Mumbai-based Avenue Supermarts, the operator of supermarkets chain D-Mart, has reported a 16.4 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated profit for the quarter ended December 2020.
The profit increased to Rs 446.97 crore during the quarter compared to Rs 384.04 crore in the same period last year. The sequential growth in teh bottom line was at 125.1 percent.
Revenue from operations rose 10.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 7,542 crore in October-December, while the quarter-on-quarter growth was 42.1 percent.
"The quarter has seen further improvement in our business and financial metrics. Our overall sales and sales mix is now trending very close to our usual times except for specific customer consumption changes post COVID-19. Apparel, laundry, footwear, travel and such relevant out of home usage categories are taking more time to recover," CEO & Managing Director Neville Noronha said.
"Agile OPEX management along with a good surge in festival shopping allowed us to deliver a significantly better quarter than the previous two quarters. However, December month didn't trend as well as the festival months of October and November," he added.
Two years and older D-Mart stores did around 96 percent of December 2019 sales in December 2020, said the company, which has 162 stores that are two years or older.
"Restricted store operations in certain cities post-Diwali due to night curfews and weekend closure led to significantly larger declines in those stores versus the same period last year," the company said
Operating numbers, too, were good for the quarter. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 15.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 689.12 crore with margin expansion of 37 bps YoY at 9.14 percent.
The sequential growth in EBITDA was 109.1 percent and margin 293 bps due to a low base. The first half of the financial year 2020-21 was impacted by COVID-19-led lockdown restrictions.
Noronha said Avenue continued to face inconsistent supplies from the non-FMCG sector. "Raw material prices are also going up. Availability in certain categories is likely to get worse before getting better. This could therefore have an impact on sales mix and margins in the near term," he added.