Good afternoon, all of you.
Yeah. So we'll just start now.
Recording in progress.
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 Ms. Sudha Pai, CFO of Blue Dart Express, Mr. Tushar Gunderia, Head of Legal and Compliance and Company Secretary, Blue Dart Express, and Mr. Sagar Patel, Head of Corporate Accounts, Blue Dart Express. I would now hand over the call to the management team to provide some opening remarks on the performance, and then we can start the Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah. Thank you, Alok. And good afternoon, everybody. A warm welcome to all of you into the Q3 Financial Year 24 earnings call of Blue Dart Express Limited. As you are aware, the Board of Directors of the company approved the third quarter financial results in its meeting held on 29th January 2025, and the company declared its financial results for the quarter-end nine months ended 31st December 2024, wherein the company posted profit after tax of INR 791 million for the quarter-ended December 31st, 2024. Revenue from operations for the quarter stood at INR 15,117 million. Blue Dart, known for its exceptional service quality, strengthened by advanced automation and technology, remains a cornerstone for its operations, providing customers with a seamless one-stop solution for all their logistics needs.
The results are already uploaded on the stock exchanges in compliance with the provisions of SEBI and Listing Agreement provisions, and also posted on the website of the company. I now hand over the call to Sudha Pai, CFO, and to Mr. Sagar Patel, Head of Corporate Accounts, for further proceedings. Thank you.
Thank you. Should we start? So I mean, just to give a synopsis of Q3, as Tushar mentioned, our revenue has grown by 9.3%, and it's at INR 15,117 million. And our profit before tax, profit before tax is at INR 1,064 million versus INR 1,050 million last quarter. So yeah, with this, we open for questions.
Thank you so much. So anyone having a question can please raise their hand or post the question in the chat box below. Yeah, we'll take the first question from Mr. Krupashankar. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So first up, I just wanted to get a sense of what would be the tonnage for the quarter as well as the number of shipments carried?
In terms of tonnage growth, we are growing by 12%, and shipment growth by 7.2%. In terms of absolute tonnages, just a moment. Absolute tonnages, yeah, for the quarter is 351,873 tons, and shipment at 98.59 million shipments.
Thank you. So just wanted to get a sense on the profitability improvement. While we have seen that during this quarter, despite challenging environment, revenue growth has been quite good, around 9%. Your thoughts around the further scale-up of the two-new fleet, any updates on that, and how that underutilizes, if there is any underutilization on the leg, which we had highlighted in the previous calls? How is it progressing? Can you throw some light on that?
So on the utilization, the good news in this particular quarter is that we have reached the optimum level of utilization. Yes, we do have a challenge of low utilization of the lanes on these new fleets. However, it's better than the previous quarter.
Understood. So in this quarter, are you also seeing benefits of the ATF price correction reflecting in your margins? Is that a booster, or is it more of a pass-through, which is already reflecting in your numbers?
So which you.
ATF price correction.
ATF price. Yeah.
Yes, I mean, it's not a pure pass-through. We have our mechanism to address this price increase, and it gives a little bit of a margin as well. So it's not a pure pass-through for the ATF prices.
Got it. Got it. Secondly, on the recently commenced hub, and congrats on that, I think globally, the DHL team also commented about the aspiration to expand its India operations. Anything further you would like to add on that particular investments towards new capacities, and what are your thoughts around both B2C and B2B?
So we are optimistic about employing our infrastructure on ground. Ground is where most of the growth happens. As said, we are witnessing the ground more in both, such as B2B as well as in the B2C segment, and the investment would continue to be there. That's the outlook as far as our investment is concerned.
Yeah. So while you highlighted it, there were specific targets stated that e-commerce, you're targeting about 25% market share. So just something more on what are the steps taken towards achieving this market share target? Anything which you can highlight at the moment?
Our aim is to have a structured investment which takes care of our profitable growth. For us, definitely increasing our market share, those all aspects are equally important, but we endeavor that we have a profitable growth. That's our that continues to be our outlook as is the state, of course.
So any number perhaps on what you would be spending on infrastructure going ahead? Any outlines?
We personally do not give any forward-looking statement, but we would be releasing our budgets very soon, and that would be an outlook about what we intend to spend over the next year.
All right. Thank you. I'll get back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Mr. Ahmed. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions from my side. Sorry, I joined the call late, so maybe it might be a repetition. Just wanted to understand the price absorption part. Last time, you indicated that we have announced the hikes of 9%-12% from January 25. Just wanted to understand how you see these hikes getting absorbed in the market since January month has already passed?
So about the price hikes, which are already in the pipeline, you would get to know the concrete numbers around it, most probably by the next quarter results, which is in the Q4 results that we would be publishing. But yeah, we are intending that our GPIs are being effectively taken by the consumers, our customers.
Okay. Ma'am, also we saw that EBITDA margin was possibly the highest in this year so far, I mean, in the three quarters. So just wanted to understand the key drivers of EBITDA margin in this quarter. Was it mix or was it anything to do with lesser competitive intensity or optimal utilization of fleet, as you mentioned? What were the key drivers of it and whether these will be sustainable going ahead?
So key driver for Q3 is it's a festive month. It's a festive quarter. That was the most key thing that happened to us in Q3, and that normally happens in most of the countries. Apart from that, our fleet utilization got improved these days, and again, optimally, we are very optimal in terms of our cost. These are the factors which led to a better quarter this year in terms of EBITDA.
Okay. One last one, if I may. What were the Capex in nine-month FY25 on a consolidated basis, and what is the target for the year?
I think when we released the target, we spent around INR 622 million. As on INR 622 million is the CapEx that we have spent up to, yeah, up to January to December for the calendar year, up to January to December. That's been our spend so far. The budget being INR 1,274, we have spent only 50% of the CapExes that we had budgeted, and largely into the infrastructure. The spend is largely into the infrastructure.
And so that's a considerable shortfall. Was it by design, or it just happened that you didn't see new opportunities, or I mean, can you throw some more light on this, please?
It's a combination of internal and external factors. Yes, we do ensure that we review our profitability and the future outlook, and then spend it accordingly. Also externally, it depends upon finalization of the deals, which place, which territory we want to invest into. Those are the external factors, as well as these internal factors are the one which lead to slightly behind, I would say, in terms of Capex. See, also, if you look at the GDP per se, it's a bit muted for the next quarter. Even compared to the last year, it is from 8.2%, it is somewhere at around 6.2%. That way, we are very precarious in terms of consuming the entire Capex. We look into ensuring that we have a profitable growth.
Again, we already invested into two aircrafts, then one another, the major hub that was recently made public. That way, we are very cautious in terms of our investments, Capex investments. Some are entering to end.
As of now, do we have a target for CY 2025 that you can share?
We will be releasing our annual budgets very soon, like you know. So the targets on the Capex and even on the top line and EBIT would be soon published by next quarter, before the next quarter.
Great, ma'am. Thank you so much and all the best.
Yeah, but budget will be our internal targets.
Sure. Got it, sir.
Thank you. Anyone have any question? Can please raise their hand or post in the chat box below. We'll take next question from Mr. Lokesh Maru. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks, Alok. So ma'am, from our just discussion with different D2C brands and channels, they suggest that Blue Dart has become more competitive when it comes to e-commerce pricing. Right? So is there any change in our approach or the way we are looking at e-commerce at this point? Is it driving volumes or just some color on how we are looking at it? And what has the change been for us? Yeah.
Yeah. Be a little louder, please, Lokesh.
Hello?
Yeah, yeah. Be louder. Yeah.
Yes, so my point was, in discussions with different D2C brands and just basic channels, they suggest that there has been. Blue Dart has become more competitive when it comes to pricing e-commerce deliveries. Right? So I just wanted some color on, is it? Just wanted to confirm, first of all, if there has been any change in approach or aggression in pricing and the way we are looking at this segment.
Yeah. In terms of being more competitive, it's not.
In e-commerce.
Yeah, in e-commerce, it's not in terms of any dimension in the use. What we covered earlier in earlier quarters as well. We have now, in last few years, rather, last two or three years, we have been also equally focusing on increasing the scale on the ground e-commerce. So many times, the customer may look for one or two days of dilution in the transit time. And with us operating the Dart Plus product, which goes on a speed truck, the gap between air and Dart Plus in terms of service, the transit times could be one, one and a half day. But in terms of the prices, it becomes very significant. So we do have a more complete bouquet to offer to the customers where, based on their requirement, they can either choose to go for an air mode or for a Dart Plus mode.
Both the products are, with our focus continued on the profitability, remain competitive, but at the same time, also remain very well profitable, helping both Blue Dart for ensuring share of wallet as well as customers to, as per their requirement, choose from the two products.
Understood. So Dart Plus is something you're seeing has been a game changer for us in the last two, three years. So sir, could you help understand some color on how has the growth been just for e-commerce in the last two, three years? Asking this question because when we look at just the large two platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, their growth has been high single digit. But since we at Blue Dart deal with a wider bouquet of customers here, right, including D2C brands, so if you could help understand two things. One is growth in this segment that we have witnessed, and another, what is our value? How does our pricing or value proposition differ from maybe the second largest player or maybe from the market leader in this space? Yeah, that's all.
So in terms of the growth, we see the B2C as well as B2B products, both air as well as ground, are quite integrated in our operations. We do not publish segmented results. However, we have been sharing that it is the B2C, and within that, also B2C on ground, that has been a growth driver for the last few quarters and so. And our dependency is not on very few customers. We have a good customer base. So only where it makes sense for the customers, possibly without diluting on our required profitability, we are able to provide to a wider range of customers, not only for a select few. So from that point of view, we have been witnessing a very significant, sorry, consistent growth in the ground-based e-commerce products. And I think we have seen a great dilution in the growth rates so far.
We have not a very big player. Maybe in the overall scenario, within that segment, there have been a lot of either captive or dedicated players for that. But for us, we look at the very niche customer requirements over there. We continue to grow at consistent rates there.
Sir, sorry, last question. Just from the value proposition side, I mean, what kind of premium do we charge if we compare to the second guy on pricing in the market?
Point quality has premium because it's the differentiation in the service that the customer could pay a different price. So we may not be comparing like to like in terms of service if you do look at only from a pricing perspective. So it may. Our service quality standard that we maintain, we have certain internal KPIs that makes us kind of standing out. So we are not, from that perspective, premiumly priced as such, but we could deliver that value for which we get the credit.
Okay, sir. Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take next question from Mr. Anshul Agrawal. Please go ahead.
Hey, thank you, Alok, for the opportunity. A couple of questions from my end. First, can you provide us some color about the growth that we have witnessed in volumes? Would this be primarily driven by surface versus air?
Yes, primarily surface.
Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. And secondly, if that is the case, on our margins, is surface particularly dilutive on our consolidated margins? Are our margins significantly different in surface and air, is what I'm trying to understand.
Yeah. In terms of percentage, it won't be that very significant. But here, the base price will be different for an air and for a surface product. Again, as I said, we do have a common first mile, last mile, and sometimes middle mile between B2B and B2C. So when you talk about margins, it becomes a what allocation criteria we apply. But then overall, we see consistent margins across the most. We may differentiate internally different allocation criteria to drive different products. But surface is not the reason for dilution. It has been last few quarters because of certain investments which have started materializing now with good capacity utilization. So surface is not the reason for any dilution in the markets.
Great. That helps. Just one last follow-up on this. So our internal targets or the targets that we had sort of given to the street around our EBIT margins being around 8%-9%, that will not be sort of diluted if we expand further in surface, right? If we see surface growing faster than air or our ground surface or our e-commerce surface product growing faster than the other products. Is my understanding correct?
Yeah, we would like to work towards that. Though it is not a guidance or any forward-looking numbers that we are taking.
Great. Many thanks. Very useful. Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone have any question? Can please raise your hand or post in the chat box. So we'll take a couple of questions from the chat, sir. One is, what was the proportion of ground versus air in this particular quarter?
We personally do not release in public the ground versus air data in terms of shipment weight or profitability or revenue.
Sure. Any mix on B2B and B2C in this quarter, if you can share that?
Yeah. B2B, we witnessed a growth of 6.8% versus the previous quarter. And B2C is 13.6% in terms of revenue versus the previous quarter. And likewise, in terms of weight, it's 11.1% increase in the B2B and 16.9% increase in B2C.
Sure. And also, since this quarter, the margins have improved on a QOQ basis. So now that the price hike impact will also start coming in the fourth quarter, would directionally margins look up further in coming quarters?
Let's say that last quarter, Q3 was a festive quarter. We had a peak season surcharge that was levied during the festive quarter, which helped us to improve our Q3 top line as well as the margin. In the Q4, it's the GPI that should help us to regain the margins.
Sure. We'll take next question from Mr. Anshul, please.
Yeah, good evening, sir, ma'am. Thank you for the opportunity. Ma'am, if I were to ask you, in terms of the surface versus air mix, is it fair to say that the mix shift in the last three, four years could have been, say, 10-15 percentage points or not really? That may not be the right understanding.
We can say that that would be the same assumption, Anshul.
That's a fair assumption, right? And do you see the same continuing? You can expect a 10-15 percentage points shift over next, say, three to four years. Could that be the possibility based on the kind of investments? Yeah.
Yeah. Maybe do not make much of a forward-looking statement, but our outlook is that the ground will grow in double digits versus air, which would be less than 5%.
Okay. And in terms of the investments, what you've made, is it possible to get some sense out of our total asset? How much would be for air specifically? What kind of asset turns are you seeing in case of air versus surface? So even if the margins could be slightly different for surface, the ROCEs are even superior or similar?
One of the major investments was into aircraft. That's a distinct divide. The second investment we did was in IT, and that's across the product. That's an announcement to our software to improve the transparency and visibility. That's across the product, and the last one is the Bhiwandi Mega Hub. This we are talking Mega One is on the Bhiwandi, which takes care of air as well as the ground product, ground speed product as well, so it's a mix impacting. The last one is mix impacting ground.
Right.
Ma'am, is it possible to get a sense in terms of the number of hubs or number of branches what we have, what kind of expansion we have seen in the last four, five years, and if possible, even any sense about the direction from here on?
We don't have that data readily as of now, but we'll check with the legal team if we can make it available for the public domain, and we'll get back here.
Sure. Just last question, if I may, ma'am. If we look at, like you mentioned, 3Q had a benefit of the festive, the premium. But if we look at the gross margin, they are actually lower, but I presume it's a function of the mix as well. So in terms of the focus, is it fair to say that we will try to maintain margin and get more and more growth, or we want to kind of focus more on the growth, even if the margins could get somewhat impacted in the near term?
So, margins also got impacted this particular quarter and compared to previous quarter, driven by the investments. Driven by the investment, the three major investment between normally people talking about in at least from the past three quarters. And I hope it will increase in the upcoming quarters. So, with the investment that we would do, certainly it will take a little bit of a toll on the margins, but it will help us to structure ourselves well for the upcoming growth that we are in charge of.
Right. Is it possible to get some sense about the capacity utilization, ma'am, for air and surface?
For surface, you see, we use trucks, and those are very well utilized. So there is no utilization challenge as such. We perceive it's a bit of a challenge in terms of having optimal utilization of our airflow in the last quarter of the last year and beginning two quarters. As of now, we are comfortable to say that our airflow fleet utilization is at an optimum level. Yes, there are certain things where we need to work upon, but at this point in time, for this particular quarter, it's reasonable to say that we are optimally utilized.
With the 5%, let's say, for the sake of argument, the 5% kind of a growth in the air cargo, how soon would you require to add another aircraft?
It depends. It depends, but nothing. I mean, no comments on that aspect as of it.
Understood. Understood. And just, ma'am, last question, sorry, if I may, with respect to the industry mix, is it possible to get some sense in terms of the total revenue, how the different industries like pharma or industrial or consumer or B2C, if you could give some sense, what is the mix? Maybe of FY24 would also do just to understand the composition of revenue for different sectors.
Sectoral, we don't have.
I think they are business-sensitive information. We don't put it in the problem.
