Tata Consumer Products Q3 profit rises 25.6 pc to Rs 364 crore

NEW DELHI: 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.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 290.07 crore for the October-September 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.

The company's ''profit before tax at Rs 482 crore is 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 in the year-ago period.

''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 a revenue of Rs 929.93 crore, up 3.71 per cent from Rs 896.62 crore earlier.

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