Reliance Retail's strong run continues, revenue crosses Rs 1.3 tn in FY19

Reliance Retail continued its strong run for the past few quarters, posting a profit before depreciation, interest, and taxes (PBDIT) of Rs 1,923 crore for the quarter ended March, up 14.5 per cent sequentially on 3.1 per cent revenue growth on expanding retail footprint and same store sales growth.

The segment revenue came in at Rs 36,663 crore, up 3.1 per cent over previous quarter and 51.6 per cent year on year (YoY). The Q4 PBDIT was up 77.1 per cent YoY. 

For the full year, segment revenues grew by 88.7 per cent YoY to Rs 1.30 trillion as against Rs 69,198 crore in the previous year. PBDIT for FY19 grew by 145.2 per cent YoY to Rs 6,201 crore as against Rs 2,529 crore in the previous year.

The same store sales growth for fashion and apparel was 25 per cent on a YoY basis, while grocery grew 28 per cent. Reliance Retail added 510 stores during Q4FY19 and 2,829 stores during the financial year. Now, Reliance Retail operates 10,415 stores, covering over 22 million sq ft of retail space. 

The company operates 10,415 stores in over 6,600 cities, covering an area of over 22 million sq ft as on March 31, 2019. Reliance Retail operates 516 petro retail outlets as on March 31, 2019.

Commenting on pulling out fashion and lifestyle products from e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, V Srikanth, chief financial officer, RIL, said the products recalled did not have any major impact on the retail sales. These products are available on their e-commerce platform AJIO and the move would bring additional traction for AJIO.

Ajio.com, the online fashion platform, has built a strong base of loyal customers with around two-thirds of its revenue originating from repeat customers. 

During the year, Ajio.com doubled its product catalogue to offer over 130,000 options and the website got over 300 million hits during the year.