The financial year of Piramal Glass Ceylon PLC commenced at the time when the country was passing through a complete lockdown. All production lines came to a standstill from March 20, 2020.
The Company resumed partial operations on April 17, following approval by the Central Covid Committee. The Company commenced operations in a phased out manner and was back to 100% operations by the third week of May, resulting in a loss of sales revenue of Rs. 700 million.
Piramal Glass ended the first Quarter of FY 2020-21 with Rs. 1,330 million in revenue and a loss of Rs. 44 million, as against the revenue of Rs 1585 million and profit of Rs. 21 million during the corresponding period of the previous year.
Domestic Market: During April and May 2020, sales were subdued as customers who were manufacturing only essential products were functioning and that too at just 50% capacity. From June 2020, the domestic market demand stabilised and international markets opened up for business.
The Domestic sale stood at Rs. 938 million as against Rs. 1,162 million of the similar quarter of the previous year, reflecting a de-growth of 19%.
Exports: Non-availability of vessels to India, USA and East Africa impacted export performance, but at the same time a spurt in demand for food jars from Australia and New Zealand helped to compensate. The export sales for the quarter were almost at par at Rs. 393 million as against Rs. 396 million during the corresponding quarter of last year.
Gross profit for the period under review is Rs. 110 million as against Rs. 240 million in the corresponding period of the previous year. Even though production was stopped from March 20, the company continued to incur fixed energy and labour costs to keep the furnaces alive during the period under review.
The management firmly believes that with the new product development and inroads into new markets such as Mexico, Angola and Indonesia and the increased demand from Australia, PGC will sustain the ongoing operations profitably.
“We are facing the most unprecedented times in the history of mankind and perhaps definitely in our life times with the onset of the worst global pandemic.
It has affected all countries and communities in the world with no concrete solution in sight as either a vaccine or medication,” said CEO, Piramal Glass, Sanjay Jain.
“We are witnessing a global surge in demand for glass containers in the Food and Pharmaceutical category; due to which PGC is poised to retain the volumes in domestic and international markets and continue the growth trajectory,” he said.