Bosch has ensured a healthy balance sheet and cash flow during the pandemic by following a “very tight working capital and cost management”, said managing director Soumitra Bhattacharya, who is also the president of the Bosch India group.
Over 2,000 blue collar workers have taken voluntary retirement from the company in 2020-21. Bosch now has 7,500 associates against 10,000 earlier. The company, Bhattacharya said, has offered the retiring associates the best packages for which it had set aside Rs 1,400 crore.
On the third-quarter results, Bhattacharya told The Telegraph: “We are neither in euphoria nor in great depression. It is better to look at how we are getting ready.”
He said the mobility market was up 17 per cent during the quarter and Bosch Mobility was up 35 per cent.
Operating profit EBIT at Rs 261 crore is 24 per cent over the previous year, which Bhattacharya said was decent.
“We have been doing a 3R strategy of restructuring, reskilling, and redeployment and other transformational projects. To support this, an additional amount of Rs 146.6 crores has been provided and disclosed as an exceptional item for the quarter ended December 31, 2020.
Last quarter was the final tranche of exceptional items of this Rs 147 crore.
On the industry recovery, Bhattacharya said: “It’s been a mixed bag. Passenger cars had its peak in 2018-19 at 4 million plus. We thought in May it would be 2 million this fiscal, while it is 2.9 million. So, it’s a good recovery but we are not yet there at 2018-19 figures.”
