Ghcl Target 1300 Cr Turnover This Year
The chairman attributed the decline in net profit to the annual shutdown of the company's factories between October and December. He added that similar exercises were not undertaken during the corresponding period of last year.
"The home textile operations were significantly affected due to the worsening power situation in Tamil Nadu, where the government could not even meet 60 per cent of our total power requirements. Besides this, the global economic meltdown, which accelerated in the last quarter of 2008, also affected our sales to the US and European markets to some extent," Dalmia said. Hence, revenue from the company's home textiles division declined from Rs 124 crore last year to Rs 81 crore this year.
In its soda ash business, GHCL suffered due to excess raw material stock because of which the company could not capitalise on low raw material costs. The company also suffered a forex loss Rs 30-35 crore on currency fluctuations.
In the December 2008 quarter, revenue dipped 5.3 per cent to Rs 283 crore as against Rs 299 crore recorded in the year-ago period. However, for the nine-month period ended December 2008, the company's revenues grew 20 per cent to Rs 919 crore compared with Rs 768 crore last year.
Soda ash and home textiles player GHCL is aiming at a growth rate of 25-30 per cent for the financial year ending March 31, 2009, despite a 10 per cent decrease in its third quarter net profit to Rs 80 crore. The company had posted a profit of Rs 89 crore in December 2007
