All participants have been placed in listen-only mode. A later will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. I'll now hand over the floor to the presenters, Ms. Namfon Oubhas, Thai Beverage Head of Investor Relations, and the members of Thai Beverage's senior management team. Thank you.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Thai Beverage Financial Resource Conference call for the year ended September 2025. I am Namfon Oubhas, Head of Investor Relations. For the conference call tonight, I will begin with a summary of our full year 2025 results. We will open the line for a Q&A session with our management team. For the summary of our results, the total sales revenue of the group for the fiscal year ended September 2025 was THB 333,286 million, a decrease of 2.1% compared to the same period last year. This was due to a decrease in sales revenue across all businesses. Net profit including associated companies was THB 31,153 million, a decrease of 11.7% compared to the same period last year.
This was due to a decrease in net profit of spirits business, non-alcoholic beverage business, food business, and other businesses, partly offset by an increase in net profit of the beer business. The Board of Directors has proposed a total dividend of THB 15,581 million, or THB 0.62 per share, representing a 61.4% payout ratio. This includes an interim dividend of THB 0.15 per share that paid in June 2025, and a proposed final dividend of THB 0.47 per share. For the highlight of our operation in 2025, the spirits business recorded a 1.8% year-on-year decline in sales revenue to THB 118,604 million. Sales volume decreased by 3.2%, primarily due to the weaker domestic consumption, while the international business, including Myanmar, delivered a strong performance.
Nevertheless, an increase in brand investment and marketing activities and a foreign exchange loss led to a decrease in net profit of 7% year-on-year to THB 19,880 million. The beer business recorded a decline of 2.5% year-on-year in sales revenue to THB 123,222 million in fiscal year 2025, even as total sales volume rose 3.1%. The performance was affected by continued challenges in the Vietnam market, offset partly by a steady recovery in Thailand. However, with lower key raw material costs and improved production efficiencies, the business delivered an impressive 24.6% jump in net profit year-on-year to THB 6,503 million. The non-alcoholic beverage business recorded a 1.6% year-on-year decline in sales revenue to THB 64,774 million in 2025, mainly due to a softer domestic consumer sentiment, as well as the appreciation of Thai baht against the Singapore dollar.
Despite lower packaging costs and improved production efficiency, higher brand investment and marketing activities to engage consumers across all channels, together with an increase in income tax expenses following the expiration of tax incentives in Thailand, resulted in a 13.4% year-on-year decrease in net profit to THB 5,141 million. In 2025, the food business reported sales revenue of THB 21,899 million, representing a 1.7% decrease year-on-year, primarily due to softening consumer sentiment, which affected spending. Increased labor costs and marketing expenses, along with higher appreciation from the restaurant expansion, contributed to a net loss of THB 128 million in the food business. In 2025, the other business, comprising publishing and printing, registered a decline in sales revenue of 7.4% year-on-year to THB 4,999 million. This was mainly due to the absence of one-off contributions, including title sales and non-recurring license income.
As a result, the business reported a net loss of THB 243 million. Please note that in fiscal year 2024, the other business included a share of profit from the investment in FPL of THB 2,517 million. This contribution did not recur in 2025 and onwards. Now it comes to the Q&A session, and we will now open the call to any questions on our results. Ray, please help open the line for Q&A.
Thank you. We'll now begin the question-and-answer session. Participants with all questions to pose, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad, and you will be placed in the queue. To cancel the queue, please press Star 2. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on the telephone keypad. To cancel the queue, please press Star 2. The first question is from Shen Tan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening.
Hi. The first question is on spirits.
Hi.
Hi. Sorry. Please go ahead.
Specifically. Yeah. Hi. So the first question is on spirits. Can you give us some color on what happened to fourth-quarter revenue in terms of the magnitude of declines specifically?
Yes. This is Sopon from Spirits Group. Okay. Let me again hand you the picture also from the whole year. We started with not so good in first quarter, as you know, and then we were climbing up. We were climbing up from the second quarter and third quarter. I think these two quarters, I think we were doing so good, matching the expected. Actually, the fourth quarter that you just mentioned, if you look at in Thailand, because Thailand is our major market, if you look at the fourth quarter, there are several incidences that happened in Thailand as well. You look at first from actually the border conflict. I think you might already be aware of this already that this happened in that area, that actually in that region, our sale is most of the sale are in that area.
