PTIAvenue Supermarts Ltd., which owns and operates retail chain D-Mart, on Saturday reported a 3.11% rise in consolidated net profit to £426.75 million for the fourth quarter ending March 2022.
The company had reported net income of ₹413.87 crore in the January-March quarter a year earlier, Avenue Supermarts said in a BSE filing.
Operating revenue increased 18.55% to ₹8,786.45 billion for the quarter compared to ₹7,411.68 billion for the corresponding quarter of the prior fiscal year.
Avenue Supermarts total spending increased by 18.71% to £8,210.13m in Q4 FY21-22 versus £6,916.24m a year earlier.
For the year ended March 2022, Avenue Supermarts consolidated net profit increased by 35.74% to £1,492.40 million. In the previous fiscal year, it had reported net income of ₹1,099.43 million.
In 2021-22, revenue from operations increased by 28.3% to £30,976.27 billion. It was ₹24,143.06 crore in FY21.
Neville Noronha, CEO and MD of Avenue Supermarts said: “The month of March 2022 had another robust rebound and very satisfactory growth on a like-for-like basis compared to March 2021. In general, quarterly performance and the past two waves of stop-start Stop extreme confidence in the company’s resilience to recover in the short term.”
D-Mart’s FMCG business is recovering well, he added.
“The value proposition is clearly seen by our customers in this segment. In the discretionary non-FMCG segment, it is currently difficult to gauge whether the relatively lower growth is due to a long-term change over time due to the e-commerce shift or inflation, or to significantly higher adverse economic impacts related to COVID for certain buyers ‘ said Mr. Noronha.
Discussing DMart’s growth in the brick-and-mortar segment for FY22, he said the company ended the year with growth in its key financial metrics of revenue, EBITDA and PAT.
“Two years and older, DMart stores grew 16.7% in FY22 compared to FY21. We have 214 stores that are 2 years or older. Our General Merchandise and Apparel sales increased slightly to 23.40% compared to 22.90% last year,” he added.
In FY22, D-Mart opened 50 additional stores, bringing the total to 284 stores.
“Our branch presence continues to grow across the country. We’ve had a record opening this year, largely due to delayed openings last year due to COVID,” he said.
E-commerce store DMart Ready also gradually expanded during the year and is present in 12 cities across the country.
“After the Omicron wave, the e-commerce business has slowed its growth trajectory. Overall, however, we are very happy and excited about this deal. We learn something new every day. DMart Ready has had another great year. Topline sales this year were a little more than double last year,” said Mr. Noronha.
Basically, D-Mart believes that grocery e-commerce is a channel of convenience, while brick-and-mortar is still the channel of joy, apart from the effort to reach the store and the wait at the checkout.
“Everyone has their own unique magic. We will operate both channels to the best of our ability with an attitude to improve on these principles and ensure the value for the buyer remains paramount,” he said.
