India’s largest retailer Reliance Retail has tapped several expatriates with retail experience from Europe, US and South Asia in a bid to streamline its grocery supply chain operations, enhance the online fashion business Ajio and improve margins, two industry executives said. Some of these expats have also been entrusted to coach a pool of young Indian leaders for a top leadership succession planning exercise started recently by the retail business of Reliance Industries Ltd, the executives said. At least five chief executives at Reliance Retail in their late 50s and 60s may move to mentoring roles as advisors or superannuate over the next few years. The initiatives at Reliance Retail come at a time when brick-and-mortar retailers, including Reliance, and Avenue Supermarts Ltd—the owner of DMart retail chain—are facing intense challenges in grocery retail from quick commerce platforms in large cities amid a subdued demand environment. 114598280Reliance Retail has also slowed down expansion and sharply increased store closures this fiscal, resulting in only 110 net store additions in the first half of this fiscal year though it had opened 795 stores. This means store closures exceeded store openings by over six times. Last year, in the same period, the company reported net store additions of 610 outlets when it had opened 1,026 stores. The company had noted a weak apparel and footwear business in a quarterly earnings call earlier this month. “Some 20-30 professionals—some expats and some from within India—have recently joined as consultants to work on supply chain, finance, operations, category, inventory management and most importantly, margins,” one of the executives told ET. Reliance Retail has also started a succession planning for the top leadership even though there is no formal retirement age in the company. This is because many of its top management are in their late 50s and 60s, and the company wants to appoint young leaders. One of the roles that’s likely to see a new leader over the next few years is managing director for Reliance Retail Ventures—the holding company of all retail and FMCG business of Reliance—a position currently held by V Subramaniam. The following roles may also see changes: Chief executive officer of grocery retail, which is now headed by Damodar Mall; electronics retail business CEO led by Brian Bade, and lifestyle and fashion retail business CEO presently led by Akhilesh Prasad. The others are CEO of Ajio, a role held by Vineeth Nair and Reliance Trends chief operating officer, currently led by Vipin Tyagi. “It is still not decided when these executives will move to a mentoring role but like every big organisation, a succession planning has recently started. They themselves are grooming the successors along with the expat coaches,” a second executive said. He said the large size of Reliance Retail and complex organisational structure has necessitated the involvement of expats. Reliance Retail didn’t respond to ET’s queries. The company runs over 18,946 stores spanning grocery, consumer electronics and apparel. It is the largest in India by number of stores, sales and profit. There are also plans for a public listing but parent RIL has yet to take a final decision. While Reliance Retail occasionally utilises the expertise of expats to regroup its business, it is after several years that so many of them have joined the company in one go, the executives said, adding that these expats have mostly joined as consultants. “The timing is important. The July-September quarter has been particularly harsh for most retailers due to weak consumption, specifically in urban markets. The ten-minute delivery promise from quick commerce companies such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart is swiftly changing buying habits of consumers in top 15-20 cities where these companies service,” the first person said. Established retailers such as Reliance and Amazon are yet to start 10-15 minute delivery though the former has started testing the model.