Kolkata-based Emami Ltd has posted a 10.45% rise in net profit to Rs 94.49 crore for the third quarter of the financial year ended on December 31, as compared to Rs 85.55 crore during the same period during the last financial year.
The firm’s net sales for the period under review also zoomed 13.24% to Rs 457.26 crore, as against Rs 403.8 crore of the third quarter of FY11. This comes as a boost for the company which is yet to come out of the shock of the fire at Dhakuria’s Advance Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI) Hospital, in which Emami Group had a majority stake, on December 9 last year.
After the inferno, three of the firm’s board members who were also directors of AMRI — R S Agarwal, R S Goenka and S K Todi — were arrested and police is on the look out for other two directors Aditya Agarwal and Preeti Sureka. While R S Agarwal is the promoter and executive chairman, R S Goenka is promoter and non-executive chairman and S K Todi is an independent director. In the absence of Agarwal and Goenka who are custody, Viren J Shah, a non-executive independent director has haired the board meeting today.
Meanwhile, profit for the quarter was aided by the judicious price rise in different products over a period of time. “During the quarter, we have seen a 15% growth in domestic market, at the same time the company has restructured export business also. The rise in profit was also because of the judicious increase in prices for over a period of time,” said N H Bhansali, chief executive officer of finance, strategy and business development of the firm.
Meanwhile, the firm will come up with its Bangladesh unit by March this year. The company had formed a subsidiary called Emami Bangladesh Ltd to set up its manufacturing unit in Dhaka. “The unit will gradually take care of the demand for brands like Boroplus and Navratna in that country. We are planning to use it a base to export to Pakistani market,” he added.
Himani Navratna in Kolaveri Di song
Emami has tied up for an in-film promotion with the movie “3”, a directorial debut of Aishwarya Dhanush starring her husband, actor-singer Dhanush and Shruti Hassan in the lead roles. The song ‘Kolaveri Di’ in the movie will sport an advertisement of the firm’s brand Himani Navratna Cool Oil.
Navratna is the market leader in the segment with 52 per cent market share. The brand is also endorsed by celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan , Sharukh Khan, Suriya, Jr NTR, Chiranjeevi and Mahesh Babu.