Avenue Supermarts reported a 9.1 per cent fall in consolidated net profit in the September quarter despite revenue rising 18.7 per cent, due to lower contribution of high-margin products. The revenue growth was driven by nine store additions and same-store sales growth.
The company, which operates D’Mart stores, reported a net profit of ₹623.6 crore on revenue of ₹12,624.4 crore. Sequentially the net profit also fell 5.3 per cent while the revenue rose 6.4 per cent.
The total expenses of the company also rose about 19 per cent to ₹11,809 crore primarily due to higher purchases of stock-in-trade and employee benefit expenses.
The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation came in at ₹1005 crore, up 12.7 per cent on year while EBITDA margin fell to 8 per cent from 8.4 per cent year ago.
Commenting on the results, CEO and MD, Neville Noronha said that gross margins in the reporting quarter continued to remain lower “due to lesser contribution from the higher margin general merchandise and apparel business.”
In the first half of fiscal FY24 sale of food items raised their share to 56.2 per cent of revenue from 54.75 per cent year ago. Share of non-food items in total revenue remained the same while that of general merchandise and apparel fell to 23.3 per cent from 24.75 per cent year ago.
D’Mart Ready, its pick-up points for online orders, expanded to 22 cities in the first half, with increasing presence in larger towns.
The company ended the quarter with 336 stores.