Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the interaction with the management of Blue Dart Express. Firstly, I would like to thank the management for giving us the opportunity to host the call. Today we have with us Mr. Sagar Patil, CFO, and Mr. Tushar Gunderia , Head of Legal and Compliance and Company Secretary. I will now hand over the call to the management team to provide some opening remarks on the performance, and then we can start with the Q&A session. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Yeah, thank you, Alok, and good afternoon all. A very warm welcome to all of you. I would like to inform you that Mr. Sagar Patil, Interim CFO, has since been appointed as Chief Financial Officer with effect from today, that is 1st August 2025. Most of you may be aware, Sagar is already associated with Blue Dart Express for the last more than eight to nine years. As you are aware, the Board of Directors of the company, in its meeting held on 29th July 2025, approved the financial results of the company for the quarter ended 30 June 2025, and the company declared the financial results for the quarter ended 30 June 2025, wherein the company posted revenue from operations of INR 14,419 million and profit after tax of INR 469 million for the quarter ended 30 June 2025.
Blue Dart continues to build strong momentum driven by substantial traction across both B2B and B2C products. Blue Dart marked a major milestone with the launch of India's largest integrated operating facility at Bijwasan in New Delhi, further enhancing our operational capabilities and service efficiency. Additionally, the company recently announced the expansion of its network with the introduction of Guwahati last year as a direct flying location. This strategic move was driven by Blue Dart's vision to empower Northeast India, a zone that plays a pivotal role in the country's economic growth. Furthermore, Blue Dart was awarded the Best Express Logistics Provider 2025 by the Institute of Supply Chain Management. In addition to this industry recognition, Blue Dart was also certified as a Great Place to Work for the 15th consecutive year, an acknowledgement of our unwavering commitment to fostering a culture of trust, inclusivity, and excellence.
By consistently investing in our infrastructure and people, Blue Dart continues to strengthen its position as both the logistics partner of choice and the employer of choice. The results have been already uploaded on the stock exchange websites and also posted on the company's website. I now hand over the call to Mr. Sagar Patil, CFO, for further proceedings. Thank you.
Thank you, Tushar . Good afternoon all, Sagar Patil here. We have closed another quarter with healthy growth on revenue, backed up by good growth in kilos as well as shipments. We have closed the quarter at a consolidated level with an EPS of INR 20.5 per share. This is the normal business or reverse for the quarter. We are looking forward for the rest of the year. We can start with the questions.
Thank you. We'll take the first question from [Mr. Patash] to keep going.
Thank you for your attention, sir. A bookkeeping question. If you can share what would have been the damage for the quarter as well as the number of parcels transported?
Sure. The number of parcels was 94.1 million. The damage was 340,068 tons.
One follow-up question on that. As you can see, on a sequential basis, the damage has improved, and also the total parcels have also improved quite well. If you look at the margins, the decline has been quite sharp. We have around, on a consolidated basis, about 15%, and on a standalone basis, about 8%- 9%. It has dropped to about 7%. It was 13.5%. Just trying to get some sense on what are the key reasons why the margins are weaker. Is there any one-off related cost in this profitability that you have reported?
The EBITDA margin has been 15.63% in the last year's same quarter, which is now 15.15%. There is a drop of about 1.5% there. What we see, and also all the products are trending the trajectory, what we see is more of a change in the product or the customer mix. Some products going faster. As you can see, also the last few couple of quarters, we have been growing faster in kilos as compared to the growth rate in shipments. We see heavier parcels coming more. With the heavier parcels, the element of also the freight, as we see, goes higher as compared to the service when it comes to the smaller parcels. We see that shift typically. There is no major business loss or gain for any specific customers, beyond the materiality threshold.
However, we see that shift happening within the customer and the product or the lane mix that we see, weight mix as well. Yes, it's a complex network with multiple locations, multiple modes that we operate in. Sometimes the customer mix may cause a percent here and there in terms of the profitability as it derives. Other than that, there is no one-off that has impacted the quarter.
Understood, sir. One thing to do with the recently commissioned facility in Delhi, because there should be some ramp-up costs attached with it. Is that something which is potentially dragging your margins until the ramp-up reaches an optimal level? That's not a reason.
That's not the reason. I mean, yes, there is a new investment that has come in. In the overall scenario, it is not as significant as it will impact the margin as a percentage of.
Understood. One more question which I had was with respect to growth, what we would have reported on the B2B as well as B2C, if you can share that, that would be really helpful.
Yeah, I mean, we do not have segmented results as such, but from the point of view of products per se, B2C is the equal or equal segment as that we say, I mean, as we call. Growth is largely driven by growth in B2B as well as B2C. B2B also includes products like air parcel and documents. In B2C, we see revenue growth of about 20%, and in B2B, it's about 2.4% for the quarter.
That's quite material. I think the previous comment, you also mentioned that there is a higher growth in heavier shipment parcels as well. This is on a bi-year basis we are talking about, right, sir?
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
We are getting a higher proportion of heavier shipments in B2C as well. Is that understanding correct?
Within B2C, if you look at it, there is no significant change in the kilos per shipment profile. We have both ground as well as air segment of retail. Within B2B surface, which is a higher KPS as compared to air or documents, that is where the KPS would go up. As far as B2C is concerned, there is no significant change in the profile.
Got it. Thank you, sir. I'll get back to you.
Thank you. If you have any questions, please either hang on or put it in the chat box below. We'll take the next question from Mr. Asam, please go ahead .
Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Yes. Thank you. Sir, if you could help us understand in terms of the freighters, the number of freighters, how many of these are owned/leased? If I look at the damages, what we report in the annual report, that seems to be fairly similar for the last four or five years. If you could just clarify as to how it works in terms of these damages, how do you compute that? Is that only for the owned, or is that owned plus leased, or is it the damages is for the even what you ship through the other, you know, passenger lines?
Yes, sure, Asam. We have a total of eight freighters. We have six 757s and two 737s. One 757 is leased, whereas the rest of the seven are owned ones. That's the profile of the freighters. In terms of damages, what we report as damages is including all the products that we bill to the customers, whether we fly them on our own aircraft or our trucks or the commercial airlines. These include all the products.
Understood.
Just to add, we were also out doing kilos. For example, if there is a shipment going from place A to B, there can be essentially multi-modal movements from door to door. Partly, we may also move on road the same shipment, but when we report, these are reported as we bill kilos because customer will be billed only once for the total weight of the shipment.
Understood. If you could help us understand in terms of the aircraft utilization for the quarter, how do you see it growing? If you could help us understand in terms of the growth in surface versus air for the quarter in terms of revenues.
Yeah, sure. In terms of the first question, what was it about?
Yeah, in terms of the revenue growth in surface segment slash air.
Okay. Yeah, yeah. The surface growth, which includes both retail as well as the surface B2B, the growth has been 13% in sales, whereas in air, it has been 2.2%. Your first question was about the capacity utilization of the freighter. This has been consistent around between around 85%± . Our capacity utilization is in terms of how we fill our aircraft in terms of the weight that we carry on the tallows and not in terms of the number of hours that we fly for. Essentially, these are the flights that fly at night to carry the daily picked-up shipments at session. There can be different ways of looking at aircraft utilization. For us, it is supporting our express movement. We calculate based on the loads that are being loaded on the aircraft when it flies.
Also, the way we operate our network is that we ensure unless there is a load available, be it weekend or holiday or weekday, we would not fly the aircraft because we also have a good amount of network on the commercial airline, the daily loads that we carry.
Got it. If you could just clarify on the lease arrangement, sir, out of eight, you said one is leased, everything else is owned. Have I understood right?
Right. Yes.
Okay. If you could help us understand, in terms of these costs, how does it work for the owned versus leased? How do you make the decision between whether to purchase the aircraft or take it on lease?
We had most of our aircraft leased at some point of time, I think a few years back. We converted them from lease to buy. Essentially, when we lease the aircraft, the requirements related to maintenance, approvals, statutory approvals, these are all applied to the lease. We found them more beneficial by owning rather than leasing because the interest element was going out to be better. From a balance sheet point of view, also, even if you lease, they are accounted as an ROU asset in the balance sheet. It doesn't make your balance sheet light as such. From that point of view, we converted them from lease to buy some time back.
Understood. Just one last question, if I may, in terms of fundamentally between air and surface, is there a difference in terms of ROCI profile? I understand last time you said margin there isn't a big difference between the two, but how about the ROCI?
From ROCI point of view, I mean, there are two elements. One is return and then the capital employed. Capital employed for air would typically be higher because of the captive assets that we have. The ROCI would be relatively lower as compared to surface.
Understood. Understood.
You also had one question in terms of the kilos at the waist. You have been a little more or less on the same lines since the last few years.
The past few years. Yes, sir.
Yeah. When we started that 2021, 2022, and financial year, including even 2022, 2023, we had a lot of charters during post-pandemic times. That had taken our kilos really on a higher level. It was more of a pandemic impact where we could fly a large number of kilos across the country as well as within the countries. Now, after 2023, 2024 onwards, it is a normal business that we are in.
Sounds good, sir. Thank you so much for the clarification. I'll fall back in the queue for further questions. Thank you.
We'll take the next question from [Mr. Guru].
Hi, am I audible?
Yes, Guru.
My first question is that if you could provide the mix between B2B and B2C as a percentage of consolidated sales, how much is what segment?
For this quarter, it is 71% and 29%. B2B is 71% and B2C is 29%.
How has that trended over the last few years, sir?
Last year's same quarter was around 74%- 26%. We have seen the share of B2C going up, but it was around the same between 70%s and 30%s in the earlier quarters as well.
Can you?
Yeah.
Yeah, sir, broadly, what would be the margin differential between the two segments?
Margin across the quarters would be more or less the same, on the same lines as I would say. The yield would be different, but the margin percentage would be similar.
Okay. Sir, you know, optically looking, you know, B2B growth seems quite low in this quarter. Just wanted to understand how should we think about this segment's growth over the next, say, two to three years, and, you know, why such a smaller number in terms of growth in this quarter?
We do have plans to grow the B2B business as well, especially driven by the surface. We have captive capacity, and it is also optimally utilized unless we have opportunities for doing daily flights either for charters or so. It could be a forward-looking segment, but I would say that we are also looking for growing our B2B segment faster. Surface B2B, we do not have a very high market share. We are not number one over there. There will be plans to ramp up that business along with, of course, B2C on ground, as we call, and Dart Plus we used to call it. There is plan in both the segments.
In the B2B segment, if I may, if you could just split, what would be the air mix and the road mix, the surface mix?
Air would be slightly higher in terms of revenue. 71% may include about maybe 35% of air and low. Close to 30% would be air, and 30% would be surface.
Got it, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you, Guru.
Sir, I also have a question in the chat box where one of the first is on the margin side. A margin actually cannot in the quarter is independent of standalone reserves. What's the view ahead? Should it improve from here on when we know cannot get a draw on the margin side?
Yeah, I mean, without making a forward-looking statement, yes, there is also seasonality that comes in wherein we have a sector that's characterized by the peak loads that come in. The focus in first half is typically to maintain and plan for maintaining the service quality when the peak volumes come in. Yeah, we would be working towards improving the margin. This is a normal business that we have had in this quarter. Yeah, therefore, it will be to improve the margins.
Sure. I'll then take the next question from Mr. Nirmal. Please go ahead.
Hi, my name. Am I audible?
Yes, Nirmal.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, you mentioned the following reasons.
No, we are not quite audible. There is up and down in the voice.
Oh.
Hello. Can you repeat the question?
Is it better now?
Yes.
Sir, my question is, in one of the responses, you mentioned that the following is repeating the result of changing customer mix. If you can elaborate on that, what kind of customer mix are the companies?
It's a mix of a number of factors, including at times maybe high margin or high, I mean, the mix of customers, the product mix as well as lane mix. If the customers who provide you good volume and enjoy better pricing if they ship more, or if the customers who ship with you a higher kilo or KPS product versus a lower kilo product, the service element in the product involved, if that goes up and down, then the margin can also move accordingly in the short term.
Okay. Thank you. There was another question. What was the measurement of the major other expenses this quarter? The reason I talked about 75%.
Other expenses would include the rentals, wherein we had implemented or we had added Bijwasan last year, around I think this part of the quarter, that spend was not there. That will be one small reason over there. Communications, there will be some increase, but not a big number. We have implemented some automated tools for call bridge where we have invested some amount there.
Should this be the real sort of normal going at, should we see this going at this quarter's function?
In terms of actually, this will be the business support the incremental volumes as the business goes up with continued growth. As a percent to revenue, it can improve.
Okay, thank you. This is our last question. The number of shipments.
Yes.
If you look at the growth in the number of shipments, growth in the number of shipments and also for the past three years, the growth has been positive, but the growth rate year-over-year has gone down from about 24%- 5% in shipments and 24%- 11% in coming. What would be the reason here?
Yes, that is where if the higher kilos per shipment, heavier parcels grow faster. These are characterized by more of a freight element, I would say, that the customer looks at it. That is where the rates become more competitive. Whereas the smaller, lighter shipments would have more of a service component from a door-to-door, efficient, timely delivery point of view. That is where the value perceived and paid for by the customers would be higher for a lighter shipment. If your kilos grow faster as compared to shipments in a given period, there can be some dilution in the margin, again, depending on along with that comes the lane mix, customer mix, etc.
Thank you so much.
We'll take the next question from [Mr. Anto].
Yes, sir. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. One clarification, sir. What is the B2B and B2C growth numbers for the current quarter? Why did I miss that number?
Yeah, for B2B, the revenue growth was 2.4% and B2C was 20.2% in revenue.
Got it. I understand that we don't break down our revenues in terms of air and surface. In a general understanding, would B2C see a larger share of surface, or is it more restricted towards air only?
The share of air has been more in B2C, but our ground B2C also, in fact, has been the growth driver. The share of ground has been also growing. The ratio is now 16%:11% between air and ground on B2C in revenue.
Okay. Just the way you suggested that, you know, 40%, 30% is the breakup of B2B in air and surface. In B2C, it is 16% and 11%. Is that correct?
Yes, yes, that's the ratio. Yeah.
Got it. The second question was in terms of understanding, sir. When you mentioned that, you know, when kilos grow faster than shipments, wouldn't that also imply that when surface grows faster than air? I would suspect the lighter shipments go via air versus the heavier freight going via surface. Would that understanding be correct?
Largely, yes, because the products also are, so we do have shipments, heavier shipments going on air. We have the air parcel business catering to that. Yes, the surface shipments would typically be heavier than the air shipments.
Got it. That's it from my end. Thank you.
I'll wait for the next question from Ankita.
Sir, we were doing investment in our ground network. Largely, the focus here is to aggregate more B2B parcels or B2C parcels. Where can we see this improvement in network? If I see the annual report, the facilities two years back were approximately 2,347, which is now 2,284. You know where are these investments happening?
Largely, the investments also happen by consolidating smaller facilities. That is what we have done in Bijwasan last year for air and retail facilities. Even what we are doing now for ground facilities is also consolidation of about 10 facilities. Typically, as the business grows, we do not do a big bang, big investment. In pockets wherever the demand is increasing, that is where we add the facilities. When it reaches to a good volume, then we consolidate. The reduction in the number of facilities will be a mix of both consolidation as well as at times closing down the smaller facilities, remote facilities where we do not see a significant utilization. These are very small facilities, 100 sq ft, 200 sq ft also would come in there where we may consolidate or even close sometimes when there are no significant business shipments going to that location.
Has it been focused earlier more towards B2B versus B2C?
Our driver has been surface B2B, the growth driver, and the retail. Both are running on ground. B2C. B2C on ground as well as B2B on ground.
Hello. Sorry for the disturbance.
Could you overhear?
Yes, sir. Can you please repeat?
Yeah. I also know the growth drivers are both in B2B as well as B2C. In terms of volumes, we see the growth coming from surface B2B and also from the surface B2C, which is the retail business.
Thank you, sir. Sir, you just forwarded the tonnage handled on aircraft in the annual report. I didn't find the number this time for FY 2025. How much would that be?
Okay, I do not have that number handy right now.
We'll send it to you, Ankita.
Okay. Where is the two new aircraft that were added? On which routes are they deployed currently, and what is the localization of the two aircraft specifically?
Routes are network. These are not catering to any point-to-point, but then both the aircrafts are touching Guwahati. While Guwahati is one of the stations for them, they also touch Delhi, Bangalore, as well as Mumbai in their route at night.
And utilization?
Utilization, again, it's normal. It would be about 85%. It would be made up of sectors which are weak and, you know, strong. Overall, utilization would be at about 85%.
Got it. Sir, just one last thing again on the annual report. We have our per night capacity. Earlier, it was 500 tons per night. Even after the addition of the two aircraft, it still shows 500 tons per night. Why has it not gone up, our capacity?
You are comparing 500 tons from which year we have mentioned in the annual report?
I have numbers. Since FY 2018, this number is showing 500 tons per night in FY 2025 annual report.
We'll check and come back to you, Ankita.
Sir, the last one, if we say that our profitability both on the B2B and B2C segment in percentage of the profit markup on where the segments are similar, then why change in mixes impacting margins?
When you look at the profitability, we have a network that is interconnected when it comes to product. The smaller parcels will have the same first mile and last mile, but it will get mixed up with the middle mile when it is air or ground, depending on whether it is going on air or ground. There will be some allocations in play. Especially when your ground is growing faster as compared to air, the variable margin on the air, because there is a largely fixed capacity, will be relatively lower as compared to ground. I'm talking about variable margin, not the actual margin as such. When the business grows and when it goes more on ground in a quarter, then at an overall level, the margin can grow slower or it can be lower as compared to the earlier quarter.
At the same time, I will say that air is a limited resource. We are the only freighters who are consistently flying aircraft on a daily basis. With the same capacity and with the business volumes growing, there can be a better possibility of getting better reuse over there. That again opens up an opportunity when you look at the movement in margins happening. As a business, we keep on looking at what mix of products or mix of customer mix or the lane mix that is being tried and work towards reaching to a better number of yield, improving the margins at an overall level.
I understood this on the ground and air side. On the B2B parcels and B2C parcels, if the profitability even on the B2B parcels and B2C parcels also have this variability, like the way you said between ground and air, and if that is the case, which one is better for you in terms of profitability? Is it B2B parcels which are higher weight parcels, or is it B2C which are low weight parcels? Which is better profitability?
Even in case of B2B and B2C, at a standalone level or at a static level of margins, they are comparable, not very different than each other. Depending on the variability in the volumes, if your ground grows faster, it grows along with the variable cost. In a quarter, if the air is not growing as fast as ground, the impact of variable margin would be less beneficial in that quarter as such.
Effectively, basically, it is not the type of shipment, whether it's B2B or B2C, it is more the load of the movement of the cargo, which impacts the margins.
Yes.
Am I correct?
Yes, yes. The availability would be more on air where we have a largely fixed kind of network, where it is optimally utilized. At the same time, the incremental elements coming in on a variable but lower cost commercial airline over there will yield more margins for the air product.
Thank you, sir. That's it from us for the time. I'll get back on the phone.
Yes, sir. One question is there in the chat box. Sir, any other on the volume growth or this year or the next year?
Sorry, I couldn't get it.
Any comment on the volume growth? I said we can look at this year and next year.
Maybe if you could do it, sir, I'm looking. We will not be able to comment. There will be seasonality, and there will be, of course, a volume growth that is happening. We will, of course, as a management, try to improve the numbers, but no view from the company point of view.
There was another question on the capacity of loyalty. If there was some capacity ongoing in and new aircrafts and you know how where it is used and what's any sense on existing aircrafts as well?
The new aircrafts, I have also read the normal capacity utilization, which comes to about 85%.
Sorry, I'm not .
Yes. Basically, we don't fly point to point. It's a part of an overall network. Even the new aircraft have been kind of merged into the existing network, adding only Guwahati as an additional station. Overall network utilization is about 85%, and that is more or less standard across the flights out there.
Got it. Yeah, I think those are the questions. If anyone has a question, please raise your hand or we can close the call. Yeah, I think we'll just take the last question from Dr. Asam. Go ahead.
