ITC Q4 results: Cigarettes, agri-biz boost firm's FY22 performance

Salt-to-hotels conglomerate ITC Ltd. reported a 22 per cent surged in its consolidated revenue from operations for FY2021-22 backed by superior performance of its cigarettes and agri-business segments. It’s operating revenue from the year stood at Rs 65,205 crore - up from Rs 53,155 crore in the previous year.

Cigarettes continue to be the largest business segment for the Kolkata-based company, delivering an impressive 16 per cent growth in sales. Revenue from the segment surged to Rs 26,158 crore from Rs 22,557 crore in FY2020-21. Recovery in its cigarette sales during year is evident from the fact that in the previous year business was subdued.

“After a challenging FY 2020-21, and despite repeated disruptions this year, the Business progressively recovered on the back of improved mobility and easing of restrictions, surpassing pre-pandemic levels in the latter half of the year. The Business effectively leveraged institutional strengths, digital technologies and learnings from previous waves to respond with agility across all nodes of operations”, the company management said in a statement.

Apart from premiumising the portfolio, ITC launched several new products to plug the gaps in accordance with changing consumer preferences. “Several differentiated variants were introduced to cater to continuously evolving consumer preferences and ensure future readiness of the portfolio. These include innovative launches such as ‘Classic Connect’, ‘Gold Flake Neo SMART Filter’, ‘Wills Protech’, ‘Capstan Excel’, ‘American Club Smash’, ‘Gold Flake Kings Mixpod’, ‘Gold Flake Indie Mint’, ‘Wave Boss’ and ‘Flake Nova’. The Business also expanded its presence in focus markets with the launch of differentiated offerings across segments”, it said. Additionally, it leveraged newer technologies under industry 4.0 and data sciences to build a smart manufacturing environment of connected systems.

Agri-business, which is now the second largest segment for ITC, dethroning non-cigarettes FMCG from the spot, grew by a 28 per cent during the year. Revenue from the business segment stood at Rs 16,466 crore - up from Rs 12,883 crore - driven by strong growth in wheat, rice, spices and leaf tobacco exports.

In FY2022, ITC consolidated its pre-eminent position as the largest Indian exporter of unmanufactured tobacco, improving its market share by about 300 bps.

However, it faced severe challenges in exporting other commodities due to shortage of containers. “The operating environment remained challenging due to disruptions in operations caused by the second and third waves of the pandemic. Severe shortages in container availability, congestion in ports and steep increase in freight rates exacerbated the situation”, the company said.