Dabur September Quarter Profit Slips 3% To Rs 491 Crore

Homegrown FMCG major Dabur India on Wednesday reported a 2.85 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 490.86 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 due to high inflation impacting consumption.
    
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 505.31 crore in the July-September quarter a year ago, Dabur India said in a regulatory filing.
    
However, its revenue from operations rose 6 per cent to Rs 2,986.49 crore during the quarter under review against Rs 2,817.58 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
    
The company "continued to demonstrate agility and resilience to deliver steady organic growth in an environment that remains challenging, marked by unprecedented inflation and consequential impact on consumption," Dabur India said in its earning statement.
    
Dabur "mitigated the impact of unprecedented inflationary pressures through disciplined cost control, operational efficiencies and judicious price increases" across key product categories, it added.
    
Its total expenses increased 8.94 per cent to Rs 2,471.28 crore in the latest September quarter. The same stood at Rs 2,268.47 crore in the year-ago period.
    
According to the company, its brands continued to grow ahead of the market, gaining market shares across 95 per cent of its product portfolio.
    
Dabur India CEO Mohit Malhotra said: "While the challenging economic environment continued to be a concern and impacted the purchasing power, we are seeing green shoots of recovery with the onset of the festive season".
    
"The impact of inflationary pressures was more pronounced in the rural markets with demand growth in hinterland lagging urban markets for the first time in five quarters."
    
In the July-September period, Dabur's consolidated revenue from the consumer care business segment was marginally up at Rs 2,410.92 crore compared to Rs 2,387.45 crore in the year-ago period.
    
However, revenue from the food business surged 34.93 per cent to Rs 499.14 crore. It was Rs 369.90 crore a year ago.
    
Dabur's revenue from its retail business jumped 43.34 per cent to Rs 26.19 crore from Rs 18.27 crore in Q2 FY22.
    
Revenue from other segments rose 18.20 per cent to Rs 40.78 crore against Rs 34.50 crore a year ago.
    
In the September quarter, Dabur's international business reported a 12.3 per cent rise in constant currency terms "led by strong constant currency growths in Turkey (86 per cent), Nepal (25 per cent) and Egypt (23 per cent)," the earning statement said.    
    
Its standalone revenue from operations in Q2 increased 6.93 per cent to Rs 2,266.88 crore from Rs 2,119.89 crore.
    
Dabur India's consolidated net profit for the first half of this fiscal (April-September) slipped 1.23 per cent to Rs 931.92 crore from Rs 943.61 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
    
Its revenue from operation in H1 rose 7 per cent to Rs 5,808.92 crore. It was Rs 5,429.12 crore in the first half of FY22.
    
On the outlook, Malhotra said he expects the rural demand to come back in the coming quarters.
    
"We are hopeful of rural demand reporting a smart recovery in the coming quarters and we are investing ahead of the curve to ride this demand recovery by expanding our rural footprint by adding nearly 9,000 villages in Q2 of 2022-23 to take our total coverage to over 100,000 villages," he said.