7-Eleven In India: A Very Short Introduction

Continuing its trend of bringing in foreign retail brands into India, Reliance Retail announced its decision to enter into a master franchise agreement with the 7-Eleven Inc. It plans to open 7-Eleven stores all over India, with the first store opening in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai.

7-Eleven is a convenience store found in several countries. Though it began operations in the US, it is now controlled by Seven & I Holdings Company Limited, which is a large diversified retail company.

Convenience stores like 7-Eleven usually offer basic fast moving consumer goods like snack food, beverages, toiletries, confectionaries, etc. However, the store format might be changed to Indian requirements. Not only do these stores stock third-party goods, but also focus on selling private labels. Private labels are brands owned by the retailer itself.

The company has been growing its private label segment and hopes to generate almost $1 billion in revenue through private labels. According to reports 7-Eleven earns $18 billion in retail revenue. Unlike other store formats, 7-Eleven stores are usually open for 24 hours for customer convenience.

It has grown from operating in the US to having operations in 26 countries. The company’s expansion strategy has remained the same — using franchisees. The company operated more than 71,000 stores all over the world in 2018, with the largest number of stores (21,000) being operated in Japan under its parent company’s name. It has roped in some of the largest corporations in South Asian countries as its master franchisees, with some holding right in more than one country.

Earlier, it had entered into a deal with Future Group, which would leverage its expertise in the retail space to help grow 7-Eleven in India. However, as the group struggles with debt and acquisition issues, Reliance Retail has stepped in to take up the role of master franchisee. The Indian retail sector is undergoing rapid change as the world’s largest corporations like Reliance, Amazon and Walmart fight it out both online and offline fronts.

Reliance Retail had raised Rs 47,000 crore from investors in the previous year and has been growing its footprint aggressively in the business-to-business (B2B) and the business-to-customer (B2C) spaces.

According to Reliance’s press release, the store would offer a unique style of shopping for the customer.

"The 7-Eleven stores aim to provide shoppers with a unique style of convenience, offering a range of beverages, snacks and delicacies specifically curated to appeal to local tastes, along with refill of daily essentials, having affordability and hygiene at its very core,” said the Reliance statement.