Tata Tea jacks up net profit in consolidated and standalone

Kolkata, Oct 27 (UNI) Tata Tea Ltd has posted an increase in consolidated profit after tax by 237 per cent at Rs 229 crore and in standalone profit after tax by 19 per cent at Rs 44 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2008.

A company release here today said its consolidated worldwide total operating income for the quarter at Rs 1206.51 crore grew by 14 per cent over the corresponding quarter of the previous year, driven by strong brand performance across all key markets.

The profit from operations at Rs 127 crore has been impacted by hardening of commodity prices, inflationary increase in other input cost and higher level of advertisement expenditure during the quarter.

The consolidated profit before tax for the quarter at Rs 332.50 crore and the profit after tax at Rs 229.45 crore are higher by 239 per cent and 237 per cent respectively compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year mainly due to lower interest cost and higher exchange gain.

The standalone reported income from Operations for the quarter at Rs 32,055 crore increased by 15 per cent driven by strong performance of the company's domestic branded tea operations.

Profit from operations at Rs 21.59 crore declined from the corresponding quarter of the previous year mainly impacted by hardening commodity costs and inflationary increase in input costs.

However, the profit before tax at Rs 60.65 crore and profit after tax at Rs 43.79 crore increased by 24 per cent and 19 per cent respectively over the corresponding quarter of previous year are mainly supported by higher investment income, including dividends from company's overseas subsidiary - The Tetley Group.

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