Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Huhtamaki India Limited Q3 CY2025 earnings conference call hosted by ICICI Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this call is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Abhijita Chakraborty from ICICI Securities. Thank you and over to you.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining on Huhtamaki India Limited Q3 CY2025 results conference call. We have Huhtamaki India Limited management on call, represented by Mr. Dhananjay Salunkhe, Managing Director, and Mr. Jagdish Agarwal, Executive Director and CFO. I would like to invite Mr. Dhananjay to initiate with opening remarks, post which we will have the Q&A session. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Greetings, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. This is our continuous endeavor to engage with the investor community, and we continue to do that. I could see the optimism today that we have a call immediately after the announcement of the results, and I could see that many of you have joined. Let me start with, first of all, wishing every one of you a very happy Diwali, the festival which is considered of lights and the happiness, which is starting next week. Happy Diwali from our side to everyone in advance. Coming to the business presentation, I also would like to start with our safe harbor statement that whatever we discuss today is not going to be impactful for any future performance of the company.
With this, let me give a quick brief about the performance of our company for the last quarter, that is quarter three, 2025. You would have seen also from the announcement that we continue to have a volume which is on the lower side. However, there is a significant increase in the margins as compared to previous year as well as previous quarter, which is largely supported by the favorable sales mix and the excellent work being done in the operations side on the productivity and efficiency improvements. All in all, while the net sales is slightly lower year on year, we are seeing now momentum building up due to various factors quarter on quarter. Overall, EBITDA is having a very good, strong momentum as compared to previous year as well as quarter on quarter.
My co-pilot, Jagdish, will definitely explain it in the future slides, how we are doing that in a sequential basis. Both EBITDA and good margin improvement is already seen reflected into the profit before tax as well as the EPS. With this, I would like to hand over to Jagdish, our CFO and ED, for a detailed discussion.
Thank you, Dhananjay. Good evening, everyone. Let me begin by extending my warm wishes to everyone on this call for a safe and joyful Diwali, which we celebrate next week. As a festival of lights, Diwali symbolizes hope, prosperity, and happiness. I hope it brings all of that and more to you and your loved ones. As always, I'm pleased to walk you through the company's financial performance for the quarter and nine months ended September 2025, along with some insights into how we have fared over the last nine months. When I talk about volume, volume for the quarter remained broadly stable compared to the preceding quarter, though declined relative to the same quarter last year. A similar downward trend is observed in the nine-month period ended September 2025, with volumes lower than the corresponding period in 2024.
Revenue for Q3 2025 is to that of INR 6 billion, marking a 4.7% decline compared to INR 6.3 billion in Q3 2024. However, it reflects a modest growth of 2.2% over the INR 5.9 billion reported in Q2 2025. For the nine-month period ended September 2025, revenue totaled at INR 17.9 billion, down by 3.2% from INR 18.5 billion in the same period last year. Now, talking about profit before tax for the quarter and before exceptional items, it surged to INR 492 million, a three-and-a-half times increase of around INR 143 million in Q3 2024. Compared to Q2 2025, in that we've reported a PBT of INR 331 million, it rose by approximately 50%. That's a very, I'd say, a strong performance of what we have seen in the last many quarters.
Even if you look at the EBIT percentage, which is into slide number seven, which we have uploaded on our website for investor presentation, if you look at the sequential EBIT for the last five quarters, 3% EBIT we have in Q3 2024, again, 3% we have in Q4 2024, 6.3% we have in the first quarter of this year, which is a March quarter, 6.1% we have in June quarter, and in September quarter, we have reported 8.6%. It is a very good story if you look at it from that. Probably this is the first quarter in September in the last so many quarters where our EBITDA is more than 10%. To sum up our financial performance so far this year, although our overall volumes are lower compared to last year, the impact on revenue has been minimal.
