Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited Q3 and nine months FY24 earnings 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 the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing * then 0 on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. This call may contain some forward-looking statements which are completely based upon our beliefs, opinions, and expectations as of today. These statements are not a guarantee of our future performance and involve unforeseen risks and uncertainties. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anup Bector, Managing Director. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited, I extend a very warm welcome to all participants on Q3 FY24 financial results discussion call. Today on this call, I have with me Mr. Manu Talwar, our Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Arnav Jain, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Ishan Bector, Whole-Time Director; Mr. Suvir Bector, Whole-Time Director; Mr. Parveen Kumar Goel, Whole-Time Director. We also have Orient Capital with us on the call, who are our Investor Relations Advisor. I hope everyone had an opportunity to go through our investor deck and press release that we have uploaded on exchanges and on the company's website. It gives me immense pleasure to announce that Q3 FY24 has been another strong quarter for us, on the revenue as well as on the margin front. Our revenues increased by 17% and PAT by 25% on YOY basis.
Our continuous focus on premiumization of the portfolio by offering various premium and mid-premium category biscuits, including cookies, creams, crackers, and digestives, as well as premium category bakery products including whole wheat, multigrain, and footlong bread has helped us to improve our margins on a sustainable basis. We remain committed to distribution and marketing-led growth. We are on track to achieve direct distribution of over 3,000,000 outlets by the end of FY24. General trade, complemented with our efforts on expansion in modern trade and e-commerce channels, has helped us to penetrate our presence across new and existing markets. We have enhanced our advertising spends in media and digital with focus on building premium range. The company had its first-ever media plan on top Hindi channels featuring Kareena Kapoor Khan on Star Plus, Sony Entertainment, and Zee.
Introduction of new festival packs on occasions of Diwali, supported by Diwali print ads, are a push to enhance festivity spirit among consumers. As category leaders, we had an integrated marketing campaign on "Bun Grade to Burger Grade" with bus shelters, digital marketing, and influencer marketing campaigns. Further, we ran consumer offers on our English Oven bakery products. The company has launched new health products like Bakefit Millet Cookies and Atta Kulcha, along with multigrain bread which contains 11 grains. This will further aid in driving premiumization. Our export business has demonstrated robust growth because of increased demand in Canada, North America, South America, Europe, and Australa sia. This is fueled by a premium range of cookies and cream categories. We are focusing on building Cremica as a brand and continue to remain a preferred partner in white label.
In the current quarter, we have commissioned a bakery plant in NCR which will help us to cater to the demands of the National Capital Region and the surrounding region where our products continue to witness significant demand. In Rajpura, 2 more lines are being added and estimated to be completed by Q2 2024-25. Along with that, we will also be setting up a new bakery unit in Mumbai and a biscuit factory near Indore, Dhar, in 2024-25 to strengthen our supply chain in existing and emerging markets. Also, I am pleased to share that we have declared interim dividend of INR 1.25 per share. Now I will discuss the financial performance, starting with biscuits. Our biscuit segment reported a revenue growth of 22%, which stood at INR 268 crores in Q3 FY24 as compared to INR 219 in Q3 FY23. This segment has grown by 71% over Q3 FY22.
Our biscuits segment witnessed high double-digit growth in Q3 FY24 as compared to Q3 FY23. Bakery: Our bakery segment grew for Q3 FY24, stood at INR 146 crores against INR 127 crores in Q3 FY23, thus registering a growth of 15% YOY basis, including retail bakery and institutional segment. This segment has grown by 58% over Q3 FY22. The consolidated revenues for the current quarter stood at INR 429 crores versus INR 368 crores in Q3 FY23, thus registering a growth of 16.6% on a year-on-year basis. EBITDA stood at INR 61 crores, resulting in a growth of 19.4% from the corresponding quarter on a year-on-year basis. EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 14.3%, that is a growth of 40 basis points on a year-on-year basis. PAT stood at INR 35 crores and saw a growth of 25% on a year-on-year basis.
