Home-grown food company Britannia Industries on Friday reported a 29 percent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 387 crore for the quarter ended June 30. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 543 crore for the April-June period of previous fiscal.

Total income during the first quarter stood at Rs 3,464 crore, compared to Rs 3,514 crore in the same period of last fiscal.

Britannia MD Varun Berry said, "Second wave of Covid-19 struck the country hard followed by lockdowns imposed by various state governments. We witnessed the evolving nature of the pandemic as well as consumer sentiment and behaviour." In these uncertain times, the company delivered a healthy consolidated 24-month sales growth of 25 percent and net profit growth of 55 percent, he added.

"On the cost front, we continued to witness an increase in the prices of palm oil and crude. In light of hardship to the consumers owing to the pandemic, we were cautious on pricing but aggressive on cost efficiencies, which helped us improve our operating profit from 14.9 percent in Q4FY21 to 15.1 percent in Q1FY22," Berry stated.

The company shall go for calibrated price increases as things normalise and will continue to create and sustain an ecosystem of financial and operating efficiencies, he added.