Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited Q4 and FY22 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal the 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. Ronak Saraf. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Advanced Enzyme Technologies Q4 and FY ended 2022 Earnings Conference Call. I am Ronak Saraf, the Manager Investor Relations here at Advanced Enzyme Technologies. We hope you all have gone through our financials, press release and the PPT, which has been posted in the IR section of our website. Today we have with us Mr. Mukund Kabra, Whole-time Director, and Mr. Beni Prasad Rauka, Group CFO. The management will discuss performance and business highlights, updates on strategies and respond to any questions that you may have. As is usual, for ease of discussion, we will look at the consolidated financials. Before we proceed, I would request you all to please read the forward-looking statement contained in the PPT and the press release. During our call, we may make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations, predictions about the future.
Because these statements are based on current assumptions and factors that may involve risk and uncertainty, our actual performance and result may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Without any further ado, we shall commence this call. Over to you, Mukund sir.
Mr. Mukund Kabra, we are not able to hear you. Mr. Mukund Kabra, if you've muted your line, we request you to unmute your line as we are not able to hear you.
Thank you, Ronak. Good evening, everyone. I really appreciate you all for taking out your valuable time, and I welcome you all to conference call for the quarter and FY ended 31st of March 2022. At the onset, I hope everyone is healthy, safe and taking all the necessary precautions in the wake of COVID-19. After quite a few quarters, we are welcoming people to a normal world. People have started going back to work. Starting with a quick recap of the year gone by. During last year, industry has faced some critical challenges, initially from the energy crisis, which is coal shortage and its high prices, turbulence on the raw material front, Omicron variant, unprecedented international side escalation, geopolitical conflicts which again led to the higher energy prices and various other supply chain factors compounded the situation.
Recent geopolitical conflicts and reemergence of COVID-19 cases in China and other parts of the world are posing new challenges. The disruptions in the supply chain and logistics has further extended. Despite a lot of uncertainty and disruption in the business environment, we have stood strong and dealt with all the challenges to the extent possible. We are managing to keep our business on track and commit, and commitment towards our customers. We are continuing to build confidence with customers on our ability to serve them with right quality at economical prices and uninterrupted supply execution. Moving on to the results updates. Our revenue declined by 1% on year-on-year basis to INR 1,317 million in quarter four and grew by 6% to INR 5,294 million in the last fiscal.
Our EBITDA declined by 27% on year-on-year basis to INR 403 million during the quarter and degrew by 13% to INR 201.4 million during the year. Our PAT declined by 25% on year-on-year basis to INR 253 million during the quarter, and degrew by 18% and stood at INR 123.8 million during the year. During Q4 , our EBITDA margin stood at 13% while it stood at 38% for the full year. PAT margin stood at 19% during the quarter, and it stood at 23% during the year. As I previously mentioned, the impact in the margins is because of inflated input costs. We are trying to optimize and manage to insulate the margins to the extent possible.
During the year, we have received a U.S. NH accreditation to systemic enzymes and probiotics supplements, ImmunoSEB and ProbioSEB CSC3 to resolve post-COVID fatigue. No further questions letter for 2 of our filed draft dossiers, Secelus and Seclozel. Also we received our 2 dossiers got clearance from the European Food Safety Authority. We'll continue to focus on our priorities, that is customer retention, strengthen R&D, foreign business operation in new geographies, expand solution and product offering, register more products across global regulatory bodies, and to look for strategic inorganic opportunities. We'll bring more resilience in our business to enhance customer value proposition and deliver long-term sustainable growth going ahead. We hope the world will become the more normal place, and that should help our business to continue on the path of stability as well as growth.
With this, I will now hand over the call to Rauka, who will walk you through the financials and key subsidiary numbers. Over to you, Rauka.
Thank you very much, Mukund. Good evening, everyone. I hope you all are in good health. The year gone was challenging for the entire industry in terms of elevated input cost and the disrupted supply chain. You know, it was very important year where one has to work on employee retention and hiring. Let me walk you through the company's financials for the Q4 and for the FY 2022. Year-on-year, I mean, Q4- to-Q4 of the last year, Mukund has given some perspective and also, you know, for the FY 2022 and FY 2021. Let me take you through the Q-on-Q numbers. Q4 and Q3 of FY 2022, the revenue is down by about INR 19 million.
