Tata Consumer Products Q3 profit rises 25.6%

Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL) on Thursday reported a 25.63 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 364.43 crore for the December quarter led by growth from the domestic food business.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 290.07 crore for the October-December period a year ago, TCPL, earlier known as Tata Global Beverages Ltd, said in a regulatory filing.

Its revenue from operations was up 8.29 per cent to Rs 3,474.55 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 3,208.38 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Total expenses of the Tata group's FMCG arm were 10.13 per cent higher at Rs 3,119.73 crore over Rs 2,832.68 crore earlier.

Speaking to PTI, TCPL Group CFO L Krishnakumar said: "Food segment was a growth driver for us in the domestic market. Overall portfolio in the food segment grew well. We were up both in pricing and volume during the quarter."

The company's India Foods business registered a 29 per cent revenue growth and 4 per cent volume growth in the December quarter.

In Q3, its profit before tax was at Rs 482 crore, 25 per cent higher as compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, reflecting a strong growth in the domestic business partly offset by lower profits in the international business due to inflationary pressures and weakness in the currency, the company said in its earning statement.

TCPL Managing Director and CEO Sunil D'Souza said: "We delivered strong earnings growth this quarter while balancing revenue growth and margins in an extremely challenging macroeconomic environment."

In the December quarter, revenue from the Indian market rose 7.72 per cent to Rs 2,165.34 crore as against Rs 2,010.04 crore a year ago.

"While the branded tea business in India has been impacted by demand headwinds in some of our key markets, we are putting in place measures to address some of these challenges. In our other core business of salt, we have continued to gain market share despite pricing actions taken to mitigate input cost inflation," he said.

TCPL has continued momentum on innovation with a number of new launches across its beverages and foods categories.

"Our new engines of growth -- Tata Sampann, Tata Soulfull and NourishCo -- have continued their strong growth trajectory and collectively account for 13 per cent of our India business now," D'Souza said, adding, "Our transformation journey to becoming a leading FMCG company is progressing well."

Its international business contributed revenue of Rs 929.93 crore, up 3.71 per cent from Rs 896.62 crore earlier.

"The international business had a challenging quarter," said Krishnakumar, adding, "this was because of inflation and currency" fluctuation impacting the segment.

Tata Starbucks, a 50:50 joint venture between TCPL and Starbucks Corporation, had revenue growth of 42 per cent for the reported quarter, led by a revival in out-of-home consumption and strong store addition.

It opened 11 new stores during the third quarter and entered two new cities. This brought the total number of stores to 311 across 38 cities.

"We are aggressively expanding its network... we expect more opening of stores," said Krishnakumar.

Meanwhile, in a separate filing, TCPL said it would de-list its Global Depository Receipts (GDR) from London Stock Exchange and Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

"The board of the company has approved the termination of its GDR program," said TCPL.

GDRs of TCPL are listed on the London Stock Exchange and Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

"As the GDR holding as compared to the Paid-up Capital of the company over the years is very insignificant, it has been decided to terminate the GDR program and thereby terminate the engagement with Deutsche," it said.

On Thursday, shares of TCPL settled 0.47 per cent down at Rs 737.05 apiece on the BSE.