Grofers advances IPO target to 2021-end

SoftBank-backed Grofers has advanced its plan to launch an initial public offering by the end of next year after its profitability path zoomed during the lockdown period, a top official of the company said.

Grofers co-founder and CEO, Albinder Dhindsa, told PTI that the company started making operational profit in January, and expects to become cash positive by the end of this year.

"Our path to profitability has accelerated during the lockdown, and after achieving operational profitability in January, we are on track to become EBITDA and cash positive by the end of this year. We are observing market sentiments and aim to hit the capital market by the end of 2021," Dhindsa said.

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Earlier, the company had plans to go public in 2022.

The company closed the financial year with a revenue of around Rs 2,500 crore and the valuation of Grofers is estimated to be close to Rs 6,000 crore.

"As an organisation, we have always channelled our efforts towards providing value to our customers. We will continue to do so by staying true to our brand promise of low prices through our focus on building an efficient supply chain and technology-driven innovations," Dhindsa said.

According to the data shared by the company, Grofers shipped 4.4 crore items last month, with 99.7 percent accuracy since the lockdown began. It claims to have served 42 lakh households by the end of May.

"Our platform continues to witness high demand, and we expect this to stabilise at 30 percent higher than pre-COVID levels. There has also been a 40 percent increase in basket size as compared to the pre-COVID era. We are seeing 64 percent first-time online grocery shoppers and 15 percent first time online shoppers," Dhindsa said.

During the lockdown, Grofers opened three new facilities and two more are in the pipeline at Bhiwadi and Lucknow.

"We are looking to add 10-15 facilities before the end of this year. We are helping our manufacturing partners with logistics, working capital, and distribution so that we can maintain constant supplies of goods for our customers. We started reverse picks on our own trucks and procured goods from the warehouses of our FMCG partners," Dhindsa said.

Currently, Grofers has 10,000 partner stores to run a fast and lean supply chain from manufacturers straight to consumers.

"Over the last two months, we have hired over 3,000 people for our supply chain operations, and plan to hire another 2,000 warehouses and delivery staff in the coming months," Dhindsa said.

He said the company has identified and hired delivery and warehouse personnel from the companies operating in industries deeply impacted by the current crisis such as textiles and car rentals.