Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Adani Wilmar Q3 FY2025 Results Conference Call hosted by ICICI Securities. 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 the 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. Manoj Menon from ICICI Securities. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Hi everyone. It's wonderful. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on the part of the world you're joining this call from. Representing ICICI Securities, it's our absolute pleasure once again to host the Results Conference Call of the company. This time it's Q3 FY2025. The company is represented today by Mr. Angshu Mallick, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mr. Shrikant Kanhere, Deputy CEO and CFO, Mr. Saumin Sheth, Chief Operating Officer, and the team. Over to the management for the opening remarks, post which we'll open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Manoj, and very warm welcome and good afternoon to everyone who has joined this call. As a ritual, what we will do is we'll take you through a brief presentation on the performance of the company for the quarter three. The presentation is separately uploaded on the Exchange, so you can also take your copies separately and go through the presentation. For the time being, we will take you through the presentation. So we saw one of the best quarters since inception of the company, posting consolidated revenue for the quarter at INR 16,859 crore, with an underlying volume growth of 5%, EBITDA of INR 792 crore, and resultant PAT of INR 411 crore. This translates into 31% year-on-year growth in revenue, 57% EBITDA growth, and more than 105% growth in PAT as compared to the same quarter last year.
On the nine-month end, 31st December 2024, revenue at 45,488 crore, EBITDA of 2,033 crore, and PAT of 1,035 crore grew by 20% and 161% in terms of revenue and EBITDA, whereas on the PAT, it is complete turnaround from loss of nine crore to the profit of 1,035 crore as compared to the same period last year. We have also been able to demonstrate improvement in quarter metrics in the case of gross margins and EBITDA over the past quarters, primarily led by edible oil business, as the food business continues to remain in investment phase and more or less EBITDA neutral, given that it is still at a growth stage. Standalone numbers are no different from consolidated ones, with revenue for the quarter at 16,491 crore, EBITDA at 782 crore, and PAT at 409 crore remains best performance for the company since inception.
Similarly, for the nine-month end, 31st December 2024, we delivered revenue of 44,235 crore, with an EBITDA of 2,022 crore, PAT of 1,059 crore, translating into growth similar to consolidated numbers. Quarterly metrics on gross margin and EBITDA also remain similar to the trend we witnessed at the consolidated numbers. Normalized gross margins and EBITDA for the past five quarters are consistently improving. Q1 and Q2 of the last year, as we said earlier, also was an aberration due to hedge misalignment that edible oil industry witnessed last year. Barring these two quarters, and in particular, last five quarters' margin structure has shown consistent improvement. Quarterly trend on quarterly metrics for the gross margins and EBITDA are more or less range-bound, except Q1 and Q2 of last year.
EBITDA margins above 3,500 level in any quarter are suggestive of a commodity cycle gain that the company has been able to crystallize. EBITDA per ton of 4,956 for this quarter is also suggestive of the same fact. This quarter, we saw gains on account of favorable positions and bit of inventory gains. On segment basis, edible oil, food, and FMCG registered healthy volume growth of 4% and 23% for the quarter, and 11% and 32% for the nine-month end at 31st December 2024. Industry Essentials segment decreased on volumes by 3% and 9% for the quarter and nine-month period, respectively. The growth in Industry Essentials segment is primarily due to lower de-oiled cake business, which is more of a parity-driven business. Major constituent of Industry Essentials business, oleochemicals, continues to grow volume in double digits and with healthy margins.
On margin front, edible oil registered segment profit of 571 crore and 1,342 crore for the quarter and the nine-month ended, which is one of the best for the segment. Industry Essentials delivered a profit of 82 crore and 165 crore for the quarter and nine months, primarily driven by oleo and castor business. Food and FMCG delivered a segment loss of 46 crore and 23 crore for the quarter and nine-month end at 31st December 2024. This is primarily on account of loss in the rice inventory due to downward correction in the market. Any positive correction in the market from here will improve this number. Other than rice, all other food business, such as wheat flour, besan, pulses, soy nuggets, and soap business, remained a bit positive. Overall, food and FMCG business more or less remained EBITDA neutral for the quarter and the nine-month end at December 2024.
