Is the worst behind for DMart?

For a while now, Avenue Supermarts Ltd has been finding it tough to boost sales from its high-margin general merchandise and apparel business. This is a key reason why the profit margins of the company, which runs the DMart supermarket retail chain, have suffered in the past several quarters. Take the three months ended September (Q2FY24). Stand-alone Ebitda margin stood at 8.1%, down 48 basis points from the year-ago period. This is the fifth quarter where the measure has fallen year-on-year.

- Vineetha Sampath, Pallavi Pengonda

Ebitda is a profitability parameter and is short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Overall Ebitda rose by 12% from a year ago to ₹1,001.8 crore, coming in lower than analysts’ expectations as gross margin fell year-on-year and staff costs remained elevated.