Not directly proportional, our strategic decisions, choosing way to play, and optimizing our product and customer mix are showing strong results, with a steady improvement in profitability quarter after quarter. We are focused on a high-quality business and refining our product and customer portfolio to support profitable growth. On the manufacturing front, our long-term efforts to implement world-class operations are paying off. We have seen real improvements across our sites with better efficiency, reduced cost, and tighter control on overheads. We've also benefited from the global expertise of Huhtamaki's plant, helping us enhance our process further. The results speak for themselves, and this progress is the dedication and hard work by the entire team. On the regulatory side, a recent market report suggests that upcoming GST reforms could boost growth for FMCG companies.
For Huhtamaki India Limited, there are no changes in GST rates on the supply side, only a minor change on the procurement side. Moving to other financial aspects, the finance costs remain stable throughout 2025, consistent with the underlying debt levels. Surplus cash was deployed into bank deposits and mutual funds, generating an average yield exceeding 6%. Net profit for the quarter after exceptional items and income tax is to that of INR 368 million compared to INR 117 million in Q3 2024 and INR 249 million in Q2 of 2025. Earnings per share for the quarter post-exceptional items is 4.87. For the nine months we had entered September 2025, net profit after exceptional items and income tax was INR 879 million, up from INR 763 million in the same period last year.
It is important to note that in 2024, figure included INR 227 million net of tax as an exceptional income from the sale of two land parcels in Thane. EPS for the nine-month period is to that of INR 11.63. Regarding the debt and liquidity position, the debt-liquidity ratio remains stable with an ECB of INR 1 billion being the only debt in the books. Liquidity continues to be strong, supported by substantial unutilized credit lines and minimal exposure. The working capital position also remains steady with negligible movement compared to prior periods. Before I close, I want to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation to all our stakeholders for the trust and support you have extended to me over the past few years.
I was entrusted with the responsibility of leading Huhtamaki India Limited's financial performance during a challenging period in early 2022, and I'm proud of the progress we have made together. As many of you may know, I'll be stepping down from my role towards the end of the next month. It has been an honor to serve as CFO during a time of significant change and growth. I leave confident in the company's future. I'm confident in the company's future. Huhtamaki India Limited is well-positioned to scale new heights, guided by a dynamic leadership team and supported by a strong talent pool across all levels. I wish Huhtamaki India Limited continued success and sustained growth in the years ahead. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jagdish.
I think we have been together the last 12 quarters, and you have been, as I said, co-piloting the journey together, and you are going to be sorely missed in this journey. Let me also quickly touch on the sustainability part and how we are going there. Apart from the financial performance, I think one of the also important milestones we saw in quarter three of this year was that quarter three was an incident-free quarter for us. We call it a golden quarter, where I'm really proud that we do not have any lost time incident in the last preceding 90 days in any of our sites. As you know, we have nine locations and 10 sites and three offices. We are really going in the right direction when it comes to safety in our premises, and we want to continue on the same.
We also continue to make progress on renewable energy. We are continuously making progress on the reduction of water consumption and doing the best possible actions to support the communities where we operate. Overall, there is good progress in the last quarter in all these areas which are also important from a mother earth point of view. Thank you. Now I will hand it over back to the moderator to open it for questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. In order to ensure that management is able to answer queries from all participants, kindly restrict your questions to two at a time. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take our first question from the line of Aditya Kedman from Smith's Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Sir, when we look at the overall flexible packaging industry that is growing at around 11%, 12%, I believe out of this somewhere 9%, 10% should be the volume growth also. Why is Huhtamaki India Limited not getting that volume growth? We are, again, I think compared to last year, we are flattish only in terms of volume. Like for CY2025, we will be ending, I think, at the flattish volume levels. What is that thing? Why are we not getting volume growth? First, second, sir, you had mentioned that this quarter there was a sales improvement. This Blue Loop brand earlier, like what was the share in the last quarter of that fixed sale and what is the current share?
A good question. I think we have two questions in one. First of all, you would have read the commentary about the flexible volume growth, which is like a higher single digit elsewhere. If you also go to the next level of data, what you will observe is that growth is coming in from a, I would say, duality. Duality is basically there is a small regional players are growing faster than the large, either multinational or Indian players. Volume growth is at a, I would say, very low-priced product. That is where a lot of commoditization is there. When it comes to what we are or we offer and what is our focus area, it is basically a very where we want to play. That is where we are focusing on. Yes, there is a short-term challenge in terms of apple-to-apple volume growth.
