BENGALURU:  Indian pressure cooker manufacturer Hawkins Cookers Limited (Hawkins) spent Rs 8.67 core towards advertising (ad spend) in Q3-2014. The company discloses its discount numbers (Discount), and so the sum of Ad Exp and Discount has been termed as Advertisement and Sales Promotion (ASP) in this report. (Note : Rs.1 crore = Rs.100 Lakhs = Rs.10 million = Rs.100,00,000).

Hawkins Q3-2014 Ad and ASP numbers are the highest reported by the company in terms of value as well as percentage of Net Total Income from Operations (Op Inc) over seven quarters starting Q1-2013 till Q3-2014. In Q3-2014, the company’s ASP at Rs.17.57 crore was 15.77 per cent of Op Inc while Ad exp was 49.34 per cent of ASP.

Correspondingly, the Discount at 50.66 per cent of ASP was the lowest during the seven quarters. While in value terms, all the three spends show upwards linear trend, in terms of percentage of ASP, Discount shows a decreasing linear trend, while Ad Exp shows an increasing linear trend. Generally over the seven quarters, the company’s Ad Exp percentage of ASP has been bottoming out during every alternate quarter, while its Discount has been peaking in that quarter. The company has been resorting to higher discounting every alternate quarter while reducing Ad Exp in that quarter.

The company’s lowest Ad Spend has been in Q4-2013 at Rs.0.351 crore (2.93 per cent of ASP), while in percentage terms it was in Q2-2013 at 2.83 per cent of ASP (Rs.0.372 crore).  Going by the company’s historical figures, Q4-2014 Ad Spend should be low, with the company resorting to higher Discount to grab more financial year end business and profits. Please refer to figures A and B below.

Hawkins lowest ASP spend in Re value terms has been Rs.8.44 crore (11.21 per cent of Op Inc) in Q1-2014, while the lowest ASP in terms of percentage of Op Inc has been 9.69 per cent (Rs.11.967 crore) in Q4-2013.

Hawkins PAT and ASP have both shown linear upwards trend. Maximum PAT in terms of percentage of Op Inc has been 10.7 per cent in Q2-2014 as well as in terms of Re value at Rs.13.745 cores, while the minimum PAT during the seven quarters has been 6.36 per cent (Rs.5.244 crore) percent of Op Inc in Q1-2013, and the minimum PAT in value terms at Rs.4.891 crore (6.49 per cent of Op Inc) in Q1-2014. Please refer to Figure C below.

In Q2-2014, Hawkins reported its highest Op Inc over the seven quarters under consideration at Rs.128.46 crore with a 70.59 per cent Q-o-q growth over Q1-2014, the immediate trailing quarter. The sharpest Q-o-q percentage change as drop in Op Inc was in Q1-2014 as compared to Q4-2013, with (-39.05 per cent)and the lowest Op Inc of Rs.75.305 crore. Please refer to Figures D and E below.