Our PAT margin for Q3 FY24 was 8.1%, registering a growth of 60 basis points on a yearly basis. Moving to 9 months FY24 financial performance, the consolidated revenue for 9 months FY24 stood at INR 1,218 crores versus INR 1,016 crores in 9 months FY23, thus registering a growth of 19.8%. EBITDA for 9 months FY24 stood at INR 184 crores versus INR 127 crores in 9 months FY23, with margins of 15.1% as compared to 12.5%, resulting in a growth of 260 basis points year-on-year basis. PAT for 9 months FY24 stood at INR 107 crores versus INR 62 crores in 9 months FY23, with improvement in PAT margins to the tune of 270 basis points year-on-year basis. Our focus remains on distribution and premiumization, supported by marketing, to penetrate and capture new markets.
This will assist our company to increase its footprints not only in North India but also penetrate in western and southern parts of the country where the product is equally liked by the consumers. With this, I would request to open the floor for question and answer. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the 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. Thank you. We take our first question from the line of Percy Panthaki , . Please go ahead, sir.
Hi, sir. My first question is on the gross margins. Your margins have contracted on a QOQ, that is, sequential basis, Q2 versus Q3. So I just wanted to know, one is whether it is largely because of the biscuit business or because of the bakery business. I know it might be a combination of both, but which is the larger factor here? And secondly, what is the underlying reason for the same?
So, as our CEO Manu described, our margins have contracted over the previous quarter mainly on account of two reasons, right? And the first reason is in Q3, there has been little upsurge in the commodity prices, right? And second, which is both on the bakery biscuit side, and second reason is that Q3, we have seen a high amount of competitors, especially in the domestic biscuit business, where by the grammage offer of three grammage offers by the competition has kind of increased, and so have we also participated in this. So these are the two prime reasons of seeing that contraction in the quarter three over quarter two.
So, sir, Britannia mentioned in its result call that it has taken a cut in its average selling price sequentially by about 3%. So would we also have taken similar action? And also, despite the price cut taken by them, their gross margin actually has sequentially increased, and the reason they gave for them is that the input costs have actually sequentially come down, and they have come down a little more than the decline in the average selling price, and that is what is driving the gross margin. So why such a different kind of movement? Because you have the same commodity basket here.
Our commodity basket is. Sorry, Anup, please go ahead.
So Percy, sometimes what happens when we have done hedging on raw materials, there can be different policies on hedging, right? So on wheat front, our hedging was very different because the crop of wheat, what we had anticipated, was going short, and government was not having much of stocks. But then the government's policies to contain inflation and giving stocks into the market and things like that. So there are certain times that hedging might be different. Otherwise, there is no principal difference in the changes. So most of the if you look at, our most impact which has come is mostly on the sugar pricing or on a little bit on the wheat cost. So now what has really happened is that on the bread side, we were able to take a price rise, but on the biscuit side, there was more competitiveness, right?
We had to respond to the market needs. That was probably one of the reasons. Otherwise, everything is normal. We do not feel that the inflation is high. The inflations are under control. They're better than what we had experienced earlier. I would say that it could be more because our probably hedging might be carried on for a longer period of time, which where we could see a better position coming up going forward.
Understood. So basically, you are saying that your consumption cost this quarter was higher than the spot prices of the commodities. Is that understanding correct?
We could also see one thing. See, till Diwali, we are also doing a lot of exports of biscuits which are feeding the Christmas market in the export side, right? And those cookies are very highly priced cookies. Diwali gift packs are highly priced. Christmas orders are executed by the month of September because they have to reach their destinations before November, and they have to be lying on the shelves at that time, actually. So in our case, because of exports, our NSR in exports in the second quarter will always tend to be higher than the third quarter. So you will also see gross margins reflecting adversely like this. But overall, there is nothing which is substantially anything wrong. I mean, that's what I'm saying.
