V-Mart Retail Eyes High Single-Digit Growth In Coming Quarters Despite High Base Effect

V-Mart Retail Ltd. is confident of clocking mid to high single-digit growth in the upcoming quarters, despite challenges due to a higher base effect, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Anand Agarwal told NDTV Profit on Thursday.

The company's net profit saw a staggering 154% growth, standing at Rs 72 crore in the third quarter, compared to Rs 28 crore in the year-ago period. The top line grew 15% to Rs 1,027 crore, while Ebitda jumped 43% to Rs 171 crore.

“We are optimistic of mid to high single-digit growth in the coming quarters. So, I'm not seeing this as a one-off, and there is definitely going to be a base impact,” he said.

However, challenges of a base effect will continue since the company has been consistently performing better over several quarters now.

“There will definitely be some challenges in terms of the base effect. The last year had the growth on the back of slightly lower, smaller numbers in the previous year,” Agarwal said.

“But I think the momentum that we have created for ourselves in terms of the operational efficiency should still give us some more growth,” he added.

V-Mart saw its margins expand to 16.7% from 13.5% YoY in the third quarter. This base effect will also put pressure on margin growth going forward, according to the CFO.

“There's definitely going to be pressure on margins as well. So operating leverage is not easy to combine. It requires a lot of discipline. It is not something which we can just aspire to and win,” he said.

However, Agarwal is “hopeful” of sustaining the growth momentum.

“So, there's a lot of work which will go into it, but we are still hopeful that we should be able to keep this momentum going,” he said.

Shares of V-Mart Retail were 2.77% lower as of 10:38 a.m., compared to a 0.22% decline in Nifty 50.