V-Mart Crosses a Major Milestone as it Reports Over Rs 1000 Cr Turnover for FY17

Business Wire India

• The Board of Directors recommend a dividend of 12.5% for FY17

• "Focus on customers' expectations, technology adoption and store expansion key to our high performance" – Lalit Agarwal, CMD, V-Mart Retail Ltd.

V-Mart Retail Ltd, North India's leading and fastest growing retail chain, has reached a major milestone in its journey by crossing the benchmark Rs 1000 crore in turnover. The milestone is all the more significant in the stressed brick and mortar retail environment due to growing clout of e-commerce platforms.

The company has announced its audited financial results for the year ending 31st Mar 2017, which were approved by the Company's Board of Directors at its meeting held on 3rd May, 2017. During the year FY'17, there is an increase in revenue by 24% to Rs 1001.72 crores, EBITDA by 33% to Rs 82.58 crores and PAT by 43% to Rs 39.53 crores, YoY.

The company now runs 143 stores under the V-Mart brand across Delhi, UP, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and J&K.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Lalit Agarwal, CMD, V-Mart Retail Ltd, thanked all stakeholders including investors, employees and vendors for achieving Rs 1000 crores of revenue after 13 years of long journey. He said that we have many opportunities ahead to position the company for long term growth while keeping our attention focused on operating discipline.

He contributed to the company's growth in 2016-17 to greater focus on customers' expectations, increase the Same Store Sales Growth to 13% YoY, opening of 21 new stores during the year, the smart ATM initiative launched by the company to help customers get cash from V-Mart stores during demonetization which helped gain significant new customers for the company and gaining operating efficiencies through automation in supply chain.

"Focus on customers' expectations, technology adoption and store expansion have been key to our high performance," said Lalit Agarwal, CMD, V-Mart Retail Ltd.

Outlook

For 2017-18, the company aims to further seek improvements in per square feet sales, opening of new stores, launching of new collections for festivities, target marketing for the key customer segments in rural and urban areas and improving fashion offerings at even better price points as company's key drivers for growth.

FY18 will be year for Customer Connect. V-Mart would strongly focus on enhancing customer shopping experience making it a distinguishing factor. The company's newly launched customer loyalty program – Value Club is further being expanded to offer significantly better value to the customer base.

The company feels that the upcoming changes in trade laws around GST are an area of concern and may prove to be inflationary to the value conscious customers in the transition phase. However, the company is confident of the move to the new tax regime and it hopes that this should boost the economy and better the confidence level amongst the business and the consumers alike thereby increasing consumption. There has been renewed interest and increase in retail sales in the state of UP after the new government has come to power and the company anticipates higher consumption and demand after the waiver of loans for the farmers in the state. UP accounts for more than 50% of the company's revenues.

About V-Mart Retail Limited:

V-Mart is a medium-sized hypermarket format retail chain based in New Delhi. It is a multi-brand family retail store offering apparels, general merchandise and kirana. Primary focusing on Tier- II & Tier- III cities which are located as standalone stores in high-street areas and shopping hubs of such cities. V-Mart offers clothing, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, and children. The average size of store is approximately 8,000 Sq. Ft. The company follows the concept of "value retailing" to target the strata of the population belonging to the expanding "aspiring class" and "middle class" and is based on customer's socio economic conditions, purchasing power, demographic details and customer trends. V-Mart stores, in untapped markets, provide customers with a different shopping experience, comprising of a vast range of value retail products under a modern ambience and feel of a large retail mall.