It stood at INR 1,317 million as compared to INR 1,336 million. EBITDA margin is down from 37% to 31%, and in rupee terms, it is down by INR 88 million from INR 491 million to INR 403 million during this quarter. Profit after tax has gone down by INR 34 million. It's about 12% of our revenue. From INR 286 million, which is about 21% of our revenue, to INR 253 million, about 19% of our sales. The reason of decline in EBITDA is mainly because of you know, higher raw material prices which has impacted the material cost component of our revenue. Other than that, we have observed significant increase in our other expenses, and mainly like, you know, the consulting charges and our CSR expenses.
Sales promotion activities has gone up substantially. Of course, the prices of, you know, coal, fuel, so that has gone up substantially and we have seen the impact of it. Other than that, we have higher regulatory expenses and source consumption is also higher as compared to the previous quarter. Payroll cost is slightly up because of additional, I mean, new hiring during the quarter as compared to Q3 . Overall impact on EBITDA is because of you know, couple of reasons, lower gross margins, higher other expenses. Finance cost is slightly up by about INR 3 million. That is mainly because of you know, lease accounting treatment. Depreciation and amortization is again slightly high by about INR 4 million, but not significant impact as such.
Now I'll give you 12 months number, I mean, comparison of FY21 and FY22. Our revenue is increased by about INR 276 million, which is roughly 6% of growth, from INR 5,018 million to INR 5,294 million. This growth is mainly driven by SciTech, where this year, you know, we have consolidated full 12 months of numbers as compared to last year, 84 days, because that acquisition happened somewhere in the month of January 2021. EBITDA is down this year, mainly because I mean, again, I will take you through the various reasons, but yes, from INR 2,316 million to INR 2,014 million. The EBITDA margin, which was 46% in FY21 is decreased to 38% of our revenue.
Profit after tax is about 23% of our revenue as compared to 30% last year. There is a decrease of about INR 275 million in our PAT, and now it is at INR 1,238 million as compared to INR 1,513 million in FY21. The EBITDA margin, as I mentioned earlier, is lower during FY22 as compared to FY21 because of couple of reasons which I explained in the quarter-over-quarter. The same kind of situation was there for the full twelve months. We have seen that higher raw material prices has impacted our gross contribution margin by about 1%. The payroll cost is higher mainly, I mean, as mentioned to you that, you know, SciTech twelve months of inclusion in this year.
There is an impact of, you know, in addition to SciTech, the annual increments which has been given by our company and all our subsidiaries, that has also impacted the EBITDA margin. In addition to that, there's the impact of about 6% because of higher other expenses, and those are mainly due to the higher fuel prices, including coal. Of course, this year we have exhibited in a couple of exhibitions in international market. Our sales promotion expenses are higher. Of course, consulting for various, you know, business promotions that has also gone up. Freight and forwarding, which is something, you know, most of the companies has got impacted. Again, that is driven because of, you know, higher fuel prices.
In addition to that, this year we have seen that, you know, now the travels and everything is becoming like, you know, a normal feature, business as usual. Travel and conveyance expenses are also higher as compared to the last year. Apart from that, there are expenses like lab expenses and tools and spare parts. All put together has impacted our EBITDA margin by about 6%. Finance cost is not significantly gone up. It is only INR 2 million increase as compared to FY21, and the depreciation and amortization is increased by about INR 63 million. This is again, mainly because of 12 months of consolidation during this year. In addition to that, when the acquisition is done, we have to allocate the purchase price. We have some intangible assets which need to be amortized.
The impact is mainly from the SciTech perspective, INR 63 million. Our subsidiary numbers as we generally share with the investors. Our evoxx top line was about INR 60 million in this quarter with EBITDA of INR 15 million and PAT of INR 6 million, as compared to the previous quarter of INR 108 million of revenue and INR 25 million of EBITDA and fifteen million of PAT. For FY21, the top line of evoxx was about INR 220 million as compared to INR 281 million last year. On year-on-year, we have seen there's a decrease of about 22%, and EBITDA is down by about 49% from INR 52 million to INR 26 million. The PAT is also down as compared to the last year.
JC BioTec stood at INR 139 million of revenue in this quarter with EBITDA of INR 35 million and PAT of INR 17 million, as compared to INR 150 million, INR 48 million and INR 27 million respectively. Desi BioTec FY22 numbers stood at INR 503 million as compared to INR 504 of the last year, and EBITDA of INR 142 million as compared to INR 149, and PAT of INR 72 million as compared to INR 78 million. Our largest selling product, which is anti-inflammatory enzyme, this quarter stood at INR 247 million as compared to INR 281 million. For the year, the total sales of this particular segment, I mean, particular product, anti-inflammatory enzyme, is about INR 1,039 million as compared to INR 1,135 million of previous year.
