Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited (NSE:BECTORFOOD)
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May 7, 2026, 3:29 PM IST
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Q4 22/23

May 26, 2023

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited Q4 and FY 2023 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 once the opening remarks conclude. 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 call is being recorded. A disclaimer: this call may contain some of the 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. Manu Talwar, CEO from Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. To start with, our Managing Director, Anoop Bector, has not been able to join the call, so I will start with reading out his speech and read out on his behalf. So good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited, I extend a very warm welcome to all participants on the Q4 and Financial Year 2023 Financial Results Discussion Call. Today on this call, I have with me Mr. Manu Talwar, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Ishaan Bector, Whole Time Director; Mr. Suvir Bector, Whole Time Director; Mr. Parveen Kumar Goel, CFO and a Whole Time Director; and Orient Capital, our Investor Relations Consultant. I hope everyone had an opportunity to go through our Investor Deck and Press Release that we have uploaded on emails and on the company website.

Financial Year 2023 has been another very strong operational performance, driving healthy revenue growth and strong margins. In spite of the macroeconomic uncertainties and challenges that the industry has been facing since the last few quarters in terms of inflationary pressure, high trade costs, especially in the first two quarters, we continue to witness strong momentum across the business sector as we reported the market's both yearly and quarterly performance and persistently breaking our historical performance on personal and financial records. Our robust performance was delivered by focusing on distribution expansion, excellence in selling execution, technology intervention coupled with market-take decisions, product portfolio optimization, and premiumization, and other responsible pricing actions aided in offsetting the ongoing pressure from consistent inflation during the year. The company continues to make significant investments on human capital and digitization of our SFA and has successfully smoothed the business during the year.

I am pleased to inform we have enhanced our presence in new geographies and existing territories across both the food and baking sectors. We believe we explore business to remain strong given the company's foothold in developed and emerging markets such as South America, Europe, the MENA region, and North America through a wider range of premium products. In baking sector, we expect the distribution and premiumization-led growth to continue. The sector of our brand is English Oven. In Delhi-NCR, to other new regions like Mumbai and Bengaluru. Under institutional bakery business, we continue to focus on acquiring new clients and leveraging our deep-rooted customer relationships.

Reading again, updating on the CapEx plan which we announced previously to meet the growing demand for our products across segments, the addition of two new biscuit lines in Rajpura, Punjab, is estimated to get completed by Q1 Financial Year 2024, and the addition of a bakery plant in NCR is estimated to get completed by Q2 Financial Year 2024. As you're aware, two expansion plans in Dhar, MP, and Khopoli, Maharashtra are well in talk, tracked, and expected to be ready in Financial Year 2024/2025. I am satisfied with the overall Financial Year 2023 performance of the company with the record turnover and profit. We continue on our journey of strengthening selling and distribution drive to achieve doubling our retail touchpoints by March 2024.

The distribution drive would be supported by our robust impact-led marketing branding campaigns, which would drive the next leg of growth of the company across business segments, supported by our passionate teams to address significant opportunities that lie ahead. Now I will discuss the consolidated Q4 financial performance. The consolidated revenues for the quarter tracked INR 346 crores versus INR 252 crores in Q4 Financial Year 2022, thus registering a growth of 37.2% on a year-on-year basis. The segment revenue for Q4 Financial Year 2023 tracked INR 203 crores as against INR 143 crores in Q4 Financial Year 2022, thus registering a growth of 42% compared with Q4 Financial Year 2022, including domestic and export biscuit segments. The biscuit segment has grown by 48% as compared to Q4 Financial Year 2021.

Both domestic and export biscuits have grown by a higher double digit in Q4 FY 2023 as compared to the same period last year. Bakery segment revenue for Q4 FY 2023 tracked INR 128 crores as against INR 95 crores in Q4 FY 2022, thus registering a growth of 34% compared with Q4 FY 2022, including retail bakery and institutional segments. The bakery segment has grown 70% as compared to Q4 FY 2021. Both retail and institutional bakery have grown by a higher double digit in Q4 FY 2023 as compared to the same period last year. Margins. EBITDA margins, sorry, EBITDA tracked INR 48 crores saw a growth of 89.5% year-over-year. Our EBITDA margin for Q4 FY 2023 was 13.9% as compared to 10.1% in Q4 FY 2022. That tracked INR 37.7 crores saw a growth of 171% year-over-year.

Our tax margin for Q4 Financial Year 23 was at 8% as compared to 4% in Q4 Financial Year 22. Now moving to consolidated Financial Year 23 performance. The consolidated revenue for Financial Year 23 tracked INR 1,362 crores versus INR 988 crores in Financial Year 22, thus registering a growth of 37.8% on a year-on-year basis. Biscuit segment reported a revenue growth of 36%, which stood at INR 807 crores in Financial Year 23 as compared to INR 592 crores in Financial Year 22, including domestic and export sales. Bakery segment revenue in Financial Year 23 stood at INR 487 crores against INR 339 crores in Financial Year 22, thus registering a growth of 44% year-on-year. Margins. EBITDA margin for Financial Year 23 tracked INR 175 crores saw a growth of 43% year-on-year. Updated an EBITDA margin of 12.9% as compared to 12.4% in Financial Year 22.

