Retail
Reliance Retail profit falls 24% to ₹2,611 crore
Revenue up 6% but festive shift and digital spends hit margins; 303 new stores take network to 19,947.
Meera Iyer, Retail correspondent··4 min read
Net profit dropped 24.3% to ₹2,611 crore as EBITDA margin slipped 120 basis points to 7.8%. Management blamed planned digital commerce investments, input-cost inflation it absorbed, and the festive calendar moving into the December quarter. A one-time ₹108 crore impairment on 7-Eleven came after all those stores shut by end-September.
Shop-floor impact shows in grocery LFL growth of just 3% and the need for Smart 2.0 AI ordering formats. Dark-store and JioMart riders now handle higher average order values and 24% more units per basket, yet the till still waits for Diwali and wedding traffic that skipped Q2.
Festive calendar shift and digital spends left Q2 margins thinner even as stores and JioMart kept expanding.
The squeeze hits smaller kiranas and pure-play quick-commerce rivals already burning cash on density. It helps Reliance’s own B2B arm, up 10%, and private-label push inside the 5,000-plus JioMart-linked points across 1,000 cities.
Watch the December quarter filing and early festive sell-through numbers for whether the 7% transaction growth converts into margin recovery once festivals land.