Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Dodla Dairy Limited Q3 FY 2025 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 star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sunil Dodla, Managing Director from Dodla Dairy Limited. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much. Good morning. On behalf of Dodla Dairy Limited, I extend a very warm welcome to everyone joining us today on our call. I hope everyone has had the opportunity to go through the financial results or investor presentation, which has been uploaded on the stock exchanges and on our company website. I'm happy to announce that for the quarter, Dodla has delivered a healthy performance by achieving a year-over-year revenue growth of 21%, reaching INR 901 crores in Q3 for the year 2025. As all of you know, Q3 is a relatively moderate quarter for the overall dairy business due to seasonality dynamics of this industry. Yet, Dodla was able to grow by a double-digit number and maintain healthy margin levels.
The growth is witnessed across all the key segments, including India, Africa, and Orgafeed, with the latter two experiencing a higher growth as compared to our Indian operations on the back of capacity additions in Q4 last year. Both these segments delivered their highest-ever quarterly revenue in Q3 for the year 2025, and also, the revenue for the nine-month period from both the businesses has already surpassed the full-year revenue of the financial year 2024. Our value-added product sales remained soft in this quarter, reflecting the seasonal nature of our industry, and they have contributed 32.3% of our total revenues. Going forward, we will see an improvement in VAP sales due to the summer season, but over a longer term, we aim to curb the seasonality effect by expanding it in newer geographies as well as improving our share in the regions where we currently are present.
Now, coming to the milk procurement, the prices of milk are on the rise. We are entering into the lean season. However, our direct-to-farmer model helps us maintain the quality of milk procurement and enables us to deliver good-quality milk to our customers on a consistent basis. I would also like to inform you that we have strategically maintained sufficient inventory levels in order to meet our full-year requirements for good-quality milk and satisfy our customers' demands. To fuel our growth further, the board has approved a Capex of INR 280 crore towards a greenfield facility in Maharashtra. This is expected to come on stream by the end of the financial year 2027. We will be funding this Capex via a combination of debt and internal accruals. It will be approximately a 10 lakh liters per day handling capacity plant.
As a company, we will remain focused on improving our brand salience by maintaining consistency of high quality in all our products, along with ongoing investments towards advertisement and promotional initiatives, which will help us gain new customers and cross-sell our new products to existing customers. With this brief, I will now hand it over to our CEO of our company, Mr. B.V.K. Reddy. Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir. As Mr. Sunil stated in his opening remarks, we have seen a decent performance in Q3 2025. The purchasing was good, and just as we anticipated, there was a surge in demand, which played an important role in achieving this double-digit revenue growth rate. For Indian business, the performance was driven by the combination of overall volume growth along with higher VAP sales compared with Q3 last year. We have maintained milk prices during the quarter, but we have planned to price hike considering the increase in our procurement costs during this quarter. This increase in selling price is in line with the industry trend, and it is just an inflationary change, and there is nothing specific to be concerned about it. In Africa, we saw a faster revenue growth thanks to an increase in utilization of our new capacity in Kenya, which was added last year.
However, our margins were impacted due to delayed monsoon, leading to higher procurement costs. We expect this to improve in over a couple of months. Our corporate business is witnessing a positive trend and delivering promising numbers. As mentioned previously, this business plays an important role. From the strategic perspective, it helps to improve our relationship with farmers, also ensures high-quality nutrition for the cattle. Speaking of margins, overall margin profile remained in line with the previous quarter. This stability in margin is a result of our ongoing efforts towards improvement in overall efficiency in both milk procurement and milk processing operations. Our EBITDA stood 10.6 compared to 11.1 in last quarter, and we are confident in maintaining these margin levels as a sustainable basis.
Typically, Q3 tends to be a softer quarter for the VAP portfolio due to softness in curd sales as well as in the ice cream segment. However, in year-end negotiations, we have witnessed an increase in overall VAP sales, with paneer continuing to perform well. We have also done a bulk sale of SMP butter around INR 72 crores in Q3 year 2025. As we enter the summer season, we are expected to increase our VAP sales contribution, reflected in the upcoming quarters, mainly driven by higher curd, buttermilk, flavored milk, and ice cream sales. During the quarter, we were able to procure 17.1 lakh liters of milk on average. This was around 17.5 lakh liters in the same period as last year. The average procurement cost in Q3 of 2025 was 35.6 per liter. This was around 37.8 per liter in the same period as last year.
The average procurement cost in Q2 FY 2025 was INR 34.6 per liter. Average milk sales is 11.6 lakh liters, an increase of 9.1% on a year-on-year basis. Curd sales stood around 307 metric tons, with a year-on-year growth of 5.2%. And lastly, the VAP sales were INR 281 crores, with a growth of 50.9% on a year-on-year basis. Overall, our focus remains on enhancing our procurement strength and widening our product portfolio as well as product distribution range. We also aim to keep our VAP sales contribution above a certain level and maintain overall profitability. With this, now I request our CFO, Mr. Murali Mohan, to share the financial highlights. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. B.V.K. Reddy, and a very good afternoon to all the participants on the call. Talking about quarterly performance in Q3 FY 2025, the revenue from operations came in at INR 901 crores versus INR 747 crores in Q3 FY24. In the quarter, our gross margins stood at 28.2%, which remains broadly in line with our full-year levels. Employee expenses increased by 19.8%, primarily due to annual increments and some addition of employees in Kenya plant and Orgafeed plant in Kuppam. Other expenses remained in line with the previous quarter. We reported an EBITDA of INR 96 crores as against INR 83 crores during Q3 FY24, with the margin standing at 10.6%. Our depreciation for the quarter stood at INR 20 crores versus INR 18 crores in Q3 of last year. Our finance costs for the quarter remained stable at INR one crore in Q3 FY 2025.
