MUMBAI: Some shopping malls had closed operations even before the nationwide lockdown was imposed on 25 March. As such, the retail sector remains one of the worst affected businesses in covid-19 times.
Footwear brand, Bata India Ltd’s March quarter results reflect the pain of the store closures. To begin with, Bata was having a reasonable run in January and February, posting about 8% growth.
However, as the pandemic forced stores to close, sales plunged in March. This led to about 9% decline in the overall March quarter revenue to Rs620 crore.
For perspective: Bata’s revenues had increased by 8% year-on-year for the nine-month ended December. Of course, with stores being closed for a good part of this quarter, numbers for the June quarter