For the nine months ended 31st Dec,2017 the overall turnover was on par with the previous year’s sales of Rs.5 Billion mark. The domestic sale for the period was Rs. 3,375 Million as against the previous year’s Rs. 4,065 Million depicting a drop of 17%, whilst the export market showed a growth of 70% from 959 Million in the previous year to Rs. 1,627 Million as at 31st December 2017.
The Domestic sale for the quarter under review was Rs. 1,256 Million as against Rs. 1,563 Million of the previous year which reflected a 20% drop in sales whilst the exports showed a commendable growth of 75% from Rs. 416 Million to Rs. 729 Million.
The dip felt in the overall domestic market since the beginning of the year did not recover during the quarter under review. Due to the increase in levies and taxes , the final products are becoming more expensive . This results in a decline in consumer demand which ultimately reflects in the reduction of sales in the Food, Beverage & Liquor Segments. Added to this , the impact of extreme weather conditions impacted the sales in the Virgin Coconut Oil and Agro Chemical segments .
The management has tried its best to channel the extra capacity towards the export market to bridge the gap due to the loss of domestic volumes. The sales to USA, Canada, Australia and neighbouring markets showed exceptional increase which partly helped to shorten the gap. PGC is focussing on developing these potential markets to contract the incremental capacity added in the year 2016/17.
The Gross Profit for the nine months ended 31st December 2017 grew from Rs. 934 Million to Rs. 1,039 Million by thus crossing the 1 Billion mark. This is an improvement of the GP margin from 18% to 21%. The operating profit too showed a marked improvement of Rs. 595 Million as against Rs. 448 Million of the previous year. Yet the PBT remained static at Rs 351 Million due to the increased Finance cost incurred for the Long term loan.
The incremental operational profit margin improvement was possible due to the reduction of trading sales. With the new facility now well stabilised the domestic market is being supplied mainly with in house manufactured bottles which has replaced the imported bottles. Last year due to capacity constraints a considerable portion of the sale was done through imports.