With the backing of strong cash flow generated by the company, the other income has increased phenomenally by 92.9% year-over-year. We saw a decrease in our tax from INR 28 crores last year to INR 23 crores in Q3 FY 2025. The reason being, we obtained tax residency certificate in Singapore, which enables the exemption of year-end income in Singapore, resulting in a tax saving of INR 5 crores. This factor has contributed to the improvement of net profit margin by 152 basis points, and the absolute value standing at INR 64 crores.
The net profit margin stood at 7.1%. Now, for the nine-month performance, revenue grew by 20% and stood at INR 2,018 crores as against INR 2,338 crores. EBITDA margin saw an improvement of 145 basis points and stood at INR 297 crores. Net profit was at INR 192 crores as against INR 120 crores, a growth of 60% year-on-year. With this, we conclude the presentation and open the floor for further discussion. Thank you.
Thank you. 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 the handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Vinamra Hirawat from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
So, sir, congrats on a good set of numbers. My first question is a little bit on the quick commerce side. My team and I checked for dairy products in the south region, Hyderabad, Chennai, and we checked it on Blinkit, Instamart, and Zepto. And what we saw was Dodla is only present in Zepto and Hyderabad, while our competitors like Heritage, Hatsun, and the co-ops are present throughout the channels. So, sir, I wanted to know, quick commerce, as a percentage of your sales, is there a push to be present across quick commerce platforms? And when can we expect some progress on sales through quick commerce? Because the way it's growing and eating up share from general trade, this has to be a notable channel for us going forward.
See, quick commerce, we are present, and we are experimenting with Hyderabad, and we have also extended to other towns in Andhra and Telangana, for example, places like Kurnool and other places where we are stronger. We are taking it, and we will be expanding to all other places, but we are also being very cautious in terms of, because most of a couple of them are a lot of the dark stores, that we also have to make sure that supplies are proper, the cold chains are maintained well, and there are no other issues from our end as well as their end. I think it's only a shorter time before we go there. But as a percentage, I think for all of us, for us put together, it is still a small percentage of overall. It's still 0.5% of our revenues.
I think in the days to come, it will grow, but we'll also have to keep both the channels growing. So all the channels will be there. We should also be present in all the channels.
Okay, and where do you see this 0.5% of sales right now getting to in Q3?
The softy ones will be still moving by another 0.5%, 1.5%, 2%, because there is still a good amount of delivery available in the old school where milk delivery is made at home. People are still being able to deliver. A lot more of the app-based deliveries are coming in, and a lot of them are using products. So multi-chain, quick commerce will move along with modern trade as others will also come. I think this will move in the 1%-2% ranges over the short term.
Yeah, yeah. We are expecting roughly up to INR 100 crores revenue this year, this financial year.
Yeah, modern trade and e-commerce.
Oh, modern trade and quick commerce put together.
No, we are expecting roughly about INR 100 crores. So last year is not even 50% of that.
You said, sorry, last year not even INR 50 crores was booked in quick commerce and modern trade?
Less than that, and this year we are.
Less than that, and this year we are expecting roughly about INR 100 crores.
Okay, sir. Sir, my next question is also on the distribution side. Sir, what percentage of our sales come from Dodla parlors? And I see that you have a pretty strong growth in Dodla parlors for this quarter. What are the number of Dodla parlors we expect over the next two years, and do we have higher margins selling in our own parlors?
So our parlors numbers are going to. We try to keep our DRP numbers, I think, are 657. We are not concentrating purely on a blind number growth, but also to make sure that there are profitable number growth that we do. Our parlors will be around second in terms of margins coming new after our distributor network. Our parlor network comes second in terms of realization because we also are trying to do. It's a company-owned and franchisee-operated kind of a model. So we're trying to keep it with the long-term view of maintaining more hygiene standards and making sure that we can do a little more cross-selling. So that's why it's number two. But it's one of the tools that we use to go to market.
Wherever if you're finding other channels of difficulty or we need to create our own, we start using our DRPs, and I think they should grow in another 2 to 3% over a period of time.
So you said 2-3% growth a year in the number of Dodla parlors?
Yeah. The parlor number will not be 2 because we want to make them profitable, but as a percentage of growth, the sales will grow by at least 2-3%.
Got it. Got it, sir. Sir, if I can just fit one more question in. Sir, leaving out other income this quarter, why are your EBITDA margins lower year-on-year since we have Africa, Orga Feed, and VAP, which is a notably higher percentage of our sales in Q3 of F25 versus Q3 of F24?
I'll just give you a broadly the explanation, and Murali Mohan will give you more specifically the number. If I look at my absolute number, actually, it has grown from INR 64 crores in Q3 2024 to INR 76 crores. The absolute number we have grown. The reason was as a percentage of our showing lesser from an 8.68% to 8.48% is fundamentally because Africa, where we started, Kenya, which gave us a 40,000 liters of market, which is a new market. We've got volume, but we still didn't get the margin because it was also a tougher summer. So procurement prices didn't go down as expected, which have been corrected now. So that is why you will see the percentage drop from 8.68% to 8.48%. But as an absolute number, it grew from INR 64.8 crores to INR 76.4 crores.
