New Delhi: One of India’s largest automakers, Maruti Suzuki India, announced its Q3 earnings on Wednesday. The results underscored increased sales promotion efforts and rising advertising expenses.
As per the filings by MSIL, the sales promotion expense was higher by 0.2% on-quarter, with discounts averaging at Rs 31,000. Parallel to this, the advertising expenses too grew this quarter, affecting the operating margin by 0.4% on-quarter.
On the back of seasonality and the new model launches - Dzire and e-Vitara - the upticks in sales promotion and AdEx were registered as laggards for the company’s profits.
Despite the declared drags, the company announced that the consolidated net profit increased by 16% to Rs 3,727 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2024. Total revenue from operations grew to Rs 38,764 crore in the third quarter compared to Rs 33,513 crore in the year-ago period.
During the investors' conference call, the company noted, “Till the first half of this fiscal, the growth in retail sales was just about 0.4% over the same period the previous year. Owing to healthy retail sales in Q3, the cumulative growth in retail sales in the first nine months of this fiscal has improved to 3.5% over the same period the previous year.”
The company attributes this healthy growth to the “increased efforts to reach out to customers.”
With achieving the “highest ever retail sales” in the third quarter, Maruti Suzuki ended Q3 with a net stock of only about nine days, the company said.
In addition, the company’s exports showed robust growth as well. The car manufacturer, during the investor’s call, revealed that nearly 49% share of India’s total passenger vehicle exports in Q3FY25 was commanded by Maruti Suzuki.