Around 11 lakh people will lose their jobs if the Future Retail-Reliance deal, which is being vehemently blocked by Amazon, falls through, said Delhi-based NGO Public Response Against Helplessness and Action for Redressal (PRAHAR).
Future Group, along with Reliance, has ensured that all businesses like Big Bazaar, EasyDay, Nilgiris, Central, Brand Factory, among others, continue to function so that employees do not lose their jobs and suppliers do not lose their business, PRAHAR said in a press release. “However, frequent litigations and roadblocks by Amazon are putting this arrangement into a crisis. The fear is that if the deal does not go through then the livelihood of many will be lost,” it added.
Future Group, which has around 2,000 stores in over 450 cities across India, will shut shop if the deal is blocked, causing almost 11 lakh job losses, the NGO said, adding that about 6,000 vendors and suppliers will also lose their biggest customer.
Stressing on the importance of the competition of the deal, PRAHAR said that Reliance had committed to pay the dues of all vendors and suppliers as part of the deal. “Hence, it is important that these businesses and jobs of people supplying to Future Retail are protected,” it added.
Reliance group had partnered with several companies during the lockdown and now such company is Amazon, however, the deal created an issue and Mukesh Ambani faced a major blow. Five months ago, Ambani’s Reliance Retail Ventures Company bought Future Group’s retail and wholesale business as well as its logistics and warehousing business. The US retail giant Amazon had appealed to the Supreme Court this month against Future Group’s proposed sale to Indian market leader Reliance Industries, accusing its partner of violating contracts by agreeing to the sale. The outcome of the tussle involving two of the world’s richest men, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani, could reshape India’s pandemic-hit shopping sector and decide if Amazon can blunt Reliance’s dominance of retail. But at the same time, the losing of the case for Reliance might result in bad making one million people jobless.
Amazon and Future Group are locked in a legal dispute over the sale of the Indian company’s retail, logistics and warehousing assets to Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), a unit of Reliance Industries, for Rs 24,713 crore. Amazon, which owns a 49% stake in Future Coupons, an unlisted company, has challenged the Future Group-Reliance Retail deal, claiming it did not consent to such a transaction. It said the deal breached some existing agreements.
