Marks & Spencer Reliance on track to open 50 stores

Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt Ltd, a JV between Marks & Spencer Group and a unit of India’s Reliance Industries, is on track to open 50 stores by 2014. The company plans to open 8-6 outlets in the next fiscal year. The joint venture was set up to sell items such as apparels and household equipment and it aims to source 70 percent of the raw materials for the products it sells by 2014 in an attempt to keep costs low. A new opportunity will be mushroomed in these new stores benifiting signage companies, such as in-store media majors, signage suppliers, print providers, etc.