At the same time, if you look at our overall product mix and the overall margin management, I think that is something which we are currently focusing on. Of course, there is a room there. The other side, you also asked about the Blue Loop contributions. I think as we continue to make good progress on that, at the same time, percentage-wise, we would say that it's somewhere still hovering about 27% to 30% range. Here, I would also like to inform you that when we make change towards the Blue Loop brand, many times it's going to be a replacement volume of some existing recyclable product or new. We do not see immediate uptake in terms of the volumes coming in from a Blue Loop surpassing the 30% mark immediately. I think that's what we are striving together with our customers.
Got it. Sir, the sequential dip in your employee and other expenses, like there's a sharp dip of 15% in employee cost. I think the gross margins are largely flat only when we look on a sequential basis. What has led to this dip in your other cost?
I think during the presentation, as Jagdish Agarwal mentioned, we have been really focusing on productivity improvements and the operational efficiencies in our plants. Also, not only in our plants, but across the company. Those improvements are clearly now giving the results to us. On a, I would say, flattish volumes, we are able to actually generate better productivity.
This is a structural change. Like dip in your cost is a structural change and not a temporary phenomena that you have highlighted.
I would tend to agree with that. Structural changes are definitely there, which are basically here to stay.
Got it. Sir, just one last question. This quarter numbers, how sustainable do you feel this will be in a span of for the next two years? How sustainable these numbers are?
Look, I mean, you are into the also market, and two years is a long period. I'm not sure how can we predict two years' future because things are changing every, I would say, month. What I would say is that if you look at our past performance of the last two quarters to three quarters, I think there is a good sequential improvement. If you see last quarter and this quarter, I think you can make your own judgment about the sustainability of this performance. I would tend to say that this is really a good thought-through process where we know now where we want to play, how do we want to play, and we are really confident on that. Jagdish also has some additional comment on that.
Yeah. When we talk about like, are these structural changes or temporary? Definitely, you know what is the project which you are driving for the last one and a half year? Those are coming into a line right now. We believe that most of the programs and the cost reductions, optimizations, and all are going to remain. The question is that how we are going to focus on improving our growth on the top line as well. You know all these things can then improve even further. Our endeavor is that how we are going to sustain and improve further. That would be our endeavor on these numbers. Specifically, when you spoke about employee cost, employee cost in this quarter, we do have one-off item that because of that, there are certain reductions, but that's not a big number.
More or less, we are going to have an improved cost structure.
How much of that cost would be one-off cost?
It's around, if I have to put a number, in the range of around INR 4 to 5 crore.
4 to 5 crore. Got it. Got it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Raman KV from Sequend Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello, can you hear me, sir?
Yes, please go ahead.
My first question is with respect to the finance cost. You mentioned that when we look at your balance sheet for the quarter, profit and loss, basically, the finance cost has reduced. I just want to understand, is this because of reduction in the interest rate or is this because of reduction in debt? What are current debt and at what interest do we have?
It is a reduction into date. If you look at the last year, the start of the last year, we had a INR 2 billion ECB. Out of that, one installment of INR 1 billion, we have repaid in September 2024. In this year, started this year with a INR 1 billion ECB only. It is a reduction into that date only.
That is INR 1 billion. Is this in rupees or?
1 billion. INR 1 billion repaid. Total INR 2 billion was there last year. INR 1 billion was repaid into September 2024. Now we have outstanding of INR 1 billion. INR 100 crores. INR 100 crores is outstanding as of date.
Okay. Sir, my second question is with respect to the volumes. Can you give us any volume figure?
Generally, we don't discuss very specifically the volume and all, but definitely, we had some reductions or drop into the volume. Sometimes we are just choosing the right mix and the right business also to ensure that we don't compromise on the bottom line. Sometimes it's a conscious call and sometimes, like Dhananjay explained, that if you look at even competitions, what kind of players, especially digital players and small players, are even in FMCG space, if you look at small players are having a higher growth compared to the big biggies and all. That reflects into a flexible company as well. I think we are going very cautiously and very conscious calls which we are choosing to have a right mix.
