Tata Consumer Products Shares Q3 Results

In a way, the performance of Tata Consumer has been the reverse of other FMCG players with the profit growth doing much better than sales growth. Tata Consumer Products reported 4.52% growth in sales for the Dec-21 quarter at Rs.3,208 crore on a YoY consolidated basis. Compared to the Sep-21 quarter, the sequential basis revenues of Tata Consumer Products were up by 5.78%.

Let us now turn to the specific verticals. During the Dec-21 quarter, Tata Consumer reported flat revenue growth in the India beverages business at Rs.1,278 crore. On the other hand, the India foods business grew by an impressive 16% at Rs.732 crore while the international business was lower by -4.3% at Rs.897 crore due to supply chain constraints.

On the non-branded business, the growth YoY stood at an impressive 26.7% at Rs.312 crore. However, the margins are much lower in this particular segment. The revenue growth was slightly lower at around 4% in constant currency terms on its foreign currency earnings franchise. The packaged beverages business grew volumes by 6% on a higher base. There was good volumes growth across food and beverages.

Let us turn to the operating performance of the company for the quarter. For Dec-21 quarter, operating profits of the company were up 31.97% at Rs.391.86 crore on a consolidated YoY basis. During the said period, the EBITDA was up 28% at Rs.468 crore with most of the operating profit growth being accounted for from the beverages business.

For instance, the India beverages business saw EBIT growing by a healthy 185% at Rs.220.27 crore in the third quarter. EBIT on the India foods business, however, more than halved to Rs.42 crore on higher input costs putting pressure. EBIT of the international business grew 16% YoY. Operating margins improved sharply from 9.67% in Dec-20 quarter to 12.21% in the Dec-21 quarter. Operating margins were also higher on sequential basis by 87 bps.

Tata Consumer is a rare FMCG play in India where profit growth has been more robust than the sales growth. Net Profits for the Dec-21 quarter was up 21.49% YoY at Rs.265.05 crore largely helped along the way by a robust operating performance of the packaged beverages business getting transmitted to the bottom line.

Both tea and salt, acquired from Tata Chemicals, recorded market share gains in the quarter. The growth in profits happened despite the steep inflation impact on input costs. PAT margins on a comparative basis improved from 7.11% in the Dec-20 quarter to 8.26% in the Dec-21 quarter. The PAT margins were lower on a sequential basis by 58 bps.