Stockrabit · Analysts
Questions across 19 calls

Percy Panthaki

IIFL

Asian Paints Limited

Asian Paints Limited CC-Jun26.pdf · 2026-05-29
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question, I just wanted to understand this. When you are saying that you will maintain the margin guidance of 18-20%. Does this in the backend imply an assumption that the macroeconomic situation or the geopolitical situation will get resolved and the commodity prices will come 23 | down pretty quickly? Or would you say that even if crude remains in that $90 to $100 band for the rest of the year, even in that scenario, the margin guidance would remain intact?
Understood. The context of my question was, if I look at the last crude cycle which was FY22, at that time, also, on a Y-o-Y basis for the full year, there was about a 14% average price increase. At that time, we had finished the full year at a margin of 16.5%, FY22 consolidated. If I compare it to FY20, because FY21 was exceptional because of cost savings, etc., FY20 was about 20.5%. There was about a 400 bps contraction in FY22 despite fairly high price increases. What is different this time which gives you the confidence to say that we have closed this year at 18.8%, you are saying the contraction would not be more than about a 100 bps?
Asian Paints Limited CC-Feb26.pdf · 2026-01-27
Hi sir, just trying to understand the context of the growth this quarter for the domestic business, the sales growth is about 3% , this is on a base of about minus 7 %. So, what is really constraining the growth here? Is it the competitive environment and some loss of market share or is it that the industry growth itself is that weak? And if it is the latter, is this something particular to this quarter or to the short term so that we can expect this to sort of improve with some clarity or certainty or the improvement is more of a hope at this point of time?
Understood sir. And the volume value gap for last several years has been negative for us. Any chance, that this will become zero or something in absence of any price changes or it will remain at this 3% - 4% gap between volume and value? 34 |

Varun Beverages Limited

Varun Beverages Limited CC-Mar25.pdf · 2025-04-30
Hi sir, just wanted to ask regarding the competitive intensity with the new entrant who has come, just wanted to ask what is the thought process there on the parts of the value chain we do not control, which is the Ad spend mainly, which basically rests with Pepsi. In your conversations with Pepsi, what is the thought process there? Is it that there is an irrational amount of Ad spend going on and we do not want to participate in that irrationality or is it that whatever is happening we need to match that and maintain share of voice because ultimately even though you don't control this will affect your sales and profits?
Sure. Understood. And just wanted to understand how is the summer season going on thus far? I mean are we seeing the same kind of growth trajectory in April what we have seen in 1Q?
Varun Beverages Limited CC-Sep24.pdf · 2024-10-22
My question is a little bit hypothetical, but I guess now we might have to start thinking along those lines. In a situation where, let's say, Campa is able to make inroads and is, let's say, gaining a share, what would be our response and what would be our priority? Would we sort of prioritize a sort of market share and therefore try and come lower in the pricing or would we prioritize our margins given that there are other brands also at a lower pricing and we would just probably treat Campa in the same bucket? What would be the top-down thought process on this?
Because see one major difference between a Coke and a Pepsi v/s a Campa is that they don't have to pay any sort of concentrate charges, which is like a form of a royalty. They don't have that cost. So, they save on that.
Varun Beverages Limited CC-Jun24.pdf · 2024-07-30
Congrats on a good set of numbers. My question is also on the Foods business. While there is some idea on what is happening there in terms of the company willing to give you a franchisee, etcetera. As investors, if you can give some better guidance on how to estimate what kind of sales this business could generate in the next couple of years so that we can accordingly model it.
Understood, sir. Second question is on the capex. If I look at your cash flow statement, in addition to the acquisition, there is a Rs. 2,000 crores of capex as per the cash flow. And if I look at the balance sheet, there is about a Rs. 3,000 crores of capitalization. So , if you can just help me for the remaining half of the year, how much we should see capex in the cash flow and how much more in terms of capitalization?