That stood at INR 90.1 crore, saw a growth of 57.6% year-on-year. With this, I would request to open the floor for questions and answers. Thank you very much.

Operator

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 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. Our first question is from the line of Sooriraj from Unifi Capital. Please go ahead.

Speaker 19

Mr. Talwar, gentlemen, good afternoon. Congratulations on the numbers. A couple of questions, and I'll go one by one. First, starts with the gross margin plans, Mr. Talwar. It seems to be flat sequentially. So is there a pricing lever available to us that we have not yet extinguished, or is it a function of inventory within our system that's kind of indicating on flatter gross margins?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

In terms of a gross margin, you would have seen that we kind of stabilized our gross margin, and we are equivalent a little better than over last year. It's in line with the last quarter. As the prices for the commodities have settled well in Q4, there was no need to take any further price increase in this quarter. Thus, if you look at our gross margin, which is slightly better than last year, and it's in line with the previous.

Speaker 19

Okay. So is it fair to assume that we'll continue with these numbers for the year ahead? Is that the takeaway here?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yes. We would maintain and improve these gross margin percentages.

Speaker 19

Sure, sure. Two other quick follow-up questions, Mr. Talwar. Is there a blended average capacity utilization number you could share with us for the biscuits and the bread lines? We ask this question because given your high growth rates, the idea is just to understand how much of incremental elbow room you have for growth in FY 2024 without having to resort to new lines coming in in FY 2024. I understand there are new lines coming in, but just to understand where are your utilization numbers?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

What blended capacity utilization as of now should be close to 80%-83%. And as briefed you in the opening speech also, we have two lines in Rajpura, which will be commissioned in this quarter itself on the biscuit side, which will add 2,000 tons of capacity. And we have another set of capacity, which in the next quarter will basically come in the NCR. Alongside that, we have some other projects, which is Khopoli project for bakery, and we have MP project for biscuits, which will get commissioned in the next financial year. Should we take into account the capacity which we are investing in the next financial year and the next financial year? We have a headroom of going up to almost INR 2,400 crore-INR 2,500 crore of revenue. So we have sufficient headroom, the capacity which we are building in this year and next year.

Speaker 19

Lovely. Just last question on your exports volume, Mr. Talwar. We understand the business is in a ramp-up mode. Any color on how our initiatives go direct in the export markets are panning out? How should we imagine this business going forward?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So on the export, maybe I could brief you, as in the previous two calls also, we are going very well across the region. But yes, we told you that in the GCC region, we have taken an initiative of setting up our own distribution institution in that region. And that whole effort is going very well, right? And we are investing there. And as we told you, we have our team there. We have offices in Dubai. We are now 100% subsidiary also there. So the whole effort is progressing very well, and we're confident that over the next two-three years' time, this region will contribute very well for us. Thank you, sir. All the best.

Speaker 19

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Rahul Dani from Monarch Networth Capital Limited. Please go ahead.

Rahul Dani
Research Analyst, Monarch Networth Capital Limited

Yeah. First, congratulations on the great firm's numbers, Manu, sir. I think the initiatives you have started to come into play. Just a couple of questions from my end. Just want to understand, sir, in the bread and the biscuit front, what kind of growth are we seeing from the newer markets we have entered?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yeah. Hi, Ishaan is here. So Rahul, from all our markets, whether it is Delhi, the blended of Delhi and outstation with Mumbai and Bangalore, we're looking at a 30%+ growth, particularly in Mumbai and in Bangalore markets. We still see a lot of headroom in terms of ability to grow with Khopoli coming in. We are also very—we have good expectations coming in from the Bombay market, which would be, I would say, the second largest market outside of Delhi and Punjab for us in the foreseeable future. So we are happy with our growth, and we're looking forward to our new multimodal packages coming up in the next one and a half years.

Rahul Dani
Research Analyst, Monarch Networth Capital Limited

Sure. And in the biscuit segment?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Sure. Again, in the biscuit segment, right, maybe as a company, let's just brief you that we are looking at high-teens kind of growth, and we want to sustain and maintain that kind of growth, right? And so biscuit segment, again, with the effort we are putting in on the distribution side, marketing side, I think we should continue to grow in high-teens on our biscuit segment as well as as a company.

Rahul Dani
Research Analyst, Monarch Networth Capital Limited

Sir, just wanted to check, in last year, our focus area was to kind of expand our retail network. What would be the final touchpoint as of FY 2023, and what does the outlook bear?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Sorry, can you come again, Rahul?

Rahul Dani
Research Analyst, Monarch Networth Capital Limited

Sir, our strategy for FY 2023 was to kind of increase our retail distribution shift. So what is our target for next year in terms of retail touchpoints?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Okay. So that we briefed last year also. When we started last financial year, April of 2014, we had 160,000 direct distribution leads for the biscuit house. At that time itself, we said that our target is by March of 2024, we want to reach a number of 320,000. We want to double our direct distribution leads over the two financial years. And so I'm happy to share that by the end of last financial year, in March 2024, we were around 270,000 direct leads outlets. And this year, we will add another 100 direct leads outlets. So we have a target of 320,000 by March of 2024.

