Floods, strikes and "volatile raw material prices" could not prevent Apollo Tyres Ltd. from increasing its global sales by 23% in the second quarter of its 2018-2019 fiscal year.
Apollo posted net income of more than 1.4 billion rupees ($20.4 million) on net sales of 41.9 billion rupees ($597.3 million) for its second quarter ended Sept. 30, 2018. That compares to income of 1.4 billion rupees on sales of 34.2 billion rupees for the same period last year.
The company's income-to-sales ratio in the second quarter was 3.5%. Operating profit increased 25%, from more than 3.8 billion rupees to 4.8 billion rupees ($68 million).
"In a quarter when our two plants were impacted by floods, we had to deal with transporter’s strike in India, and the volatile raw material prices, our teams across geographies have performed remarkably well," said Chairman Onkar Kanwar. "We are looking forward to a similar growth momentum in the next few quarters as well."
For the first six months of its fiscal year, Apollo recorded net income of nearly 4 billion rupees ($58 million) on net sales of 84.4 billion rupees ($1.2 billion). First-half income and sales were up 74% and 22%, respectively.
Based on its first-half results, Apollo is on track to surpass the results from its 2017-18 fiscal year ended March 31, 2018.
Fiscal year: 2018-19 vs. 2017-18
Net income: 8.0 billion rupees* vs. 7.2 billion rupees
Net sales: 168.8 billion rupees* vs. 149 billion rupees
* Projected
