V-Guard Q4 profit soars 129% on cost-cutting

Consumer electrical and electronics marker V-Guard Industries today reported a 129 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 20.5 crore in the three months to March, 2014, helped by cost control measures.
Net revenues from operations rose to Rs 422.25 crore, up 12 per cent from the comparable period in the previous year.
For 2013-14, net revenue rose to Rs 1,517.14 crore, a growth of 11.70 percent, while net income gained 11.46 per cent to Rs 70.13 crore.
V-Guard Managing Director Mithun K Chittilappilly attributed the higher numbers to lower ad spends along with low base in the year-ago period when the company took some exceptional hit on bottom line.

The higher numbers also came in due to cost control measures.
"In FY 2014, we front-loaded our ad spend in the first and second quarters and lowered the same in the final quarter. In that sense the numbers are comparable in true sense," Chittilappilly told PTI from Kochi.

A highlight of FY 2014 was that the company for the first time crossed the Rs 1,500-crore revenue milestone, he said.
The quarter under review saw V-Guard maintaining stable margins at 8.5 per cent and it expects the same in FY 2015 too on softening in commodity prices, he said.
The company is planning to invest Rs 20-25 crore to increase capacity in water heaters business this fiscal.

V-Guard nets 15 per cent of income from stabilisers, 30 per cent from cables, 14 per cent from water pumps and 10 per cent each from inverters and water heaters.
From the switchgear business, which it entered last year, the company netted a revenue of Rs 40 crore in Q4, said Chittilappilly.
Company shares today gained 3.25 per cent on BSE.