Nestle India, which follows the Jan-Dec year ending, for its Q2 ended 30th June 2020, posted a 11% (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs.487 crore despite a muted 2% increase in revenue from operations at Rs.3050 crore.

The rise in bottomline was mainly on account of lower taxation at Rs.176 crore v/s 235 crore (YoY).

Domestic Sales increased by 3% and exports declined 9%. Demand in Out of Home channel was severely reduced. The e-commerce channel grew 122% and now contributes 3.6% to domestic sales.

On an average, the factories were operating at 75% of capacity during the quarter and it has incurred Rs.29 crore of incremental costs specifically related to COVID 19, which are part of the results.

EBITDA rose 5% at Rs.712 crore while margins declined from 24.5% to 23.7%.

The company said it witnessed growth in "in-home-consumption", which boosted sales of its Everyday Dairy Whitener, Nestlé a+ Milk, and other milk-based portfolio such as Nescafe Classic and Nescafe Sunrise while sales of Maggi rose only towards end of June after supply constraints were eased.

The stock, which had closed yesterday at Rs.17,098.95, opened slightly higher at Rs.17099 and soon spurted up to Rs.17,188.95 but from there, profit booking pushed down the stock to Rs.16,600 and it currently trades at Rs.1672 levels.