Expect 6-7% volume growth in flashlights business, says Eveready India

We expect flashlights to grow at about 6-7 percent in volume terms and margins would be back to 11-12 percent which had seen a drop last year, said Amritanshu Khaitan, MD, Eveready India.

He further said that flashlights business impacted last year due to goods and services tax (GST) rates going up.

Khaitan said that zinc is a key raw material in the battery segment. It forms about 15 percent of the cost of goods sold and 30 percent of the cost of production.

“The kind of zinc prices dropping trend which we have seen in the last few days should help improve margins of the battery business in Q2 and going forward because of the inventory which we carry is about 1 month, so with a lag we should see the benefit of this coming through,” he added.

Taking about business, Khaitan said, “Battery business in the country is growing at about 6-7 percent. There is dumping taking place from China. Unfortunately no anti-dumping duties were imposed while we had appealed to the government that it is fair for duties to be imposed.”