On the back of a 12% jump in revenue Tata Group’s consumer electronics retail chain Croma has cut of its losses by 68% in the year ended March 2017 to Rs 61.4 crore down from Rs 195.6 crore in the previous year.
According to its latest regulatory filings, Infiniti Retail, that owns and operates the Croma stores, posted revenues of Rs 3,268.7 crore for 2016-17 against Rs 2,918.2 crore in the previous year.
This defies the effects of the government’s demonetisation drive and ecommerce discounts.
Infiniti Retail CEO Avijit Mitra said same-store sales grew 13% last fiscal.
“The most tangible change the market can observe is the increase in number of Croma stores — we started FY18 with 97 stores, are currently operational in 105 and are in the process of opening another 10,” he said.
With last year’s growth, Infiniti Retail’s sales almost returned to 2014-15 levels after a 11% decline in 2015-16
The company had then attributed the fall in sales to the growth of ecommerce. It had subsequently said that with the omni-channel initiatiative, it embarked on in July 2015.This had led to improvement in footfall and same-store sales growth.
Sources have attributed the improved showing of Croma to shutting of unprofitable stores and focusing on less capital-intensive expansion and its omni-channel initiative that helped it compete better with ecommerce majors Amazon and Flipkart.
Some of the changes that the company undertook as part of this was to focus on online marketplaces as the key competition, actively compete for purchases from the digitally engaged and influenced, younger shoppers, build a store-first, omni-channel proposition and elevate the customers’ experience in the stores.
