BigBasket's consumer arm's FY22 loss widens 4x as employee costs soar

BigBasket (File Image)

Tata Digital-owned BigBasket's consumer arm's net loss widened fourfold in FY22 (2021-22) as the company's employee benefit costs doubled, according to its latest filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

BigBasket's B2C (business-to-consumer) arm reported a net loss of Rs 812.7 crore for FY22, against Rs 202.7 crore in FY21 (2020-21), the company's regulatory filings showed. The company's operating revenue; however, grew 17 percent to Rs 7,098 crore. BigBasket's B2C arm, run by Innovative Retail Concepts, spent Rs 739 crore on employees in FY22, against Rs 236 crore in FY21, the filings showed.

The company's other expenses, which include advertising expenses, and transportation charges, among other heads also more than doubled to Rs 1,097 crore.

The company's widening losses came at a time when it invested heavily into offline forays. In November, the Hari Menon-led company said it will open 200 physical outlets across India by 2023 and increase it to 800 by 2026. The company opened its first offline center, branded as 'Fresho' in November in Bengaluru.

BigBasket has also joined other new-age technology players including Zomato-owned Blinkit, Y Combinator-backed Zepto, Reliance-backed Dunzo, and Swiggy to make forays into the quick commerce space and 10-minute delivery space with BBNow.

Moneycontrol reported last month that the Tata Digital-owned company has 160 dark stores across 10 cities that cover around 45 percent of its customer base. The company said it had plans to double the number to around 300 in tier 1 cities and around 40-50 in tier II cities by end of next month. BigBasket has already opened dark stores in places like Kochi, Lucknow, and Vizag, the company had said.

In a recent interview with Moneycontrol, Menon, BigBasket's co-founder and chief executive, had said that BigBasket is the only company in the grocery space that has all the possible formats, which are required from a consumer standpoint.

The formats Menon was referring to are BBNow, a quick commerce offering, BBDaily a subscription offering, and BBInstant, a platform that sets up vending machines in residential complexes and corporate canteens.