Tiles major Asian Granito India Ltd (AGIL) has reported what the company described as “good” financial performance for the first quarter ended June 2020 amidst the “challenging” economic and business scenario prevailing across the world, the company said.
AGIL reported consolidated net sales for the quarter ended June 2020 at Rs 129.40 crores, lower by 59% over previous fiscal’s same period net sales of Rs 312.04 crores. It recorded consolidated EBITDA for the quarter ended June 2020 at Rs. 3.76 crores. The company reported a loss of Rs 7.51 crore in the first quarter for the financial year 2020-2021.
“Despite a challenging economic and business environment due to Covid-19, the company has delivered a good operational and financial performance for Q1FY21. Company’s strong presence in the rural and tier-II cities focused on the progressive middle class of the country and good demand from the export market has helped the company to post good numbers during the quarter. Green shoots are visible in the demand, especially from rural and semi-urban markets, retail sales and export demand. We believe that demand from these segments are likely to improve further from current levels and will result in increase revenue and profitability in coming quarters,” says the company’s chairman and managing director Kamlesh Patel said in a press release.
According to Patel, the company has witnessed “good” traction in overseas markets during the quarter. The consolidated export business grew to around 23.8% of total revenues in Q1FY21 versus 13.1% in the Q1FY20. The company expects a quantum jump in the export business in the coming quarters and also expanding its export network to 100-plus countries in the current fiscal year from 78.
“Due to the focused management approach, the company was able to turnaround the operations very fast post-Covid-19. Further, the company has adopted a well-defined strategy to handle the current slowdown and managed the fixed and semi-variable costs more efficiently. Recently launched ‘Atmanirbhar Program’ to drive retail and secondary sales, reducing marketing cost and increase profitability while generating employment opportunities for creating vocal for local in current slowdown period has received tremendous response in a short time. The pilot project is launched in Gujarat and the company aims to launch this pan India in the coming time. We are confident that with the focused strategy company will be able to bounce back on its growth path and shall achieve new heights,” he added.
The company, Patel, added is also looking to engage with global players to make India a global manufacturing hub for tiles and sanitaryware and aims to provide end-to-end solutions including quality assurance, packaging, efficient supply chain management, and adherence to stringent compliance and ethical norms. In-line with this strategy, AGL has recently started catering to demand from Siam Cement Group (SCG), one of the largest cement and building material companies in Thailand and Southeast Asia. SCG has a presence in 21 countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Sri Lanka and others.
Also Read: How Asian Granito Will Become a Complete Bathroom Solutions Brand
