The board of directors that met here on Tuesday announced an interim dividend of 27 per cent, an increase in payout of 13 per cent over the last year, said a company statement.

The growth continued on the momentum of successful product relaunches and introductions by the company, the statement added.

SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare has recently relaunched Boost--a brown choco-malt energy drink. Besides changes in the product formulation, Boost had undergone dramatic change in packaging to lend it a more contemporary and modern image.

To cope with expanding demand for its malted food products, the company had recently started work on its state-of-the-art factory at Sonepat, Haryana.

The company has already made all its existing internalhardware and software Y2K compliant. Moreover, the company has put in place a detailed business contingency plan to minimise the risk of disruption to business due to non-compliance by external agencies.

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With volume rise of 9.2 per cent nutrinal products both in brown and white good malted food segments, the company has performed better than the industry growth rate of 6-7 per cent. But more than the improved sales growth, what was important was the fact the operating profit margins have improved despite a higher royalty payments. Higher prices besides cost saving on packaging have been the prime factor for higher margins. Accordingly, a 21 per cent jump in net profit was also encouraging. Still what remains to be seen is how far can the company penetrate in the rural markets as bulk of incremental sales are expected to come from rural markets.-- Manish Saxena