DMart rallies 6 percent on ambitious store addition plan, plays down quick commerce threat

The company said it sees value retail has a 'multidecadal growth opportunity' and any retailer who stands for something meaningful will benefit from it.

Value-retailing major Avenue Supermarts, or DMart, told analysts during an investor call on July 30 that the company will step up on store additions going forward, and that the competition from quick commerce is unlikely to affect its financial performance, sending shares higher by over 6 percent.

D-mart's total store count as on date stands at 426, the company said, adding 11 stores during the June quarter.

The company said it sees value retail has a 'multidecadal growth opportunity' and any retailer who stands for something meaningful will benefit from it. "India is at the cusp of unprecedented growth over multiple decades. DMart is primed to capture a part of that growth by growing store numbers across the country and across horizontals of new and evolving categories that have strong salience to the format," Managing Director & CEO Neville Noronha said earlier this month after the June quarter earnings.

Neville added that the nature of value-retailing is to 'constantly compete, adapt and reinvent, all the time'. "It is literally war like."

"If we focus on delivering the best value and focus on doing just one thing, we will continue to be relevant to the customer for a long time to come. DMart through DMart stores and DMart Ready is the way to go. Nothing Else," CEO Neville Noronha added. DMart Ready is the retailer's online grocery shopping platform that allows customers to order groceries, staples and daily household essentials online — essentially everything you'd find in a physical DMart store. Customers can choose between home delivery or pickup from a nearby DMart Ready store.

DMart has been on track in terms of adding store count, with its retail business area growing by 2 percent in FY25 to 17.2 million sq feet, and revenue from per sq feet retail business area coming in at close to Rs 33,896 crore, higher than FY24. Read More

The CEO added that value retail will thrive on consistency alone. "Differentiation is over played and over celebrated. Consistency is actually a larger driver of competitive advantage in Value Retail. Differentiation works up to a point, to prove a model, a pilot test, a profitability construct, a unique proposition."