Pre-tax profit stood at Rs 41.85 crore in Q4 December 2021 as against pre-tax loss of Rs 18.86 crore in Q4 December 2020. EBITDA increased 20.5% to Rs 207.57 crore in Q4 CY 2021 from Rs 172.23 crore.

Despite being a seasonally weak quarter, the company reported a positive PAT led by improvement in profitability of international operations and lower financing cost. Finance cost in Q4 CY 2021 declined by 39.8% owing to lower average cost of borrowing.

For CY 2021, the company's PAT increased by 108.8% to Rs 746.05 crore from Rs 357.27 crore. Revenue from operations (net of excise/GST) grew 36.8% YoY to Rs 8823.23 crore as compared to Rs 6450.14 crore as the growth momentum sustained throughout the year except for the peak season of May'21 owing to the second wave of Covid-19.

EBITDA improved by 37.7% to Rs 1654.65 crore from Rs 1201.87 crore. Despite decline in gross margins during the year, the company was able to marginally improve its EBITDA margin to 18.8% due to higher operating leverage driven by strong volume growth.

Commenting on the performance for Q4 & CY 2021 Ravi Jaipuria, chairman, Varun Beverages said, "We have ended the year on a strong and resilient note, delivering a top line growth of 37% in the year. The performance was driven by a robust volume growth of 34%. While the short-term disruptions due to the second wave of the pandemic severely impacted our domestic business in the seasonally strong month of May, our team was able to handle and mitigate the impact to a large extent based on learnings from last year. As restrictions started easing in the domestic market, we saw a fast recovery in demand, that brought back the growth momentum with which we started the year. Improved offtake across our international territories further aided growth during the year.

We continue to sustain cost-optimisation measures that we had undertaken during the pandemic period. Despite decline in our gross margins due to higher pet prices, our cost optimization measures in combination, with a higher operating leverage on the back of strong volume growth has translated to enhanced operating performance in 2021. I am also pleased to share that even in a seasonally soft quarter we have reported profits for the first time ever in Q4 on account of these measures, increased operating leverage, improvement in profitability of international operations and lower financing cost. Financing cost came down significantly during the year led by lowering of average cost of borrowing. For the full year our PAT grew by 109% because of these measures and higher volume growth.

On the whole, we have delivered an encouraging performance during the year. The third wave of Covid has not had any significant impact on our business and we will continue to further strengthen our distribution in under-penetrated territories, enhancing volumes, and increasing our market share. We are confident of delivering a much stronger performance going forward."

Varun Beverages is a key player in beverage industry and one of the largest franchisee of PepsiCo in the world (outside USA). The company produces and distributes a wide range of carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), as well as a large selection of non-carbonated beverages (NCBs), including packaged drinking water sold under trademarks owned by PepsiCo.

As on date, Varun Beverages has been granted franchises for various PepsiCo products across 27 States and 7 Union Territories in India. India is the largest market and contributed ~75% of revenues from operations (net) in Fiscal 2021. VBL has also been granted the franchise for various PepsiCo products for the territories of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Shares of Varun Beverages were down 1.52% at Rs 924.50 on the BSE.