Marico's profit up by 14.1% to Rs 227 crore in Q4FY21; advertising and sales promotion sees a growth of 35% YoY

• In Q4FY21, Marico’s Revenue from Operations grew by 34% YoY to Rs 2,012 crore.
• The company witnessed strong momentum in each of the core portfolios of the India business while steadily strengthening its play in Foods through innovation.

FMCG Giant Marico has released its financial statement for Q4FY21. Its advertising and sales promotion grew by 35% YoY as the company invested aggressively mainly on core franchises and the Foods innovations, while continuing to drive spend rationalization and channelize investment towards growing franchises.

Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO commented, “With the pandemic in India taking a severe turn, the year has ended on a rather sombre note. Marico stands united and committed to making a difference in the lives of all our stakeholders and the entire community at large, hoping that we overcome these extremely difficult times at the earliest and emerge stronger from it. It is the tremendous grit and fighting spirit of our people that has allowed both the domestic and international businesses to rebound impactfully on a year-on year basis. We expect the India business to remain resilient amidst uncertainty in the near term and see through the transient spike in input costs, while the stability in the International business is also reassuring. Over the medium term, the Company will continue to prioritise maintaining volume-driven growth momentum and franchise expansion even in times of temporary cost pressures by focusing on growing the core, aggressive foods diversification, executional excellence and investment behind capability and brand building.”

In FY21, Marico’s Revenue from Operations grew by 10% YoY to INR 8,048 cr. (USD 1.1 billion) backed by volume growth of 7% in the domestic business and constant currency growth of 7% in the international business. EBITDA was at INR 1,591 cr., up 8% YoY and PAT excluding one-offs, was at INR 1,162 cr., up 11% YoY.

In Q4FY21, Revenue from Operations grew by 34% YoY to INR 2,012 crores (USD 276 million) backed by robust volume growth of 25% in the domestic business and constant currency growth of 23% in the international business.

The company witnessed strong momentum in each of the core portfolios of the India business while steadily strengthening its play in Foods through innovation. Rural continued to lead the way in traditional trade, growing at 1.8x of urban. Ec0m (now 8% of domestic business) and CSD also fared well, while Modern Trade dipped due to pantry loading in the base quarter.

Gross margin was down 517 bps owing to the severe input cost pressure, as pricing interventions in the core portfolios were not commensurate to the inflation. Advertising & Sales Promotion grew by 35% YoY as the Company invested aggressively mainly on core franchises and the Foods innovations. EBITDA was up 13% YoY, as tight cost controls and operating leverage kicked in to reduce the impact on EBITDA margins to 300 bps. PAT excluding one-offs was up 17% YoY. Reported PAT was up 13%.

As per the company's statement, Saffola Honey has been scaling up faster than their launch expectations. The brand exited FY21 just short of a double-digit market share in key Modern Trade chains and has garnered 25%+ market share in E-Commerce. The brand is on course to touch revenues of INR 100 cr. in the coming year. Expanding its presence in Foods, the Company launched Saffola Oodles, 5-minute ring-shaped noodles, containing no refined flour and with the goodness of whole grain oats, real vegetables and semolina.

The company holds its medium term aspiration of delivering 8-10% domestic volume growth and 13-15% revenue growth. The Company would be comfortable maintaining its threshold operating margin of 19% plus over the medium term.