India's Britannia posts Q3 profit fall on soft rural demand, competition

CHENNAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian biscuit maker Britannia Industries reported a nearly 2% fall in third-quarter profit on Tuesday, hurt by subdued rural demand and elevated competition from smaller packaged food makers.

Britannia, which sells Jim Jam and NutriChoice biscuits, reported consolidated profit before exceptional items and tax of 7.61 billion rupees ($91.7 million) for the third quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with 7.74 billion rupees a year earlier.

The company recorded a one-off gain of 3.76 billion rupees from a stake sale in the year-ago quarter.

The weak earnings come in the face of intense price competition. The company has previously mentioned reducing certain product prices after competitors took advantage of declining raw material expenses to lower prices and attract more consumers.

Rural spending on treats and snacks has also been constrained by the high cost of living.

Total revenue from operations rose just over 1% to 42.56 billion rupees, roughly in line with the growth in the previous quarter when it reported its lowest increase in more than two years.

The Good Day biscuit maker's shares climbed 18% last quarter, outperforming a 11% increase in India's bluechip Nifty 50 index.

($1 = 83.0270 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai and Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)