Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Barbeque Nation Hospitality Limited Q2 FY25 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in 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. Bijay Sharma, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Kajal. Welcome, everyone, to Barbeque Nation Hospitality's Q2 FY25 earnings conference call. For today's call, I have with me Mr. Kayum Dhanani, Managing Director, Mr. Rahul Agrawal, CEO and Whole Time Director, and Mr. Amit Betala, CFO. We will begin the call with Mr. Kayum sharing his perspective on overall demand scenario and key highlights for the quarter. This will be followed by a detailed discussion on business performance and outlook by Mr. Rahul, post that we'll open the forum for an interactive Q&A session. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the statements made in today's conference call may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. Kindly refer to the earnings presentation for a detailed disclaimer. I now hand over the conference to Mr. Kayum Dhanani. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much. A very good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I take the pleasure in welcoming you to Q2 FY25 conference call of Barbeque Nation. Over the quarter, we have relentlessly focused on maintaining best-in-category guest experience to drive dining growth. This has helped us in delivering same-store dining growth, which is better than the industry. The company reported same-store sales growth of minus 2.5%, which was an improving trend on a month-on-month basis. This was a remarkable feat, given that the operating environment continues to remain challenging, particularly for the value segment. We are optimistic that this improvement trend will continue and will benefit us in upcoming seasonally strong operating periods. During the quarter, we reported revenues of INR 306 crores and an increase of 1.3% year-on-year. The second quarter is a seasonally weaker quarter and has historically been lower than the Q1 revenues.
However, this year, we reported flat sequential sales in Q2. We continue to report positive same-store sales EBITDA growth. Our relentless focus on cost efficiencies, productivity, menu engineering, and better management of input costs has helped improve margins despite the negative SSSG. Our reported Pre-Ind AS operating EBITDA increased by 23% compared to the same period last year. Pre-Ind AS EBITDA margins improved by around 100 basis points on a year-on-year basis. Margin improvement was stronger in Barbeque Nation India business and international business. Our margin in premium CDR segment reduced due to the impact of new stores. Same-store margin in the premium CDR segment continues to track well. We remain committed to enhance our guest experience through culinary innovations, food festivals, and restaurant upgrades. We undertook Chettinad Kitchen Festival across our Barbeque Nation restaurants in India to celebrate the heritage and flavors from South India.
We have celebrated World Senior Citizens' Day with Senior Legends Offer, where we had special packages for all the guests of above 60 years of age. In Toscano and Salt, we curated various special menus such as Pesto Special, Whiskey Brew, Chef Special, Monsoon Mocktails, etc. Guest feedback from all these initiatives has been very encouraging. We added eight new restaurants in H1 and are on track to add another 25 new restaurants for FY25. With a focus on building a portfolio of scaled CDR brands, we expanded our premium CDR brands Toscano and Salt to Hyderabad. Further, we will take Toscano to Mumbai and Delhi this year. We have received very encouraging responses from the guests for those brands in Hyderabad. While we are facing industry headwinds, we continue to work towards enhancing our guest experience to drive dining growth.
For the medium term, we will target to add 100 new restaurants to reach 325 restaurants by FY27. We have built strong tech-driven backend processes over the years and are in very strong position to leverage these to scale the existing brand portfolio. Thank you, and I would like now to hand over to Rahul, who will walk you through the performance in detail. Thank you.
Thank you, Kayum. Good evening, everyone. During the quarter, we reported a revenue of INR 306 crores, a growth of 1.3% on a year-on-year basis. The revenues were flat on a sequential basis despite a seasonally weak Q2. We reported negative same-store sales growth of 2.5% during the quarter. Despite the prevailing slowdown in consumption across market category discretionary spend, we have been able to improve our SSSG trend on a gradual basis. We continue to expect experienced month-on-month improvement in this SSSG trend. Gross margins for the quarter increased by about 140 basis points on a year-on-year basis net of the reclassification adjustments. This was primarily driven by cost efficiencies, menu engineering, and efficient management of input costs. Restaurant operating margins grew year-on-year by 12.5%, that is, an increase from 11.2% in Q2 FY24 to 12.4% in Q2 FY25. Same-store EBITDA growth was positive for the second consecutive quarter.
