Tata Global Beverages (TGB)will review its plantation businesses in a bid to turn them profitable, chairman N. Chandrasekaran said.
“We are reviewing on how to make it profitable... but we are not going back to the plantations..,” he told reporters after expressing concern about the losses at TGB’s associate Amalgamated Plantation Pvt. Ltd. at the annual general meeting. “I don’t know all the reasons why it is making losses.”
‘A tough one’
Earlier, at the AGM, he said APPL was “a tough one.. [is] continuing to lose money. We need to take a call on both plantations”.
A decade ago, the erstwhile Tata Tea Ltd. had moved away from its plantations businesses, divesting part of its shareholding to two new companies that were formed — APPL for the gardens in North India and Kanan Devan Hill Plantations Ltd. for its gardens in the South.
APPL’s loss rose to ₹15.3 crore in 2016-17, from ₹9.6 crore in 2015-16, while KDHP’s loss narrowed to ₹0.37 crore, from ₹5.3 crore.
Friday’s AGM ran for almost six hours, with a section of shareholders expressing dissatisfaction with TGB’s growth. The firm clocked 2% growth in consolidated revenue in FY17, although margins rose 21% .
Mr. Chandrasekaran said that TGB would prune portfolios as needed and would drive strong performance.
He also added that the group was exploring business options in the dairy and ice cream segments.