Apart from that, last quarter we don't have a bulk sale. This quarter we have a bulk sale of INR 72 crores, which also.
Which normally pushes up the revenue, but might not have margin for Dodla Dairy.
As a percentage of revenue. Margin.
Okay. So you're saying why compared to Q3 of last year versus Q3 of this year, the only reason your margins are down is because of Kenya not having the margins required and higher bulk sales?
Yeah, and also addition of depreciation because of when you are calculating EBIT. There are depreciation also is there because of Kenya.
Sir, I'm looking at the EBITDA margins anyway. So the depreciation won't come on that. But okay. So thank you so much. I'll come back in the queue for further questions.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Aditya from Securities Investment Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of results. Sir, first was, what is the average procurement price and realization price per liter this quarter?
Only procurement, Aditya, or you want anything else which we can?
Procurement.
Procurement and realization.
Procurement price? Murlimanu will give you. Go ahead.
Is the procurement price for this quarter Q3 INR 35.62?
Okay. And realization?
And realization is 62.17, including the bulk. To exclude the bulk sale price, it is 58.06.
Understood. And what is the current sales amount in rupee terms?
Sales amount in rupee terms?
Gross sales amount is basically.
For the quarter and the nine months, Aditya?
For the quarter.
For the quarter.
Gross profit is in the quarter.
Gross revenue.
Revenue, no? INR 901 crores.
No, sir. I was asking current sales in rupee terms.
Cost. I didn't get the question. Could you repeat it again?
Current sales, sir, in rupee terms.
Current sales. Sorry. Current sales. Yeah, one minute.
Current sales, consolidated, the revenue was INR 159 crores for this quarter.
FY 2025.
Understood. Understood. Now, sir, my question is on growth. Now, if I look at your India business and if I exclude the bulk sales, your India business is growing in low single digits for the last three quarters. So if you could just explain what is leading to such lower growth and how are we looking for next year in terms of growth?
So basically, lower growth was on earlier, like we said, the number of packets and volume reduction that had happened was the reason why the lower growth numbers were there in terms of liquid milk, and it was generally also, I think, as the higher price went in, a bit of the consumption had dropped, but we are seeing good uptick starting up from January in the summer months coming in, so we are confident that these growth numbers will come back to the regular 8%-10% of volume growth.
Understood. And now, if I look at your VAP sales as well, now, if I exclude your curd and bulk size sales, your other VAP, that is paneer?
That is other VAP is basically paneer, flavored milks, buttermilk, and other products. Ice creams and such as it, yeah?
Mr. Aditya's line has dropped. One moment, please. May I request that we move to the next participant, sir? The line for Mr. Aditya has dropped. We move to the next question that comes from the line of Nandita from Marcellus Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Thank you. First of all, congratulations on an excellent set of numbers, sir. So Mike, I have a couple of questions. First of all, I wanted to understand that in the standalone results, we can see that the tax rate has actually gone down to 19.9% from last quarter, where it was 25.3%. So the reason for that, I wanted to understand. And secondly, the Capex in Maharashtra that you have recently announced of INR 280 crores. So I wanted to understand the strategy, the idea behind what exactly is going to come up under that Capex in Maharashtra, what sort of greenfield project are you looking at?
In terms of the payment, I mean, in terms of funding that CapEx, how much of the net cash today that you have on your balance sheet is going to be used, and how much of debt is going to be taken? If you can just clarify these things, that'll be great.
Nandita, I'll explain the CapEx part. B.V.K. will explain the operation part, and Murali Mohan will explain the tax part of it. So the CapEx that we are looking at, we can actually do the entire thing to our internal approvals that we have. But we will be looking at debt because we have certain advantages of if the government is willing to give us an interest subvention, and if we're able to get some benefits from the government side, is the reason why we'll be taking the debt and using not our internal approvals and making it as an overall more efficient return on the capital that we are deploying. So that is the reason why we look at debt.
Otherwise, we will have ample capital of our own to deploy it, and if we need to be, we will be breaking it as 100% equity, although we know it's a little more on the expensive side. I think operationally, it is making sense that our returns are there between five years or six years, is where we look at our discounted cash flows wise to be making our money back even with 100% equity. So, subject to we getting any benefits, we will go for debt. If we're not getting any benefits, we will go with our own cash. Mr. B.V.K. Reddy will explain the operations of what we are looking forward with Maharashtra.
Yeah. Since a couple of years, we have already started procurement from Maharashtra. Right now, we are collecting about 2.3 lakhs average procurement from Maharashtra, the Solapur surrounding area. We have already identified land acquired. Now, already civil work is being started, and we are expecting by the end of 2026. We will be able to commence our plant. By that time, we are adding another couple of chilling centers this financial year also. By that time, our said plant comes for commencement. At least we will have 50% milk required for that. We are looking for a 1 million liter capacity plant. By the end of 2026, we were able to collect about 5 lakh liters milk per day from the Solapur surrounding area. That is our plan.
With regard to the tax?
Yeah, please, please go ahead. Sorry. Please go ahead.
