FMCG major Hindustan Unilever’s (HUl) standalone net profit remained flat at Rs1,059.14 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2015 due to subdued demand in rural markets. The company had posted a standalone net profit of Rs1,056.85 crore in the April-June quarter of FY 2014-15.
Its net sales climbed 5.31 per cent to Rs7,973.37 crore in the quarter under review as against Rs7,570.78 crore in the year-ago period, the company said in a BSE filing on Tuesday.
HUl Chairman Harish Manwani said: “In a subdued market environment, the business delivered another quarter of healthy volume-led growth and strong improvement in operating margin.”
He further said: “With the near-term outlook largely dependent on pickup in rural markets and commodity costs expected to remain benign with little or no price growth across select categories, our focus will be to drive market development and simultaneously deliver cost efficiencies to sustain profitable volume-led growth.”
The company’s CFO P B Balaji said the environment remains challenging and recovery is yet to stablise, especially in the rural market. Rural sales account for 35 per cent of HUl’s total sales.
During the quarter, HUl’s revenue from soaps and detergents grew by dismal 0.17 by per cent to Rs3,854.41 crore and of personal products by 11.39 per cent to Rs2,405.57 crore.
Revenue from beverages grew by 9.36 per cent to Rs914.9 crore and packaged foods went up by 11.79 per cent to Rs607.94 crore. Overall expenses during the quarter stood at Rs6,673.63 crore, as against Rs6,466.52 crore in the year-ago period.
However, HUl’s standalone net profit (Q-o-Q basis) rose over 4 per cent to Rs1,059.14 crore during the quarter as against Rs1,018.08 crore in the same period last fiscal.