DMart profit jumps nearly 13% in Q1, board approves Rs 1,000 crore debt raise

MUMBAI: DMart’s parent had a packed Saturday. Avenue Supermarts used its 11 July board meeting to post a robust quarter, wave through a management reshuffle, greenlight a hefty debt raise and let a long-standing promoter walk out of the family.

Start with the numbers, because they are the kind that make analysts sit up. Standalone revenue for the quarter ended 30 June climbed to Rs 18,343.49 crore, up from Rs 15,932.12 crore a year earlier, while net profit after tax rose to Rs 935.77 crore against Rs 829.73 crore, a jump of nearly 13 per cent. Operating margin nudged up to 8.32 per cent from 8.24 per cent, and basic earnings per share came in at Rs 14.35, against Rs 12.75 last year. On a consolidated basis, revenue reached Rs 18,794.53 crore and net profit Rs 860.44 crore, comfortably ahead of the Rs 772.81 crore reported a year ago. The retailer’s core value-format model, it seems, is still printing money at scale.

The board also cleared a Rs 1,000 crore non-convertible debenture issuance, to be raised in one or more tranches on a private placement basis — fresh ammunition for a balance sheet that already carries a debt-equity ratio of just 0.10 times, among the more conservative in Indian retail.

Management got a shake-up too. Bhaskaran N, DMart’s coo since taking on the role after 32 years across corporate secretarial work, hr and supply chain, was re-appointed whole-time director for a term running from 17 October 2026 to 31 May 2028, subject to shareholder approval. He joined the company in 2008 as vice president of hr and has since built the staples business and the supply chain function from scratch.

Lalit Ahuja walks in as a second coo, effective 13 July, arriving with 28 years across Philips India, General Mills, Dabur, Godrej Consumer Products, Mars, Apple and a decade at Zydus Wellness as senior vice president of sales. Parvez Vandrewala, the incumbent coo, shifts sideways rather than out — from 1 November he becomes head of centre of excellence, retaining his senior managerial personnel status.

In a quieter but no less significant move, the board approved Vijay Shankar Chandak’s request to reclassify from promoter group to public category, having satisfied the conditions under Regulation 31A(3)(b) of SEBI’s listing rules. The reclassification now awaits stock exchange sign-off.

The board meeting ran from 1.30pm to 2.50pm — eighty minutes to post double-digit profit growth, hire a coo, promote another sideways, raise Rs 1,000 crore and shrink the promoter table. DMart’s boardroom, much like its stores, does not waste a minute.