Emami: Expect rural growth to initiate from Q1 or H1 of next fiscal: NH Bhansali, Emami

NH Bhansali, CEO-Finance, Strategy & Business Development, Emami, says “margins have really improved compared to the previous year and this has helped us improve on the EBITDA and the PAT by double digit despite a very low single digit growth. We feel this margin would sustain because in the past periods, there had been a substantial increase as well. We expect this kind of margin and this price level to continue.”Revenue growth was weakish because of the winter portfolio that did not do well. 30% of your sales come in from the Boroplus side. So, going forward, at least in Q4, what could you expect in terms of revenue? Was this only a one-off in terms of weak performance of the winter portfolio that we are seeing such a subdued growth in terms of revenue?
NH Bhansali: Yes, for the quarter it is not 30%. In fact, winter products contribute 65% for the quarter. This was the warmest winter and on top of it, the rural demand was contained. So, inflation and rural off-takes also were weaker. Both taken together, despite these challenges, we could perform a positive growth with a 1.4% growth on revenues and EBITDA growth of double digits. On the performance side, we are happy with the kind of performance which has been demonstrated.

Unlock Leadership Excellence with a Range of CXO Courses

Offering College Course Website
Indian School of Business ISB Chief Digital Officer Visit
IIM Kozhikode IIMK Chief Product Officer Programme Visit
IIM Lucknow IIML Chief Executive Officer Programme Visit

What is the understanding you are getting from the rural side?
NH Bhansali: The rural has still not started that kicking off and so, we expect the rural growth to initiate maybe from the first quarter or first half of the next fiscal only. There is a lot of optimism. A lot of initiatives have been taken by the government and on top of it, the rainfall has also been good and is expected to be good across. We expect that rural growth has to resume from the first half of the next fiscal.

There is a trend where local players are doing much better than the organised players. Local competition is gaining pace as well. Is that something that you are worried about? Is that still the case for the company as well?
NH Bhansali: Not really. If you look at the product portfolio of Emami, we provide the value for money products and so we cater to the masses. These products are affordable to the masses with a lot many LUPs in the place. So, that really is not a challenge. But as I said, there has been a lot of downtrading and the people are also looking for meeting their primary needs rather than looking into the discretionary products. So, that has been a challenge.

Once the economy starts looking up and more particularly the rural, we expect a double impact to flow in from the next fiscal.
In terms of margins, we are seeing an expansion this time in terms of margins as well. What is the margin that you are seeing going forward and obviously commodity costs keep coming down. Is that something you are looking to pass on to the customers as well then?
NH Bhansali: Margins have really improved compared to the previous year and this has helped us improve on the EBITDA and the PAT by double digit despite a very low single digit growth. We feel this margin would sustain because in the past periods, there had been a substantial increase as well. We expect this kind of margin and this price level to continue.
Let us talk about the D2C business, which has been picking up pace as well. You have managed to see a strong performance in both your D2C brands whether you look at the Man Company or whether you look at Brillare. Both of them have seen a strong performance and Man Company has actually managed to turn EBITDA positive as well. What is the trajectory now for Brillare? What is the expectation in terms of breakeven point for that?
NH Bhansali: Both the Man Company and Brillare have demonstrated good growth of above 75% during this quarter and they are on an aggressive growth path and also would be improving on the EBITDA. So, there is a clarity on path to profitability and profitable growth is expected from these two brands. These two investments and also from other brands as well going forward.

(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)

(What’s moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE NEWS

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! Todays Chronic is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – todayschronic.com. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave a Comment