CHENNAI (Reuters) -Consumer goods maker Dabur India reported second-quarter profit above market expectations on Thursday, benefiting from rising demand in its household and personal care and healthcare segments.
The company’s consolidated net profit rose 5% to 5.15 billion Indian rupees ($61.89 million) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, from 4.9 billion rupees a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 5.13 billion rupees, according to LSEG data.
Increasing demand for personal care products and stiff competition has prompted major consumer goods makers from Colgate-Palmolive India to Dabur to launch new products, including toothpaste variants.
Revenue from operations climbed 7.3% to 32.04 billion rupees.
In its quarterly update last month, Dabur said its healthcare as well as household and personal care businesses – housing products ranging from Vatika shampoos to its digestive supplement brand Hajmola – posted a high single-digit percentage growth in India.
The household and personal care segment accounted for more than 50% of Dabur India’s sales. India also makes up roughly three-fourths of the company’s topline.
The jury, however, is out on natural healthcare products, with a few medical professionals questioning their safety and efficiency on social media platforms, including X, formerly called Twitter. Dabur subsidiaries were also sued in the U.S. and Canada.
After a lacklustre quarter for the consumer goods industry, analysts expect sales volumes to recover in the second half of fiscal 2024 on expectations of a pickup in farm incomes – which will boost rural demand – and signs of cooling inflation.
Dabur shares rose more than 2% after reporting results, trimming their year-to-date decline to nearly 6%, while the Nifty FMCG index climbed nearly 17% this year.
($1 = 83.2170 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Janane Venkatraman)