Rahul Dani
Research Analyst, Monarch Networth Capital Limited

Okay, sir. Thank you, and all the best, sir.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec. Please go ahead.

Harit Kapoor
Lead Analyst, Investec

Hi. Good afternoon. Am I audible?

Operator

Mr. Harit, may we request you to use the answer?

Harit Kapoor
Lead Analyst, Investec

Yeah. Is this better?

Operator

Yes. Thank you.

Harit Kapoor
Lead Analyst, Investec

So just a couple of questions from my end. One was on the growth within the segment. So 40-odd% growth in biscuits and 32%. If you could just give us, you could just qualitatively favor on which segments within biscuits and which within breads have done better, that'd be very helpful.

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Hopefully, I think you would notice in all the quarters, overall, our biscuits as a business and bakery as a segment has quite grown in the same range, right? And within the biscuit also, our exports and domestic, again, have been growing in a similar kind of range, right? So if overall growth was around 35%-37%, so both are in the same range, a few percentages here and there. And similar thing was very true for even our English Oven and QSR segment. In terms of both in the domestic and export segments, our effort has been to increase the premiumization. And I must say that we have moved well, both in the domestic and export biscuit, to improve our premiumization. So that's the target of the company, to keep moving up the ladder and improving our realization through driving the premium segment of the SKUs.

Harit Kapoor
Lead Analyst, Investec

Got it. Got it. One question on breads. Last few years, we've kind of doubled our distribution reach in terms of touchpoints there as well. Where do we see this kind of target? We're almost 35,000. I would assume, given that your premium market universe is slightly lower than the overall mass universe in breads. So where do we see this kind of stabilizing over the next six years or so?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So for us, what we are seeing is, contrary to what we had believed, is outstation is actually doing us good regarding outside of Delhi and PR, which is going into smaller cities, primarily that the outlet universe would not be there. But as we can see that even in the bread industry, the premium category of bread is going faster than the mass category, right? So the growth rate there is rare in the industry. And wherever required to make our distributors successful in smaller cities, we also provide them all the support, even in terms of additional SKU if it's required. I would not give you the number of outlets because as we are implementing our SFA, we are sort of rationalizing the number of outlets that we believe is what data is saying.

As we get an accurate number of outlets that we are servicing, I'll be better able to give you the number of outlets we're targeting. But definitely, we are looking at even opening our Punjab market very, very shortly. We have started with our recruitment drive, and very soon, our products will also be available in Punjab, where we are quite sure our product range is quite acceptable and is a very, very large opportunity. With the Mumbai market, that clearly is not a very big challenge in terms of our ability to drive further premiumization. So yeah.

Harit Kapoor
Lead Analyst, Investec

Great. Great. Thanks, Ishaan, for this. The next one was on the profitability. I mean, you've mentioned last two quarters that we want to stabilize in this 15%-14% band and then kind of look forward. But last couple of quarters, we've already kind of been hitting the upper end of that band. Just wanted to know, going into the next 12 to 24 months, I think the next 12 months specifically, are we confident that you've kind of stabilized here and you could look upwards and onwards, or would there be some headwinds to this going forward?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Well, I think that the improvement will be to stabilize around 15%, continue investing in the business, and growing the business well in the high teens. So that's our target, and we are confident of achieving the same. And post few quarters, as we have said, we will then start the journey of 15-15 and build up further.

Harit Kapoor
Lead Analyst, Investec

Perfect. And my last was just about keeping. You have mentioned a couple of key factors for Q4 and some investments going into FY 20 25. Some of these will be made in FY 20 24. Just wanted to know, what would be the absolute key factors from which we are finalizing for FY 20 24?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

In the Financial Year 2024?

Harit Kapoor
Lead Analyst, Investec

Yeah. Yeah. Financial year 2024,

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

our Capex should be close to INR 120 crore.

Harit Kapoor
Lead Analyst, Investec

Perfect. Perfect. That's it from me. Thanks. Thanks, and all the best.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to one or two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we would request you to rejoin the queue. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Amit from Elara. Please go ahead.

Amit Purohit
Research Analyst, Elara

Yeah. Thank you very much, and congratulations for excellent results. Sir, you highlighted that your distribution strategy still continues. Last time we discussed, we talked about efficiency and fleet on the street that helping you to drive growth. Do you think there is further room for, I mean, fleet on the street also going up? And also, I wanted to know the ad spend part of it because what would be the ad spend for the full year FY 2023, and are we looking to increase our subscriptions?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yes. So basically, if we are target of having a fleet on the street of approximately 800,000, if that's there, yes, as we expand our distribution, as we go deeper, as we expand our geography, we will be adding fleet on the street. And thus, there's a plan this year also to add fleet on the street. That's the only way to drive our distribution. And I just wanted to clarify that this is a strategy which will continue for the next few years, right? Because if we have to expand, we have to become a brand. If we are there, we have to get into new geographies, go deeper. That's the only way to do it, and we would continue to expand.

