Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Godrej Agrovet Limited Q3 FY 2024 post-result conference call, hosted by IIFL Securities Limited. 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 a touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Before we start, I would like to point out that some statements made in today's call may be forward-looking, and a disclaimer to this effect has been included in the earnings presentation shared with you earlier. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ranjit Cirumalla from IIFL Securities Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Ziko. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Godrej Agrovet Q3 and nine-month FY 2024 earnings conference call. From the management we have with us Mr. Nadir Godrej, Chairman of the company; Mr. Balram Yadav, Managing Director; Mr. Burjis Godrej, Executive Director; Mr. S. Varadaraj, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Anurag Roy, Chief Executive Officer of Astec LifeSciences. We'd like to begin the call with opening remarks from the management, following which we will open the forum for a Q&A session. Thank you. I would now like to invite Mr. Nadir Godrej to make his initial remarks.
Good afternoon, everyone. I welcome you all to the Godrej Agrovet earnings call. I hope you're all doing well. Excluding non-recurring and exceptional items, Godrej Agrovet reported a strong year-on-year growth of 26% in profits after tax in quarter 3 fiscal year 2024, primarily led by the domestic crop protection and dairy businesses. The EBITDA margin continued to improve. Excluding Astec LifeSciences, growth and profit after tax was even higher at 65% in quarter 3 fiscal year 2024. The domestic crop protection business continued to deliver robust and consistent financial performance, with an excellent growth of 73% in top line and a segment margin of 30% in quarter 3 fiscal year 2024. Our food businesses also delivered healthy volume growth in branded products. The dairy business remained on a strong recovery path and achieved significant improvement in segment margin in quarter 3 fiscal year 2024.
The poultry business maintained volume growth in branded products, however, profitability was impacted by a drop in live bird prices. In the feed business, sustained volume growth in cattle feed was offset by slightly lower poultry feed and flat aqua feed volume. The vegetable oil business profitability was impacted by lower end product prices, coupled with a drop in fresh fruit bunch volume. Astec LifeSciences continued to witness realization and demand headroom in the enterprise products on account of an inventory glut across key markets. On a nine-month fiscal year 2024 basis, profit after tax grew by 33% year-on-year. Except Astec and vegetable oil, all the other businesses contributed to strong growth and profitability. Now coming to the key financial and business highlights of each of our business segments. The animal feed segment achieved the highest ever quarterly volume in quarter 3 fiscal year 2024.
Continued growth in cattle feed volumes of 8% year-on-year was offset by lower poultry feed sales. Segment margin was adversely impacted due to the unfavorable commodity movement. In the vegetable oil segment, lower end product prices and a marginal drop in fresh fruit bunches impacted top line and profitability in quarter 3 fiscal year 2024. Crude palm oil and palm kernel oil prices were lower by 9% and 12% year-on-year, respectively. The oil extraction ratio, however, improved sequentially as well as versus quarter 3 fiscal year 2022. The standalone crop protection segment maintained strong growth momentum in the third quarter as well. The top line and margin growth in quarter 3 fiscal year 2024 was driven by higher sales of in-licensing portfolio and plant growth regulator products, coupled with lower returns as compared to the previous year.
In Astec LifeSciences and the enterprise business has been facing extremely challenging external market conditions, which have severely impacted its top line and margin performance. Continued destocking in the export markets and excess supply from China resulted in a significant margin erosion of the enterprise business. The dairy business achieved robust improvement in segment margin, led by significant operational efficiencies and lower material, raw material costs. Value-added products revenues grew by 20% year-on-year in quarter three, with the variance of value-added products increased to 36% of total sales in the nine months of fiscal year 2024, from 33% a year ago. Revenues and profitability of the poultry business were impacted by a sharp drop in live bird prices on account of excess supply in quarter three fiscal year 2024, vis-à-vis quarter three fiscal year 2023.
The branded business, however, maintained healthy volume growth of 15% year-on-year in quarter two. The grilled chicken category continued to achieve margin improvement. Our joint venture in Bangladesh, ACI Godrej, recorded PBT growth of 145% year-on-year on a local currency base, basis in quarter three, fiscal year 2024. The margin profile improved significantly across categories, primarily due to favorable commodity position. That concludes our business and financial performance update for the quarter. With this, I close my opening remarks. We will now be happy to take your questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Savan Mora from Premier Capital. Go ahead, go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is to Mr. Roy on Astec LifeSciences. Sir, I wanted to better understand from you the how we are looking at the CDMO business going ahead, and little more qualitative color from you on how things have panned out in the last two, three quarters since our R&D facility was commissioned.
Yeah, thanks for the question. So our CDMO business is moving as per our guidance and targets. In fact, we are very much on mark to hit the numbers and performance on the CDMO. Clearly from April, since we have put our new R&D centers, there's been a lot of products which we have put in pipeline. And at very fast pace, we are diversifying our existing portfolio from existing, you know, enterprise products, and planning to bring in new products as we get into the next financial year. So very well on track on CDMO side of the business, meeting or exceeding our guidance. Despite the challenges from, you know, from the innovator side of the business as well, there have been companies who have been deferring some of the CDMO volumes.
We would be very few companies in the market wherein we have still held on to those volumes and financial targets. So very much on track on the CDMO side.
Got it. Sir, your CapEx guidance for 2024 and 2025?
We are still working on putting that together, but, as we have mentioned in the previous calls as well, while we are facing challenging scenarios in the market, any strategic investment, particularly with reference to our future growth platforms like CDMO, we are not shying away for the any new CapExes. We are on track on making those investments. Just to give you an example, our herbicide new plant, which we had mentioned in the previous call, it's on track for commissioning, and we'll be commissioning it in the next 1-2 months. Similarly, lot of debottlenecking initiatives, initiatives for new product launches for diversification from our existing enterprise portfolio, all those investments will be part of the future CapEx.
The exact numbers and detail we'll talk about in the next conference call as we go through the budget and, you know, the strategic exercise in coming months.
Got it. Got it. And my second question is on Godrej Agrovet. First of all, many congratulations on an improved performance. I want to get a more longer term view from the management. So if I see the period between 2014 and 2019, this was a company that made consistently return on capital above 20%. But if I see after that, these five years, the company has had various amount of challenges, and I'm looking at a five-year period because it is long-term enough. So I just wanted to ask how you think about the company over longer term. In continuation to that, our company's stock price remains below the listing price for almost seven, eight years of listing.
Just want to get a sense, do you feel that the structure of the business, having so many diversified businesses under one entity, creates a negative hedge for the company? Just any thoughts around that?
So, let me just answer the portfolio question first. I think, the food and agri businesses all over the world are cyclical as well as seasonal. And, you have already seen what, what has happened to a company like Astec LifeSciences, which was a star company till about two quarters ago. But this is the nature of this business, these businesses. And one of the advantages we had at one time of, having these multiple businesses was hedge, because at least even if one or two businesses don't do well, rest of the businesses will do well. But, of course, there is a realization that we should do a few things, but we should do them, in a bigger scale for bigger investments.
I think that portfolio strategy is being played out, will be played out in time to come, and we are conscious of the fact that the share price needs to go up. So this kind of focus we will bring in future. These things are not easy to-
... do to make these choices is not easy to, to, conclude easily. I can definitely tell you as we go along Q on Q, we will make some of the other announcements.
Ladies and gentlemen, please stay connected while we reconnect the management line. We have the management line reconnected. You can go ahead, sir.
I don't know at what point it got disconnected. So can you refresh till what point you were?
You were talking about the portfolio.
Yeah, yeah. So the portfolio is definitely under consideration, and I think in next few quarters, you will see some announcements where we will give you an indication that where we are going to put our capital on in future.
