For online grocery platform BigBasket, FY18 was the year where it worked on gaining dominance in the Indian market while competing with Grofers and expanding its business in the country.
During the financial year, the Bengaluru based company saw the revenue of its wholesale arm Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Limited increase by 35 per cent to Rs 1,606 crore, from Rs 1,176 crore in FY17.
In the fiscal year ending March 2017, the company had recorded a 2X jump in revenue from Rs 563 crore in FY16. Compared to that, the 35 per cent increase in revenue suggests a slowdown in the growth curve.
The losses, on the other hand, reduced to Rs 310 crore, showing a 53 per cent decrease. Meanwhile, the operational losses retained the previous fiscal year figure of Rs 312 crore.
In FY17 the overall losses had increased due to an exceptional expense of Rs 340 crore. The improvement in the financial figures of the company, especially the loss figures can be attributed to the absence of this exceptional figure and not significantly improved efficiency, as the operational loss clearly remains the same.
The retail arm of the firm – Innovative Retail – saw a 29 per cent hike in revenue to Rs 1,410 crore. This again is a setback in the company’s growth figures as compared to the 2.1X jump from Rs 527 crore in FY16 to Rs 1,090 crore in FY17.
However, the retail arm did manage to actually control the losses by 6 per cent to Rs 179 crore in FY18. This is a positive change when we consider that the figure had increased to Rs 191 crore in FY17.
At the same time, BigBasket saw one of its 2015 acquisitions, Delyver Retail shut operations. This had lead to the company seeking impairment provision of Rs 41 crore.
In the ongoing fiscal FY19, the balance sheet and profit and loss statements are going to show a significant change, looking at how the company has forayed into microdelivery with BBdaily after the acquisition of RainCan and Morning Cart.
The development was reported by ET.
