Delhivery bets on rapid commerce for growth, logs ₹91 crore net profit in Q1

Mint

6 days ago

Logistics major Delhivery is accelerating its push into new-age delivery models, capitalizing on the rise of quick commerce and expanding its partial truckload (PTL) capabilities.
In the first quarter (April-June) of FY26, the company made strategic investments of ₹ 14 crore into two emerging services: Rapid Commerce, a 2-hour delivery service, and Delhivery Direct, which is an on-demand intracity shipment service.
'The real opportunity lies in servicing large brands working with quick commerce platforms—whether FMCG, grocery, or packaged food by offering high-precision, appointment-based deliveries to—and returns from—dark stores and mother warehouses. Quick commerce has created a new channel and incremental demand. Though our entry is just 100 days old, it's already become an exciting growth driver within our PTL business,' said Sahil Barua, chief executive of Delhivery, in an April-June earnings call on Friday.
Delhivery reported a 68.5% surge in net profit in April-June to ₹ 91 crore. The company's operating revenue increased by 6% year-on-year to ₹ 2,294 crore.
Shares of Delhivery settled 1% lower at ₹ 429.85 apiece on the BSE on Friday.
A partial truckload business is a logistics service model that sits between LTL (less-than-truckload) and FTL (full truckload). It caters to medium-sized shipments that don't require an entire truck but are too large or bulky for standard parcel delivery.
He added that quick commerce, however, remains largely concentrated in grocery, packaged foods, and BPC (beauty and personal care) segments, and is primarily active in major urban centres. While it has likely had a notable effect on grocery GMV (gross merchandise value) and order volumes for large marketplaces, its influence on broader e-commerce is expected to be limited. This is due to the inherent challenge of balancing wide product assortments with rapid delivery timelines, especially across increasingly dispersed urban geographies.
More significantly, the bulk of e-commerce volumes comes from small cities (tier 2–4) and is fuelled by low-velocity, long-tail categories like apparel, accessories, and home and lifestyle products. These categories have unpredictable demand patterns and are not easily or economically suited to stocking in small quantities across dark stores. As a result, the company expects minimal impact from quick commerce on their overall volume trajectory moving forward.
Low-velocity, long-tail refers to slower-selling, niche products like apparel that have unpredictable demand but collectively drive a large share of e-commerce volumes, especially in small cities.
Delhivery's Rapid network currently operates 20 dark stores across three cities, offering shared inventory infrastructure and 1–3 hour fulfillment for direct-to-consumer brands.
Plans are in place to scale this to 35–40 dark stores across six cities by Q4 FY26. While expected to remain a niche offering within Delhivery's broader Express portfolio, Rapid could generate ₹ 80–100 crore in revenue over time, the company said in a shareholder's letter.
'The network will serve as a foundation for Rapid B2B fulfillment, targeting time-critical segments such as auto parts, electronics spares, tyres, specialty chemicals, lubricants, and select FMCG products,' Barua said during the earnings call.
Delhivery Direct, the company's consumer-facing app for on-demand inter-city shipping, has now expanded to include intra-city delivery as well.
As these offerings are still in early stages, further investment—particularly in fleet capacity and demand generation for Delhivery Direct—is expected through FY26, said Barua.
In January-March of FY25, Delhivery turned profitable for the first time, posting a net profit of ₹ 72.6 crore as revenue rose 6% year-on-year.
Delhivery acquired rival logistics firm Ecom Express in an all-cash deal worth ₹ 1,407 crore in April.
'Obvious immediate impact of the Ecom acquisition will be clear in the Q2 numbers', said Barua.
'As part of our network rationalization plan, a significant portion of the ECom Express infrastructure has already been shut down, with only seven facilities expected to be retained. We have also initiated the process to exit Ecom Express's non-Express businesses and expect to complete these exits by Q3 FY26,' he added.