Amit Purohit
Research Analyst, Elara

Sure. I mean, just to follow up on this, in terms of the growth rate which you have highlighted in terms of teams, given that the momentum is similar, wouldn't that be kind of a higher number than probably what we are looking at?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yeah. So understand, it will be higher teens, not just the teens or lower teens. The target is always to stretch and do better. As of now, we had an outstanding year and very large growth. So we would like to maintain a high-teens kind of growth consistently in this particular financial year. Yes. Definitely, the aspiration is always to cross our own targets.

Amit Purohit
Research Analyst, Elara

Any signs that you're seeing in terms of market dynamics while you are getting into new markets? For you, its competition is not so critical. Just to understand, how is the market scenario between the distributed strategy where pricing is being passed on to the consumer, or do you still think that the price-value equation for the consumer is now given us from the listing? Have you taken any price cuts in Q4 and any plans in doing it in Q1 or going forward?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

This is a very, very competitive market, as all of us know, right? And we normally follow and watch our market leaders in the market, whether any kind of price correction, both upward and downward, which has to be taken. Prices have definitely stabilized in the quarter four of the last financial year. And thus, we haven't taken any price increase in this quarter. And even from a consumer perspective, prices have pretty settled down. So we will see, as we progress, how the industry is kind of reacting because we being not a very large player, we will have to be market competitive on our products and prices.

Amit Purohit
Research Analyst, Elara

Sure. So I mean, there is no pricing action taken in April and May, is what I wanted to understand at the industry level also.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

At this date, we haven't taken any pricing action.

Amit Purohit
Research Analyst, Elara

Okay. And ad spend, would you share some pointers on that? I mean, FY 2023, what would be the percentage of sales, and how do you see that going forward?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So far, overall, our spend is around 8%-odd between BTL and ATL. On the ATL side, we previewed last year from quarter three of last financial year, we had ad spend on the marketing side. We are maintaining a spend range of 2.5%-3%, which is on media, which is on outdoor, which is on print, and on in-shop. So these are the four verticals of spend which we do to build our marketing. As we scaled up from quarter three of last financial year, we continue to maintain that in the range of 2.5%-3%. Rather, this year, we started seeing really well. I'm sure some of you had a chance to kind of look at it on the bakery side. We had a very good campaign on Mother's Day, right?

Marketing calendar is well planned this year for the company, and we have initiated distribution of the sale from the month one itself.

Amit Purohit
Research Analyst, Elara

Sure. Sure. So in the context that we may probably keep it same, right, is what I understand, 2.5%-3% of sales as they are expected?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

As of now, we're keeping it around 3%. But as the year will progress, depending upon market situation, our ability to invest more, we will take a decision.

Amit Purohit
Research Analyst, Elara

Sure. Sure. Okay. This is helpful. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infoline. Please go ahead.

Sameer Gupta
Research Analyst, IIFL Securities

Hi sir. Thank you for my question. Two questions from my side. First, this 42% growth that the company has done in biscuits, and you said that is broadly in line between domestic and export. So can you give two sets of data here in domestic biscuit growth? One is volume versus pricing YOY basis. And second is, in terms of overall growth, how much has the core markets of where our market share is higher, let's say Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, versus the newer markets that we have been entering? So just to give you granular details on domestic biscuit growth, if you can.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Firstly, as I said last time also, our domestic and export both have grown in the same region. Now, coming to the domestic side, just to share with you that our market share is high in the upper part of the north, which is Punjab, Himachal, Jammu, J&K. There, we again had a good high double-digit growth. But yes, definitely, in the lower part of the north, which is your Delhi, UP, and Rajasthan side, where we were investing heavily on distribution because those were not so strong areas for us, they have definitely given us much higher growth. The growth in the lower part of the north is much higher, which was also expected and should be there because our share is low there. So, on overall basis, in north, we moved our share from 3.8%-4.6%.

Our share growth was much steeper and higher in the states like Delhi, where we moved from 2.9% to 4.7%. Similar was the case in UP and Rajasthan. There, both shares moved up. Even in Punjab, where our share was higher, we moved up from 30.6% to 14.5%. So yes, on a growth perspective, lower part of the north, which is Delhi, UP, Rajasthan, had a much higher percentage of growth. But yes, we had a good high double-digit growth even in the upper part of the north.

Sameer Gupta
Research Analyst, IIFL Securities

Sir, volume versus pricing this quarter, why was?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Okay. Volume versus pricing, very simple, that in a whole biscuit segment between export and domestic put together, our growth would have been approximately 12-odd% from the pricing and balanced long volumes.

Sameer Gupta
Research Analyst, IIFL Securities

This 12-odd%, is it similar across export or domestic, or there is a wide difference?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Both. Export is marginally higher than domestic on pricing.

Sameer Gupta
Research Analyst, IIFL Securities

Okay. One follow-up here, sir. You said 4.6% market share in the north. GPT mentions 5.4%. Why is there a difference?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

No, no, no. The 5.2% which you're reading on the left-hand side corner up is the premium contribution if you look at that slide.

Sameer Gupta
Research Analyst, IIFL Securities

Oh, okay. Okay.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

That's on the premium product side.

