ITC exits lifestyle retailing business

ITC has exited the lifestyle retailing business after a strategic review of the company's portfolio, the FMCG major said on August 2.

In July, ITC chairman Sanjiv Puri said in an interview to the Times of India that the diversified conglomerate was likely to quit the lifestyle business after a two-decade stint.

ITC’s lifestyle retail brand Wills Lifestyle had been in the process of “descaling”, the chairman said. The company had previously exited John Players by divesting the trademark.

"Following a strategic review of the business portfolio a few years ago, our company has restructured the Lifestyle Retailing Business during the year,” Puri said in the company's annual report for FY22 on June 22. “At the same time, the product portfolio has been strengthened in alignment with new opportunities and enterprise strengths with a sharper focus on fortifying the core, addressing adjacencies through world-class mother brands, and building categories of the future to power growth."

ITC on August 1 reported a 33.46 percent increase in its net profit on a consolidated basis for the quarter ended June 2022 (Q1FY23) at Rs 4,462.25 crore, up from Rs 3,343.44 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The number was above estimates. A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts had projected a profit of Rs 4,050 crore.

Revenue from operations stood at Rs 19,831.27 crore, up 39.25 percent from Rs 14,240.76 crore logged in the same quarter last year.

The company said its cigarette revenue jumped 28.63 percent to Rs 7,464.10 crore year-on-year (YoY). Non-cigarette revenue came in at Rs 4,458.71 crore, up 19.49 percent YoY.