Yeah, sure.
Thank you for the follow-up, sir. Sir, if you could give us a sense in terms of the demand situation, you know, or the business, how it is trending because we hear that consumption is weak. There is a fair amount of slackness. I just wanted to check, you know, are you seeing any improvement in the volumes as we speak? B, any substantial change you're seeing in the industry in terms of competition or in terms of pricing or anything on that front?
The growth trajectory, you can see that it remains stable, not significantly going up or down. From that point of view, we also agree a stable base of the customers. Even when we hear about slowdown in certain industries or at times in e-commerce, we don't see that because we are not a very big player, but we service the very niche set of customers. Customers also, given the premium that we have with the service quality, could use us for their critical shipments where they are willing to pay a good price given their service requirements or their customer requirements as such. We don't see a very significant up or down in the numbers that we have.
Understood. Of your total expenses, sir, would it be possible to know what is the fixed cost? As in, if the volumes go down 10%, you still incur the same cost. If you could give us a sense, let's say of the quarter's expense, how much would be fixed, let's say, of the total employee cost and the other expenses? We have roughly about INR 400 crore quarterly expense, right? How much of this would be fixed cost according to you? I presume the freight and service cost and all that will be fixed before we calculate the gross profits.
Employee costs would be largely fixed in a short to medium term. Within freight, we have a mix of both fixed and variable. The aircraft cost would be largely fixed as far as the cost of the aircraft. The running cost of the ETF would be variable with the number of flights we would have. Lastly, we try to variabilize that by ensuring that we fly only when we are sure of the capacity being utilized. Now, with the increasing growth in the ground, we also are increasing the variable costs for the middle mile. Last mile, also largely, our deliveries are outsourced with our vendor, with our partners. We still have 50/50 variable and fixed element. It's a mix. If you ask me at a quarter level, looking at the expenses, how much will be variable and how much will be fixed, it would be close to 50/50. 50% would be variable.
Operating leverage, actually, if the growth picks up, you know, if the growth is substantial, let's say a double-digit growth, you can have a reasonably large delta on the margin. Is that understanding right?
Yes, that is one question, though, because with the capacities being largely optimally utilized, we also cannot add a very big volume because the capacities are all across. They are not only.
Okay .
Very large capacities.
Sorry, I couldn't hear you, sir.
Yeah. The first mile, last mile capacities would take time to ramp up, be it facilities or even manpower for pickup and delivery. We need to really, when peak season also happens, start ramping up the capacities which are variable. For a one or two months of peak also, they would be more or less like fixed in nature because we would hire the vehicles as well as manpower for that period and some facilities. Yeah.
Understood. Great. Those were my questions. Thank you so much.
Yeah. We'll just take one last question from Mr. Arvindo, so we can go for a minute. You're on mute.
Yeah, we're on mute. I think.
Can you hear me now?
Yes .
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. I like to hear the strategy question. How does Blue Dart plan to strategically balance its focus on expanding the market share, particularly in the surface segment where the competition is growing much faster, while simultaneously driving the margin recovery as well in the coming years through operational efficiency as well as the end of the premium service differentiation?
Yes, sir. Our primary focus is always on service differentiation, the service quality. When we also work towards increasing the volumes, the market share, that is without giving up on the margin. Yes, it's a mixture of different products with different variability, with margins going up and down with the increasing volumes depending on the customer mix as well as the product mix. The primary motive is to have that differentiated in service, which will help us without giving up the profitability. I hope strategically, that is how we look at that.
Driven by the new is the key.
Yes.
Okay. Basically, we don't want to sacrifice just for the sake of increasing the volumes.
Yeah, that's right. Yes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much .
We're done with those questions. Sir, any closing comments from the team?
We see the growth trajectory being consistent and stable, and we are also working towards improving the business further with improvement in both taking care of the peak volume, adding to our profitability as well as margins. That is going to be the way forward for us.
Thank you everyone for joining us. Thank you to the management of Blue Dart for giving us the opportunity to hold the call. I'll send you a call.
Thank you all. Thank you all for organizing. Thank you.
Thank you.