BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian textiles firm Trident Ltd posted a nearly 25% drop in its third-quarter profit, hurt by a rise in expenses, even as consumers bought more home linen during the festive season.
Trident – which counts cotton as its primary raw material – said its total expenses jumped 16% for the quarter ended Dec.31, with costs of raw materials climbing about 9%. This ate into its profit, which fell to 1.09 billion rupees.
Shares of Trident – which supplies products to department stores such as Shoppers Stop, D-Mart and Walmart – closed 2.6% lower after the results.
India’s festive season coincided with the third quarter, with consumers spending more on home linen items such as bedsheets. This helped Trident report a 12% jump in revenue to 18.35 billion rupees ($220.99 million).
The company, which is also engaged in manufacturing paper and chemicals, said revenue from its yarn and bedsheets segment rose about 25% and 36%, respectively, while its towels division fell 8%.
All three segments made up 86% of the total revenue.
($1 = 83.0343 Indian rupees)
(This story has been refiled to add currency in paragraph 2)
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