Understood. Understood. So basically, the current quarter gross margin is that you have. Should that be an indicator of what we can expect over the next three, four quarters, or do you think that we will revert back to?
Given the quarter last year, I think they should be okay.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm just trying to understand how I build my estimates. I mean, I understand on a YOY basis for this quarter, it is okay. But going ahead, should we take this quarter's delivery as a representative of what can be achieved going ahead as well?
Yeah, perfect.
Or can it be higher than that?
Yeah, please. Please, Manu, yeah.
On an indicative trend side, yeah, you can take that.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Thank you, sir. That's all from me.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening. I just wanted to get your sense on the volume growth trend for the quarter. So again, going back to what market leaders said, 3% odd cut, would this indicate that biscuit volume growth would have been, say, 25% odd for the quarter? Is that a right way to think about it?
Our primary growth this year on the biscuit side has been led by the volume growth. We haven't taken any big changes in the prices, both on the domestic and export side. The revenue growth which you are seeing in quarter three and the biscuit side is primarily led by the volumes.
Got it. Got it. Got it. Incrementally, is there a need in your view to change the price tables, or you already adjusted that through higher promotions, gramages, etc.?
So as of now, as I said in the previous question also, especially on our domestic biscuit side, we and the competition are both offering free gramage, right? And from a per-gram perspective, consumer is getting a better price. So quarter three, as well as in the current scenario, there are a lot of free gramage offers being given by us and the competition, and that should be true for this quarter also, quarter four.
On the bread side, Anup, you mentioned that some price increase you've been able to kind of manage. Is that the one you got at the beginning of the year, or is there an incremental price increase you've seen in breads?
No, no. So we had a selective price increase in Northern India in the month of December. So it was not all across, but there were selective SKUs we were able to take some price increase, and that too in this quarter, primarily in the month of December.
So you see the benefit of that for English Oven to come in more so in Q4 because it's not for Q3 in Q4?
Yeah. So yeah, we should see some marginal improvement on account of these price increases. And in the overall bakery business, primarily the price increase we have been able to take is only in Northern India on certain eggs. So you could tell there'll be some marginal improvement, not very significant improvement on account of price in quarter four.
Got it. Got it. And the last thing on mind was on the distribution side. I mean, you've done a phenomenal job in the last 18-24 months on driving distribution expansion, and you're going to get to that 3.2 lakh output number by the end of this year. And this fiscal, I was just wondering whether you've kind of charted out plans for next year and if they are shareable right now in terms of what kind of output each you want next year and going forward.
So I just want to kind of brief back on selling and distribution side. We continue to progress well. And as we had committed in the starting of last financial year, April of 2022, that our direct reach outlets from 160,000 outlets at that point of time should almost double by March of 2024. So we have reached, as you saw, 280,000 outlets by December. And as our Managing Director said in his speech, we're very confident that we'll be crossing 300,000, 3 lakh outlets by March and almost getting close to our target of doing 310,000, 3.1 lakh outlets in terms of driving a direct reach of outlets. In terms of next-year plans, definitely, there's a plan to continue increasing our reach, and we are in the process of finalization of that plan. Rather, we have meeting over the next 10 days to two weeks to finalize that.
We should be very happy to share our plans for the next year and next two years in our next call.
Got it. The last thing, if I may, was in the context of the competitive environment that you're seeing right now, especially in domestic biscuits, is there a risk to your kind of 14.5%-15% kind of margin range holding up over the next few quarters? You feel that that is a range that a band that you will continue to hold going forward as well, as you see it now?
Yeah. So we have always kind of maintained that. We will be maintaining and doing our best to deliver. It is our margin in the range of anything between 14%-15%. And so our endeavor and confidence as of now is that we should continue to deliver 14% and upward trend of EBITDA over the next few quarters.
Got it. That's it from me. Thanks. All the best.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Amit Purohit from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on good growth. I just wanted to get your sense on how does one look at the growth and environment over the next one year or so, especially on the domestic biscuit side and also on bakery? What has driven the bakery growth, if you could qualitatively highlight for both the segments, what has been the key growth driver?