My third question is with respect to the product mix, which you mentioned that the margin improvement was partly because of change in product mix. Sir, can you just explain me with respect to that? How are the margins for the sustainable packaging Blue Loop brand versus two laminates? During the quarter, how much share, how much % of the revenue was from exports, and are the exports margin better and by how much, if you can?
We will not talk specifically margins on domestic and export, but definitely, export proportion is higher in September or even in the first nine months compared to what we have in the last year. That is a healthy sign for sure. When we talk about Blue Loop, Blue Loop remains range-bound within 27% to 30% kind of a range we have. I have not seen much change in that, what it was last year, what it is in this year.
Blue Loop is 12 to 13% margin?
No, I'm not talking about margins. I'm talking about the total Blue Loop sales is between 27% to 30%. It is not changed. It is more or less similar we have in the last year as well.
In the previous quarter.
Ravan, I request you to join back the queue, please, as we have the participant data closer.
I just have a follow-up.
I just have a follow-up. I request you to join back the queue, please. Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Lakshmi Narayanan KG from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I'm inaudible. Yeah.
Yes, please go ahead.
Yeah. I just want to understand what is your client mix in terms of, you know, national firms like Unilever, then the local firms, and third is the B2C firms. The reason I'm asking is that, have you taken a call to actually exit certain categories so that you can actually have, you talked about better mix? I think it's in the context of what is your mix of revenues from the different set of people. I want to understand your exports, how the exports are growing for this year with respect to last year. I want to understand what is the mix of value-added products for the last nine months.
Okay, I think you were too fast. The last two questions I could catch. What was the first one?
The first question is you always mentioned that there is a mix of national firms like the Unilevers, etc. and then there are the where things happen by reverse auction, where the cost is actually highly controlled and our margin is a little stiff. The second category is the local firms or maybe regional firms. The third category is all the B2C firms like Papigania or Paperboards, right? If you look at the pyramid, there are these three categories of firms. Now, have you changed our revenue mix to this kind of categories and what has been our revenue mix? Is that leading to a better margin? That's my question.
Yeah. So clearly, the revenue mix has been changed. Clearly, that's your right. When you talk about the customers, typically, we don't talk about the individual customers. The stratification you shared is actually a right stratification. At the same time, it's not about, not everyone is exactly the same philosophy, right? What we do is basically we identified what are our strengths as a company and what are the solutions we have available and how we are solving those pain points of our customers with a service mentality and highest quality. That is where we call it a sweet spot. We do not really look at, oh, we want to only talk about only MNCs or large players. It's like in all the pyramids, we look forward for the opportunities and match our strengths with those opportunities. That's why the revenue mix has been improving, better.
Also, what happens is that once you identify that, then we are looking at this allocation of our resources and focused efforts on that. That is why you are able to see that there is an overall cost reduction in terms of employee cost and others and productivity. All across it benefits because you are focused, you allocate your resources on the right opportunities, and that is what customers are able to resonate and relevant, you know, see that we are the long-term partner for them. That's the overall on a revenue mix. On a value-added, so that's what value-added versus our non-value-added, of course, whatever business we do, it adds value to us. Typically, that's what we will be continuing to do. The same mid-question was on the exports.
Execution?
Yeah, exports. I think exports, from a product mix, sorry, business mix point of view, I think it's steady, slightly improving, because of various reasons. I think that is the focus area for us also, going forward, because there are certain pockets of opportunity that keep on emanating because of what's happening around the world. In the last at least a quarter and previous to that, I think we are seeing that there is a good traction on the exports sales development.
Got it. Thank you. I'll come back in a few.
Yeah.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rohan from Golden Money Investments. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Sir, I want to know about in 2025, any new products added in the Blue Loop section or the main product portfolio?
New product development is one of our key focus areas always. If I have to remember, I mean, there are so many, but I think there are good developments happening on the Blue Loop area and they're on high barrier structures. We have introduced very high barrier structures which are getting resonated in a particularly in a personal care sector. That is one. Second, I think there is also a very good strong introduction of products in a paper-based. While we do not have a facility to do paper coating, etc., we have other locations who have expertise in that. We coordinate with them and then have introduced certain paper-based products this quarter. These also are getting really a good response from the customers who are conscious of this recyclability and sustainability.
