Emami records 25.6 % growth during Q1

The Board of Directors of Emami Limited declared the financial results of the company for the first quarter on Saturday which ended at June 30, 2014.  While turnover at Rs 482 crore in the first quarter grew by 25.6%, EBIDTA at Rs. 75 crore grew by 26.7% and PAT at Rs 71 crore grew by 16.7% respectively over the corresponding quarter in previous year.

The company's domestic business in the first quarter grew at a robust pace which is of 19.7%, the highest growth recorded in the last 15 quarters. New launches such as'HE' deodorant,'Fair and Handsome' instant fairness facewash,'Emami 7 Oils in One' damage control hair oil and'Zandu Balm Ultra Power' were active contributors to the growth during the first quarter. The company also scaled up its spend significantly on both advertisement and brand building during the quarter to aggressively market its products. Despite the high increase in spends, the company's EBIDTA during the quarter rose by 26.7%, bettering industry average.

As per AC Nielsen data, the company gained market shares across key categories this quarter.'Navratna Cooling Oil' gained 522 bps with value market shares at 61.3%. With 63.9% market share,'Fair & Handsome' gained 767bps market share.'Boroplus Antiseptic' cream maintained its leadership at 77.1%. Balms market share also improved to 60.3%.

International business grew over 100% during the quarter doubling the sales achieved against the corresponding quarter in FY14. All the focused countries, including Bangladesh, where Emami has its our own plant, performed exceedingly well. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Oman in the Middle East, Kenya and Uganda in Africa and Russia amongst the CIS countries were star performers. All the Power Brands like'Navratna','Fair and Handsome','Boroplus Antiseptic Cream','Zandu' and'Mentho Plus' balms were key contributors in the international market.

Mohan Goenka, Director, Emami Limited, stated, "The company has performed extremely well during this quarter, both in the domestic and the international markets, especially in an environment which has been threatened by various challenges like economic slowdown and inflation. The quarter growth has been the highest in the last fifteen quarters, bettering industry average. Strong performance by all our power brands in key categories helped us to meet the challenges in the operating environment and register a 25.6% top line growth. Consumer sentiment and demand for our products continued to be good and robust both in modern and general trade. All our new launches have received encouraging consumer response and have started making significant contribution in generating revenues.”

He further said, "Our international business has also recorded good growth this quarter doubling the revenues during this quarter. Adoption of correctional measures, some definite consolidation in our international business and robust performance by all our power brands led to this considerable improvement. We sustained our sales momentum through a strong focus on internal optimisation and effective cost management. Judicious price hikes and easing of the input price pressure, especially for the agro based materials led to a positive impact and margin expansion.”

R S Agarwal, Chairman, Emami Limited, said: "Despite poor monsoon and consequent repercussion on economy in general, our company is optimistic about its future growth.   We have inducted significant senior management talent in the system, both as employees and consultants, to fuel the future growth. We are in the process of chalking out our growth plan for the company for short term (1 year), mid-term (3 years) and long term (5 years). In perspective of our future growth strategy, brand positioning of our existing power brands as well as the new brands is being contemplated. We expect this year to be a'take-off' year for a fast-paced future growth envisaged by us for a new face of Emami to emerge within a period of three years.”