BENGALURU: Evaporative air cooler manufacturer, Symphony, spent Rs 19.09 crore (16.42 per cent of Income from Operations or Inc from Ops) towards selling and distribution expenses (Sel & Dist Exp) in Q4-2014, almost the same as the Rs 19.14 crore (16.05 per cent of Inc from Ops) in Q3-2014. Y-o-y, Symphony’s Sel & Dist Exp in Q4-2014 increased 25.59 per cent from Rs.15.2 crores (17.31 per cent of Inc from Ops) in Q4-2013.

Please note that (1) The company’s accounting year ends on 30 June every year, but in keeping with the convention in India, quarter ended 30 June has been referred to as Q1, quarter ended 30 September as Q2, quarter ended 31 December as Q3 and quarter ended 31 March as Q4 of each respective year in this report.

(2) 100,00,000=100 Lakh = 1 crore

(3) All trends mentioned in this report are linear trends based on data across nine quarters starting Q4-2012 and ending Q4-2014 and across FY-2011 to FY-2013.

In its  corporate presentation, Symphony says that it incurs the highest ad spends in the air cooler category in India and that it has been advertising through television, radio, print, BTL since 1990 and on the internet since 2010. Fig 1 below indicates that the company’s Sel & Dist Exp shows a downward trend as percentage of Inc from Ops across nine quarters starting Q4-2012 and ending Q4-2014.

However, in terms of absolute value, with the increase in Inc from Ops across their nine quarters, the trend towards higher spends in absolute value is upwards.

Across three financial years starting FY-2011 to FY-2013, Sel & Dist Exp for Symphony show as upward trend both in absolute rupees as well as Sel & Dist Exp as percentage of Inc from Ops, as is evident from Fig 1A below. Across the nine quarters under consideration, Symphony’s average Sel & Dist Exp is 18 per cent of Inc from Ops, so Q3-2014 and Q4-2014 spends are definitely  below par. However, the company says that its business is seasonal and maybe based on the numbers reported for Q1 -2014 and Q4-2014, a splurge in Sel & Dist Exp could happen in Q1-2015.

Symphony’s Inc from Ops as well as PAT show as upward trend across the 9 quarters in question as is evident from Fig 2 below.