Homegrown FMCG major Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) on Tuesday reported a whopping 73.45 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 334.14 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, on the back of robust growth in domestic business.
Signalling the progression of the next generation of the promoter family in management of the company, which had posted a net profit of Rs 192.64 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal, Nisaba Godrej, daughter of GCPL Chairman Adi Godrej, has been appointed as an Executive Director with effect from July 1, 2013.
Net sales during the period under review stood at Rs 1,715.51 crore as against Rs 1,323.04 crore, up 29.66 per cent, the company said in a statement.
Commenting on the performance, GCPL Chairman Adi Godrej said: “We delivered another quarter with robust operating performance. Our sales growth remains healthy and we continue to carry forward the strong momentum from the earlier quarters. We continue to intensify our focus on innovation.”
The company’s Indian sub-continent business posted net sales of Rs 955 crore during the quarter, up 18 per cent from the year-ago period.
In the international business, GCPL said its Indonesian-arm Megasari posted 35 per cent increase in sales to Rs 343 crore on the back of new product launches, distribution expansion and continuous marketing investments.
Sales in Africa, which includes South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria and Kenya, stood at Rs 178 crore, while that of Latin America was at Rs 141 crore. In Europe, GCPL said it had sales of Rs 99 crore.
GCPL’s spending on advertising and publicity went up by 48 per cent during the quarter to Rs 162.55 crore from Rs 109.59 crore in the same period a year ago.
Commenting on the outlook, Mr. Godrej said the macroeconomic and socio-political environment continues to be challenging in some of the countries in which the company operates,
“Going forward, we remain optimistic of continuing the strong sales growth momentum and expect our profit performance to improve on the back of stronger traction from our launches and favourable input prices,” he added.
For the fiscal ended March 31, 2013, the company’s net profit stood at Rs 796.10 crore as against Rs 726.72 crore in the previous year.
Net sales for FY2012-13 stood at Rs 6,390.79 crore as compared to Rs 4,850.94 crore in FY2011-12.
The company’s board declared a fourth interim dividend for the fiscal 2012-13 at Rs 2 per share of face value Re 1 each.
Shares of GCPL were trading at Rs 835 per scrip, down 2.43 per cent from the previous close on the BSE.
GCPL also announced a top level management change with the appointment of Vivek Gambhir as its Managing Director with effect from July 1, 2013. He has been inducted as a Non-Executive Director with effect from April 30, 2013.
He will replace A. Mahendran, who will cease to be the Managing Director with effect from June 30, 2013 and will continue as a Non-Executive Director with effect from July 1, 2013, the company said.
The company’s board also approved appointment of Nisaba Godrej, currently a non-executive director in the Board, as an Executive Director with effect from July 1, 2013, it added.
Before her elevation, she was designated as President Human Resources and Innovation.
The board also approved induction of Ireena Vittal as a Non-Executive Director with effect from April 30, 2013. Ms. Vittal will also be considered an independent director, the company said.
“With the above reconstitution the total Board strength is 14 directors out of which seven are Independent Directors,” GCPL said.
