Reliance Retail clocks nearly $10 billion revenue in one quarter

The growth in sales for the country's largest retail chain was 22.8% compared to the same period last year, driven by strong consumer demand during the annual festive season.

The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at ₹6,271 crore, a 31% rise from the year-ago period. The EBITDA margin, a measure of a company's profitability, is at 7.6%.

The retail chain, now managed by the 32-year-old Isha Ambani, added 252 new stores, taking the total store count at the end of the quarter to 18,774, spread over an area of 72.9 million square feet, a company statement said.

The valuation of Reliance Industries' retail was ₹8.28 lakh crore, about $100 billion, chairman Mukesh Ambani said in August 2023. In the financial year ending March 2023, the retail revenue for Reliance was ₹2.6 lakh crore.

With three more months to go, the company is just about ₹37,000 crore short of that mark.

“There's always a premium for scale of businesses because that's what really attracts the large deep pocket investors. And, look at the consistency of performance also coming through retail and also the fact that there's a huge opportunity in the retail business as the shift takes place from the unorganized to the organized and Reliance Retail has its fingers in almost every pie, right from premium products to the absolute household products as well. So where do you get such businesses? Globally also I think it's like an equivalent of an Amazon in India,” Dipan Mehta, Elxir Equities, said.