Sameer Gupta
Research Analyst, IIFL Securities

Got it, sir. Last question. Key factors you've mentioned, INR 125 crore in FY 2024, INR 120 crore. Can you give a similar guidance for FY 2025 also? I believe there are some greenfield projects lined up.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yes. Yes. So we are in the process of finalizing the final amounts there, right? In the next quarter meeting, we'll be able to share the exact amount which will be for 2024, 2025 financial year.

Operator

Thank you. Mr. Sameer Gupta, may we request that you return to the question queue for follow-up questions? As there are several participants waiting for their time. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Ajay Shah from Smart Capital. Please go ahead.

Ajay Shah
Analyst, Smart Capital

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations on your numbers. A couple of questions on that, sir. Sir, you spoke about a fleet-on-fleet strategy for domestic biscuits, especially in terms of thrust on the backend along with fleet expansion. So just wanted to know the technicality here. Is this expense of fleet-on-fleet differently through capex, even or is it through distributors latter?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

It is on distributors.

Ajay Shah
Analyst, Smart Capital

Distributors later. Just a second, as we enter hyper-premium markets like Maharashtra, Karnataka, is there a strategy to get shelf space because it is a very competitive market? So is it higher discounts, or is it higher fees? How do we leverage the existing shelf space to be replaced or to get shelf space for our brands versus the existing brands there?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Okay. Just to brief you, that we launched in these three cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Punjab towards the beginning of last financial year. Our sales is on product quality and product. So we are not neither over-discounting there, not pushing anybody. We are placing our product on the table. We are executing it through merchandising. So it's pretty happy to share in that in all the three markets, we have now reached our presence of almost 17,000 outlets in these three cities. Happy to see that in just a short period of time, nine, 10 months, our numeric availability or numbers are very well showing even in 18 weeks of the quarter. So we play on our strength of good product and good quality product with consumers' invoice. Primarily, we are building our distribution expansion. We launched in three cities in last financial year.

This year, we will be launching in a couple of more cities in the financial year 2024.

Ajay Shah
Analyst, Smart Capital

Sure. Is it trade terms also in terms of the distributor data?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yes, almost similar, trade terms, yes.

Ajay Shah
Analyst, Smart Capital

Okay. That's all from my side. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Mr. Pawaskar from Sharekhan, BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Kaustubh Pawaskar
DVP - Fundamental Research, Sharekhan BNP Paribas

Yeah. Good evening. Thanks for giving me this opportunity. Congrats for a good set of numbers. My question is on your bakery plant expansion in Q3. Can you help me with the capacity you are coming over there? Because last quarter, I believe you said that you are still yet to come out with any particular plan. Have you decided on how much capacity you are planning to put in Q3?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So here in Khopoli, we are looking at a very state-of-the-art infrastructure. We are looking at the kind of lines which are very, very efficient, very large production lines. In fact, we are now just about to close our CapEx plan on these fully automatic lines. It's either be between a 4,000-bed per hour to a 6,000-bed per hour. So these lines are going to be fully automatic, very, very less manpower, and that's by hand. So it's going to be a significant capacity expansion. And for us, in terms of electric scale, we would envision our Mumbai factory to be as big as Delhi in terms of capacity.

Kaustubh Pawaskar
DVP - Fundamental Research, Sharekhan BNP Paribas

Okay. Okay. So that will give a significant scale for your bakery business over the next two to three years. If SMB comes on board in FY 2025, then it should give a significant scale over the next two to three years.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yeah. It will give us a long headroom to grow. Yes.

Kaustubh Pawaskar
DVP - Fundamental Research, Sharekhan BNP Paribas

Okay. And correct me if I'm wrong. Bakery business has a little better margins compared to your biscuit business. So if the contribution of bakery business continues to improve, will that be additional reward for you in terms of overall margins to improve in the coming years?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Just to share with you, sir, our effort is to improve margins in every business. We haven't been able to do the same in the previous financial year, which was 2022, 2023. As our biscuit division has grown slightly more than the bakery, so bakery contribution has remained stable in 2022, 2023 versus 2021, 2022. We are improving in margins. We, as a company, which we have kind of stated in our earlier calls also, that we are equally important companies. For us, revenue and margins are equally important. While we step up and invest in distribution, marketing, which leads to good growth in revenues, our focus on cost efficiency and margin remains as strong as revenue.

Kaustubh Pawaskar
DVP - Fundamental Research, Sharekhan BNP Paribas

Okay. Good point, sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Pallavi Deshpande from Sameeksha Capital. Please go ahead.

Pallavi Deshpande
Head of Research, Sameeksha Capital

Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to understand, in these three cities, the benefit is in FY 2024 with 17,000 outlets. What would be the volume sales for biscuits?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So volume for the last financial year was not much as we were just in the process of opening outlets and producing those outlets. But we're kind of very confident that it's a too early stage to make. But I think that the south and west should start contributing well in the next two to three years' time as a contribution of domestic biscuit sales on an India basis. As of now, you would kind of agree that the first is a journey of seeding, right? Opening more cities, opening more outlets. Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, they are very big cities. So for us to, in the first nine to 10 months, to open seven, have our products built in 17,000 outlets and servicing customers from there, it's an extremely large number, right? So we will be opening more cities in this financial year and adding more outlets in these two cities.