On the overall side of the company, I would say that we have been maintaining that our endeavor to be closer to mid-teens kind of growth. That's how we are striving and delivering, and that is already our plan to stay close to mid-teens kind of growth as an organization to deliver that kind of growth. Coming on the domestic biscuit side, where two trends are very, very clear in the market, and you have also seen the results of various companies coming out, so definitely on the food FMCG side, we're seeing clearly a pressure on the consumption, right? And we're seeing pressure on the demand side. So there is a bit of slowdown, which is clearly being seen across the food FMCG category.
Alongside, we're also seeing on the domestic biscuit side, which I mentioned earlier, there's a fair amount of increasing competition intensity and better offering to the consumers, right? But we're very sure that this trend is not here to stay. Another quarter or two, we should see a correction in this trend and getting back to the better growth for the industry and for us also. Our endeavor to drive the growth, which we have been maintaining, has been on the two key axes, which is distribution and second is supporting that with brand marketing, which again, MD had elaborated in their call. So whether it's and we started our marketing advertising also on the television media alongside digital media as well as on the print side.
So these are the two input activities which we will continue to invest in and focus to keep building our infrastructure, which is necessary for the growth. Although there is a bit of a stress on a food FMCG growth, especially on the biscuit side, but our thematization and our new product introduction is clearly helping us to continue our journey of growth on the domestic biscuit. On our English Oven bakery side, I would request Ishan to step in and also share how that part of the business is performing and how growth is coming in time.
Yeah. Hi, Amit. Thank you for your question. So on the domestic on the bakery side, we are standing very well in the north market where we are focusing on up-country territories. In fact, we are also now with the Bhiwadi plant coming up, putting a lot of focus on the Punjab market as the next lever of growth. For us, at the moment, this is a virgin market. So that's where our focus is going to be, is to sort of expand distribution and expand our reach, number of routes, and number of outlets. And that is what is going to bring new outlets and new volume to the system. As far as our existing markets of Delhi, Bombay, and Bangalore are concerned, we are focusing on increasing our distribution.
In Delhi market at the moment, we are still covering about 55% of the market, and we still have a long way to grow. So the focus is going to be on building the right infrastructure.
Sure. Thanks. Just for the quarter, would it be safe to assume that the branded English Oven would have done better than the QSR because we are seeing some slowdown in the QSR category, right?
No, actually, both have done similar. You are right that the branded that the institutional business has seen a slowdown. But as we were always mentioning, that we are focusing on adding new products, new product innovations to new customers, and new products to existing customers. I think we are doing that also very successfully, which is why we have, even though the QSR industry is a little muted at the moment, also still grown higher in the market.
Sure. Just on the ad spend, what would be probably our ad spend-to-sales ratio, and how do we see it for the next year with the now increased media spend that we are doing?
So on the B2C businesses, which is domestic biscuits and English Oven bakery business, we have now almost gone close to on our advertising side, we have almost gone close to 3.5% of the spend on above the line. And then we do, obviously, close to 5%-6% BPS. But we have been scaling up our investments on the ATL side, which on these two businesses are now standing close to 3.5%.
For sure. And so the last one, if I can ask, on the capacity expansion, so I saw two things, which is adding two more lines in second half of FY25 in Rajpura and Kolkata new bakery unit. Could you share some details in terms of the amount of CapEx, which it would entail for FY25, additional of these, and also what would be the capacity line?
So in terms of investing in the manufacturing lines, where we are investing, right, we have always updated you that we are building up a plant in Indore, which is a biscuit plant, right? And that's under full swing construction, moving very well. This will be commissioned in the next financial year. Second large investment which we are doing is on the bakery side. This is in the Mumbai-Khopoli region. And there, again, the work has started there. And that also will be ready to work there end of the quarter end of in the quarter four of the next financial year. We are adding two more lines, as you mentioned, in Rajpura, and these two lines will be ready in the next one of the next financial year. And Kolkata, we are on the verge of closing and starting.
