Battery prices up by 3-10%, see FY14 margin at 8%: Eveready

Eveready Industries expects to maintain margins at around 8 percent for the full year, says Amritanshu Khaitan, executive director of the company.

The company increased its battery prices recently taking into account the cost pressures due to rupee depreciation.
“We have increased our battery prices between 3-10 percent across all our categories. There has been a 3 percent increase in our premium AA battery, pencil battery and there has been 10 percent increase in our popular pencil batteries, which is used in rural India,” Khaitan says in an interview to CNBC-TV18. Below is the verbatim transcript of Amritanshu Khaitan’s interview on CNBC-TV18 Q: Could you confirm whether you have increased battery prices? If yes, by how much and what will this mean for your margins?
A: We have increased our battery prices between 3 percent and 10 percent across all our battery categories. There has been a 3 percent increase in our premium AA (double A) battery, pencil battery and there has been 10 percent increase in our popular pencil batteries, which is used in rural India. We have also increased the prices of our D sized battery by 5-6 percent across different variants. Q: This is the third price hike you have taken over the last six months, have you accounted for all input price hike now?
A: We had increased battery price in May and now we have repeated it in September. This is taking into account the cost pressures due to the rupee depreciation that took place recently and this current price increase covers us till rupee is at around 65-66/USD levels. Q: What will the margins look like at current reckoning in this quarter, it stood at about 8.9 percent last quarter?
A: I would not be able to give a quarter guidance but we would be looking at maintaining our margins at around 8 percent for the full year.