Following eightfold expansion in FY23, Apna Mart, a Bharat-focused franchise-led supermarket chain, delivered another outstanding performance in FY24, increasing its operating scale by 85.6% year on year. However, the company's losses increased by 50% but stayed below Rs 35 crore during this period. Apna Mart's revenue from operations increased to Rs 59.4 crore in the last fiscal year from Rs 32 crore in FY23, according to its annual financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

In fiscal year 24, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales were the sole source of revenue. Apna Mart also gained Rs 3.6 crore in interest on deposits and mutual fund redemptions in the previous fiscal year, boosting its total income to Rs 63 crore, up from Rs 32.2 crore in FY23. For the consumer goods store, product procurement costs amounted for 61% of total expenditure. To account for scale, this cost grew by 85% to Rs 58.4 crore in FY24 from Rs 31.6 crore in FY23.

Employee perks increased by 82.4% to Rs 16.6 crore in FY24, including a Rs 2 crore non-cash ESOP expense. Other key overheads included advertising, legal, and manpower expenditures, which increased the firm's overall expenditure by 77.8% to Rs 96 crore in FY24 from Rs 54 crore in FY23.

Apna Mart's losses climbed 51.4% year on year to Rs 33 crore in FY24, because of higher spending on procurement and employee benefits. Its ROCE and EBITDA margins were -57.7% and -49.76%, respectively. In fiscal year 24, the firm's expense-to-earnings ratio was Rs 1.62.

Apna Mart had total current assets of Rs 28.3 crore, with a cash position of Rs 1 crore at the conclusion of the fiscal year ending March 2024.

According to TheKredible, a startup data analytics platform, Apna Mart has raised more than $14 million in funding. The firm is presently valued at Rs 397 crore (roughly $48 million), with Accel Partners, Peak XV Partners, Titan Capital, Disruptors Capital, and Sparrow Capital among its investors. Its enterprise value to revenue ratio was 6.68X in the preceding fiscal year.

Apna Mart's focus on tier 2 cities in a rapidly expanding area like quick commerce raises serious concerns, given how tough it has been to earn a profit in those regions.  Its scale does not yet provide a major procurement advantage. We believe that the corporation faces numerous obstacles before it can rest easy. A franchisee-based approach may have helped limit costs and losses slightly, but it will be interesting to watch how far this can go.