Okay. With regard to the tax plan, in Q3 of last year, we have declared a dividend of around INR 34 crores. At that time, we don't have a tax resident certificate. So we ended up paying 15% in Africa as well as 17%. That has resulted in almost 30% of the tax. But as the dividend was cut off because it's an intercompany transaction, you have a higher tax amount. And this quarter, we have declared a dividend, but actually, we have only 15% we have to pay because we got the tax resident certificate. That way, our 17% of benefit was there. Apart from that, why it is lower than our tax effective rate of 26% to 27% is because earlier, whatever cash balances we have, on that, we have to create a different tax amount.
But because we already created a deferred tax at that time, now because the money has moved in here, that we have revisited that deferred tax. That way, the tax amount effectively has come down. That was the reason.
Okay. So just one follow-up question, Mr. B.V.K. Reddy, on what you said. So I wanted to understand what part of Maharashtra are you looking at and has the land? Obviously, if you're saying that FY26 end, you're going to commence, so what area of Maharashtra are you looking at and what are the other operational things that you're seeing? Because Maharashtra is typically cooperative-heavy. So I wanted to understand your idea or strategy behind why set up a plant in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra, see, roughly about Maharashtra, if you take, Madam, roughly 2 crores of milk is available in Maharashtra. Only 50 lakhs milk, see, organized daily are collecting. We have ample milk in Maharashtra, especially in Solapur area. See, we identified our land closer to Solapur, 25 km away from Solapur. Now we will be concentrating around 200 km radius. To this 200 km radius itself, we have enough potential to collect 10 lakh liters of milk.
So that is our plan. Nandita, also, once we start going ahead with this 10 lakh liters, this is going to be in lieu of if we consider our growth at the baselines of where we are and what we need to add milk. We will also be de-risking from other states between Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and will make Maharashtra also a reasonably large part of our overall procurement network. And for us, it is also advantageous to our operating plants. I think B.V.K. can tell you that it's close to our Hyderabad plant.
We already know what milk we are collecting from Maharashtra. We are that condensing and getting to Hyderabad, so Hyderabad is also closer, only 275 km, 300 km from our existing location, and also, it is very close to our Karnataka plant also, so whenever milk is required to Hyderabad and Karnataka, so condensed milk can be transported to Hyderabad and Karnataka, our Gangavati plant, so these are the main reasons why we have set up a plant in Solapur.
Fantastic. All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Pratik Kothari from Unique PMS. Please go ahead.
Hey, sir. Good morning. Sir, just one question. I mean, our thought process on, I mean, how do we think about doing this bulk sale and what is this driven by? And just one observation, I mean, seeing quarter two and quarter three, both when we did some large bulk sales, we are still able to maintain our gross margins and operating margins on the standalone level. So, I mean, how do we even achieve that? So thank you.
See, basically, I'll give you the broader thing in terms regarding margins. Murali will explain regarding bulk sale volume and what is the price and what the realizations are. But Pratik, broadly, we are not putting up this thing to enter into the ingredient sale per se. We are now creating a lot more brand awareness and getting into selling ghee as a product and creating a lot more market. The bulk sale that we are doing is only a sort of an intermediary requirement when we are not able to match procurement and sales. Like I've been saying earlier, overall, when we look at our KG fat and KG SMP that we require to what we are going to be selling as a balancing, we will end up with maybe earlier, we used to end up erring on the side of caution and being a net buyer.
Now, we are doing it saying that we will be more aggressive and we'll end up being a net seller. So, selling bulk quantities that we are looking at and compare with the market is minuscule, small. Even a couple of dealers or traders itself will be able to wipe out whatever we hold as our inventories because even in the worst case scenario, we can look at it being 10,000 tons of milk powder, which is a very small quantity in the overall scheme of markets that are available within India and the rest of the world. This is more or less to take care of our consumer requirement that we will not have any shortage and we will move from an era of not having enough milk and using all kinds of buying from third parties.
We will be only dependent on our milk and will not be dependent on third parties. Regarding the second part of the question of maintaining the.
Basically, in this nine months period, we have sold almost INR 274 crores. Yeah. Total in this for nine months, we have sold almost INR 274 crores of commodity by transaction. And whereas in the beginning of the year, we have around INR 299 crores, which was INR 120 crores we already liquidated. Okay? That's whatever provision we made also, most of the amount we have required, only there is INR 10 crores, which we have marked to market is there. And quarter on quarter, also, our prices are increasing when we are doing bulk sales. So like sir said that because we have net selling, it is always beneficial that we maintain the consistency across the event.
All right. So just to confirm, this is, I mean, timing mismatch. I mean, we are kind of getting our procurement uptake very quickly, and until we get our sales done, I mean, we'll see this from time to time basis.
Yeah. So that's what there's more a balancing thing that will happen. And we don't want to be caught on the wrong side of not having product with us.
Correct. Correct. Great. No, thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Anushka Chitnis with Arihant Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I just have a couple of questions. I would like to know about the fat sales. How much of this quarter was attributable to fat? And also, did you see any traction across your sweets portfolio given the festive season?
I would give you the specifics. The sweets portfolio for us, although the numbers will be in terms of half a ton to 600 kilos a day of average sale, overall, it's still a small portion of our portfolio because we sell it only through a few retail outlets and a few areas of.
Smaller plants.
Smaller plant areas because we want to keep the freshness of the sweet going. Fat sales have been good this year.
