Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Bajaj Consumer Q4 and FY 2025 Earning Conference Call. 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Dhiraj Mistry. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, and good evening, everyone. I would like to thank the management of Bajaj Consumer Care to give us an opportunity to host this call. From the management, we have with us Mr. Jaideep Nandi, Managing Director; Dilip Maloo, CFO; and Mr. Richard D'Souza, EVP Finance. Over to you, sir. Thank you.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for participating in this Q4 FY 2025 earnings call. Straight away, let me take you through the company's performance for the fourth quarter and 12 months ended March 31, 2025. Before we open the floor for questions, the consolidated sales for the company stood at INR 247 crores for the fourth quarter and INR 950 crores for the 12 months ended FY 2025. The top line of the company grew by 5.4% in Q4 on a year-on-year basis and 7.1% on a sequential basis, while registering a low single-digit decline for 12 months ended FY 2025. The gross margin for Q4 on a standalone basis stood at 54.2%, higher by 290 basis points quarter on quarter, while for 12 months, FY 2025 gross margin stood at 63.4%, lower by 80 basis points against last year.
Improved saliency of ADHO along with price increases helped improve GM percentage on a sequential basis, while on an FY basis, inflation in copra prices coupled with product mix had an adverse effect on the gross margin. EBITDA on a standalone basis for the quarter stood at INR 33.8 crores, while for the 12 months, EBITDA stood at INR 136.3 crores with a margin of 14.1% and 14.7%, respectively. Standalone profit after tax stood at INR 31.5 crores for Q4 FY 2025 and INR 130.1 crores for 12 months FY 2025. The company registered PAT margins of 13.1% and 14% for Q4 and 12 months FY 2025, respectively. During the quarter, general trade registered a growth of 7% on a sequential basis, while on the year-on-year basis, it still remained negative. The sequential growth was driven by both growth in the wholesale channel as well as rural.
The wholesale channel, which had been an area of concern in past few quarters, showed signs of recovery with a 15% quarter-on-quarter growth in Q4. Sales in retail channel in states where Project Aarohan was implemented has shown improvement, supported by expansion of direct reach. Our retail loyalty program registered a growth of 17% for Q4 2025 and 31% for 12 months FY2025. The program outlet contribution stood at 12.5% for the quarter. This will continue to remain a key focus for the company. The RTM revamp Project Aarohan implemented across UP and MP in previous quarters has started showing results. In the states, close to 24,000 new outlets were added and 1,300 new towns were brought under coverage.
During the current quarter, phase two of Project Aarohan has now been expanded in states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, and Chhattisgarh, where reach and representation improvement opportunities have been identified, and implementation is expected to be completed by May of 2025. The organized trade continued to do well, registering a growth of 30% year-on-year in this quarter and 18% in the full year. Saliency of this channel stood at 30%. Modern trade grew by 22% year-on-year in Q4, driven by strong performances across chains, supported by customer activations during events in January. We recorded highest-ever quarter for D-Mart, registering a 30% growth year-on-year basis. Key packs in both ADHO and Coconut oil posted over a 50% growth in quarter four compared to previous year. A robust growth of 43% in Q4 year-on-year was registered in Vishal Mega Mart, More Retail, which delivered a 3x business growth.
Reliance Retail saw a slowdown in Q4 on account of store consolidation and registered a decline in the full year. E-commerce channel grew by 33% year-on-year in Q4 2025 and 29% for the full year. We saw highest-ever market share of 25% for coconut oil in Flipkart under the total year-on-year category. City Mall, Swiggy, Zepto, Blinkit, Myntra platforms saw highest-ever secondary sales in quarter four. Quick Commerce grew by 60% over last year and 21% over Q3. Saliency of Quick Commerce was at 12% in Q4, as against 10% in the last quarter. Canteens and institutions also delivered strong performances, growing 42% year-on-year in Q4. CPC and CSD canteens, while they saw a decline primarily due to high inventory levels, institutional businesses grew by 5X in quarter four, supported by addition of new customers and successful launch of cross-category promotions.
The international business recorded a robust growth of 30% year-on-year in quarter four and 20% for 2025. GCC and Africa grew by 25% year-on-year in Q4 and 7% in the full year. Markets like Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Afghanistan, and Mauritius delivered a strong 43% growth in 2025, while Saudi Arabia registered a decline. E-commerce sales commenced in Q4 2025 in UAE with major contributions from the pure oil portfolio. Nepal registered a growth of 20% year-on-year and 18% in 2025, driven by strong performance in NPD. Salience of NPD portfolio stood at 25% of overall revenue, led by products like Virgin Coconut Oil, Coconut Oil, and AD Serum. The marketing efforts included digital activations of ADHO and Virgin Coconut Oil, along with festive engagement posts on social media to build consumer connect. Bangladesh continues with growth momentum, growing by 32% year-on-year in quarter four and 44% in the full year.