That itself, again, will be ready by quarter three of next financial year. These are the, you can see that, some of our large project investments. The NTR has shared in the speech that the NTR plant has been commissioned in the quarter three, and that is up and running. These are basically.
Basically, also, Manu, I think Kolkata investment is a very small investment.
Very small.
It's just a plant that we are trying to feed the QSR business because they are showing very aggressive movements in the northeastern side. So it's a very small investment what we are doing. So it's not a material investment.
So our overall investment in the two financial years, including the lines which we already commissioned in Rajpura in the months of July and August, the total investment over two financial years will be close to INR 500 crore, right? So a little over INR 500 crore. So that's the kind of investment we are doing to augment our capacities and to be ready with the supply chain to feed into our growth plans over the next few years.
This INR 500 crore will also be there in FY25, right? I mean, it's 24-25 combined, you said, right?
Combined. 23-24-25.
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
2024-25, yes. Yeah. Two years combined.
That's it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, if you wish to join the question queue, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Abhishek Maheshwari from SkyRidge Wealth Management. Please go ahead, sir.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, you spoke about margin improvement, margin sustainability through premiumization. Can we also expect some margin improvement to come in through the benefits of scale? Because as we understand, we would have hoped that, okay, gross margins will stabilize at maybe 45% levels. But as you scale, as you improve your volumes, there would be a benefit of lower other expenses compared to overall revenue. So can we expect the margins to go to maybe 16% level coming few years?
So I'm sure you would kind of appreciate that we, as a company, are growing well, and that's what our aspiration we have. We want to continue growing at close to mid-teens level, whereas we have grown so far over the last 18 months, much better than that. While we are getting the benefits of scale and the volume increase, definitely, we are getting. But you must appreciate, as I briefed in the previous call, we are also upping our investment to drive this growth, whether it's the S&D side or the marketing side. So it is very important for us to also continuously invest in the brand and in the distribution if we need to keep progressing fast. And I think that I'm sure you'll be very appreciative for a company, any company, to literally double the direct rate outlet in 24 months, right?
But yes, that takes investment on the area distributors. Alongside, we also briefed on every call that last year, we implemented the SFA, Sales Force Automation, with a partner. This year, we are in the journey of implementing distributor management system with a partner, Botree, which is a leader in that category. We have already done the first two modules with over 500 distributors. And by March, we would have covered distributors covering almost 75% of our revenue. So there's a lot of work happening on that side in terms of digitization so that we can also integrate with distributors on account of tracking secondary sales, teams, promotion, claim management, and order management. So yes. So keeping all that in mind, and that's what maintaining our endeavor is to at least the next few quarters to deliver a margin of 14%+.
Thank you for that. My second question is, sir, now that we are focusing on scaling and setting up new plants, in the key geographies that we plan to enter, that is south and Maharashtra, right? So in this area, are we taking enough land to accommodate future expansion in the facility also? So today, if we start small, but tomorrow, if the market picks up, will we have enough land to accommodate future nibbling-snacking in the facility?
Yes, we are doing that. Would you like to answer that regarding Indore plant?
Yeah, I'll take this. I'll take this. So what we currently do is, in fact, if you look at, there are two greenfield projects which have come up. One is in Indore for the biscuit side, and there is a greenfield bakery project which is in Khopoli. All these places, in fact, the infrastructure can handle double the amount of volumes for the biscuit side and around 35%-40% additional on the bakery side, around 40%. So basically, these facilities, the buildings which we have constructed are for much larger capacities. So the cost of project has become higher because the complete infrastructure around it has been created for a bigger capacity. And in Indore, we do have land available. And in case, in Khopoli, we need land, we have surrounding land available for growth. In fact, there will not be a problem there.
