New Delhi: Homegrown FMCG major Marico Ltd Monday reported a 4.9 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 320 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2024.
The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 305 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal, Marico said in a regulatory filing.
Consolidated revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 2,278 crore as against Rs 2,240 crore in the year-ago period.
Total expenses in the fourth quarter were lower at Rs 1,894 crore compared to Rs 1,907 crore a year ago, the company said.
In Q4FY24, underlying volume growth was 3 per cent in the domestic business and constant currency growth of 10 per cent in the international business, it added.
“The domestic operating environment during the quarter was closely akin to the preceding quarters of this year. Across various FMCG categories, premium and urban-centric segments stayed ahead of rural and mass segments,” the company said.
There was an uptick in rural sentiment towards the end of the quarter.
Among channels, alternative channels continued to gain salience vis-Ã-vis general trade (GT) as the latter has been contending with subdued realisations and profitability headwinds, it added.
The international business delivered strong broad-based growth led by Bangladesh recovering after facing transient headwinds in the preceding quarter and strong growth momentum in MENA and South Africa.
For the fiscal ended March 31, 2024, Marico said its consolidated net profit was at Rs 1,502 crore over Rs 1,322 crore in FY23, a growth of 13.62 per cent.
Consolidated revenue from operations in FY24 was Rs 9,653 crore as against Rs 9,764 crore in the previous fiscal.
“We have closed fiscal 2023-24 on a promising note, delivering our highest-ever annual operating margin with sequential improvement in both the domestic and international businesses,” Marico Ltd Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Saugata Gupta said.
In the domestic business, he said, “We expect a gradually improving growth trajectory in the core categories through ongoing initiatives to enhance GT channel partner profitability and transformative expansion in direct reach via Project SETU, while we aggressively drive the profitable scale up of foods and digital-first brands.”
Under Project SETU, Marico has laid out a three-year phased roadmap to improve direct reach from around 1 million outlets currently to 1.5 million outlets.
As the Bangladesh business regained its momentum, the ramp-up in the MENA and South Africa businesses has visibly strengthened the growth construct of the International business, Gupta added.
“We will aim to deliver healthy revenue-led earnings growth in the near and medium term, aided by the positively evolving operating environment,” he said.
On the outlook, Marico said, “Amidst improving macro-indicators and forecast of a normal monsoon, we expect a gradual uptick in the growth of our core categories through the ongoing initiatives to enhance the profitability of our General Trade (GT) channel partners and transformative expansion in our direct reach footprint with the roll out of Project SETU.”
The consolidated revenue growth which has moved into positive territory in Q4 is expected to trend upwards during the course of FY25, it said, adding, “We expect domestic revenue growth to outpace volume growth from Q1FY25.”
PTI