Personal care major Marico Ltd. today reported a 4.9% increase in its profit after tax (PAT) for the January-March quarter. The Mumbai-headquarter company’s PAT grew to Rs 320 crore during the quarter, over Rs 305 crore it had posted in the corresponding quarter previous year.
While, its revenue from operations remained flat at Rs 2,278 crore – growing 1.7% over Rs 2,240 crore in March 2023 quarter. According to the company, its India business posted a volume growth of 3% year-on-year (yoy). “Across various FMCG categories, premium and urban-centric segments stayed ahead of rural and mass segments. Although, we did witness an uptick in rural sentiment towards the end of the quarter. Among channels, alternate channels continued to gain salience vis-à-vis General Trade as the latter has been contending with subdued realisations and profitability headwinds,” it noted. The India business roughly contributes 74% towards Marico’s top-line.
During the quarter, its gross margin expanded by 420 basis points yoy, owing to softer input costs and favourable portfolio mix. While, advertisement & promotional spends was up 8% yoy. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation & amortisation) margin improved to 19.4% after expanding by 186 basis points over the same quarter previous year.
According to the company, its flagship haircare brand Parachute registered 2% volume growth, while value-added hair oils declined 7% in value terms. Saffola edible oils registered mid-single digit volume growth, while its foods business logged 24% value growth yoy. Launched a few year ago, the food business segment it is at four times in terms of scale compared to 2020 levels.
For FY2024, Marico reported 13.6% rise in its net profit. Its PAT for the year stood at Rs 1,502 crore, up from Rs 1,322 crore in FY2023. However, operating revenue failed to grow. During the year, its revenue from operations stood at Rs 9,653 crore – 1.1% lower than Rs 9,764 crore it had posted in the previous year. As prices of agri-commodities cooled off from their peak in 2022, Marico’s cost of raw materials declined significantly – lifting its bottom-line and margins during the year. Cost of raw materials in FY2024 was at Rs 3,941 crore – 15.3% lower than Rs 4,649 crore it had to spend in FY2023.
“We have closed fiscal 2023-24 on a promising note, delivering our highest-ever annual operating margin with sequential improvement in both the domestic and international businesses. In the domestic business, we expect a gradually improving growth trajectory in the core categories through ongoing initiatives to enhance GT [general trade] channel partner profitability and transformative expansion in direct reach via Project SETU, while we aggressively drive the profitable scale up of Foods and Digital-first brands,” Saugata Gupta, Managing Director & CEO of Marico said in statement. “As the Bangladesh business regained its momentum, the ramp up in the MENA and South Africa businesses has visibly strengthened the growth construct of the International business. We will aim to deliver healthy revenue-led earnings growth in the near and medium term, aided by the positively evolving operating environment,” he added.
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