Avenue Supermarts, owner and operator of DMart chain of retail stores, reported a 6.6 percent rise in consolidated post-tax profit at Rs 590 crore for the quarter ended December 2022 as against Rs 553 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.
Total revenue for the October-December quarter stood at Rs 11,569 crore, as compared to Rs 9,218 crore in the same period last year, Avenue Supermarts said in a stock exchange filing on January 14. This indicates a growth of 25.5 percent YoY.
While the revenue is in-line with estimates, net profit is sharply lower than Moneycontrol’s estimate of Rs 646.5 crore. Sequentially, the net profit declined 13.8 percent from Rs 685 crore in Q2FY23.
Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) for the company in Q3FY23 came in at Rs 965 crore, as against Rs 866 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last year, up by 11.4 percent. EBITDA margin, however, declined to 8.3 percent from 9.4 percent in Q3 FY22.
“FMCG and staples segment continued to outperform the general merchandise and apparel segments. Margin percentage decline over the corresponding quarter of last year is a reflection of this mix change. Discretionary non-FMCG sales did not do as well as expected in this quarter,” Neville Noronha, CEO & Managing Director, Avenue Supermarts Limited, said.
In its Q3 business update, the company said it added four stores in the October-December quarter taking the total count to 306. “Estimates stood at 12,” said analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services. In Q1, the company had added 10 stores, followed by eight in Q2.
DMart Ready has further expanded its e-commerce operations in four new cities. “Our operations now span across 22 cities in India,” added Noronha.
The company did not report its like-for-like (LFL) growth for the quarter in its earnings press release. In Q2 FY23, however, LFL for all stores that were 5 years or older stood at 6.5 percent annualized/20.8 percent absolute.