Our agent has had to stop from selling. In the fourth quarter, almost the whole quarter that we have to actually be so taking the safety first, we try to actually avoid selling into that area because also no one's actually being in that area. Also, those Cambodian workers who were working in Thailand, they left the country and went back to Cambodia. I must say that is over 600,000 people that they were our customer before taking the white spirit. That's quite the unfortunate incident for the border conflict. Also, almost to the during the fourth quarter, there were floods in the north and also in the central of Thailand. Now you might heard the news about the flood in the southern, but there were floods in the north, northern, and the central of Thailand during the fourth quarter as well.
We were waiting also in the fourth quarter for the new policy from the Thai government, looking into the new government coming, and then waiting to see what will be the new policies in terms of the promoting. They just launched that policy this quarter, which is the first quarter. The fourth quarter, I would say there will be some stuck and stagnant and waiting period of what will be going on for this new government and also for the natural disaster coming and also the conflict between the two countries. That caused us that we were almost to be good after the third quarter, and then unfortunately, we have to drop in the fourth quarter. That would be the impact of what is going on in the fourth quarter.
Another reason because fourth quarter last year, we sell in quite a bit because expect to have a sell-out during the new year. It does not come out because during the time, the economy is not as good as we thought. It is kind of loading too much on the fourth quarter. That is why when you compare the fourth quarter last year and this year, it is not a fair comparison. The impact of this year is also what Sopon mentioned on the Cambodia border and everything, but it is not that great because the other big reason is we are selling quite a bit on the fourth quarter last year. Expect a good new year, but it is not come out as we expect.
Thank you. That's helpful. If I were to take a step back and look at spirits volume, it has been declining for the past three years though. Do you think there is a structural issue going on? If that's the case, does it make sense to actually scale back on brand investment and marketing activities?
We still do not see any structural change in Thailand or even in our international just yet. I think it is just only that in Thailand, particularly on the economy, if you look at the economy after the COVID time a couple of years ago, and then we are off the COVID, but the economy is still not so good. The grassroots, the household debt is still around. The purchasing power of the economy, so they are still impacting the consumption of the alcoholic beverages. I think we still see as a typical impact from the general economy at this moment, still have not seen the structural change, particularly in the Thai market as well.
Okay. Thank you. I'll go back to the queue.
Thank you. Our next question is from Chen Guanqi from DBS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Hi, Namfon. Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes, we hear you.
Yeah. Hi, Namfon.
Hi.
Okay. A couple of questions. The first one, maybe a touch on the marketing spend, right? Seems a bit elevated as a percentage of sales. Do you foresee that level of spending going forward, or this higher level of sales is because of lower sales? That's why the percentage is a bit high. How should we see that marketing spend going forward in 2026? That's the first question. Maybe a second question would be, are you able to share some color in terms of potential corporate actions and timeline for those corporate actions, maybe in your beer business or non-alcoholic beverage business? Yeah. Maybe these two questions. Thank you. Hello?
Hello. When you're talking about the marketing spend, you talk about across the group, right?
No, more for spirits segment because it's quite high as a percentage of sales. Is this more of like because sales is lower or?
Hi, Chen. Yeah. This is Sopon from Spirits Group. Thank you for your question on the marketing expenses and A&P. I think we are conscious about this spending. We are trying to utilize our trading network better because that's our strength in Thailand. We will try to only do necessary promotion for our products, even though next year we are going to launch new products more and more. We only try to do this through the trade marketing networks that we have already in place in the country. We are conscious about this spending, and we will do our best to keep it as normal.
Hi, this is Tip. Based on the competition.
Sorry, you want to ask anything more for the spirits side?
No, no. That's very helpful. Thank you.
Okay. We update on the competition in the beer side.
Hi, this is Tip. The competition in beer in Thailand, I would say that the competitive in the beer market is always like that. It is only between only the two local companies, okay? We do not see any major change in the competition in Thailand as yet. Thank you.
Okay. Maybe a follow-up in terms of how is the beer performance doing? I think there's this Japan-China tension, right? Is it diverting more tourists to Thailand? Are you seeing some improved performance in beer or in the last couple of weeks?
