Spencer's Retail Q3 loss narrows to Rs 27 cr; revenue down 7% at Rs 624 cr

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group arm Spencer's Retail Ltd on Wednesday reported narrowing of its consolidated net loss to Rs 26.77 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021.

The company had posted a net loss of Rs 29.63 crore in the October-December period a year ago, Spencer's Retail Ltd (SRL) said in a regulatory filing.

Revenue from operations dipped 7.13 per cent to Rs 624.06 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 671.98 crore in the year-ago period.

Total expenses were at Rs 669.48 crore, down 6.50 per cent from Rs 716.06 crore earlier.

Nature's Basket, which SRL had acquired from Godrej Industries, reported a standalone turnover of Rs 80 crore in the October-December quarter with a gross margin of 29.2 per cent.

It operates 36 stores with a total trading area of 1.08 lakh square feet as of December 31, 2021.

"Nature's Basket continues to be EBITDA positive on quarter on quarter basis driven by better margin and sustained cost controls on year to date basis," it said.

Commenting on the results, the firm's Sector Head Shashwat Goenka said: "We witnessed 7 per cent sequential growth in both of our businesses Spencer's and Nature's Basket although the latter part of December month remained challenging with subdued consumer sentiments and increase in cases of new COVID variant."

Its revenue from the non-food category, led by general merchandise and apparel, has started growing both on year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter basis.

"We continue to witness momentum in our omni channel business for the third quarter with 1.3x growth over last year," Goenka added.

Meanwhile, SRL said its board on Wednesday appointed Neelesh Bothra as the chief financial officer of the company with effect from February 9, 2022. SRL, including Nature's Basket, operates 189 stores in over 41 cities in India.

Shares of Spencer's Retail Ltd on Wednesday settled at Rs 97.60 on BSE, up 0.57 per cent from the previous close.