The retail business of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) reported a 47.2% year-on-year (yoy) increase in revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2017 at Rs 8,688 crore, led by all consumption baskets.
Overall, RIL reported a 3.6% rise in its third-quarter net profit after petrochemical margins made good a drop in its core refinery profits. Net profit of Rs 7,506 crore in October-December, was 3.6% higher than Rs 7,245 crore in the same period a year ago. RIL earned $10.8 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel as compared to a gross refining margin (GRM) of $11.5 in the third quarter of 2015-16 fiscal.
Turnover was up 16.1% at Rs 84,189 crore.
“The retail business delivered strong profit before depreciation, interest and tax (PBDIT) of Rs 333 crore on year in Q3 FY’17 as against Rs 237 crore last year. During the quarter, Reliance Retail added 111 stores across various store concepts. Trends crossed a milestone of 300 stores during the quarter,” company said, adding that at the end of the December quarter it operated 3,553 stores across 686 cities with an area of over 13.25 million square feet.
On the business impact of demonetization, the company said that it led to cautious buying by customers for a short period. “Reliance Retail extended support to all its customers, business partners, farmers and small suppliers across the value chain during the initial period of demonetization. Overall impact from demonetization has been positive for core retail business with favourable long-term implications for modern trade,” it said.
Citing Nielsen data, the company said its two formats – Reliance Fresh and Smart stores – grew faster than the modern trade during demonetization and its share of trade went up from 26.2% pre-demonetization to 27.8% post demonetization.
Reliance Market maintained its wholesale ‘cash and carry’ leadership with 40 operational stores and over 2.5 million registered member partners, it said. The consumer electronics retailing vertical operates a network of 1,986 Reliance Digital and Digital Express Mini stores while fashion and lifestyle category under ‘Trends’ achieved a milestone of over 300 stores across 177 cities.
Reliance Brands signed a joint venture agreement with luxury brand Bally while as part of its 2.0 initiatives, its e-commerce platform Ajio expanded presence to 169 Trends stores.
Source: dnaindia.com