Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the interaction with senior 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, Compliance, and Company Secretary, Blue Dart Express. I would now hand over the call to the management to provide some opening comments, then we can take up the Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Alok, and good afternoon, everybody. A very warm welcome to all of you. As you are aware, the board of directors of the company at its meeting held on 31st of July 2026, approved the financial results of the company for the quarter ending 30th June 2026. The company reported revenue from operations of INR 1,658 crores, as compared to INR 1,442 crores in the first quarter of 2026. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 87 crores, reflecting disciplined execution and operational resilience despite a challenging external environment and higher operating costs. During the quarter, Blue Dart continued to leverage its integrated air and ground network, extensive domestic reach, and technology-enabled operations to deliver reliable time-definite logistics solutions across industries.
The results have already been uploaded on the stock exchange on the same day, also has been posted on the website of the company. I now hand over the call to Mr. Sagar Patil, our Chief Financial Officer, for further proceedings. Thank you.
Thank you, Tushar. Thank you, Alok. Good afternoon, all. This seems to be a good quarter where what we have put ourself for seems to be bringing positive indications in terms of numbers moving in the right direction. With that backdrop, I think we can start the questions session.
Thank you so much for the opening remarks. Anyone having question can please raise their hand or post it in the chat box below. We'll get started. We'll take the first question from Mr. Krupashankar. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity, sir. Congrats on each set of numbers. The first question was on more of a bookkeeping question. Can you just probably highlight the tonnage for the quarter and the number of parcels, et cetera?
Yes. Total tonnage was 364,430 tons. Three six four, four three zeros. The number of shipments was 96.15 million.
Got it. From a shipments, number of parcels standpoint, the growth was hardly about 2%. Taking it from the tonnage standpoint, it's about 7%.
Yes
Is it fair to assume that the e-commerce growth this time around was relatively lower and most of the growth has come in because of pricing action?
Yes, sir. You are right directionally. There has been a good amount of growth from pricing, from RPK, RPS point of view. The actions that we have taken for improving our yield, in terms of looking at the loss-making lanes or loss-making customers in some of the products. As a part of GPI exercise this time, we also initiated those kind of price increases in some of the customers. That has helped. At the same time, as we saw in the last quarter, we were looking forward to a potential good, big increase in the fuel prices. April, May, June were characterized by that, as we have a fuel price, fuel surcharge mechanism. The fuel surcharge went up, that helped us to neutralize the impact of fuel price increase. As a revenue, ultimately that also reflects in yield.
That is also one reason what would have reflected from a yield point of view.
Right. Sir, quickly on your commentary on your e-commerce and ground business, what would have been the growth, this quarter on a YoY basis? In the air business also, if you can highlight what would have been the growth.
This quarter versus last year, e-commerce would have grown by about, from revenue point of view, more than 10%.
Okay. ground, sir?
Ground, as a B2B, when we talk about e-commerce, it included a part of ground. But ground as a separate B2B has also grown by about 14%.
Ground B2B has grown at around 14%.
Yes.
Got it. Air continues to be one segment wherein the tonnage growth is not happening, but it's more of reflecting on pricing. Is that assessment correct, sir?
Yes, to an extent, yes. The impact of fuel which comes in both cost as well as revenue, but revenue seems higher from yield point of view. Yeah.
Okay. Understood, sir. Directionally, just one point on the e-commerce business.
Yeah
Given that we have seen a good growth in the underlying industry. The growth what we have reported is on a value basis is around 10%. Just wanted to get to know, so what is the disconnect? Are we losing some ground in some specific markets, or has the market shifted from air to ground wherein probably we are losing some share? Any thoughts around this?
From an e-commerce point of view, we have not been a very big player. We, as in the overall context, made up of both captive as well as the three key players. Blue Dart has been, I would say, focused on not playing on the volumes, but ensuring what we get as a piece from e-commerce works well to synergize with our capacities and adds profitability to the bottom line. Quarter-on-quarter, there could be movements which could be seen as higher or lower than the market, again, we play between air and the ground e-commerce part of it. I'm not sure from the industry point of view, again, within that, the relevant part of the industry, be it ground or air.
