Eternal’s quick commerce arm Blinkit and B2B business Hyperpure achieved adjusted EBITDA profitability in Q3 FY26.

Blinkit posted an adjusted EBITDA profit of INR 4 Cr during the quarter under review as against an adjusted EBITDA loss of INR 156 Cr in Q2 FY26. Meanwhile, Hyperpure recorded an adjusted EBITDA profit of INR 1 Cr as against an adjusted EBITDA loss of INR 5 Cr in the preceding September quarter.

Eternal said both the businesses achieved adjusted EBITDA profitability for the first time on a quarterly basis.

Blinkit posted an operating revenue of INR 12,256 Cr in the quarter under review, up 24% from INR 9,891 Cr recorded in the previous quarter. On a YoY basis, revenue surged 776% due to Blinkit’s shift to an inventory-led model earlier this fiscal year. Its adjusted EBITDA margin stood at 0.03%.

Hyperpure’s operating revenue for the quarter declined 35% YoY to INR 1,070 Cr from INR 1,671 Cr in December 2024 quarter due to the impact of Blinkit’s transition to inventory-led model. On a sequential basis, its revenue increased 4.5% from INR 1,023 Cr.

Blinkit’s adjusted EBITDA profitability came due to several factors, including supply chain cost efficiencies, a shift towards long tail categories and operating leverage, said CEO Albinder Dhindsa.

In July 2025, Blinkit announced its transition to the inventory-led model. Eternal, in its shareholders’ letter, said about 90% of Blinkit’s net order value (NOV) was on their own inventory. However, the remaining 10% NOV will remain on the marketplace model as some of the SKUs are better suited to it, the company said.

Further, the company, in the quarter under review, also achieved more than half of the 1% extra margin it was expecting from moving towards an inventory-led model, with the full benefit expected to come in the next six to nine months.

However, Blinkit fell short of its dark store number target for the quarter. It added 211 net new stores, taking the total store count to 2,027 stores at the end of the quarter. This number was 70 short of the target of 2,100 dark stores by the end of this quarter.

Dhindsa attributed this shortage to pollution-related restrictions in the national capital and operational constraints during the festive season. The company said that restrictions related to pollution continue to affect the construction and deployment of stores in Eternal’s largest market – Delhi NCR.

Besides, during the festive season in the quarter, Eternal redirected operations teams bandwidth on managing record order volumes rather than opening new stores.

“This is a timing issue. The stores we didn’t open in Q3 will open in Q4. We remain on track for 3,000 stores by March 2027,” Dhindsa added.

Further, per store capex for the company could also go higher as it continues to invest in automation. According to Dhindsa, this will increase productivity in the longer term.

“Even though we might see capex per store going up over the next few quarters, we don’t expect net working capital to be beyond that 18 days that we had shared earlier, so that should remain within the range. And hence, as a consequence of that, the ROCE outcomes should still be north of 40%,” said Dhindsa.

Eternal said that the guideline for 3,000 dark stores is considering the “irrational” competition intensity in the segment. If this intensity moderates, the company would scale the number of dark stores to 3,500.

Dhindsa said that Blinkit is facing competition from startups, major ecommerce players, as well as retail giants like JioMart. However, he said this doesn’t affect its decision-making.

“For example, in the last quarter, we didn’t see these freebies impacting our market share too much, and hence we sort of sustained our pricing,” said CFO Akshant Goyal. However, the company also began offering free deliveries in certain geographies, where competitors were eating away its market share.

“We feel that we are the only ones who are meaningfully contributing to increasing the market size,” Dhindsa added.

Notably, Blinkit, along with its rivals, is navigating the ongoing debate on the working conditions of gig workers. It removed the “10-minute delivery” claim from its platform after an intervention by the Union labour ministry over concerns around delivery workers’ safety and working conditions last week.

“At our end, the wellbeing of gig workers has always been a key priority, and we have proactively put in place welfare programs for our delivery partners such as offering free of cost insurance (medical, accident, loss of pay, maternity cover), amongst multiple other benefits,” Goyal said.

Hyperpure, which also turned adjusted EBITDA profitable during the quarter, posted a revenue for INR 1,070 Cr from external customers in Q3 FY26.

Despite the small size, Goyal said Hyperpure is a key business fuelling its B2C businesses.

The CFO said Hyperpure helps simplify sourcing and inventory management for its partner restaurants for Zomato, serves as a strategic sourcing backbone for Blinkit and supports quick food delivery business Bistro by accelerating menu innovation and shortening go-to-market timelines.

“There is no other business in India with this kind of infrastructure and capabilities at national scale, and hence Hyperpure serves as a strategic moat, quietly enabling sustained growth and endurance of all our B2C businesses,” Goyal added.

He said that Hyperpure could achieve $1 Bn top line in the next three years, with 4-5% adjusted EBITDA margin. This would translate to $50 Mn (or INR 450 Cr) of annual adjusted EBITDA profit.

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