Emami Aiming 'Very Strong' 10% Growth In Second Half Also

Emami's Chief Executive Officer of Finance Naresh Bhansali expects to clock a high single-digit growth in the current financial year, and his hopes are conditional on a good performance in the winter season.

Expressing optimistism in the demand for his company's winter products, Bhansali told NDTV Profit that he expects the season to be "very strong", like summer.

“We could demonstrate a good growth of almost double-digit 10% growth in the first quarter. We expect winter also to be good and we expect almost the same kind of (growth) across the second half,” he added.

Referring to the FMCG major's performance in the second quarter, the top executive pointed out that Emami Ltd. managed to record growth despite operation challenges during the period.

Bhansali said that inflation led by fuel prices, unemployment, low urban demand, and erratic seasonality were the main factors that put pressure.

The company, which caters to the personal care and healthcare segments has reported a 19% year-on-year increase in net profit for the second quarter at Rs 213 crore.

Revenue from operations during the quarter rose 3% YoY to Rs 891 crore. Despite the challenges, the company managed to improve its gross margins by 60 basis points to 70.7%.

“While a few of the costs have increased, we have been able to manage them in a much better way," Bhansali said, adding that prices of materials such as gold, silver, kesar, or some ayurvedic materials have increased.

"But for a few others like polymers and packing materials, we managed very, very strategically and the prices to that extent had been low for us. We do not foresee any pressure from materials or prices going forward,” he said.

Bhansali added that the company was very "mindful" of growth in terms of revenue and profit.

Shares of Emami Ltd. closed flat at Rs 670.75 apiece on the NSE on Friday. Compared to this, the benchmark index Nifty 50 ended 0.21%, or 51.15 points, lower at 24,148.20.