Reliance Retail begins rebranding of Future stores

Hyderabad: Reliance has started taking over the Future Retail stores recently as these store leases were in Reliance’s name and Future was no longer able to operate the stores any further. Reliance is making job offers to all the employees of these stores, which will ensure job continuity for nearly 30,000 employees of Future’s retail […]

Hyderabad: Reliance has started taking over the Future Retail stores recently as these store leases were in Reliance’s name and Future was no longer able to operate the stores any further.

Reliance is making job offers to all the employees of these stores, which will ensure job continuity for nearly 30,000 employees of Future’s retail network pan-India.

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Even store owners / landlords had started offering the lease of their stores to Reliance since last year as their rentals were not being paid by Future group and they were unsure about Future’s ability to clear these dues. After negotiating the lease with Reliance their past dues were paid and they have been receiving the rentals regularly.

Dr NPVS Raju, a retired medical doctor, who leased out his property in Kondapur, Hyderabad heaved a sigh of relief with Reliance taking over the operations. He said, “We are very happy since the time we offered our premises to Reliance. All our dues were cleared, and we have been receiving the rentals regularly. We are now fully assured of the operational stability and maintenance of our property.”

In the first phase, Reliance is rebranding more than 15 stores in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, which include all three Future Retail brands such as Big Bazaar, Easyday and FBB.

Future, which is considered as the pioneer of organised retail in India, was going through tough times a couple of years back and was not able to repay its lenders. In mid-2020 it negotiated a deal to sell its retail assets to Reliance. However, Amazon claimed that they had a deal with Future that allowed Amazon to control Future’s retail business and any decisions related to the same. This led to a legal tussle which delayed the deal from going through.

This had created uncertainty for employees, reduced business for vendors and suppliers and left a large payment overdue to landlords, suppliers, and lenders. With losses mounting the lenders were jittery and the company was staring at insolvency which would have meant loss for lenders and creditors as well as job loss for all the company’s employees.

However, with the loss-making stores being taken over by Reliance, any insolvency proceedings may be delayed for now and lenders and creditors can now hope that their dues will be cleared once the scheme of arrangement is approved.

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