Continuous focus on improving feet-on-street productivity, consumer promotions delivered growth. The rest of world markets posted excellent performance, with 107% growth year-on-year in Q4 and 49% growth in the full year. This strong trajectory was led by key markets: Canada, Malaysia, USA, Tibet, and New Zealand. The first shipment to Amazon USA is also currently in transit, further strengthening the international footprint. Coming to the brand performances, ADHO delivered a growth of 3% in quarter four year-on-year basis and 11% sequentially. The growth was seen across majority packs. The INR 10 SKU grew by 16% year-on-year, supported by the improved price perception and value proposition. INR 1 sachet, however, saw a decline by 10% in quarter four on a year-on-year basis, on account of consumers upgrading to the INR 10, 20 SKU.
In mid packs, the 45 ml SKU drove new trials and reversed previous declines, with retail and wholesale both seeing good growth. The 95 ml SKU grew by 8% year-on-year, following the launch of a 20% extra free volume offer. In large packs, the 190 ml SKU grew by 10.5% year-on-year, driven by consumer upgrades to PET bottles and the rollout of flip-top caps, while the 700 ml SKU grew by 32% year-on-year on the back of heated offers. Combined sales of 650ml and 750 ml rose by 40% plus, supported by exclusive kits and enhanced visibility in organized sales. Exclusive TV campaigns on ADHO through thematic advertising and the 95 ml promo campaign led to 2,800 plus GRPs, with increased focus on prime time and top-rated shows. On-ground activations at one of the largest consumer engagement platforms, the Kumbh Mela, lasted for 45 days, improving visibility.
The digital campaign targeting urban audiences was amplified across YouTube and top OTT platforms, reaching 22 million customers and generating 74 million impressions. Under influencer marketing, a strategic mix of macro and micro influencers successfully engaged younger audiences, delivering 1 million views with a 3.7% engagement rate, which is double that of the industry market. The Almond Drops and Almond Drops Hair and Skin Care range continued to deliver strong performance, registering a 73% year-on-year growth in Q4 and 46% growth in FY2025. Within this, the AD Shampoo and the Conditioner segment delivered significant results from the e-commerce channel. AD Lotion saw a significant uplift online, supported by optimized display images, new pack launches, and influencer campaigns. AD S oap grew by 114% in the organized trade channel, driven by the introduction of the new 125 x 8 pack and price solutions.
In AD Serum segment, all channels performed well, with the brand growing at 44% year-to-date, aided by positive consumer ratings and reviews, which helped drive continued traction. Bajaj 100% Pure Coconut Oil registered a significant growth in Q4 2025 and for the full year maintained consistent monthly revenues of INR 10 crore and above throughout 2025, with steady market share gains across quarters. In response to copra price increases, two price increases were implemented in Q4 2025, though they remained at a lag, and hence it was followed by a pre-teen price increase in April 2025. Again, we will further take price increases based on the movement of copra price. In Maharashtra, the largest market for coconut oil, market share increased from 1.6% to 2.2% in Q4 2025, driven by targeted promotions on consumer-focused SKUs and enhanced distribution efforts.
Market share gains were also seen in Bajaj standalone markets: Punjab, Rajasthan nearly 10%, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh nearly 7%. In Q4, Bajaj 100% Pure Coconut Oil marketing initiatives included display and banner ads for Amazon and Flipkart to boost visibility. The exclusive 525 ml pack launched in Apollo led to a 25% increase in uptake, during Q3 and Q4. The introduction of the tin pack in Q3 for the eastern markets and its subsequent expansion in Q4 across Northeast contributed to 40% of Green CNO sales. In addition to this, the INR 20 CNO Blue pack was extended to Northeast and Assam. On input costs, LLP prices continued to decline in Q4, driven by weak demand and falling crude oil prices. Refined mustard oil, however, saw a slight decline due to a favorable mustard harvest in India, although global edible oil prices continued to rise.
On an overall basis, mustard has gone up over the year. Copra prices increased over the last two quarters, primarily due to higher demand for downstream products and supply shortages in markets like Sri Lanka, with prices expected to remain bullish in the short term. Multiple initiatives have been implemented, including optimization of specifications, development of alternate vendors, sourcing alternate raw materials. These efforts have resulted in nearly INR 6 crores savings in FY 2025. Additionally, productivity improvements have been driven through automation on select product lines, smart manufacturing initiatives to reduce non-value-added activities and enhance manpower productivity, with improvement of 6% in Guwahati and 17% in Paonta Sahib. Our CSR initiatives have positively impacted over 16,000 families across 650 villages, focusing on rainwater harvesting and sustainable agriculture practices.
As part of our ESG commitments, we are on track to meet the short to medium-term targets in all the key resources, both from the demand and supply side. The rainwater harvesting initiatives done over the past few quarters will result in replenishment of groundwater to the extent of 500% of our water consumption. During the quarter, the company completed the acquisition of 49% of equity share capital of Vishal Personal Care Private Limited, the company holding the Banjaras brand. Balance 51% is expected to be completed in Q1 FY2026. With this, Vishal Personal Care will become a wholly owned subsidiary of BCCL. For post-merger integration, a leading consultant is already engaged to design and integrate the operations. This has already commenced in April 2025. The acquisition aligns well with the overall vision of our company, enhancing our portfolio and market presence.
As the market scenario turns favorable, with food inflation easing out and hair oil seeing a good comeback in the previous quarter, we are confident that the progress in strengthening capabilities that we have done over the past few years will start yielding strong results for the company in the coming quarters. The strategic initiatives of portfolio diversification resulting in the introduction of coconut oil and others, sustained aggression in modern trade and e-commerce businesses, building a strong foundation in the international markets, which have been the key focus areas of the company, have already started bearing fruit. With the ongoing expansion and optimization of our distribution network in GT through Project Aarohan, we are all set to enhance both market reach and consumer engagement in key markets across the country.
The strategic acquisition of Banjaras through our portfolio will also help us establish our foothold in the much-needed markets of South India. These initiatives, coupled with stable commodity prices and a calibrated approach to pricing, rationalization of cost structures, places us well to deliver strong top-line growth as well as improved EBITDA margins in FY 2026. With t hat, I close my opening remarks and open the floor for questions. Thank you.
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 their 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. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
The first question is from the line of Abhijeet Kundu from Antique Stock Broking . Please go ahead.
Yeah, so thank you for the opportunity. Good evening. My first question was on ADHO. ADHO has now, I mean, when I look at your revenues, also they have shown some amount of improvement during Q4, as well as ADHO has shown some amount of improvement on a sequential basis.
Yes. Yes, that's correct. Hello? Are we audible?
Yes, sir, you are.
Abhijeet, I didn't get the question. Is Abhijeet's line on or?
Should we move on to the next question?
Yeah, maybe we can get Abhijeet after that.
Okay, sir. The third question is from the line of Kaushik Poddar from KB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah, see, I think you have been guiding us for around 10% growth for the future years, which has not happened this year. Can we expect that kind of growth to come back because the market itself is looking up?
See, now that the market is looking up, I think most of the drivers that you see have been put in place. All of them have been. All of them have been firing except the core issue of general trade and basically Almond Drops Hair Oil. I think both of them have been functional both in terms of market aggression that you have seen in competitive thing, both in terms of the traditional competitors as well as the digital competitors that have been there. That has been a little bit of a pushback. Overall performance in GT because we are heavily, heavily GT-focused. In other businesses, in modern trade, e-commerce, etc., I think we are pretty well placed.
If you look at just the trends of the last quarter, and I think going forward, we are very, very clear that we would be having very, very strong growth in the coming quarters for sure, both in terms of our bottom line as well as in the top line. Most of the main correction that was required was basically in general trade, getting our structure right, improving our retail. We have been always a very wholesale-dominated company. We tried to correct the wholesale. I do not think it worked very well for us in the, let's say, four quarters back. Most of those corrections have happened as well as having this Project Aarohan that we are doing with one of the leading consultants. I mean, you just saw the kind of numbers we are looking at in terms of retail expansion.
We are looking at more than 100,000 retailers to be added and quite a few towns that we talked about, a few thousand towns being added. That itself, we feel that in general trade, that should be giving us good returns. We have also rationalized our advertising because last year, the year itself was not so strong. We had to rationalize a bit of our marketing spend. We are now clearly going back, increasing our marketing spend in ADHO itself. That itself should give further thrust and boost Almond Drops. With general trade and ADHO corrected and with all the other businesses, modern trade, e-commerce, whether you see coconut itself or the international business, all of them firing, I think we are looking at good numbers both for profitability as well as trade in the coming quarter here.
See, on the ADHO, it's a value-added hair oil. Are we growing at the rate the whole market is growing? I mean, how is it compared to the market growth of value-added hair oil?
If you look at the value-added hair oils, the market is pretty mixed. The growth that has happened, if you look at in the last, let's say, few quarters, leave this quarter alone because this quarter has been very, very skewed because of the copra sharp price increases that happened in copra, and you have seen the results of one of the largest competitors where there is a large differential between the value and the volume growth that are there. That is basically driven by a very, very skewed copra price increase. Other than that, if you take back and look at the last 8-12 quarters, yes, Almond Drops has lagged behind overall hair oil.
If you look at within the value-added hair oils itself, if you look at the top three players, most of them have not done very, very well. Whether it be the low-end sarso that has gone up very highly, but not the main brand, or whether it be some of the value-added hair oils of the largest competitor, these brands have not done very well in the last seven-eight quarters. Now that the market is looking up, now the market is showing signs of recovery, we fe el these will come back very strongly.
Is it a problem with the growth in the value-added hair oil market? People are shifting to something else or something, or why is it anything growth for this?
It's a mix of everything. I think the hair oil market itself has remained limited in the last three, four years, as you would have seen. Given the last two years where the food inflation has been so bad, and I think you have seen that commentary from all the companies coming up, all the consumer companies coming up, there has been an issue of demand itself. Now that the food inflation is slowly becoming better, while we do not have an absolute visibility that it will be extremely robust or something, definitely the market looks to have come out of the woods. The moment that happens, the core products will anyway remain strong, like let's say the coconuts and all of the oil, which are the core products. The value-added are the ones which suffer the maximum when this kind of a downturn happens.
On the reverse side, when the upturn starts happening, the value-added should show very, very strong return. We are seeing signs of recovery as far as Almond Drops is concerned, but I think that commentary should be there across other companies as well. If that happens, we would be one of the major beneficiaries. Yes.
My last question, how has the month of April been?
The month of April has been good. It is going in a similar direction as that. I would obviously not be able to give you complete guidance on the month itself, but I would say that it has been more or less similar to what is happening in the quarter in discussion that we are saying. It has been good, and I think we are pretty quietly optimistic that we'll have a good quarter as well as the full year.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks for answering my queries. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ajay Thakur from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.
Hello sir . Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to understand a bit on the coconut oils market, how is it growing? For 2025, we have indicated around 19% growth. What would have been the growth rate for the market in the blended oil space? How has the market share trend been on an all-India basis?
If you look at the coconut oil market, the market grew by about double digits, a little more than double digits in the quarter and just close to double digits in the full year. If you look at the volume growth, and this is obviously in value terms, if you look at it in volume terms, the growth was in close single digits.
This is mainly because of the kind of copra price increases that we have seen. I mean, if you look at year to year, the copra price increase has been about 70%. One of the things that I think we did a little late, if I can admit, is that we increased the prices a little later, which now we have corrected in April itself, and we have gone for a meaningful price increase. That was a little late in terms of reacting to the price increases because of the way the sharp price increases that were happening. I think we missed a little bit of a boat, but I think we have now corrected that and gone along with that. This is what is happening as far as the coconut market itself.
Clearly now we have emerged as a very, very strong player across all markets. I mean, clearly now that our product has been on, and we are seeing at an average of about INR 10 crore kind of a number coming up regularly, month after month, without much of an effort, much of a thing. I think the strong testimony of what the product has been able to establish, not only in the speaking belts where we are traditionally strong, but also markets of Maharashtra, West Bengal, and even pockets of South. Obviously, South, we do not have distribution today. Tomorrow, with Vishal Personal Care, the Banjaras brand coming in to our where our distribution is expected to go up by 3x. I personally think coconut has a large potential to be able to get into that.
It might take a little bit of time to get our act together, get our consolidated approach to the market a little stronger, but I think that opens up a large possibility for our coconut to do well. Coconut at this stage, the market shares obviously are nothing a huge number to talk about, but we are now looking at a single digit, no longer fractions, but into single digits, good single digits, low single digit market shares already coming in. I think going forward, I think there is good story to be coming in. Now that we are also bridging the price gap between the competitors, the largest competitor than us, I think that is where also I have already mentioned that as far as our sourcing capability, I don't think we are very, very well off.
Yes, obviously we don't have the kind of scale of sourcing, but fortunately for copra, scale itself doesn't make too much of a difference because it's domestically procured. It's the timing of sourcing rather than the scale of sourcing that makes a difference, like let's say a product like LLP or so. We clearly have cracked that code quite a bit. Obviously, we don't have the kind of expertise of a 40-year expertise in coconut, but I think we have acquired quite a bit of it, and we would really be somewhere able to challenge the top competitors. I think we are in a good position, and this is a product which will be a significant contributor for both our top line and also our bottom line in going forward.
