Engro Foods Limited has announced a loss of Rs145.225 million, translating into the loss per share (LPS) of 19 paisas for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 as compared to the profit of Rs853.273 million and earnings per share (EPS) of Rs1.11 during the same period of the last year, a bourse filing said on Friday.

Net sales for the quarter stood at Rs9.327 billion, down 18.7 percent as compared to the sales revenue of Rs11.464 billion in the corresponding period of the last year.

Nabeel Khursheed at Topline Securities said that the company has been facing fierce competition from new entrants in tea-whitening category, which had affected the sales of Engro Foods’ flag ship tea-whitener ‘Tarang’.

“Although the company recently has come up with promotional campaigns to boost its market share in the tea-whitening category, we believe this did not bear much fruit.”

For the half-year ended June 30, 2017, Engro Foods posted a profit of Rs185.594 million and EPS of Rs0.24 as against the profit of Rs1.96 billion and EPS of Rs2.56 in the corresponding period of the last year.

The company did not announce any payouts along with the corporate announcement. The company’s scrip hit its lower price circuit on Friday after the earnings disappointed the market.