Britannia To Increase Prices, But Not Soon

Britannia Industries Ltd. will increase prices in the second half of the year ending March 2018 to pass on higher raw material costs.

The maker of Good Day biscuits will increase prices by 2-3 percent, Varun Berry, managing director at Britannia, told BloombergQuint in an interview. But the company will refrain from hikes in the next three to four months, he said.

Berry said the consumer goods maker will expand into more categories. “Our ambition is to be a total foods company, and what we are trying is to get into at least one adjacent category every year.”

This year it entered croissants by tying up with Greece's Chipita. In the next two years, Britannia targets a revenue of Rs 200 crore from croissants, Berry said.

Berry said Britannia also wants to offer more value-added dairy products.

The company's volumes grew 2.5 percent in April-June over the year-ago period and net sales rose 6.5 percent to Rs 2,340 crore. Net profit marginally fell to Rs 216 crore while operating margins remained largely unchanged at 14.5 percent.

Also Read: Britannia Surges To Record After Q1 Revenue Beats Estimate