EBITDA performance on all business segments for the last four years shows a consistent improvement in edible oil. EBITDA has increased from INR 1,532 crore in FY2022 to INR 2,375 crore in the last 12 months. In our mature business of edible oil, we are generating a return on capital employed of close to 22% on the back of high turn of fixed assets. Food business, which comprises several product categories, is currently in an investment phase, and we target to have 20%-25% ROCE seen in this segment as well. Our soy nuggets and besan have already reached decent ROCE level. On overall basis, the company is delivering an ROCE of close to 13% on trailing 12-month basis. This is how the ROCE and the capital employed fare as far as the last three years of trend is concerned.
Edible oil with 22% and Industry Essentials at 10%, giving last 12-month ROCE of 13%. We are consistently investing in food business. The fixed asset investment in the food has gone up from INR 482 crore in March 2022 to INR 1,328 crore as far as December 2024 is concerned. And similarly, the net working capital in the food business has also gone up from INR 393 crore in March 2022 to INR 1,461 crore in December 2024. And this is also reflective of the fact that now the food business is close to INR 6,000 crore plus when we look at a trailing 12-month data. On a market context, overall market sentiments in edible oil remained bullish during the quarter. Prices of all major three oils, soya, sun, and palm, remained elevated as compared to the last quarter.
Industry witnessed some downward correction in the prices in the later part of December, but still, prices remained higher as compared to the past quarters, primarily due to high duty imposed by the government in the month of September 2024. Throughout the quarter, palm remained costlier than sun and soya, which is a complete departure from earlier trends where sun and soya always used to command a premium over palm oil. This is quite concerning as palm remains one of the highest consumed oils in India, and therefore any such trend will have a risk of inflation and trajectory on the food items, including the demand for the edible oil. In both edible oils and wheat flour, industry has been showing subdued growth in low single digits for the last five quarters.
In wheat flour, rural has been growing in strong double digits due to consumer shift in packaged wheat flour, whereas in edible oil, for the quarter three, the industry grew by 5%, whereas rural grew by 8%. So overall, what we see is not a very encouraging demand from an industry perspective, whether in the case of edible oil as well as wheat flour. The company has been able to register a handsome growth on the revenue and margins for the quarter as well as for the nine-month end at December 2024. One of the highlights, of course, in this entire performance is the alternate channel comprising of MFS, E-Com, and Q-Com that is growing faster than the general trade and now contributes a sizable business with a trailing 12-month revenue in excess of 3,000 crore.
Similarly, HoReCa channels, which we started a couple of years back, continue to grow for us and is now contributing close to INR 600 crore of business basis 12 months. In edible oil business, in spite of high prices, we could register a single-digit volume growth led by soya, sun, and mustard oil. This volume growth could have been in single digit at the palm. Could have been high single digit at palm prices remained below the soya and sun. We witnessed cut-in consumption by consumer due to high pricing. As a result, consumer Pack industry grew only by 5% as per the Nielsen source. Our regionalization strategy in edible oil continues as we launched region-specific SKUs to cater to the local demand. In the food and FMCG business, we delivered yet another quarter of a sizable volume growth of 23%.
The growth came on the back of all the food products showing sizably. On margins, the segment suffered loss due to inventory valuation loss in rice. We continued to consolidate our market share in most of the food categories. ESG continues to be an integral part of our entire ecosystem. Our flagship CSR program, Fortune Support Fund, that aims to curb malnutrition and anemia among the children, adolescent girls, and women in the reproductive age, has won prestigious Indian CSR Award 2024 in the category of Best Rural Children Healthcare Initiative of the Year 2024. AWL, Mundra, and Hazira Plant received gold medal and silver medal, respectively, at the 10th edition of India Green Manufacturing Challenge organized by the International Research Institute for Manufacturing. Our Vidisha factory, which manufactures soya nuggets and soya value-added products, earned a safety award at a Global Safety Summit 2024.
