Reliance Retail's net profit declines 4.8% to Rs 2,139 cr in March quarter

Reliance Retail’s net profit for the January-March quarter declined 4.8 per cent to Rs 2,139 crore, while its EBIDTA increased 2.4 per cent to Rs 3,705 crore in the same period. The country’s largest retailer cash profit for the quarter rose 3.8 per cent to Rs 2,878 crore.

For the 12 months ended March 2022, net revenue jumped 26 per cent to Rs 1.75 trillion, EBITDA was up 26 per cent at Rs 12,381 crore (up 29 per cent at Rs 10,932 crore, excluding investment income), and net profit was higher by 29 per cent at Rs 7,055 crore, over the previous year.

The retailer opened 793 stores in the quarter, taking the total to 15,196 physical stores, and added 3.1 million sq ft of warehousing and fulfilment space during the quarter.

Reliance Retail said it delivered its best-ever quarterly revenues, which even surpassed the festive quarter performance despite the Omicron wave and coming out from the festive quarter. “The headwinds posed by the Covid situation in January were offset by the robust growth in February and March as the business leveraged festive events and early setting of summer season,” the company said in its release.

In the quarter, Reliance Retail’s net revenue jumped 23.1 per cent to Rs 50,834 crore, compared to last year with broad-based double-digit growth across all consumption baskets. Ebitda before investment income grew 16.3 per cent to Rs 3,584 crore due to strong performance in Fashion & Lifestyle and Grocery consumption baskets.

In the quarter, Reliance Retail more than doubled its daily orders compared to last year across all its digital commerce platforms on the back of stronger product portfolio and offers.

“In new commerce, the business continued to partner with new merchants across geographies and consumption baskets. The merchant partner base grew 3 times over last year,” the company said in its release.

The company’s consumer electronics business delivered a strong performance across its stores driven by recovery of mall stores and continued uptick in small towns as it witnessed broad-based growth across all categories. However, air conditioners witnessed strong demand on the back of early onset of the summer season.

On the Republic Day event, sales were up 20 per cent compared to the previous year. Its own and licensed brand portfolio grew 70 per cent compared to the last quarter.