Eicher Q1 net surges two-fold to Rs 40 cr

Commercial vehicles maker Eicher Motors today reported an over twofold jump in its net profit for the first quarter ending March 2010, at Rs 40.21 crore on account of higher sales and cost efficiency measures.

The company had recorded a profit of Rs 15.83 crore in the same period last year, Eicher said in a statement today.

The total income from operations during the quarter increased by 74.71 per cent to Rs 1,040.91 crore from Rs 595.79 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

"Eicher Motors had a very robust first quarter, based mainly on volume-led growth. Sales of both commercial vehicles and components have been the highest ever. At the same time, we have maintained tight control on cost," managing director and chief executive Siddhartha Lal said.

The combination of volume growth and cost control has given the company a significant advantage in operating leverage and has thereby impacted in its margins for the better, he added.

Lal said demand for all its products, including the newly launched VE Series of Eicher heavy-duty trucks, have increased compared to the January-March period in 2009.

"While the CV industry (5-tonne and above) recorded a sales volume growth of 99.4 per cent compared with the same quarter in the previous year, Eicher recorded a 117.5 per cent increase in its quarterly sales volume," he added.

In the motorcycle segment too, the sales of Royal Enfield showed an improvement of  3 per cent vis-a-vis the same quarter previous year, he said. The company has recently introduced the Electra Twinspark 350 UCE, and within this year it intends to move all the existing models to the new UCE platform, Lal said.