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Cera Sanitaryware Ltd has registered Rs 51.91 crore net profit for the year ended March 2014, up by 12 per cent from Rs 46.21 crore reported in the previous fiscal. Company’s net sales for the year jumped by over 36 per cent to Rs 664 crore against Rs 488 crore in the previous year.
The company attributed the growth in net sales to the improved retail sales in the domestic market. The company has achieved 100 per cent capacity utilisation during the year after an expansion of the capacity to 2.7 million tonnes per annum commissioned last year.
The BSE-listed Cera has maintained key position in the country’s sanitaryware market, which has a total size of Rs 2,700 crore with a market share of 23 per cent. “Our market share has grown significantly in the past five years from 18 per cent earlier,” said Vikram Somany, chairman and managing director of the company during a media interaction in Ahmedabad on Friday.
“After success on market acceptability with Sanitaryware and faucets, Cera has now forayed into tiles more aggressively,” he added. The company offers tiles consist of HD digital wall tiles with matching floor tiles and also digital polished glazed vitrified tiles.
Broking houses see promising future for the company. An Angel Broking report on Cera after the results announcement said, “Considering the low-penetration level of sanitation in India, change in lifestyle of the people, increasing nuclear families and real estate growth; the sanitaryware industry growth is on an uptrend. Thus, with increasing awareness about the brand ‘Cera’ and its recently expanded capacity, Cera is well placed to benefit from the growth in the sanitaryware industry.”
Insiders maintained that the Cera has outperformed the industry with multiple times higher growth than the industry growth rate of about 14-15 per cent. However, most of the industry consists of the unorganized sector.
The board of directors of Cera have recommended 100 per cent dividend for the year 2013-14 compared to 80 per cent last year. Meanwhile, after the sudden demise of executive director, Vidush Somany in 2012, the company brought on board Ms Deepshikha Khaitan, daughter of Vikram Somany in the capacity of a director.
Cera shares ended at Rs 876.05 on Friday with gains of 3.29 on the BSE.
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