Right. Right. So thank you so much, sir. I just made that point because we are market leaders in almost all our segments, and we just don't get the desired recognition that we should. So as a concerned investor, I just wanted to make that point for you. Thank you so much for answering my question.
100%, but I must tell you that if you see, margin expansion is one of the key, I think, focus area for us. And, we have already specified that without Astec LifeSciences, all the other businesses have shown significant improvement. However, I think we will make these portfolio choices as we go along in future.
Yeah.
Okay.
Even for Astec, the future looks very bright because of the R&D center.
Thank you so much, Mr. Godrej. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Akella from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions. Two, three on the key segments. First, on animal feed, there's been a compression in margins this quarter, again, on the back of commodity prices. If you could please elaborate a bit on exactly what happened there and what we should expect in 4Q and maybe, you know, the early part of fiscal 25 as well.
So one thing which I just wanted to specify that Q on Q, it is very difficult because the commodity price movement. But I think if you please see the first nine months, that our EBIT per tons from 1,203 has gone to 1,435. So there is almost a 19% improvement in first nine months. And this Q on Q variations will be there. And I can definitely tell you this quarter will be, this average is going to improve further, because this quarter, our margins will be better than the, margin, EBIT margin per ton for the first nine months.
Okay, got it, sir. That's helpful. Then on the vegetable oils business, if it's possible to just share the data points around volumes and OER for the quarter. And also just wanted to check, you know, when we look at the revenue numbers for the quarter, it's about -2%, whereas the CPO realizations are down about -9%, and there's also a 4% decline in FFB arrival volumes. So, I mean, how do we arrive at a 2% revenue decline number? Is it value-added products that have contributed to the revenues? If you could please explain that. Thanks.
Uh, OPP.
Go ahead.
So, in terms of the volume drop in FFB, we had talked about in Q3, there was a 4% drop. But if you were to look at it on a nine-month basis, we have an 8% growth in the FFB arrival, which is there. On the question in terms of revenue versus the volume, it's because of the mix of value-added products.
Was there any change in stock?
In inventory, there is no significant
No significant change. Okay.
But on these value-added products, would it be possible to just quantify, you know, the sales for the quarter?
We will share it offline, Abhijit.
Okay.
Abhijit, one thing which I also want to tell you that this OPP business is a plantation business. They are trees. Their behavior is never consistent with what has happened in past. So sometimes they will start producing early for a year, then they get delayed also, because it depends on temperature, monsoon, conditions.
Yeah.
So I'm saying that if maybe you look at this business as YTDs, in every area. So YTD, we will register a growth in volumes, no problem. We will also get close to last year's OER, which is lagging a little because the three months, even though FFB volumes was going to be less, the OER is very good. And pricing, you know, is related to international prices.
Yeah. We have started to find more.
Mm.
Excellent.
One additional thing is that the volatility of business is coming down, and that was the plan. We set up a refinery, and refinery now fully operational, and then definitely hedged our drop in CPO prices to a certain extent. We also set up a extraction plant, which is performing better than what we expected. We extract oil from palm kernel cakes also. So I think, we will continue to undertake more downstream investments in getting more and more value-added products out of the basic oil we produce.
Sure, sure. Understood. Also, just animal feed category-wide growth rates for the YTD period, would it be possible to share that, cattle feed versus the others?
Yeah. So, the cattle feed, close to 14% growth, but on a very big base of more than 500,000 tons. But the layer feed is our big problem, where we have a 14% reduction, and that is not because we have lost market share, it is just because the population was low during the peak months, and that is also reflected in the very high or all-time high egg prices prevailing right now. In aqua feed, we have 15% growth. So overall, the growth is 14%, 4% in volume, but we believe that this year we will finish at about between 5.5%-6% growth.
Got it. So thank you. Just one last thing, if I may, if you'll permit me.
Sure, sure.
On Astec, the CDMO revenues seem to be down year-over-year, this quarter. So is it more of just a deferment issue, or is it something else, and can we expect a rebound in the fourth quarter? And then just on the Tyson business, the you know, decline in live bird prices, is that primarily because of festive season or something else? And what's the outlook over there? Thank you so much.
I think seasonality of live bird prices is not new, but what surprises that the highest consumption and high price month, price months are normally October, November, and December, and there was so much overproduction this year that the prices really declined. However, I must say that the correction has already started happening, and we believe that prices will be back at July, August levels in February, and definitely by March, and will continue for a few more months.
And for the Astec LifeSciences, yeah, this quarter, the CDMO business was deferred into the subsequent quarter, so, it's not a loss in business, that's number one. The number two, we, as I mentioned earlier, we are on target to meet or exceed our commitment on the CDMO performances or revenues, as we have indicated in the previous call. And number three, I think, when it comes to the CDMO business, that's, that's one of the suggestions from my side. The quarters and quarter performance typically doesn't work because you'll see, you know, a lot of times, either some of the businesses are pulled into the previous quarters or deferred into the subsequent quarters. So quarter and quarters, it does not give a good gauge on how the business is doing.
It's best to look at it on annualized basis. That will give you a great view on how the businesses are growing.
Understood. Got it. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Our next question is from the line of Ankur Periwal from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Okay, so first question on Astec again. You know, we from an enterprise business perspective, there was, you know, pretty a lot pricing pressure there due to which the mix had changed significantly. While CDMO, I take your point, you know, in terms of more a Q on Q deferral and then from a YTD perspective or maybe even from a full year perspective broadly, what are your thoughts how the business mix is changing? And secondly, given the new R&D center has been up and running, your thoughts in terms of increasing R&D budgets, the molecules, and if you are diversifying apart from exotic to others.
Right. So our guidance on increased focus on CDMO business remains intact. The new R&D center has really helped us in our initiatives, where we have created a good pipeline of the product as we get into subsequent years on the CDMO side. So our story or strategy around CDMO or our guidance to almost, you know, grow by 50%-60% every year or even double, looking at the smaller base from which we started, is very much intact, and R&D has really given it a push to us. So that piece is very clear to us. On the existing enterprise products, since now we have a good R&D team with us, we have also started broadening our portfolio on the enterprise side.
But as I've mentioned in the previous calls as well, we are taking very strategic bets on very few enterprise products, which could fetch us sustainable margins and which would have, you know, a good relationship profiles with some of the customers we want to work with. So happy to say that, at a very fast pace, we have been almost in the last stages of at least bringing in couple of new products within the enterprise segment, and the impact of that will be seen in, say, FY 2025 and beyond, on that part of the business as well.
So I think two clear messages: One, keep pushing on the CDMO side of the business at much faster double-digit growth rate upwards of 40%-50%, and then diversify from the existing old products, from where we had significant financial or performance issues in the last two, three quarters. And we have been working at very fast paces on all these two initiatives, thanks to our R&D center.
Sure, sure. That, that's helpful. So YTD, in, in, Astec, we have done around INR 300 crore revenue, versus INR 500 crore, you know, year-on-year, nine-month numbers. But will it be fair to say that FY 2025, you know, the, the new products ramp up et cetera, since you mentioned portfolio expansion there, should be able to compensate for the products which we will let go of?
That is what we are targeting or focusing on. To what extent we should be able to cover these gaps, we'll still have to see. So we are, you know, as we get into FY 25, our goal is to, you know, completely have a plan in place, that if these products don't come back in the pricing or the volume, we still are able to, you know, get to some kind of financial performance which are appreciable. That's one. And I would say, yeah, it should cover broadly for all these negative losses from the existing old products. Second thing, on our existing asset base also, you know, we are also looking at what products we fit in so that we maximize our return on assets.
Clearly, on the existing goal products, because of the huge inventories in the market, there have been pressures on utilizing our existing capacities as well to fullest, on the enterprise product. So we are also modifying it appropriately to fit in our new product in a way wherein the CapExes could be minimized while, the revenues could be at the highest, and fetching in good double-digit, margin for these products. So all those things, have been heavily worked on in this lean period of two, three quarters, and we are expected to show good benefits as we get into FY 2025, despite a volatility or challenging conditions in the market.
Sure. And just to follow up there, you know, the fungibility of capacity by, you know, doing modification and limiting the CapEx there. From an operating margins perspective, CDMO was a margin-accretive business versus enterprise. And these newer molecules or newer products that we are working on, my sense is that these will be again, margin accretive. So the current losses that we are seeing, any thought here in terms of, you know, profitability or margins, let's say, over the next two, three years?
So I can't comment on the profitability part, but yeah, these will be, you know, sustained margin products. Not too impacted by the volatilities in the market. So we are moving more in the direction of working on long-term contract basis with the customers, even on the enterprise side of the business, with formalized, you know, pricing clauses in place, so that we are able to sustain some level of margins and not too prone to the external volatilities.
Sure. Thank you. That's helpful. You know, another on, animal feed side. So Balram sir, you know, volume growth, as you highlighted, was more impacted because of, you know, the slower sales in one of the segments. Any thoughts, you know, and, and secondly, here, the competitive dynamics in terms of, you know, the unorganized market, given the RM inflation, and historically, we have shown pretty strong volume growth there. Any medium-term thoughts on both volume as well as sustainable margin that we can look at on the animal feed business?
So my sense is that, this year will end up anything between, okay, FY 2024, 5%-6% volume. And I would say that if layer feed comes back, which we are seeing now, the placements have gone up, egg prices have been so good that farmers are scrambling. And you would be very surprised that the Day-old chick booking for the layer birds is already pipelined, is booked till August, September of this year. So my sense is this is come, going to come back. Next year, I can definitely say an 8%-9% volume growth is not an issue. And, as the volume grows, the margin will also expand. Government has decided not to export corn and DRB, which will keep the, the prices of raw materials in check.
With a very good soybean crop in Latin America, I don't think that we are going to see any high inflation in commodities in case these policies remain unchanged. My sense is that I'm looking at 7-8%, at least 7-8% volume growth and further margin expansion from where we are.
Great, sir. And last question, if I may. On the, on the oil palm side, if I recollect, you know, historically, we had taken a lot of initiatives on the R&D side, to improve our yields, you know, overall. Any update on that, and whether the full benefit of that is visible in the current numbers, or how should one look at that?
Let me split the OER into two parts.
... So one part is all the initiatives which we have taken in the existing yielding plantations. I think this is, it is almost at a level where we are very comfortable. The marginal improvement is still possible, but it won't be very, very material. You must also say, you know, that we have upped our game after that NMEO-OP scheme in terms of increasing plantation from 3,000-4,000 hectares per annum. Now, we are going to be about 11,000-12,000 hectares per annum, and from next year onwards, you'll see 15,000-16,000 hectares per annum, increase will be there. Traditionally, the juvenile plantations, the production will be less, and the yield will be less.
So we will have got, on our part, we will start segregating and start showing that how much is yielding and how much is juvenile and how much is in growing state, so that you can understand it more. But I think now more work is needed to increase FFB per hectare rather than oil per ton of FFB. I think there we still feel that there is a reasonably good opportunity by improving the package of practices. And I don't know whether you follow us or not, we have started setting up the Samadhan Center, and we have already set up six, seven centers, which are one stop shop for farmers, including a training room.
We give fertilizer, we aftermarket services for drip irrigation and all the critical things needed, including training, plus harvesting assistance, equipment assistance, et cetera. I think that is one thing which, wherever we have set up the Samadhan Centre, we are seeing improvement in both areas, yield as well as OER. And we will, today we are at about six, I think this year, the next year, that is FY 2025, we are going to set up about 14, 15 more, and that will be our big initiative in terms of improvement of efficiencies and productivity.
