India's Patanjali posts 13% rise in profit on food products boost

Patanjali Foods

30/05/2023 14:42

BENGALURU/CHENNAI, May 30 (Reuters) - India's Patanjali
Foods  PAFO.NS  reported a 12.5% rise in quarterly profit on
Tuesday as the consumer goods maker's move to increase retail
distribution for its food products paid off.
    Patanjali said net profit after tax rose to 2.64 billion
rupees ($31.9 million) for the quarter ended March 31, from 2.34
billion rupees, a year earlier.
    Total revenue from operations increased 18.2% to 78.73
billion rupees.
    "The food products under Patanjali brand are gaining market
acceptance to sustain the growth as recorded in last three
quarters of (fiscal) 2022-23," the Ruchi-branded cooking oil
maker said in an exchange filing.
    Revenue from its packaged foods business that sells a range
of products including honey and juices reported a four-fold
jump.
    Sales of consumer goods have improved since the beginning of
the year as people in rural India are buying more, with
inflation coming off its highs even though a few essentials like
milk are still costly.
    Patanjali also said it would continue to invest in its
brands of oil while expanding geographically.
    Shares closed nearly 1% higher ahead of the results. The
stock fell 14.4% in the January-March quarter.
    Other consumer goods names have reported mixed results:
Dabur India  DABU.NS  and Dove-soapmaker Hindustan Unilever
 HLL.NS  reported shrinking margins due to high costs, while
cooking oil seller Marico  MRCO.NS  and Pepsi bottler Varun
Beverages  VARB.NS  posted solid earnings.
    
    ($1 = 82.6666 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru and Praveen
Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
 ((Navamya.GaneshAcharya@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8805175330 ;))