Indian retailer ABFRL's sales soar 254% in Q1 FY23

Momentum from H2 last year continued in the first quarter as consumer confidence improved leading to traffic growth across businesses and channels. In the first quarter, the company’s e-commerce sales grew 56 per cent year-over-year. The omni-channel network has been expanded to more than 1,600 stores, and is one of the largest in the country. Small-town formats continued to show promising results with a network of more than 500 stores.

In the Lifestyle brands segment, revenue grew 51 per cent over pre-COVID levels to ₹1,519 crore, while EBITDA grew 40 per cent to ₹266 crore, on the back of retail L2L growth of 29 per cent over FY20 and aggressive expansion of retail stores. E-commerce business grew more than 50 per cent year-over-year. Small town format and casual wear business continued to show strong growth.

In the Pantaloons segment, the business achieved highest-ever first quarter revenue of ₹1,027 crore, while EBITDA grew 33 per cent over pre-COVID levels. The e-commerce channel grew by 70 per cent year-over-year, with strong traction on its own channel due to enhanced customer experience and engagement.

Inner wear and athleisure segment achieved highest-ever quarterly revenue driven by network expansion and strong e-commerce growth. Business continued to expand its trade network with addition of 2,000 new trade outlets to exit the quarter with close to 29,000 outlets.

The Youth Fashion segment consisting of American Eagle and Forever 21, continued to show robust growth. American Eagle sales is now almost three times of pre-COVID levels and is swiftly establishing itself as a premium denim wear brand. Growth was also driven by distribution network expansion with 5 new stores being added during the quarter.

Super premium brands, comprising The Collective and Mono brands is one of the fastest growing businesses with revenue more than 2 times of pre-COVID levels. Ethnic businesses also showed sharp growth as revenue is 2.7 times in the first quarter with scale coming from both network expansion and category extensions. Tasva added 6 new stores to the network to exit the quarter with 12 stores. For Sabyasachi, revenue grew by 160 per cent over pre-COVID levels.

“Improved consumer confidence, value migration to the organised sector, and robust omni-channel presence led to strong growth and improved profitability. We expect this momentum to continue in upcoming quarters, with a further boost during the festive season. ABFRL will continue to invest in strengthening our brand propositions and drive sales via both physical and online stores. We are confident of the long-term prospects of the Indian apparel sector and remain focused on delivering strong, consistent, profitable growth,” the company said in a press release.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)