Olympic to retool for cost reduction

Olympic Industries Limited, one of the leading biscuit manufacturers of the country, is going to import new machinery and spares from China, with an aim to reduce its packaging cost.

The company has decided to import the new machinery, to produce PET Sheet and PET Tray for packaging of its biscuits and confectionary items, spending Tk4.93 crore from own sources. At present, the company imports those sheets and trays.

Sources from the company hoped that producing the sheets and trays at home would drastically reduce the packaging cost of biscuits and other confectionary items.

In this regard, Olympic Industries Limited Secretary Md Nazim Uddin told The Business Standard, "Sometimes the products we get from our foreign suppliers are not up to the quality. As a result, we face problems for assuring quality products to our customers."

He said producing the sheets and trays at home would also reduce the packaging cost as well as ensuring quality products.

According to annual report, the company's sales jumped by 14% in the first three quarters of 2019-20 fiscal year, but the growth slowed down at the end of the third quarter (January-March, 2020) due to countrywide general holidays declared by the government at the end of March to curb coronavirus spread.

According to the report, the company sold biscuits worth Tk1196.11 crore during the time which was Tk1,052 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Its net profit also increased by 11% compared to the three quarters of the previous fiscal, standing at Tk154.49 crore while its earnings per share was Tk7.73.

Meanwhile, in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, the total sales of the company stood at Tk395.67 crore, which is 11% higher than that of the previous year when net profit was Tk49.40 crore, and earnings per share was Tk2.47.

The company gave a 50% cash dividend to its shareholders as of June 2019. 

Olympic's shares closed at Tk164 each on Monday on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The company entered the stock market in 1989 and its current paid-up capital is Tk199.94 crore.

Sponsor directors hold 27.73%, institutions 16.97%, foreign investors 39.73% and general investors hold 15.57% shares of the company respectively.