Amid the challenge of post Covid, Century Plyboards has recorded the highest revenue and profit in the second quarter of the fiscal year (FY) 21-22. The official statement says that as anticipated, the recovery in Q2 FY22 has been robust with the company achieving best ever quarterly sales, EBIDTA and PAT. The October month too has been good. They are likely to witness an exciting H2 on the back of sustained demand for wood panels and expected market share gains over the regional and unorganised counterparts.
The statement says that the company’s net revenue from operations for the second quarter, ending September 30 2021-22 fiscal, was Rs 808.29 crore: an increase of 55.5 per cent over the corresponding period of the last financial year (519.82 crore). At EBITDA level they did 166.5 crore (20.6% margins) as against 87.1 crore (16.8% margins) in Quarter2 of last year.
Profit after tax was at 103.1 crore as against Rs 51.4 crore in last year Quarter2. "All our lines of business have performed exceptionally well during the quarter under review. The price increase, cost optimisation and enhanced production and sales have led to significant margin improvement," the statement added. “After having achieved highest ever revenue and profitability in Q2, we are geared to achieve greater heights in the years to come. Promising numbers in the real estate and overall improvement in the economy would drive our performance going forward," said Mr Sajjan Bhajanka, Chairman of Century Plyboards (India).
“We also witnessed impressive improvement in working capital with cash conversion cycle reducing to 60 days in Q2 FY22 compared to 69 days in FY21. Work on MDF expansion in the existing unit at Hoshiarpur is in full swing while the MDF project at Andhra is likely to get delayed and is expected to get commissioned within H2 of FY24. Overall business scenario and improving visibility in the real estate sector gives us the confidence of sustained growth traction over the near to medium term,” the statement say.