Okay, sir.
Thank you.
We are through with your question. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vipul Kumar Shah from Sumangal Investments. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations for a very good set of numbers. My question is with this GST reduction, volume of FMCG companies are likely to increase. Are you seeing any early signs of that in your discussions with the clients? Some color on that will be really very helpful, sir.
Yeah. I think as you are observing the trends, we are also closely working with our customers. What we saw was the GST announcement in the first week of September, then some clarifications in the middle, and then actual implementation in the last week of September. September was kind of a bit of an uncertain month because many of the customers had to put hold on the printing, etc. I think after that bit of early uncertainty, we could see that there is good traction. Whatever our customers are informing us, we can inform you that they see a positivity on the consumption side. A second positivity, which is good news, is that even after this reduction on account of GST, the end consumer is not dropping their ticket size. What they are doing silently is basically going for a premium product.
I would say now there is an upgradation of products by consumers, which was actually a trend of downtrending in the last couple of years. I think we could see that now there is a trend that possibly might reverse to uptrending. Both these, consumption as well as premiumization, shall help the FMCG companies to really go into a growth mode, which ultimately will be helpful for the packaging companies.
From what you are seeing today, volume growth should be better in this quarter as compared to last quarter or corresponding quarter of the previous year, sir?
I would say yes.
Lastly, sir, can you comment on the margins for Blue Loop portfolio vis-à-vis the rest of the conventional portfolio? What is the difference between the margin for the two?
First of all, we do not really discuss the margin profiles at a, I would say, product mix level. That is one. Second, if you see, a huge investment has been made by Huhtamaki globally as well as in India for these recyclable products. Right now, if you see, we are working with all our customers to kind of introduce these products. At this moment, the startup cost, the startup wastages, and all other costs are at least on a very high side. That's why, and that's been absorbed by us to really make sure that we really participate in the larger cause, which is introducing the recyclable laminates in the ecosystem. At this moment, I would say, in fact, it's more challenging for us than actually making better money because we are into a transition stage.
What will be the length of this transition phase, sir?
It depends upon various factors. One of the important and key factors is basically the regulatory landscape, right? If you see with respect to the Indian regulatory landscape, I think still a lot of clarity needs to evolve as compared to the developing market or developed markets elsewhere. I think there is crystal clear clarity about how they are going to approach the recyclability or sustainability. That would be one of the important aspects, what regulations are going to come in. That would clearly decide the speed of the change.
Till now, what would be our CapEx to introduce this recyclable Blue Loop range?
I think you have to probably do this yourself by examining our previously announced results. I think you can clearly make out how much money we have invested there.
Okay, thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Harsh Shah from Medisys Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Mr. Harsh Shah.
Hello.
Please go ahead with your question.
Yeah, when can we expect any volume growth, say maybe two, three, four quarters going ahead? Can we expect volume growth going ahead from the company?
Yeah, I would say so.
Okay. In what range? Can you give a broad range?
Really, it's not difficult to give, but I think the idea is to at least grow with the industry or the market.
Okay. Okay. Understood. That would be it. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Raman KV from Sequend Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, but we can hear some background disturbance, Raman.
Hello. Is my voice clear now?
Yes, please go ahead.
Yes, sir. My question is I just want to understand the total addressable market with respect to the two products which we get. One is the Blue Loop. Another one is the Pew Packaging. On the margin front, on a ballpark number, what will be the margin difference? I just want to understand which is the better margin business. Is the tube lamination a better margin business or the currently Blue Loop a better margin business?
It's very difficult to put a number because you know what happens. The Blue Loop products are complexity, difference, complexity versus tube laminate, different complexities. They consume different sets of raw materials and all. I think it's very difficult to put a number on it. At the same time, look, whatever, as you asked about the addressable market and this, whatever business today we are trying to, you know, continue or focus on, we have a strong hope and anticipation that those are the areas where it will grow. I think we can see that tube laminate is definitely one of the areas where it will be having a growth because the underlying trend is essentially moving from resins to flexibles and plastics. I would say flexibles plastics, right? Tubes provide a very good alternative to move from resins to that one. That's one.
