BENGALURU: Hawkins Cookers Limited reported a 30.9 per cent increase in its advertisement expense in FY-2015 (year ended 31 March, 2015, current year) to Rs 20.99 crore (4.1 per cent of Total Income from Operations or TIO) as compared to the Rs 16.04 crore (3.5 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014. The company’s ad expense in Q4-2015 at Rs 4.64 crore (three per cent of TIO) was 33.9 per cent more than the Rs 3.46 crore (2.4 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014, but was almost half (down 49.9 per cent) the Rs 9.27 crore in Q3-2015.

Note: 100,00,000 = 100 Lakhs = 10 million = 1 crore

Hawkins marketing or advertisement and sales promotion spends (ASP) in this report comprises advertisement expenses and discounts, on the assumption that these are some of the tools adopted by the company.

The company’s ASP in FY-2015 at Rs 66.81 crore (13 per cent of TIO) was 18.1 per cent more than the Rs 56.57 crore (12.4 per cent of TIO) in the previous fiscal. ASP in Q4-205 at Rs 20.58 crore (13.2 per cent of TIO) was 17.3 per cent more than the Rs 17.55 crore (12.4 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2014 but was 44 per cent lower than the Rs 36.78 crore (32.7 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter.

Over a 12 quarter period starting Q1-2013, Hawkins ASP shows a linear increasing trend in absolute rupees as well as in terms of percentage of TIO. Please refer to Figures 1 and 1A below. Even if one were to remove an outlying number such as 32.7 per cent of TIO in Q3-2015, ASP still shows an increasing linear trend in terms of percentage of TIO.

The company’s highest ASP during the period under consideration was in Q3-2015, both in absolute rupees as well in terms of percentage of TIO at Rs 36.78 crore and 32.7 per cent of TIO respectively. It is quite obvious that when the company increases its discounts, it reduces its ad spends, except in the case of Q3-2015, where both discounts and ad spends increased in terms of percentage of TIO and in the current quarter where there was decline of discounts and ad spends in terms of percentage of TIO.

In general, ad percentage of ASP in Q1 and Q3 seems to peak, while in Q2 and Q4, it is a trough, with discounts showing the reverse behaviour. However, in no case during the twelve quarter period under consideration has the ad spend exceeded the amount of discounts offered by the company. 

From Fig A1 below, it is obvious that the company’s marketing strategy is more skewed towards discounts when compared to ad spends. During the period under consideration, discounts in terms of percentage of ASP shows a linear increasing trend, while ad spends in terms of ASP show a linear declining trend. The highest advertisement spend by the company in absolute rupees was in Q3-2015 at Rs 9.27 crore (8.2 per cent of TIO, 25.2 per cent of ASP), during which the corresponding discount at Rs 27.51 crore constituted 74.8 per cent of ASP and 24.4 per cent of TIO.

The highest ad spends by the company during the period under consideration was Q3-2014 at 49.3 per cent of ASP, 7.8 per cent of TIO at Rs 8.67 crore. During the same period, the company offered discount of Rs 8.90 crore at 50.7 per cent of ASP and eight per cent of TIO. The lowest ad spend in the period under consideration was in Q4-2013 at Rs 0.351 crore (2.9 per cent of ASP, 0.3 per cent of TIO).

The lowest ASP in absolute rupees during the period under consideration was in Q1-2015 at Rs 8.44 crore (11.2 per cent of TIO). The lowest ASP during the same period under consideration in terms of percentage of TIo was in Q4-2013 at 9.7 per cent at Rs 11.97 crore.

Please refer to Fig B below. The company’s TIO in FY-2015 at Rs 514.50 crore was 12.6 per cent more than the Rs 457.08 crore in FY-2014.Hawkins TIO in Q4-2015 at 156.27 crore was 10.2 per cent more than the 141.87 crore in Q4-204 and 38.9 per cent more than the Rs 115.53 crore in Q3-2015. During the period under consideration, TIO shows a linear increasing trend as is evident from the dotted green line.

Hawkins PAT in FY-2015 at Rs 32.12 crore (6.2 per cent of TIO) declined 16.1 per cent from Rs 38.38 crore (8.4 per cent of TIO) in the previous year. PAT in Q4-2015 at Rs 9.65 crore (6.2 per cent of TIO) was 26.5 per cent lower than the Rs 13.13 crore (9.3 per cent of TIO) in the corresponding year ago quarter, but more than three times (3.14 times) the PAT of Rs 3.07 crore (2.7 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2015.

During the 12 quarter period under consideration, PAT in absolute rupees shows an increasing trend, while in terms of percentage of TIO, it shows a declining trend. However, the PAT numbers in terms of percentage of TIO for Q3-2015 (2.9 per cent of TIO) and Q3-2014 (5.5 per cent of TIO) are actually outliers-if one were to neglect the impact of these numbers, PAT in terms of percentage of TIO also shows an increasing linear trend.