The manufacturer of Tata Tea and Tata Salt said the India business recorded double digit growth in the quarter driven by the tea and salt categories, while the ready to drink business volume growth was impacted by unseasonal rains. The company’s international business grew 5% at constant currency revenue growth.
TCPL’s standalone revenue from operations increased by 10% yoy during the quarter to Rs 3529 crore, while net profit after taxes grew by 285.9% to Rs 713.9 crore. The company said the significantly high growth in net profit is due to dividend income of Rs 464 crore received from its overseas subsidiaries.
The company’s managing director Sunil D’Souza told analysts on Wednesday that tea price right now is 13-15% below last year and he does not expect it to trend lower. “Coffee, while trending downwards, is not a uniform trend, there is still a bit of volatility there that we need to manage,” he said. D’Souza further said while TCPL is still a relatively small player in coffee, there was 33% growth in terms of volume and 67% in terms of value during the quarter.
On Wednesday, TCPL closed at Rs 1064 per share at the NSE, down 1.92% from the previous closing price.
The company’s joint venture with international coffee chain Starbucks added six net new stores during the quarter taking the total Starbucks store count to 485 across 80 cities. TCPL said there was a 6% revenue growth for Tata Starbucks during the quarter and positive same store sales growth except in May when “the regional geopolitical tensions flared up and impacted store operating hours in specific geographies”.
