V-Mart sees marginal demand uptick but expects challenges ahead

V-Mart Retail, a Gurugram-based hypermarket chain serving smaller towns, has noticed a marginal increase in demand recently. However, it still anticipates some difficulties in consumer spending in the areas where it operates.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Lalit Agarwal, Founder and MD of V-Mart Retail said that the cost of living has been high due to persistent inflation, causing some difficulties for consumers.

However, March should be a good month as there are a lot of marriages and festivals in the month, he said.

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Discussing the strategies to counter the muted demand, Agarwal said, “We are focusing on improvising our internal processes, our capability to deliver better fashion to the customer, and targeting that customer. So that will also bring in some kind of result is what we expect.”

Brokerage firm Motilal Oswal, in a recent report, noted that the retail company is likely to shut down more than 15 of its stores in the January-March quarter of FY24, which is expected to help the company recover its margins and reach levels of 6-7% as the new financial year 2024-25 (FY25) begins.

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V-Mart Retail's stock has dropped almost 10% over the past month and 21% over the last year.

For the entire interview, watch the accompanying video