Reliance Retail brings in Carrefour veteran to sharpen grocery play

New Delhi: Reliance Retail has hired former Carrefour executive Guillaume de Cologne to oversee its grocery business; this is a sign that he could potentially replace Damodar Mall, the current CEO of the company’s grocery retail division.

The move comes as the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is gearing up for an initial public offering, likely in 2027 or 2028. The retail business is now worth about $100 billion, according to an Oct. 13 report from Axis Securities.

Cologne, who previously served as chief merchandising officer at Carrefour, was hired earlier this year, people with knowledge said.

Carrefour is a French retail group that operates a network of more than 14,000 multi-format stores in more than 40 countries. Formats include hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores, and cash or wholesale stores. Carrefour Group is one of the world leaders in food business.

Mall is an experienced company in the retail industry. He has worked for major companies like Hindustan Unilever and was also part of the Future Group, where he held various leadership roles, including director of food strategy. He was one of the core members of Future Group founder Kishore Biyani’s team.

Mall joined Reliance Retail in 2013 and currently runs its grocery business.

Cologne is preparing for a bigger role, the people previously mentioned said. “It seeks to fully understand B2B (business-to-business) and consumer-facing businesses, including stores and parts of the online environment. Its focus is to bring more of its international expertise to enhance the overall store experience and create a better offline shopping experience,” one of the people previously mentioned said.

There is no indication yet of when Mall plans to resign, this person said.

There was no response to queries sent to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the parent company of Reliance Retail.

The move to appoint Cologne appears to be an attempt to up the game in the retail sector, said an equity analyst who spoke to him. Mint on condition of anonymity.

“But modern retail in India is very different from global retail because India has a lot of India. Retail also requires very close knowledge of consumer habits in India at the grassroots level,” this analyst said.

Cologne has held CEO positions in many countries, including CEO of Carrefour Türkiye and CEO of Carrefour Malaysia and Singapore. He has over 30 years of experience in the retail industry.

Reliance Retail operates multiple business verticals led by separate CEOs, including Akhilesh Prasad (chairman and CEO fashion and lifestyle), Sandeep Varaganti (CEO, JioMart) and Brian Bade (Reliance Digital).

V. Subramaniam is the managing director of Reliance Retail Ltd.

Reliance Retail is India’s largest retailer with businesses operating in consumer electronics, grocery, fashion and lifestyle, and connectivity (selling SIM cards, mobile phones, tablets, etc.). Income from operations in FY25 ₹2.91 trillion. The business reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA: ₹25,094 crore, up 8.6% year-on-year.

According to Deloitte, India’s total retail market is estimated to be $1.15 trillion by 2025. This is expected to rise to $1.8 trillion by 2030. Grocery stores continue to account for the largest share of retail spending in the country; followed by clothing, accessories and footwear (a broader fashion segment).

Reliance Smart operates small-format convenience stores and supermarkets under online grocery platform JioMart, along with Reliance Smart Bazaar (including stores acquired from Future Group), Fresh Signature, Freshpik and Metro Cash & Carry.

RIL does not give detailed information about the number of stores, but it operates close to 5,000 outlets under the convenience store category.

Some formats within the grocery business sell general products in addition to offering their own private labels in segments such as snacks and home care.

As of the September quarter, the company had a total of 19,821 stores.

RIL acquired the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses from Kishore Biyani’s Future Group in 2020. ₹24,713 crore. This acquisition gave Reliance access to hundreds of stores in Future Group’s Big Bazaar, FBB, Easyday, Central and Foodhall formats. He transformed them into his own existing brands and closed some of them. In 2023, it also acquired the Indian business of German wholesale retailer Metro Cash & Carry. ₹2,850 crore.

Of course, small kirana stores still dominate India’s grocery market; According to NielsenIQ, modern retail, in which Reliance is a major player, accounted for 23.5% of the value share of consumer packaged goods in over 50 cities as of the September quarter.

It competes with companies like Reliance, DMart, Samara Capital-backed More Retail, Amazon, Spencer’s Retail and Lulu Hypermarket. DMart has 415 stores and its revenue from operations is ₹57,790 crore in FY25.

Reliance Retail embarked on consolidation last financial year, closing many large-format grocery and fashion stores and moving towards smaller formats. The company invested ₹33,696 million crore in FY 2024-25, up 37.5% year-on-year, towards store expansion, consumer goods acquisitions, warehousing and retail infrastructure.

It closed the last financial year with 19,340 stores, up 2.7% from the previous year, but total retail space fell from 79.1 million square meters to 77.4 million square meters due to rationalization of larger areas. Having completed this phase of consolidation, Reliance Retail returned to expansion by adding 412 stores in the September quarter of the current fiscal.

In a separate note dated Oct 13, Axis Capital said: “Retail saw a period of weak performance in CY24, mainly due to the operational rationalization undertaken by the company, which has now been completed. Given the implied undervaluation, we believe the recovery in retail should act as a catalyst for the stock. We expect core retail to grow 12% YoY and FY25-28 CAGR to be around 13% (YoY). (vs 5% on base) FY25).”