Second, I think when the small FMCG players, it's very, you know, they want to keep their product portfolios and offerings in the marketplace very nimble and I would say fast-changing. I think tube, again, gives that option to them. I think that product portfolio is definitely an attractive one. The Blue Loop is, I would say, the investment for the future. Like when you hear our purpose and the strategy 2030, we want to really convert all the product portfolio 100% to the recyclable. The Blue Loop is the vehicle to go there. Right now, we invested in the last two years. We are into a transition phase. That also shall offer us, and we consider that as an attractive industry, sorry, attractive product portfolio. That's something which we want to continue to focus. Rest assured that both are attractive as well as futuristic.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Lakshmi Narayanan KG from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Yeah. A few questions. If you look at last year or the previous year, there has been a bad summer because of which we had challenges in our margins and our sales, right? This year, despite summer not being pretty good, we managed to have sustained good margins. Can you just help me understand what % of our portfolio is exposed to summer and how we actually withstood this challenge?
Yeah. I think, look, summer or no summer, let's say it this way. We have a wide range of portfolio. What happens, you know, if there is, and that's, I think, I would say a resilience of our company, is that we operate into a vast range of the industry. It helps us to actually mitigate the challenges which are from a weather-related. Let's say if we have extended summers, there are products which are going into a beverage industry which are basically selling more. If summers got related, then ice cream-related stuff really gets kind of into the market. Whereas if that doesn't happen, something else comes in, which is basically, again, in a ready-to-serve or ready-to-eat kind of a category. I would say we have a really good resilient product portfolio.
At the same time, the summer-related portfolio definitely is more demanding in terms of their requirements, the changes. That is something which we have kind of over a period of time, kind of have understood well. I think that's how you can see that there is a bit of a better performance there.
Got it. What is the mix of liquid versus non-liquid? Has it changed? Is that also leading to a better margin?
We don't really monitor liquid and non-liquid per se. I'm not sure. I'm afraid I'm not understood if I have.
For example, if you have a paper boat, which is your packaging, which is liquid, and then versus you have a cornflake, which is a solid, I mean, dry item inside, right?
Yeah, yeah.
I understand that the barriers are important for the liquid versus the solid. In that case, whether we would be supplying, I presume that we would be supplying higher-value products for liquid. If so, has that actually changed for us? Is that also leading for a better margin?
I don't see much change. Only thing what we could see is that pouching, I think there is a good, I would say, traction happening because, as I said, customers and our customers and end consumers are going for a premium product, which are basically on a liquid, like let's say in a laundry or home care. I think we are clearly seeing that there is a subtle change happening in terms of consumption pattern. Those products are, I would say, high-value additions because it adds a couple of more operations or a couple of more value-added steps. That clearly is seen that there is uptake there. Other beverage, I may not be able to, because that's not a way to differentiate. Look, we definitely focus on food and beverage. Food is most likely, we say, as you said, it's a solid. Beverage, mostly liquid.
I think both are attractive market segments. Within food, then we have at least another three subcategories, which is culinary and then the dry, you know, and then wet, then ready to drink or ready to eat or ready to cook. I think these are the four or five areas. In beverages, again, you can imagine, you know, cold and hot and coffees and so on. Coffee typically would be, again, powder. That's where there is a bit of overlap. I would say both are having their own, I would say, structures. From a structure point of view, I would not say because at the end of the day, they are both considered as a food. We have to follow all the, I would say, this BSR and FSSR regulations. From there, I don't see much differentiation.
If I look at your last 2024 quarter, right, I think we have been showing very, very consistent margin for the last three quarters, okay? Can you be specific as to what actually led to this? Did you vacate certain spaces? I mean, of course, there will be a combination of various value engineering things you would have done. This has been a stupendous thing over the last 2024 quarters I've been tracking. What is that specific thing? Can you just elaborate on two or three key things which you did, which was not done earlier? This has actually helped you to be so resilient.
