The Insight Labs Daily

Add Insight Labs to your home screen

Get the daily brief like an app — one tap, no browser bar, works offline.

Tap the ⬆ Share button at the bottom of Safari
Scroll and tap Add to Home Screen
Tap Add in the top right — done

Works on iPhone & iPad. The icon will appear like any app.

★ Lead Story

2 days ago · 2 min read

Lenskart's quarterly profit more than doubled to Rs 232 crore

On November 4, Lenskart Solutions reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 2,845.03 crore for the quarter ended September, up 35.7% from Rs 2,096.14 crore a year earlier.

Profit after tax came in at Rs 232.45 crore against Rs 103.45 crore, an increase of about 125%. Profit grew roughly three and a half times as fast as revenue.

The half year is the clearer picture. Revenue rose to Rs 5,559.21 crore from Rs 3,990.60 crore, about 39% more. Profit went from Rs 164.62 crore to Rs 460.88 crore, close to three times.

Standalone revenue was Rs 1,663.52 crore of the Rs 2,845.03 crore group figure, and standalone profit was Rs 167.85 crore of the Rs 232.45 crore. On those numbers the Indian entity is producing about 72% of group profit on about 58% of group revenue, which suggests the international arms, Owndays among them, still sit at the heavier end of the cost base.

The question for the next two quarters is whether this gap between revenue growth and profit growth is operating leverage that holds, or a good year in a category where store additions and lens pricing both moved in the same direction at once.

Profit attributable to owners of the holding company was Rs 227.08 crore, about Rs 5 crore less than reported profit after tax. The rest belongs to minority holders in the group's subsidiaries.

Total income was Rs 2,899.49 crore against revenue from operations of Rs 2,845.03 crore, so other income contributed about Rs 54 crore. The year-earlier figure was about Rs 33 crore. That Rs 21 crore of extra non-operating income accounts for roughly a sixth of the Rs 129 crore increase in profit, which is worth holding in mind before reading the whole jump as retail performance.

The company closed at Rs 689.70 on the day of the result, up 2.78%. A quarter at this growth rate resets what the market will ask for next, and eyewear retail has a fixed-cost shape where the same leverage runs in reverse if footfall slows.

Today's Top 5

5 stories

Nykaa · 2 days ago

Nykaa's profit tripled to Rs 101 crore, and beauty is 90% of the business

FSN E-Commerce Ventures reported September-quarter revenue of Rs 3,006 crore, up 28% from Rs 2,346 crore. Net profit was Rs 101 crore against Rs 33 crore a year earlier.

Beauty brought in Rs 2,700 crore of that revenue, about 90%. Fashion contributed Rs 287 crore, roughly 10%, and the remaining segments Rs 19 crore.

Total expenses rose 25% to Rs 2,867 crore while revenue rose 28%. That three-point gap on a Rs 3,000 crore base is most of where the extra Rs 68 crore of profit came from, which suggests the improvement is scale working on a steady cost structure rather than a change in margin.

Cost of materials consumed grew 25.7% to Rs 1,624 crore and is 56.64% of total expenditure. Other expenses rose 26% to Rs 899 crore, employee costs 20% to Rs 220 crore, and depreciation 18% to Rs 93 crore. Finance costs were the only line that fell, down 3% to Rs 30.52 crore.

Across the half year revenue was Rs 5,788 crore, up 28.6%, and profit Rs 181 crore against Rs 57.5 crore. Rs 101 crore on Rs 3,006 crore is a net margin of about 3.4%, so the tripling is real and the base it tripled from was thin.

Fashion at Rs 287 crore after years of spending is the number to watch. The read is that Nykaa is now a beauty company with a fashion option attached, and the option has not yet changed the shape of the business.

Bira 91 · 2 days ago

Bira 91's maker is facing an insolvency petition over Rs 1.02 crore

upGrad Education filed a Section 9 petition at the NCLT's Delhi bench on October 22 against B9 Beverages, which makes Bira 91, over Rs 1.02 crore of alleged unpaid dues. Neither the filing nor the reports on it say what the money was for.

The claim is small against the balance sheet behind it. B9 reported a net loss of Rs 748 crore in FY24 and accumulated losses of Rs 2,117.9 crore, and its auditor flagged that current liabilities exceeded assets by Rs 487 crore as of March 2024.

A second creditor is already in court. Hindusthan National Glass is seeking about Rs 11.8 crore, saying more than 51 lakh customised bottles made against confirmed purchase orders were never collected, and it has encashed bank guarantees worth Rs 3.91 crore.

In September the NCLT asked B9 and its creditors to attempt mediation and restrained the company from selling or disposing of assets while those talks continued. Founder Ankur Jain gave up control and left the board in July under an arrangement with investors and lenders, and Anicut Capital took over his stake. The packaged beer business has been suspended.

Bira 91 raised more than $200 million over its life, from backers including Peak XV Partners, Sofina and Kirin Holdings, and crossed $100 million of annual revenue in FY23. The read is that the size of any single claim stopped being the signal some time ago, and the number of separate claimants is now the thing to count.

What a Rs 1.02 crore petition tests is whether a brand this well funded still has working capital to settle ordinary vendor bills, or whether every unpaid invoice now has to go through a tribunal.

Critical Minerals · 2 days ago

India will pay 30% of the cost of four lithium and nickel processing plants

The Union Cabinet approved the Capex Support Scheme to Promote Critical Mineral Processing on November 4. The outlay is Rs 2,814 crore across five years, from FY27 to FY31.

