Biscuits and confectionary sales of Olympic Industries have crossed Tk 2,500 crore for the first time in its history, thanks to rising demand for packaged bakery and confectionery items.
According to the largest biscuit and confectionary seller of Bangladesh, its total sales revenue rose 20.2 percent year-on-year to Tk 2,579 crore in fiscal year 2022-23.
Of the amount, Tk 2,536 crore came from selling biscuits, confectionery, bakery and snack products. This includes exports worth Tk 26 crore.
The remaining Tk 43 crore came from dry cell batteries.
Although its revenue was higher than that in fiscal year 2021-22, the amount of biscuits, confectionery, bakery and snack products sold, however, dropped 8.34 percent to 118,706 tonnes.
In adjustments with high prices of raw materials, Olympic Industries reduced the weight of the products in the packets to retain prices the packets were already being sold at, according to the annual report.
It has been an ongoing and lengthy process to make adjustments with the rise in the prices of raw materials, it said.
“The work, however, has been essential in moving toward normalised margins while providing price points acceptable in the market to ensure sales,” the company said in its financial report.
Prices of all the raw materials — refined flour, oil and sugar — soared but prices of finished goods could not rise at that level, said Satya Ranjan Mondal, general manager of the company’s accounts and finance.
On top of that, the local currency, taka, was devalued in the last two years at a high rate against the US dollar.
As a result, the profit margin has been affected over the last two years, he said.
In spite of all this, the company’s profits rose and it declared handsome dividends for its shareholders this year, he added.
Price of refined flour rose 75 percent, oil 17 percent, and sugar 91 percent over the past two years, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
The company’s profits swelled 29 percent year-on-year to Tk 155.6 crore in fiscal year 2022-23.
The company’s profit margin, meaning profits in context to sales, rose in the year to 6.04 percent.
However, it is still much lower than the double digits of 11.3 percent, 12.7 percent and 13.6 percent achieved in fiscal years 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19 respectively.
Mintu Kumar Das, company secretary, said the company accounts for around 90 percent of local market sales of such products and it has potential to grow further.
Olympic Industries has a capacity to produce 148,601 tonnes of biscuits, confectionery and “flavoured” saline a year.
In fiscal year 2022-23, it utilised over 80 percent of the capacity.
In another development, the company is planning to make investments in order to meet high demand for biscuits.
The plans include purchasing land measuring 86 decimals at a total cost of Tk 3 crore, inclusive of registration charges and other miscellaneous expenses.
Moreover, it is going to import a high-speed instant noodles production line from Japan spending Tk 24.75 crore to enhance its existing production capacity from 8,316 tonnes to 19,008 tonnes per annum.
It also decided to import a baked snacks processing line for Tk 3 crore, according to the annual report.
source: dailystar.com
olympic biscuit sales industries
