Mumbai, Oct 26 - Dabur India on Monday said quarterly profit rose 30 percent on the back of the fastest sales growth in over four years and on lower commodity prices, but rising inflation could force cost cuts to maintain margins.
The personal care and food products maker is unlikely to raise prices during the rest of the year to March, as it wished to gain market share, Chief Executive Sunil Duggal said.
Prices of commodities such as edible oils are significantly lower than their year-ago levels, but have begun to climb up.
"We are likely to see inflation come back with a vengeance in the fourth quarter, (but) I don't think we'll be taking up prices to expand margins for the balance of the year," Duggal said over the telephone.
"The focus on the company remains on aggressive top-line expansion through volumes."
The maker of Dabur could cut advertising spend, which are currently at 14 percent of sales compared with 11.2 percent a year ago, he said. For the September-quarter, Dabur's net profit rose to 1.39 billion rupees from 1.07 billion rupees a year ago. Net sales went up 22.4 percent to 8.48 billion rupees.
Seperately, the firm said it would issue five shares for each share of Fem Care, which it acquired last November.
Shares in Dabur closed 2.2 percent higher at 154.40 rupees in a Mumbai market <.BSESN> that was down 0.42 percent. They had underperformed the broader market during the September quarter, rising 13 percent while the index climbed 18 percent.