India’s retail chains posted strong second-quarter revenue growth, but festive timing, store expansion and weaker comparable-store sales created a more uneven picture beneath the headline numbers.
Retail investors watching India’s value and fashion chains after the latest results may find a more nuanced picture than the topline revenue figures suggest. Across the sector, the second quarter of FY27 was shaped by store expansion, festive demand and, in some cases, weaker comparable-store sales, meaning sales growth did not always translate into evenly strong underlying performance. Trade Brains’ round-up of the sector highlighted that point clearly, as several chains posted healthy revenue gains while others struggled to convert new stores into stronger like-for-like momentum.
Trent emerged as one of the quarter’s strongest performers, with standalone revenue rising 23% year on year to ₹5,788 crore, according to company results reported by Sahi and The Economic Times. The Tata Group retailer kept expanding its footprint, opening 17 net new Zudio stores and 10 net new Westside stores during the quarter, taking its total network to 1,342 stores across brands. Zudio also crossed the 1,000-store milestone, underscoring how quickly the value-fashion format continues to scale.
V-Mart Retail also delivered a solid quarter, with revenue climbing 18% to ₹953 crore from ₹807 crore a year earlier, Sahi reported. The chain opened 23 new stores in the period, lifting its total to 613 outlets, while same-store sales growth came in at 3%. After adjusting for a 19-day shift in the festive calendar, same-store sales growth improved to 11%, suggesting the underlying demand trend was stronger than the unadjusted figure first indicated. For the first half of FY27, revenue from operations rose 21% to ₹2,042 crore.
V2 Retail reported the fastest revenue growth among the chains highlighted, with sales up 28.4% year on year to ₹905 crore. But the details were less straightforward than that headline number suggests. Adjusted for festivals, sales growth was just 0.5%, while calendar-adjusted growth fell 14.9%, indicating that timing effects played a large role in the reported increase. The company continued to push expansion aggressively, opening 43 stores in the quarter and 106 in the first half, bringing its operating store count to 427.
Avenue Supermarts, which runs DMart, posted consolidated sales of ₹19,644 crore, up 17.8% from a year earlier, but profit growth lagged revenue. Net profit increased 8.5% to ₹743 crore, while EBITDA margin narrowed to 7.1% from 7.3%, signalling a small squeeze in operating efficiency. Baazar Style Retail, by contrast, had a tougher quarter: revenue slipped 10% to ₹478.1 crore, same-store sales fell 25%, and sales per square foot per month declined to ₹642 from ₹865, even as the chain expanded to 283 stores, up nearly 13% year on year. Taken together, the results suggest that in Indian retail, store additions can support growth, but investors still need to watch same-store sales, margins and productivity closely.
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