Roughly it constitute about 28% of our top line for FY22 and 31% last year. Our top 10 customer contribution during FY22 is about 28% as compared to 31% last year. B2B segment, we have not seen any kind of a growth. Numbers are flat, just about $1.24 million in terms of USD as compared to $1.27 million last year. Yes, in terms of rupee, it is increased from INR 386 million to INR 412 million. In addition to that, you know, we talk about, you know, the category wise our products. In human nutrition, if we see the pharma, this is like in Indian market, the sale is gone up from INR 112.5 million to INR 121.3 million.
The other product category, which is probiotic, is. I mean, it's down from INR 551 million to INR 172 million. Biocatalyst is up from INR 163 million to INR 187 million. International sales is down from INR 1,934 million to INR 2,022 million. Yes, overall if we see the B2C segment, I mean, there is no growth.
Other than that, we have seen a kind of a growth in our U.S. business slightly, but that is in nutraceutical business and probiotic business. The non-food segment has witnessed some degrowth. Our R&D expenditures during the year, including the CapEx, stood at INR 232 million, which is about 4.4% of our consolidated sales as compared to INR 257 million and 5.1% of our consolidated sales during FY21. That was from my side. Now we open the floor for Q&A session. Thank you so much. Please.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone wishing to ask questions may please press star and one on your touchtone 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 on the line of Nikhil Mathur from HDFC Asset Management Company Limited . Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good evening, everyone. My question is, first on the company's ability to pass on pricing or pass on higher raw material costs to the customers. If I look at QoQ on a YoY basis, there has been a dip in gross margin, but it is kind of fine. 100 basis points in this environment is quite understandable. But I think the problem has been more on the fixed cost as a percentage of sales. I'm just trying to understand, has there been some loss of volumes in the portfolio which has led to some sort of an operating deleverage? Because the EBITDA margin compression with YoY over QoQ is much higher than what your gross margins look like.
Nikhil, yes, to some extent we were talking about like the probiotic business has reduced this year because of the inventory at the customer end to a certain level that has also contributed towards the lower margins on the EBITDA front besides all the price hikes. I think, as we move on and as the business stabilizes this year, we should come back to the margins. Is the probiotic the only business that has led to this sort of disproportionate impact? Yes. The probiotic has a somewhat like impact because that business has reduced significantly for this year. It is like almost like from 61-62 CY to 17 CY, and that is the only one area which has really impacted.
There is an anti-inflammatory product which has like gone down to some level because of some registration required in Europe and other markets. Still need to file all the papers and everything because it's now getting under the novel food, so it will again have some impact for a year or two years, right? Those are the two areas which has like given us some kind of degrowth on the revenues front. Sir, heading into FY22, I think we are almost, we are past midway this FY quarter. Any particular signs you're seeing of revival in both these segments in this particular year or you...
I mean, a few more quarters have to be waited or a few more months have to be waited out before the reversal is visible? In this, the coming year, it's like challenging, but at the same time there are a lot of opportunities which we can take. We can see maybe like a quarter down the line, like we can see that a lot of business opportunities are getting open up because of the Russian conditions. We are getting like all the competitors and other people are going with the price hike in other areas, so a lot of people are approaching us now for the products. All of these, there's a lot of positive developments are going on on these areas.
At the same time, like the biocatalyst area, which was under pressure because of the solvent prices at the customer levels and other areas. Now even like Chinese people are taking the price hikes and other things. The prices are stabilizing and getting to the normal, and that is also like creating a lot of attraction on the biocatalyst area. I think in our business there is always a lag of one quarter or one and half quarter, and then the things should really become more better. Got it, sir. These potential order wins that you're talking about because of Russia or even in China, these products are already there in the market or there are certain products that are yet to be launched by the company?
No, these products are already in the market. The Chinese in fact have like the biocatalyst area where we were ready with the products, but we were not being able to sell because of the API cost was very, very low from the Chinese area. Now like, those prices has again gone back to the normal level. That is where like a lot of attraction is coming from all of these pharma manufacturers to manufacture APIs in India. Got it, sir. Sir, do you mind giving some indication on what is the utilization level that the company is operating at in FY 22 as well as in FY 21? Can you please repeat, Nikhil? I'm asking you, can you give some color on what is the utilization level in FY 22?
