Kolkata, Aug 6 (IANS): In face of higher tax provision and expanding expenses, textile firm Arvind Ltd on Tuesday said its net consolidated profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal fell by nearly 36 percent at Rs.58.04 crore as against Rs.90.51 crore in the same period last year.

Net consolidated revenue of the firm increased moderately by 5.89 percent at Rs.1,876.93 crore during the period under review as against Rs.1,772.55 crore during the same period last year.

However, expenses soared by 7.17 percent in the same period thereby pulling down the gross profit. They stood at Rs.1,713.14 crore compared to Rs.1,598.49 crore in the year-ago period.

In the review period, the firm has paid Rs. 3 crore as compensation to workers for retrenchment.

Although its textiles business registered a meager 1.25 percent increase in its earnings, profitability from this business segment grew from Rs.189.86 crore in the first quarter of 2014-15 to Rs.200.56 crore now.

However, it incurred losses from its other business verticals.

Even though its brand and retail division grew its revenue by 13.87 percent at Rs.527.06 crore during the fist quarter of the current fiscal, its losses from the segment widened to Rs.7.05 crore as against the loss of Rs.2.02 crore in the year-ago period.

"The performance of the company for the quarter ending June 30, 2015 is in line with our expectation; high growth in brands and retail business with movement towards profitability and steady growth in textiles business with improvement in bottomline, said company director and CFO Jayesh Shah in a statement.