Diversified PSU Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd is expecting a dip in its profitability and turnover during the current fiscal in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said on Friday.

The company made a loss in the first quarter for the first time in 20 years due to the coronavirus crisis, its chairman and managing director Prabal Basu said.

“This fiscal will practically be a ten-month tenure as April and May have been lost due to the lockdown. The 2020-21 fiscal will be a challenging year and we expect a drop in profitability and turnover,” he told shareholders at the company’s 103rd annual general meeting.

The company had clocked a profit of Rs 177 crore and a turnover of Rs 1,612 crore in the last fiscal.

He said the worst-affected vertical is the travel and tourism, which will take a couple of years to revive.

“Unless a vaccine is developed, people will not feel safe for travel,” Basu said.

Talking about the industrial packaging (IP) plant at Taratala here, which had been shut from September 1, he said the company is now dismantling the machinery and will hand over the land to the Kolkata Port Trust, now renamed Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port.

The company will commission a temperature-controlled warehouse in Bhubaneswar in the current fiscal, he said.

Speaking to reporters after the AGM, Basu said, .

“Things are looking up and in the subsequent three quarters of the current fiscal, the company will make profits, unless unforeseen circumstances emerge“.

The Kolkata-headquartered company has planned to spend Rs 35-40 crore as capital expenditure during the current fiscal, he added.

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