|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
Britannia registers 6% revenue growth; Net profit for Q3 increases by 5%
|
Thursday, 16 February, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
Our Bureau, Bengaluru
|
Britannia Industries Limited (BIL), India’s leading food company, reported consolidated revenue growth of six per cent for the third quarter of financial year 2016-17 at Rs 2,338 crore. The net profit for the quarter, which increased by five per cent, stood at Rs 220 crore.
Varun Berry, managing director, BIL, said, “This quarter has been really tough considering the way things panned out on the economic front.”
“The positive market growth momentum witnessed in Q2, aided by good monsoon and flow through of the Seventh Pay Commission benefits was impacted with implementation of demonetisation in November 2016,” he added.
“The impact in terms of liquidity crunch was felt by our consumers and channel partners, thereby impacting our revenues with sales dropping in November 2016 sequentially over October 2016 by more than 10 per cent,” Berry stated.
“We took requisite measures to tide over the situation by providing credit to select business partners and improving our sales efficiency,” he added.
“Lower dependency on wholesale channels and our continued focus on enhancing direct reach also helped us during this time,” Berry stated.
“With these steps and increase in availability of cash in the economy, our revenues in December 2016 improved on a sequential basis, but is still lower than what we would have expected it to be,” he added.
“Growth in our international business continued to be under pressure due to the deteriorating geopolitical situation and currency fluctuations in geographies like the Middle East and Africa,” Berry stated.
“On the commodity front, the prices of key raw materials have not shown respite with inflation in Q3 standing in excess of 10 per cent,” he added.
“However, our accelerated cost efficiency programme helped us mitigate it to a certain extent,” Berry said.
“We rationalised our advertising spends as no amount of stimulus would have helped boost growth in the wake of demonetisation with lower cash in the hands of consumers,” he added.
“We also endeavoured to leverage our fixed costs to aid our operating margins. We are actively working on opportunities in the biscuit business, adjacent macro snacking space and are also evaluating partnership opportunities to drive profitable growth for our company,” the BIL chief said.
“We hope that the economic situation improves over the next few quarters as the impact of demonetisation recedes and the requisite measures announced by the government in the budget with focus on rural socio-economic mainstreaming, infrastructure development and the commitment to roll out much-needed reforms like goods and service tax (GST) shall bear fruit and act as a catalyst to drive growth in the near future,” he added.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|