Avenue Supermarts tumbles as lockdown impacts operations

Avenue Supermarts hit a lower circuit of 5% at Rs 2,287.90 after the supermarket chain said that nearly 50% of its stores remained closed for operations based on the directives issued by the local government.

Avenue Supermarts on Friday, 10 April 2020, informed that nearly 50% of the company's stores remain closed for operations based on directive by the local authorities. Avenue Supermarts owns and operates D-Mart stores, a national supermarket chain that offers customers a range of home and personal products under one roof.

"Footfall at stores that are open, depends on movement and timing restrictions enforced by the local authorities. Overall, they are significantly lower than usual footfalls," the hypermarket chain operator said in an exchange filing.

As of 31 December 2019, Avenue Supermarts had 196 stores with a retail floor space of 7 million sq. ft in 72 cities spread across 11 states and 1 Union Territory. Maharashtra had the maximum number of stores, followed by Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh & Telangana. The company has very limited presence in NCR, Daman and Punjab.

The company said it continues to sell daily use essential items such as grocery and FMCG products from all its stores and has stopped sale of non-essential items (general merchandise and apparel).

For the nine months ended on 31 December 2019, foods (comprising of dairy, staples groceries, etc.) contributed 51% to the company's revenue, Non-Foods (FMCG such as personal care products, toiletries, etc.) contributed 20% to the company's revenue and general merchandise & apparel (consisting of products such as plastic goods, garments, footwear, home appliances, etc.) contributed 29% to the company's revenue.

The company has commenced e-commerce home delivery and bulk deliveries to large housing complexes across majority of its stores during the first week of April. "Customers who have used the service have deeply appreciated these initiatives, however, sales from these channels are inconsequential," the company said.

E-commerce and bulk deliveries to societies are initiatives implemented to only manage the current lockdown situation, it added.

On a consolidated basis, Avenue Supermarts' net profit jumped 55.32% to Rs 384.04 crore on a 24.38% increase in net sales to Rs 6,808.93 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018.

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