Food ordering and grocery delivery platform Swiggy saw its losses more than double to Rs 3,628.90 crore in FY22 from Rs 1,617 crore in the previous year. Analysts said the losses were the result of the company’s efforts to grow the gross revenue from operations, which rose 124% to Rs 5,705 crore from Rs 2,547 crore in FY21.
Cash outflows from operations stood at Rs 3,900 crore during the last fiscal, according to an annual statement filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
In comparison, rival Zomato reported operating revenues of Rs 4,192 crore in FY22, up 110% over the previous year, even as it posted losses of Rs 1,203 crore, up 46%.
Also Read | Centre may consider raising interest equalization subsidy for MSME exporters
In late November, analysts at Jefferies had pointed out that Zomato may be gaining an edge over rival Swiggy despite the latter’s more attractive discounts to customers. Swiggy’s H1CY22 food delivery gross merchandise value (GMV) at $1.3 billion, or roughly Rs 10,500 crore, was smaller than the $1.6 billion, or around Rs 13,000 crore, for Zomato during the same period.
Swiggy, they pointed out, was still running its flagship ‘Swiggy One’ scheme, whereas Zomato has given up on Pro. “This partially explains a much higher loss for Swiggy,” they wrote, pointing out that both players had seen good growth in quick commerce.
Swiggy’s costs more than doubled to Rs 9,574 crore in FY22 with the cost of procuring products going up fourfold to Rs 2,268 crore. The advertising and promotional expenses also soared to Rs 1,848.7 crore. The outsourcing of support-related expenses — including labour costs for deliveries and the expenses on expanding its dark store network for Instamart – doubled to Rs 2,350 crore.
Also Read | Tea industry facing multiple challenges in wake of Covid pandemic: Experts
Instamart now accounts for about 35% of Swiggy’s revenues and the quick-commerce arm, which competes with Zepto, Dunzo and Zomato’s Blinkit, gained momentum during the year.