Articles by Kumaran Pola

Biscuits Mean Business Kumaran Pola BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES' net sales on an annualised basis increased by 18 per cent to Rs 296.80 crore during the year ended March 31, 1990 from Rs 335.59 crore during the 16-month period ended March 31, 1989. With the diversification into soya bean crop reaching a new high at 1.8 million tonnes in 1989, Britannia has emerged the largest exporter of soya meal from India by exporting over 1,00,000 tonnes during the year. The bakery division which continued to be the core of the company's business accounted for a sales of 68 per cent of the company's total sales and the export division an all time high of Rs 75 crore during 1989-90, Due to the pressure of costs which was however kept under control as shown by the expenses to sales ratio of 0.96:1 during 1988-89 as also during 1989-90, the operating profits of the company increased at a lower rate of 6 per cent on an annualised basis to Rs 17.49 crore from Rs 22.04 crore during the preceding year. Raw material cost showed an increase of 15 per cent, employees' cost 7 per cent, depreciation 68 per cent and other expenses 28 per cent (all annualised) during the year 1989-90. However, due to contractions in interest expenses by 2 per cent (annualised) and in tax provision by 9 per cent (annualised), the company achieved a higher growth rate of 18 per cent in net profit on an annualised basis from Rs 10.99 Britannia Industries recorded an improvement

VAM ORGANIC CHEMICALS increased its sales net of excise duty by 34 percent on an annualised basis to Rs 55.82 crore during the year ended March 31, 1990 from Rs 38.26 crore during the 11-month period ended March 31, 1989. The cost of raw materials more than doubled from Rs 5.78 crore to Rs 13.33 crore and employees, cost spurted by 46 per cent (annualised) from Rs 1.62 crore to Rs 2.59 crore. Various other expenses showed a rise of 39 per cent on annualised basis. A steeper decline by one-third on an annualised basis was noticed mainly on account of steep increases in interest expenses by 176 per cent (annualised) and tax provision by 40 per cent (annualised). The interest expenses spurted on account of the borrowings For the purpose of capital expenditures in establishing 'Vamicol' brand of adhesives with a widespread national network. The physical performance of the company showed an improvement due to higher capacity utilisation during the year under review. The production of vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) and intermediates increased to 76,883 tonnes from 62,151 tonnes in the preceding year. Polyvinyl acetate and copolymers increased to 4,446 tonnes from 1,898 tonnes.

Good Sales, Better Orders from 1.59 in the preceding year. The issue of fully convertible debentures (series IV) aggregating Rs 820 crore during the year which the company allotted to nearly one million investors brought about the change in the capital structure of the company. The current ratio of the company worked out higher at 1.90 in 1989-90 as against 1.79 in 1988-89. Noticeable increases in inventories and sundry deb- tors contributed to a higher current ratio

Gains of Modernisation GRASIM INDUSTRIES' sales net of excise increased by 31 per cent to reach Rs 871.03 crore during the year ended March 31, 1990 from Rs 664.47 crore in the preceding year. The company could achieve conspicuous reduction in costs through the application of the latest technology yielding high productivity and quality parameters. In fact, the company brought down the expenses to sales 1989-90. This helped the company in achieving

Larger Sales, Lower Margin IVP's net sales during the year ended March 31; 1990 showed a 44 per cent increase on annualised basis to reach Rs 61.88 crore from Rs 53.63 crore during the 15-month period ended March 31, 1989. Due to the deterioration of the ex- penses to sales ratio from 0.91:1 to 0,92:1 mainly on account of raw material cost which spurted by 53 per cent (annualised) during the year, operating profits increased at a lower rate of 21 per cent (annualised). A 29 per cent (annualised) growth in interest costs allowed the net profit of the company to rise at a still lower rate of 12 per cent (annualised) in 1989-90. There was also an annualised increase by 63 per cent in depreciation due to increased investments in fixed assets for expansion and modernisation.