Eveready Industries India Ltd registered 47 per cent decline in net profit at ₹31 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared with ₹58 crore in same period last year.

Revenue from operations declined by four per cent to ₹357 crore(₹373 crore).

Battery turnover was lower by six per cent as consumption reduced significantly, the company said in a statement. Similar soft trend also prevailed in the flashlights business with the market being disturbed by high volume of low-cost dumped products from China.

“Higher cost of inputs, led by overall increase in commodity prices, could not be entirely passed on to the market resulting in lower margins. The competitive scenario in the battery market was quite severe leading to higher cost of market inputs. While there was a healthy growth of 17 per cent in the turnover in the lighting & electrical segment, that was insufficient in making up for the losses in the core battery and flashlight segments,” it said.

The company plans to optimise product mix to deliver higher margins. It is hopeful that the market would stabilise from the ups and downs caused by the pandemic and the opening up of markets would help it reach its full potential in a more stable environment through its strong brand and distribution push.

Eveready expects its lighting segment to continue to grow and efforts would be made to improve margins by judicious change of mix in the product portfolio.

The company’s scrip closed at ₹333.05 apiece, down 2.20 per cent, on the BSE on Wednesday.

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