What is utilization levels in FY21 of the plants? If we really talk about like the raw material inflation and other inflation or the fuel inflation, now the prices have more or less getting stabilized. Now, with these stabilized prices, we started working on like, if we cannot like pass on all the costs to the customer, then we also started working on the putting down the cost on the raw material front. That should balance out like all the inflation and other things, because now the situation is more stable. Now we can see that the prices has to go down from this level rather than going up. Sorry to interrupt. My question was on the production volume utilization. I mean, this is the capacity.
What is the production volume utilization that you have seen in FY22 versus FY21? It's more or less the same thing, Nikhil. Maybe 55-60%. It's very difficult to predict in terms of capacity, but there are a lot of capacity which is reserved, which is there. Also like, we have recently like expanded our capacity in JC Biotech from 60 meter cube fermentation to another 60 meter cube fermentation. That capacity is also like available at this point of time. We will be coming up with lot of different products out there too in the given time. Okay. Basically the company is sorted on CapEx for the next one or two years, so there should not be any major step up in CapEx.
There will be some CapEx, which is a normal maintenance CapEx, which will be somewhere around INR 15-INR 16 crore this year. If we get all the permissions for the R&D what we proposed in our like Nashik area, the new R&D center, I think like we should be able to get the permission somewhere by June end. If we get that permission from all the government authorities, then probably 5-6 years we will be spending out there in the construction. Got it, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harshal Solanki from Equitree Capital Advisors Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Audible?
Yes, sir. You're audible. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Sir, I wanted to know how do you shortlist the products to enter into? How long does it take for your product to hit the market from scratch? What are your internal metrics you look at when you launch a new product? Second question is, in the press release you have mentioned, Edurel is launching a lot of products. Can you please elaborate when will the products hit the market? What will be their return on investments and stuff like that? Thank you.
Harshal, we generally like select the products in the area or the focus area which we operate. Our normal focus area is like the human nutraceutical, animal nutraceutical and the food. Particularly, in the food we are focusing on like baking industry. The next level of focus will go into the dairy industry. We try to make the complete basket as we move on into those particular area. For example, when we will go for the dairy industry, we will be having all the basket. Like, for example, whatever the enzymes need, whatever the probiotics we need for the dairy, and then we will go for that. Now, developing a single product needs lot of time, depending on the, it's always R&D, depending on like the success rate. We do have quite good success rate.
Let's say if you go in a biocatalyst, let's say we go for some kind of a ADH or GDH for some kind of a API, then in that circumstances we need 1-2 years as well. We may have to go for 3-4 protein engineering rounds in that particular cases. It depends on all the products. It depends on the categories which we are like focusing. There are a lot of different categories in terms of revenue or the base. Even like once you make a product, it really doesn't give you the market right away. It takes 2-3 years to really start generating the revenue, once you like decide to make into the product.
With our expertise and with the time which we have spent in the industry, we do it at a very, very low cost. The return of investment is hardly takes any time once we really launch the product.
Okay. Got it, sir. Sir, a follow-up on that. We are entering into the B2C segment as well. By when do you expect that segment to mature and what kind of investments are you looking to make there?
We are already there in B2C area in the U.S. market. We are trying to copy that model. In U.S. also, like we didn't get any success for the first 3-4 years. I think we may not get that. We will need 3-4 years. We are not spending too much of money into this area. This year also we will be spending somewhere around INR 2 crore into this area.
Okay. Got it. Sir, last question. Sir, our sales have been growing at single digits. Are you confident that our new product launches will help us grow our revenues by double digits in the coming years?
We feel so because we are at a very good stages. A lot of things are in the pipeline. I cannot say for this year, particularly like the Q1 and 1.5 quarter, but I still feel that this year we should also get a lower double-digit growth. It's difficult to predict with the given situation, geopolitical situations and every day the situation changes. I think like we should have more clarity by the next quarter or something.
Okay. Got it, sir. Thanks a lot. That was so much.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question, may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Rohit Sinhasane from SADHVI SECURITIES PRIVATE LIMITED. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Sir, if I heard right, you said that in JC Biotech we have almost doubled the capacity. Am I correct?
That is right, yeah.
Okay. From the earlier capacity we had, run rate of close to INR 50 crore.
Right.
Yeah, INR 50 crore net worth there. Can we expect a similar INR 50 crore from the additional capacity by 2024 at least, or it will take even longer time to reach that kind of level?
Yes. As you know, the JC Biotech capacity was less than utilized, right? We always create the capacity to begin with. Now, the advantage with the JC Biotech is we do have all the solvent handling facilities available out there. We can do the fermentation where we can use the solvent and other thing, which is not there in the other two areas, other two facility. That was the objective to build up the capacity at JC Biotech. The capacity on the fermentation side is over, but we are still waiting for the capacity to be installed for the downstream. I think like that work should be completed by May end or the first week of June.
We can start like some products which require solvents, particularly into the animal feed areas and other areas where you need to do. Even in like fermentation you need to put some solvents. That should like increase our like capacity to make those enzymes which currently we are importing and that should give us like some more strength as we move on into this area.
Okay. How is the demand as of now, I mean, from the JC Biotech space especially? I mean, just wanted to understand what kind of potential revenue additions could we see from for, say 2023 and 2024, if at all you can mention.
More or less like, on the CERA front or the anti-inflammatory front, the capacity is fully utilized. Now we are expanding it more under the animal feed area. This product should like come up like maybe from the Q2 of this year. As we move on, there are like lot of different products we can introduce into the JC Biotech facility. There is always a lag, but maybe couple of quarters down the line it should start increasing the revenue.
Okay. Roughly, I mean, can we expect additional INR 15-20 crore kind of numbers for at least 2023 or-
Yeah, at least 10, INR 5 crore-INR 10 crore to begin with this year. I'm not really clear on this year's picture at this point of time, but as we move on, more things will get clear.
Okay. As we are adding, I mean, mostly for this animal feed and not for your human nutritional business for me.
No, it can be added for any of the products. At this point of time, couple of products which were like developed under the R&D was for the animal feed and which we are trying to take it out there to make it because it requires solvents and we do have a solvent facility out there.
Got it. Secondly, sir, on just if it's at all possible to share what is the breakup in our other expenses. How much additional logistic cost and power cost has been there?
Beni Prasad Rauka?
Yeah, yeah. Give me a minute, please. You want in terms of absolute number? Otherwise, I have given you the impact on EBITDA.
Yeah, that is. I have. Just, if at all, I mean, rough number on additional, I mean, incremental cost which we will bear on power and the other thing.
Power and fuel, if I look at, you know, my 12 months number, it's gone up by about INR 60 million. Okay? Then, our stores and spare parts is gone up about INR 25 million. Sales promotion expenses are up by about INR 30 million. Freight and forwarding is up about by INR 12 million. Travel and conveyance is up by INR 15 million. The substantial increase in the other expenses, as I already mentioned to you, is on account of the 12 months consolidation of our SciTech during this year. Because last year number includes only for 84 days of performance of SciTech. That increase is about INR 90 million in absolute numbers. Okay?
Okay.
Other than that, there's an increase in, you know, the lab material because of, again, you know, the increase in the prices, about INR 13 million. There's of course some increase in, you know, other petty and miscellaneous expenses of about INR 14 million. Roughly the total increase in terms of absolute number is INR 302 million in this FY22. From INR 841 million last year it has reached to, you know, INR 1,143 million. I have given you complete breakup of, you know, increase in other expenses.
Okay, sir. Thank you very much. This last question, as you were mentioning that obviously the employee costs have increased because of the SciTech. Just wanted to know from Q3 to Q4, has there any more addition in terms of employees?
No, no, no. Q3, Q4, the increase is not, you know, significant. If I compare my standalone and, you know, consolidated numbers, there is no significant impact.
There are like few people which we have taken in the marketing at the same time in the R&D. We are expanding the R&D people then.
Yeah. Payroll cost has gone up. Yes, of course.
Yeah. Okay. That is from my side. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star and one. The next question is on the line of Tarang Agrawal from Old Bridge Asset Management Pvt Ltdg . Please go ahead.
Hello. Just a quick question. What proportion of your Americas revenue are from North America?
I don't think we have that breakup.
We don't have a breakup, but I can say that, most of the revenues come from the North American region.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
I can say that more than 90% is likely.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star and one. The next question is on the line of Jai Anand from Alta Vista Capital. Please go ahead.
I wanted to understand a bit more on the probiotic. On one of the slides it is mentioned that last year, FY21 sales was $9.8 million, and this year it is $4.7 million. Why is there a significant reduction in revenue from probiotic? In the probiotics, like, we are working on the two strategies. One strategy is supplying to the people who are already established, and the second strategy is to develop our own brands. Developing the brand requires like some more time. You need to file all the processes. You need to file all the other things. You need to go through the customers' R&D, and that is a time-consuming process.
