Higher sales and margins pushed up fertiliser maker Coromandel International’s consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31 by over six times to ₹80.8 crore.

In the year-ago quarter, its net profit was ₹11.67 crore.

Total consolidated income for the period was ₹2,183.96 crore, up 5 per cent from ₹2,079.5 crore a year ago. Its net for the whole year, however, tanked 17 per cent to ₹356.54 crore from ₹432 crore in the previous fiscal. “This was mostly on account of higher tax outgo and interest cost,” Kapil Mehan, Managing Director, said.

In a significant milestone, the company, for the first time, crossed a consolidated turnover of ₹10,000 crore — it clocked ₹10,053 crore against ₹9,034 crore in the previous fiscal, an increase of 11.3 per cent.

India produced about 263 million tonnes of food grains during the year, up about 5 per cent from the previous fiscal.

Non-fertiliser business Coromandel, part of the Murugappa Group, is targeting to have a higher share of non-fertiliser business, consisting of pesticide, speciality nutrients, retail and farm mechanisation products.

Currently, 35 per cent of its business comes from this stream and the company wants this to be raised to 50 per cent. “Margins are better in non-fertiliser business,” Mehan said.

As part of this plan, the company is setting up a ₹40-crore plant to manufacture rice farming machinery in a joint venture with Yanmar and Mitsui of Japan. “The unit will be located in South India, though we are yet to finalise a location. It will make rice transplanters and then move on to harvesters,” he added.

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