Retail brand FirstCry posted a loss of Rs 66.5 crore in Q1FY26, down from a Rs 75.7 crore loss in the quarter ending June 2024. Meanwhile, the company’s revenue from operations grew 12.7% year-over-year (YoY) to Rs 1,862.6 crore in the quarter.
Speaking of operational metrics, FirstCry saw 10.8 million annual unique transacting customers, representing a 14% YoY rise from Q1FY25. Similarly, the consolidated gross merchandise value (GMV) climbed 9% YoY to Rs 2,518.4 crore across FirstCry’s Globalbees, India multi-channel, and International segments.
How is the India multi-channel segment faring?
This segment recorded a 6% YoY growth in total orders to 9.5 million, while the number of unique transacting customers rose 14% YoY to 10.3 million. Speaking in the company’s Q1FY26 earnings call, FirstCry Managing Director and CEO Supam Maheshwari said “During the quarter, we faced some external headwinds impacting demand and operations, such as disruptions in the last-mile delivery ecosystem, regional geopolitical disturbances, and weaker than expected walk-ins at our offline stores due to consumer slowdown and unusual rainfall in some parts of India.”
Besides the online business, the closure of 38 Company-Owned and Company-Operated (COCO) stores in Q3FY25 impacted the growth of the offline business. “However, we have witnessed some encouraging signs of growth in July”, FirstCry Chief Business Officer Vivek Goel noted.
Speaking of the financial metrics, the India multi-channel segment recorded a revenue growth of 8% YoY to Rs 1,236.6 crore. Meanwhile, the Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) grew 12% YoY to Rs 106.7 crore, while the Adjusted EBITDA margin percentage grew marginally to 8.6% from 8.3% in Q1FY25. A stakeholder questioned this small marginal increase and whether it deviated from the typical acceleration that this segment would experience.
In response, the management claimed that while the gross margin in this segment rose by 120 basis points (bps), only 30 bps translated into Adjusted EBITDA. “This is on account of largely two factors. One is the experiments we are doing to improve the last-mile delivery experience, plus there is some de-leverage in the offline store business growth”, company officials explained.
How is FirstCry driving growth?
Similarly, analysts sought insights into the company’s efforts to drive growth against uncontrollable macro factors in the India multi-channel vertical. While answering this query, the management referenced FirstCry’s efforts to improve its delivery performance through experimentation, like quicker logistics, which has now been expanded to four cities. “And there [in those cities], we have seen the results of a superior growth on a year-on-year basis, where our tech platform and local, regional logistics partners can deliver a superior customer experience”, officials added. Their comments…
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