Sorry. Are you saying something?
Yeah.
No, sir. What I was saying is that the same thing, that given that industry has recently seen consolidation.
Yes
There is a requirement for established players who can provide more solutions on the e-commerce side, isn't it the right time to capitalize on that opportunity and grow aggressively? Probably just wanted to get a sense around why it's not a core area at this point, and because you've already set up infrastructure on the ground side as well. Any thoughts around how you want to build this business going ahead? Because we do know that DHL had commented that they wanted to become a large piece of the e-commerce pie in India over a two to three-year period. Just wanted to get a sense around how you want to build this business.
E-commerce remains a growth driver among the other products, the surface B2B and e-commerce. Within e-commerce, the e-commerce surface has been having higher rates of growth within our portfolio. Within e-commerce also, there have been a lot of development in terms of q-commerce. Whereas we have been more of a bigger air player, with ground growing faster, coming close to the size of air. It remains a growth driver, but not a completely focused area where we may be a very big player. We'll probably grow gradually and continue to make and build our niche in terms of providing where the time premium quality is critical and not as probably a mass player as some of the other players would do.
Understood. I have more questions. I'll get back in the queue, sir. Thanks for answering my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take the next question from Mr. Raman. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Can you hear me?
Yes, Raman.
Yes, sir. Just to follow up on the previous participants, you mentioned that the majority of the growth was because of the price increase and mainly on the account of cutting some loss-making clients. Have you taken any definitive price hike due to the increase in diesel cost?
Our price increase in terms of base price is a mix of general price increase that we do across big and small, all the customers.
Also products. We also go specific on certain customers or for certain customers on certain lanes where we see that there is a mismatch between the value and the premium.
As a result, we may either be a low profit or a low loss or a low margin or a negative margin, we tend to go sharper there. Those are the activities that we have focused, I would say, more on in the last few months. Otherwise, it's not targeting any specific industry or vertical or a product. It's business as usual for us, too, because depending on how our capacity utilization, how our lanes, the seasonality, there are always cases of under and over utilization of our cost, which we again try to synchronize across the product. Where we see that there is a consistent gap or consistent opportunity to improve either our productivity or the price, we take that action either at some or the both ends.
Just to follow up on this. I just want to understand that during the last quarter and currently also, the diesel prices have moved upwards drastically.
Yeah.
Have we passed that on to the customer or will we be passing this in the coming quarter?
Yes. Specific to that, we do have a fuel surcharge related to local diesel prices, especially applicable for our surface business.
As an auto-adjusting mechanism, when we look at and this has been after a long time, after I think five or six years or more, the local retail diesel prices went up by 30% in the middle of May. When they went up in the month of May, we would typically look at the impact or the prices for the month, and then we revise our fuel surcharge for the next month. It's an auto-adjusting fuel cost neutralization mechanism that we have in place. Our prices for customers, to maybe to answer in short, yes, our prices would have gone up because of this surcharge going up, especially after the month of May.
Is it fair to say that the incremental price increase due to the fuel surcharge was not fully reflected in Q1, but will be fully reflected from Q2 onwards?
Yes. Let me clarify more on this.
You spoke mainly about diesel.
The substantial impact for us would also come from the air part of it, which is 60%, again, having our own capacity. There, the Brent prices started going up from the month of, say, March, somewhere in the middle of March. Our fuel surcharge also started going up from the month of April.
Understood.
For it, yes. Yeah.
Sir, you also mentioned in the first question with respect to yield improvement, can you quantify how much was the yield growth part or on YoY basis?
Difficult to pinpoint because we are made up of a number of different products, a mix of both surface as well as air.
At the same time, right from documents to small packages to bigger parcels. For some products, yield comes in terms of shipments more relevant. For some, it is by kilos. As I also mentioned in the last, I think, earnings call, typically, we look at a GPI realization of close to 4%-5%, and that is how we kind of go on the plan. Net realization, I meant to say, depending on over and under trading customers after GPI.
On top of that, we would have done certain specific price corrections with some of the customers, to make it sharper and also have positive margin impact.
Understood, sir. Thank you. I will just join back in the queue.
We'll take next one from Mr. Dhaval Shah. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I want to understand this 7% volume growth what we've done, and also a bit of the past few quarters. How is the core manufacturing and the automobile sector performing for us? Sham, given auto has done very well in this quarter, and also with the last year and plus, what sort of conversations you are having, visibility you are seeing with respect to that sector growth. As I understand, the express logistics service is used a lot by automobile industry, and Blue Dart had a very good market share in the past. Over the past two, three years and going forward, how is this destiny? Have we lost market share? Have we gained market share? How are we doing now? If you can give some overall perspective, it will be very helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. We do play a role in the auto segment. It is one of the industry verticals that our revenue teams focus on. We would deal with many of the major players in the market. In terms of as a market share, again, difficult to quantify, I would say, because we are in a very niche kind of segment where we are not essentially a ground freight, but more of a ground express.
Yes
where it is time-critical and urgent. As a auto industry as a whole, our share of volumes would be relatively much lower, but we do see a good amount of traction, even in the air movements of these players by some of the big players. While on ground, we have an express share of the business and not even PTL share of business, I would say.
We see, again, for some customers, we see good amount of traction, and some of the customers have also helped us to correct the prices, when I spoke about the special price correction that we had. We see a good amount of value being derived by the automobile industry. Yes, express is such a product where it will not reflect significantly. The elasticity with respect to the growth in the industry in general may be lower. That is, if the industry is pretty large, the amount of express would be relatively smaller given the criticality of some of the spare that may have to be moved. At the same time, even if the industry is stagnant or stable or even de-growing at times, then the amount of critical movements again may not drop very significantly.
We play in a very niche kind of a segment over there. Yeah, that is also one vertical.
Yeah. How much auto would have grown for you in this quarter?
I don't have vertical-wise numbers.
Maybe in the last two, three years, how has auto been in terms of growth? Because the underlying industry has been doing very well, and more higher value cars are being sold, more electronics are there in the car, and I assume express must be used for high-value logistics. Any understanding you can give us like, FY 2026, we had a good volume growth. Even FY 2025, we had a volume growth. Auto as a sector is growing at what rate for you?
I mean, we see more growth from auto point of view in the surface B2B, which as a segment has been growing in high teens consistently in last few years. I would say auto would be somewhere in that range for us.
Growing at high teens?
Yes.
Okay. Last question, how much is now the BFSI, the card and the documents portfolio, how much would that be now for us?
From overall domestic point of view? Yeah.
More at a company level, how much is our exposure to the documents and credit card and the BFSI segment portfolio?
Documents and card.
Maybe documents and card together.
Documents and card, especially the BFSI segment, would be between 10%-15% of total revenue.
Okay. Which was around 25%-30% a couple of years ago, if I'm not wrong. Right?
Not couple of, maybe little longer back.
Okay.
I'm talking about only BFSI. Otherwise, we do have express products that are carried as documents or smaller courier parcels along with documents, that would come to 25%-30%.
Okay. BFSI is around 10%-15%.
Yes.
The other portion is 25%-30%. Okay.
May all put together.
Okay. This BFSI is now stagnant since couple of years. Is that the case?
Yes. We do see some slowdown with the elongated cycles of credit cards, debit cards. Yes. It's not a growing segment as such anymore. Anyway, last few years, we have been growing mainly in surface and eCom surface.
Understood. Okay. Thank you, sir. I'll come back in the queue.
Yeah.
We'll take next question from Mr. Achal. Please go ahead.
Sir, you're on mute.
We'll take next one from Mr. Krupashankar.
Yeah. Thank you for the follow-up, sir, last.
Yes.
Just one couple of questions again on, what would have been the mix on B2B and B2C this quarter, if you can share.
In terms of revenue, it remains at around 70/30. 70 being B2B and 30 being B2C. 1% or 2% ± .
All right. air and ground as well, that makes us 1/3, 2/3, or has it changed?
No. now, air, it remains between 60/40. 60 being air and 40 being ground from revenue point of view.
