"The bottomline for the company was strong despite Goods and Service Tax (GST) and demonetisation," said Sunil D'Souza, Managing Director, Whirlpool.

Whirlpool reported a largely in-line set of fourth quarter earnings with strong topline growth but margins disappointed a tad bit.

The year-on-year (YoY) revenues for the fourth quarter were up at Rs 1,257 crore versus Rs 1,114 crore. The YoY EBITDA was up 11% at Rs 140 crore versus Rs 126 crore but margins were down a bit at 11.1% as compared to 11.3%.

He said, going forward the costs are expected to rise further on account of rise in commodity prices like crude etc., which in turn will impact prices and they will also start to move up.

Cost pressures are mounting both in terms of crude and currency, he said, adding that they will not look at gaining volumes at the cost of margins.

However, industry may look at pricing its products higher.

First Published:May 9, 2018 12:16 PM IST