The turnover during this period for the base nutritional products was up 10 per cent while the sales at Rs 170 crore was up 8.3 per cent over previous corresponding period's Rs 157 crore, the company said here.

The gross operating profit during the period under review at Rs 30.87 crore was up 16 per cent.

Commenting on the results, SBCH managing director Simon J Scarff said: ``Our focussed approach to add tangible value to our customers, contain costs, overheads and improve productivity have yielded good results.''

The company has enlarged the oral healthcare offerings retailed under the brand name Aquafresh as well as relaunched Horlicks with greater nutritional benefits.

The company has also implemented two enterprise resource planning packagesfor greater efficiency and better control. In addition, all hardware and software are being made Y2K compliant to meet the challenges of the new millenium, Scarff said.