Got it. The question gradually which comes up, this quarter, of course, the profitability has been quite strong. given that the mix is moving more towards ground and e-commerce because of higher growth over there, how do you see the EBITDA margins now shaping up at least for the near term, considering there are good tailwinds coming in with respect to volume growth? Any color around that, sir?
Our business is of combining number of different types of products, their modes, their weight breaks, and typically, you would have seen the second half of the year gives a boost to the volumes while also it puts a pressure on being ready from resourcing point of view for peak. our ability to flex bit across the products and also to flex with respect to, we mirror the picking up of resources with the picking of the customer or the market volumes will really define the way we drive our margins. It's basically the, I would say, the game of building efficiency in terms of flexing the resource versus demand. that will define also course for the coming months.
Got it. Okay. Last question from my side. On CapEx side, any change with respect to your CapEx plans or what would be the quantum of CapEx in the standalone entity and overall, including the aviation business?
As I mentioned in the last call, our CapEx is largely in the nature of, I would say, operating CapEx, where being already covering, having covered the country in terms of network, the CapEx comes in more as replacement with expansion and very small amount of additions. The annualized CapEx may remain to the tune of INR 100 crore-INR 150 crore for the standalone. In aviation entity as well, the CapEx is largely in terms of either maintenance cycles or engine cycles of the aircrafts. That can really vary significantly depending on the engines come for the cycle or when do we plan those kind of maintenance as such.
Unless we come and talk about significant plans of movement in the CapEx, so I think the amount of depreciation that we book, maybe some 20%-25% on top of that can be said to be an ongoing CapEx that we do as we organically grow this business.
Right. Historically, when I observed your standalone business.
Yes
the nature of CapEx annually has been around INR 75 crores-INR 80 crores round about.
Yes.
Last year you did add a lot of infrastructure or network of new hubs. Since you're also guiding INR 100 crores-INR 150 crores, can you throw some light around what are the new hubs or anything which are coming up over the medium term?
Yes. We added two major hubs in North, and before that, a couple of medium-sized hubs in East. We are working, looking at opportunities of consolidating and expanding some of the hubs in South, around Bangalore, possibly around Chennai, and also in Mumbai itself. May not be this year, maybe, but few quarters away by the time they materialize.
Got it, sir. Got it. Thank you for answering my questions, sir. All the best. Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah. We'll take next one from Mr. Achal. Please go ahead.
Am I audible, sir, now?
Yes. Yes, Achal.
Yeah. Thank you. Apologies for the previous instance, sir. If you could help us understand in terms of the volume mix, if you could help us with the volume mix for air and surface, sir.
In terms of kilos, the ratio between air and ground would be 1: 3, because surface becomes a kilo-heavy business. While I mentioned about revenue share between 60/ 40, 60/ 40, in terms of weights, it is 1 : 3. Other way around.
25/ 75-
Yes
air and surface, right?
Yes.
Secondly, in terms of volume growth, if you could remind us what has been the growth for air and surface, and how do you see that for the next couple of quarters?
Volume growth in air has been around between 2.5%, I think 2.6%, and ground has been about 9% in the volume. Overall, 7% that I mentioned. Coming quarters, there will be seasonality effect as it comes every year. A YoY, you can look at the trends. We will not be able to forecast or make a forward statement, looking statement over here, but you can look at the trends, typically what is the ratio between quarter- to- quarter.
Fair point, sir. Sir, if you could indicate what has been the utilization of the freighters for the quarter.
Sorry, status of what?
Freighter utilization, sir. The aircraft utilization.
We measure freighter utilization in terms of the pallet utilization. That remains between 85%-90%. As we know, we are not really a cargo company. The freighters fly largely at night. We also have some visibility of how much load is there. Based on that, we typically plan our flight schedule. From a pallet utilization point of view, ensure that unless and until the flight, we have enough load to fly the aircraft, which consistently is during the weeks. It remains at 85%-90%.
Fair point. Sorry, to harp on this margin question, how do we see this given the mix what we have, given the cost inflation, how do we see the margins for next few quarters or for the remaining? Do we see margin pressure, or you think whatever is the cost inflation that gets actually passed on? By and large, we should be fairly similar in margin?