On edible oil, I think we have been steadily contributing to the volume growth quarter after quarter, which is reflective on the standalone EBITDA which we are delivering in this segment. The capacity utilization in this segment continues to be reasonably and which is suggestive of the fact that any future growth can be accommodated easily. On the market share, we had a flattish market share. We actually dropped by 20 basis points on overall market share from 18.3% to 18.1%. But the encouraging part of this entire story on market share is that Fortune market share actually has gained. Similarly, we have gained market share, particularly in the case of soybean and sunflower. As far as the food is concerned, again, we have enough capacities in place. The utilization of capacity is at 53%, whereas the market story for wheat flour looks good.
We have gained market share, gone up from 5.3% to 5.8% now. Basmati rice market share has come down from 7.4% to 6.1%, and clearly, there are work in progress, particularly in branded Basmati rice, which the company is working on. And we have put in place a lot of interventions in this particular business. And as we go forward, in a couple of quarters, we should be able to see improvement in market share as far as the Basmati rice is concerned. On distribution front, we continue to work on growing it and now have a direct coverage of more than 8 lakh outlets and a total reach of more than 2.1 million outlets. In terms of rural distribution expansion, we now reach more than 40,000 towns, which have got a population of less than 100,000.
Rural saliency in our business remains at close to 30% of our overall business. Alternate channel continues to be a good story for the company. This channel grew healthy 16% during the quarter in which E-Com and Q-Com grew by 41% and 81%, which is very encouraging for us. We are working closely with all the E-Com players to see that this growth and market share is sustained in the future because as we go forward, this is the channel which is going to cater to most of the demand coming in from the consumers who are demanding packaged staple food. One of our IPO projects at Gohana, Haryana, which is going to be one of the biggest integrated food facilities for the company, is more or less completed. This is an aerial view of the facility, which shows how big this facility is.
We have commenced the production at rice-to-rice and mustard oil facility and have achieved first commercial dispatch from this factory in January 2025. This integrated facility is expected to be fully operational by the end of the first quarter of the next financial year. The integrated facility houses production lines of paddy-to-rice, rice-to-rice, wheat flour, refined wheat flour, rice bran oil, mustard oil, and cottonseed oil. This will be built with an overall capital outlay of close to INR 1,300 crore, which is majorly funded through an IPO funding. We continue to do a lot of marketing campaigns, whether it is on social media or BTL activities or TV activities, and these are some of the glimpses of our engagement with the consumer on various mediums through which we connect to the consumers. So the key takeaways, finally, this is the final slide from my side.
One of the best quarters, of course, for the company since inception. We have been delivering consistent performance for the last several quarters and have delivered best-ever operating EBITDA of INR 2,390 crore on a trailing 12-month basis. Food and FMCG revenue of INR 6,000 plus in the last 12 months. Therefore, our target of reaching INR 10,000 crore by the end of FY20 27 seems to be very much achievable. We have a big lever for growth by increasing our distribution, and we remain very bullish on emerging channels like e-commerce, branded exports, and HoReCa to fuel the kind of growth that the company is looking at for the coming years. On ESG, as I said, ESG remains an integral part of our culture. We participate in CDP and DJSI ratings during the year and are fully committed for continuous improvement in the scores.
This concludes my presentation, and we can now open the floor for the questions, and we would be happy to answer the questions. Over to 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 the 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 comes from the line of Abneesh Roy from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Yeah, congrats on the profit. My first question is on the food business. So you have called out strong growth in soya nuggets apart from your other food segment.
There has been incremental competition also from Marico Saffola, and they also claim to be doing well. Could you talk about the competitive intensity here, pricing pressure, etc., and if you could also talk about Sattu, because that clearly seems to be a focus area by customers in terms of more protein-specific products, so long term, how do you see the organized market share within Sattu because it's largely unorganized currently?
On the soya nuggets, let me tell you that after COVID, we have seen the higher sales of plant protein or veg protein. Now, soya nuggets have 52% protein, and doctors have recommended that, particularly for the vegetarian people. Plus, I have seen that non-vegetarian people also, once in a week, they have accepted nuggets as an integral part of the food.