The business where like we are supplying to the probiotic to the people who are already established in the market and we are like the supplier. At that end, there is a inventory pile-up and some of the loss of the business for that customer from the market. That both of those has contributed towards the reduction in the demand for the last year. We had really hardly much of a sale on that front last year. This year the situation should become somewhat normal. Not like the last to last year, but maybe a year before. We should be getting back into the normal thing. This is where like the revenue, if you really compare, those are on a significantly lower side. Is it due to only one customer? Yes. Okay.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ketan Chheda from a Retail Investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, Amol here.
Yes.
Yeah. I wanted to know, do we have any 5-year plan or 5-year goal kind of a thing, or a roadmap, if you will, in terms of where do we want to reach in terms of scale? You know, it could be with the numbers or some other goals or targets. Do we have something like that? Or did we have it in the past before the COVID period, and have we made any adjustments for that?
Ketan, yes, you are right. Before the COVID started, we made a 5-year plan to double the revenue. We were on the track, but then the COVID situation has come up. The situation has really made us little bit shaky. You are right. We have to still go back to the drawing board and regroup and rearrange the plan. Once we do that, we will let you know. More or less, we feel that those goals should be achievable. If the things become normal more quickly, we should be able to move on to the faster track.
Okay. Just a follow-up to that. You know, whatever target we had, like, you know, in terms of doubling the revenue before the COVID period. Now what is the year that we are looking forward to? Like, by when we will be doubling the revenues or top line?
That's what I was saying, Ketan. We will go back to the drawing board, and we will come back onto this. At this point of time, we are going with the same target. Really I still feel if the things becomes normal, really we should be able to onto our given track. We should really come back quickly onto our given track.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Jatinder Agarwal, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, hi. Can you share some details in terms of your R&D team, in terms of headcount over the last 3-4 years? Secondly, within this, if you could elaborate, you know, how do we as an outsider look at your R&D team in terms of. Like if you see on a medical side, you probably get, you know, PhDs and doctors that side. If there is some qualitative aspects to share on your, on your R&D activities, that will be good. Thank you.
Rauka, do you have these numbers?
Numbers we will share. Meanwhile, you can give him the inputs about, you know, the qualitative aspect, what exactly we look for when we hire people in R&D.
Exactly.
Let me give some brief on this, and I think Mukund will add on it. As you see that we operate in, you know, different segments: human nutrition, animal nutrition. Apart from that, in bioprocessing segment where we have non-food and food segment. Whenever we work on, you know, various enzymes, those like, you know, are supplied, those are formulated. There's a science which is like, you know, where you need to see where the enzyme can be used. If it is going for non-food processing, you need to like, you know, people who are, you know, from the technical background of like, you know, textile, pulp, paper, leather. Those who are with that kind of a, you know, technical background, they are also part of, you know, the R&D team.
When we talk about animal nutrition, again, you know, the nutritionist is someone like, you know, we always look upon. In addition to that, as you look to human nutrition side, of course, you know, then maybe a scientist, you know, for different segments, whether, you know, it's genome or whether it is microbiology. So all those who have, you know, technical and scientific knowledge and qualifications, they are always with us. The most of them, you know, at top level are like doctorate. They have like PhDs in their field.
Okay.
In addition to that, those who help them, so they are like with the MSc and PhD background.
Got it.
The most of them are like, you know, qualified, you know, team of, candidates.
Okay.
At this point there are more than 100 people if we add into all the different labs. It depends on the area what is there. We have a lot of different segments. One is like the animal feed, then there is a food area, then there is a nutraceutical area, then there is a biocatalyst area, then there is a fermentation R&D, then there is a protein R&D. Different segment of the different people, right? Right. There is a formulation R&D. As Raukarji was talking about, there is another division of pixel R&D, another division of R&D. It's very difficult for me to tell you exactly what is the composition.
It depends on the area, what kind of jobs we are looking, what kind of work we are doing. The team leader has to be not only PhD, but with 10 years, 15 years of experience into that particular area.
Sir, how big was this team, say 3- years ago?
As of now, we have about, you know, 100+, and then 3- years back it was about, I think, 82 or so.
Perfect. That's it from my side, so thank you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question, may please press star and one. Participants on the conference, if you wish to ask a question, you may please press star and one. If there are no further questions, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ronak Saraf for his closing comments. Mr. Saraf?
Yeah. Thank you everyone for taking your valuable time for attending our con call. We will keep you all posted for any further updates. I request you all to kindly send in your questions that may remain unanswered. An audio recording and the transcript of this call will be uploaded on our website in due course. Looking forward to host you all in the next quarter. Till then, stay healthy, stay safe. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited, that concludes this conference call. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.