Yeah. Fat sales, this quarter, we have done around INR 65 crores. Last year, with the same quarter, we have done around INR 12 crores only. But if you talk about last previous quarter of this, it is INR 147 crores. And if you see on the nine-month period, last nine-month period, it is INR 33 crores, and now we are at INR 254 crores.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Risha Mehta from GreenEdge Wealth. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Congrats on a very good performance. So the first question is on the acquisition side, right? So because we are doing a big CapEx in Maharashtra, would you say that that would hinder our acquisition ambitions, if any? So for example, your peer in South has acquired a company in East. And historically, even we have done some small, small plant acquisitions in the South over the period of last several years. So just wanted to understand if Maharashtra is a big CapEx, so would that kind of prohibit us from getting into some kind of a big acquisition for geographic expansion or any other such objective?
Thank you, Risha, for giving a compliment about our results. Maharashtra will not restrict our acquisition ambitions. We will continue to do both. Maharashtra is like we have been doing all the time. We've always grown with a mixture of acquisitions and greenfields. Maharashtra was online plan for us from the beginning. I think we've also informed earlier. Maybe the delays can be three-to-six months in terms of either that we take. In terms of opportunity, if we do find an opportunity which we think matches our performance requirements or our price criteria, we will still look forward for acquisitions because we still are on a very healthy cash flows, which we have with us. Maharashtra will be a project which extends over 18 months, and our future approvals can be used for Maharashtra.
We can still have our own cash for our working capital requirements, plus we will have money for expansion also. So it's only a question of finding the right opportunity, Risha.
Got it. And the numbers that you all had provided for the procurement price, 35.6 and realizations 58.1 for this quarter, was that for the standalone or the consolidated?
Consult. It was for the consult.
Sorry? This was the consult?
Consult.
All right. Can you mention that for the standalone as well, the procurement price of the milk and the selling price?
Yeah, sure. The procurement price for this quarter of standalone is INR 36.13.
36.13.
Yeah, INR 36.13. And the selling price will be INR 62.82.
62.82 is including the fat. Minus that, it would be?
Minus that would be 58.06.
Got it. And so you did mention in your opening remarks that since we are entering the lean season, milk prices have started inching up. So any flavor you can provide in terms of what is the kind of inflation that we are seeing in the milk prices and any stress at the farmer level, if any? And also, in line with this milk price inflation that we are seeing or anticipating further, what are the kind of price hikes that we can take? Would it be fully covering up for the inflation that we are seeing?
Yes, Madam. See, in the milk prices, we are expecting INR 1-INR 2 price hike. Already INR 1, already some areas, it has already gone up. And further, we are expecting one more rupee also will go up in the month of March and April. But that already selling price also corrections have already started. So one round already we have seen is already from tomorrow day after we are doing in Karnataka and Andhra. In some parts of Karnataka also, we have already initiated. So simultaneously, selling price also we are taking down.
This is in line with what your peers have also been doing?
Yes. Yes, Madam.
Okay. Only the fat products, right? So can you give a breakup of so I understand INR 72 crores was the bulk sale. Can you give a breakup of that between butter, SMP, ghee?
72 was only fat, Madam. It was not considering SMP also. It was only fat. In that, we can give the difference between.
Yeah. SMP was around INR 32 crores now, and butter is around INR 40 crores, and ghee is around INR 25 crores for this quarter.
Okay. And so ghee is something that is completely B2C. Is that understanding right?
Ghee is not B2C. Ghee is B2C, Madam. Butter and SMP is B2B.
Correct. And what would be the kind of EBITDA margins that we make on butter, SMP, which are fat products basically, and ghee, which is a B2B?
Commodity margin changes. I think three months ago, it was a break-even level of pricing that we had taken. Currently, it has moved into 6 or 7% kind of EBITDA margins. Consumer ghee can go up to 8%-9% EBITDA margins depending on the channel, but average should be around 8%.
Okay. So ghee, you're saying despite such a low base, we are already doing around 8%, 9% kind of margins. And these margins, 8%, 9%, what you're saying would hold true for the nine-month period for ghee?
Not for the nine-month period, current period. Because again, it is a predominantly ghee prices fluctuate more than milk prices are almost stable, and we only keep taking a hike now. Very rarely do we go down. But ghee prices go in tandem with the butter prices that are available. Even consumer ghee, if butter prices rarely crash and the ghee prices come down, if the butter prices go up, consumer prices of ghee also go up. But Q3, being a festive season in Q3, we got a good realization in ghee. And see, now also the trend is maintaining. It is in a higher side. If you see in an overall year, maybe ghee overall entire year, 12 months, will be in a plus side only, not in a minus side.
Okay. So if we were to think about this more from a mid to long-term standpoint, right, so where do you see your ghee margins on an average? For the full year, considering the cyclicality, seasonality, all those factors put in together, and considering that now we are going to be net sellers and not net buyers, right? So.
It should be around 8%-10% because ghee, once you get more of a brand, if we were there at a while and then we had shortage of product, therefore we had to withdraw from markets like Gujarat and certain areas. But once you build yourself a brand, any good quality ghee versus any other ghee, you will find a wide range of pricing, right? There will be almost a consumer end of at least INR 50-INR 60 change. That means a 10%-15% variation in price from a brand to brand. I think we will be at that higher end of the brand pricing and we'll get our brand value going, and we should maintain 8%-10% kind of margins.
Currently, when you say we are being able to charge a premium, so let's say versus the cooperatives or somebody like a Heritage, etc., how much premium would our ghee be commanding, or would it be at par?
