BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd reported a dip in quarterly sales on Wednesday, as a pandemic-driven demand for healthcare products waned with new COVID cases dropping across the country.
The company said sale of its products, ranging from Vicks inhaler to Whisper sanitary napkin, fell about 1% to 8.81 billion rupees ($107.73 million) in the January-March quarter.
Sales surge in the comparable quarter a year earlier was Omicron-driven, the company said in an exchange filing, as it benefited from demand for its healthcare products, including Vicks VapoRub and throat drops, when cases were rising.
The World Health Organization last week ended the global emergency status for COVID-19 more than three years after its original declaration.
It was not clear how much of the company’s revenue came from its healthcare products.
Elevated inflation has also been a dampener on consumer demand during the quarter, as India’s annual retail inflation spiked in January, before easing in the next two months, albeit at relatively elevated levels.
P&G Hygiene and Health Care said its performance was “resilient” despite a “challenging operating environment”.
Its profit rose to 1.65 billion rupees from 1.03 billion rupees a year earlier. It benefited from a gain of 575 million rupees on account of certain tax adjustments.
The company’s shares have fallen about 6% so far this year.
Meanwhile, consumer goods and health supplements maker Dabur India Ltd saw its quarterly margins squeezed by discounts and higher material costs.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Dimpal Gulwani in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)
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