UB net down 19%

The company's net sales, however, increased to Rs 932 vs Rs 899 in the same period compared to last year

For the quarter ended March, United Breweries (UB)’ net profit fell 19.4 per cent to Rs 5.8 crore, compared to the year-ago period. The company’s sales increased seven per cent to Rs 1,003 crore. UB said during the year-ago quarter, UB Ajanta Breweries was amalgamated and so, there was a spike in revenues and net profit. Therefore, the results for the two quarters couldn’t be compared.

For the year ended March, net profit rose 36 per cent to Rs 172 crore, while revenues increased about 10 per cent to Rs 3,898 crore. Managing Director Kalyan Ganguly said the company was able to increase its net profit due to better price realisations in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. In 2012-13, volumes increased five per cent to cross the 140-million nine-litre case mark.

Ganguly said UB continued to see weak sales in Tamil Nadu, among the company’s leading markets. Earlier, the company had said the Tamil Nadu government had been selectively pushing various local brands in the market, compared to national brands. “The beer market is Tamil Nadu is growing at a healthy pace and would have outpaced the Andhra Pradesh market for us, if not for this issue. If you take out the Tamil Nadu market, our volumes have grown as much as 15 per cent,” Ganguly said.