V2 Retail sees organized sector share tripling to 24% in three years

V2 Retail, formerly known as Vishal Retail, said it expects organized retail in India to grow a strong pace in the next three years to increase its share of the overall market to 24% by 2020.

At present, the share of organized retail — mostly super markets and hyper markets, but also e-commerce — is around 8%.

“Retail industry is expected to grow to US$ 1.3 trillion 1400 by 2020, registering a compounded annual growth rate of 16.7% between 2015-2020,” the company said, after announcing its annual results for the year ended March.

V2 Retail was incorporated in the year 2001, and launched a series of hyper markets such as Vishal Megamart. However, the economic downturn starting in 2008 pushed the company into deep losses, soon after going public in 2007.

This forced the company to sell its core brand ‘Vishal’ to tide over the financial difficulties, opting for the V2 branding subsequently.

It presently operates in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, with a chain of 38 “V2 Retail” stores spread in 13 states.

STRONG FOURTH QUARTER

For the fourth quarter ended March, the company reported a growth of 35% in its turnover from ₹ 79 crores last year to ₹ 107 crores this year.

With this, revenue for the last financial year was up 47% to ₹471 crores.

The company has maintained sales momentum in this quarter as well led by healthy demand and new stores opening, it said.

Profitability too increase, with gross profit — which does not take into account most of the fixed costs like rentals — jumping from ₹ 18 crores to ₹ 30 crores in the quarter.

For FY17, Gross Profit grew at 45% from ₹ 96 crores to ₹ 138 crores.

Operating profit, which takes into account both variable and fixed costs, grew more than doubled to ₹2.7 crore. Operational EBIDTA margins improved from 1.5% to 2.5% during the quarter.

Adjusted profit before tax was at ₹0.70 crores compared with a loss of ₹2.60 crores in the same three months of 2016.