The Hindu Business Line : Virudhunagar Mills net profit drops to Rs 5.48 cr

The company, belonging to the Madurai-based Thiagarajar group, has closed the financial year ended March 31, 2004 with a gross profit of Rs14.47 crore down by some 19 per cent from its previous year's Rs 17.90 crore.

Its net profit for the year too declined to Rs 5.48 crore from the previous year's Rs 9.91 crore.

The company's total sales turnover for the year under review was up by five per cent to Rs 109 crore as against previous year's Rs 103 crore. The company's export sale for the year stood higher at Rs 76.73 crore (Rs 71.42 crore) and its domestic market sale was Rs 32.40 crore (Rs 32.15 crore).

The spurt in the raw cotton prices (key raw material) during the year and the absence of a commensurate increase in the prices of cloth (its finished products) apart, the impact of the strong rupee against the US dollar which affected the export realisation adversely had resulted in the company's decline in profit, according to the directors' report .

The company has also declared a dividend of Rs 5 per share for the year 2003-04 as against the previous year's dividend of Rs 5.90.

Virudhunagar Textile Mills had during the year acquired two wind-mill units of 600 MW capacity each at a cost of Rs 12 crore which are expected to bring down its power cost and the wind mills had since started power generation.