The company braved the heavy inflationary pressures, a significant moderation in industry growth and dip in overall consumer sentiments to deliver a competitive and healthy consolidated revenue growth of 8% at Rs 2,942-crore in the third quarter of 2021-22 financial year, up from Rs 2,729-crore in the same quarter a year ago. Consolidated revenue for the quarter reported a two-year CAGR of 11.8%, reflecting the remarkable agility and resilience the business continues to demonstrate even in a tough market.

Operating profit for the quarter reported a strong 9.3% growth ahead of the topline growth. Consolidated net profit for the third quarter was up 2.3% to cross the Rs 500-crore mark for the second time in a row and ended at Rs 503-crore, as against Rs 492-crore a year ago. Consolidated net profit for the nine-month period marked a 10% growth, while the India FMCG business reported a 13% volume growth for the nine-month period.

“The overall operating environment remained challenging throughout the quarter with unprecedented inflation of 13% and subdued consumer sentiments. We have mitigated the impact of inflation partially through calibrated price increases and cost-saving initiatives. Despite these macro-economic headwinds, we remained focused on rolling our consumer-centric innovation that expanded our total addressable market, besides gaining market share across 100% of our product portfolio, which is unprecedented. Our investments in distribution footprint expansion in rural India helped drive growth even in a challenging environment with rural demand for Dabur outpacing urban demand by 500-bps,” Mohit Malhotra, chief executive officer, Dabur India.

“There has been a marked revival in discretionary spending by consumers, which helped the home and personal care business grow by 8.4%. While our healthcare portfolio was impacted due to the high base of the previous year and a marked drop in demand for Covid-contextual products, this business reported a two-year CAGR of 11.4%. Excluding the Covid-contextual range of chyawanprash and honey, our domestic FMCG volume growth stood at 8% for the third quarter,” Malhotra added.

Going forward, Dabur will continue to plough heavy investments behind its power brands, coupled with investment in expanding the rural footprint and enhancing the go-to-market approach to drive sustainable, profitable growth.

Dabur’s foods and beverages business continued to be the outperformer in Q3, growing by 38%. “Dabur’s Foods business under the Hommade brand with a range of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products, will become a Rs 100-crore business by the end of the 2021-22 financial year,” Malhotra said.

The home care business ended the quarter with an 19% growth while the skin care business, excluding the sanitiser range, grew by 20% during the quarter. The digestives business grew by 12.2% while the hair care category reported an 8.4% growth, riding on an over 21% surge in shampoo business. Dabur’s toothpaste business also reported a strong industry-leading 8.1% growth while the Ayurvedic Ethicals business grew by 8.3% during the quarter.

With the business fundamentals remaining strong, Dabur posted handsome market share gains across the entire portfolio, led by a 514-bps improvement in juices and nectars market share to the highest-ever share of 64.3%. Dabur’s share in the chyawanprash category improved by 200-bps to 63.6%. In the honey market, Dabur reported a market share gain of 180-bps. Dabur also reported a 90-bps market share gain in hair oils, with our share of the pure coconut oil market increasing 120-bps. Dabur’s share increased by 50-bps in the toothpaste market and 40-bps in the shampoo category. Dabur also reported a 50-bps increase in air freshener market share and a 40-bps gain in mosquito repellent cream category.

Dabur’s International Business reported a growth of 8.7% in constant currency terms. The UK and EU business grew by 21.5%, while the Nepal business was up 17%. The US business posted a growth of 16%, while the Turkey business reported a 14.6% growth and Egypt grew by 13%.