The money is a 30% capital subsidy on eligible investment, capped at Rs 500 crore for each lithium beneficiary and Rs 900 crore for each nickel beneficiary. It funds four units: two lithium plants of at least 30 kilotonnes each and two nickel plants of at least 50 kilotonnes each, with cobalt recovered as a by-product of the nickel work.

At a 30% subsidy, the Rs 500 crore ceiling corresponds to a lithium plant costing about Rs 1,670 crore and the Rs 900 crore ceiling to a nickel plant costing about Rs 3,000 crore. Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the decision at the Cabinet briefing.

Beneficiaries are chosen in two stages. Applicants qualify technically first, then bid financially, and the two lowest subsidy asks per mineral win. Payment comes in three tranches tied to project milestones, so the support is released against construction rather than against an announcement.

This is a refining scheme, not a mining one. India already imports refined intermediates and high-purity compounds even where it holds ore, and converting ore into battery-grade material is the step that has been missing. Four plants is a deliberate number rather than an open window.

Whether four is enough depends on how much cell manufacturing actually gets built in the same five years, which this scheme does not address. A refinery with no domestic buyer ends up exporting, and a cell plant with no domestic refinery keeps importing.

Eggoz · 2 days ago

Eggoz spent Rs 1.27 for every rupee it earned last year

Eggoz reported FY26 operating revenue of Rs 180 crore, up 39% from Rs 130 crore. Net loss grew 83% to Rs 42 crore from Rs 23 crore.

Total expenditure rose about 48% to Rs 228 crore from Rs 154 crore, faster than revenue. Raw material procurement alone was Rs 142 crore, up 38%, and more than 62% of total costs. The EBITDA loss was Rs 44 crore, an EBITDA margin of -24.44%, and return on capital employed was -40.6%.

An egg is a commodity whose procurement cost moves with feed prices, so a branded egg business has to earn its shelf premium faster than its input bill moves. On these numbers that is not yet happening.

Cash and bank balances stood at Rs 33 crore as of March 2026, against total current assets of Rs 45 crore. Measured against last year's loss, that is roughly nine months of runway before the next raise, assuming the burn does not change.

The company has raised more than $32 million in all, including $20 million led by Gaja Capital in June 2025 and an $8.8 million Series B led by IvyCap Ventures in December 2022. It was founded in Bihar in 2017 by Abhishek Negi and Aditya Singh, runs as Nupa Technologies out of Gurugram, and promises retailers fresh eggs within 24 hours.

Freshness within 24 hours is a logistics promise, and logistics promises cost money on every single egg. The forward question is whether that promise can carry a price high enough to pay for itself, or whether it only works in the cities where density already does.

Uno Minda · 1 day ago

Uno Minda wants 18-20% pre-tax returns on Rs 5,300 crore of projects

On its Q2 FY27 call, group chief financial officer Sunil Bohra said the target return on capital employed for about Rs 5,300 crore of manufacturing expansion is roughly 18-20% pre-tax, reached by the third full year of production.

The pipeline is not fresh capital expenditure. These are previously announced projects at different stages of execution, commissioning and ramp-up, and the same pipeline stood at about Rs 3,800 crore on the August call. September board approvals added Rs 1,415 crore, including a Rs 670 crore joint-venture plant at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Rs 510 crore of aluminium die-casting at Hosur, Rs 155 crore of two-wheeler alloy wheel capacity at Kharkhoda and Rs 80 crore of moulding in Bengaluru, with another Rs 85 crore for sunroofs at Bawal.

Asset turnover on the spend is expected at 1.8 to 2 times initially, nearer 1.25-1.3 times in the capital-heavy lines and 2.5-3 times in the rest. At twice, Rs 100 crore of investment supports about Rs 200 crore of annual revenue.

The quarter itself was strong. Consolidated revenue rose 38% to Rs 6,655 crore, EBITDA 33% to Rs 733 crore and profit attributable to shareholders 38% to Rs 420 crore. Casting revenue grew 57% to Rs 1,441 crore and green mobility revenue more than doubled to Rs 649 crore.

EBITDA grew slower than revenue, and FY27 margin guidance is about 11% give or take 50 basis points, which suggests the growth is coming more from volume and new lines than from pricing. Four-wheeler alloy wheel capacity goes from about 6.3 million units a year to about 9 million, and two-wheeler from about 9 million to 11.8 million.

Net debt was Rs 2,415 crore at the end of September, up from Rs 2,179 crore in March, at a net debt to equity of about 0.31 times. Half-year operating cash flow was about Rs 711 crore against Rs 307 crore of sustaining capex and roughly Rs 500 crore of project capex, so the pipeline is being funded close to internally for now.

⚡ 30-Second Scan

PhysicsWallah returned to profit in the September quarter, reporting Rs 143.6 crore.

Timex Group India grew revenue 47% to Rs 359 crore in the September quarter.

Blitz, a quick-commerce logistics startup, raised Rs 28.7 crore from IvyCap Ventures and others.

Sourced from public reporting; analysis by The Insight Labs.

Sources: Angel One, Lenskart Solutions Q2 FY27 filing, November 4, 2026, BW Disrupt, FSN E, Commerce Q2 FY27 results, November 5, Inc42 and BusinessWorld, ANI via The Tribune, Cabinet decision, Indian Retailer, Eggoz FY26 filings, Autocar Professional, Uno Minda Q2 FY27 earnings call.

Want the Tuesday deep-dive?

The Insight Labs newsletter · every Tuesday · one full FMCG case-study from inside the P&L. Free.

Subscribe →