Pre-Ind AS operating EBITDA grew by 23.1% to INR 16.6 crores. Adjusted operating EBITDA margin for the quarter was 5.4%, an improvement of 96 basis points compared to the same period last year. Consolidated reported operating EBITDA for the quarter increased by 3% year-on-year to INR 46 crores. Reported operating margins for the period were 14.9%. We also maintained robust EBITDA to cash conversion and delivered around INR 15 crores of cash profit and an increase of 17% compared to the same period last year. We added four new restaurants during the quarter and closed one restaurant. At the close of the quarter, we had 222 restaurants, which included 187 restaurants of Barbeque Nation India, eight restaurants of Barbeque Nation International Markets, and 27 restaurants in premium CDR segment.
In October 2024, we have already launched another three new restaurants and another six restaurants are under construction and expected to be launched in the coming months. We are on track to add 25 new restaurants in FY25. We are excited to build a portfolio of scaled CDR brands and believe that these initiatives undertaken by us , coupled with network expansion, will further enhance our operating performance. Thank you. With this, we can open the session for Q&A.
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 their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Khush from InCred Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Hope I'm audible. I wanted to understand how is the on-ground demand situation post the festive season because we have seen some divergent commentaries from QSR and unlisted CDR players. So if it could be helpful to understand how the demand situation is.
Thanks, Khush. This is the question which is in everybody's mind. But I'll tell you, in Q2, things continue to remain challenging, and this is what we have heard across various spectrums. But there's a lot of internal measures that have been taken, which has helped us to at least gradually report an improvement in the same-store sales numbers. Subsequent to Q2, festive season for us is not a great period because Navratris are also restricted to specific dates, which impact our business.
But barring that, there's no significant improvement that we have seen on the ground, which does not lead us to believe that the festive season would generally come under a positive territory. But the one comment that I'll also make is there have been some regional shifts that we have seen in our business, especially in North and East India. We have seen good improvement in our SSSG numbers. In fact, those trades are also in positive territory now. South India is specifically struggling for us and continues to be in a negative territory.
Sure, sir. And sir, one question is, what would be the margins from the newer stores? You used to give in the presentation earlier. So if I understand you that.
Did you say margin from the newer stores?
Yeah, yeah. Yes.
Our restaurant operating margin, which is the brand margin from newer stores, is approximately 6% in the previous quarter.
So that could be 100 basis points improvement from Q2 FY24?
Yes.
Good. Good, sir. And last question is, how many out of the 27 premium CDR, how much will be Salt and Toscano?
We have nine Salt and 18 Toscano as of Q2.
Sure. Got it. I'll get back and look at it. Thank you.
Thank you, Khush.
Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Tanish Mehta from iThought Financial Consulting LLP. Please go ahead.
So my first question was with regards to our net sales per store and store margins. So you've been giving these numbers over the last two years, and it has been consistently decreasing. So if you could just provide a little bit more clarity as to why this is happening, and do you think it will go back to the earlier number, which was sales per store for mature stores as 7 crores and restaurant operating margins of 21% or 22%?
The mature portfolio will behave in pretty much similar trend as the same-store sales data. If you look at the last two years, at the industry level, the same-store sales data has been negative, which has been also impacting our mature store sales data. Given that the operating leverage in our business is extremely high, a drop in sales across these portfolios over a period of two and a half, three years would lead to declining margins. Otherwise, structurally, in terms of cost efficiencies, in terms of maintaining great guest experience on the stores, we are on track. That number of mature market and SSSG will be in direct proportion to each other.
Okay. So in an ideal scenario, it should go back to INR 7 crores per restaurant and 21% margin. Is that right?
Yeah, absolutely. So it is right now a function of revenues and sales, first of all.
Okay. Right. Understood. Also, sir, how many of our stores are in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets? And is there any major difference in store-level economics between, let's say, metro Tier 1 and Tier 2, Tier 3 markets?
I mean, they're around 24%, 25% of our stores in Tier 2, Tier 3 markets. Tier 2, Tier 3 markets have lower throughput, and they have slightly lower gross margins because the pricing is slightly lower. But this gets compensated by lower manpower cost and lower rent cost. And otherwise, at a lower throughput of, say, 20% also, we will deliver a 20% EBITDA margin at store level.
Okay. Also, I think you have given a guidance of 100 stores, right, in the next three years. So how much debt would be required to fuel this expansion, or will you be able to do it?