It will all be on par. So most of them are already commanding a premium in the markets when you look at it comparatively. We have a lot of standalone brands of ghee, which are priced lower, unlike the organized dairy guys. So most of the dairy guys will become more premiumized ghee, and the standalone people who buy butter from us and then convert it to ghee will be the lower pricing ones.
Got it. And what was the other income of close to INR 30 crores in the standalone business? That's a sharp jump.
Yeah. I will answer, but it's majority of our.
Basically, other income is basically from the investments. We made it on that. We have accrued, Madam, basically mutual fund because around INR 250 crores of cash profits and liquidation of INR 170 crores, which was invested in the mutual fund. So basically, that was resulting. We invest only in the debt mutual fund.
Compared to previous year, which was around INR 18 or 19 crores, this year it is around.
25?
25. Yeah.
Okay. Sure.
And if you see the standalone, Madam, there is a dividend income in there, INR 18 crores. But if you're talking about consolidated, it is not that. It is only the interest income what we got it. And apart from that, there is a minor income we got it from the milk camps and all those things.
Those are small amounts.
Those are the smaller amounts which we get it.
Right. And this time, the growth has been quite strong, even in the India standalone dairy business, if I were to exclude the bulk fat revenues also, unlike the previous quarter. So would you attribute this revenue growth to some specific geography, specific region, or have you seen this is a secular trend across the territories that you operate in? Any color here that you can give in terms of geographies for.
It's a secular trend, Madam. It's all across. More than volume, also the value also has increased in the terms of pricing, which has come earlier. So you're seeing an impact of both. And it's secular. It's all across.
Right. And just lastly, on the fat sale, right? So in Q3 of last, so when actually did we start recording fat sales? Since which quarter would that be? From Q1 of this financial year, or was it even in last financial year?
Mostly fat sales was in the current year.
Sales was only from the current year, Madam. Accumulation of the SMP we have done in Q3 of last year. But Q3, Q4, we have not done any accumulation. Only we started selling it.
Sorry, I missed that. So you're saying in Q3 FY24 and Q4 FY24, we did not have any fat sale, bulk sale, right?
No bulk sale.
We don't have bulk sales.
So it was only since Q1 that we have started this?
Yes.
Q1 of this financial year?
Yes, Madam.
Can you help me with the number for butter, SMP, and ghee for Q1 FY 2025, if you have it handy, or maybe I can otherwise just reach out to you?
You can reach out to us, Madam. Otherwise.
We don't have a Q1 of butter sale, Madam.
FY 2025.
FY 2025. FY 2025 butter sale was basically value-wise INR 194 crores, Madam. And SMP was INR 80 crores.
That is for the year, Madam.
That is for the year.
She wanted Q.
Q3 already.
Q3. I don't have Q1 ready with me, Madam. Just Q3 and.
No, Q3.
Q3.
So I will give it to you, Madam.
Yeah. And the ghee for the nine-month.
Sorry to interrupt, Madam. May we request that you return to the question for the following questions?
Sure. Thank you.
There are several participants waiting. Thank you.
Thank you, Risha.
The next question comes from the line of Aejas Lakhani from Unifi. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi team. Thanks.
Aejas, may I request you to use your hands? You are not audible, sir.
Is this better?
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. Hi team. Congratulations on excellent execution as always. Mr. Dodla, could you just, I'm looking for a more slightly zoomed-out sort of view on how the trend for FY26 will pan out, especially given that in 2022, we saw a fairly stable year. 2023 was an off year with procurement prices rising. We couldn't pass through all of them. 2024 was a fairly more stabilized year. 2025 has been what it is. It's been a good year. How do you, given the cyclicality of this industry to a certain extent, how do you see the cycle playing out for procurement prices as well as your ability to pass through, given that you've been able to do this consistently over so many quarters? Do you still see that trend continuing?
Thank you so much, Mr. Lakhani. Yes, what will happen is it is going to be that what we call as food inflation will continue to be there, and we will be doing both the procurement and passing it on to the customers is what will happen. It only depends on the quantum. I don't think we'll see such a steep increase like we saw in the previous years. It will be more a steady-state increase, maybe two, three rupees of going up to the farmer and to the consumer kind of a scenario, and we will be able to pass that on as we go forward. It is more also that the industry is sort of matured and become more uniform in nature. The differences between the cooperatives, the private sector, and all that are also being evened out.
So therefore, we will see that equal passing of prices whenever there's a price inflation that the farmers get. That will also pass to the consumer, and we will maintain these kind of steady-state margins. The advantage that we have is now because we have three lines of revenue coming in from India operations, Africa, and with the cattle feed. I think between the three, we will be able to maintain this healthy state of growth and margins even for a few more years to come. And like we had announced, if we take our Maharashtra project coming online, I think we are pretty much organized for the next three years, at least in the short term, to maintain good growth rates and profitable incomes.
Got it. So that's very clear. And sir, just two more things. I think in your opening remarks, MD spoke about something about the Singapore entity. So can you help me bridge my understanding that I thought that the cash flows from Africa sit to the Singapore entity, and we don't repatriate them back because of taxation-related matters? So is there any change on that?