Now, we have understood this business, and in terms of technology, we first went ahead with putting Wenger technology. So all our plants are Wenger plants from the US. They are the world's best manufacturers of such products, and we have that in Vidisha and Haldia, and now we have started Nagpur. So we are possibly the only people to have three locations of nuggets. And as you know, these are light products, so cost of freight is very, very important, and we have that logistic advantage because we have soya bean plant in Nagpur, Vidisha, and Haldia also, we have our own packing station. So that helps us. Logistically, we are better off. There is competition, but then that's okay. Everybody is trying to enlarge the market, and we see great opportunity. So very good to have healthy competition. No problem on that.
pricing front, we have. This is a very stable product and doesn't need too much of pricing, except once in a while you give some consumer scheme or trade promotion scheme. But by and large, it's a steady market. Sales 60%-65% sales comes from March to October, and 30%-35% comes in the winter. That is how it is very clearly demarcated. On Sattu, let me tell you, Sattu is a product which normally goes in Eastern India and Eastern UP onward, Bihar, Jharkhand. So there we have Sattu. We have our plant. We supply from Delhi now, but going forward, we can surely make it in Haldia also. We have a plant in Haldia. So Sattu is one product which also is seasonal a bit. In the summer, it does very well. Winter, it reduces. So we are pushing it along with our baseline products.
So from a competition perspective in soya chunks from Saffola, you aren't seeing anything disruptive, right?
See, first of all, they don't have their own manufacturing base. They are getting it produced at some other factories. We see an advantage for us that we have our own setup. We have the ability to expand if required, and that is what we have done. So we are the largest soya nugget producers now in India at 6,000 tons per month. So we have enough capacity to provide to the market.
Sure. That's very useful. My second question is on the branded rice weak performance. So you have mentioned inventory losses there and supply chain issues. So if you could address here because post the acquisition of the number three brand there, it has been a bit challenging post that.
So here, could you have done something different to prevent the inventory losses or that part of the business? Nothing much could have been done. But from a structural perspective, my question is, how do you start getting back the market share? Because generally, M&As in India, FMCG, we have seen a lot of them ultimately turn out to be very challenging. So if you could talk about your Basmati market share, the journey in the next two to three years, how do you see that?
Thanks. See, in Basmati rice, unlike the big players, we did not have our own plant. We had only one plant in Ferozepur, Punjab, and in Haryana, which is the main area for Basmati. We used to work under the toll arrangement. Now, these toll arrangements have a limitation to the processing capabilities as well as capacities.
Now, we have been waiting for our Gohana plant, and because we were doing the tolling, obviously, there was a lot of stocks to be moved from one place to another to consolidate dispatches, but now that Gohana plant has just started operations, the most important part is that in Gohana, we have almost 600 tons paddy per day and 500 tons of rice per day capacity, which is very big enough for us to use it. And we have very large storage capacities there, so it will be useful for us to have a consolidated production base as well as dispatch base. Once that happens, the logistic issues, the fill rate, and the challenges of yield or quality, all that gets to a large extent settled, and then we can concentrate in building the brand and distribution.
And you will agree with me that e-commerce, modern trade alternate channel is 50% of the branded Basmati Rice consumption. So unless you are good in fill rate, unless you are good in supply chain for these products, the alternate channel doesn't do well. Now that with Gohana coming up, our supply chain will become much more stronger, and we are confident that we'll get back the share. I'm sure in the next two quarters or three quarters, you will find that our Basmati shares have gone.
Sure. Last quick question. That's my last question. On the palm oil, what will be your understanding in terms of pricing? Because it went up sharply by almost 30%, and from top, it has corrected 10%-15%. So what will be your understanding of pricing? No one can call it out. I understand it's a commodity. But what will be your understanding?
On the 20% duty which the government had put, is there any expectation that in the near term this could get corrected? Any discussions on that?
Hi. So many years. See, on the pricing, it has become a very political product, both for Indonesia and Malaysia. Their biodiesel program is important and the food demand.