No. Historically, we have done it through our internal cash flows. So even if in the tough environment of current period, we have used our internal cash flows to grow. So now 100 stores would require approximately INR 300 crores. And in the next two and a half, three years, just based on the last year's operating cash that we generated, it is enough to deliver that.
Okay. Also, one last question, if I can, before I join back in the queue. So what is our average per-person pricing at the moment, and what has been the average realization growth for us over the, let's say, last few years?
So it's for the different brands. For Barbeque Nation, it's approximately INR 830. For international markets, it's around INR 1,500. For Toscano and Salt, it's around INR 1,100, right? And the average pricing growth over the last year, it's slanted. We have not taken any price hikes at a portfolio level. It's just marginally 0.2% increase in overall APC if you look at the entire 2022 store portfolio.
Right. Okay. Yeah. Thank you so much, sir. I will join back in the queue.
Thank you. Thank you, Tanish.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next follow-up question is from the line of Khush from InCred Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. I just wanted to understand on the marketing spends, what would have been in this quarter, and would you ramp up since you are also doing Toscano and Salt stores? And the second question would be, out of the 100 new stores that we would want to add, how much would be for the premium CDR?
Right. So on marketing spend side, we spent close to 1.7% during the quarter. And all of these marketing spends actually stripped above our store EBITDA, our store profitability. So this 1.7 crore is pretty much consistent across the various formats that we have. There's no corporate-level marketing spend that is done over and above the store level. So even if something is done at a national level, it is proportional to the various stores in the country. And out of 100 stores that we are targeting, we will have around 35 to 40 restaurants coming from premium CDR. Around 15 will come from international markets, and the balance will come from Barbeque Nation.
Got it, sir. And in terms of your journey for store closure, this quarter, it has been consistently decreasing now to one store in this quarter. So do you see that in the second half, you will be able to add 17 stores to reach a 25-store target? Do you see that much catchment area, spaces, etc.?
There are two parts to it. One is on the closed stores. Whatever large-scale stuff that we have to do, we have already done within FY24, and now we keep looking at our portfolio and try and rebalance it and see which are the stores where the long-term economics have deteriorated, right. That's limited the closures. Frankly, I think there would be maybe one closure every quarter going forward. In terms of our 25 new store targets, we have already done eight in H1. Like I said, we have also done three more in October. Some of these pipelines were backending, and we have six under construction, right. 17 is done. For the balance eight, we have a very strong pipeline of around 15 sites. Some of these will come in Q4, and some of these will also come in Q1 of next financial year.
Got it, sir. And last question from my side is, sir, what is the sensitivity of EBITDA margins to your SSSG? So 1% improvement, decline, how much it would be impacting your margins?
Our flow-through from top line to bottom line is around 50%. Any increase of, say, 5% will help us to improve our margins by 2%-3%. We have also been, if you look at the last two quarters, our trends have been lower, but our trends to EBITDA margins have been better, right? There's a lot of work being done at the company level on items like menu engineering, maintaining your gross margins, cost efficiencies, supply chain costs, store manpower realignment, given that the flow-through is slightly lower. That's the reason why we are able to do that. But frankly, long-term, it has to get back to a long-term EBITDA trend that the companies have been doing always of around 4%-5% to maintain our long-term margins of around 80%-90% at store level.
Sure. And this would remain the same across all the three portfolio brands, or this would be higher for the premium CDR?
No, broadly the same. But since international business and premium CDR business today is overall only 15% of our portfolio, and we are in the metro market, premium metro market, where the throughput and margins are better. Barbeque Nation, which is more spread out tier two, tier three markets, and the impact on the mass business spend has been more related to Barbeque Nation. We are seeing margins to be slightly lower for that. But margin improvement in the current quarter or the first half has been better in Barbeque Nation and slightly lower in premium CDR. The impact has been largely because of the impact of new stores. We have readjusted the money in the initial phase for liquor licenses, which obviously gets charged off the P&L. But structurally, on the same store basis, even the premium CDRs' margins are maintained.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Khush.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Naitik from NV Alpha Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is, if you could give us a mix of the mature stores and mixed stores. And the second question in the same answer is, what is the SSSG for our mature stores this quarter?
