Aditya Birla Retail loss widens to Rs 596 cr in FY14

Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL), after seven years into the business, could not control its losses, which widened to Rs 596 crores during the year ended March 2014 compared to Rs 510 crores a year ago. While sales more than doubled at Rs 2,510 crores after merging its arm Trinethra Super-retail in the company. The company has now accumulated a loss of Rs 4,745 crores including book value of Trinethra Retail that it acquired in 2007 along with investments and costs of building retail infrastructure.

The company ended the fiscal with 490 'More' branded supermarkets and 14 hypermarkets covering around 19.3 lakh square foot retail space. In a bid to trim and make the business profitable, the company shut over 35 unviable stores. The move has helped to improve company’s operating margins by 15 percent in FY14 compared to the last year.

ABRL recently borrowed Rs 500 crores from Yes Bank to grow its food and grocery business. The company, in its recent filing with the Registrar of Companies, said it has issued non-convertible debentures to Yes Bank for the amount. The company has also undertaken a restructuring process, which would see Madura getting subsidiarized from the listed Aditya Birla Nuvo with public shareholding. Pantaloons and More will be merged with the demerged Madura and the combined entity is expected to be led by Madura with Pantaloons and More being the smaller businesses by value in the restructured retail company.