Britannia Industries, makers of Good Day and Tiger biscuits, reported a 29 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to ₹387 crore for the June quarter, as against the ₹543 crore it reported in the year-ago period. Sequentially, net profit increased by 8 per cent.

Turnover or consolidated revenue from operations, which stood at ₹3,403 crore in Q1FY22, remained mostly flattish y-o-y. On a sequential basis, it grew 9 per cent.

During the quarter, Britannia launched 50-50 Potazos (potato biscuits) in the northeastern market, while Good Day Chocochips was re-launched.

According to Varun Berry, Managing Director, Britannia’s brands were back on air and the full range of products is in the market. Calibrated price hikes were being considered in view of rising raw material prices including that of palm oil and crude and “as things normalise”. Supply chain impact was not as severe as the first wave of the pandemic.

“Aggressive cost efficiencies helped the company improve its operating profit sequentially. We shall take calibrated price increases as things normalise. Second wave of Covid-19 struck the country hard followed by lockdowns imposed by various tate governments. We witnessed evolving nature of the pandemic as well as consumer sentiment and behavior,” he added.

Berry said despite the uncertain times, the company delivered a healthy consolidated 24-month sales growth of 25 per cent and net profit growth of 55 per cent.

According to Abneesh Roy, EVP, Edelweiss Securities, the flattish y-o-y revenue came “on a very high base” while a sales growth of 25 per cent indicates “good performance, given disruptions and local lockdowns due to wave two of pandemic and not much pantry loading this time.” However, gross margin compressed by 328 bps y-o-y and EBIDTA margins were down 469 bps y-o-y.

Roy referred to the possibility of downtrading in biscuits and resurgence of another competing brand, Parle, in the past one year as other probable causes.

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