No, actually, SSSG and mature stores are similar, right? So mature stores are something which is more than two years old, and SSSG is something which has been operating for a full year in both the phase, right? So a mature store portfolio will also reflect, say, maybe 2.5% SSSG decline, right? In terms of store counts, mature portfolios would have approximately 180-odd stores, and the balance will be 185 or so.
185 stores. Okay. And what are the restaurant-level margins we make in the mature stores?
Mature store margins are around 14% right now.
14% right now. But they still.
This is for the quarter two.
Quarter two, 14%. Okay. But we can make 20%. That is the potential they have, right, restaurant-level margins for the mature stores?
Yes. So like I also mentioned in my previous comments when I think Khush asked, it all depends on SSSG, right, or the throughput of the store. We are in an environment wherein over the last two years, there has been negative SSSG. So if we revert back to those sales numbers, the operating level story will play out, and this 14% will increase to around 17%-18%, which is what we used to do always.
All right. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Palash Kawale from Nuvama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Sorry to interrupt you, sir. I will request you to please use your handset.
Am I audible now?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Sir, where do you see your store count? I mean, in terms of store closures, do you plan to close any stores in the second half?
I think we will have maybe two stores which might close in the second half.
Sir, in terms of store additions, you plan to add pretty aggressive numbers, and the revenue performance in H1 has kind of been flattish. What gives you the confidence of adding stores in such an environment, and why not delay the store additions if you give any color on?
No, so you have to look at it from the perspective of the last six or eight quarters. In FY24, we looked at our margin drop, and we said today we'll focus on trying to increase the throughput of our existing stores rather than focusing on adding more capacity, and we looked at our portfolio, and in some cases, in premium TSG markets, we also closed few stores. That was what we did in FY24. Post that, we obviously realized that the operating environment is weak for the entire industry and not just us, and after having done, obviously, those measures and having good control on our operating expenses, we were very comfortable with the operating-level metrics at the outlet.
That's the reason why you'll see in the first half of this financial year, there has been almost a 25% increase in our profitability, both restaurant operating margins and overall EBITDA margins, right? By the start of this calendar year, we are geared up to start our expansion. Obviously, one bad period doesn't mean that the potential for new stores is not there. We have mapped out pretty much 100 sort of trade markets where we can take out, or we can take Barbeque Nation brands. And all we are feeling is out of these, based on the site that comes in and based on the economics that are offered to us, we'll end up opening maybe 50 of these. That's on Barbeque Nation. Generally, on brands like Toscano, it is extremely strong in South India with strong presence in Bangalore, Chennai, and Pune.
Then we took it to Hyderabad. We got great response. Then now we are taking this to Bombay and Delhi. Delhi, in fact, is already launched in this quarter, and Bombay will launch hopefully by December end or early March, sorry, early January. And if you look at both the brands and the way it runs, Toscano in Bangalore has around 11 stores. So if Bangalore can take a premium CDR like Toscano with 11 outlets, I'm sure that places like Bombay and Delhi can take much more. So these two brands are another focus areas for us, which we will expand over a period of time. So we also remain very comfortable with our operating cash generation, which is adequate to fund these growths for us. And that is what is guiding our strategy.
Yeah, so thank you for the detailed answer. Sir, my next question is, if you separate value CDR versus a premium CDR, which segment excites you most for the next two to three years?
I think both have advantages in the value CDR. We have obviously built a thousand-strong business with approximately 200 stores, right? And obviously, we have seen various ups and downs in this journey of building 200 stores. And as we navigate through the market, we also, of course, correct ourselves, right? For example, in our core value segment CDR, we are also optimizing our space. We are trying to take some more premium sites with natural flow of traffic. We are working a lot on our value engineering and new designs so that the spaces are more optimized. So that is a different segment, right? And we still excite a large part of this country, wherein we see significant value to have unlimited meals with unlimited starters and that too high-cost protein starters like prawns, chicken, mutton, fish, right?
I think that market for a country like India is extremely large and will continue to grow that business. Similarly, we will utilize our existing backend to grow another brand, which is the premium CDRs, both of which are very, very strong brands. They have got great guest ratings, and it is a matter of executing it slowly and steadily in various parts of this country. Like that, India is a highly segmented market for CDRs, and there are very few brands who have crossed, say, INR 100 crores sort of mark, but it is executed well. All of these brands have large consumer base in the country.
