Shares of United Breweries (UBL) touched a 52-week low of Rs 1,388.30 in intraday trade on Monday after falling 1% on the BSE. Shares of the brewery and distillery company have fallen 17% over the past three months on margin concerns. That compares with a 1.5% drop in the S&P BSE Sensex over the same period.

In the October-Dec quarter (Q3FY23), UBL’s Ebitda was 4.5%, dragged down by a sharp rise in material costs, a combination of weak conditions, and a path to market Changes in Tamil Nadu (TN) and the impact of changes in Delhi’s GST policy.

While the beer giant’s sales rose 2% year-over-year in the quarter, they fell 4% sequentially. The growth in Q3FY22 was driven by volume growth of 4%, partially offset by a weaker product mix. However, volume growth would have been in the high single digits if there were no changes to the route to market in Tamil Nadu.

UBL said that while inflationary pressures on costs are likely to persist in the short term, the company remains optimistic about the long-term growth of the industry, driven by an increasingly prosperous, younger population and changing consumer trends going premiumisation.