In Thailand, our performance is quite impressive, and we continue the good momentum. Thank you. You can see that our profit also grow by a double digit. Still continue the momentum.
Esther, maybe you comment on the Vietnam.
Yeah. Yeah. I guess you may have said it to our call a couple of weeks ago. I think local market conditions have been tough. While we picked up market share, if you look at total volumes and total revenue, they're down slightly. That's an indication of the total market, not just ourselves. Because it's an open market, competition remains very, very fierce. We've got all the international players that we compete against. It's good to see that Beer Saigon continues to be the number one brand in Vietnam. We will have to keep it there at a very adequate level of spend. Back to your question about A&P, because it is a competitive market, we will have to do it very efficiently to make sure we remain number one at an adequate level of spend to meet competition.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
That's very helpful. I mean, given that the beer performance seems to be improving, is there any potential that beer quality will be happening in 2026, or do you think that it will be delayed further?
This is a perennial question. We ask this question at least once. I think the answer remains the same as before. As you well know, the market conditions now are not conducive to a listing of the company. We will continue to drive performance in the company and improve in many other ways to get it ready so that when the market is ready, we'll be ready to go for IPA. Thank you.
Okay. Got it. Yeah. I'll jump back to you. Thank you. Very helpful.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Meghana Kande from CGS International. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Can you hear me all right?
Yes, we can hear you.
Okay. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I have a couple of questions. Maybe first, just following up a little bit on the spirits side. You have launched a few new products this year already, and you just mentioned that you plan to launch a few more next year. I am just wondering, when do you expect to see that scale up in your volumes where you start to achieve the economies of scale given the high A&P spend that you have planned? You have already done this year and have planned for next year. Basically, I am just wondering your expected timeline on the scale up for your new products. That is my first question. Second is regarding the non-alcoholic beverage side in Thailand. I think we are seeing S&N do quite well with the Malaysia dairy side.
I think on Thailand, the domestic market was a little bit weak, as mentioned, because of the domestic consumer headwinds. We are also simultaneously hearing some competitors gaining market share on the MAB side. Maybe can you just help explain your strategy a little bit in terms of pricing action, marketing, any product development for your MAB, specifically in Thailand? My third question is regarding your beer segment. I am kind of looking at your other markets, international markets like Myanmar and Cambodia. Can you give any color on the volume trends for your beer and spirits as well in Myanmar? How has your market share trended this year? Also, lastly, any progress update on your Cambodia brewery? Thank you so much.
Good evening. This is Songwit, Chief Spirits in Thailand. Regarding your question about the NPD, let's see that for the last year, we launched two major brands. The first one was the newer single malt that we call Prakan. That mainly we sell domestic and also export for some countries, for example, in Europe and Japan. The second brand that we launched for the new category, we call the Ready To Drink or RTD. If you ask about our expectation, we will say that for the newer whiskey single malt, we still need time to get the break-even. That's not a huge investment. For the Ready To Drink category, we see the break-even just only within one year after the launch. That in the last year.
For this year that Sopon mentioned, for the series of our NPD, actually, we are cautious about our spending. We launched the same brand mainly, but we extend the SKU. For example, we launched the Brown Spirit in the affordable size, meaning the 200 ml, which are the current brands, meaning Hong Thong, Maekhong, Meridian, and Sangsom. We see the trend that due to the phasing of the challenging of the economy, we set the target price which is more affordable. However, we still maintain our gross margin on that particular group. The second one, we just launched the new product last week that is called the Hong Thong Ready To Drink as well. Hong Kong is the number one Brown Spirit in Thailand.
We do not need to invest any more A&P to build brand, just put more of the distribution, especially for the off-trade and the modern-trade channel. I think that is all for our strategy, the NPD.
Hi, this is Sopon again for the Myanmar market for Spirit Group. I must say that last year was a very good year for us, even though we were hit by the earthquake in March. We came out quite solid after that. The sale revenue went up more than 20%. The result was so good. The only difficulty that we are facing in the market would be in terms of logistics that we will not be able to go into some area. Those are conflict areas in the border of Myanmar. It is also difficult to find a hard currency, particularly the US dollar. That is why we have to slowly try to think around how to get the US dollar for our importation. In general, with our market share over 20%, we strongly introduce quite a new product in the market as well.
I'm quite confident with this market.
Excuse me. For NAB, actually, the information that you just mentioned about the market share, I think is not the right information because, in fact, in the very high-aggressive competition, we are able to secure and grow our market share in the core categories. We are the only brand that grows both in drinking water and also in CSD categories, which are the two biggest categories in NAB in Thailand. We are still maintaining our secure leadership in all core categories and also grow the volume of take and also market share. Thanks.
In Cambodia, all the three facilities being built, it's going to be completed in the next few months within the end of the year. I think commercial productions will probably sometime with December into January. So that's the status.
I think with the breweries and also the factories of NAB, we'll be able to claim that we are local productions. That will help. We will start next year in January. We will come out with the product with all the packaging and everything Cambodian, then made in Cambodia, which is now quite acceptable with the people in Cambodia.
Got it. Thank you so much for that color. It's very helpful. Just two small follow-up questions. One on Myanmar, did I hear correctly that the market share was over 20%? I just want to confirm if I heard that correctly. Second, on the NAB side, thank you again for clarifying regarding the market share trend there. I am just wondering on your strategy for next year in terms of marketing or pricing action for next year for NAB. Just those two. Thank you.
In Myanmar, spirit, I think we gained share. Right now, we're in the region of 72% of whiskey market, increased from last year's 70%. In NAB, I think we still have a, I mean, for Soshi, it's still quite a small business there, but it's growing. For F&N, it's doing quite well there. We don't have the information on market share for that market.
Hi, Meg. I think the second question you asked about the marketing spend for NAB going forward, is it?
Yes, that's right. Yeah. Market share, sorry, marketing spend, and also your ASP pricing, any action on there?
Actually, in terms of ASP, normally we do not disclose because this one we're quite careful because we also don't want our competitor to know what is the plan for us. Yes. In terms of the marketing spend for NAB, as you know, it's not just spirits. I think it's all across the segment that we carefully spend our marketing. We try to do it more efficiently as well as in order to make the bottom line improve in 2026. Yeah. We all control it across categories.
Great. Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, just a gentle reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on the telephone keypad. To cancel, please press Star 2. Our next question is from Ms. Elvina Appoping from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to ask questions. Good evening, Manish. I have a question with regards to commentary. If you could provide some comments around raw materials input costs, especially going into 2026, what should we expect? I know there was, at least we have enjoyed quite favorable raw material costs, particularly in the beer in this financial year. Should we expect that to continue into next year? Probably if you could help us with that comment for beer as well as spirits, I'm sure that would be helpful. As packaging in general. Thanks.
Elvina, thanks for the questions. I think in terms of all that, it's quite favorable next year. Start with molasse. Right now, the current trading is about 30%-35% lower than last year. They start the trading already. In terms of malt, Dr. Pisanut will comment later on. On NAB, there are two big cost-of-good ingredients, which is packaging. We bought a resin, which is main for the packaging, at about 60% price of last year, which means that we will have a very favorable cost in terms of resin. This year in Thailand, the sugar business, the sugar is very good. That's why it's quite a lot of sugar produced. We expect the sugar price to come down. All these three categories, we believe to have a very favorable sort of cost of good. Okay? That's the overall. In terms of malt, Dr.
Pisanut gives you more color.
I think I can give you in a short answer. The price of the malt declined heavily last year. For next year, the price of the malt is still declining another two digits. You can be rest assured that the cost of goods is going to be good. The other part of the raw material is about the broken rice. The price came down more than 20%, another 20% further down from last year. Khun Ueychai kindly explained it to you. The rest, aluminum, cotton, corrugated paper, labels, are coming down in price. I think the cost of goods is going to be good for next year. I mean, overall, for the future, the market is very challenged for us, but we are lucky to have a very favorable cost of goods.
We should be able to really sort of protect our profitabilities this coming year.
Thank you very much for the explanation.
Hi, Serena. [Crosstalk].
Thank you. Our next question is from Christine Saifi from Maybank. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Can you hear me?
Yes, we hear you.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity and good evening, everyone. Just a couple of questions. First is that maybe if you can help me with your expectations for board-level expectations on the growth side and margins outlook for various businesses in FY2026. The second question is also at the macro level, how do you see the impact of Thai and regional macro environment on the demand outlook? What steps are being taken to mitigate the overall consumer softness?
Saifi, can I recap your question? The first one, you asked about the growth outlook and the margin improvement in 2026. Is it the right question? Is it right?
Yeah, that's correct.
Yep. For that first question, I think we cannot give you in terms of the forward-looking in terms of the growth as well as the margin for next year. Normally, we don't give the forward-looking. Sorry about that. For the second question, you asked about demand and consumer sentiment in the region as well as Thailand. Is it the question that you asked?
Yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's correct.
This coming year, the sentiment, okay, we have to for Thailand, the government has tried so hard to really sort of promote the economy. I mean, you probably heard about the half-half. It's worked very well for our products, all categories. We heard the government that they will have a phase two in January. That's also plus for us. It's probably positive for the consumer sentiment. They also tried to promote local tourism by offering 50% of the cost you can claim and all that. All that are positive because the government is trying hard to really, really push the economy for next year. We believe that we will gain attraction from those also. Next year in Thailand, as I mentioned before, there will be elections. In the past history, every time we have elections, the consumption of beverage alcohol is increasing during the elections.
That also is another plus for our alcoholic beverage in Thailand. In conclusion, in Thailand, we believe that it will be a bit favorable, better than the current or last year.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question is from Shen Tan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi. Can I check on net gearing? Could you explain why the net gearing increased year on year? What is the CAPEX plans and whether there's room to raise dividend payout ratio?
Hi. Chun Ksingha speaking. I think for the net gearing increasing, actually, if you look at the interest spending, that itself actually as an absolute amount, we are lower. However, when we look at the gearing or some of the debt to EBITDA, because of this year, some of the impact on EBITDA. That is why the ratio looks to be high. Regarding the CAPEX, as we already informed during the event last month on press conference, the majority of the investment in Malaysia and Cambodia is almost spending in terms of the operating. We do not expect the same level that will happen in 2026. That is why I think we think it will be going back to the normal level probably mid-of next year.
How about dividend payout ratio? Any room to increase?
Hi, this is Prapakonn. I think we'll maintain that our dividend will be at least half of the profit we made. We maintain that and subject to our cash flow availability. I think we maintain our dividends per share this year, and although despite our earning a bit softened, in a way, the payout has been increased slightly.
Second question, can I clarify on NAB business? First is why is minority interest so high relative to the reported net profit? Second, dairy's volumes seem to have been restated. Is that the case? What was the reason behind this?
Maybe yeah. I think if you saw the interest expand in the NAB segment because you know that actually we have the CAPEX investment actually on the Khao Phan Archipelago in F&N, then we fully consolidation of F&N, the whole group into the Thai Beverage consolidation. Part of the interest expand during the CAPEX investment in Malaysia also include in the Thai Beverage this year fully. That is why when we see the year on year, the ramp up of the CAPEX and the interest in Malaysia will happen year on year increase this year.
Can I get the questions again on your dairy? Are you asking about the volume of dairy?
Yes. The first half, I think dairy's volume was about 300 over. And then full year, we're still at 300 over. I assume there was a restatement. What changed for dairy's volume?
Sorry, I can start again. I think actually when the first half is when we look at the details as we release the half-year review, we probably will not go into deep dive in terms of how we categorize the dairy or non-dairy. When we audit the full years, we try to reshuffle in the more comparable. The dairy right now, we focus on the key brand that like Carnation, Teapot, and Magnolia. That will justify the dairy. Some of part of that one, like Nutrisoy or other some of the milk, we classify to be the soft drinks. That's why this dairy will be comparison wise to wise in terms of year on year on the key dairy product of the group.
Okay. Sorry. The volume, which other segment did it go to?
Sorry, Sun, can you repeat your question? Sorry.
Yeah. There was a restatement, right, in terms of where the certain volumes are categorized.
Correct. Correct. Correct.
Yes. Yes. It's completely categorized.
Recategorized. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. Got it. Thank you. Lastly, just a comment. I guess we have seen companies listed in both Thailand and Singapore giving forward-looking statements. It will be really helpful if you can reconsider that for future briefings. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. To cancel, please press star 2. As there are no further questions, we will now begin the closing comments. Please go ahead, Ms. Namfon Aungsutornrungsi.
Thank you, everyone, for joining our conference call tonight. If you have any more questions, please contact IR at ir@thaibev.com. Thank you and have a good night.