Bakery and dairy product maker Britannia Industries today reported 4.59 percent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 220.49 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 210.81 crore in October-December period a year ago, Britannia Industries said in a BSE filing.
Net sales grew 6.13 percent to Rs 2,338.08 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 2,203.01 crore of the corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal.
Total expenses was up 7.04 percent to Rs 2,072.99 crore in Q3 of FY 2016-17 as against Rs 1,936.57 crore.
Commenting on the result, Britannia Industries MD Varun Berry said: "The impact in terms of liquidity crunch was felt by our consumers and channel partners, thereby impacting our revenues with sales dropping in Nov'16 sequentially over Oct'16 by more than 10 percent." Britannia's International business continued to be under pressure "due to deteriorating geopolitical situation and currency fluctuations in geographies like Middle East and Africa," Berry added.
He also said that on the commodity front, prices of key raw materials have not shown respite with inflation in Q3 in remaining in excess of 10 percent.
"However, our accelerated cost efficiency programme helped us mitigate it to a certain extent. We rationalised our Advertising spends as no amount of stimulus would have helped boost growth in the wake of demonetization. We also endeavoured to leverage our fixed costs to aid our operating margins," Berry added.
On outlook, he said: "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." Shares of Britannia Industries was trading at Rs 3,273.00 on BSE in evening trading, up 1.15 percent from previous close.
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