India's Nykaa posts profit surge on strong demand for beauty products (updated)

Fsn E-Commerce Ventures

21/05/2026 12:07

Adds details and context on the sector throughout

By Kashish Tandon

May 21 (Reuters) - India's Nykaa FSNE.NS on Thursday reported its highest ever quarterly profit since listing in 2021, as the beauty retailer leans into premium offerings and higher-margin in-house brands.

Nykaa, formally known as FSN E-Commerce Ventures, posted a profit of 783.8 million rupees ($8.2 million) for the fourth quarter ended March 31, nearly quadrupling from a year earlier and also marking its strongest profit growth since the IPO.

The results reflect the company's renewed focus on profitability from its growth-at-all-costs approach during its nascent years.

For the quarter, Nykaa's core beauty business remained the primary growth and profit engine, delivering a 27% growth in sales.

Anchit Nayar, CEO of the firm's beauty unit, attributed the growth to strong traffic and the investments into bringing new visitors to the platform. That is leading to very strong conversion as well as unique transacting customers who are placing multiple orders in the year, he added.

The company's overall EBITDA margin expanded to 8.4% in the quarter, also the highest on record, from 6.5% a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the fashion vertical - usually a drag on earnings - showed signs of a turnaround, with EBITDA margins breaking even in the March quarter from deep losses a year earlier, helped by faster revenue growth and tighter cost discipline.

Nykaa's total revenue rose 28.4% to 26.48 billion rupees in the quarter.

For the full year ended March 31, its gross merchandise value jumped 28% to 199.63 billion rupees.

Nykaa has also been increasingly banking on its portfolio of owned labels, or "House of Nykaa", to lift margins. That segment grew 49% year-on-year in sales value for the fiscal year, buoyed by strong traction in brands such as Dot & Key and Kay Beauty.

($1 = 96.2000 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Janane Venkatraman)

 ((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com; 8800437922;))