Spencer's Retail makes cash break even, plans expansion

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Aug 7, 2017

Spencer’s Retail has narrowed its losses and made cash break even for the current fiscal year and, due to online success, plans to expand its delivery.

The Chairman of Spencer’s Retail, Sanjiv Goenka, announced that it had already made cash break even for the first quarter of the financial year 2018. The company’s net loss has also been lowered by 9 percent year-on-year and stands at the end of the last fiscal year at 129.39 crore rupees (around 19.4 million dollars) as opposed to the previous year’s figure of 142.28 crore rupees (around 21.4 million dollars). Turnover also grew by 8 percent last financial year, which is when Spencer’s launched its e-commerce site.

Delivery for Spencer’s online store is currently available across Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR region, and Vishakhapatnam. The business plans to expand its delivery plan over the current fiscal year to cover ten to 12 cities in its hyper delivery model for online orders. Spencer’s plans to leverage its 125 brick and mortar stores for delivery from its e-commerce site. This expansion of the brand’s e-commerce presence is in response to both an increase in sales and the current trends of demonetisation and internet shopping in Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities.

In other news, Spencer’s Retail will demerge from CESC and become and an independent company from October 1 this year. Approval from the National Company Law Tribunal is needed but Goenka is optimistic that independence will be granted.

Spencer’s headquarters are located in Kolkata and the business was started in 1863. Indian ownership of the British-founded brand was acquired in the 1960s and the brand became part of the RPG group in 1989. Starting off as a grocers, Spencer’s Retail now offers apparel, accessories, health and beauty products, and electronic goods.

Spencer’s stores are located in over 35 cities in India and the brand also has an e-commerce site.