumps with its organised retail business, which thus far included its digital, fashion and lifestyle businesses. "It is no longer simply a petrol pump. Today, what you can do with fuel retail outlets by virtue of the synergies make it a more consumer facing business, that is why we are clubbing it with retail," said V Srikanth, joint chief financial officer at RIL
Private sector energy companies like RIL and Essar Oil have started expanding their fuel retail business after the government deregulated diesel prices in October 2014. RIL, which was earlier targeting to restart its 1,500 fuel retail outlets by March 2016, will see these outlets restarting by the end of the current fiscal.
In the US and Europe, clubbing non-fuel retail stores with petrol pumps is a widely used and lucrative format. In India, this format has not done very well in the past but companies feel it may be a good time to re-launch the format, especially on highways and smaller towns that do not have malls like the cities
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