Gokaldas Exports posted subdued first-quarter earnings. The company lost over 50 percent of its total capacity this quarter owing to the lockdown and resumed full operations only on July 5. The revenues for the first quarter were up 3 percent at R 241 crore versus Rs 234 crore for the same quarter last fiscal. The year-on-year EBITDA was also up 2.4 percent and margins were up 8.2 percent versus 7.8 percent.

To discuss the business outlook going forward, CNBC-T18 spoke with Sivaramkrishnan Ganapathi, MD, Gokaldas Exports.

Talking about the demand outlook going forward, Ganapathi said that it is robust, especially in both the prime markets that is US and Europe. “The pickup offtake is very good for our customers and we are seeing robust increase in orders for ourselves,” said Ganapathi.

Capacity utilisation

The management says that things have been ironed out. “The lockdown in Karnataka was stringent and we were asked to shut down our capacity for most of May and in June we were allowed to operate at 30 percent capacity utilisation but from July we are operating at 100 percent and are in the process of catching up for lost production,” Ganapathi said, adding that they are ramping up the capacity, looking at options to work long hours.

Margin and revenue outlook

The company is operating at full normal levels for the second quarter and the run rate will catch up to above Q4FY21 levels. "With regards to margins, we are working on EBITDA margin improvement for this year. We will be above our Q4FY21 numbers from our revenue perspective and margins will also show improvement over those levels,” he said.

For the full interview, watch video

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)