These sales will start at the end. The south and west, I must add, that we are also penetrating faster and very well through Modern Trade channels. There will be a significant effort also in the financial year 2023, 2024 to penetrate much faster than general trade through the Modern Trade on the domestic biscuit side.

Pallavi Deshpande
Head of Research, Sameeksha Capital

Just to understand this, the growth that you've shown on the biscuit side, just to understand how much of the volume growth and how much of it would be through organic growth and how much would be through the newer geographies that we have penetrated. Maybe from Anoop you can give Delhi, or like you mentioned, the upper north, how much was the volume growth there?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

The first thing is that the growth is primarily from northern India. Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru have hardly contributed to the growth because we were just placing our products and penetrating our products and starting a journey in these areas. In the growth which we lost on the domestic side, I would say around 9%-10% left comes from the price. The better entire growth has come from the volumes. So the last part of the growth in the last financial year of financial year 2023, it is volume growth.

Pallavi Deshpande
Head of Research, Sameeksha Capital

Right. Which is much higher than the industry growth. I understand this from market share numbers that you've shared.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

It is much higher than industry growth. Much, much higher.

Pallavi Deshpande
Head of Research, Sameeksha Capital

Right. Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Amit Kumar from East India Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 18

Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, the capacity expansions which have been mentioned at Rajpura, NCR, MT, and Khopoli, so what will be the respective capacities at these different capacities?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Rajpura, we get commissioning in the next few months, nine to 12 months' time. Rajpura, we are commissioning two lines. It will give us 2,000 tons of additional capacity a month. Khopoli will take some time. Khopoli capacity will get added only towards the later part of next financial year.

Speaker 18

At NCR, what will be the capacity addition?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

For NCR, BC?

Speaker 18

Yeah.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

For BC, we expected to go by about 80,000 tons a day. In Khopoli, it looks like it would be about 120,000 a day.

Speaker 18

Okay. Dhar, MT?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Dhar is a biscuit line. Biscuit line, again, in the Madhya Pradesh, Dhar, we will be starting there with two lines. So we will be starting there with approximately 2,000 tons a month. And as we have a large area there, we will keep expanding as we need to, more lines to fulfill our demand in the future. But we will first start with two lines, approximately 2,000 tons.

Speaker 18

It's 2,000 tons per month?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Speaker 18

Okay. What will be the debt for this Capex that you have planned? Any additional debt being planned, or it's from internal growth?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So overall, on the funding of our project, we have kept a ratio of 65%-70% of the balance through our own funds. That's the kind of ratio we are maintaining. Just to give a comfort to all of you, that even if you look at our ratios, our equity ratio, which was 0.27x right last year, has further improved in the financial year 2022-2023 to 0.22. So we're fairly more than comfortable on our equity ratio. And yes, for financing of these projects, we're keeping around our own funds of 30%-35% and borrowed funds of around 65%-70%.

Speaker 18

Okay. Sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Naveen Bothra from Shubh Labh Research. Please go ahead.

Naveen Bothra
Director, Subh Labh Research

Yeah. Congratulations for excellent set of numbers. My question is for Ishaan. Regarding the talk about incorporation in Singapore or only on securities matters, English Oven Limited?

Operator

Mr. Naveen, may we request you to use the answer?

Naveen Bothra
Director, Subh Labh Research

Okay. Just a minute. Hello?

Operator

Yes, sir. Go ahead, please.

Naveen Bothra
Director, Subh Labh Research

Yes. Yes. My question is regarding this INR 1 crore investment in Mrs. Bectors English Own Limited. Is it related to backwalk CapEx? And if you can throw some more light on our vision about the backwalk CapEx, it will be quite helpful, sir.

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yeah. So for the longest time, we've been talking about developing our frozen bakery range of products, right? And in English Oven, we've always thought of ourselves as more of a bakery company rather than just a bread company, bread being the large part of the portfolio but with value addition coming in from bakery. So we actually, in a way, have all the right or the necessary products for a company today to sort of open up a café, whether it is a pizza, whether it is a hot dosa bun, whether it is a croissant, whether it is desserts like muffins, cakes, etc. So we had the whole bouquet of products. And with the entire concept of a bakery that's where we had incorporated Mrs.

Bector's English Oven, where we have set up four cafés which are using almost the majority or almost 80% of the bakery products captured from our range of products that we have out there for the market. So that's what backwalk has been about. We have about four stores. It is still at a very nascent stage. And we are very excited about the opportunity and also showing to our customers that English Oven can be a one-stop solution for everything bakery that would be required to open up a café anywhere in India.

Naveen Bothra
Director, Subh Labh Research

So four cafés are in the NCR region, Gurugram, and all these things, company-operated models. So to give some more light about the franchisee as well as Coco, in the next one or two years, the ratio will be how much will be between the Coco and franchisee-led models?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

We haven't really thought that far ahead. Seeing our model and the success of our model, we have gotten franchise queries. But we are first focusing on building a strong brand, opening more number of stores. And I think that is something that we will work on at a later stage.

