Spencer’s Retail, part of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, has seen an over three fold rise, year-on-year (yoy), in sales through the omni-channel.

A more severe wave of Covid infections and restrictions on store timings notwithstanding, the retailer has seen its gross merchandise value (GMV) rise to ₹118 crore in Q1 FY22, 210 per cent rise over the ₹38 crore it had reported in the year-ago-period, the company said in its quarterly investor presentation.

ORIPL, the e-commerce arm and 100 per cent subsidiary of Spencer’s, had reported revenue from operations to the tune of ₹7.9 core, up by over 700 per cent yoy; while the losses dipped substantially by 70 per cent to ₹1.3 crore against ₹4.3 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Also read: Spencer’s Retail reports Q1 net loss at ₹23.55 crore

According to Shashwat Goenka, Sector Head Retail and FMCG at Spencer’s Retail and RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, the company “continues to see a strong momentum in its omni-channel business with 3.1x growth over last year.”

Omni-channel business covers foods, groceries, perishables in the ‘fresh’ categories, general merchandise, liquor and cigarettes.

The company has been ramping up its delivery infrastructure with Spencer’s offering a 3 hour service while Nature’s Basket came-up with a 90 minute delivery service targeting paid members and in select pin-codes. The latter ramped up presence in key premium markets like Navi Mumbai too.

Sequential growth

According to Goenka, , the lockdown in the second wave was far more stringent in terms of operation timings. Restrictions were also similar to last year on not allowing sale of non-essentials. This impacted “higher margin non-food sales”.

In spite of slower recovery in higher margin non-food sales, gross margins remained at last year’s Q1 levels of 20.5 per cent, while sales per square feet stood at ₹14,600, the company said in its quarterly investor presentation. “We were better prepared and the business has recovered quickly post the stringent lockdown of May & June,” he added.

Also read: Turning around the age-old Spencer’s brand

Incidentally, Spencer’s saw its standalone sales improve 7 per cent for the June quarter (vs Q1 FY21) while losses at a pre-tax level came down to ₹17 crore, a ₹30 crore improvement over the same period last year. It operates 155 Spencer’s stores pan India.

Natures’s Basket, the premium food-only retailer with 34-odd stores, too remained “EBITDA positive” quarter-on-quarter. Despite a 26 per cent drop in sales yoy to ₹80 crore (₹108 crore), earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation stood at ₹7 crore (down 22 per cent). However, gross margins saw a substantial improvement yoy, up by 189 basis points to 28.1 per cent.

“Sequentially, Nature’s Basket numbers improved except for gross margins which came down by 188 basis points,” Goenka said.

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