Sure, sir. That's helpful. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please go ahead.
Yeah, my question is for Anurag. So on enterprise business, we just spoke about diversifying away from the existing products that we have. Could you give some sense in terms of, like, what kind of segments are we targeting there? And in terms of Chinese competition also, how are we looking at things? Secondly, on the existing enterprise product prices, if you look at products, if you look at the pricing, they are currently below cost. Could you give some sense on how much inventory are we carrying in these those two products?
Right. So, let me, you know, add to what I was saying earlier. When I say diversification, I'm not saying that the existing products, we are moving away from it. We are diversification and diversifying to other products, in the same platforms or in a different technology platform, so that if in future we go through such market volatility, we have a better play across the enterprise products to balance our sustained margins. So that's one clarification which I want to bring. So if maybe as we get into next year, and the whole platform still remains subdued from the pricing perspective, we'll have, you know, few of the other products which could at least give us the utilizations and some level of profitability. So that's one part of it.
Second part of it, these products are in the old platform or the related, you know, the technology platforms, where we are very well equipped, looking at our existing asset profile. So they could or could not be in the existing old platform. That's what we are looking at, what best we can, you know, fit in in the existing asset base which we have currently. So that's answer to your second question. Was there... Yeah, I think I hope that answers the two parts of the question.
Just one more thing, in terms of inventories. How much inventory you in raw material and finished goods are we carrying in the enterprise segment?
See, on the inventory side, on few of our pro-products, we have been successfully able to liquidate our inventory, and we are at market price right now. So we are getting the products at the market price, and the final prices on those products are also selling at the market price. But the caution here is, right now, the export prices are so low that even on those products making it and selling it still is not fetching too much of profitability. So on few of them, we have successfully liquidated our inventory. There are still one or two products where we're still carrying the inventories and very strategically looking at the right uptick in the demand profile. We'll be liquidating that in the coming quarters.
Okay, sir. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Our next question is from the line of Harshil Mehta from Mehta Vakil & Co. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. My question was regarding the standalone crop protection business. It's very pleasing to see the turnaround in this business compared to last year. So I just want to understand how our standalone crop protection business is kind of differentiated from the broader industry, given that, you know, the broader crop protection industry has had a very, very difficult year.
... while, you know, our business is turning around. So it'd be good to just kind of have your thoughts on that.
So I think first thing was that you know what we have gone through and the kind of efforts we have undertaken to clean the portfolio and clean the inventories we had. And last year we took those hits also, so I think we had a cleaner slate. But this year's profitability was largely driven by our Hitweed and Hitweed Max, these two herbicides, which accounted for most of the profits. They registered almost 70%+ growth this year. Now, this is, there are two things, two parts to it. One is increase in the number of partners we have who are selling these products, and an extremely good season with timely rain. So I would say that we have been extremely lucky to have a year like this, where everything went right for these products.
The second part of increase in profitability are in licensing products, particularly Gracia, Rashinban, and Hanabi, given to us by Nissan. I think they were, they have, these products are excellent, excellent quality, have been accepted by the farmers very quickly and have driven our profitability. Going forward, I am very sure that, we, even, even if we maintain this year's Hitweed and Hitweed Max volume, it will be a great achievement because I don't think that every year can be a great year. I would wish that, but may not be that great a year. But we will try to hold this performance. What is most important for us is that definitely this is an extraordinary year for GPB.
Even if we have a repeat of this year, keeping our inventory levels better, working capital, et cetera, et cetera, at a very, very comfortable and hygienic level, it will be a very good achievement next year.
Understood, sir. That's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. Our next question is from the line of Mayur Matani from Mahesh Kumar and Company. Please go ahead.
Good evening. My question pertains to Astec LifeSciences Limited. As you have mentioned, that, we are facing the challenges in the, enterprise business side, but I would like to have more understanding as to what kind of quarterly run rate can we maintain in our enterprise segment, side, because last quarter, our revenues was hardly INR 30 crore. So, in terms of revenues, taking into account the market which is there right now, we'll be able to have a revenue of INR 50 crore on a quarterly basis in the times to come, or that also seems to be difficult?
