British multinational retailer Marks and Spencer India Pvt Ltd recorded an acute decline in revenue in 2020-21. In its filing to the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the company said that its profits were dropping by 77% since the last fiscal year at ₹91 crores. The estimates are based on standalone financials recorded by the company.
In the fiscal year 2019-20, the company had recorded total revenue of ₹402.27 crores. In its filings, the company, accessed via business intelligence platform Tofler, recorded a net profit of ₹30.4 crores during FY 20-21. This is a 17% reduction from the past financial year at ₹36.53 crores. While the company lost out on revenue, it also said that its total expenditures for the fiscal declined from ₹352.38 crores in FY19-20 to ₹50 crores in 2020-2021.
The company said in its filing that it had selected Nitin Verma as an additional director and whole-time director of the company with effect from January 2020.
India’s retail sector had a turbulent year since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with various cities under lockdown for numerous months in 2020 and 2021. Work from home orders, social distancing, and controlled mobility impacted apparel sales significantly.
With limited operational guidelines in several cities during the second wave and low consumer sensibility, the result on retailers, specifical apparel, was quite critical. The Shopping Centres Association of India concluded that overall retail wasted about ₹25,000 crores in annual sales and malls about ₹3,000 crores during the second pandemic wave.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) continued that localised lockdowns inflicted by several states during the second COVID-19 wave also directed a business loss of about Rs.15 lakh crore in the two months of April and May. In 2019, Marks & Spencer India managing director James Munson told the media that India was the largest market for the company outside of the UK.
