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Informist, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025

 

By Avishek Rakshit

 

KOLKATA - Fast moving consumer goods companies and those in the retail, consumer durables, and jewellery sectors delivered a strong earnings performance in the September quarter despite facing demand headwinds due to the cut in Goods and Services Tax, a stronger than expected monsoon which dampened demand, and volatility in global gold prices. Strong growth in top line in the jewellery segment contributed significantly to the revenue growth of these companies, while easing commodity prices gave a boost to the profits of mainstream consumer goods companies.

 

While growth in these companies' net profit excluding exceptional items was the highest in the last seven quarters, the revenue growth was the lowest in the past eight quarters.

 

The 23 FMCG, retail, consumer goods, consumer durables, and jewellery companies in the Nifty 200 index reported aggregate on-year growth of almost 11% in net profit excluding exceptional items for the September quarter, surpassing the consensus estimate of a rise of around 6%. These companies delivered aggregate on-year revenue growth of 12% in the September quarter, marginally higher than the consensus estimate of just below 12%.

 

Of these 23 companies, 11 met or surpassed the consensus estimates of analysts for net profit growth for the September quarter and 12 reported revenue growth either in line with or beyond the Street's expectations. The aggregate top line performance of these 23 companies was also above the NSE 200 companies' overall revenue growth of around 8%. However, in terms of bottom line growth, these companies' near 11% growth was below the NSE 200 companies' overall net profit growth of over 11% for the quarter.

 

GST DRAG ON HUL & ITC

The GST rate cut saw all consumer goods companies taking a partial hit to their revenues as consumers delayed purchases and dealers resorted to stock clearance. Consumer and investor perception was that the GST cuts would boost consumption, but in reality, consumer goods companies faced a double whammy when the GST cuts were rolled out. On the one hand, trade channels rushed to clear inventory and stopped new orders and on the other, consumers deferred purchases of durable goods and discretionary items in anticipation of lower taxes.

 

As a result, nearly all fast moving consumer goods companies saw a negative impact on their volume growth and this affected their top line and the net profit for the reporting quarter as well. The impact of GST cuts on the pure-play consumer goods sector was worse than previously perceived as the aggregate top line growth for pure-play consumer goods companies rose over 5% on year in the September quarter, against the 6% aggregate growth initially anticipated. HUL and ITC, which together account for 43% of the pure-play consumer goods sector's top line and 47% of the bottom line, took a beating on sales on account of deferred consumer demand.

 

HUL, which alone makes up 20% of the fast moving consumer goods sector's top line and bottom line, reported flat underlying volume growth on year for the September quarter, much below the 3% growth it had posted in the year-ago quarter and also below the 4% growth reported in the trailing quarter.

 

ITC – the second-most important player in the pure-play consumer goods vertical, accounting for 23% of the sectoral revenue and 37% of the profit, also reported a steeper-than-expected decline in its top line for the September quarter, even as it met analysts' expectations on its bottom line growth. The cigarette and fast moving consumer goods company reported an increase of 4% on year and over 5% on quarter in its net profit at around INR 52 billion. The net profit reported was above the Street view of INR 51 billion.

 

Excluding excise duty, ITC's revenue from operations was down over 3% on year and nearly 9% on quarter at INR 180 billion in the September quarter. The last time the company posted an on-year decline in its revenue from operations, excluding excise duty, was in the March quarter of 2023-24 (Apr-Mar), when it had reported a 4?cline.

 

Even as revenue growth took a beating, the companies benefited from the growth in purchases of stock in trade, which came in the lowest in the past nine quarters. Although the growth in raw material costs remained in the usual ballpark of 11-17% seen for the last four quarters, total expenses grew the lowest in the past five quarters. As a result, the net profit growth of over 5% was way ahead of the 0.4% profit growth anticipated by sector analysts.

 

Tata Consumer Products Ltd., Marico Ltd., and Patanjali Foods Ltd. were the outperformers on revenue growth from the mainstream consumer goods segment, while Trent Ltd., Avenue Supermarts Ltd., Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd., FSN E-Commerce Ltd., and Vishal Mega Mart from the retail segment outperformed in terms of revenue growth. Both Titan Co. Ltd. and Kalyan Jewellers Ltd. from the jewellery sector beat the sectoral revenue growth, and Dixon Ltd. from consumer durables sector outperformed the sectoral top line growth.

 

Mid-sized mainstream consumer goods companies such as Britannia Industries Ltd., United Spirits Ltd., and Patanjali had a better run compared to larger companies such as HUL and ITC.

 

Among the retailers that registered muted sales profit growth, Vishal Mega Mart registered over 46% net profit growth.

 

RETAIL & JEWELLERY

As consumers delayed purchases, the retail sector saw revenue growth of only 16%, which was the lowest the sub-sector has seen in the last 18 quarters. The 1.4% net profit growth of these companies was also a nine-quarter low. Avenue Supermarts, which accounts for more than half of the top line and bottom line of this sub-sector, reported over 15% top line and 5% bottom line growth as against the aggregate sub-sectoral top line and bottom line growth of 17% and 16%, respectively.

 

Although FSN E-Commerce has a minor share in this sub-sector's net profit, the company emerged as the shining star, registering over 25% revenue growth and over 253% net profit growth. Vishal Mega Mart, with 22% top line and 46% bottom line growth, also emerged strong in the sub-sector.

 

The jewellery segment saw its highest net profit growth in the past 13 quarters at around 52%, but this was still below the expectation of over 59% sectoral growth. The revenue growth of around 27% remained in line with the usual growth ballpark of 25-27% in the last four quarters but outperformed the expectation of 21% from the Street.