See, in the times to come, definitely, yes. In fact, I would, I would like to believe that we'll come back to the previous level. What we are seeing in these products is a correction in the market because of huge inventory pileups. According to some analyst reports, or even if you pull up the export data, and see how much of volumes have been pushed in some of these old products, you'll be surprised to look at those numbers. Those are equivalent to 12-18 months of the, you know, volumes actually, which, were floating around in the global market.
Okay.
Right, so that's the situation. This will come back. The key part is when, and that's what we all are figuring out. And till we reach that point, what is happening in the markets, and I mentioned in the last conference call as well, that they've been destocking complete price erosion in the export markets. Right now, the price erosion has, to some extent, you know, abated. It has reached to almost the bottommost levels. And we are not seeing price erosion. The real pain is the prices are staying at those abysmally low levels, you know? That's number one. And the second is, because we are still seeing the inventories in the market, there has not been any meaningful demand coming from the big players.
You know, earlier, at times, for some of our old products, one order could be 200-300 metric tons. Currently, an order size is, you know, 800 kg-1 ton, so there's been no meaningful demand which is coming from the market. So now we are also reconfiguring in a way that we liquidate our inventories and then align our production to orders. So currently, on these enterprise products, most of the companies are moving in that direction till we achieve a substantial supply-demand balance. So I would say another 5-6 months, or depends on how China opens up in next 2-3 weeks, but another couple of quarters at least to have some kind of, you know, visibility on the enterprise balance, supply-demand balance, and then it has to come back, basically.
Okay. Right, right. And second pertains to the CDMO business. So my question basically pertains to the gross margins and the operating level profitability which we can maintain over the future. So earlier we were doing gross margins of 40% on a company-level basis, where our CDMO business was a small proportion. Now, going by what you are saying and the future prospects, our CDMO business can easily cross the enterprise business. So when do you see that impact on the margins, positive impacts on the margin coming through at the company level? And our employee costs, so due to the negative operating leverage and the things that you have mentioned, that it's true that maybe more than 25% of our overall sales.
When the positive operating leverage will kick in from the new R&D facility, as well as the increasing sale of the CDMO business?
So right now, you know, with this adversity in the market, good things that has happened is we had our R&D center, we are diversifying our enterprise portfolio and, really pressing the pedal on the CDMO, pipeline. And, I would not hesitate to say that as we get into FY 2025, if the current market situation persists, our CDMO component of the business will overtake the enterprise, business, wherein we are definitely fetching 5%-7%, higher, contributions as compared to the enterprise business. And add to that, we are now able to take up lot of life cycle management projects in the R&D, which are again adding 4%-5%, you know, margins on our product sales.
So we are very confident that we get back to these, growth margins or exceed those growth margins numbers, which you have seen in the business earlier, and it could be as, as soon as maybe FY 2025 or FY 2026. So typically, as you know, for the CDMO business to kick off, if everything goes well on the commercial side and the development side, it takes roughly three years to scale up. So any new products coming into the pipeline, year three is when you realize the complete optimization and the revenues, for those products. So, that's what we are targeting, and I think we have deep confidence to achieve that in the coming years.
So, just I would like to know that we are mentioning that our contribution margins are 5%-7% higher than the enterprise business, but the situation has changed quite a lot. So can you put the number to the contribution business in the CDMO business?
Yeah, steady state. I meant steady state. So if you're making 20-25% on enterprise, you'll be looking at 30%+, at least on CDMO, getting even as high as 35%-40%.
Okay. Thank you. All the best to you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you. I hope we have been able to answer all your questions. If you have any further questions or would like to know more about the company, we would be happy to be of assistance. Stay safe and stay healthy. Thank you once again for taking the time to join us on this call.
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