United Breweries Net Profit Up 67.9% To Rs 164 Crore In March Quarter

Beer maker United Breweries Ltd, controlled by Dutch multinational company Heineken NV, on Tuesday reported a 67.92 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 163.78 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2022, led by a volume-based growth.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 97.53 crore during the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal, United Breweries Ltd (UBL) said in a regulatory filing.

Its revenue from operations was up 1.28 per cent to Rs 3,664.71 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 3,618.09 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal.

"The fourth quarter witnessed robust year-on-year and sequential growth (volume) of 7 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively," said UBL in its earnings result statement.

The growth was mixed during the quarter with January being muted due to the impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, while March showed a promising start of the peak season, it added.

During the quarter, its gross margin was lower by 330 basis points as compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year due to inflationary pressures witnessed in the prices of malt, packaging materials and crude oil, said UBL.

"The commodity cost picture remains challenging and volatile," it said, adding, "The company is in the process of securing price increases in combination with continued cost measures to mitigate this impact."

As part of the cost optimisation, UBL has stopped NAB (Non-Alcoholic Beer) production at the manufacturing facility in Bihar and moved to a third party facility, it added.

UBL's total expenses were at Rs 3,458.98 crore, up 1.07 per cent in Q4 of FY22, as against Rs 3,422.32 crore a year ago.

For the fiscal year ended March 2022, UBL's consolidated net profit was up over three-fold to Rs 366.08 crore. It had reported a net profit of Rs 113.83 crore in FY21.

Its revenue from operations stood at Rs 13,123.92 crore in 2021-22. This is 28.84 per cent higher than Rs 10,185.76 crore in the same period a year ago.

Shares of United Breweries Ltd on Tuesday settled at Rs 1,534.90 on the BSE, up 0.25 per cent from the previous close.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor