Ladies and gentlemen, a very good evening, and welcome to Zomato Limited's Q1 FY24 earnings conference call. From Eternal's management team, we have with us today Deepinder Goyal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Akshant Goyal, Chief Financial Officer, Albinder Singh Dhindsa, Founder and CEO of Blinkit, and Kunal Swarup, Head of Corporate Development. Before we begin, a few quick announcements for the attendees. Anything said on this call which reflects outlook for the future, or which could be construed as a forward-looking statement, may involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements or comments are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ from those statements. Please note that this earnings call is scheduled for a duration of 45 minutes, and we will be starting directly with the Q&A section of the call.
If you wish to ask a question, please use the Raise Hand feature available on your Zoom dashboard. We will announce your name on the call and unmute your line, post which you can proceed with your question. We will wait for one minute while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mr. Sachin Salgaonkar from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations for a great set of numbers. I have three questions. First question is regarding the 11% QoQ GOV growth. Clearly, the four reasons what you guys have given is clear, but just wanted to check, how much was the IPL impact, and any way you guys could quantify that?
Hi, Sachin, thank you for your questions. Akshant this side. You know, IPL over the years, we've seen last few years as, you know, we've seen that it doesn't have too much of an impact on our business, except for a few matches, matches towards the back end. I think seasonality is more to do with the weather, school holidays and stuff like that. This was pretty clear to us, I think year before last when the IPL actually got shifted to October quarter. It was during that year that we saw that our business, even in the summers, was still high, despite there being no IPL. I think it's fairly clear to us now that IPL has very limited impact on our business.
Thanks, Akshant. Just an extension of this question, you know, is the answer similar to the World Cup, which comes once every four years?
So, I mean, like four years ago, we don't know. Our business was very different, so, uh, we don't have, uh, uh, you know, data points, uh, to respond to that. But in general, any, um, any matches and cricket matches, uh, where the viewership is very high is where we see some impact on upside. Uh, so we are hoping that World Cup will be different, uh, given it happens once in four years, and it's happening in India this time, so we are expecting some upside, uh, but we'll have to see how it plays.
Okay, great. My second question is regards to AOV of Blinkit. Now, clearly, your AOV is much higher than most of your competitors, and for last few quarters, we had seen a sort of, you know, declining trend, but this quarter it did, did improve. Just wanted to understand your thoughts per se, you know, how sustainable we should look at it going ahead?
Hi, Sachin, this is Albinder. Like I've mentioned a couple of times before also, our business, because it deals with such a wide variety of products, the AOV movement does tend to move with seasons as well. This quarter's AOV movement that you're seeing, part of it was also a result of the fact that we were a little bit supply constrained, but that drove about 25% of the overall AOV improvement. The rest of it is, you know, mostly seasonal changes, consumption patterns, especially in the cold, FMCG and grocery space. That's what usually drives up the AOV during some parts of the month.
You will see more variability in AOV, not consistently going up or down, but we bake that into our business projections and how we think about the business.
Got it. Thank you. Last question, just wanted to understand medium-term sustainable margins in food, which is GOV, as a percentage of Adjusted EBITDA. You know, you guys said 4%-5% is what you guys are looking in the next few quarters. I just wanted to understand from a medium-term perspective, where it could settle?
Next few quarters is medium term only, no, Sachin?
Okay, let me turn it, you know, from a long-term perspective, where do you guys want to say, you know, see that settling?
Hard, hard to say. I think, I think first we want to get to this, kind of a margin profile, and then we'll see how the business evolves after that.
Got it. Okay, all the best for the future. Thank you.
Thank you, Sachin.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mr. Vijit Jain from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you. Congratulations for a great set of numbers. My question is, you know, just this QoQ drop in employee expenses, just wondering if there's anything to that. I'm, I'm talking about expenses excluding the ESOP charges. That's question one.
Yeah. Hi, Vijit. Yeah, I think our employee expenses have come down last two quarters, and I think largely a function of the right sizing that we did in the December quarter. I think all of that is fully flowing into our P&L now, given that there were some severance payouts in the previous quarter. I think that's why you see the decline.
Got it. Akshant, fair to say this would include any annual pay hikes, or, is that in a different cycle for you guys?
Our cycle is actually July to July, so you will see that impact on, in the next quarter.
Okay, got it. July, we check. Got it. My next question is on, you know, just a couple of things on, you know, the delivery rider fees in general. There was this news recently of a Rajasthan government, exploring some kind of a rule on compensation to gig economy workers. Just wondering, if there's any clarity on how that impacts your business. Related to that, is there any adjustment to how you compensate, delivery riders post, the events at Blinkit in Gurgaon? Just a broad question on, delivery rider side there.
Yeah, Vijit, I think on that one, We don't have full clarity yet.
Yeah.
we're still waiting for more clarity there, I think basis that, we'll, we'll be able to ascertain on the steps that we need to take to manage that. At this point, I think it's a very broad-based bill, and there are no.
Yeah
Specific details, so we're just waiting and watching right now.
Got it. How about any changes that you, you have implemented on the Blinkit side? Just wondering on the Blinkit side, have, you know, your delivery costs per order changed this quarter, or most of the improvement is just led by the higher AOV in terms of contribution margins?
Yeah. Hi, Vijit, this is Albinder.
Yeah.
The changes that we made in April was more to bring all our delivery partners onto the same kind of a payout structure so that it was more even across the board.
Yeah.
We have not made any changes beyond that. The overall-
Got it.
Cost of delivery for us did not decrease significantly during the quarter, because that was not the intent of the changes that we were making as well. The delivery payouts per order to our delivery partners have remained broadly the same. Most of the improvement that you're seeing, on the contribution side is coming more from operating leverage, of our fixed assets, as well as, improving margin profile and improving, average ticket size.
Got it. Thanks. Yeah, those were my questions. I'll just jump back into the queue.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mr. Swapnil Potdukhe from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Hey. Hi, everyone. Thanks for the opportunity. Great so, set of numbers. I have a couple of questions on the food delivery side and couple of, on the, quick commerce side. First, there has been a mention of, some risky bets that, that seem to have paid off for you. Would you be able to call them out? In the same breath, can you also mention, any more initiatives that you are working on, that can become risky here on?
No, I think the reference, Swapnil, there was largely to the changes that we did on the people side, and some calls we took on driving growth, you know, like on Zomato Gold, where, at that time, we felt that there was a perception that that it'll impact the business in a negative way. I think largely that was what we meant with, with this. It, it doesn't. We're not talking about any business calls here, which, you know, which, which, investors are not aware of.
Got it. Secondly, there has been a 100 basis points QoQ improvement in the take rates. Now, would you be able to, you know, call out, the, how much of that is because of ad income, a pure play restaurant commissions, and maybe Gold, separately?
No, Swapnil, I'm sorry, we will not be able to share those details.
Okay. No worries. On the Blinkit side, so, would it be possible to share the GMV mix over there? What I understand now is, like, your non grocery mix appears to be improving. It would be great if you guys can call that out in some form or the other.
Swapnil, we don't give out the breakout for individual products categories that we sell. What we, the mindset with which we operate is that we're always looking to bring more convenience across more product categories for our customer. We've been increasing the size of portfolio available in 10 minutes to our customers consistently over the last one year, and that is what is leading to improvement in the overall, both the ticket size as well as the margins for us. I think we will continue to do that into the future as well.
Got it. And, and because of the disruption we saw in one Q, you know, in Delhi and in NCR, did your Blinkit delivery costs jump up in this particular quarter? And, and I presume that would be a one-off, but was that the case? How and would that help you improve your contribution margins going ahead, some?
I think the delivery cost changes, like we mentioned, were not significant in this quarter, and we don't expect that number to be to change dramatically going forward as well. The intent of the changes for us was to make sure that our entire delivery fleet was on a more fair and equitable payout structure. I don't think that that is something that we are targeting. The disruptions, where they affected us was because there was more misunderstanding on the ground.
Some of our stores were shut for a few days, and even after they recovered, the number of partners coming back and working, it took some time to recover, and that's why we had a weaker April and May, and we only started recovering towards the end of May and early June. Post that, we've recovered that.
Got it. And just the last question, if I can squeeze in. How much of that $3 million-$20 million that you were expecting to, you know, burn in Blinkit has already been factored in, and how much is the balance? I, I, I know that you won't be spending the entire amount, you mentioned that, but just to get, to get a sense of it.
Swapnil, we'll share that number, you know, once we get to breakeven profitability. I think, so far we are still sort of trying to calibrate on how much we need to spend incrementally from here on to get to breakeven.
Okay, no worries. Thanks a lot for, guys, for this opportunity and great set of numbers again. All the best.
Thank you, Swapnil.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mr. Manish Adukia from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good evening. Thank you so much for taking my questions, and thank you for all the disclosure around numbers and guidance, everything for the next few years. Just a few clarifications on some of the numbers you've given in the shareholder letter. You've called out a growth rate in Blinkit of 60%+ on GOV for the foreseeable future, and overall adjusted revenue growth of 40%+. Back of the envelope calculation would suggest maybe 25%+ or 30% thereabout, kinds of food delivery growth in the next few years. Firstly, do you agree with that number, food delivery growth of 25%-30% for the next couple of years is what you are targeting?
We haven't, we haven't stated any growth targets or guidance for food delivery, Manish. Can't comment on this.
Right. Akshan, does the comment from your previous quarters, where incrementally, most of the growth in food delivery will come from, user growth, that comment would still stand, right? If, let's say, 25%-30% you were to grow, then that large part should come from user growth. Would that be a fair, fair assumption?
Yes, yes, Manish. Even in this quarter, you have seen the MTU grow. We expect that to sort of continue.
Understood. My second question may be to Albinder. Albinder, in the question in the shareholder letter, you've said that you're determined to deliver on growth and profitability over the next few months. Again, I mean, are we to read that you are guiding for EBITDA breakeven over the next few months, or did you mean something else?
I think we meant what we wrote.
so we've mentioned four quarters anyways, so that's 12 months. I don't know, I'm not sure if I got your question, Manish.
Sure. Okay, fair enough. No, thank you for clarifying. Third, again, in the shareholder letter, you've talked about, you know, users of capital, capital allocation. Thank you for the color there. Since you started generating cash now, and obviously you have a large balance sheet as well, from a capital allocation standpoint, if you are, let's not focusing on any near-term M&A or acquisition, would you be considering any form of shareholder return, or that is not in the foreseeable future?
Not at this point, Manish. We have thought about that, but at this point we want to maintain the cash that we have. Down the line, we continue to reconsider that position as our business scales and as, you know, competitive dynamics change around us.
Got it. Thank you so much for taking my questions.
Thank you, Manish.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mr. Gaurav Rateria from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, congratulations on a great set of numbers. A few questions. The first is on contribution margin in food, now at 6.4%. For you to hit your target of 4%-5% Adjusted EBITDA margins, where should this number settle down, and what will be the key drivers for that?
Gaurav, largely, I think, there is some bit of operating leverage which will continue to scale in this business. If we have to, if the margin, if the EBITDA margin goes up by 2 percentage points, the contribution, we can get there even with a slightly lower contribution margin growth, right? Ballpark, even in the past, we have spoken about, about 8% contribution to GOV in this business. I think that is what we are aiming for, and, and we believe that should get us to the 4%-5% EBITDA margin in this business.
Got it. Second question is, how much of Hyperpure growth came from your synergies between Hyperpure and Blinkit? Is there a case to believe that quick commerce can leverage the food delivery delivery footprint and get some synergies there as well?
Sorry, on this, can you elaborate on the second part of the question? Not clear-
How much, how much of Hyperpure growth really came because of the synergies between the Blinkit and Hyperpure business, which you mentioned in your shareholders letter?
Understood.
Yeah, the continuing question is that, is there a case to believe that quick commerce can also get some synergies from leveraging the delivery footprint of the food delivery business?
As far as your first part of the question is concerned, Hyperpure business is growing on both sides now. I think the core restaurant supplies business is growing really well at more than 100% year-on-year. Equally, as we mentioned in the last couple of shareholders letter, you know, we're also now supplying to sellers on Blinkit, so that business is scaling as well. I think there both the segments are growing well. To your second question, I like synergies with between quick commerce and food delivery. I think we've spoken about a few in the past. That was your question, right?
Just want to confirm, Gaurav, that your question is on quick commerce and food delivery synergies or something else?
Food synergies between the two business, especially with respect to delivery cost.
Yeah, I will, I'll take that, Gaurav. I think we've explored this quite a bit, and so far, we are taking it slowly to make sure that both the businesses, especially in the overlapping cities, they are fairly sizable. We have taken some initiatives, mostly on the technology and the platform side, to be able to get better synergies out of both of them. Over time, I think we will continue to make, you know, processes and our way of operating better to be able to get more synergies out of the fairly large footprint of riders that we have across both the platforms.
As of now, like, that is not something which is an active area, as both the platforms are growing, fairly quickly, and we need to make sure that we have rider supplies for both of them, across the board.
Got it. Last question from me. Any data point on the new customer addition during the quarter on a gross basis? Thank you.
I think, it remains healthy. It, it's in line with the numbers you have shared in the past. I think that, as far as new user addition is concern, concerned, it continues to remain robust.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the honor, Mr. Sudheer Guntupalli. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello. Thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on a great set of numbers. So just on your guidance of 40% year-on-year, 40%+ year-on-year adjusted revenue growth for at least the next couple of years. So, so, Akshant, what is giving you that confidence, especially in an economy where the nominal GDP growth is averaging just around 10%, you're talking about 4x GDP growth multiplier? That is number one. Number two, till last quarter, we are talking about consumption slowdown, discretionary slowdown, so on and so forth, and now we are talking about confidence of 40%+ year-on-year growth, at least for the next couple of years. This looks like almost a 180-degree turn in terms of our guidance/aspiration.
What has driven that change? Is it entirely led by the strong performance that we had seen in this quarter?
Sudhir, hi, Akshan this side. I'm not sure, I, I'm wondering if your, if your understanding of this 40% is only for food delivery, because this is a guidance at the overall revenue level, which, even in the last four, five quarters, has been north of 50% year-on-year, right? I think given we have a portfolio of business, and while food delivery's growth has been collectively muted last few quarters, which is what you're also saying, but at the same time, Hyperpure, dining out and Blinkit have grown really well. I think the, the message here that we wanted to give is that as a portfolio, we'll continue to grow at that pace, while some business may grow faster than others.
Yeah, sure, Akshant. No, I, I get your point, and to one of the previous questions, you have sort of not called out the growth, but 40% overall portfolio level growth does imply, let's say, food delivery growth of at least a 25%-30% CAGR over the next couple of years, which seem to be a very, very big ask. I'm essentially asking, what is driving that confidence, both in, in the, in the food delivery business, compared to where we were three, four months back?
If you look at this last one quarter, we've grown 11% on GOV terms sequentially and around 15% on revenue basis for the food delivery business, right? If we are doing that in one quarter, I think we can easily aim for a 25%-30% growth on revenue on food for this year and the next. I think the assumption here is that the worst is behind us in terms of the demand slowdown that we saw, and from here on, incrementally, we should see that recover. And hence, we feel confident about being able to deliver this top line growth.
Sure, Akshan, thanks for that color. Just one clarification: This does not in any way include any of the future acquisitions that you may have in mind or anything of that sort, right?
No.
This is a pure organic number that we are talking about.
Yes, like to like.
Okay, Akshan. Thank you so much. Congratulations once again for a brilliant set of numbers.
Thank you, Sudheer.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mr. Mukul Garg from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah. Hi, Mukul.
Hey, great quarter, guys. Congratulations. Just two questions. You know, first on the take rate during this quarter. You know, I know this, this came up earlier also, but can you just help understand, you know, what steps were really undertaken this quarter? Because, Akshant, you have in past mentioned that, you know, incrementally taking up that take rate would be a lot more gradual, but the-
Hello? Mr. Mukul, are you on the line? Seems like we have some sort of a technical glitch, we can circle back to Mr. Garg later. In the interim, next question is from the honor, Mr. Vivek Maheshwari from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, am I audible?
Yeah, please go ahead.
Okay. Hi. couple of things. First, on the food delivery, Akshan, just the, you know, what the previous participant asked, when we talk to QSR companies on the delivery side, you know, their outlook is not as buoyant as, or as positive as, let's say, you are. Is there a difference between, let's say, independents versus, let's say, chain restaurant? Is there any such trend which is underway, which is why, you know, let's say, you are seeing Let's say, or your outlook is far positive as compared to the QSR folks?
Yeah, hi, Vivek. I think, you know, as we mentioned in the past, past, QSR contributes, you know, single-digit percentage point of our business overall. Most of our business on our platform happens through smaller restaurants and a few outlet chains. Yeah, at least, as far as our business is concerned and, and the data that we are seeing, we feel there's no reason to believe that we should not be able to grow well from here on, right? At least on a year-on-year basis.
Okay, okay. Given the presence, Akshant, you have, you know, and I'm sure you're, you know, you would be interacting with those restaurants, given where the food inflation is. Isn't there a... You know, see, again, honestly, I don't know beyond QSR as much, but shouldn't there be a bit of a stress that restaurants should be facing right now, given, you know, the, the input prices have actually hardened quite a bit?
This is actually quite contrary to that, a lot of small restaurants, given the lack of growth in their business in the last six, nine months, we are seeing are spending aggressively on ad sales on our platform, to grow, right? That trend is what has also led to a part of the take rate increase that, that, a couple of you have asked us in the, on this call in the past. Yeah, I think, the prices are going up. There's inflation, but we've seen these small restaurants take up menu prices and, in turn, and along with that, spend on ads to get, to get growth, and it seems like it's working for them.
Okay. Okay, got it. The second point on food delivery, margins again, Akshant, 2.5%, and there has been obviously a dramatic improvement. I, I don't think most were believing when you first, you know, highlighted those things. But from here to, let's say, a journey to 5%, should that be more moderate? Through the course of the year, will we see more moderate gains as we go forward?
Hard to predict the exact path, Vivek. I think, we'll play it by the year. It's a highly competitive market. There are multiple variables at play here, including the demand, seasonality, and competition. I think we feel confident of getting there in a few quarters. You know, but exactly from here on, whether it's gonna be linear or not, it's hard to say right now.
Okay, got it. On the, on the quick commerce Blinkit side, you know, you have mentioned about 100 net store additions this year. What does that signal? Or, or, you know, these 100 stores are essentially going, you going into newer towns and cities. Is, is that what it is? Or this will be primarily in the existing locations? The fact that you are now, so you have been, you know, pruning down the stores, and now that, you know, FY 24, you are guiding for 100 stores. So what has driven this change, you know, this... I mean, I, I was expecting at some point, but FY 24, 100 additions, seems that, you know, you are far more confident over here.
Hi, Vivek, Albinder here. Most of the new store additions, which we are guiding for, is going to be in our existing geographies. A lot of this is being driven by the fact that we have polygons, which we are serving with existing stores that are reaching fairly high order numbers and reaching maturity, and we still see a lot of headroom for growth in those localities. A lot of this growth is going to come from store expansion of our network within our existing geographies itself. We are obviously cautiously expanding into new geographies as well, adding some more flavor and variety into the kind of neighborhoods that we serve and the cities that we serve, including some Tier two cities.
majority of the 100 store expansion that you'll see will come from high confidence polygons, where we already have significant volumes.
Interesting, interesting. Last question, more philosophically, you know, your release talks about or the letter talks about, you know, dining out or, or, you know, going out as a separate app, and you have again mentioned about the brand. You know, in this quarter, also 7% of GOV, let's say, comes from, dining out. Do you really need a separate app, and is it worth it, you know, given that, given that you already have a, you know, brilliant, franchise with Zomato app? Why, why, you know, put it separately? Have you done any, let's say, study on this, which says that it would be better if you, you know, park it in a different app? I can understand Blinkit, because that was more organ.
It, it was more, you know, the, the traffic was always there, in Grofers, and that's what, you know, you want- that's why you probably wanted to continue. Putting it separately, does that really help?
Vivek, I, right now, just to clarify, by the way, we are not saying that this business will not be on the Zomato app, even if we have a separate app, right? I think it's, it's an idea we are experimenting with right now. Even if we do that, dining out will continue to remain on Zomato app, right? We'll then see, you know, what we learn from that and whether that stays, the separate, the new app stays or not. I think that's all up for experimentation at this point. We don't have a very firm point of view on that.
Okay, interesting. Thank you, and wishing you all the best.
Thank you. Next question is from Mr. Ashwin Mehta from Ambit. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Can you hear me?
Yeah. Hi, Ashwin.
Hi, Akshant. Thanks for the question. Congrats on good set of numbers. The first question is in terms of take rates. We've seen almost a 200 pip increase in take rates in food over the last year. How much more scope do you see, in terms of increases there? The second one is in terms of Blinkit, wherein, if you can give some color in terms of the advertising, pickup in Blinkit, and how should that affect the take rates in Blinkit?
Yeah, so large part of the take rate increase on the food side that you're talking about, Ashwin, is because of the growth in ad sales that we've seen. As I mentioned in response to the previous question, we are seeing more and more restaurants wanting to spend on our platform to market their business and grow, and that trend seems to sustain and continue for now. Right? We don't know till what level can this ad sales revenue grow for us. Equally, I think likewise on the Blinkit business, we've seen ads as a decent driver of or a meaningful driver of revenue expansion, top-line expansion for Blinkit.
The journey there is much less mature than it is on food, and we believe that there are meaningful gains to be made on ad sales on the Blinkit business and, and which will drive a large part of our progress to profitability from here on.
Okay. Okay, just one more: have you seen any impacts till now of the floods and some of the disruptions that have happened, especially in North India, Haryana, for that matter? Any impacts that you see as you get into the next quarter?
Yes, Ashwin. I think these, all these events, do have a hyperlocal impact, on our business. Even, for example, in Gurgaon, we've, we've had, some local issues last few days, and that has impacted our ability to service, some, some of our customers in, in a few neighborhoods. I think that impact, as you all mentioned also, was there in the last couple of months because of untimely heavy rains. We've sort of navigated all of that, and, and that didn't have an impact on the, growth of the business, over the last couple of months.
Okay. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mr. Nikhil Chaudhary from Nuvama, Nuvama Equities. Please go ahead.
Okay, hi. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on such a good set of numbers. First is on the 100 store increase for Blinkit and what Albinder clarified, that it's primarily in the existing geography. Is it safe to assume the GOV, which is about INR 620,000-INR 625,000 per store, that would be a steady state number, given you are increasing the store count in existing geography? Why I'm asking this, one of your large competitor mentioned that GOV for them is still higher. Any clarity there?
Hi, Nikhil. I think the GOV per store that we display, I think it depends more on whether we open a lot of new locations and whether we are opening those new locations. In the kind of high geography, in the high, you know, order density locations, where we expect the demand to increase a lot faster. So it's hard to put a tack on whether it'll go up, go down a little bit, and then come back up. I think that depends a lot on a number of factors, which includes pace of store opening and also the quality of the polygons in which we are opening those stores.
Sure. Sure, sure. Second question is regarding the employee cost as a percentage of revenue. We have seen it decline by more than 1,000 basis point in last one year, and obviously some of it is because of the synergy between the two platform, Blinkit and Zomato, which you mentioned, and also due to, you know, overall decline in supply side challenges. What would be the steady state, you know, as a percentage of revenue, employee cost would be? Anything, you're targeting?
I think we, we feel, at this point, the organization is right-sized for the businesses that we have. As I mentioned, you know, September quarter is when the impact of annual appraisals will also impact that cost, and it should go up from here. Here on, I think it should grow at some multiple of inflation. We don't expect it to change meaningfully, either ways.
Sure. Just last question on what you mentioned, that 30% of your GOV is coming from Zomato Gold. Any data point you can provide? In the last quarter, you commented that AOV of Gold were lesser, right? Because many people are ordering using the same account within the family. Any color how basically the behavior of let's say, Gold member versus the non-Gold?
Nikhil, Kunal here. I don't think we mentioned that the AOVs were lesser. What we mentioned is the MTOs got impacted to some extent.
Yeah.
This is, you know, multiple individual users in the same family were ordering, from the same account, right? We don't see any major shift in, in the position that we saw even earlier. AOVs are slightly higher than normal AOVs, and, you know, the frequency of ordering, of course, is significantly higher. Part of that could be because of, you know, the clubbing of orders, but part of it is also genuinely because, you know, there are free delivery benefits and other benefits.
Sure. That's it from my side. Thanks for the opportunity, good luck for the next period. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we will now take the last one totwo questions. The next question is from the line of Mr. Dipesh Mehta from Emkay. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. two question. First of all, just want to get sense about how inflation impact our business across segment. If you can give some sense about how one should look revenue impact and margin impact, food inflation as well as overall inflation. Second question is about Hyperpure business. If you can provide some sense about how many restaurant partners, let's say, we have now supplying the ingredient. In terms of % of supply sourced by them, how it has moved, let's say, year back versus now, if you can provide some color? Thanks.
Hi, Dipesh, Kunal here. I think, I'll take the first question first. Like, Akshant mentioned this now as well, yes, food inflation is impacting restaurants, but because their sales are getting impacted, they're also ending up spending more on advertising and trying to grow the business. I think, overall, yes, there is some stress, but I think they are also taking the right initiatives to ensure that growth continues on the platform. I think this, you know, inflation being up and down will be a characteristic that all businesses have to deal with, and they are also dealing with. I think, that's on the inflation front.
On the on the Hyperpure, your second question was around Hyperpure. So over there, look, I think the bus- like we pointed out in the shareholder letter, one of the initiatives that we took up over there was to increase our minimum order value for restaurants to order on the platform. That resulted in some churning out of the small, unprofitable restaurants who were not meeting that minimum order criteria. To that extent, yes, there was some churn, but I think overall it resulted in an increase in revenue because, you know, restaurants that were on the fence were able to increase their average order values, and that also had a positive impact on the profitability of the business.
The question is about the sourcing changes in terms of percentage of sourcing, what used to happen versus now. The same restaurant partner, if you can give some color.
Yeah, the same restaurant, there is going to be that gradual increase in wallet share also, so that we will continue to see. New restaurants start with, you know, a few commodities, and then eventually as they build trust, they continue to expand the basket that they order from Hyperpure. That's a gradual process, and that we're seeing in our current numbers as well.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mr. Manish Poddar from Motilal Oswal AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, hi, team, great set of results. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. I have three questions. One is, you know, if, if you could call out, you know, you know, what is the sort of investment which is done on Gold, in your view? You know, in my, my, my estimate, it's somewhere in the high single-digit number. You know, what is the sort of investment up here, and, where do you think this will normalize? Would this number be INR 3, INR 4? I'm just trying to understand. It's on per order basis, whenever it is, you know, FY 2025, 2026. I'm just trying to understand where does this number stack up at steady state.
Manish, hard to say that at this point. I think, in, in our business, there are pockets where we have to invest at different periods of time and, and then sort of adapt, depending on how the market is changing, how the consumer habits are changing, and how the competition is behaving. You know, at this point, I, I won't be able to comment on a specific guidance on how much are we investing here and, and where that is likely to go going forward.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Any, any thoughts on, you know, this platform fee, which is, you know, being leveled by the peer set? You know, we were. Do we want to roll it? Have we tried it in certain micro markets? Just your thoughts around that.