Honasa Consumer Limited

Honasa Consumer Limited CC-Sep24.pdf · 2024-11-14
Hi, Varun and team. I just wanted to know one data point if you can give me. For the GT distribution, see you have a DMS, so you know exactly how much the distributor is actually selling onwards to a wholesaler or retailer. So, that secondary sales, so to say, what is the growth in that secondary sales for GT this quarter on a Y-o-Y basis?
Got it. So, in Mamaearth, you said that is the main sort of area of concern in terms of the slowdown. So, just wanted to understand, within Mamaearth again, what is the area of concern? So, two, three options here. Is it that one particular channel is an issue? Whatever be the products being sold through that channel. So, I mean, your own digital assets, you have anyways been defocusing, and that has been happening for a few quarters now, but despite that, the numbers were not as bad in the previous quarter. So, is it a channel issue, either your own digital assets or even aggregators like a Nykaa, Amazon, where you are seeing a slowdown? So, that is one option. Or as you said, there are some categories like face wash, etc., where you are doing very well. So, is it that the Mamaearth brand is not resonating in some of the other categories, and those categories are seeing a big decline bringing down the brand? Or is it some other issue altogether? So, within Mamaearth, what is the problem area?

Hindustan Unilever Limited

Hindustan Unilever Limited CC-Sep24.pdf · 2024-10-23
A couple of questions from my side. So firstly, on Tea business, just wanted to understand the volume sort of weakness here and you're not alone even Tata Consumer reported a negative for volume. See, generally, when there is a tea cost inflation, and this time, it was quite steep like close to 20%, 25% kind of Y-o-Y inflation. What happens is that the small and unorganized peers pass it on immediately because they operate on very thin margins, so they cannot afford to hold the price line. And the larger guys like you and Tata have not taken much of a price increase and your premium to these guys would have shrunk materially. So therefore, I would expect that both you and Tata should have reported very strong volume growth. We see similar kind of phenomenon happening in, for example, coconut oil also Parachute gains when there is a big price inflation because unorganized cannot keep up. So this has not happened in Tea. So any reason why this has not happened? That's my first question.
I'm still a little confused. I'm talking about September quarter. September quarter, you have not taken any price increase or very little price increase. The inflation is huge, and therefore, the small and unorganized would have already taken a very big price increase and therefore, your premium to them would have shrunk. So why is it that there is no sort of market share gain? Let's say, you were at, for example, just hypothetically 30% premium to the small and unorganized. Now your premium would have come down to, let's say, 15%, 20%. Shouldn't that have benefited your volume in September quarter itself? And why has that not happened?

Devyani International Limited

Devyani International Limited CC-Jun24.pdf · 2024-08-05
So, just reconfirming what you said. So , basically, the sales of India plus international minus consolidated, the difference I am getting is 77 million. So , does this mean that basically the services that the parent is providing to the Thailand subsidiary for which it is getting charged, that is roughly equal to about 77 million , which comes into the sales of India and probably goes into the cost line item of Thailand?
So, if I have to evaluate the India performance, I should be deducting 77 million from the pre-IndAS EBITDA or the post-IndAS EBITDA to get the true performance of India. Would that understanding be correct?
Devyani International Limited CC-Dec23.pdf · 2024-02-02
One quick accounting related question. If I basically derive your corporate or common costs by deducting the restaurant EBITDA margin from the total company's EBITDA margin, that number around Rs. 50 crore is much higher than your usual run rate of around Rs. 30 crore. So, can you explain that?
Assuming that the currency is remaining where it is today, then will you see, is this a permanent rebasing upwards or it will anniversarize and the cost will come down at some point of time?

