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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.

Kolkata: India's leading jewellers expect gold demand to drop by 15-20% this Diwali-Dhanteras as compared to last year same period as gold price is nearing Rs 81,000 per 10 g mark, forcing many of them to come up with freebies beyond making charges discount in which is usually the peak shopping period. Diwali-Dhanteras is the largest gold jewellery shopping period in the country as it is considered auspicious and people even buy wedding jewellery, accounting for about 30-40% of the annual sales.Yet, jewellers such as Senco Gold & Diamond, Jos Alukkas and Malabar Gold & Diamonds are some who have come up with offers like winning electric cars, SUVs, iPhone16 smartphone, gold coins with every purchase and even a gold rate protection plan to safeguard against price changes to woo consumers. 114598144"The price of gold is constantly heading northwards which is dampening the mood of the customers as the precious metal is pinching the pockets. At this price level, the demand for gold will drop by 15%-20% year-on-year," said Suvankar Sen, managing director and CEO of listed jewellery firm Senco Gold & Diamond.He added that the chain has come up with a host of offers to lure customers apart from the normal discounts given on making charges.Gold prices on Friday was at Rs 80,593 per 10 g.Untimely rains in certain states of the country like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and the impact of Cyclone Dana in West Bengal and Odisha will hurt the rural demand in these states, jewellers said. Gold is an important asset class in rural India, which accounts for 60% of the country's annual gold consumption of 800-850 tonnes.However, jewellers are still betting on the Hindi heartland for rural demand recovery of gold this Diwali. Saurabh Gadgil, chairman and managing director of the recently listed PNG Jewellers said: "We expect strong demand in tier 2 and tier 3 cities this Dhanteras as overall the kharif crop production has remained robust."Jos Alukkas, a South-centric jeweller with 50 stores, is also expecting demand in volume to come down by 15% -20%. Managing director Varghese Alukkas said he expects an offtake of diamond jewellery and platinum jewellery this Diwali-Dhanteras period even when South is primarily a gold market."Since the gold content is less in diamond jewellery and prices of natural diamonds have fallen, the demand has shot up in the last two weeks," he said.

The Nifty formed a long bearish candle on the weekly chart on Friday. Technically, this suggests that the markets are likely to remain under pressure in the near term.However, there is a possibility of a minor pull-back rally or sideways consolidation in the next 1 or 2 days after a sharp fall, which was witnessed in Friday’s trading session. Support for Nifty is now seen at 24,100 and 24,000. On the higher side, immediate resistance is at 24,450-500 levels and the next crucial resistance is at 24,700-750 levels, said Tejas Shah, Technical Research Analyst at JM Financial & BlinkX.In the open interest (OI) data, the highest OI on the call side was observed at 24,400 and 24,300 strike prices, while on the put side, the highest OI was at 24,200 strike price followed by 245,100.What should traders do? Here’s what analysts said:Jatin Gedia, SharekhanOn the daily charts, we can observe that the Nift has resumed its fall. It has reached 24,000 – 24,050, which coincides with psychological support as well as the daily lower Bollinger band, which shall restrict a sharp decline from hereon. The trend remains negative, however, there can be a pullback towards 24,350 and key hourly moving averages, which should be used as a selling opportunity. On the downside, 24,000 is likely from short-term perspective.Rupak De, LKP SecuritiesThe Nifty slipped below recent consolidation as the lack of follow-up buying attracted selling pressure in the market, decisively falling below 24,350. The sentiment appears extremely weak, with pullbacks likely to be sold into. Any rise toward 24,300-24,400 may be used to reduce long positions. Near-term support is placed at 24,000; a break below this level could lead the index into a downtrend.Praveen Dwarakanath, Hedged.inNifty made a low at its support of 24,100 levels and bounced during the last session of the day. The momentum indicators on the weekly chart continue to show weakness in the index. On a daily chart, Nifty formed a bearish candle with a big wick on the downside, indicating strong buying, which came nearing the closing session. Any bounce in the index can be used as an opportunity to sell with a target of 23,700 levels, which is the next support below 24,000 levels. Options writer's data for the monthly expiry showed increased writing of calls at 24,000 and above levels and ITM puts saw shortcovering, indicating a weakness in the index.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)