No. Actually, we don't get them because of the taxation-related matters. So what happened was, Murali will give you the specifics. Earlier, when the Singapore government had said that if it was only you had an address, you had a local director, they would give us a tax residency certificate, which means that I would get the credit for whatever tax that I paid in Africa when I repatriated to Singapore. In the middle, they changed that to saying you have to be sort of a little more of an operating entity where you must have senior management personnel and other such things, which we have sort of complied with, and they have given us a tax residency certificate, wherein when the money that is repatriated from Africa comes to Singapore, we get the benefit of getting the money from Singapore.
We don't pay the tax in Singapore for what is already being paid in Africa. We repatriate that money into India whenever we are doing a dividend or a dividend policy because I think it is more effective for us to do it. Murali will explain the effectiveness of getting the dividend from Africa to India and getting it to Indian shareholders.
Yeah. Basically, when we are talking about Africa money bringing to Singapore, there is a double taxation was made earlier, 15% of withholding tax on the 85%. Again, when we are remitted to Singapore, we have to pay 17%. Effectively, it is coming 30%. Earlier, we don't have a tax residency certificate. So after that, we got that certificate for 2023, 2024, and now we got even for 2025. So based on that, we have remitted back the money again this year, again, another 34 crores. Okay? That's why. So effectively, our tax will be only 15%. Secondly, whatever the money we are getting into Singapore, like last year, whatever we got the money, out of that, around 18 crores, we already declared as a dividend in India.
So based on our dividend planning and based on the requirement in India, so we will either move on to India or we will hold it at the Singapore. The idea of the company was to minimize the cash balances to be maintained in Africa. That was the reason.
Okay. So that was a lot of data given to me at a very rapid pace, so my ability to absorb was a little lower. But what I'm understanding that you're saying is you figured out the taxation structure from Africa, whatever pool you can repatriate back to India at a 30% effective tax rate, and you're trying to minimize the capital that you hold in Singapore as much as possible and repatriate it back to India. Is that broad understanding correct?
Yes. Absolutely. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. And probably I'll get into the semantics of it in a one-on-one call. And sir, lastly, I just want to understand from the team. That's also basically as a company, you guys are super efficient. So your strategy around Maharashtra, is it close proximities to your centers in Telangana and the region? So you're basically trying to make efficient the distribution road, which is already being enforced and used, and using that as a playbook to build Maharashtra from that area and then go about. Is that correct?
Yes. What will happen is, Lakhani sir, we will cater to our, let's say, Maharashtra. If you're looking at east and west, Maharashtra will now push more milk whenever it's required to the eastern market growth that we are having, which is our Hyderabad, North Karnataka, and South Karnataka by requirements, and also gives us the establishment of going westward into Maharashtra. We will start with the districts and establish there and move forward, so it will be a two-way thing which will be there. It will also act as a stabilizing for milk requirement for our existing markets and for growth into Maharashtra now.
Got it. And sir, given that you're dispersed in fairly several regions now, what is the health of the cooperators in each of these? Because from time to time, when the health of the cooperators is weaker, the farmer switches over to us, and because of our great factors of paying them on time in their accounts, etc., you get a better stickiness from a collection standpoint. So I just want to understand, what is the health of the cooperators in that light?
Yeah. That I will answer this. See, especially if you take Telangana, so Telangana is very poor. So they are not able to make a payment to the farmers, and they are due almost a couple of months. So it is very shabby state, especially in Telangana. And Telangana and Andhra, you know, see, they are in deficit throughout the year. Now, see, they don't have surplus milk. And Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu also cooperatives are not doing well. They are also running late by one or two months. They are not very efficient. Tamil Nadu also is the same problem. Karnataka, they were paying no subsidy since 10 years, after 10-15 years from 2004 onwards. But they are also now running late almost seven-eight months.
The cooperative dairy is their portion of money they are paying promptly, but the government, what they promised, INR 5 per liter, that they are not crediting to the farmer account. So it is running late. So cooperatives now, it is very difficult. It is such maintaining consistency, payment, promptly payment, they are not making at all. And if you see, come to Maharashtra, Maharashtra cooperative dairy are very weak. They're smaller. All very small. So the majority, Sonai, Country Delight or Govind Dairy, Parag Dairy, these are the major dairies.
Understood, sir. And so, sir, is it just lastly, is it fair to assume that you're doing an expansion of the number of farmers where you're collecting milk by basically taking share from the cooperators in all the geographies that you are present today?
Not only cooperatives, but see, overall, because each and every village, there are other people are competing over maybe the efficient the farmer will attract. I mean the service and a payment, prompt payment. So to be more specific, Lakhani sir, it would be that whoever is not operating well in a certain area will be the loser hierarchy-wise, and the better operator starts to get more share.
Noted, sir. Wish you the best for execution 2026.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shorya Puniani with Ajov Partners. Please go ahead.
Hello. I'm audible?
Yes, sir.
Please go ahead.
Just a clarification, that new plant in Maharashtra, so is it active by end of FY 2027 or 2026?
December 2026, or let's assume that it would be March 2027. Between December 2026 and March 2027, it will be operational.
March 2027. Okay. And sir, could you give a broad view as to what kind of overall top line growth you are expecting in 2026 and 2027?
Try to maintain the actual data growth that we've been promising as 10% by volume and 15% by revenue. Maybe that might vary in terms of the volume might be a little less or a little more, and the revenues might be a percent here and there. But the 10 and 15% is what we'll be looking at.
Okay, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Shorya, does that answer your questions?
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infoline. Please go ahead.