Great, sir. That's very good to hear. That's it from my all of us. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Kaustubh Pawaskar from Ishaan by BNP Paribas. Please go ahead, sir.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. Sir, my question is on bakery business. Correct me if I'm wrong. Capacity was the constraint for us in this business, and now we have a new capacity in NCR. So considering the demand what we are getting in this region, should we expect bakery business performance to improve from the quarters ahead?
Shahan, would it be paper or do you want me to take it? Yeah. So even on the bakery side, we are targeting to grow in mid- to high-teens. We have been guiding on this growth for some time now. Definitely, I will not deny that there is an opportunity as we have a lot of room for expansion. Like I mentioned, now that we have capacity available, we are opening Punjab. We have already appointed people. Our teams were in Punjab just a couple of days ago, appointing distributors, right? And in fact, Punjab is going to be a territory where we are, from day one, going into a new way of working, which is through complete automation and visibility onto secondary performances. As we are stepping in, our backend infrastructure on the IT side is set up to track secondary sales.
So we are very excited about this opportunity. What we are also seeing as feedback which comes from territories outside of our core market, which is then Delhi NCR, is that our product is very well accepted. Some of the new products that we have launched, some products being like Atta Kulcha and another variant of Pao, have been very well accepted in our station market. So I think we have the kitty. I think we have the strong backend. We have built a team to expand into new territories. So yes, we are excited about the growth. But as a management guidance, I mean, we would still be mid-teens to high-teens growth.
Yeah. I've got your point. So my second question is on your premiumization. Sir mentioned in his initial comment that premiumization is also helping us to drive growth, also helping us to have a better competition. So in that, I just wanted to understand what is the contribution of premium products to your biscuit and bakery portfolio?
So on the premiumization side, we have improved both on the biscuit and bakery side in terms of customization. In case of our premiumization on the biscuit side, over the last year, it has improved by close to 15%-17%. So if it was 100, it has gone to 115 or 16%. So the premiumization, as you heard, continues to be a key focus for the company, both on the biscuit and.
I'm sorry to interrupt you, Manu, sir, but your voice is breaking up, sir.
Can you hear now?
Yes.
Okay. On the premiumization, we continue to make progress. And as I said, on the biscuit side, our premiumization over last year has further improved by 15%. So if it was 100% last year, it has gone to 115%. And so is the case in bakery. There is an improvement in the premiumization percentage over the last financial year. So premiumization continues to be a key focus area for our consumer businesses, both on the biscuit and bakery side.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may enter star and one on the touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Mansi Patel from BOB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations on the great set of numbers. I have two questions. Just to extend the previous question, as far as ad spends are concerned, if you can just help me with the number or percentage of what will be the planned percentage of the ad and digital media spends for the next two years as a percentage of revenue.
So over the last two years, we've literally come up to the level of 3.5% on the consumer businesses and literally grown these spends at a pretty quick speed. Our aim over the next I won't say over the three years' time would be to scale these spends up close to 5 odd %, right? So aim of the company that we know we need to invest in our brand, so gradually take this to 4% and then 4%-5%. But over the next three years' time, our aim is to take investment in the brand through the ATL route to close to 5%.
Okay. All right. Thank you. The next question is relating to the bakery segment. If you could just help us or throw some light upon, what will be the percentage of products returned or unsold considering the perishable nature? I mean, any number or a percentage, if I can get this?
So these returns, because of the short-shelf lives across the industry, this number kind of varies between kind of 7%-9%. And we are also within this range in that. But yes, definitely, we are putting continuous effort, and we have seen some good results of keep bringing this down over a period of time.
Okay. All right. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Priyank Chheda from Vallum Capital. Please go ahead, sir.
Sir, I'm repeating your question again from the previous participant. You did mention the contribution. So the premium biscuits portfolio has grown at 15%. If you can help me, what is the contribution in your total sales of this premium portfolio? That is question number one.
Sorry. Our overall current premium contribution on our domestic biscuit side is approximately around 34%-35%.
What was this two years ago or, say, last year or whatever number you think?
