HUL net profit jumps nearly 20% to Rs1,525 cr in Q2
12 Oct 2018
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Consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has reported a net profit of Rs1,525 crore for the July-September 2018 quarter, a 19.51 per cent increase compared to a net profit of Rs1,276 crore during the same period last fiscal.
The company had posted double digit growth across categories.
Sales during the quarter under review stood at Rs 9,138 crore as against Rs 8,199 crore in the year-ago period, up 11.45 per cent, HUL said in a regulatory filing.
Revenue from the Mumbai-headquartered company’s home-care segment, which includes brands such as Vim and Surf Excel, rose 12.4 per cent to Rs3,080 crore.
"Our focus on strengthening the core, leading market development and driving excellence in execution has enabled us to deliver competitive and profitable growth. In the near term, we expect demand to be stable. Our strength of agility and responsiveness gives us confidence to navigate the headwinds arising from crude inflation and currency depreciation," HUL chairman and managing director Sanjiv Mehta said.
HUL chief financial officer Srinivas Phatak said while the company expects the demand to be stable in the near term, the company will watch out for currency depreciation and crude price increase.
Pathak said the company had undertaken a price increase of 2-3 per cent across select home care category products - which includes brands such as Domex, Vim and Surf Excel - in the quarter under review.
The company will not shy in increasing prices but will not lose its market competitiveness, he added.
Revenue from the personal care segment during the quarter under review was at Rs 4,316 crore as against Rs 3,910 crore a year earlier, an increase of 10.38 per cent.
Revenue from homecare products stood at Rs 3,080 crore, up 12.44 per cent, compared to Rs 2,739 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
The food and refreshment category - which includes Kissan, Brooke Bond Red Label tea, Bru coffee and ice cream and frozen desserts business, accounted for Rs1,704 crore, up 11.66 per cent from Rs1,526 crore in the a year-ago quarter.
The company's board has declared an interim dividend of Rs9 per share of face value Re1 each for the financial year ending 31 March 2019.
For the half year ended 30 September 2018, HUL's net profit was up 19.34 per cent at Rs3,054 crore against Rs2,559 crore in first half of 2017-18.
Sales stood at Rs18,494 crore in the half year ended 30 September 2018, up 6.94 per cent, against Rs17,293 crore in the previous fiscal.
In a separate filing, the company also announced the appointment of Leo Puri as an independent director on its board effective 12 October 2018.
"Puri, until recently, was the managing director of UTI Asset Management Company. He has also previously served as an Independent Director in companies including Max New York Life Insurance Company, Infosys, Bennett Coleman & Co," the company said.
