Tata Coffee spreads its aroma

The aroma of rich Tata Coffee is all across Dalal Street. The stock which had closed yesterday at Rs.977.25, opened higher today at Rs.994 and went on to hit an intra day high at Rs.1030. It currently remains at Rs.1025 levels, up almost 5%.

Yesterday, after market hours, the Board announced approval for stock split in 1:10 ratio, which is splitting equity shares of Rs.10 face value into 10 equity shares of Re.1 face value each.

The company had ended Q2FY15 with a turnaround – consolidated net profit at Rs.32 crore v/s loss of Rs.13 crore in previous Q2 and this was despite a 11% decline in net sales at Rs.405 crore. The main reason for the spurt in net profit came from its US subsidiary, Eight O’Clock Coffee, which showed good growth in sales. But bagged coffee remained under pressure and that pulled down its total income for the quarter from $47 million to $44 million. In India, its plantation business was impacted by lower coffee and pepper production but the standing crops of both coffee and pepper for harvest in the year ahead, which is scheduled to commence post December 2014, appears to be promising.