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New Delhi: The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India on Monday said its net profit surged nearly three-fold to Rs 670.23 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 on account of sales effort especially in rural areas, cost reduction initiatives and positive impact of foreign exchange.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 227.45 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
"This growth was achieved on the back of focused sales efforts, especially in the rural areas, proper product planning, cost reduction initiatives and gain from rupee depreciation," MSI Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa told reporters here.
The company also benefited from unusually low levels of profit in the second quarter of last year (July-September 2012) owing to labour problems in Manesar.
Higher localisation and cost reduction initiatives by the company also contributed significantly to bottom line growth during the second quarter.
"The overall impact of forex gain was Rs 164 crore during the quarter compared to the year ago quarter" MSI Chief Financial Officer Ajay Seth said.
The company's net sales during the quarter under review stood at Rs 10,211.83 crore as against Rs 8,070.11 crore in the same period a year ago.
Ayukawa, however, said the market continues to be difficult due to slow economic growth, high fuel cost and inflation.
Commenting on the outlook for the remaining part of the fiscal, Ayukawa said: "Economic scenario continues to be uncertain and we have to rely on our effort to increase sales...we will start feeling the impact of rupee depreciation in the later quarters and our target is to sell more than what we sold last year".
In terms of volumes, sales were up by 19.6 per cent in the second quarter to 2,75,586 units compared 2,30,376 in the year-ago period.