Yeah. So as you rightly mentioned, the prices actually were higher by 15%-20% compared to the other soft oils. Now, market is correcting. The spread is reducing, and this biodiesel program of Indonesia, whether it is B40 or eventually it will only remain to be B35 or B40, prices will also fluctuate in line with the policies. On the duty, it's anybody's guess. Government after a long wait increased the duty to support the Indian farmers. Unfortunately, today also beans are trading way below the MSP.
So I mean, you can call it 50/50, whether they can reduce the duty or not. Their priority probably is farmers and the consumers.
So thanks. That's all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah, you're asking me. Just a few questions on the numbers. So you answered.
Sorry, your audio is slightly muffled.
Hello?
Yeah, is this better?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So just a few questions on the numbers. I just wanted to, if you could just quantify the employee cost impact on account of the ESOP for the quarter and just a sense of how this works. Is it a one-time in this quarter, and what is the future impact on the employee expense? If you could just give some sense on that.
Yeah.
So I can understand from where you are coming from because employee cost has gone up quite substantially in this quarter. But this impact is not exactly on the ESOP because ESOP we declared only in the month of December. So the real impact of ESOP may start coming in from the next year, not from this year. So right now, the employee cost which you see which has gone up as compared to the last year, and of course, on the nine-month basis also is basically because of the one-time incentive provision that we have made, given the fact that company this year is going to declare one of the best results. And therefore, our policy provides for additional incentives which have been provided on a proportionate basis for this nine months. So that's the reason why the employee cost has gone up.
And this is, of course, only a one-time, and for the modeling, I don't think you can consider it for the next year and next quarters.
Got it. Got it. And secondly, even on the other expenses, if you look at sequential numbers, they are quite high. I understand that there's INR 70-odd crore MTM there on the derivative side. But even adjusting for that, it looks slightly on the higher side. So I just wanted to get your sense. Is it more to do with Gohana operationalization, or what would extend that kind of sharp 30-plus% growth?
No, it's not basically anything to do with the Gohana operationalization because Gohana, as I said, we just dispatched one commercial cargo from the complex. I think the entire complex will get commissioned only in the next quarter. Sorry, first quarter of the next financial year. So this other expense has hiked.
Again, it's a kind of one-time where the hike is due to one is, of course, derivative impact and the ERD impact. And both these impacts actually somehow get recovered either from the revenue or either sitting in the inventory gain. So there's a nullifying impact of this spend which you are seeing more. Besides that, there is one-time some marketing provisions have been taken. So if you normalize those, these expenses have actually gone up in tandem with the volume growth.
Okay. Understood. Understood. And sir, how do I look at the inventory gain which sits out of your gross profit, either for the full, for the nine months or for the quarter? What do you think would be a more normalized level?
The second point is with the prices having corrected a little bit in January, do we expect some of these inventory-led gains slightly to reverse? Not reverse, but a little bit of a reduction there in quarter four? How do I kind of read this and build it out?
Yeah. I would not call it an inventory gain. Rather, I would say these quarter numbers do have one-time impact of the commodity cycle gain. Rather, I would say when I say commodity cycle gain, it includes both inventory as well as better positions which have turned positive for us. And therefore, the numbers for this quarter are more or less consistent with what we have been declaring for the past couple of quarters, except for this one of inventory cycle, one of commodity cycle gain.
So our normalized EBITDA, as we are saying earlier, also is anywhere in the range of INR 3,500 crore to INR 3,600 crore. Anything above that is suggestive of the fact that we have witnessed the commodity cycle gain in that particular quarter or period, which may be six months or nine months.
Very clear. Thanks. And just on the direct reach side, if I just look at a period of time or a quarter where you've seen the highest kind of move from quarter to quarter in direct reach, I think Q3 or December quarter is one of the addition is almost 50,000, which is a pretty substantial number. Just wanted to get your thoughts on what is the kind of three-year, two-year, three-year target here. We're already at 8.2 lakh outlets. How do we think about a two-year, three-year kind of target on direct reach expansion?
We have taken a target exit FY2027 at 1 million direct coverage.
