Avenue Supermarts (DMart) rose 6.65% to Rs 3,450 after the firm reported a 3.13% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 426.83 crore and an 18.55% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 8,786.45 crore in March quarter of fiscal 2022 compared to same quarter of previous financial year. 

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Profit before tax in the fourth quarter was Rs 608.89 crore on a consolidated basis, up 12.02% from Rs 543.56 crore in the previous quarter. Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) increased 20.55% to Rs 739 crore in March quarter, compared to Rs 613 crore in the same quarter the previous financial year. In March quarter of 2022, the EBITDA margin was 8.4%, compared to 8.3% in March 2021 quarter.

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In financial year 2022, the firm recorded a 35.75% increase in net profit to Rs 1,492.55 crore over fiscal 2021, on a 28.3% growth in net sales to Rs 30,976.27 crore. In FY22, EBITDA was Rs 2,499 crore, up from Rs 1,743 crore in FY21. In FY22, the EBITDA margin was 8.1%, up from 7.2% in FY21.

The share closed 10.35% to close at Rs 3,565.00.

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Commenting on the performance of the company, Neville Noronha, CEO & managing director of Avenue Supermarts, said, “January 2022 started extremely well but then the Omicron wave of Covid‐19 reduced the momentum over the middle of the month. These waves typically hurt the high margin and discretionary items more. As is the trend of the past, recovery does take 40‐50 days after restrictions are removed or anxiety of a Covid wave recedes. Omicron was a milder wave and hence had a significantly lower negative impact. March 2022 month again had robust recovery and very satisfactory like for like growth vis a vis March 2021. In general, the quarter performance and past two waves of stop‐start‐stop give us extreme confidence in the resilience of the business to recover in the short term.”

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He further said, “We ended the year with growth across key financial parameters of revenue, EBITDA and PAT. Two years and older DMart stores grew by 16.7% during FY 2022 as compared to FY 2021. We have 214 stores that are 2 years or older. Our sales from General Merchandise and Apparel moved slightly up at 23.40% as compared to 22.90% in the previous year. However, this may not be representative of post‐Covid steady state contribution from these Non‐FMCG categories. We remain more optimistic about this the future. Our store footprint continues to grow across the country. We opened 50 additional stores during the year taking our total to 284 stores. We had a record opening this year primarily because of delayed openings in the previous year due to Covid.”

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Avenue Supermarts, located in Mumbai, owns and runs D-Mart outlets. D-Mart is a nationwide grocery chain that provides customers with a wide variety of home and personal items under one roof. As of March 31, 2022, the firm operated 284 outlets across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Daman, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, NCR, Chhattisgarh, and Punjab, with a total retail business area of 11.5 million square feet.