Titan Company Limited

Godrej Consumer Products Limited

Godrej Consumer Products Limited CC-Mar24.pdf · 2023-04-28
My first question is on the Sexual Well ness category, while you mentioned that’s not the first category which drew you into this acquisition, but just wanted to know your thoughts on this I mean, right now the category is synonymous with condoms as far as this business is concerned. Would you like to expand and go into sub-categories of Sexual Wellness at some point of time, or that’s not something that you have thought about at all?
Secondly just wanted to know the funding of this acquisition, if you can give some more clarity on exactly how much do you plan to use from the existing cash balance and how much debt do you plan to take?

United Spirits Limited

United Spirits Limited CC-Dec23.pdf · 2024-01-24
Hi, Pradeep, I just wanted to understand regarding the ENA costs. I think last quarter, you had the benefit of some low-cost inventory and the ENA prices had already gone up. So, this quarter, we had expected some amount of pressure on the gross margin. But sequentially, that is versus 2Q, your gross margin is absolutely flat. So how come we are not seeing that pressure?
Yes, yes, very clear. But this raises one more question in my mind. So basically, if the ENA is up, you're not seeing much improvement in glass prices, what I understand. Then in the coming year FY '25 on a full year basis versus FY '24, should we be expecting any gross margin improvement at all because of efficiencies or whatever other levers that you have? Or you believe that where the prices are today, in terms of ENA, they will sort of offset any of the internal efficiencies that you will generate and at a net level, the gross margin will only sort of be flat?

Pidilite Industries Limited

Pidilite Industries Limited CC-Dec23.pdf · 2024-01-24
My question is on the volume value gap. You have done a 10% volume, which is a UVG number, and 4.5% sales. So that difference of 5.5 percentage points, would I be right in assuming that, that is just the pure pricing on a Y-o-Y basis and there is no mix included in this 5.5%? And if so, can you give some flavor on the different segments and the rough quantum of price decline in them? I mean there would not be a uniform price cut across the board, right? So it would be helpful if you can sort of give some flavor on the quantum of pricing in different product categories.
Understood. And also, if you could give us some flavor on how much of this price cut, which is at a net level when we are looking at your net sales, there would be some amount which is attributable to increased trade promotion schemes, margins, discounts, etcetera, and some amount would be the actual reduction in the end consumer pricing. When I am talking about end consumer, whoever the consumer is, whether it's a carpenter or actually homemaker or whatever it is. So if you can give some idea on this 5.5% split between these 2 aspects?

Bikaji Foods International Limited

Bikaji Foods International Limited CC-Sep23.pdf · 2023-11-07
Hi, Sir. On your ethnic snacks, your volume growth is 17%, your value growth is 10%. So, just wanted to understand such a huge gap between volume, value, what is the reason, and will this continue for the next few quarters as well?
So, if I just understand correctly, what you're saying is that you have launched smaller pack sizes and the rupees per kilo of the smaller pack sizes is lower than the larger pack and that is what is causing this? Am I right in understanding that?

Britannia Industries Limited

Britannia Industries Limited CC-Sep23.pdf · 2023-11-02
Varun, firstly, just a couple of hygiene questions. Firstly, if you could give the volume growth or decline for this quarter; and secondly, if you could explain the big Q-o-Q drop in the employee cost, that will be very helpful. And my main question is on the growth. So the poor growth that we have seen this quarter, could you break the reasons up into two or three parts? So one is that there is a high base. Second is there is a general FMCG demand weakness. Third is that there is this loca l and regional competition which is getting active. So if these three reasons put together were, let's say, 100, what part of that 100 would you allocate to each of them?
Okay, fine. What I wanted to understand is that there are, as I can see, 3 reasons why the growth is weak. One is that there is a high base effect. Second is that there is a general FMCG weakness. And the third is that there is increased local or regional competition, so which of these 3 reasons is relatively the larger contributor? Which of these is relatively a small part of the answer? That's what I'm looking at...

