Note ban hit new customer additions by 7-8%: Justdial

Ramkumar Krishnamachari, Chief Financial Officer of Justdial, said on Monday that the note ban in November hit new customer additions by 7-8 percent.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Krishnamachari said that despite the difficulty in signing up customers from certain segments, the impact of demonetisation had turned out to be neutral as the local search service had witnessed better payouts from existing clients.

He said that the core search business had grown better than in the previous quarter and expects sales growth to improve in the final quarter. Krishnamachari also said that while bottom performers had been weeded out from the sales force, Justdial will undertake hiring in Q4, saying it takes six to eight months for new employees to become productive.

Justdial reported a 5.90 percent rise in net profit at Rs 27.44 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 25.91 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Justdial's total income from operations grew by 8.48 percent to Rs 180.27 crore in the quarter under review as against Rs 166.17 crore in year-ago period, it said in a BSE filing.Going into the next financial year, Krishnamachari said the focus would be on core business, which he said had “immense potential”.For full interview, watch accompanying video.