Spencer’s operates 154 Stores with a total trading area of 13.69 lakh square feet. In a statement, the company said its wholly-owned subsidiary ORIPL, which runs the e-commerce operations, reported over three times surge in business during the quarter and improved its profitability by 70 per cent to a loss of Rs 1.3 crore.
The company’s another wholly-owned subsidiary which runs gourmet food stores, Natures Basket Ltd reported a standalone turnover of Rs 80 crore and continues to be EBITDA positive on quarter on quarter basis. Natures Basket operates with 33 stores with a total trading area of 0.93 lakh square feet.
The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group sector head (retail and FMCG) Shashwat Goenka said the lockdown in the second wave was far more stringent in terms of the number of hours allowed for our operations. Also, restrictions similar to last year on not allowing the sale of non-essentials came in, which impacted the higher-margin non-food sales, he said.
“We were better prepared and the business has recovered quickly post the stringent lockdown of May and June. Our efficiency initiatives have sustained; though Spencer’s standalone sales were higher by 7 per cent as compared to the first quarter of last year, we have improved our consolidated bottom line by Rs 31crore,” said Goenka.
He said there is continued strong momentum in the omnichannel business with three times growth over last year. During the quarter, the company added two new Spencer’s stores.
