Asian Paints' revenue declines 16 percent sequentially

Asian Paints’ consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, dropped 33 percent to Rs 568.5 crore from Rs 852.1 crore in the fourth quarter of 2020-21. However, its quarterly profit recovered by 160 percent from a year ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic had led to nationwide lockdowns.

Its operational revenue too fell 16 percent in the first quarter for fiscal year (FY) 2022 over the previous quarter. But, the Rs 5,585.4 crore topline was 91 percent above the revenue-mark a year ago.

“The domestic decorative business more than doubled its volume, and delivered stellar revenues over the lower base of last year, which had suffered from the first nationwide lockdown,” said Amit Syngle, Managing Director and CEO of Asian Paints.

“Steep inflation in raw material prices in the last quarter of the previous financial year and again in this quarter saw gross margins impacted across all businesses, despite the price increases taken to mitigate this pressure to an extent,” he added. 

After the announcement of the first quarter results for FY2022, the shares of Asian Paints jumped 6.37 percent to a 52-week high at Rs 3,178 per share. This happens to be its all-time high price.

In May, the Asian Paints management stressed on creating a "phygital" experience for its customers.

“We are using online as a strong engine to generate leads, and look at digital consumers coming into our journey,” Syngle said, in the earnings call for the fourth quarter of FY2021.

Asian Paints wants to develop an omnichannel, where it uses digital channels to reach customers who are then directed to the nearest stores.

The company has been focusing on automation and digitisation. One of the ways in which the company is doing this is a commerce-driven website (beautifulhomes.com) and an artificial intelligence (AI) platform to bring in personalisation between the physical store and digital journeys of its home décor customers.

Asian Paints’ home improvement business clocked Rs 247 crore—or 1.3 percent of its Rs 18,516 crore topline—in FY2021. Its core business is the domestic decorative business.