Got it. Got it. Okay.
So we have that much distance to travel. And some of the quarters, it is fast. Some of the quarters, it is a little slow. Say Q1, you will find it is a little slow because of the summer time and heat and all that. But then wintertime, generally, the work timings are much bigger, and people travel more, people work more. So we get more outlets on it.
Got it. Got it.
From a portfolio level on the edible oil side, if you could just give a sense of what has done well, what has been weak, I mean, mix between, say, palm, soya, the key oils for you, where have you seen strength and growth, where have you seen a little bit of weakness, branded versus unbranded, a little bit more color on that in this quarter, given that the price fluctuation has been quite material?
Okay. To sum up the edible oil business, you see in-home and out-of-home consumption. So look at in-home consumption. It is by and large driven by two main oils. That is sunflower oil and soybean oil. And the domestic oil is mustard. These three oils form actually the core of the household consumption. Every house will have one refined oil and one unrefined oil or taste oil.
Mustard is normally consumed in east, north, and part of central India. And groundnut will be a little bit of western India and southern India. Now, cottonseed oil is also a good oil, a million ton, one and a half million ton, but consumer prices are in the half ton. That is in the western part of India. That is Gujarat, a little bit of Maharashtra, and a little bit of Madhya Pradesh. These oils form the main core household consumption. Now, when you go to out-of-home consumption, palm is a big out-of-home consumption because normally the restaurants and dhabas and all that, they prefer palm. Baking industry, frying industry, and snack food industries prefer palm because that gives them a better shelf life and natural taste.
So palm prices going up, obviously, some of them shifted to rice bran oil, some of them shifted to cottonseed oil because these oils were as competitive as palm or cheaper than palm. But then once the palm becomes cheaper, they will always switch over to palm. Out-of-home consumption is 30%-35%, and 65% is in-home consumption. So that is how it is actually divided. Since we have a basket of oil, that is, we have groundnut oil, we have cottonseed oil, so we have that advantage of seasonality, location advantage, and price advantage that anything that is cheaper, we are always there. So we are there in rice bran oil also. So that is our advantage. So that is how the business of edible oil is.
Okay. Okay. And on the last question, I'll come back from what was on the food and FMCG side.
So, say if I had to strip out the losses from the rice inventory, what do you think would have been more a normalized number for food and FMCG if I had to hazard a guess?
So the inventory loss right now sitting in this number, which is again, this time we have taken, given the fact that market has corrected downward, is close to INR 50 crore. So if we normalize this, I think we have been consistently declaring the EBIT of food positive. So it would have been in that range, more or less, with what we have been showing for the past couple of quarters.
Got it. And last question was on rural. So it's a very interesting slide on industry growth trends, retail consumption. And rural volumes in the last three quarters in edible oil actually have accelerated.
Even wheat flour, you've seen a sharp increase, as you mentioned. This is all conversion-led. What's your view on what's happening in rural markets? Is it slightly better incomes over the last three quarters which are driving this conversion to an organized category growth? Just your own kind of hypothesis on what's happening here.
Rural was almost stagnant between last year, say, December to this year, June, July. Only after good monsoon this year, we saw the rural consumption pick up. Good response we saw only after September. September onwards until now, also we are finding rural is to a large extent, it is back in action. Urban stress continues, and we can see that urban consumption is stretched. Second, inflation is hitting somewhat both the rural and the urban.
In rural, it has not been to that extent, but in urban, we can see that very, very clearly. So if you ask me, rural has started coming back in terms of demand and all that. Packed food is doing well, and we see small pack demand is increasing, one kilo, two kilo packs, half a kilo besan. Nuggets also doing well in rural market. Sugar is doing well, five kilo, one kilo. So rural overall has started giving that indication of coming back to action. More will depend on how government intensifies the rural.
Got it. That's it from me. Thank you, sir. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Latika Chopra with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. Let me start with edible oil. You had a volume growth of 4%.
