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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
As if slowing demand and competition from quick commerce aren’t enough, it now has a new bugbear in finding and retaining talent.
When Avenue Supermarts, which operates supermarket chain DMart, announced its results for the fourth quarter of 2024-25, it was far from a pretty sight. The company’s net profit was down 2% to Rs 551 crore. Worse, its EBITDA margin had contracted by almost 100 basis points to 6.4% from a year ago.
But most significant of all was a startling revelation from the company. In a first, it flagged a “surge in wages of entry-level positions due to demand/supply mismatch of skilled workforce” as a growing concern in its quarterly update. Where most of its commentary earlier was focused on …
The retailer has shrunk operations to fix its loss-making vertical. But a reduced presence risks hurting volumes in a segment dominated by Blinkit and Instamart.
Surprisingly strong metrics alongside aggressive expansion mask a lurking balance-sheet risk. Moreover, competition is not going to be kind to the retail giant any time soon.
Exploitation of unskilled workers is at the heart of quick-delivery service businesses in India. They should be valued for what they are and not what they pretend to be, a trait that has taken a devious form of wanting it both ways.
