Piramal Glass Ceylon PLC (PGC) closed the financial year ending March 2020 with a total turnover of Rs. 7,531 million, marginally up compared to Rs. 7,398 million in the previous year.

Post tax profit rose to Rs.389 million as compared to Rs. 346 million of the previous year reflecting a growth of 12.4 per cent. In line with its consistent policy of a 50 per cent payout ratio, the Board of Directors have proposed a dividend of 20 per cent, the company said in a media release.

'This performance for the year is achieved despite of the stoppage in production and sales towards the second half of March 2020 due to the COVID -19 pandemic,' it said.

The operations were running at full capacity and sales at its peak with the Sinhala Avurudu (April) festival round the corner when the pandemic impacted the country's total business environment.

Restricted working hours and the curfew situation resulted in a stoppage of bottle production by mid-March; yet the Kiln was kept live incurring considerable energy cost.

With the food, pharmaceutical and agro chemical sector industries being declared as essential services Piramal Glass too commenced partial operations by mid-April to ensure continuous supply of glass bottles to these organisations. The overall loss of sales during the month of March due to closure of operations was Rs.450 million which includes exports of over Rs.200 million.

Turnover for the quarter ended March 31 showed a decline of 10 per cent at Rs.1,699 million as against Rs.1,913 million of the previous year's similar quarter.

The investment of over Rs.1 billion made on a sixth production line during the first quarter of this financial year helped the company to maximise its capacity utilisation.

The pre tax profit for the year stood at Rs.495 million against Rs.510 million in the previous financial year.

Commenting on the fourth quarter performance Executive Director and COO Sanjay Jain said, 'We are currently operating in unprecedented conditions and are making every effort to provide our customers with innovative and efficient solutions by offering new designs. The company has faced a challenging quarter, and the results have been adversely impacted from mid-March and is expected to bear a ripple effect in the future too. As the COVID-19 pandemic situation is still evolving, it is difficult to quantify the future business impact on the company. However, we are committed to ensure uninterrupted supply of glass bottles to all our customers and we believe that demand would gradually get back to normalcy during the coming financial year. Export sales have also come under pressure due to lockdown situations and the new rules and regulations laid down by different countries.'

© Pakistan Press International, source Asianet-Pakistan