Yeah. To your question, Anshul, on the 5% one, when you say that with the 5% increase in air, would we add a new aircraft? I think it also depends on which sector and which lanes this growth happens or which geography this region has this growth happens. But as of now, for this level of growth, I think our current needs are quite well enough to take care of this growth rate.
Understood. Ma'am, would it be possible to tell us?
Yeah. Sorry. I will take the question now.
All right. Thank you.
We'll take the next question from Mr. Gaurav. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for taking my question. I just have one clarification question. In all the management guidance, when we talk about margins, can you clarify which margin do you talk about? Is it a standalone or consolidated? Is it EBITDA, EBIT, or PBT? I just needed a bit clarification on this.
EBIT, earnings before interest and taxes. That's the.
Is it a standalone margin or the consolidated margin?
It's a consolidated margin.
Yeah. There's no gap between the two comparisons, but yeah, we normally talk about the consolidated margin.
Okay. Understood. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. That was my only question.
Thank you. We'll take some questions from the chat. So what was the peak season surcharge during the third quarter?
Peak Season Surcharge, you mean in terms of understanding what it is for?
Yeah, yeah. Basically, yeah, yeah. The festive season surcharge or some premium which you charge with to the higher margin in the third quarter.
It's a bit price-sensitive information, and all we can provide is an outlook that it's a festive-related phenomena which we levy during festive season, and once festive seasons are done, these are rolled back.
Sure. And also, one further question is on the growth outlook, while not really on the number side, but directionally, what is the growth outlook shaping up for FY 26 and FY 27? Because the past few quarters have been pretty muted in terms of growth for the industry. So how are things looking up? Because some players have also been vocal about that it is very difficult to even take a price hike in the current scenario. So just your thoughts on what lies ahead for FY 26 in terms of volume growth as well as pricing growth?
Firstly, don't give any forward-looking statements, Dr. G.
Actually, as I mentioned, it was not about numbers, but how we see the growth shaping up. I mean, in terms of whether price increase would go through and how the volumes could come up. That was basically the question.
Yeah. So actually, it depends on multiple factors. One of the crucial being the domestic demand and our GDP growth, and also then, depending on the segments, B2B, B2C, or air versus ground, and so on, but overall, our outlook remains to be to grow profitably. We do not have personally an ambitious growth targets of growing in a double digit or 25% and so on. We want to keep it to have a very consistent growth year on year, as has been the Blue Dart style from past several years, and would like to grow similar run rate.
Sure. I think there's just one more question in the chat box, and I think if there are no further questions after that, we can close the call. The last question is on the competitive intensity which has been there in the market. If you can highlight on that, because the volumes have been pretty low at the industry level, so the competition is also pretty high. So just wanted, so the question was regarding what could be the impact of that and how do you see the competitive intensity shaping ahead?
We do face a competition, particularly on the ground, where we have competitors like Delhivery, Safexpress and those competing with us on the ground. On the air, with the growing, how to say that, multiple with the availability of the commercial airline space and so on, we do face a constraint there. But then ultimately for us, it's the service quality. It's our service quality that helps us to is being a very differentiating factor. Perhaps that's the reason where we are still able to post consistent stable growth as well as profitable growth versus any of our competitors.
Sure. I think we have completely run out of time now, and there are no further questions. Just I think one last question we'll take, and then we can close the call. Yeah, please go ahead.
Hi, Rajesh. Yes, so I joined the call a little late. Just wanted to know the volume number in tonnage and in shipments, if you could mention that, please.
You are talking about for the April to December, right?
I'm talking about the third quarter, this quarter.
Okay, third quarter. Third quarter.
Yeah. So we have 98.59 million shipments and 351,873 tons.
Thank you. Thanks.
So that's the end of the call now. So I'll transfer the call to the management for any closing comments.
Yeah, Sagar Patel for any management comments?
Management comments, I mean, we are doing consistently well and looking forward to improve performance. Management is geared to do whatever the best measures are required for improved performance of our rate, and it all depends on the economic outlook going forward.
Thank you. Thanks everyone for joining in and.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for organizing. Thank you all.