(Image source from: Forbes India)

As part of its expansion into consumer markets, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Pvt is looking to buy child and fashion-centered retailers abroad and partner with global beauty and sports brands.

Reliance Brands Ltd (RBL), which chiefly targets affluent Indians, thus far has a good deal of high-end stores in India with a partnership with foreign brands, including Burberry, shoemaker Steve Madden, and New York-based Iconix Brand Group Inc.

In May, RBL acquired Hamleys, the world’s oldest toy retailer, for $88.5 million.  

Reliance, which is already India’s biggest brick-and-mortar retailer, is planning to open around 150 stores in India in the fiscal year 2020, Reliance Brands Chief Executive Officer Darshan Mehta said in an interview in India's financial capital Mumbai.

The products owned by Reliance Brands are available at 788 locations spread across shopping malls, brand outlets, and airports.

Mehta said the company is seeking to partner with brands in two segments where it didn’t mark its presence so far - beauty and athletic lifestyle wear.

The company is keen on areas like multi-brand sports, wellness and fitness, women's and men's beauty products.

According to Mehta, Reliance Brands still remains a small part of the Reliance conglomerate, which made a net profit of $5.5 billion on $87 billion of revenue in the fiscal year 2019.

By Sowmya Sangam