Whirlpool of India Ltd despite a 74 per cent growth in turnover has plunged deeper into the red, with losses climbing to Rs 64.18 crore for the 15-month period ending December 1996. In September 1995, the company had reported a loss of Rs 36.24 crore.
For 1995-96, the company reported a loss before depreciation of Rs 50.67 crore, against Rs 28.43 crore in the previous year. Depreciation nearly doubled to Rs 14.15 crore from Rs 7.8 crore, pushing up the losses. The total turnover of the company rose 74 per cent from Rs 449.84 crore to Rs 784.57 crore. Last year, Whirlpool Corp merged subsidiaries Whirlpool Washing Machines and Kelvinator of India to create Whirlpool of India .
Kelvinator incurred losses of Rs 36.24 crore last year, as did its marketing arm, Expo Machinery. Expo had also been merged into WOI. The loss acquired on amalgamation has been recorded at Rs 64.11 crore.
The home appliances market witnessed cut-throat competition last year due to the entry of several new players and severe undercutting. Margins across the industry suffered and Whirlpool lost out, because it had to invest heavily in marketing and advertisement.
WOI provided for a royalty of Rs 7.07 crore for earlier years and wrote back Rs 7.68 crore incurred on account of a voluntary retirement scheme implemented at Kelvinator of India and Expo Machinery.
The company provided Rs 0.08 crore as tax for the 15-month period while the provision for tax had been Rs 0.48 crore last year.
The share capital of WOI went up from Rs 31.73 crore to Rs 39.23 crore, while revaluation reserves dropped from Rs 48.44 crore to Rs 45.11 crore.
