Britannia Industries Ltd (BIL) registered 23 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at ₹382 crore for the quarter ended September 30, against ₹495 crore for the same period last year.
Consolidated sales increased by six per cent at ₹3,554 crore (₹3,354 crore).
Market share
According to Varun Berry, Managing Director, during the quarter, the economic activity started picking up. However, inflationary trends remained rampant around the globe, across sectors. “Our growth of six per cent this quarter over a high base of last year and a 24-month growth of 21 per cent in the current year is a testimony to our strong building blocks and commitment of our people. In line with our strategy, we focussed on increasing direct distribution and improving our rural footprint. This year, we saw higher growth in market share and as a result we significantly reinforced our market leadership,” Berry said in a statement.
Input cost
On the cost front, there were supply-led constraints across various input materials fuelling inflation. There has been an unprecedented inflation in market prices of palm oil at around 54 per cent, industrial fuel at 35 per cent and packaging materials at 30 per cent leading to an overall inflation in the quarter of around 14 per cent.
While the company has been able to partially mitigate the impact through strategic forward covers and accelerated cost efficiency programmes, it has also initiated necessary price increase across the portfolio to address the cost push and normalise profitability.