Britannia Industries net up 17%

Britannia Industries' net profit grew 17 per cent to Rs 108 crore for the fourth quarter ended March over the corresponding period of last year. Revenue grew 9 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,777 crore.

The maker of Good Day and Tiger biscuit brands, under the stewardship of consumer goods veteran Varun Berry for 15 months, said profit from operations rose 17 per cent as well, to grow by Rs 147 crore.

Berry took over as managing director from Vinita Bali on April 1. "Overall, it has been a good year with double-digit revenue growth and a solid profit growth. This is the result of a disciplined effort that focused on the primary building blocks of business. Supporting our brands was an empowered and passionate frontline organisation delivering increased distribution depth in urban and width in rural India, consistently high product quality and improved operational efficiency. Toughening economic environment called for a focus on fundamentals and we did that. We have established a great platform to take our organisation to greater heights,” he said.

On a full-year basis the company's net profit shot up by a whopping 52.3 per cent to Rs 395 crore on revenues of Rs 6829 crore, which grew by 11.3 per cent. Profit from operations grew by 56.6 per cent to Rs 544 crore.

Britannia has further added that it was impacted by an exceptional item of Rs 20 crore towards provision for reduction in the value of investment in Daily Bread, a gourmet bakery chain predominant in Bangalore. The company has said that it is looking to divest this asset at a good price.

The company has also recommended a dividend of 600 per cent (ie) Rs 12/ share. The stock of Britannia shored up by a marginal 0.3 per cent to Rs 869.75 per share on NSE.