Naveen Bothra
Director, Subh Labh Research

Thank you very much, sir. All the very best.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Dhwanil Desai from Turtle Capital. Please go ahead.

Dhwanil Desai
Analyst, Turtle Capital

Hi. Good afternoon, sir. So my first question is, we have gained market share on the biscuit side. In any sense, are we gaining market share from the players like Britannia or Parle or more like tier 2 players like Anupam and Surya in those geographies?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

We are still very small players. If you look at our share, which is a North India market share gain, right? If I look at that number on an all-India basis, our market share would be just about 1.39%, right? I'm sure there'll be some marginal gains from different players. It's very difficult to say that it's coming from a regional player or from the large players.

Dhwanil Desai
Analyst, Turtle Capital

Okay. Specific categories, where we are doing much better, or it is across the board we are doing equally well?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

As we were focusing more on the premium segment side, and so we have seen that we are doing well there. That's the whole objective, that we give our premium segment both on cookies and cakes.

Dhwanil Desai
Analyst, Turtle Capital

The second question is on institutional bakery side. So on that segment, any new products that we have won with our existing customer where we are kind of payoff mode? Also, QSR segment in general because of the overall discretionary spend slowdown, we're going through a challenging time. So are we seeing any challenges on that front for us?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

With our existing customers, we are working on a couple of projects, which are ongoing projects. So it's not really time for me to really speak about them. But yes, on the sweet side, on the dessert category, we are expanding our portfolio, which is helping us increase our presence with some of our partners. We have also started working with a couple of new concepts with one of our customers. We are supplying now frozen pizza dough balls, not a pizza itself but a frozen pizza dough ball. But what we are seeing is that over time, even on the QSR front, the acceptance of frozen products is becoming very good. We see a very bright future for this industry. I think the focus for us has to be to execute world-class R&D at a scale. And that's where we are focusing on.

I'm pretty sure that we will be able to add new customers sequentially. We have a very strong lineup of products that we are working on. That's there. I think on the QSR case, I think whatever slowdown that we see is probably going to be very short-term. The point is that there is just so many opportunities in terms of adding the number of stores. What we also see is that even our customers are very bullish on the number of stores that they are planning for the next three to four years in terms of store additions. We are very optimistic about this business. We have a lot of, I think, good times ahead.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vignesh Iyer from Sequent Investments. Please go ahead.

Vignesh Iyer
Research Analyst, Sequent Investments

Sir, congratulations on a strong set of numbers. Sir, this is regarding in the Q3, FY 2023 call, if I'm not wrong, you did say that we are moving towards 13%-14% EBITDA margin. And we are here. And we'll be targeting something like 14%-15% margin in coming quarter. So I just wanted to understand how are we placed as of now because if I'm right to understand, we have not actually taken any price hike as such compared to quarter three, right, due to the raw material price stabilizing. So just if you could tell me.

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Yes. So as we said in Q3 also, that over the next two quarters, we would like to stabilize and deliver 13%-14% EBITDA. We have delivered close to 14% in the last two quarters of the last financial year. And I think it's very important for any organization to bring that stability because the whole objective should be to deliver, bring that stability of consistent delivery of around 14%. That's why I keep saying 13%-14% EBITDA. And then once we stabilize the level of EBITDA, obviously, the next step will be moving up from 14%-15%. So we stick to what we said. Yes, we have delivered close to 14% in the last two quarters.

The objective is to sustain and maintain that consistency while working on the growth side and then take a next step, prepare for the next step, and move towards 14%-15% journey.

Vignesh Iyer
Research Analyst, Sequent Investments

Okay. But would this movement from the 14%-15%, would it be primarily due to premiumization?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So yes, premiumization of our revenue and our product is a key contributor to that journey. That's not the only reason. It's the revenue scale, the revenue growth. Working on cost efficiency are other two big elements which are drivers to the margin improvement.

Vignesh Iyer
Research Analyst, Sequent Investments

Right. Right. Yeah. That's awesome, Mr.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Pradip Kapoor from ProInvest. Please go ahead.

Pradip Kapoor
Analyst, ProInvest

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Congrats on good set of numbers. Just two questions from my side. First, what is your view on wheat crop going forward?

Operator

Mr. Pradip Kapoor, sorry to interrupt. May we request you to use the handset?

Pradip Kapoor
Analyst, ProInvest

Hello? Am I audible now?

Operator

Yes, sir. Please go ahead.

Pradip Kapoor
Analyst, ProInvest

Yeah. Just two questions from my side. Firstly, what is your view on wheat crop going forward?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So, it's not a wheat crop. Earlier than that, we had good announcement. Crop is good. We had record production in India. Then, we had some challenges in the later months of February that there were unseasonal rains which were sort of impacted. Things seem to be stable now. I don't have an expert view on this, so I would not like to comment any further on that. So, we see some bit of stability now as of now on the commodity on the wheat side. That's what I will stick to at this point of time. Won't be able to comment any further on this particular subject as well.

