Tata Coffee Q1 net profit down 30.48%

Tata Coffee today posted a 30.48 per cent drop in its consolidated net profit at Rs 31.22 crore for the quarter ended June 30 against that of Rs 44.91 crore in the year-ago period.

Net revenue rose to Rs 422.16 crore during April-June quarter of the 2018-19 fiscal from Rs 367.61 crore in the same period last year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

However, expenses rose to Rs 379.76 crore from Rs 309.49 crore in the said period.

Exceptional items of Rs 5 crore for the current quarter represents redundancy costs due to certain operational restructuring in the Group's USA operations, the filing said.

Commenting on the performance, Tata Coffee Managing Director Sanjiv Sarin said: "Revenue was lower due to adverse impact of sales in one geography while most other geographies were ahead of last year.

"We have expanded our instant coffee customer base and sales from new customers contributed to over 7 per cent of the total volumes in the quarter," he said.

The plantation profitability for the quarter was however impacted due to lower tea production as well as realisation in tea and pepper, he added.

Sarin said however profitability of the instant coffee business improved from over the previous year's period. This was achieved through a better product mix, favourable commodity costs and exchange rate benefits.

Stating that rainfall in the current season has been good in the coffee estates, he said, "This has resulted in filling our increased rain-water harvesting capacity and should help our future crop."