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Informist, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025

--Eternal: May open more stores than guidance if opportunity is right

--CONTEXT: Comments by Eternal's management in post-earnings investor call

--Eternal: Expect FY27 to be better than FY26 for district business brand

By Avishek Rakshit and Pallavi Singhal

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI – Eternal Ltd. may open more quick commerce stores than the guided 3,000 stores by March 2027, if the opportunity is right, a top company official said Thursday. The food and grocery delivery company opened 272 quick commerce stores in the September quarter, taking the total store count to 1,816 and is planning to increase the count further to 2,100, thereby exceeding the previous guidance by 100 stores, a senior company official said at a post-earnings analysts call.

For the financial year ending March 2027, the company aims to reach a total quick commerce store count of 3,000, but may scale up new store openings if it finds the right opportunity, the official said.

During the September quarter, Eternal changed its business model for the quick commerce business from a commission-based model to an inventory-based one, where the company now directly owns and controls the inventory and delivers it to customers from its own stocks, which are warehoused in its own stores. Thus, an expansion of the quick commerce business would necessitate Eternal to come up with more stores and spend around INR 10 million per store.

In the quick commerce business, which is housed under the brand Blinkit, the net order value accelerated by 137% on year and 27% on quarter in Jul-Sept - the highest in the last ten quarters. The adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation margin as a percentage of the net order value continued to improve sequentially to (-)1.3% in the September quarter from (-)1.8% a year ago.

The pace of margin improvement was slower than what Eternal had initially anticipated at the beginning of the quarter because of additional investments in market share growth, the official said.

With the change of the business model, the Blinkit business now accounts for 73% of the company's top line, as against 26% under the discontinued commission-based business model.

Eternal is also focusing on scaling up its 'going-out' business vertical, where a user pre-books a table at a restaurant or hotel online with value-added benefits. This business is housed under the brand name District and currently accounts for a negligible portion of the top line.

District stores digitise offline retail by enabling customers to discover nearby stores and access exclusive deals and offers. This also turns a routine store visit into a planned, value-driven experience, leading to higher customer retention and engagement for merchants.

Eternal has already onboarded 3,400 outlets across six cities and has enabled more than 60,000 transactions to date for this business. Early traction is promising, and the company plans to continue scaling this segment, the official said, adding that the growth in this business is expected to be better in FY27 as compared to FY26.

In the quarter ended September, Eternal's consolidated net profit tanked over 63% on year to INR 650 million as against the Street's estimate of over INR 1 billion. Aggressive ordering on the platform, backed by a hike in platform fees, led the consolidated revenue to increase around three times to INR 136 billion, as against the Street's view of INR 87.6 billion. However, the company's change in business model renders the overall financial performance incomparable with past quarters.

On Thursday, shares of Eternal closed 1.8% lower at INR 347.85 on the National Stock Exchange. End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Saji George Titus

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