Eveready Industries India Ltd. (EIIL), a household name in batteries and flashlights, with an emerging presence in lighting, has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended March 31, 2024.

Financial Overview:
Revenue: Revenue was flat for the year and the quarter due to weak rural demand affecting offtakes of batteries and flashlights, and industry‐wide price deflation in the lighting segment due to players passing on manufacturing efficiencies to the market. Revenues were also impacted due to the challenges from a revamped route‐to‐market (RTM) improvement initiative, which are being resolved. That said, alkaline batteries-maintained month‐on‐month growth momentum following the introduction of the new ‘Ultima’ range of batteries. So, did the new range of rechargeable flashlights, despite the overall category being affected by continuing de‐growth of the traditional battery-operated flashlights. Alternative trad channels beyond general trade exhibited significant enhancement across all product categories.
EBITDA: Favourable raw material pricing and cost conservation efforts allowed the company to report significantly higher level of EBIDTA despite the flat turnover. This also came on the back of persisting with higher A&P spends aimed at engaging closely with the consumers after remaining absent in this area for a long period of time.
Profit After Tax: PAT stood higher in‐line with strong operating performance during the quarter and full year FY2024.
Commenting on the performance, Mr. Suvamoy Saha, Managing Director at Eveready Industries India Ltd., said: “We are glad to have ended the fiscal year 2024 on a robust note, achieving 27% and 232% growth in EBITDA and PAT respectively. This reflects our overall initiatives on driving premiumization, continuous innovation and efficiency enhancements. Revenue on the other hand remained moderated primarily due to weak rural demand impacting batteries and flashlights, and indutry‐wide price deflation affecting the lighting segment. We believe this to be a temporary phenomenon and we remain optimistic that FY25 will see a turn around. Similarly, we maintain that while the transformation to a revamped RTM has caused ustemporary pain, it has been a good initiative to modernise the company and it will pay rich dividends in the times to come.
Our initiatives beyond the traditional strength areas, for example, with the new range of ‘Ultima’ alkaline batteries, rechrageable flashlights and efforts on leveraging alternative channels, brought forth very encouraging results. Also, it is very encouraging to us that the battery segment (traditional batteries included) continued to hold on to a 53% plus market share. As for the coming times, we see each of our business categories, batteries, flashlights and lighting to provide the company with a strong growth momentum aided by the strong consumer franchise we have built up over the years offering quality products and services addressing consumer needs.”

Key developments:
1. Eveready announced its collaboration with Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic gold medallist as its new brand ambassador.

2. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for Eveready as it seeks to strengthen its
commitment towards excellence and innovation via the launch of the new ‘Ultima Pro and Ultima’ branding.
3. Launched ‘Khelenge to Sikhenge’ campaign in collaboration with Neeraj Chopra.