Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL witnessed its March quarter domestic sales decline by almost 9.5%, one of its worst-ever quarterly performances, as discretionary spends took a massive hit amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing national lockdown.
Further, volume growth, which denotes the actual number of products that consumers purchased, registered a decline of 7%.
For the quarter ended March 31, 2020, income from sales was pegged at ₹8,885 crore as against ₹9,809 crore in the year-earlier period.
Net profit dipped marginally to ₹1,519 crore from ₹1,538 crore. Net profit for FY20 rose 12% to ₹6,738 crore.
“The slowdown in the market growth was visible in the first two months of the quarter, with greater deceleration in both discretionary and rural,” said Srinivas Phatak, CFO, HUL.
“The market slowdown was exacerbated with the outbreak, and the ensuing national lockdown,” he added.
Among the segment-wise businesses of HUL, beauty and personal care, the largest segment, fell 14% while the food and refreshment vertical declined 6.7%. The homecare segment declined 4.34%.
Incidentally, the impact of COVID-19 was clearly visible as the company saw a jump of almost 60 times in the sales of hand sanitisers.
Meanwhile, the board proposed a final dividend of ₹14 per share which, when combined with the interim dividend of ₹11, would result in a total dividend payout of ₹25 per share for FY20.
