Vishal Retail FY08 net rises 62%

Mumbai: Discount retailer Vishal Retail Ltd said on Tuesday net profit for 2007/08 rose 62% on higher sales, driven by an addition in retail space and rising footfalls.

The company also said it saw private labels driving profitability going forward.

“The contribution of private labels will increase from 15% at present to 25% by FY10 and 50% by FY13," it said in an investor update.

Retailers get higher margins from private labels, which are goods sourced from generic manufacturers but are branded by the retailers themselves.

For the year ended March 2008, it posted a net profit of ₹ 06.9 million from ₹ 250.7 million a year ago. Net sales for the period rose 67% to ₹ 0.05 billion.

It added retail space of 902,346 square feet taking the total to 2.16 million square feet by end March 2008. The daily footfalls at its stores doubled to 182,396 during the period.

The retailer, which currently has 108 stores with a total space of over 2.29 million square feet, plans to take its stores to 500 with 10 million square feet retail space by 2010/11.

Vishal said its Jan-March quarter net profit stood at Rs104 million on net sales of Rs3.18 billion. It did not provide year-ago figures as it was not listed on the stock exchanges at that time.

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