 

The following table shows the performance of the 23 companies in the fast moving consumer goods, retail, jewellery, and consumer durable products sector vis--vis the consensus estimate for each company, as well as against the consensus estimate for the FMCG sector and the Nifty 200 index:

 

Company	PAT beat analysts' estimate	Adjusted PAT growth %	Adjusted PAT growth estimate %	PAT beat sector estimate	PAT beat Nifty 200 estimate		Revenue beat analysts' estimate	Revenue growth %	Revenue growth estimate %	Revenue beat sector estimate	Revenue beat Nifty 200 estimate
FMCG, Retail, Jewellery, and Consumer Durables Sector		10.92	5.74					12.02	11.89
Nifty 200		11.18	9.73					7.77	7.82
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED	YES	-4.64	-5.76	NO	NO		NO	0.50	2.16	NO	NO
ITC LIMITED	YES	2.33	2.26	NO	NO		NO	-3.37	4.63	NO	NO
NESTLE INDIA LIMITED	YES	8.29	4.01	YES	YES		YES	10.57	4.56	NO	NO
TATA CONSUMER PRODUCTS LIMITED	YES	3.29	-7.03	YES	NO		YES	17.83	13.16	YES	YES
TITAN COMPANY LIMITED	NO	42.70	51.75	NO	YES		YES	25.12	17.13	YES	YES
TRENT LIMITED	YES	6.45	4.30	YES	YES		NO	17.06	17.94	YES	YES
AVENUE SUPERMARTS LIMITED	YES	5.09	2.42	YES	NO		NO	15.43	17.49	YES	YES
BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD	YES	23.11	11.06	YES	YES		NO	3.71	5.95	NO	NO
DABUR INDIA LIMITED	NO	6.48	6.72	NO	YES		NO	5.37	6.04	NO	NO
GODREJ CONSUMER PRODUCTS LIMITED	NO	-1.63	-1.33	NO	NO		NO	4.33	6.05	NO	NO
HAVELLS INDIA LIMITED	YES	16.47	15.20	YES	YES		NO	5.15	6.42	NO	NO
UNITED SPIRITS LIMITED	YES	49.85	9.34	YES	YES		YES	11.50	7.76	NO	YES
VARUN BEVERAGES LIMITED	YES	19.62	5.27	YES	YES		YES	1.91	1.62	NO	NO
ADITYA BIRLA FASHION AND RETAIL LIMITED	NO	N.A.	N.A.	NO	NO		NO	12.56	12.74	YES	YES
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE (INDIA) LIMITED	YES	-17.10	-15.52	NO	NO		NO	-6.15	-4.79	NO	NO
DIXON TECHNOLOGIES (INDIA) LIMITED	YES	271.73	62.71	YES	YES		YES	28.79	28.02	YES	YES
FSN E-COMMERCE VENTURES LIMITED	NO	253.29	279.98	NO	YES		NO	25.14	25.27	YES	YES
KALYAN JEWELLERS INDIA LIMITED	NO	99.46	100.30	NO	YES		YES	29.69	28.35	YES	YES
MARICO LIMITED	NO	-0.71	-0.37	NO	NO		YES	30.71	28.95	YES	YES
PAGE INDUSTRIES LIMITED	NO	-0.26	7.42	NO	NO		NO	3.58	6.08	NO	NO
PATANJALI FOODS LIMITED	YES	67.23	-0.19	YES	YES		YES	20.95	12.87	YES	YES
VISHAL MEGA MART LIMITED	YES	46.47	31.07	YES	YES		YES	22.38	19.60	YES	YES
VOLTAS LIMITED	NO	-74.41	-25.99	NO	NO		NO	-10.38	-7.97	NO	NO

 

The following table shows the profit margins of the 23 FMCG companies that are part of the Nifty 200:

 

Company	PAT margin for Jul-Sept '25	PAT margin for Jul-Sept '24	PAT margin for Apr-Jun '25
FMCG sector	10.63%	10.74	10.65%
Nifty 200	11.84	11.51	12.02
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED	16.08%	16.95%	17.95%
ITC LIMITED	28.25%	26.68%	24.87%
NESTLE INDIA LIMITED	13.35%	13.63%	12.94%
TATA CONSUMER PRODUCTS LIMITED	8.14%	9.29%	6.99%
TITAN COMPANY LIMITED	6.08%	5.33%	7.07%
TRENT LIMITED	9.54%	10.49%	8.84%
AVENUE SUPERMARTS LIMITED	4.60%	5.06%	5.21%
BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD	13.52%	11.39%	11.27%
DABUR INDIA LIMITED	14.18%	14.03%	15.09%
GODREJ CONSUMER PRODUCTS LIMITED	12.78%	13.56%	12.89%
HAVELLS INDIA LIMITED	6.66%	6.01%	6.48%
UNITED SPIRITS LIMITED	15.84%	11.78%	10.55%
VARUN BEVERAGES LIMITED	15.14%	12.90%	18.77%
ADITYA BIRLA FASHION AND RETAIL LIMITED	-13.29%	-14.12%	-11.57%
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE (INDIA) LIMITED	21.55%	24.40%	22.36%
DIXON TECHNOLOGIES (INDIA) LIMITED	4.51%	1.56%	1.75%
FSN E-COMMERCE VENTURES LIMITED	1.51%	0.54%	1.08%
KALYAN JEWELLERS INDIA LIMITED	3.32%	2.16%	3.63%
MARICO LIMITED	12.06%	15.88%	15.46%
PAGE INDUSTRIES LIMITED	15.09%	15.67%	15.25%
PATANJALI FOODS LIMITED	5.27%	3.81%	2.06%
VISHAL MEGA MART LIMITED	5.11%	4.27%	6.56%
VOLTAS LIMITED	1.46%	5.12%	3.57%

 

End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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