Reliance Retail Q3 pre-tax profit jumps over 2-fold to Rs 1,680 crore

Reliance Retail Thursday reported an over two-fold jump in its pre-tax profit to Rs 1,680 crore for the December 2018 quarter, driven by healthy festive season sales and new store openings.

The retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) had posted a PBDIT (profit before depreciation, interest and tax) of Rs 606 crore in the same period a year ago.

Revenue from RIL's organised retail segment during the quarter under review grew 89.25 per cent to Rs 35,577 crore as against Rs 18,798 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal.

"Revenues have nearly doubled for five consecutive quarters and EBITDA has nearly tripled for four consecutive quarters. Year-to-date revenues and profits have surpassed the whole of FY18," said RIL in a statement.

According to the company, Reliance Retail has further "consolidated its leadership position and is India's largest, most profitable and fastest growing retailer".

Commenting on the results, RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said: "In our new-age consumer businesses, we maintained robust growth momentum across Retail and Jio platforms and the share of consumer businesses is steadily increasing its contribution to the overall profitability of the company."

Reliance Retail, which now operates 9,907 stores in over 6,400 towns and cities, received over 5.7 crore footfalls across its stores during the Diwali festive period.

"During the quarter, Reliance Retail received over 13.9 crore footfalls, a growth of 21 per cent Y-o-Y across its stores," it added.

Reliance Retail's grocery stores led by Reliance Fresh and SMART delivered a robust revenue growth during the quarter backed by healthy volume growth across food and non-food categories.

While in fashion and lifestyle segment, it has added 100 new stores being during the quarter, extending its reach to 25 new cities, it said.

During the quarter, area operated by Reliance Retail was also increased 42 per cent to 20.6 million sq ft as against 14.5 million sq ft of the corresponding period.

Reliance Jewels also crossed of 100 stores mark and now operates 109 stores across 57 cities.

In October-December, Reliance Retail opened 21 new digital stores.

Reliance Digital witnessed one of the strongest quarters amidst buoyant customer demand during the festive period, it added.

While, Reliance Brands also announced a partnership with US-based kitchenwares and home furnishing maker Williams-Sonoma, to bring Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and West Elm to India.