Dabur posts highest-ever net profit of Rs503.53 crore

Dabur India Ltd ended the 2009-10 financial year with its highest-ever consolidated net profit of Rs503.53 crore. This marks a 28.7 per cent surge over the Rs391.21 crore profit earned in the previous fiscal.

During the fourth quarter of 2009-10, Dabur posted a 29.7 per cent surge in net profit at Rs135.28 crore, up from Rs104.28 crore a year ago. Revenues for the quarter registered a 16 per cent jump to Rs855.28 crore as against Rs737.06 crore a year ago.

Consolidated gross sales of the company for the 2009-10 financial rose 19.6 per cent to Rs3,390.91 crore, from Rs2,834.11 crore in the previous fiscal.

The rise in revenue and profit has been aided by strong volume-driven growth across its key categories like hair care, oral care, skin care, health supplements, digestives and foods, despite rising input costs, Dabur said in a release.

"Even when the industry is facing the negative impact of rising food inflation, aggressive cost management initiatives helped Dabur expand EBITDA margins for the consolidated business by 150 bps. The company continues to register sales growth ahead of the market in several key categories, and this growth is almost entirely volume-driven. The year 2009-10 was, in fact, one of the best-ever years for Dabur's health care portfolio. With good growth across its key categories of health supplements, oral care and digestives, the health care portfolio has crossed the Rs1,000-crore turnover mark this fiscal," Dabur India CEO Sunil Duggal said.

Dabur said its health supplements business grew 20.4 per cent while the toothpaste brands continued their impressive run with a 19.4 per cent annual gain, making Dabur the fastest growing toothpaste company in India.