Hi everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Sir, a little bit more on the INR 280 crore Capex that you plan to do. This is one million capacity is what I understand. Does it include only liquid milk at this point, or do you plan to add value-added products like curd and any other that you are thinking?
Yeah. See, there we are putting up a powder plant that is a 60 tons per day capacity. So that 60 tons capacity powder plant itself will take away almost requirement of milk is 7.5 lakhs. And balance, see, we are also planning liquid milk as well as your curd and all other products also. That should be another 2.5-3 lakh liters that will be there for the consumer, B2C.
This would be in the INR 280 crore CapEx, everything. They don't plan to add later?
Yes. No, no. This will be in the INR 280 crore Capex, including liquid milk and the powder plant. The other things that we'll be planning to add later can be cattle feed, can be other sources.
Other feeds.
That's for the requirement.
What is the potential revenue that this plant alone can generate? Let's say, assuming an optimum capacity utilization, I understand there is a seasonality in the business, but in your estimate, whatever optimum capacity utilization a plant reaches, the revenue potential from this plant?
Normally, when a liter of milk is giving roughly about 175-200 crore top line, so once it becomes 100%, it will add into 2000 crores revenue top line.
Okay. So that's a turnover around six-seven times.
Yes.
Okay. Just a bookkeeping question, sir. Procurement mix between cow and buffalo milk for you?
Mostly, it is the cow milk. 99% Maharashtra is cow milk only.
No, no, no. Overall, I don't know.
Buffalo milk will hardly be 35%. The rest is all cow.
For your company, I'm asking, not just for Maharashtra.
For company. For the company only.
Okay. 95% is cow milk. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. That's all from me.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shrishti with Monarch AIF. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, with respect to Africa, how do we see growth panning out now that we've touched quarterly run rate of about INR 100 crores? What is the utilization level there, and what kind of margins are we doing there currently?
Africa, this year, we have done nine months, our volume growth, roughly about 60% volume growth we have done. Last year, nine months, cumulative, we have done around 110,000 liters. Now we are doing around 177,000 liters. In future, I think we can add in future also, now Kenya plant, we have done only 40% of the capacity utilization. So we originally planned for a 1 lakh liter capacity. Now nine months average is 40,000 liters. So there is a big headroom to go ahead in Kenya. And also, Uganda also, compared to last year, these nine months also, there also we have grown. So we think we'll still have growth of around 50,000-60,000 liters available with us.
Understood. And sir, we were facing the margin pressure, right? Do we see that improving?
Margin being applicable, always maintain this seasonality-wise. Might they go down or go up, but we will maintain the same margin level.
Understood. Sir, and what are the utilization in the cattle feed, and how is the realization trending there?
Cattle feed plant, the plant which is commenced in Kupang plant last April, now we are almost doing 30% capacity utilization.
And how is the realization trending there? It was trending upwards, right?
It's trending upward.
It continues to be there?
Around 7% to 8% of margin, which is always maintaining or going up as a differential between the commodity price and the selling price.
Understood, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Devansh Mehta with Care PMS. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, sir. Hello.
Yes, sir.
Hello. Yes, sir. So my first question was, like we saw inched up and down across margins on a sequential basis, but what could be the reason and the driver for this?
Could you repeat the question, sir?
Why is this breaking? Can you?
So maybe request you to use your handset, sir.
Hello? Is it clear now?
Hello?
May I request you to use your handset, please? In case you're connected on a Bluetooth device, may we request you to use your handset?
Is it clear now, sir?
Yes, sir. That's very clear.
Thank you, sir. I'm sorry for that, sir. Sir, my question was basically we saw an inch up in the gross margin in the latest quarter, so what could be the driver for the same?
Basically, it's the pricing that has improved on all the ends of the bulk sales and regular sales also. The prices were there, and the product mix also helped us in terms of the overall gross margin improvement.
Okay. Thank you, sir. And sir, what would be the current inventory position, and how do we see it going forward? And did we have any inventory gain in the current quarter?
No. Inventory gains, we still have INR 10 crore of NRV provision that we have with us for what we had provided earlier, which I think our consumption, I think we are maintaining it for our own requirement now and not much of sale to go forward because the summer months are coming. I think we still have an advantage of the 10 crores that we have provisioned. All the pricing is doing better than the NRV that we have. I think when it comes to the consumption, we will have the advantage of that revision if we have to do it depending on when we consume.
I thought we have only INR 129 crores for the commodity.
Inventory.
Inventory. Okay, sir. And just last question, sir, like recently we saw Amul taking down, taking a price cut off around INR 1. So what would be your pricing strategy that you said? Can you repeat that, please?
So Amul basically has taken up a price increase and then a price cut. BVK will explain it first.
Yeah, yeah. Amul now, see, they've taken. Now they've decreased in certain areas, but not across India. But here we are in South, all competitors now, see, they've already started taking the price hike, including the co-ops. And the other side, see, the procurement price also, SMP and milk, they're taking up.
Okay, sir. So just one last question, sir. How do we see your demand scenario in the industry going forward in the coming quarters and for the full year?
The demand will continue to increase now, so we are again seeing good pullback coming from consumption. We are confident that the demand will play out as we go forward.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you so much, sir. All the best.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us today on this earnings call. We appreciate your interest in Dodla Dairy. If you have any further queries, please contact SGA or Investor Relations Advisor, or you can reach out to us also. Thank you so much.
Thank you. On behalf of Dodla Dairy Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect. Your lines.