Reliance TimeOut, the one-stop destination for books, music and stationery enthusiasts, a specialty format of Reliance Retail, has opened its new store in Thane, at Korum mall, Thane. After successful launches in Bangalore, Gurgaon, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, this is Reliance TimeOut’s 13th store in the country and 3rd store in Mumbai.

The new Reliance TimeOut store extends to its customers a host of books, music, stationery, toys and gifts. It offers a huge range of choice with over 24,000 books and magazines, over 15,000 music and movie titles, more than 4,000 Stationery items and a wide range of gifts and toys.

In addition to the wide range of product offerings, Reliance TimeOut has introduced ‘Summer Carnival’ which boasts of loads of events and exciting offers on a wide range of products which will go on till mid-June. As part of the summer carnival, Reliance TimeOut is offering up to 50% off on kids’ films and up to 10% off on Kids’ books, while the grown ups can take advantage of a discount of up to 25% on retro music CDs. The store has also got deals running on back-to-school products and their fragrance range.

On the occasion of the launch, Deepinder Kapany, Business Head, Reliance TimeOut said, “We are very pleased to open our third store in Mumbai and offer our customers a whole new experience to look forward to. We have received an overwhelming response from customers for our innovative and unique concept and the exciting range of interactive activities that enables customers to meet and interact with their favorite authors. We are sure that the books, music and movie enthusiasts in the city will enjoy the experience that we have especially designed for them.”

The store will also see a lot of performances from up-coming artists and will host tons of activities for children. These products combined together with services offered in a truly world class environment and with friendly, knowledgeable and energetic staff will surely make Reliance TimeOut a place to be.

Reliance TimeOut’s initiative called ‘Book Club’ launched on 2nd August 2008 is fast transforming Reliance TimeOut into a literary hub, with varied activities conducted at least twice a month at the store. The Reliance TimeOut Book Club provides its customers a platform to engage in discussions with their favorite authors and also get entertained through various book reading and enactment sessions. For people interested in books, plays, theatre, poetry and writing, membership of the Reliance TimeOut Book Club is an absolute must. A member gets invitations for all the events at Reliance TimeOut and will also enjoy a whopping 10% off on all books purchased at the store. Unisun Publications which has been organising the Unisun Creative Writing Competitions over the years, now organises the ‘Annual Writing Contest’ for budding writers in association with Reliance TimeOut every year, which gives budding authors the opportunity to win exciting cash prizes as well as a chance to get published.

Source:http://news-views.in/reliance-timeout-launches-its-third-store-in-mumbai/

Hamleys, a 250 year-old toy retailer of the UK, on Thursday opened its first store in Mumbai in a franchise agreement with Reliance Retail, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reliance Industries. The tie-up is valid for 20 years. The company plans to invest Rs 150 crore in the next seven years to set up 20 more stores across the country, including tier-II cities.

The size of the Mumbai store is around 21,000 square feet, while the one being opened in Chennai within six months will be close to 10,000 sqft, according to Bijou Kurien, president and chief executive officer, Reliance Lifestyle division. The Indian division of Hamleys, though, is going to be headed by Sudhir Pai.

Hamleys is based in London and is one of the world’s largest toy companies. Its flagship store located at the Regent Street is a five-storey building spread over 54,000 sqft. It is considered one of London’s major tourist attractions.

The first store has seen an investment of Rs 6 crore. Kurien explains that the investment has been significant as far as setting up this store is concerned. “The hard investment for the stores in terms of occupying retail space is going to be made by Reliance Retail. As for the soft investment in terms of store design and staff training, it will be done by Hamleys.”

Reliance Retail in 2008 had said it was in talks with the UK toy retailer. The reason for the delay, as Kurien reckons, is “finding the right location for the store”.

Moreover, the company is also looking at spending around Rs 50 lakh on advertisement for the first store.

The total organised toy market is India is around Rs 1500 crore. It caters to about 30 crore kids upto 15 years of age. Reliance Retail will be looking to have a “sizeable” share in it.

The firm will open 20 stores in India over the next six to seven years in partnership with Reliance Retail, which has a 20-year-franchise agreement with Hamleys.

Hamleys will invest around Rs1.25bn (£18.3m) in the scheme and will open its next store in Chennai in the next few months, having already opened a 21,000 square feet store in Mumbai.

“The organised retail toy market in the country is close to Rs15bn (£220.5m) and Reliance Retail will be looking to have a sizeable share in it,” Bijou Kurien, president and chief executive – lifestyle, Reliance Retail, commented.

Reliance Retail will stock Hamleys merchandise, but also products that are exclusively available to the UK retailer.

Apart from stocking Hamleys merchandise, Reliance Retail will stock products that are exclusively available to the UK retailer. Other global brands from companies such as Mattel and Funskool will also be available at these outlets.

Bookings of tankers to export fuels from India’s west coast, the home of two Reliance Industries Ltd. refineries, rose in February as India sold more gasoline to the U.S. and Japan.

Mumbai-based Reliance, India’s biggest non-state company, started an export-oriented 580,000-barrel-a-day refinery in December 2008. It’s next to an older plant that can process 660,000 barrels a day. Together, they make up the largest refining complex in the world.

Alok Agarwal, Reliance’s chief financial officer, said in an e-mailed statement in January that about 57 percent of the company’s refined output is for exports.

Reliance in 2009 became one of the top 10 charterers of Aframax tankers to ship petroleum products, according to a report released by Poten & Partners, a shipbroker. Aframaxes can carry 637,500 to 1.02 million barrels of fuels.

Source:http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-02/india-fuel-exports-rise-on-increasing-shipments-to-u-s-japan.html