India's Welspun Living posts Q2 profit surge on higher demand for home linens

Welspun Living

25/10/2023 09:56

BENGALURU, Oct 25 (Reuters) - India's Welspun Living  WLSP.NS  reported
a multi-fold rise in its second-quarter profit on Wednesday, boosted by strong
demand for its bed and bath linens. 
    The company's consolidated net profit rose to 1.97 billion rupees ($23.6
million) from 86.7 million rupees in the corresponding quarter a year ago, the
home textile maker said in an exchange filing.
    Rising demand among urban consumers and a reduction in inventory have helped
profitability at home textile companies, analysts said. Meanwhile, freight
charges correcting to pre-pandemic levels also helped the company's margins,
Welspun said.
    Margins on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
(EBITDA) improved to 15.4% from 7.1% a year earlier.   
    Total expenses rose 7.6% during the quarter to 22.83 billion rupees, mainly
due to a nearly 23% rise in raw material costs.
    The company's revenue from operations rose nearly 19% to 25.09 billion
rupees, led by a nearly 17% climb in its home textiles business. 
    Welspun Living generates over 90% of its revenue from the home textiles
segment, which includes bed sheets, bath linen and curtains under its "Welspun"
and "SPACES" labels. 
    The company's shares rose as much as 1.5% after the results before turning
negative to trade down 3.2% at 123.75 rupees, as of 2:03 p.m. IST.
    
($1 = 83.1310 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Anisha Ajith and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)
 ((anisha.ajith@thomsonreuters.com;))