You see, exactly a year back, we were close to 30%-31%. Basically, we've moved from 30%-31% to close to 34%-35%. That's the journey we have done.
Got it. Clear. The second question is on the current growth, which is volume-driven. If you could help us dissect it further, whether this growth is, of course, driven by distribution, but what could be the growth contributor from the existing markets or maybe a repeat sales growth or maybe a SSG growth within your current stores? That would be great.
Because as we are opening aggressively new outlets and new territories, so approximately the source of growth, you can say around 65%-70% is from the two-thirds from the existing outlets, and then one-third is from the new territories.
Got it. Thanks. Thanks, sir.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of CA Arun Marothi from Shubh Labh Research. Please go ahead, sir. The current questioner's line has got disconnected, so we move on to the next question from the line of Chirag Shah from White Pine Investment Management. Please go ahead, sir.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Apologies for some disturbance if there is. So two questions. One, again, so how do you define premiumization or premium portfolio, and how frequently you revisit the definition? That will be first. May I come with the second question?
The definition of premium so premium cream, premium cookies, premium health, these are very well defined, and we follow the A.C. Nielsen in that to stay uniform for the industry. We made this change about two years back, and we are now following the premium segment as it is defined in the A.C. Nielsen.
Okay. So you are following that. Okay. Great. In the second, if Manu has to assess the impact of the rising premiumization, what is the right matrix we should look at? Because your revenue growth will be a function of volume plus pricing plus premiumization, right?
Correct.
Gross margin is a far better reflection of your premiumization strategy, or is it? So how should one assess the premiumization strategy that you are adopting? Internally, what is the metric that you use to assess whether the strategy is working to your desired level? Let me rephrase the question.
So internally, how do we drive? Because these categories are well defined, as said, and we follow A.C. Nielsen in that on all the three categories of premium. And we primarily look at and we put a target of improvement in premiumization in these three categories and the growth, right, which has to be higher than value and other segments. And that's how we measure whether we are progressing well on that or not. So this journey of 30%-31% to 34%-35%, which I said is close to 15% improvement over the last year, is a reflection of that journey, whether we're moving in the right direction or not.
So, its assessment on your gross margins or gross contribution is not that important a function for you? That is the right way to look at it? Even you are in the growth phase. Given that you are in the growth phase, I'm more referring to that part because your ambition is to grow at a reasonable, fast pace. Gross contribution from the premium or premiumizing portfolio, let me use that word, is not a primary area of focus. It's more about how much that share is going up. Is this the right way to look at it?
No, that's not. You see, first thing, fundamentally, the premium segment gross margins are better than value and the mass segment. That's step A, right? And step B is that through the A.C. Nielsen data, we all know the premium segments in the industry are growing better than value and the mass segment. That's B. And that's the reason based on this and we, as a company, as you know, we are more premium and value-led market, and we are not so much in the mass segment, which is glucose, right? So based on this, we set up our growth targets of higher growth on premium segments and as well as growth in the old premiumization percentage, which helps in our revenue growth and as well as helps in our margin growth.
Okay, sir. I'll take it offline later on with you. This is helpful. Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Saket Saurabh from Saha Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. So now, there's a question pertaining to gourmet chips that I've come across, let's say, some kiosks at Delhi airport. So it is under Opera brand, and it had a Bector Cremica printed on it. So is it part of this listed entity?
No, no. There is no relationship between that company and this company. It does not belong to our group. That belongs to my brother. So there is no linkages between Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities and Opera.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for all the time. That's from my side.
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Bhavesh Jain from Devi Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So just wanted to talk about, like we mentioned, that premium biscuits contribution to the overall revenue has been around 35% and has registered around 15% growth year-on-year. But if I can recall, the contribution remained around 36% in Q1. So on a sequential basis, if I see, are we seeing some factors that are hindering the growth of premium biscuit contribution to the overall sales?
No, I don't think it was 36%. We can check it again because last year, premium.
