V-Mart says COVID second wave to hit first quarter business; will see 40-45% impact

V-Mart Retail has had a large impact due to the second wave of the COVID-19, said Lalit Agarwal, CMD of the retail major on Thursday. He said that 25 percent of stores are not operational and the company could lose at least 40-45 percent of business in Q1.

“We have almost 25 percent of the stores which are non-operational right now which falls into the lockdown zone. We still have not created scenarios, but we feel that in this particular quarter we will lose at least 40-45 percent of our business. Next quarter we expect things to get better, but overall in the year I fear that we may lose around 10-15 percent of business if this continues,” he told CNBC-TV18.

He said that retailers had stocked up on inventory after a good performance in March. However, now they don’t need such high inventory as there is a reduction in footfalls and sales.