Dabur India closed the financial year 2019-20 with merely a 0.2 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,445 crore compared to Rs 1,442 crore a year earlier. The profit was impacted by one-time impairment of investments worth Rs 100 Crore. Excluding this impairment, the net profit for the year marked a 5.8 per cent growth year-on-year.
Consolidated revenue from operations rose by 2 per cent to Rs 8,704 crore in FY20 from Rs 8,533 crore in the previous year. International business for Dabur reported a 4.9 per cent growth during FY20.
The company was on track to deliver 6 per cent growth in revenue and 13.8 per cent growth in net profit before exceptional for fiscal FY20, had COVID-19 not happened, Dabur India said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
In January-March quarter (Q4 FY20), Dabur India reported a 24 per cent fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 281.6 against Rs 371.49 crore in Q4 FY19. Consolidated revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 1,865 crore as against Rs 2,128 crore a year ago.
The company's consolidated EBITDA fell by 18.2 per cent to Rs 428.1 crore in Q4 FY20 from Rs 523.3 crore in the same quarter previous year.
"Dabur India continued to surge forward on its growth track through the first two months of the fourth quarter of 2019-20, with quarterly revenue from operations growing by 4.5 per cent till February-end. However, the exceptional event in the form of the COVID-19 outbreak and the resultant lockdown significantly impacted our business in the month of March 2020, due to which the Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2019-20 ended with a 12.3 per cent decline," the management said on the Q4 results.
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The FMCG major said that the company continued to gain market share across all key categories like shampoos, toothpaste, hair oils, Chyawanprash and packaged juices & nectars, during the year. Going forward, Dabur plans to further strengthen its position as a frontrunner in the Ayurveda products market, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign for 'Vocal for Local' products.
On COVID-19 pandemic, Dabur said the outbreak in March, followed by the nationwide lockdown, caused severe disruptions in business and brought sales to a virtual standstill in the second fortnight of March 2020. With most of products across our health care, home & personal care and foods portfolio falling in the non-essential category, the pre-season sales of summer skewed products to meet the seasonal demand was severely impacted. As the lockdown restrictions eased gradually, Dabur has been at the forefront on delivering authentic Ayurvedic solutions to meet the emerging Health Care needs of consumers in the post-COVID market, the company said.
"We are already witnessing a 400 per cent surge in demand for our flagship immunity booster Dabur Chyawanprash and an 80 per cent growth in Dabur Honey. With these products facing a stock-out in the market, we have already invested in expanding capacity to meet the growing demand," Dabur India Ltd Chief Executive Officer Mohit Malhotra said.
"Dabur, as the world's leading Ayurvedic and Natural healthcare company, is well placed to successfully tap the emerging growth opportunities in health care and deliver profitable volume-led growth in the coming quarters," Malhotra added.
Dabur India also informed the BSE that its board has declared a final dividend of Rs 1.60 per equity share having face value of Rs 1 each (i.e. 160 per cent) for the financial year 2019-20.
Ahead of Q4 earnings, shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries ended Wednesday's trade at Rs 428.75 apiece, down 1.04 per cent, against previous close level of Rs 433.25 on the BSE.