Covid-19 impact: Hero MotoCorp Q1 net profit falls 95% to Rs 58 crore

The country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp on Thursday reported a 95.38 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 57.78 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, on account of lower sales due to coronavirus pandemic.
 

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,256.69 crore during April-June period of previous fiscal.
 

Total income during the quarter under review declined to Rs 3,119.22 crore as compared with Rs 8,410.41 crore in the year-ago period, Hero MotoCorp said in a regulatory filing.
 

The two-wheeler major sold a total of 565,000 units of motorcycles and scooters in the first quarter of fiscal 2020-21 as compared with 1.843 million units in the same period of 2019-20.
 

"The Covid-19 period has been an unprecedented challenge for the automotive industry, as indeed for several other sectors and economies around the world," Hero MotoCorp CFO Niranjan Gupta said.

The company was quick to begin work on cost control and efficiencies that enabled it to limit the impact of the unprecedented times during the first quarter of the financial year, he noted.
 

"Cash conservation efforts and rationalisation of expenses, along with productivity enhancement measures, have helped us pass through the uncertain period as we now enter the phase of rapid recovery and return of demand," Gupta said.
 

The company is already seeing green shoots, and expects them to sustain and get stronger as it moves toward the festive season, he added.
 

"Our July month sales were more than 95 per cent of pre-Covid sales and we do see positive trend moving forward," he noted.
 

The company said about 95 per cent of its customer touch points were fully operational and the company's eight production facilities -- six in India and two abroad -- have resumed manufacturing.