Piramal continues growth drive

Piramal Glass Ceylon Plc (PGC), have reported its continuation of profit trend this quarter too, after the turnaround it achieved in the second quarter of this financial year 2010” Piramal CEO and Executive Director Sanjay Tiwari said.

According to Tiwari, net sales for the quarter ending December 31, 2009 grew by 12 percent to Rs 910 million. “Our Gross profits grew by 27 percent to Rs 261 million, while the net profit for the period was Rs 28.6 million as compared to a loss of Rs 87 million for the same period last year”.

The total increase in sales during the quarter was only due to the increase in the export segment. The company reported an export of Rs 243 million, which in turn reflected a growth of 241 percent during the third quarter of the financial year 2010.

The company’s exports consisted of coloured liquor and wine bottles, as well as flint liquor and food bottles. During the period under review the Company also launched some new bottles in the international market.

The company in its cost reduction drive converted more than 50 percent of its long term Rupee debt to foreign currency loans. This was done looking forward to the exponential growth in the exports. This conversion was done in November 2009 with the same consortium of banks.

The management is confident that this will result in the company being able to reduce its interest costs in the future periods.

The Total Revenue for the Nine months ending December 31, grew by 19 percent to Rs 2,661 million.

The Gross profit [GP] ratio increased to 27 percent this year as against 19 percent in the similar period of the previous year.

The company achieved the GP of Rs 705 Mn for the first nine month of the FY 2010 as against Rs 431 Mn in the same period previous year reflecting a growth of 64 percent.