Godrej Consumer Q4 net profit declines marginally to Rs 363 crore

Homegrown FMCG major Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) on Thursday reported a marginal decline in consolidated profit after tax at Rs 363.24 crore for the fourth quarter ended March.

The company had posted a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 365.84 crore in the year-ago period, GCPL said in a regulatory filing.

Consolidated total revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 2,915.82 crore as against Rs 2,730.74 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

Total expenses in the fourth quarter were higher at Rs 2,535.06 crore as compared to Rs 2,259.12 crore in the same period a year ago.

For the full fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, the company posted a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 1,783.39 crore as compared to Rs 1,720.82 crore in the previous fiscal, it added.

Consolidated total revenue from operations in FY22 stood at Rs 12,276.5 crore as against Rs 11,028.62 crore in FY21, GCPL said.

GCPL Managing Director and CEO Sudhir Sitapati said, "We delivered a weak performance in Q4, FY 2022. Overall sales grew by 7 per cent and our full year sales grew in double-digits. However, this growth was driven by pricing."

GCPL said during the fourth quarter, India sales grew by 9 per cent to Rs 1,604 crore but volume declined by 3 per cent.

Sitapati further said, "We continue to believe that with the relatively non-discretionary, mass pricing of our portfolio and very good performance on market shares, volume growth will return in the medium term."

From category perspective, Sitapati said, "We saw a strong performance in personal care, which grew by 18 per cent. Home care delivered a weak performance and declined by 7 per cent."

In other markets, he said Africa, USA and Middle East businesses continued robust growth trajectory but the performance in the Indonesian business was weak, declining by 15 per cent in rupee terms.

In a separate statement, GCPL announced two senior level appointments of Rajesh Sethuraman as Chief Executive Officer of ASEAN and Vijay Kannan as the Head of Business Transformation and Digital, as part of a larger plan for a digitally-led business transformation.

Sethuraman, former Vice President of Digital Process Transformation at Unilever, has spent 21 years at Hindustan Unilever, leading teams across categories and divisions in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the company said.

Kannan, currently Global Chief Information and Digital Officer of Shell's Global Lubricants business, was also Hindustan Unilever's IT Head, and prior to that had a stint in Asian Paints.

Commenting on the appointments, Sitapati said, "Their significant experience in digital transformation will be critical as we re-imagine the next phase of GCPL's growth journey."

He further said, "Our strategy is to grow category development driven by relevance, access and marketing investments, and funded by a digitally enabled simplification of our company. We are on a journey to reduce inventory and wasted costs to create significant fuel for this growth and digital transformation.