India’s Bikaji Foods International reported a 14.4% rise in third-quarter profit on Friday, driven by strong demand for its packaged sweets and snacks.
Consolidated net profit stood at 466.2 million rupees ($5.6 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with 407.4 million rupees a year earlier.
Increased purchases of snacks and sweets during the festive season, which typically spans from October to November, helped bolster the company’s bottom line.
The ethnic snacks segment, which offers crispy, deep-fried snacks and Bhelpuri — a savoury, spicy and crunchy mix, constituted about 63% of the total revenue and grew 15.4% year-on-year.
The surge in ethnic segment spurred revenue from operations up 23% at 6.24 billion rupees.
Meanwhile, the packaged sweet segment logged the highest growth during the quarter, increasing nearly 83% and outshining ethnic snacks.
“The festive season played a significant role, alongside improvements in our operational efficiencies and advantageous pricing of raw materials,” Managing Director Deepak Agarwal said in a statement.
Shares of Bikaji rose 12.6% during the quarter, outpacing the 10.4% increase in the Nifty FMCG index.
($1 = 82.8850 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)