1. At a Glance – The Kirana That Read Too Much MBA Content
₹118 crore market cap. ₹133 stock price. 17 stores. One state. One dream. And half the revenue coming from Gandhinagar like it’s the only city that eats snacks.
Jay Ambe Supermarkets Limited is not trying to be D-Mart. It is trying to be “D-Mart but Gujarati, smaller, louder, and with franchise PowerPoint slides.” The company runs City Square Mart – a supermarket chain that sells everything from atta to socks to toys you didn’t ask for but somehow end up buying.
Latest H1 FY26 results (Half-Yearly, lock it) show sales of ₹30.56 crore, up 67.6% YoY, with PAT of ₹1.51 crore, growing a calmer 18.9% YoY. Margins didn’t explode, but neither did they collapse – which in Indian retail is already a moral victory.
ROCE at 24.5%, ROE at 26%, debt-to-equity at 0.28, and inventory days sitting at an obese 198 days, silently judging everyone. Stock P/E is 39.5, which suggests the market thinks this is either the next regional retail story… or it just forgot to read the cash flow statement.
So the big question before we even start: Is this a disciplined Gujarat retail rollout… or a kirana with IPO confidence?
Let’s unpack.
2. Introduction – From Kudasan to Capital Markets
Jay Ambe Supermarkets was incorporated in 2020, but the City Square Mart brand opened its first store back in 2018 at Kudasan, Gandhinagar. Like many Indian retail stories, it began with one store, one location, and one belief: “People will buy groceries anyway, might as well sell them everything else too.”
Fast forward to today, the company operates 17 stores across Gujarat, covering 96,876 sq. ft. of retail space. The operating model is a mix of COCO (Company-Owned Company-Operated), FOCO, and FOFO, which basically means:
Some stores they run
Some stores others run
And some stores where everyone pretends risk is diversified
The IPO in September 2025 raised ₹17.5 crore, mainly to buy existing stores, fit out new ones, and feed working capital that is clearly on a diet but keeps gaining weight.
This is a pure-play Gujarat retail story. No national ambition yet. No omnichannel buzzwords. No “AI-driven supply chain.” Just stores, shelves, inventory, and customers who still ask, “UPI chalega?”
And honestly? That simplicity is both its strength and its biggest risk.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Let’s explain this like you’re smart but lazy.
Jay Ambe Supermarkets runs neighbourhood supermarkets under the City Square Mart brand. Think of it as a modern kirana that wears a uniform and smells like floor cleaner.
What they sell:
FMCG & Grocery – 76% of revenue
Apparel & Footwear – 12%
General Merchandise – 10%
Franchise fees & royalties – 1.4%
Yes, groceries dominate. As they should. Because that’s what brings repeat footfall. Nobody comes weekly for socks.
How they operate:
Lease rental model (no heavy real estate ego)
Mix of company-owned and franchise stores
Regional focus = lower logistics complexity
One state = tight supplier relationships
This is low-margin, high-rotation retail, where inventory discipline decides whether you make money or cry in Excel. Jay Ambe’s OPM at 8.7% (TTM) is decent for a small retailer, but the inventory days at ~198 scream “We bought too much Diwali stock and forgot to sell it.”
Question for you: Would you rather own fewer SKUs that move fast, or everything under the sun that moves slowly?
4. Financials Overview – Half-Yearly Results, No Confusion Allowed
🔒 Result Type Lock:
The official heading clearly states “Half Yearly Results”. So EPS annualisation rule: Half-Yearly × 2. No debates. No jugaad.
