Britannia Industries Ltd.'s quarterly profit jumped, aided by lower tax outgo even as sales remained muted.
Net profit increased 26.3% over the previous year to Rs 375 crore in the quarter ended March, the maker of Good Day and Tiger biscuits said in a statement. That compares with the Rs 323-crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg. Britannia switched to a lower corporate tax regime after the government cut rates last year.
Revenue rose 2.5% year-on-year to Rs 2,868 crore at a time when the coronavirus-induced lockdown hurt consumption. Analysts had pegged the metric at Rs 2,817 crore.
Britannia's operating profit grew 3.9% to Rs 454 crore, slightly above the Rs 446-crore estimate. Operating margin expanded to 15.8% from 15.6% a year ago, as expected by analysts.
Gross margin contracted by 150 basis points to 39.7%. That came despite a 1.2% dip in raw material costs over the previous year to Rs 1,363 crore. The biscuit maker's raw material costs-to-revenue ratio stood at 47.5% against 49.3% in the same period last year.
On Tuesday, Britannia shares rose 0.79% to Rs 3,463.00 apiece on the BSE while the benchmark Sensex gained 1.57% to end the day at 33,825.53 points.
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