No, that's the main entire business of trying to match the inflation with the margins while trying to grow volume. As we have said earlier, we'll look at having a stable, consistent improvement in the margins, and we'll work towards that. Unless, of course, there is plan that we come to the market in terms of any major expansion if we have to plan. Otherwise, it's a business of stable growth, organic growth, and operational commercial improvement in the profitability.
Got it. Sir, if I may ask, I don't know if you'll have this number, but within air, how much would be eCom, and within surface, how much would be eCom as a percent of revenue? Would you have that number, by any chance?
No, we don't provide that detail.
Fair point. Just last question, if I may, sir. For eCom, specifically e-commerce shipments, have you seen better pricing or the pricing remains challenging as it used to be in the past?
We-
Given consolidation, if it has changed favorably for us.
I would say it remains competitive, since we are dealing in very niche kind of trade lanes or customer base, a lot of D2C We are already seen as a premium price player in the market, so it's never easy to get price increase given the capacity still available otherwise in the markets in other players. The idea is always to try to synergize, have a better capitalization, and more efficient model running.
Fair point. Just a clarification on that.
How much premium we would be on an average? Would that be 2%, 3%, or could that be a 10%, 15% in the eCom-?
How much what?
Premium.
Premium.
How much premium? Again, difficult to say, I would say. There are different numbers that we get to hear, so it will not be appropriate to comment in this forum.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll fall back in the queue. Thank you.
Okay.
Yeah. We'll take next one from Mr. Surya. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Yeah. Sir, out of 96.15 million shipments.
Okay
Can you quantify how much will be the B2C volume mix and the 3PL express volume in this quarter for us?
3PL?
Yeah, 3PL express volume mix in the whole shipment.
You mean to say eCom?
Yeah.
Yeah. eCom will be INR 50+ million in this.
Sorry, sir?
INR 50+ million.
Okay, got it.
Yeah. More than half would be.
More than half. Okay. Sir, any idea on our market share in D2C and SME clients for this quarter? Have we gained any market share in last one year?
In terms of SME client, we won't have a number to quote. What we understand, when we have informal assessment in the market, we would have gained a very small but almost stable market share versus last year.
Sir, any idea, like, in percentage term, how much will be our market share in D2C?
In B2C? B2C, we see a, I mean.
Sir, D2C. D2C.
D2C?
Yeah.
Specifically D2C, I won't have. In overall outsource or 3PL eCom players, I understand we would be close to 12%-13%. Within that, how much on D2C, no, we won't have that number.
Okay. Sure. sir, do you seeing any outsourcing trend from the 3PL, from the e-commerce player in last six, nine months?
No, nothing significant to quote here. Yeah.
Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.
Some of the numbers we would really quote from our business point of view, what would happen in the market would be more of a not very reliable number to quote for. We would not prefer to even hazard any number, even if we hear something informally.
Got it, sir. Thank you.
Yeah.
We'll take next one from Mr. Raman. Please go ahead.
Thank you for allowing me for a follow-up. With respect to express logistics, I just want to understand what are, out of the total consolidated revenue, how much is express logistics?
Ours is entirely express logistics. What would you mean by express logistics?
Like a one-day delivery.
Okay.
The next day delivery, more or less like that.
For us, we have one single segment, which is express logistics, and it is differentiated. We, as a management, try to slice it more either by weight break or by the prime mode of transport. It is, again, even if we call it air, it's more of a nomenclature, but it is not really air-air. It is a multimodal, fastest express possible.
Yeah. All of our revenue, we would call it as express logistics.
Understood, sir. Most of the competitors in express logistics, they have given a very robust commentary on how the demand outlook is there. Have we been able to maintain our market position, and how is the pricing due to the growing competition in the market?
Yeah. We work towards more of improving our absolute profitability, either by virtue of maintaining or securing the volume while improving the yield or, wherever possible, if the growth provides incremental absolute gain in the profitability, we go after that. That's it.
Understood, sir. If you can quantify our market share in the express logistics?
We are in different products. In air, we would be the market leader. Whereas when it comes to surface B2B or e-commerce, this is where we are growing and trying to gain more market share to lead the market.