You called out that the branded sales declined low single digits. And it seems the demand environment, as you explained, and the price differential, palm overtaking the other oils, sounded a bit cautious. Now, with the palm oil price index kind of moderating, how should one think about overall volume growth for edible oils? And also, how do you think about the possibility of volume growth sustaining at mid-high single digit levels over the next couple of years, given your distribution initiatives?
See, the edible oil demand, so the industry always used to grow in a range of 5-6%. And so while palm remains one of the highest usage oil in India, and therefore correction in palm oil downward, of course, will give some boost to the demand in coming quarters.
Our expectation, to answer your question straight, the demand for the packaged edible oil should, I mean, the industry should keep growing within the range of 6-7%. And our growth, of course, we feel that we should be able to grow at 8-9% kind of number so that market share keep consolidating from here.
All right. And the second thing was on realizations. This quarter, there was a massive increase because of the increase in palm oil prices. Just trying to think in terms of the pace at which you change prices depending on your raw material sourcing. So do you anticipate these firm levels to stay at least in the current quarter before probably coming in line with the market price in the next quarter? Just trying to think through what is the lag with which the pricing will follow in your numbers.
See, the palm prices have moderated in the last week of September, but it keeps fluctuating. So like today, the complex was again up because of some geopolitical factors, and then tomorrow it may go down. But what our expectation is that the level which we have seen in the month of January will continue to play, at least for this quarter. Having said that, it's very difficult to comment how it will fare in the first quarter of the next year, but at least for this quarter, the prices should remain at what level which we are looking at. So from a realization perspective, more or less same as what we have seen in January.
All right. And can I then check on profitability metrics?
EBIT per metric ton because considering the pricing fluctuates, and I'm sure you want to maintain a certain threshold of profitability on a per-unit basis. This quarter, it is coming to about 5,800 odd levels per metric ton. I'm just talking about edible oil. And on a nine-month basis, this number is roughly 4,500. When you gave a number of 3,500-3,700, is this the number you were referencing to? I'm just a little confused, so I thought I'll just clarify. Is that the more nominal range of profit per metric ton for edible oil?
No, no, not so. So when I give you a range of 3,500-3,600, it is a blended at a company level which includes all the business segments particularly. And therefore, edible oil, it would be certainly different than 3,500-3,600.
And what would that range be for edible oil?
Because even in this quarter, you had about 3,760, right? So it's a little bit more.
See, for edible oil, of course, it would be a little bit higher than because, as we said, food remains EBITDA neutral for us and EBIT neutral for us. As well as the Industry Essentials, it's more of a downstream of edible oil only. So of course, the edible oil EBITDAs would be a little more than 3,500. It would be in the range of 3,750-3,800 because that's how, when you look at a blended level, you get an EBIT of 3,000, normalized EBIT of 3,500 level at company level.
So this is EBITDA you're talking about.
I was referring to EBITDA.
Okay. Okay.
EBITDA. Yeah.
Okay. EBITDA. Fair enough. The other question I had was on food and FMCG.
Any thoughts on, with this new capacity coming up, how should one think about your volume growth aspirations? And also, any flavor on medium-term margin outlook or aspirations that you have? Thank you.
See, we have said earlier that food and FMCG, we wish to continue at an average growth rate of 20% plus. Now, looking at that goal, we need to add capacities which are surely world-class and can give best products at the most efficient processing cost. So we are investing, and these are integrated plants where we have multiple products, so that helps us in buying, processing, and supply. That is one. Two is that these capacities will surely add. Gohana at its full steam when it runs full.
Even if we take 80%-85% capacity, it should give us a volume of around 625,000 tons per annum food and oil put together, where food will be made, oil will be around 200,000 tons. We expect Gohana to help us in enhancing volume, reduce our cost as efficiencies will pour in with the integrated operations. Third is that because we will have integrated plant, our dispatch delivery, all the cost to our distributors will become cheaper. All those benefits will surely be seen in our performance.
Sure. Can I just check one thing? When you look at the pricing for your food and FMCG products and you benchmark it to whoever the competitor is in each of the categories, and I'm sure there will be variations on a statewide basis, SKU-wide basis, has the differential reduced over time as you've built in more efficiencies?