Understood. Secondly, sir, on the non-ADHO share of the revenue, can you share insights into that? What is the current share of non-ADHO mix in the revenue, and what are targets for the same going forward?
Almond Drops is at 80% or so. I mean, that is where the saliency is. And now the saliency of the products beyond Almond Drops, I mean, all the new products as well as a bit of traditional products that we have is around close to 20%. More than what our target for that, I mean, our long-term target, as I mentioned earlier, is getting it closer to 40%. Our objective now would be to ensure that Almond Drops grows strongly. Now that the market is coming back, our objective focus will be to make sure Almond Drops grows strongly and make sure that the products beyond Almond Drops go faster than Almond Drops. That is one of the key focus areas. Coconut clearly is a good product that we have.
It will continue to grow. I think there is enough headroom for that product to grow. The Almond Drops skin and hair care range, I mean, that has already shown lots of promise. It requires more investments a bit, but I think we have slowly started garnering continuously on a regular basis. They have been also sustained. The pure coconut, the hair and skin range of skincare range of Almond Drops within Almond Drops, these two are clearly two main drivers of the portfolio beyond Almond Drops. We also have this Banjaras range, which we are now exploring as to what can be further scaled up from the Banjaras range because there are some very interesting products. Very interestingly, some of the products that Banjaras have established in the South are actually North-based products, whether it be Multani Mitti , and many other Gulab Jal, Aloe Vera, etc.
A lot of them we are seeing how we can tactically or even strategically place in the market. This is not going to happen tomorrow, but this is something that we will also explore and see what we can. Clearly, focus will remain on Almond Drops, grow Almond Drops, make it a strong brand back to its past glory. Now that the market is coming back and also ensure that NPDs grow strongly. Yeah.
Much helpful. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhijeet Kundu from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Am I audible this time?
Yes, Abhijeet, you are.
Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question was on ADHO, the core brand. You are quite confident that the recovery has just started. When I look at your slide, there is, though it has grown in low single digit in this quarter, a sequential improvement. Also, your overall turnover has seen a sequential improvement, which is good. What has to work for Almond Drops now to really see a better growth? The large packs are doing well, e-commerce is doing well. What are the opportunities that you are seeing, and what would really give you the confidence that Almond Drops as a portfolio, as a whole, has started recovering meaningfully? Essentially in your core markets, right? I mean, the core markets have to grow at a better rate.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely correctly pointed out.
As you rightly said, the large packs have been doing well, modern trade e-commerce have been doing well, and real trade is where basically the lag has been, and that's where Almond Drops has actually lagged. Now, one of the two things that are getting, I think one is you need to look at the way the market also has panned out. Other than the fact that the market itself has been sluggish, you have also seen very heightened activity, competitive intensity in the mid packs, etc., not through direct competition, but also through other low-end products, etc., which we have seen in the marketplace and which has slowly eaten into these markets quite a bit to an extent.
Now, with the market easing out and our focus into ensuring that our direct reach improves, as we have been talking about, I mean, we already have an increase in retail reach of about 24,000 in two states, and we are looking at a number of close to about 1.4 lakh total when we see the entire India setup. Already four more states are already in place. The moment you look at this retail reach, that itself and better execution as well as general trade is concerned. That is the core focus of the Project Aarohan, which we have been doing for the last one year. One of the key things is to ensure that we are able to distribute ADHO much better and execute ADHO much better across the real trade. That has been one of the key focus.
As far as the product is concerned, I think in terms of the SKUs, which have been under pressure, which is typically the 45 ml, 95 ml, as well as the INR 10 rupee pack, all of them we have taken corrective action. INR 10 rupees, we told you last time that we have been working on it for a very, very long time to ensure that the margins do not suffer, and yet we are able to get a better price perception. The 19 ml, the fat short 19 ml were converted into the long sleek 24 ml, giving a visual perception of a much stronger thing.
We did a lot of engineering, re-engineering of our packaging design, flip tops, etc., to ensure that we are able to cut down on packaging costs to ensure that the 5 ml that we are putting in extra and the INR 10 rupee does not erode our margins. That has now got rolled out, so you saw good results coming out of that. We feel that INR 10 rupee being a very, very important SKU because our 20 rupee is small. Our INR 10 rupee is a very large pack in the small pack category. We see a good progress happening. Both the 45 ml and 95 ml have been addressed through consumer offers because we are also looking at price indexation of the product compared to the other two value-added oils, and our price indexation has sharply shot up in the last three, four years.
