Homegrown FMCG major Dabur India's management on Thursday said that reports claiming the presence of carcinogenic materials in its honey product are "false and baseless". "The article is completely baseless without any scientific evidence and it has absolutely no legal or any merit in the substance on where the research which analytical lab it is," said Dabur India's Chief Executive Officer Mohit Malhotra.

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Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Malhotra said, "We stand by the purity of Dabur Honey and we the largest market leader not just in India, but in world. We export to around 100 odd countries and we conform with regulations of every country in the world, including FSSAI, which is a regulatory body in India and every single batch of honey dispatched from a factory premises complies to FSSAI parameters."

Dabur India reported a 3.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 456.6 crore, compared to Rs 441 crore in the year-ago period. The profit figure was lower than CNBC-TV18's poll of Rs 465 crore.

Revenue crosses Rs 3,000-cr mark, up 11%

The FMCG major reported a 11 percent growth in consolidated revenue at Rs 3,130 crore, up from Rs 2,822 crore a year ago, with an underlying volume growth of 3 percent in the India FMCG business.

According to CNBC-TV18's poll, the growth in volume was seen in between 5-6 percent on a base of 5 percent.

"Revenue crossed the Rs 3,000-crore mark for the first time in the first quarter, driven by strong double-digit growth in both HPC (Home & Personal Care) and HC (Healthcare) businesses. The Ql revenue growth stands at 13.3 percent on constant currency basis," Dabur said in a filing.

Dabur's operating profit, also known as EBITDA, saw a growth of 11 percent, while margins stood flat at 19.3 percent versus 19.3 percent on-year.

Maintain FY24 margin outlook of 19.5%

The management maintained its FY24 margin outlook of 19.5 percent and said that margins will sequentially actually move up for the company. "If you look at last quarter to the current quarter, last quarter margins was around 15. Now the margins are out 19, we maintain our guidance to the margins being around 19.5 percent."

"We continue to see strong consumer engagement with our brands, helping them grow significantly of of the market and report market share gains across 90 percent of the portfolio. With the inflation softening, we have seen our rural growths bounce back to high single digits after three quarters. While rural growth continues to lag urban demand, the gap has reduced significantly," the CEO said.

Shares of Dabur were trading 2 percent lower at Rs 555.45 apiece on NSE during Thursday's late afternoon deals.

First Published:Aug 3, 2023 2:58 PM IST