Britannia Q4 profit up 13.7% to `190 crore

Bakery and dairy products maker Britannia Industries on Friday reported a 13.73 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 190.23 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 167.25 crore in the same period of previous fiscal. Britannia's net sales rose to Rs 2,189.83 crore during the quarter, up 7.77 per cent against Rs 2,031.83 crore in the same period of previous fiscal, Britannia Industries said in a filing to the BSE.

Britannia Managing Director said: "Our focus on supply chain efficiencies, wastage reduction, accelerated cost efficiency program and soft commodity prices helped us expand our operating margin by 360 basis points during the year. We strengthened our back end with successful commissioning of two new factories in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and reinforced our Innovation capability with state of the art R&D centre in Bangalore." He further said: "While the category growths are expected to remain subdued, we are confident of keeping our momentum going." During the entire 2015-16 fiscal, the company's net profit stood at Rs 806.11 crore as against Rs 688.64 crore in the year-ago period. Net sales during 2015-16 grew to Rs 8,607.06 crore as against Rs 7,775.09 crore a year ago. In a separate filing, Britannia said its Board has recommended dividend of Rs 20 per equity share for the financial year ended March 31, 2016.