Bangas profit drops 95% in H1

Bangas, which manufactures several popular brands of biscuits – such as Pineapple, Lexus and Grand Choice Salted Biscuits – has reported a 95% year-on-year decline in profit in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

However, the good news is that the company has returned to profit in the second quarter after incurring losses in the first quarter of the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

In the October-December quarter, Bangas posted a 45% drop in profit compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.

In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the company reported a 70% year-on-year decline in profit.

Meanwhile, Olympic, another biscuit manufacturing giant, has reported a continued profit on the back of growing demand for biscuit products after the closure of hotels and restaurants because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

In the second quarter of the current fiscal year, Olympic reported a 15.57% year-on-year increase in sales, which was 16% in the first two quarters. It reported a 2% growth in profit.

On Tuesday, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) revealed that the company reported a profit of Tk13.72 lakh and its earnings per share (EPS) stood at Tk0.18 in the second quarter.

In the same period of the previous fiscal year, the profit was Tk25.16 lakh and the EPS stood at Tk0.33.

In the July-December period, the company posted a Tk2.28 lakh in profit and EPS was Tk0.03, down from Tk43.46 lakh and Tk0.57, respectively, in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Company Secretary (Current Charge) of Bangas Md Ekramul Haque told The Business Standard, "We are working to make the company's business better in the future. We hope the shareholders will get good feedback."

When questioned about the reasons behind a big plunge in profit in the first half of the current fiscal year, he said that he just took charge a few days ago and so cannot say the reasons.

"But, we are now working to make the condition of the company better," he added.