We have to ensure that we cut down. Again, we did a lot of value engineering as far as the packaging material is concerned without touching the RM at all, obviously, to ensure that we are able to sponsor the corrections that we wanted to do in the 45 ml and the 95 ml. Those have also started showing results. This is as far as the back of the concern. You see distribution, you see packs. The third thing is obviously we are now taking Almond Drops again back on a strong footing as well as ensuring that we have better GRPs put in as far as advertising is concerned. Now that the market is slowly looking back, you will see further enhanced advertising as far as the brand is concerned.
We are also taking price increases to ensure that we are able to support this brand. This is what the overall strategy as far as Almond Drops is concerned, and I think we are pretty confident that it should yield results.
Okay. On Almond Drops Hair and Skincare range, you have seen about a good amount of growth in Serum. Shampoo and Conditioner look to be a bit on the lower side. Essentially, of this whole portfolio, how big can this portfolio become? I mean, what are the short-term targets or expectations, so to say, in the next two years? What kind of, the way you said that in case of coconut oil, now it is like INR 10 crore a month, so INR 120 crore run rate can be achieved during FY 2026. Similarly, what kind of revenue?
FY 2025, is that number or close to that?
FY 2026 will be much higher.
Much higher.
Yeah, as far as coconut is.
Okay. Understood.
As far as the Almond Drops hair and care range is concerned, we are looking at the overall portfolio because this is still a very, very e-commerce dominant portfolio. I mean, we tried our this thing maybe a little prematurely with the merchandising scope in the general trade channel. Did not work very well for us. We are basically focusing more on the e-commerce and a few on the modern trade like lotions, etc., going into the modern trade. We are looking at at least about INR 4-5 crore kind of a turnover coming out of this on a monthly basis in the next two years or so. Based on how it performs and going forward, we'll see how we can further scale up.
There is also a function of how much investments we do. It is obviously while I quote these numbers, you have to understand that the situation will also remain dynamic based on what kind of traction we get on the Banjaras product that we will see, what kind of results we see out of the coconut that we have done, what kind of Almond Drops resilience we see in terms of both the work that we are doing in general trade as well as the product is concerned. Hence, the marketing money is that we will have to keep balancing. While this is the aspirational number, we will keep either increasing it or decreasing it and playing it in some other portfolio based on how the market is.
It will remain dynamic, but yes, this will be a range which is the second range after the coconut oil as we speak today.
Understood. In Coconut oil, towards the price range that you have taken, are you now in a position that you are profitable? I mean, you are reasonably profitable and can scale up reasonably, I mean, in a profitable manner?
Yes, absolutely. Coconut was always profitable. It is just that in the mid cycle where we lagged a little behind because the price increases were happening fast and furious. Every single consignment, it was going up, and I think we were not able to keep up pace because of some of the contracts that we had. Because as you can understand, our ability to change prices was not always, obviously, at the best, or even our market intelligence.
That I think we have now come over with this thing. April, as I said, we took a mid-teens price increase, and this is something that we have also told our teams to be very careful of and be reacting much quicker than what we have in the past. This is something that we'll keep up. Coconut was profitable, obviously not in the range of Almond Drops, and it will remain profitable going forward. That's not an issue. Obviously not in the kind of money that Almond Drops make.
Okay. In terms of profitability, two things. One is that your gross margin going ahead should see an improvement over FY 2025. Overall profitability, can it go back to that 16% odd EBITDA margin? I mean, what are the expectations there?
I think that EBITDA margin of 16% was a very bare basic minimum range.
I think we are looking anywhere at a much higher EBITDA margin than that. This year was an aberration in many, many fronts. I mean, the correction that we took in the wholesale channel itself did not work very well for us, and it took us about three quarters to get a semblance of sense back into that. Certain things that we have taken too aggressively hit us quite a bit. Structurally, if you look at the 16%-18% EBITDA margin was a given, it still remains a given. 16%-18%, I would think, would still remain a basic bare minimum. Now that with the kind of improvements that we are looking at, looking at price increases, looking at some of the restructuring of costs, etc., I think we should be looking at a little higher than that going forward.
I would not like to give any future guidance, but that is directionally we would like to take on.
With Almond hair oil doing well, high single digit top line growth could be, I mean, could be expected. I'm not saying that we'll give you guidance, but.
Again, no guidance as such, but I think from the commenting, we should be able to evaluate the price. I mean, we are pretty bullish. With the market showing signs of improvement and the kind of activities that we have done over the years that we have built in, all the capabilities that we have built in, I think we should be able to look at some of these. Now is the time that it will start to come to fine, yes.
Okay. In your international business, it has grown very strongly during Q4, though the overall annual growth has been 7%. With the traction that you have seen in Q4, what are your expectations there? Also, you could see a sort of a.
I think you have got that number not right. The annual growth of international business is about 26%, and.
