Reliance’s luxury retail arm narrows losses, designer labels lag

Reliance Industries Ltd’s luxury retail business is starting to show operating advantage, helped by strong growth in premium beauty products and global partnerships, even as many Indian designer brands in its portfolio remain loss-making.

Reliance Brands Ltd (RBL), Reliance Retail’s flagship premium and luxury fashion business comprising over 50 luxury fashion brands, reported FY26 revenue ₹3,494 crore, up 44.6% from the previous year, while losses narrowed ₹137 crore ₹279 crore in FY25, according to the company’s integrated annual report.

During the year, RBL acquired five subsidiaries and joint ventures, including Genesis Colors and CAA Brands Reliance, bringing several luxury fashion, designer-label and brand management operations directly under its flagship company. Denim brand G Star also moved its business to another company, Ace Turtle.

RBL, home to brands such as Burberry, Diesel and Paul & Shark, is home to brands such as Stella McCartney and MAX&Co., part of the Max Mara Fashion Group, in FY26. entered into new partnerships, including The company has 935 stores and 762 shop-in-shops across India.

RBL has brands in luxury fashion, premium apparel, beauty-adjacent lifestyle, home, jewellery, foodservice and children’s retail, making it one of the most diversified premium and luxury retail platforms in India.

Sephora emerged as one of the strongest-performing businesses in the portfolio, with revenue growth remaining strong and profits more than tripling; this highlighted the momentum in India’s premium beauty market.

Meanwhile, Reliance’s portfolio of Indian designer brands continued to struggle with scale and profitability despite years of investment.

Designer Rahul Mishra’s business reported revenue of: ₹68.6 crore in FY26 but continued to incur losses, ₹13.2 crore. Anamika Khanna’s AK-OK posted the following income: ₹21.8 crore and lost ₹9.9 crore.

Ritu Kumar reported largely unchanged income ₹270.34 crore and loss in FY26. ₹34.47 crore, Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla from profit ₹10.68 crore loss despite generating revenue of around ₹135 crore.

Reliance Retail did not respond to Mint’s queries by press time.

Industry executives said premium beauty has emerged as one of India’s fastest-growing discretionary categories, driven by repeat purchases, gift-giving behavior and lower luxury entry prices. Luxury fashion, by contrast, remains dependent on situational spending, convenience, merchandising and broader discretionary reliance.

Raahuul Kapoor, co-founder of luxury brand consultancy Luxury Ampersand Frolics Group, said Reliance’s beauty portfolio is performing better because beauty has become an everyday luxury habit in the country, while fashion remains a “seasonal passion”.

Kapoor added that affluent Indian consumers are increasingly turning to quieter luxury, craftsmanship, rarity and highly curated labels over widely distributed premium fashion brands.

Industry executives remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of India’s luxury market, pointing to continued growth in categories such as jewellery, watches, premium automobiles, beauty and high-end real estate.

“Fashion and lifestyle are at a different stage of development. While demand is expanding beyond metro cities through e-commerce and digital discovery, building scale in luxury fashion remains more complex and requires a broader retail ecosystem, strong brand selection and consistent execution,” said Abhay Gupta of Delhi-based consultancy Luxury Connect.

“For a conglomerate like Reliance, which has successfully assembled one of the country’s largest luxury portfolios, the strategic evolution naturally shifts from rapid brand acquisition to long-term operational integration and stabilizing unit economics across a wide range of brands.”

India’s fashion industry also suffers from structural constraints: very limited true luxury retail infrastructure, dependence on occasion wear and inconsistent product-market fit, experts said.

Added Luxury Ampersand’s Kapoor: “There are a handful of true luxury retailers that make scaling fashion much more difficult than scaling beauty. Beauty makes money from wants on a weekly basis, whereas luxury fashion in India still makes money from seasonal wants. The winners of the next decade will be those who stop seeing India as a logo market and start seeing it as a specialist market.” added Luxury Ampersand’s Kapoor.

According to consultancy IMARC group, India’s luxury goods market was valued at $10.6 billion by 2025 and is expected to reach $18.8 billion by 2034, at a CAGR of 6.17%.