Reliance Retail’s consolidated net profit declined about 5% on a year-on-year basis to Rs 2,139 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022, due to headwinds posed by the Covid situation in January, which were offset by the robust growth in February and March as the business leveraged festive events and early setting of summer season.

The business recorded 23.1% y-o-y growth in the company’s revenue from operations (net of GST) at `50,834 crore, while gross revenue at Rs 58,017 crore registered a growth of 23.3% y-o-y with broad-based double-digit growth across all consumption baskets.

Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) before investment income increased 16.3% y-o-y to Rs 3,584 crore led by robust performance in fashion and lifestyle and grocery consumption baskets. The Ebitda margins, however, remained muted and declined 40 basis points to 7.1% during the quarter. Ebitda for the quarter increased 2.4% y-o-y to Rs 3,705 crore.

The business continued to increase its store network and strengthen its supply chain capabilities. It opened 793 stores and added 3.1 million square feet of warehousing and fulfilment space during the quarter.

The business more than doubled its daily orders on y-o-y basis across all its digital commerce platforms on the back of stronger product portfolio and attractive offers. Alongside in New Commerce, the business continued to partner with new merchants across geographies and consumption baskets. The merchant partner base grew 3x over last year.

Reliance Retail acquired Clovia, leading women’s intimate wear brand, to bolster its lingerie brand portfolio. Further, Reliance Retail has acquired stake in Indian designer wear brands – AK-OK, Abraham & Thakore, Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla and formed a JV for a new brand with Rahul Mishra during the quarter.

The company witnessed growth across all segments of fashion and lifestyle, consumer electronics, grocery and pharmaceutical business.

For the full year ended March 31, 2022 consolidated net profit increased nearly 29% to Rs 7,055 crore over last year. The revenue from operations (net of GST) increased 26% y-o-y to Rs 1.75 trillion, while the gross revenue of Rs 1.99 trillion registered a growth of nearly 27% over last year. This is the highest ever revenue clocked by the company. Ebitda for the full year crossed Rs 12,000-crore milestone with Rs 12,381 crore — a rise of 26.5% y-o-y.

During the year, over 2,500 stores were opened taking the total count to 15,196 stores with a total area of 41.6 million sq. ft. Reliance Retail’s registered customer base increased to 193 million, up 24% y-o-y. The company added 150,000 new jobs during the year taking the total employee count to over 361,000.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, RIL, said, “Over the past year, we added over 2.1 lakh new employees across our businesses with our consumer and technology business creating a large part of these new jobs. I am pleased to report that our retail business has crossed the 15,000 store benchmark”.