Tata Consumer Products

The company did much better what most had expected. Higher sales  from tea and coffee helped the company end Q4FY13 with a consolidated net profit at Rs.96 crore, up 77% (YoY) and up 20% sequentially.  But the jump in net profit is much higher than the rise in net sales, which at Rs.1810 crore, was up 5% (YoY) but QoQ, it was down 5%.  What really helped was the tight leash on the operating expenses, which was 90% of the total income. QoQ, costs were down 5%led by lower raw material cost, lower advertising and sales cost.  A tax write back of Rs.35 crore also helped.

Tea segment posted a revenue of Rs 1,366 crore, up 7% (YoY) and coffe and other produce had sales of Rs 459 crore, up 6%.  The company ended the fiscal with a net profit at Rs.373 crore, up 5%. There are now 13 Tata Starbucks across Mumbai and Delhi and it aims to have 50 stores before the end of this year. The overall performance has been very good with the best numbers coming in from Australia and also from Czech, France and USA. The uptick in demand in these geographies helped it offset the lower demand in Europe and Canada. Prices in Kenya have cooled off quite a bit yet the company hopes to maintain its margins due to its strong brands.