The country’s largest retail chain Shwapno, saw its biggest ever growth in turnover during the last financial year, driven by higher sales through the integration of a dedicated e-commerce platform and teleservice amid the pandemic.
According to the annual report of ACI Ltd, the parent company of Shwapno, the retail chain saw an 18.8% year-on-year growth rate from Tk1,156 crore turnover in the last fiscal year to Tk1,374 crore this fiscal year- the highest since its inception in 2008.
Collaborating with its dynamic partners; the retail chain started to deliver groceries and other necessities to customers’ doorstep and introduced teleservice, through which customers can directly communicate with the stores to place orders.
As per the annual report, Shwapno’s teleservice ensures monthly delivery to 14,000 consumers while its e-commerce site is serving 22,000 customers monthly, continuously growing in terms of order placement, customer base, and delivery services.
On the other hand, Shwapno express outlets deliver services to about 15,000 customers per day.
Currently, Shwapno operates across 217 outlets with 52 newly opened express outlets. It continued extending its footprint outside Dhaka, now having its presence in 39 districts, giving it a 50% market share in the segment. This enabled the retailer to have net sales of Tk151.8 crore in June 2021.
Its private-label brands also received a 71.7% rise in the number of goods in their selection and a 9.7% rise in revenue over the previous year.
"During the pandemic, we highly focused on enhancing our humane aspect of the business and put efforts in bringing convenience to the citizens of the nation during the crisis, especially for their daily and essential needs. As part of that, we had taken immense steps in integrating and introducing our teleservice as well as e-commerce which in turn increased the turnover during the period," Sabbir Hasan Nasir, the executive director of ACI Logistics (Shwapno) told Dhaka Tribune.
He further credited the growth to its partners in the supply chain such as farmers who were onboarded during the pandemic as part of its humane efforts in response to a national crisis.
"Our employees were also very motivated to work hard as we did not rely on job cuts at all, instead the Shwapno central employee welfare team increased its capacity to serve our associates in crisis with uttermost responsiveness during the hard time brought on by the pandemic," Nasir further said.
However, the country’s largest retailer incurred a loss of Tk142 crore in 2019-20, despite it decreasing 9.56% year-on-year because of lower finance costs (which fell by 12.6%) to Tk125 crore in 2020-21, as per the financial report.
"We have been seeing operating profits since the last quarter of 2020-21 and we are expecting to see net profits from 2025, as the operating profit is still in the positive quadrant," Shwapno’s top brass said.
"Higher turnover will help us to make net profits in the coming years," he further added.