Yeah. I think, as you rightly said that we took a position, like, you know, where to play in the last few quarters ago and how to play. Where to play is where is the attractive segments. How to play is basically how do we allocate our resources and focus account management, etc., etc. That is clearly now consistent, which is helping us to have a better favorable sales and customer mix. The second better one is basically, now if you see the last two, three quarters, I think overall, you know, the indices are stand, you know, with stability on the raw material side.
While we pass on all the benefits which we get on the raw material side to our customers because we have a very transparent agreement with our customers, at least what happens because of that stability is that there is a focus basically on efficiency improvements. The stability in the raw material helps to give some more visibility to our end customers. We focus on improving our operational efficiencies. As a structural change, what we have done on overheads, that is helping us in the last three quarters. I think, you know, our whole credit goes to our world-class operations team, who relentlessly works across our plants with the help of global teams. I think they have really some good, stupendous ideas to take cost out, which we actually have to do investments. We invest in that.
I think those are the, you know, investments are actually paying off in a big way.
Do you think this is something which is sustainable? This kind of something which has been quite internalized and all your KRAs are all linked to this stuff?
Yes, I think so. As I said, we invest into operational improvements. Once you invest into something, that remains for the future year, right? Next year, possibly, there may not be an incremental benefit, but whatever benefit we are getting now will continue to be in the P&L.
Got it. Got it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Aditya Kedan from Smith's Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the follow-up. Sir, you mentioned regarding the GST rate cuts, if the consumer does not downtrade, that could benefit FMCG players. Sir, any sense if you can give for flexible packaging, how this relates to a positive side, like any improvement in volumes, can you attribute this to, and how the consumer behavior will change? Secondly, compared to this quarter, how do you see the next quarter results backed by this announcement?
Yeah. As I said, I think consumers' upgrading was in the last month's or maybe first week's newspapers. I think we kind of resonate that well. What happens once consumers upgrade? The FMCG customers also put their efforts to improve the brand propositions. They start spending on A and P, and they focus on more, I would say, the activations, right? That helps to, I would say, volume generation. Now, what happens when consumers upgrade to the higher ASP products as this average selling price? We also end up benefiting because those premium products need premium packaging, right? Premium packaging typically will have more colors, more value-added features, which typically otherwise commodity products would not have. That is how, I would say, ripple effect or ripple benefit we will get. That's the way. Coming to what happens next quarter or next quarter, I think that is a bit speculative.
As I said during the last one hour, what we are doing is creating a more sustainable business model, which we have done for the last 12 quarters or so. I think we want to continue that trend.
Okay. Thank you.
Sir, for CY2026, any anticipated number of volume growth?
I think your questions are really too speculative. As I said at the start, we do not do this. Even if by chance we are giving all of you some hints of performance of future, possibly, I would resort to my safe harbor statement that please do not use this for a future indication of a performance.
Got it, sir. Got it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rohan Pande from Golden Money Investments. Please go ahead.
Sir, as you told, it's not around 27% to 30%.
Ravan, can you say your handset mode, please? Your audio is not very clear.
Hello?
Yes, please go ahead.
Sir, as you told that in all of our revenue, around 27% to 30% of our revenue comes from Blue Loop, right? I think what I think right now that in your Blue Loop, I'm talking about.
Rohan, your audio is not very clear.
Yeah, we can't hear you properly.
Sir, am I audible?
Are you using your handset mode? Please use your handset mode.
Mr. Rohan, you can be slower. You can let us again try feathering. We can catch it.
Okay, sir. Sir, my question was related to the Blue Loop 27% - 30% of sales, right? Sir, I think right now what the company and what is doing, what I think is you guys are more focused on premium products in the Blue Loop section right now, not on the main simple products which have lower margins. Is it like that or you guys are basically working in both sections? Premium also and the normal one also? Because as you know, in today's time, the recycled packaging, when we talk about something like Blue Loop, has compared to very much less margin as the one the standard products have like BOP or BPC, right? Sir, the question is that you guys have a, do you guys have more of a percentage of premium products in the Blue Loop or the mixture is basically comfortable or normal?
