Emami Q2 net down 5% at Rs 50.64 cr

During the quarter under review,the firm’s sales stood at Rs 310.43 crore,15.57 a per cent increase from Rs 268.60 crore posted in the year-ago period.

“Our net profit has declined mainly due to foreign exchange losses during the quarter,” Emami Director Harsh Agarwal said.

During the quarter,Emami’s forex loss stood at Rs 6.57 crore against a gain of Rs 3.56 crore in the year-ago period.

Expenditure on raw material rose by 17.03 per cent to Rs 100.67 crore during the quarter under review while advertising spend also jumped by 18.10 per cent to Rs 53.24 crore as compared to the year-ago period.

Emami’s decline in Q2 net profit is in contrast to rivals HUL,Marico Industries and Dabur India which all have posted growths in their respective bottomlines in the period.

While HUL’s Q2 net jumped 21.69 per cent to Rs 688.92 crore during the quarter,Marico posted 9.4 per cent increase to Rs 78.29 crore.

Dabur India had posted 30.7 per cent jump in Q2 net to Rs 140.34 crore.

The surging input cost is putting pressure on margins and the company is looking at making its operations cost-efficient,Agarwal added.

“We are doing everything to reduce cost. We are looking for alternative ways to improve our efficiency and have also taken price hikes to offset the input cost,” he said.

Emami’s international business during the period stood at Rs 44 crore in revenue terms,witnessing a growth of 18.9 per cent over last year.