Pradip Kapoor
Analyst, ProInvest

kind of asset turns can you expect from upcoming addition of new biscuit line of Rajpura and biscuit line of NCR once commissioning Q1 and Q2 of FY 2022?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

If you have an average asset turn for our company, the summative investment going in will as of now stay around three. We have a better asset turn on the biscuit side which is 3.5/4. And on the bakery side, two and a half to three. We would maintain those kind of asset turns because you would see that today, we are going in also investing an investment by the time any investment takes time to stabilize. It's always a later percentage of utilization, and it goes to a higher level of utilization. So yes, we would maintain our company as it turns off approximately around three. It's a little lower on the bakery side and a little higher than three on the biscuit side.

Pradip Kapoor
Analyst, ProInvest

Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Vijay Ladha from Radiant Securities. Please go ahead.

Vijay Ladha
Director, Radiant Securities

Good evening, team. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, I just wanted to understand one data point from you for the newly acquired geographies of newly entered geographies of South and West. What is the size of opportunity here in terms of number of retail outlets? And what is the potential target reach for the next two years?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

You see, South and West of India for the biscuit industry is the most premium market, right? And the size of revenue as an industry of South and West is equal to more than North India, right? So as an opportunity, it's a very big opportunity of being presented.

Vijay Ladha
Director, Radiant Securities

I mean, just the data point. Just the data point. The number of retail outlets which these geographies have.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

So I will have to get back to you on that. See, what is the outlet universe of South and West of India? I don't have ready in hand that specific set of data.

Vijay Ladha
Director, Radiant Securities

Sure, sir. And how are we, I mean, what is the number of outlets that we are looking to add quarter on quarter or yearly in these geographies?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

In the coming financial year, which is the existing financial year of 2023-2024, we expect that we should be able to almost double our outlet percent in South and West of India by growing in the same city and entering the new city. That's the target for this existing financial year of financial year 2023-2024.

Vijay Ladha
Director, Radiant Securities

Okay. That's great to hear. All the best. All the best for the future. Thank you.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Our next question is from the line of Amit Kashyap from Shubh Labh Research. Please go ahead.

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Hello? Hello?

Operator

Yes, sir. Please go ahead.

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Hello?

Operator

Mr. Amit, can you hear us?

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Am I audible?

Operator

Yes, sir. Your line is unmuted. Please go ahead.

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Would you like to know the margin percent for the frozen product and the current percent of sale of the frozen?

Operator

Sorry. You're not audible. May we request you to use the handset, Mr. Amit?

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Yes, sir. Am I audible now?

Operator

Yes, sir. Please go ahead.

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Hello?

Operator

Yeah, yeah. Please go ahead.

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Yeah. My question is with regard to the margin profile, sir. What is the margin profile for the frozen products and the current percentage of share of frozen products in the revenue? So frozen products are still at a very, very basic stage for us. Our largest customer for the frozen side would probably be somewhere where we are providing the frozen sweets. But on the margin side, we don't share individual margins of businesses, whether it is a pastry or a biscuit. So we'd like to stabilize that.

Okay, sir. One follow-up only to the additional product line which we are introducing in the near future. What time can we expect a breakdown for that?

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Can you repeat the question?

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Sir, the additional product line which we are adding in the near future in the Rajpura biscuit capacity, at what particular time can we expect a breakdown for that particular product line? I mean, that difference is on.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

The new line which we are putting on a bakery and biscuit side has a payback period of approximately seven years. That's the way we calculate. It has a payback period of approximately seven years based on the current forecasted sales over the next few years.

Amit Kashyap
Research Analyst, Shubh Labh Research

Okay. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Rushabh Doshi from Nirmiti Investment Advisors, LLC. Please go ahead.

Rushabh Doshi
Head of Research, Nirmiti Investment Advisors

Yeah. Congrats on the great set of numbers. So I just wanted to understand what is our presence for modern trade and e-commerce? And also in modern trade, for both breads and biscuits, in which geographies are we currently presented? And how well is this trade segment growing for us?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

On the modern trade side, we are present in about 2,300 outlets in Europe. Our target for next year is to be present in almost double the number of outlets, which is about 80% coverage of the number of doors. On the bread side, we are primarily listed with almost all modern trade and e-commerce in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. And we have also now started, in fact, signed national TOTs with a couple of companies. And our endeavor is to sign national TOTs all across, which will help our penetration into modern trade and e-commerce across India.

Rushabh Doshi
Head of Research, Nirmiti Investment Advisors

So how big is this trade segment in our domestic business for both bread and biscuits?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Sorry. Can you say again?

Rushabh Doshi
Head of Research, Nirmiti Investment Advisors

How big is this trade segment in our domestic business for both bread and biscuits, the Modern Trade and e-commerce?

Ishaan Bector
Whole Time Director, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Modern trade e-commerce for biscuits, I would think, would be around 12, sorry, 14%. On the biscuit side, it would be around 11%.

Rushabh Doshi
Head of Research, Nirmiti Investment Advisors

Okay. Yeah. That's awesome.

Operator

Thank you. In the interest of time, this will be our last question for the question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Manu Talwar for closing comments.

Manu Talwar
CEO, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited

Thank you, everyone, for joining us. I hope we have been able to answer all queries. In case you require any further details, you may please contact us or Orient Capital, our investor relations partners. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. In case of any further query, you may write.

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