MUMBAI: Parachute maker Marico reported a 17% rise in net profit at Rs 353 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2023, while revenue from operations was down 1% at Rs 2,476 crore.
The underlying volume growth was 3% during the quarter with demand trends in the domestic FMCG sector largely in line with the preceding quarter.
The company said while urban sentiment improved sequentially, instances of higher food inflation and uneven rainfall distribution led to a slower-than-expected pace of recovery in rural demand.Packaged foods, given its high urban salience, maintained a healthy growth trajectory and continued to outpace mass home and personal care categories. Marico said with commodity inflation largely in check and price cuts implemented across categories, the company is optimistic about a gradual recovery in sectoral volume growth, aided by range-bound retail inflation, onset of the festive season and continued government spending.
In the India business, approximately 85% of the business either gaining or sustaining market share and penetration.
The India business delivered a turnover of Rs 1,832 crore, down 3% on a YoY basis, lagging volume growth due to price corrections in key portfolios in the last 12 months.
In a statement, Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, Marico, said, “The domestic and overseas businesses have delivered a fairly resilient performance amidst a challenging operating environment in the first half of the fiscal. We have made substantial progress towards achieving the diversification objective set for the year with Foods and Digital-First portfolios scaling up on expected lines. We are also on-course to deliver robust gross and operating margin expansion this year, even while ramping up brand building investments to strengthen the equity of our franchises. We continue to hold the aspiration of exhibiting an improvement across key performance parameters on a full year basis.”
The underlying volume growth was 3% during the quarter with demand trends in the domestic FMCG sector largely in line with the preceding quarter.
The company said while urban sentiment improved sequentially, instances of higher food inflation and uneven rainfall distribution led to a slower-than-expected pace of recovery in rural demand.Packaged foods, given its high urban salience, maintained a healthy growth trajectory and continued to outpace mass home and personal care categories. Marico said with commodity inflation largely in check and price cuts implemented across categories, the company is optimistic about a gradual recovery in sectoral volume growth, aided by range-bound retail inflation, onset of the festive season and continued government spending.
In the India business, approximately 85% of the business either gaining or sustaining market share and penetration.
The India business delivered a turnover of Rs 1,832 crore, down 3% on a YoY basis, lagging volume growth due to price corrections in key portfolios in the last 12 months.
In a statement, Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, Marico, said, “The domestic and overseas businesses have delivered a fairly resilient performance amidst a challenging operating environment in the first half of the fiscal. We have made substantial progress towards achieving the diversification objective set for the year with Foods and Digital-First portfolios scaling up on expected lines. We are also on-course to deliver robust gross and operating margin expansion this year, even while ramping up brand building investments to strengthen the equity of our franchises. We continue to hold the aspiration of exhibiting an improvement across key performance parameters on a full year basis.”
