Nestle India, the Indian subsidiary of Swiss multinational company, reported a 2.3 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in profit for the quarter ended December 2020, missing analysts' expectations.
Profit increased to Rs 483.3 crore during the quarter, compared to Rs 472.6 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Revenue from operations in Q4CY20 grew by 9 percent to Rs 3,432.6 crore YoY, driven by domestic sales that increased 10.1 percent to Rs 3,260.7 crore, but exports declined 7.7 percent to Rs 156.82 crore in Q4.
"Domestic sales growth is broad-based largely driven by volume & mix. Demand in Out of Home channel further improved in the quarter but continues to be impacted by COVID. Export Sales were lower due to lower coffee exports," Nestle said in its BSE filing.
The company follows calendar year as its financial year.
Numbers missed analysts' expectations. Profit was estimated at Rs 544 crore on revenue of Rs 3,500 crore for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.
At the operating level, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 11.9 percent YoY to Rs 777 crore and margin expanded 60 bps YoY to 22.6 percent for the quarter under review -both lower than the CNBC-TV18 poll estimates which pegged the figures at Rs 820 crore and 23.5 percent, respectively.
Nestle India recommended a final dividend of Rs 65 per equity share amounting to Rs 626.7 crore for the year 2020. "The total dividend for 2020 aggregates to Rs 200 per equity share which includes one interim dividend of Rs 135 per share paid in November 2020."
In the year ended 2020, the company reported 5.8 percent growth in profit at Rs 2,082.43 crore and 7.9 percent growth in revenue at Rs 13,350.03 crore compared to the previous year.
"We delivered strong domestic sales growth. Nearly two-thirds of our key brands like MAGGI Noodles, KITKAT and NESCAFÉ Classic posted double digit growth last year. This was backed by a step up in marketing spends, especially in the last quarter," said Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director.
"E-commerce continued to grow, surge ahead and now contributes 3.7 percent of domestic sales. After initial challenges due to the pandemic, the demand in Out of Home channels has continued to improve, sequentially over quarters and we remain confident of its recovery," he added.