According to recent filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Amazon-Samara Capital’s food and grocery retail chain, More Retail, witnessed an increase in losses, rising to INR 550 crore during the fiscal year 2022-23, up from INR 402 crore in the preceding fiscal year. Meanwhile, the company’s revenue saw a 7.4% decline, falling to INR 4,507 crore.
In its filings with the RoC, the company did not provide any explanation or rationale for the decrease in revenue and the incurring of losses.
As of the press time, the company had not responded to an email sent to them.
More Retail’s FY23 Loss Widens:
In the submitted filings, the company expressed its confidence in having established a “sustainable business poised for rapid scalability.”
“This was reflected in the fact that during the year under review your company opened 46 supermarkets and 5 hypermarkets,” it said. As of FY23, More operated 873 supermarkets and 42 hypermarkets across 11 states.
According to the filings, the primary sources of revenue include grocery food and staples, accounting for 53% of total sales, with grocery non-food following at 22%, and fresh products at 19%.
“More Retail’s revenue has witnessed a decline, while operational costs have surged, intensifying the company’s financial strain,” said Mohit Yadav, founder of business intelligence firm AltInfo.
“The major chunk of expenditure is allocated towards inventory, underscoring the imperative need for bolstered margins to ensure the company’s sustained growth,” he said.
The filings further reveal that More Retail engaged in related-party transactions with several Amazon entities in India during FY23. This encompassed dealings amounting to INR 44 crore with Amazon Retail India, which comprised the acquisition of fruits and vegetables valued at INR 2.3 crore.
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The remaining sales primarily consist of B2B transactions. Additionally, there were transactions with Amazon Seller Services and Amazon Pay India, including commissions on orders placed, commissions on payments processed through Amazon Pay, and the recovery of promotional discounts.
In the filed documents, More Retail outlined its strategy for profitable growth, which hinges on the introduction of its own e-commerce platform for supermarkets and hypermarkets, ambitious expansion efforts in both existing and emerging markets, a sustainable operational framework backed by robust backend support, and stringent management of margin profits and overhead expenses.
