India's Marico, Adani Wilmar say Q3 revenue down on lower demand, prices

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian consumer companies Marico and Adani Wilmar on Friday said revenue in the third quarter ended Dec. 31 fell from a year ago due to lower demand and selling prices.

While Marico said its revenue declined in the low single digits on weaker rural demand, Adani Wilmar said its revenue fell 15%, impacted by lower pricing of edible oils.

Marico, which makes personal care products such as Parachute coconut oil, said its domestic volumes grew in low single digits from a year ago. Saffola brand of cooking oils, one of its biggest brands, recorded an optically weak quarter due to cautious trade sentiment, the company said.

Consumer goods companies such as Marico and Dabur, which have been flagging weaker rural demand due to the impact of higher inflation, reiterated that the trend has still not changed, with rural "offering little to cheer."

However, lower input costs will drive robust gross margin expansion and low double-digit operating profit growth for the third quarter, Marico said.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Marico had reported profit below estimates, while revenue dropped.

The company, which operates in Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Middle East and Africa, also cited significant currency depreciation in select overseas geographies as one of the key factors behind the drop in revenue.

Meanwhile, Godrej Consumer Products said on Friday it expects to deliver, at a consolidated level, mid-single-digit volume growth and double-digit sales growth in constant currency terms, but low-single-digit sales decline in rupee terms.

Dabur on Thursday said it expects mid- to high-single-digit growth in its consolidated revenue for the third quarter, hurt by rural growth lagging urban.

(Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Janane Venkatraman)