Okay. I think let me again restart with that. When we talk about our sales composition, when we say 27%- 30% comes in from Blue Loop, actually, it's exactly not Blue Loop. It's Blue Loop, which is a recyclable product, which are basically produced on the specific assets and all the recyclable products which we send. So 27%- 30% is all products which are recyclable, whether they are produced through Blue Loop assets or not. That's the first one. The second one, of course, when Blue Loop is getting introduced, the idea was to definitely target the specific products which need high barriers and they have a large opportunity to kind of get into a recyclable chain.
Now, when we see this now in India regulations, all the other challenges around, we have not stopped only at what we were supposed to offer at the start of our project, but we are also having certain intermediate products. We call it like a blue light and all, which we are trying to offer to our customers, the solutions which are also intermediate. Many times what happens when you change to the large scale, it also needs investment at a customer end because of the packaging line changes or some things need to change and so on. Some customers show inability to change certain things, then we offer them the interim solutions or intermediate solutions, keeping the sealant layer same but only changing the barrier layers and so on and so forth. We are not only fixated on focusing on the top of the pyramid.
We are offering the custom-based solutions to the customers so that we make progress together towards the sustainability, towards the recyclability. That's the approach.
Sir, means that 27%- 30% not only contains premium products. You said it's a mix of products then?
Absolutely. Mix of the other recyclable products.
Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rajakumar Vaidyanathan from Arcane West. Please go ahead. I'm sorry, we've lost his connection. We'll move to the next question from the line of Vipul Kumar Shah from Sumangal Investments. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Do we have any low-margin portfolio which we would like to deliberately phase out from our offerings? If it is so, it constitutes what % of our volume?
Look, I think we still continue to look at an overall basket. If I say no low margin, then I would say there will be a challenge in our customers' purchasing departments. I would say there is a lot of areas which are available to fulfill the overall footprints which we have, assets we have, capabilities we have. At this moment, I would say, look, we have to see this as a whole and not at an individual product or portfolio level because there will always be a portfolio, right? We will be doing certain things at a low margin, certain things at a high. Every product will also go through their product life cycle, innovations, intellectual properties, maybe commoditization, and then renovation. All these aspects keep in mind. I think we have a reasonably balanced portfolio.
If we are able to manage this way, I think we shall be able to continue the momentum. That's point number one. Point number two, definitely, there are pockets of opportunities. Those are the opportunities we are examining and investing our time into, that how do we really grow along with the market. What we did last few quarters is basically, yes, we want to play here in spite of, you know, flat growth also. Now, essentially, the idea is to capture the India growth story. While we continue, we will see that how do we pan out.
What should be our overall capacity utilization, sir?
Yeah, as we keep on saying, we normally do not discuss the capacity utilizations because we are a complex multi-locational company. We don't really dwell into that much.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Dhananjay Salunkhe for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you for moderating this so well. I appreciate all the questions, and I hope we were able to answer your queries. First of all, again, thank you, team, for organizing this. I would say this is one of the strong quarters we had. In the last 12 quarters or so, 12, 13 quarters, we have started our investor calls. I'm really feeling proud in terms of the numbers we are able to deliver in the last quarter. Double-digit EBITDA, as Jagdish mentioned, that happened almost after four to five years, I think. We want to really continue that.
This wouldn't have been possible without this underlying support and the patronage we get from our customers, from our supplier partners, and mostly the state government and the government of India, where we get a lot of support in terms of how, wherever we operate, in terms of the licenses and the approvals and no objection certificates. I would really want to place this on record that without these three large stakeholders, we couldn't really survive and exist. Lastly, our fabulous team, Huhtamaki India team, the plant teams, the sales teams, and the finance, I mean, everyone. I think this is a fabulous quarter behind us, and what a good start for the upcoming Diwali week. At the same time, my mind is also a little wary that Jagdish is leaving Huhtamaki India. I think from 1st December, he won't be.
Jagdish, we will be missing your services to this organization, and I would want to place it on record the great contributions you had over the last three-plus years with Huhtamaki. I appreciate and wish you all the luck for your future endeavors. With these comments, I would again thank everyone for your patronage, support, and good wishes. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.