Sorry, sorry. I do not.
The quarter growth is 43%. Quarter is higher than the annual growth.
Growth of 27. Sorry.
International business has been continuously growing and on a quarter-on-quarter basis, on a sequential. Just like the way you have seen the modern trade and e-commerce for us grow continuously sequentially, international business has grown, and my satisfaction comes from the fact that it is not only from one part of the world that this international business is.
It's consistent across all quarters, which is what I was telling in my commentary. Whether you look at GCC, Africa, whether you look at Bangladesh, whether you look at the rest of the world, which has been one of our focus because export, we have been always not that strong. Now the number of countries are increasing, the margins obviously are phenomenal. They are better than domestic market. Obviously GCC, which is, sorry, obviously Nepal as well. There are smaller parts, but also all of them have been doing well and consistently doing well. There are no sporadic inconsistency of growth.
Understood. Thanks. Thanks for the opportunity. That's it.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants are requested to press star and one on their touchstone telephone to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Dhruv from Fort Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, I'm audible.
Yes, Dhruv, you're.
Yeah, hi sir. I was listening to the call, and most of my questions regarding the core business have been clear. Since you're not giving a guidance as such, it is difficult to measure it anyway. My questions were regarding the acquisition that you've done. I'm not asking for a number guidance, but like a quarterly picture that when we'll be able to see the result of the distribution increasing for our own portfolio and for Banjara's, who are North Indian roots.
So Banjara, the products are not, the company is very, very South Indian rooted products, the company. With some of the products which are North Indian roots, that's what I meant. Anyway, coming back to Banjara's, the way it is panning out is we should be completing our 100% acquisition with that tranche to buy.
My statement was this quarter, but ideally we are looking at this month itself. We should have 100% control and make it a 100% subsidiary of the company of Bajaj Consumer Care by this quarter itself. Parallelly, from April 2025, we are engaged with a leading consultant, and there are multiple meetings that happened. We are looking at about a three-month kind of 8-12 weeks of project that we have embarked with them. We are looking at every single thing. How do we consolidate the business? How do we look at distributors? How do we look at structuring of both the teams, etc.? I think within the next three months or so, you should see this up and running. We have very, very strong ambition as far as the Banjaras numbers are concerned for this year.
Obviously, again, I will not be able to give you any future guidance, but we have very, very strong aspirations both in terms of both top line as well as bottom line of the Banjara numbers themselves, as well as with some value adds of ours. I think we are pretty bold and very confident of what Banjara should give us over the time. Maybe in the next three to four months, you should see numbers in terms of real sense.
Okay. Can I assume like a 50% direct fruit-bearing effect in Q1 and the rest of it from Q2 and Q3 onwards?
Sorry, can you repeat that? I did not get the.
Just how do I measure when the fruits will bear from the distribution efforts? Can we assume like a 50% benefit from Q1 onwards and then the rest of it in Q2 and Q3 onwards?
I would rather look at the kind of numbers that Banjara's has delivered last year, about INR 63 crore. We are looking at a number which is quite significantly higher than that in the current full year. Whether it will happen in Q1 itself, how much will Q2? Rather than that, I will look at it that it will be more skewed towards Q2, Q3, and Q4. I think overall, if you look at that, it will be a very, very strong number we are looking at, both in terms of top line as well as bottom line. These are the Banjara's standalone, their own numbers. I mean, what we will do to Banjara's is that.
Yes, INR 63 crore.
Over and above that, using BCCL's own product as well, that will be something that will get added onto it.
Overall, we are looking at a good number. I mean, we have created an annual operating plan as far as the combined structure is concerned. I mean, as you can understand, because we are going through this, the design phase is on in terms of designing what we will do in terms of the combined GTM strategy, the operating model, the sell-in-sell-out, I mean, how the sales process harmonization will happen. All that is going on now. When we start implementing over the next another three-four months and execute, I think then we will see the results coming out. Maybe at that point of time, the OP will also get revised plus minus based on what we see coming out of it now.
Okay, sir. You sound pretty confident, and I'm going to read it as that. I'm excited about the acquisition because of the distribution rise that we're going to see. Just excited to see the numbers. Thank you. Thank you for answering the question.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhiraj from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, sir. Yeah. I have two questions. One is when I look at the saliency of modern trade and e-commerce, which has been growing very strongly, what would be the saliency of modern trade for the overall company? Now, if I double-click on that, what would be the saliency for ADHO from modern trade and e-commerce and for Bajaj Coconut Oil?
See, I mean, if you look at with a 30% saliency that you are getting, now this is divided in modern trade, both B2B as well as B2C. Both put together, it is close to double.
