Hopeful of strong FY16 run if monsoon normal: Godrej chief

A: We had a good performance both in Q4 and for the year gone by, our consolidated sales were up about 17 percent for the quarter and for the net profit it was up 22 percent. For the year sales were up 18 percent, net profit was up 23 percent.

So despite difficult economic situation in the last financial year, our performances of all our businesses have been quite good and we expect this to continue well because we expect the economic performance to be better in this financial year and particularly in the next financial year if goods and services tax (GST) is introduced from April 1, 2016.

Q: You said Agrovet did have bit challenging Q4 primarily because of the unseasonal rains, can you take us through what kind of expectations are for the year ahead because there are varying reports regarding the monsoon this year?

A: Yes, Agrovet’s performance will be good. Of course it can be excellent if the monsoon turns out to be good because Agrovet has a lot of R&D based products, which can do very well in a good agricultural season. The MET department has predicted 93 percent monsoon but the private agency Skymet has predicted 102 percent monsoon.

Both have predicted the monsoon will start on time around June 1 and we hope the monsoon will be good. If you look at the past four-five years, Skymet has been right more of the times than the MET department. So we are keeping our fingers crossed for a good monsoon and in that event, Godrej Agrovet could have a very good year.

Q: Can you run us through what kind of investments you plan for the year ahead keeping in mind the several macro as well as micro economic factors?

A: With the growth coming up, we are planning large investments in a lot of our businesses particularly in Godrej Agrovet and in Godrej Properties. Godrej Properties will start several new projects, they will have very considerable investments during this year. Godrej Agrovet is also starting few new factories, Godrej Consumer Products has adequate capacity.

We have just started a couple of new plants. So we may not need much greater investment in Godrej Consumer Products. But Godrej Consumer Products and Godrej Agrovet are looking to grow through acquisitions also and if those acquisitions come through then that could be considerable further investments.