Shoppers Stop reports 4 percent rise in like-to-like sales in Q4

Amid competition from ecommerce players, who are enjoying a huge share of consumers’ pockets, one of the older bricks-and-mortar retailers Shoppers Stop has managed to report a 4 percent rise in like-to-like sales in the fourth quarter.

Shoppers Stop posted year-on-year stand-alone revenue growth of 9.3 percent to Rs 815 crores. Revenue mix for the last quarter consisted of 63.8 percent apparel and the rest was driven by categories like watches, jewellery, electronics and personal accessories. Shoppers Stop made a gross margin of 33.6 percent in the March quarter, its non-apparel margin was below 30 percent while that of apparel was more than 35 percent, proving once again that apparel continues to be a high margin category. Led by strong operating profit and other income growth, the company’s net profit increased 27 percent to Rs 10.3 crores.

HyperCity, a Shoppers Stop subsidiary too managed to increase its Ebitda at the store level to Rs 5.39 crore in the March quarter compared with Rs 1.95 crore in the same period last year. Ebitda refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Shoppers Stop now plans to strengthen its online and offline presence to boost sales. The departmental store chain plans to infuse Rs 140 crores raised through internal accruals to expand its store presence and online sales infrastructure within next one year. With 73 stores, the company is looking forward to adding six Shoppers Stop stores, three HyperCity stores and five specialty stores over the next 12 months. The company has managed to generate Rs 150 crores of cash through sales last year and expects to earn around Rs 190 crores through sales over the next year.