It's a little more than double digit. E-commerce is just a little less than double digit, and the balance comes from the CSD- CPC channel. That is how the overall this thing is concerned. In fact, if you look at this particular quarter, modern trade was in high teen, actually in high teen, and e-commerce was also very, very strong. Sorry, not high teen, low teen. Pardon me for that. E-commerce was also in double digit. Between modern trade and e-commerce, if you look at the 30% breakup, about roughly split equally between modern trade and e-commerce, it is about 25%-ish, and the balance 5%-ish comes from your CSD- CPC institution. That is the rough construction of that. In terms of Almond Drops, modern trade obviously has a large contribution of almond drops as well as a decent contribution of coconuts.
If you look at e-commerce, e-commerce has nearly about a 40% contribution coming from products beyond Almond Drops, while 60% comes from Almond Drops. That is how it is played. Almond Drops remains still a very strong thing as far as modern trade is concerned, while e-commerce, obviously, because of the nature of customers, is more varied. All the extensions, etc., you see, they are more focused e-commerce for themselves.
How would that be for coconut oil?
Coconut, see, most of the, as you can see, if you look at our beyond almond drops, most of our sales comes from coconut. I mean, Almond Drops, that hair and skincare range is still smaller than how coconut has grown. A large part of it comes from coconut.
Whatever numbers I'm talking about, beyond almond drops, you can assume that 70% would be coming out of coconut, about 30% comes from coconut.
Got it. Got it. Yeah. Related to that only, whether there would be margin differential between General Trade and e-commerce and modern trade would be materially different than what company averages then.
Not between General Trade and modern trade. Obviously, modern trade is a little lower, but still equal pegging with General Trade. A little bit depends upon the times of the year and the aggression in the marketplace that we want, etc. Modern trade does take a bit of a dip, but not real. It does not take a huge departure from General Trade.
E-commerce, on the other hand, there is departure, mainly because not so much because of Almond Drops, but because of all the other ranges that we need to support because a lot of investments happen as far as these products on platform investments, all this matter. There are requirements of some of the larger players. E-commerce has a little lesser, it's a little diluted, while in terms of General Trade and modern trade, they come close to each other.
Got it. Got it. Yeah. Sir, the second question is related to EBITDA margin. We have seen continuous drop, and partly it is because of mix as well as raw material price headwinds. Assuming that if the raw material prices stagnate at current level, when can we see that the margin trajectory improving from here on, or whether we can see the amount of price hike which we had to take with the current inflation, whether we have taken completely of that, or there would be some impact going forward as well because of the inflation?
See, it's also if you look at the trend in the last few years, at points of time, we have had to lag behind the price increases raw material. In terms of taking price increases with the consumer, we had to lag behind because of the demand situation. Now the situation is reversing, where the demand situation is becoming favorable.
We'll do exactly the reverse, and we'll take price increases in spite of may not be that much of increases as far as the RM prices concern, just to get back to gross margins, which also we might want to plow back into our marketing efforts, etc. You will see EBITDA margins have already started improving. They will continue to improve. The aberration that you see are, I mean, don't go by the aberration that you saw in the last two, three quarters. They were aberrations. They happened for a cause, and some of it were maybe self-inflicted to an extent. All that has now been passed. As I said, the wholesale channel, etc., corrections have happened. I think going forward, we can only see improvement happening, both in gross margin profile as well as EBITDA profile.
Okay. I think that's it from my side.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Dhiraj Mistry for closing comments.
Yeah. Thank you, everyone, for participating, and thank you, management from Bajaj Consumer. Over to you, sir, for closing remarks.
Thank you, Dhiraj. I think, as I said, this thing over so many years that we have been trying to change the profile of the company, having investment in so much of capability building exercises, etc. I think, unfortunately, the headwinds that we saw in the marketplace in terms of just consumer demand and in terms of the competitive activity, we could not get the kind of results that we anticipated we would get. Yes, I mean, a lot of areas we got excellent results, but general trade, almond drops, which was our core business profile itself, we did not.
Now that the headwinds are gone and we are seeing signs of tailwinds coming in, and now that we have started investing in some of these areas where investments are also required, I think we are in a phase where we can see some good progress that happens because of the building of capability. Now we are a multifaceted organization with multiple products, multiple channels, multiple geographies. I think that is something that now we are in a good position to exploit and make this a strong company. May not be still rubbing shoulders with the best in trade, but clearly going one notch higher or even two notches higher. We are very, very bold that as a company, we'll be very, very successful going forward. With that, I thank you all for joining this call, and I wish you the very best. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Bajaj Consumer Care and ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.