Thought leadership: Managing Director and CEO of United Breweries speaks about their Q4 and the road ahead

United Breweries Limited, India's largest producer of beer reported a 67.92% increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 163.78 crore for the fourth quarter which ended on March 2022. Its revenue from operations was up 1.28 per cent in the same period to Rs 3,664.71 crore.

In a recent interview with CNBC TV18 he stated the following points. Rishi Pardal said that in January they faced the impact of the third wave and gradually as this subsided and markets opened, their March 2022 volume surpassed their March 2019 levels. He was pretty confident that if the pandemic doesn’t come back, taking the heat wave into consideration they will continue the Q4 momentum. In terms of margin, Pardal stated that they will have to do a lot of work on cost optimization, fixed cost management, pricing to get both leverage impact and inflation mitigation. He said that mitigating the inflation will be a key focus not only for them but also for the industry for the next 2-3 quarters.

In terms of the FY23 growth excluding the states where there are government regulations, they are expecting a full recovery to pre-covid level. He said that he cannot predict the margins because of the uncertainty in the commodity prices. Rishi Pardal said that barley prices haven't peaked as of now, but he is unsure of the future. Regarding capacity additions he said that they will have to do that as they have managed to be a strong brand in many states but now some other regions are showing interest in their products. He said that beer is all about category penetration and not just a market share story.

They have a consumer base of 80-90 million across India right now and increasing that along with per capita consumption is their number one priority. Rishi Pardal concluded by saying going forward they would like to make sure that business generates the right balance of investing for future growth and providing shareholders with the right kind of returns.