Flipkart Minutes sees path to profitability, plans 100 new fulfilment centres every month

Kolkata: Flipkart’s quick-commerce venture Flipkart Minutes is improving its bottomline and gross margins month-on-month as it continues to expand rapidly, with economies of scale expected to increasingly support its path to profitability, a senior executive said.

The company plans to add around 100 fulfilment centres every month, but profitability will remain a key consideration as it expands, said Kunal Gupta, senior vice president and head of Flipkart Minutes.

“Profit is a function of scale. We have grown four times in the last one year. We want a healthy progressive journey. There is a clear line of sight of profit, otherwise we would not have opened so many stores,” Gupta told ET. He did not share a profitability timeline or financial data.


Flipkart Minutes has completed two years of operations and is now present in more than 150 cities. It will have over 1,200 micro-fulfilment centres by the end of this month and plans to take the count to 1,500 by December.

The company, which is preparing for an eventual initial public offering in India, is also looking to maintain aggressive growth in quick commerce next year.

While Flipkart has yet to finalise its 2027 expansion plans, Sakait Chaudhary, head of softlines, grocery and marketplace, said the company would remain bullish on the segment.

“There is a huge runway and we will be fairly bullish. We will expand both into newer markets as well as go denser in existing markets,” he said.

Flipkart said nearly 45% of transactions on Minutes are driven by Gen Z consumers, while the platform accounts for one in three gourmet orders. It is also piloting a standalone app for Minutes.

The quick-commerce battle in India has intensified, with Amazon, Swiggy, Eternal’s Blinkit, Zepto and Reliance Retail stepping up expansion. A recent CLSA report said Flipkart Minutes has already surpassed Swiggy Instamart in dark-store count and pincode coverage across the top 10 cities.

Chaudhary said non-grocery categories such as personal care, beauty and pet products are seeing faster offtake on Minutes, while electronics and home categories are also showing healthy growth. Several brands, including established players beyond direct-to-consumer companies, are increasing spending on marketing and promotions on the platform, he said.

Flipkart is also planning a “fairly ambitious” private-label strategy to “fill the white spaces which a customer needs”, Chaudhary said. This includes building private-label offerings in healthy snacking, healthy foods and home care.

Smaller tier-II cities are also emerging as an important growth driver for Minutes, with the customer base in these markets growing nearly 25 times year-on-year, Flipkart said.