Yes, I would say. You take an example of nuggets. That is one of the earlier FMCG food products that we started. And we had only one national competitor which you are aware of. Now, obviously, when you compare with that competition, you keep the prices lower and you start seeing your main competitor and then work around. Slowly, that happened, but as we progressed, our products were surely better in terms of technology, and we knew that we can give a better product with better distribution. We were slowly getting into higher pricing. And today, we are surely priced equal, or in many places, we price it higher than the nearest competitor. So that happens. Second, you take besan. Besan, you don't have a national player. So obviously, when you look at Delhi, you have a competitor, so you price it with that competitor.
Or in Bengal, you have a competitor. But rest of the place, there is nobody to compete with. We go all out and we price better. And because we are the leader there, so whether it is Bihar, Jharkhand, East UP, all these markets, we are the leaders. And we price it basis the brand premium.
Sure. And last one on this, Mr. Mallick, was when you look at food and FMCG, how do you think about further additions to your portfolio? Would you want to do pulses at scale or not, or you would like to focus on scaling up market shares in wheat, rice, besan, and some of the other broader big category segments that you're already in?
See, when you talk of pulses, we know that Chana Dal, or Chana is almost 50% of India's consumption. Almost 10 million tons is the normal domestic production.
So we have put three new plants, 240 metric tons per day in Nagpur, Neemuch, and Kadi in Ahmedabad, outskirts of Ahmedabad. These are state-of-the-art Chana processing plants. And with that, we will possibly become the largest Chana processors in the country. And we have matching bagging with that, 150 tons per day in each of the units. So today, we have four such units in the country. So dal becomes important for us because whatever dal is coming out, almost 5,000 tons, we have extra for selling per month. So we will have to sell Chana Dal in brand or in consumer packs. So that way, we are progressing. Rice, we are putting up such a large unit. Obviously, we are thinking of improving and increasing our base, both domestic and exports. Atta, we are putting big plants. And next year, also, we plan to have bigger CapEx.
So wheat flour, we want to be a reasonably large player in this category. So in each of the categories that we are going, we want to be in the top three surely, and maybe one and two number position for each of these.
Understood. And I think I asked this earlier, but any margin aspirations in food and FMCG? EBIT margin aspirations or anything you would like to share over the medium term?
No, I think this is what we have been saying for some time. I think food will remain in the investment or a growth stage, rather, I would say till FY20 28. And therefore, the EBITDA margin for the food ideally should only start growing after FY20 28. But having said that, it's not that we would certainly not want this to grow.
But yes, until and unless we get to the level of market share and the volume share that we have envisaged, I think this will remain an EBITDA neutral. But as we go forward, post FY 2028, certainly we have market discovered benchmarks available for rice and wheat flour and besan. I think we would certainly want to go to those levels. For example, in rice, we have market players who have been able to showcase a gross margin of close to 25%, EBITDA of 10%. Similarly, in wheat flour, we have the biggest player in the country, as per our estimate, making an EBITDA margin of close to 6%-7%. But for us, it is a story of next three to four years to reach to that level.
Understood. Thank you so much for patiently answering all the questions. Wish you the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Ashok Shah from Eklavya Capital . Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. Yeah, sorry. So do we have any thought to tie up with the farmers to grow a palm tree in India as the Wilmar is a leader in the world?
Yeah, Mr. Ashok. No, as of now, we do not have any palm plantation in India.
So we majorly procure palm from our sister concern or the international where we grow the palm tree?
We are procuring all the palm from, let's say, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, mainly from sister concern and also from other ABCD of the palm players.
And how much we consume palm oil to make nuggets and any other products?
Nuggets is a different raw material altogether. Nuggets is actually non-GM soya beans and its derivative. And palm is mainly for the edible oil and the other value-added specialty fats.
Thanks. That's all from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I will now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Yeah. So thank you very much, everyone, for joining the call, taking out time, and listening to our story. Keep connected with us. And thank you again. We wish everyone a very good evening, and thank you.
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Thank you all for attending.
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Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect. Your line.