On a consolidated basis, profit before tax stood at Rs 608.89 crore in the fourth quarter, up by 12.02% from Rs 543.56 crore during the period under review.

Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) in Q4 FY22 rose 20.55% to Rs 739 crore, as compared to Rs 613 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. EBITDA margin stood at 8.4% in Q4FY22 as against 8.3% in Q4 FY21.

On full year basis, the company reported a 35.75% increase in net profit to Rs 1,492.55 crore on 28.3% rise in net sales to Rs 30,976.27 crore in FY22 over FY21. EBITDA in FY22 stood at Rs 2,499 crore, as against Rs 1,743 crore during FY21. EBITDA margin stood at 8.1% in FY22 as compared to 7.2% in FY21.

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 on the resilience of the business to recover in the short term.”

He further added, “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 on this for 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.”

Avenue Supermarts is a Mumbai-based company, which owns and operates D-Mart stores. D-Mart is a national supermarket chain that offers customers a range of home and personal products under one roof. As of 31 March 2022, the company had 284 operating stores with retail business area of 11.5 million sq. ft across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Daman, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, NCR, Chhattisgarh and Punjab.