Berger Paints Q3 Profit Dips 1.4% to Rs 295.97 cr

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) Berger Paints India Ltd on Tuesday reported a 1.4 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 295.97 crore in the December 2024 quarter, impacted by price cuts, muted urban demand and slowdown in a few key markets.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 300.16 crore in the third quarter last fiscal, Berger Paints India Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

Consolidated revenue from operations in the quarter under review stood at Rs 2,975.06 crore against Rs 2,881.83 crore in the corresponding period a year ago, it added.

Total expenses in the quarter stood at Rs 2,608.13 crore, up from Rs 2,504.32 crore in the year-ago period, the company said.

"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," Berger Paints India Managing Director & CEO Abhijit Roy said.

While the company did well on the volume growth front, the value of sales was lower due to the impact of the price drop taken in the prior quarters and stronger sales seen in the high volume, low-value products, Roy noted.

"Profitability for the quarter, while healthy, had negative growth on the back of the impact of price reductions in prior quarters, currency depreciation and inventory impact of monomer price increase," he said, adding that the visible uptick in the industrial segments is a good indicator of a demand improvement cycle.

On the outlook, Roy said, "We remain optimistic about the demand scenario for the months ahead on the back of the favourable budget announcements, government spending on infrastructure and development and a good monsoon season. The weaning of the price decrease impact also augurs well for the months ahead.