Hindustan Unilever Net Profit down by 2.62 Percent in Q2

Mumbai, Oct 15: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) on Wednesday posted a decline of 2.62 percent in standalone net profit at Rs.962.24 crore for the quarter ended September 30. The company posted a net profit of Rs.988.16 crore in the corresponding time period last fiscal year.

In a regulatory filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said its total income has increased from Rs.7,837.13 crore for the quarter ended September 30 last year to Rs.8,125.55 crore for the quarter ended September 30 in 2015. HUL’s expenses during July-September were also up by 3.58 percent at Rs.6,705.67 crore, as against Rs.6,473.68 crore in the similar time period last year.

“The growth in the quarter continued to be impacted by the phasing out of excise duty incentives and price de-growth, as the benefit of lower commodity costs was passed on to consumers”, the company said in a statement. The expense on taxes was up by 6.66 percent at Rs.445.47 crore compared to Rs.417.64 crore. During the quarter, the domestic consumer business grew at 5 percent with seven percent underlying volume growth.

It further said the lower input costs resulted in a 320 base points reduction in cost of goods sold. The company’s revenue from the soaps and detergents segment was up by 1.63 percent at Rs.3,816.57 crore, as against Rs.3,755.10 crore of the same quarter last fiscal. The revenue from personal products was also up at Rs.2,345.57 crore — a 9.46 percent increase compared with Rs.2,142.74 crore in the same period last fiscal year.

Revenues from the beverage segment was up by 5.94 percent at Rs.952.55 crore as against Rs.899.13 crore. Following the trend of increased revenue from segments, the packed foods was also up by 12.35 percent at Rs.507.09 crore in the second quarter as against Rs.451.31 crore registered in the same quarter of the last fiscal year.