Yes, it's a business call, Manish. We are aware about that. I think we'll take a call if we think it's the right thing for the business. At this point, we haven't done that, and there's no platform fee on our platform.
Okay. Then the third bit is, if you look at the restaurant count, even the last two quarters, you know, despite, cutting down on, you know, the, the cities or the tail, in the food delivery, you know, the restaurant count has increased. Have we added any new categories or, you know, are there new restaurants coming up? Can you just help me understand what is happening up there?
Manish, these are largely the new restaurants, I think, that we continue to onboard every month, every quarter. The number you see in our disclosure is the net number of restaurants, but every quarter there are a number of restaurants which shut down and a lot more open up, and new restaurants come up, right? There are also pockets in the country where we are not adequately penetrated in terms of having existing restaurants on our platform. That also adds to the number of restaurants. I think it's a combination of all of this, which, which is right now leading to the moderate uptick in the number of restaurants that you see.
There's, there's no material new category, let's say, which has got added as such?
No, no, no, there is none.
Okay, just one last one, if I can. So in terms of fleet, I think, the delivery riders are getting cross-utilized, you know. I think in some micro markets, across, you know, different segments, let's say, in terms of utilizing it with either your holding company or with, you know, other entities. Just any sense, you know, if you can give me qualitatively or quantitatively, you know, how does this benefit in terms of, let's say, you know, delivery cost or any, any sort of sense, does that get. You know, there can be 20% savings on that over three years. Just any, any sort of understanding on that will be helpful. Thank you.
Hi, Manish, this is Kunal here. This is not a specific strategy or that we're deploying. We don't intend to necessarily use our fleet or delivery partner network for, and open it up to other, sort of,
-You know, use cases or other, entities we use. At this point, you know, it's not part of our strategy.
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much, and again, good set of numbers. Thanks.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Mr. Niket Shah. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Congrats once again, to the entire team. I just had 2 questions. One is, in the press round you did highlight about Blinkit Adjusted EBITDA in the next four quarters. Would it be possible for you to share the broad levers or, you know, how are you really looking at it? Which are the, are the broad levers to really move towards profitability? Also, in the past, you did highlight when food delivery used to be a loss-making business, about how you think about food delivery business from an EBITDA standpoint, to reach to about 3%-5% EBITDA margin over the medium term. It now looks really achievable, but would it be possible for you to share the similar kind of a thought process for Blinkit over the medium to longer term?
The second one, you know, you did allude that, on the ad side, you've seen significant growth, which has obviously moved your take rates higher. Would it be possible for you to quantify, is it volume-led, pricing-led, or have you taken pricing increase on the ad side? Yeah. Thanks.
Niket, so I'll take the, the first question. So you know, looking at our Blinkit business, I think, our aim is to get to Adjusted EBITDA positive over the next four quarters. And I think the levers for doing that are what we've been talking about through the calls, earlier as well, that, you know, we do see a lot of operating leverage in this business. We do see a lot of expansion of the wallet share of customers, because they're now starting to buy a lot more things than just the core grocery categories from us. I think that leads to both, order growth, revenue growth, and, obviously, we're able to harness the operating leverage that exists in a high fixed cost model like ours.
I think that's there's nothing out of the ordinary in terms of how we think we will get to Adjusted EBITDA positive. Of course, there will be innovations along the way that we hope that we continue to make to get to that juncture. Do you want to take the second one?
Yeah. On the ad sales bit, Niket, to answer your question, I think it's largely been volume-led. We haven't, we haven't taken really much of a pricing piece during this time.
Got it. Got it. That lever does remain with you at some point of time, you know, if-
Yes.
Got it. Just one more final question, if I may squeeze in. Is it possible for you to call out a range of what has been the drag because of Zomato Gold in this quarter?
No, Niket, I would not want to share that information as it's, it's sensitive from a competitor standpoint. Yeah. Sorry.
Got it. Got it. Yeah, no worries. Yeah. Best of luck, and congrats once again. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conclude this conference call. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.