Berger Paints Q3 net falls 1.39% at ₹295.97 crore

Paints major Berger Paints on Tuesday reported a 1.39 per cent year-on-year fall in its consolidated net profit at ₹295.97 crore for the third quarter this fiscal, although its revenue from operations grew 3.23 per cent y-o-y during the period.

The company’s profitability for the October-December quarter of this financial year was impacted due to price reductions in prior quarters and currency depreciation. The company had earlier taken a price decrease of around 5 per cent.

The company had posted a net profit of ₹300.16 crore for the third quarter last fiscal.

During the third quarter this fiscal, the paint maker’s revenue from operations grew 3.23 per cent y-o-y at ₹2,975.06 crore compared to ₹2,881.83 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, on the back of high single digit volume growth in the decorative segment amid tough market conditions. Also, there was a visible uptick in the industrial segment during the quarter under review.

• Also read: Berger Paints plans to invest ₹2,000 crore in 3 years to expand production capacity

Volume-value gap

Speaking at an investor meet after declaring the third quarter results, Abhijit Roy, Managing Director & CEO, Berger Paints India, said during the quarter the company registered a volume growth of 7.4 per cent, while the value growth was 0.4 per cent. The volume-value gap was mainly on account of two reasons: product price decrease undertaken in earlier quarters, and stronger sales of high volume and low value products like texture paints, tile, adhesive and add mixtures, and muted sales of high value products like enamel.

“Current market share is in excess of 20 per cent. Operating margin remained in the guided range and improved sequentially,” Roy said.

During Q3FY25, EBITDA (excluding other income) stood at ₹471.73 crore against ₹480.04 crore in Q3FY24, registering a decline of 1.7 per cent.

“The tough market conditions continued into the third quarter with muted urban demand and slowdown in a few key markets. In spite of this, we were able to deliver high single digit volume growth in the quarter, and also saw sequential uptick in both volume and value growth,” the MD said.

The company is confident of holding to the gross margin of around 15-17 per cent for this fiscal. “We have managed to gain market share, even with competition, even with the new competitor (Birla Opus). If you add them up, also, we have gained market share over last year. So there is nothing much to worry about,” Roy added