Pepperfry eyes IPO in 15 months, opens warehouse in Bengaluru
1 min read 21 Sep 2019, 10:14 AM ISTThe warehouse in Hoskote area of Bengaluru is spread across 360,000 sq. ft, roughly the size of 6 football fieldsThe Bengaluru warehouse is among the company’s three large 'mother hubs'
PremiumOnline furniture retailer Pepperfry expects to report its first annual profit in the next financial year and plans to go public in 12-15 months, said its co-founder Ambareesh Murty.
“We plan to file for an initial public offering in the next 12-15 months," Murty, who is also the chief executive of the company, said in an interview on the sidelines of the opening of one of Pepperfry’s largest warehouse in Bengaluru on 20 September.
“The company is on a clear path to full-year profitability by FY21, though we will get very close to being profitable by this October itself," Murty said.
Established in 2012, Pepperfry has raised close to $200 million from investors such as Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, State Street Global Advisors, and Bertelsmann India Investments.
The Bengaluru warehouse is among the company’s three large “mother hubs". The other two are in Mumbai and Gurugram. The one in Bengaluru is also the company’s most technologically advanced, though the Mumbai warehouse is the largest in terms of size.
The warehouse, located in Hoskote area in Bengaluru, is spread across 360,000 sq. ft, roughly the size of six football fields. Murty said south India is the largest market for the company with a share of 40%, followed by the west and the north regions with 30% market share each.
“The facility is well placed to cater to the surging demand in south India, thereby resulting in reduced transit times, reduction in long-haul movement costs and decline in return rates," he said.
The warehouse has the capacity to process 1,000 orders a day and a storage capacity of up to 30,000 units, according to Pepperfry. The online furniture retailer receives an average of 3,000 orders per day.
Pepperfry has more than 4.5 million registered users and 58% of its transactions come from repeat buyers.
At present, 60% of the orders comes from mobile devices, with an equal share from the app and mobile web.
