A LOT IN STORE Reliance Digital Ramps Up With an Expat Touch

After spending almost 15 years in Circuit City, an American retailer of consumer electronics and durables, Brian Bade had been there, done that – from driving sales of home theatres to crafting a strategy for 712 stores of the then $12 billion electronics chain.  Since joining up as CEO of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Digital Ltd (RDL) in 2010, Bade has been doing much of that – hiring, expanding operations and driving sales – all over again. Three years ago, Bade wouldn't have dreamt that he would be heading a retailing format outside of America. But then in 2009 Circuit City, till then the No 2 retailer of electronics in the US after Best Buy, was liquidated (the brand has since been revived as an online electronics retailer by its new owner Systemax).  After a year at Big Lots, a Fortune 500 department stores-led corporation, Bade found himself on a flight to India. Since then, he's been busy expanding the durables retailer, one of the speciality formats under the umbrella of Reliance Retail.  People who work with Bade say he is a man in a hurry and is looking for leadership by the end of the fiscal year in a space currently dominated by Croma from the Tata group, the Videocon group's Next Retail and Digiworld and a clutch of strong regional players like Vijay Sales in the west and Vivek's in the south.  The aggression is visible: The total number of RDL stores has more than trebled to 85 from 27 a year ago. In March 2012 alone, 16 stores were added. And in a fortnight, an official who does not want to be named says the chain will touch the 100-store mark.  But it's not just expansion that is keeping Bade busy. A person aware of his schedule says he travels a lot across cities, keeping an eye on store performance and consumer behaviour at RDL as well as rivals' stores. The 45-year-old is also digging deep into his reservoir of experience of a more mature market to introduce best practices and systems in India.  "We are building strong relationships with vendors and are completely focused on the quality of execution. We are also investing big time in training our staff to give consumers a great experience within stores," Bade told ET in a telephonic chat.  One initiative RDL has launched is an inhouse service arm called resQ, which claims to offer 'lifetime product and service support' through a single window. "We are possibly the only Indian retailer to offer a single-window solution for sales and service support across all key brands," says Bade.  The not-so-good news: the durables sector is grappling with rising operating expenses and single-digit growth rates. "The upswing in the dollar has hit costs since most products are imported. Also cuts in brand margins by manufacturers have completely upset the applecart, says Vijay Sales CEO Nilesh Gupta. He adds that rising prices in inflationary times are not helping, either. "For instance, over the past year, prices of air-conditioners have risen by 15-20%," shrugs Gupta.  The Indian consumer durable and electronics market, estimated to be worth around . 80,000 crore, is expected to grow at 10-12% this year. And organised durables and electronics sales account for just a fourth of all sales, with smaller standalone stores still ruling the roost. Tilting those scales may well be worth the India sojourn for Bade. Brian Bade, 45 CEO, Reliance Retail, Digital Format