So when we started Barbeque Nation 10 years back, there was no category like Barbeque Nation or barbecue all-you-can-eat right now. Today, the largest brand in this category is from barbecue all-you-can-eat. I believe that the country can take at least 500 crore-plus brands for Italian cuisine, for Indian à la carte, for Oriental cuisines. The consumption is there in the country.
Thank you, sir. Thank you for that. And sir, has there been such a prolonged slowdown in the history of the company if you could think of?
I think if you look at 10 years back, data of 2015, 2016 also had periods of negative SSSG.
Okay. Gotcha. From my side, sir. Thank you for your detailed answer and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Giriraj Daga from Visaria Family Trust. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello, team. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, my question is more of a structural kind of nature, and your thought process would help there. So just to understand what is the first question related to that, what is the demand elasticity to the price hikes what we take in the system? So sitting on this side of the table, what we understand or what we feel is that probably 1% or 2% price hike will not make a material difference to the thought process of the consumer that he will not come to the restaurant because of the 1% or 2% price hike. And in a demand environment, which is obviously sometimes we will have good demand environment, sometimes we will have not-so-good demand environment.
So why not keep a habit of taking a small, small price hike every time so that our store economics doesn't go for a pause for a period when we go through a bad period? Because let's say after one or let's say two, three more quarters down the line when the demand environment improves, and that time if we'll go for the price hike, probably that will lead to a chunky price hike of 3%, 4%, maybe 5% to offset the inflation on our overhead cost. So why not keep taking a small, small price hike of 1% or 2%, part of the portfolio, sometimes quarters, some other part of the portfolio? What are your thoughts there?
No, very good question, Guraj, and I think you are absolutely right. Thank you. We maintain that. Just more on our pricing strategy. We don't have a uniform price plan in there for all our restaurants. We have pricing based on weekday weekend. We have pricing based on lunch, dinner, and we have pricing based on the market that we are operating in, so for example, the Connaught Place kind of market in Delhi versus, say, a lunch kind of market will have different pricing, right? So we do that, and we also have differential pricing for weekday lunches versus, say, weekend dinners and Sunday lunches, so I think in those aspects, we have taken a couple of percentage price hikes as and where we believe that the elasticity is okay.
But when I say that over the period of last year, we don't have any price hike on the portfolio level. One thing we've done also is we have launched a concept called Express Buffet, where we don't serve the live grill, but we offer full-fledged buffet at a price point of INR 400. So this is something which has done extremely well in our Tier 2-Tier 3 markets in monsoon season on weekdays, right? And the net impact, we got very, very high level of volume increase in these markets, and obviously, pricing was dropped by almost 30% by also doing the menu engineering that they've done. So the net impact of all of these things is that the pricing overall is 0.2%, but on the same market basis, we would take a couple of percent price hikes every year.
Okay. So it's simpler. Should we assume that 2%, 3% kind of price hike every year, that's the normal benchmark, or it can be less than that more?
That is, if I look at the last 10-year data, I'm excluding the COVID periods of ups and downs, but in that time frame, our CAGR price hike would be around 2.5%-3%.
Okay.
That's also required. Otherwise, you won't beat inflation, right?
That's very important. Let's say apprehension from my side.
No, absolutely. Your question was bang on.
Okay. Second one, let's say if I understand, let's say if I just look at last two- or three-year data, probably we are doing similar number in the first half compared to last year's first half and compared to prior to that year's first half also. So let's say in 2022, we had done about INR 625 crore of revenue. This time, we are about, let's say, INR 610 crore kind of a number, roughly 2% to 3% down. If I look at the number of customers, number of bill cuts, number of some other metrics, if the number has gone down, the per-bill value has gone down, or the number of customers has gone down, how would you describe that data?
It has dropped marginally. See, because if the overall revenues are dropped by, say, 2% versus last year, the pricing has been flattish. So the balance comes from the volume, right? So when we look at our SSSG numbers, the drop has largely been on the number of customers or the number of bill cuts in these cases.
Okay. Number of bill cuts has gone down. Okay. Last thing from my side. Generally, quarter three is seasonally the best quarter for us. Many times, we have even gotten a 10% quarter-on-quarter improvement also compared to what we get in a—and this time, we added some new restaurants also. Some chunky restaurant addition has happened already quarter three in October itself. So should we fairly be confident that probably this time, 10% growth over September looks fairly doable? Will you say that? Yes.
