The country’s largest consumer goods company, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), on Tuesday reported a 3% year-on-year decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,673 crore for the June quarter (Q1FY27), impacted by a one-off tax credit in the year-ago period. Revenue for the period stood at Rs 17,341 crore, up 10.1% from Rs 15,757 crore in the same quarter last year.
Excluding exceptional items, profit after tax rose 9% year-on-year to Rs 2,731 crore. Tax expenses for the quarter nearly doubled to Rs 939 crore from Rs 485 crore a year earlier. Exceptional items for Q1FY27 stood at Rs 115 crore on account of restructuring costs, compared to Rs 90 crore in Q1FY26. Shares of HUL fell 6.97% on Tuesday to Rs 2,023.15 apiece on the BSE, its single-biggest fall since March 2020. HUL was also the top loser among Sensex and Nifty stocks on Tuesday.
While the revenue figure was broadly in line with Bloomberg consensus estimates of Rs 17,571 crore for the quarter, the headline profit number was below street estimates of Rs 2,811 crore. Volume growth for Q1 came in at 5% versus analysts estimates of 6-8% for the period.
In the April quarter (Q4FY26), HUL had reported a 21.4% year-on-year rise in net profit to Rs 2,992 crore, and 7.6% growth in revenue to Rs 16,351 crore. Volume growth in Q4 was the highest in 15 quarters at 6%.
Though HUL did see underlying sales growth in Q1 come in at 10%, the highest in three years, led by an even split between volume and price (5% each), the company cautioned that both the monsoon advancement and the West Asia crisis were key monitorables from an inflation perspective. The Met department this year has forecast a likely El Nino impact on rains in the second half of the monsoon season. The rains arrived late this year, though it has covered much of the country through July.
“Despite global geopolitical volatility, the Indian economy demonstrated resilience, supported by proactive fiscal and monetary policy measures,” said Priya Nair, CEO and managing director, HUL. “The underlying demand environment remained stable during the quarter,” she said.
Ebitda margin stood at 22.8% in the June quarter, falling within company guidance of 22-23% despite a volatile operating environment. From a year ago lens though, Ebitda margins narrowed 30 basis points. Last year, HUL had reported Ebitda margins of 23.1% in the June quarter. The personal care segment recorded underlying sales growth (USG) of 4%, driven by price hikes to offset a second straight year of palm oil inflation.
Home care registered a 14% underlying sales growth (USG), backed by high-single-digit underlying volume growth (UVG). Home care sales growth was also the highest in three years, driven by “disciplined market development and product innovation”, HUL said. Beauty & wellbeing recorded a 12% USG, driven by high-single-digit volume growth. And food delivered 7% USG in the June quarter, driven by coffee and nutrition brands Horlicks and Boost, while tea was soft on account of an extended summer season.