I'm talking about Q1, sir. Q1.
I am also talking about Q1. You'll have to give me the opportunity to get back after checking the numbers because on a YTD basis and on a quarter-over-quarter basis, we are around now 34%-35% on our premium percentage, which for the last year's same quarter was around 31%. So Bhavesh, we will check and get back to you on that, but that should not be the case.
Okay. My second question is, in our previous calls, we mentioned around expanding into the lower part of North and seeing high growth opportunities in Mumbai and Bangalore markets. So can you touch upon what is the status and how it is shaping out?
So the journey of south and west is shaping up well. As you know, we launched in the last financial year in the three cities of Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru, right? And this year, we have added another 12 cities, and we are now in the 15 cities of south and west markets, right, in terms of outlets also. So our unique-built outlets for the south and west have touched about 20,000 outlets, and that also has kind of grown well in terms of journey on the south and west side. In terms of journey on the north side. Districts and the journey on the side. So we have kind of moved from last year, we were approximately we have now moved to coverage to almost 208 districts now. And on an all-India basis, last year exit last quarter, we were around 269 districts.
Now, in this quarter, 3 exits, we are close to 340 districts. So our district coverage also on an overall basis has improved on the last-year basis, right? So both on south and west, moving from 3 cities, which we launched last year, now we are in 15 cities. Outlet coverage, the built outlet coverage on a month-on-month basis is around 20,000 outlets. On our overall district coverage, we moved from 269 to close to 350 district coverage now on an overall basis compared to last year.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you, sir.
Yeah.
Ladies and gentlemen, before the next question, a reminder to all the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchscreen telephone. The next question is from the line of CA Arun Marothi from Shubh Labh Research. Please go ahead, sir.
Yeah. I hope I'm audible.
Yes, sir.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations for the good set of numbers and good top-line growth. Sir, my question is with regard to the Walmart that I would like to know the status with the Walmart currently.
So we are currently working with Walmart in their one specific SKU, which happens for Christmas. But we are aggressively working with them to extend this relationship to daily usage products also, which will be sold on their shelves. So rather than just working on supplementing Christmas requirements for them, we are trying to work with them on daily consumption products. So currently, this is our relationship which is happening with them, but we are very confident to take this relationship forward not only with Walmart but also with other large retailers in the U.S.
Okay. And sir, if you can share some more light on the Bake Wala concept, that would be quite helpful.
Yeah, Sharekhan, can you please?
Yeah. So as we've always mentioned, Bake Wala is completely on the freezer-to-oven model, and it's in line with our strategy of getting into a complete bakery format, which is ambient products, frozen products of all nature, whether sweet or savory. What insights we generally get from Bake Wala is what we also execute in the market and has also helped us bring a lot of new products into the market for our B2B customers. So that is one big positive that we see. Other than that, we are still currently operating few stores. The focus is to improve the model, to work on improving sales per store, and getting the right mix before we think about expanding this or scaling this business. For us, the key focus is going to be how to grow as a bakery brand both on the B2B and the B2C side.
Okay. Got it, sir. And on the business side, we are willing to invest around INR 30 crore. So that will be on the Khopoli plant or something else, will be?
Please come again.
Yeah. We are willing to invest around INR 30 crore on the Bakebest.
On what, sorry?
Bake best.
So let's ask you for another explanation.
Yeah. So this is basically a subsidiary company which is based out of Mumbai. And so the entire bread business that is managed from the western part of the country, so that is managed through Bakebest. So it will be for the Khopoli or something else?
Sorry, come again.
Whether this will be invested in Khopoli or some other area?
Khopoli. Only Khopoli.
Khopoli. Okay. Thanks a lot. That's it from my side.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we will take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Anup Bector for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone. I hope we have been able to answer all your queries. If any further questions are there, please feel free to contact our investor relationship partner, Orient Capital. Thank you and best wishes to you.
Thank you. In case of any further query, you may write to paras.patel@linkintime.co.in. On behalf of Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.