So very difficult to give me an exact number, but like you mentioned, a few positive things happening. The store counts that we're entering into this quarter, we're entering with additional, say, around eight to nine new restaurants. So on a portfolio of 220, that is, say, 2%-4% coming from that. Sequentially, we're also seeing improvement in our SSSG numbers, right? So quarter one was down at around 7%, which has improved to around 2.5%. In fact, when we exited September, we were actually marginally flattish there, right? So these two are very positive trends by which we hope that we get the numbers that we are mentioning. But obviously, very difficult to predict. Things have been very adept at it.
Sure. Sure. Thank you from my side.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sakshat from Old Bridge Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, Thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, slightly on the balance sheet part, there is a slight intent for a lot of growth increment in the gross debt levels. So first question.
Sorry, your voice is not very audible.
Okay. Is this better now?
Yeah.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. So my question basically is related to the balance sheet part. So two parts to it. Firstly, there is a slight increase in gross debt. I think it's gone up by INR 10-12-odd crores. So firstly, could you please explain what is that for? What has led to that? Secondly, your Capex number for H1 is at around INR 40-odd crores. Could you please help us with a split of that? Because I think with eight new restaurants coming in, that should be somewhere around INR 25-26-odd crores of Capex. What else is actually going into that number? So that's my first question.
Yeah. Sure. On balance sheet, so gross debt has gone up by INR 10 crores. We have done additional purchase or increased our stake in Toscano business. And for that, we have spent around INR 4 crores in quarter two. So that's the larger part. On Capex of INR 40 crores, there is around INR 25 crores spent on new sites. We have around INR 7 crores that were spent on some of the existing site relocation/renovation. As we discussed earlier, we are investing a lot on ambience improvement and restaurant upgrades, right? So drive-by dining road. And balance INR 8 crores has gone into regular maintenance activities that we do for all our restaurants.
Sure. Sure. Secondly, I think you came out with a press release two or three months back mentioning your possible foray into Sri Lanka. So could you please share any updates there?
Yeah, so we have contracted with a government company and started our first external trade. That site is under construction now and should start trading in hopefully January this year, next year.
How should we look at that market as a potential opportunity? Can you help us size it in a bit, whatever is possible?
See, we have eight restaurants outside in multiple places, largely in the Middle East. We are opening up our first restaurant in Sri Lanka. I don't think we will add more for at least four, five, three, four quarters. After that, we will look at the response and see whether we need to add more in Colombo or other parts of Sri Lanka. If you look at our business divisions, apart from Barbeque Nation India and brands India, we have international business in which we have eight restaurants. This year, frankly, we plan to add three more restaurants, out of which two will come in the Middle East and one will come in Sri Lanka.
Okay. Sure. Yeah. That's all from me. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next follow-up question is from the line of Naitik from Nv Alpha. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. My follow-up question is, we have seen last three, four quarters sustaining Gross Margin of around 68%. So can you just give us some color on what are the changes that you have made leading to this sort of margin? And can we expect these sort of margins going forward, or there is any scope for improvement?
No, this should remain. So one, if you look at pre-quarter three last year, there was a reclassification that was done by auditors, wherein the restaurant employee food cost, which earlier charged to employee cost, was moved to food cost, right? Sorry, we moved from food cost to employee cost. So that led to an improvement in gross margin, but obviously didn't have any impact on the store, right? So that is one reclassification that has happened. But overall, we have improved by around 1.2%. So there's a lot of work done on menu engineering. We have also looked at our supply chain cost. We've also been very proactive in hedging our meat cost. And the sourcing initiatives there have really helped us to maintain our gross margins.
On a like-for-like basis, if you could just keep the impact of this restaurant employee food cost going below gross margin?
It was around 80 basis points.
80 basis points. Okay. Okay. So 57% on a like-to-like basis is sustainable?
68% is what we.
Sorry, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. 67%.
No, 68% is what we are targeting, right? We have delivered that in H1, and we expect to close the year also at 68%.
That won't be like-to-like, right? I mean, 70 basis points is from reclassification, right?
Oh, okay. So, okay. So like that, yes, you can say that. But now that reclassification is done, we just look at that. And to that extent, our employee costs have gone up, right?
Sure. Sure. Got it, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. As there are no further questions from the participants, that concludes this conference. On behalf of Barbeque Nation Hospitality Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.