Dabur India: Q4FY14 Result Analysis

FMCG major Dabur India came out with decent set of numbers for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The bottomline for the quarter ended March 2014, witnessed growth of 17.3% on Y-o-Y basis to stand at Rs 235.3 crore. The revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 1774.4 crore which grew by 15.5% on Y-o-Y basis. The volume growth for the quarter stood at 9.4%.

On the operational front, the EBITDA grew by 15.22% on Y-o-Y basis to stand at Rs 295.44 crore for Q4FY14 as against Rs 256. 41 crore reported during the same quarter last fiscal. The margins for the quarter remained almost flat at 16.70% for the quarter as against 16.75% reported during the same period last fiscal. The highlight of the quarter is the raw material costs. The raw material cost as a percentage of sales decreased by 146 basis points on Y-o-Y basis to stand at 39.88% for the quarter. The ad spends witnessed some nominal uptick of 38 basis points on Y-o-Y basis to stand at 12.91% for this quarter.

Revenue from its consumer care business shot up 15.2% to Rs 1486.05 crore and foods business expanded 20% to Rs 231.08 crore. Retail business' revenue rose 20.5% to Rs 19.07 crore as compared to a year ago period. Its retail business continued to report losses during the quarter that was unchanged at Rs 1.4 crore in the quarter gone by on Y-o-Y basis. Strong volume-led growth across key categories like Health Supplements, Digestives, Shampoos, Toothpastes, Foods & Home Care helped Dabur India mitigate the impact of a challenging business environment and macro headwinds to end the fourth quarter of 2013-14. The company has declared final dividend of Re 1 taking the total dividend for the fiscal to Rs 1.75.

Dabur India, Chief Executive Officer Sunil Duggal said "The business has performed well on all operating parameters. Our strong performance reflects the robustness of our business model and our ability to efficiently manage the emerging challenges. Dabur has been reporting strong and consistent performance despite intensifying competitive pressures and the challenging market environment being witnessed for some quarters now. Going forward too, our focus will be on pursuing an aggressive and profitable growth strategy."