Understood, sir. Thank you.
Thanks.
Anyone having questions can please raise their hand or post in the chat box. Sir, we'll take some questions which had come via chat. First is on the margins. Margins have improved quite drastically if you look at as compared to the last few quarters. Is this margin now sustainable and can we see further improvement from here? If you can just highlight on the margin piece.
Yeah, as I said, we have tried and worked on both efficiency capacity as well as on the better realization from the market. Our effort will always be to improve on that. The second half of the year typically comes with a challenge, not challenge, but opportunity of higher volumes, but the challenge of meeting those volumes with optimum or better utilization of incremental resources. The effort will be to maintain or improve further. We seem to be on the right path, is what I would say.
Sure. On the volume side, what sort of a volume growth we could be, or a broader range we could be looking at for this financial year across air and the surface segment? While surface has been the fast-growing segment, but any color on what could be the growth like in terms of tonnage?
Yeah. As the economy improves, the volatility in the global economy also improves. That can help us to gain better volumes. I think it will go with that look. I would say major plans of expansion to add significantly more volumes. Everything that will come from marketplace, where we'll try to gain more share.
Sure. Sir, one question is on the aircraft utilization.
Yes.
What would be the utilization levels now, and are all the aircrafts and routes stabilized, especially the last two acquired aircrafts. Is everything stabilized on that part now, or is still something going on as far as stabilization is concerned?
As we have updated quarter-to-quarter, sometime in 2024, we were able to bring the pallet utilizations of the aircraft at the pre-acquisition of those two aircrafts. Those two aircrafts are more of a part of the overall network that we have. It's not that they have a different place. They come and add in certain legs of the overall network. Again, given the capacity, there will always effort to ensure that the aircrafts are full. What really plays is what is the yield at which that load comes. So far as we are able to see that a better yield for a given lane, for a given product, we are able to secure, that can help to improve the utilization further.
If the availability of a good yield product improves, we can even double the amount of utilization in terms of flying those aircrafts during the day as well. In short, from a capacity utilization, that has never been a challenge. It's a question of what kind of product that goes in, how critical or important it is for the customer to be able to pay the premium that ensures the profitability of the overall network. We keep on, as I also said earlier, the evaluation of the utilization or the design of the network that we have is a continuous exercise based on which we keep on adding, reducing the number of flights at times, not flying one or two aircrafts also in a given time of the month or during the week.
I would say that's the core of this business where you have a sustainable good amount of widespread network of the customers as well as first-mile, last-mile, that complements and enables us to use these aircrafts efficiently, not only for a given month or quarter, but it's a daily exercise. Every day our network team plans what sectors we should fly, how much quota would be allocated so that if one sector requires additional load based on their forecast, we'll have to really look at any other sector who can share that quota. I would say that's the main engine that runs behind the profitability and scale of this air business for us.
Sure. We'll just take one last question again in the chat. What would have been the belly cargo capacity for us, which we would have seen, or proportion for us in the tonnage for this quarter?
Belly cargo typically moves between 30%-40% of our overall load, including both the stations at which our own aircraft, there are currently eight stations on Blue Dart flight flies. We also have another between 25-50 other locations where we would carry on belly cargo. For a month, it typically moves between 30%-40%. Again, this is a very generic number I would say, because over the weekend, we may not fly in as many our aircraft, so the share of belly cargo may go up on a lower volume to maybe 70%-80% as well. For a month, it typically moves between 30%-40%.
Got it. Yeah, those were the questions. I'll now hand over the call to you for any closing comments, sir.
As I said, this has been a good quarter, and I must also thank you, thank all of you for asking the questions, which also helps us to get a perspective of how the investors would be looking at the P&L, and that helps us to ensure that we are on the right track and providing the right value, whether in terms of profitability or margins or volumes, growth, market share, et cetera. Our effort will always be to improve the absolute returns on the given, I would say, balance sheet size. We'll work towards that. Do you share anything, Tushar?
Thank you Alok for organizing this, and thank you all shareholders. As and when, if you have any query at any point of time, Sagar and me are always available. You can always reach us on our email ID or on our phone. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks everyone for joining in. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.