TATA CONSUMER PRODUCTS LIMITED

TATA CONSUMER PRODUCTS LIMITED CC-Sep23.pdf · 2023-11-01
My question is on the growth businesses which are high teens percentage of your India business. Can you give a little more color on that as to what is the profitability of this business, point one or rather I should say point one is what is the breakup of that? We don't want exact numbers but some color on the breakup of this business between pulses, spices, NourishCo numbers you gave but whatever else remains in this. And also, we did a calculation last quarter where we said that since this business is probably not making profit right now, the rest of the portfolio actually has seen like a 200-basis points margin expansion versus 4 years ago which is not very visible in the reported numbers. I think probably it might help if you also sort of highlight this to investors , that the EBITDA margin expansion is actually much higher than what it seems if you adjust for the growth business. So sorry for the long question but to sum it up , do you think that as this business grows bigger it will have a negative mix impact on the overall sort of India business or do you think that the recovery in margin of these businesses itself should nullify the negative mix impact going ahead? Sunil D’Souza: Percy, Tata Consumer Products was built for growth and when I say growth, we've always said double digit top line growth and improving EBITDA. We are acutely conscious of the fact that we are behind many of our listed FMCG peers in terms of EBITDA margin s and therefore you would see us continuing to deliver EBITDA gains. Now th e mathematical formula the way it works is more or less we've built out the fixed cost, there is not going to be a significant increase and therefore whatever comes in terms of gross margin, I would say margin after promotions at the top will flow to the bottom. So, we manage the India business as a whole to make sure that we're delivering this and therefore you'll find different puts and takes across different businesses from time to time. Now that said the growth businesses are very high growth rat es and if I look at the three businesses that we classify today as growth—the NourishCo, SmartFoodz, sorry four businesses—NourishCo, SmartFoodz, Sampann and Soulfull. I would say broadly NourishCo , Soulfull and even Smart Foodz broadly percentage margins are in the range of our India base business. Sampann would be a little bit behind probably because of the categories that we play in and this is a mix to manage for us to deliver the total India business P&L. Yes, even if it is in Sampann if you slice and dice it , spices should be higher than our base business , today they're still building it out, mixes should be higher than our base business, pulses would be slightly short of that. Now that's number one. Number two sequentially over the last 3 years or so we've improved the margins in all the Sampan n categories while growing the top line significantly. Number two, as we are growing these businesses, we are very clear we are playing for the future. It's not a number for every quarter and t herefore we are putting A &P far ahead of the curve in all these businesses. So N ourishCo for example today if I turn off the tap , I am profitable, but will I turn it off, no because I think there is a substantial headroom for growth. Similarly , with Soulfull, if you turn off the A&P tap, we are profitable. But we are not playing this game for the next one quarter or one year, we see a substantial runway for growth. Sampann, the entire pantry space is open and today actually speaking we are heading towards close to 900 to 1,000 crores in Sampann for the full year. And that's we built this in roughly about what 3.5 years, similarly in NourishCo. So, I would not want to slice and dice it saying should I put on the brakes on this business, s o that my margin. The game is to continue to deliver double digit , top line and improved EBITDA margins. So therefore , you will see EBITDA margins improving . T his quarter for example compared to last quarter we've improved (+200) bps on last year same quarter, (+200) bps of EBITDA margins while delivering growth. So that would remain the objective.
Sunil just a quick follow up on this on the tea business in India, when you look at your EBITDA margins and I'm not asking for the figure but just when you internally look at it and compare it with best-in-class tea margins across competitors in India, do you think you're more or less there or do you think you still have some catch up to do according to you? Sunil D’Souza: Percy, I would say not probably the right way to look at it and there's specific reason why right. I would look at margin after promotion expenses and not at the EBITDA because when in the EBITDA pieces you load various middle of the P&L and depending on your scale and leverage on your fixed cost you will have a different output there. But the margin after promotion expenses, I would say they're in the ballpark. We're still not there but we're in the ballpark of most of our big competitors. EBITDA percentage margins we will be lower because the center of the P&L some of the larger players have got significant leverage on costs which we don't. LK you want to add anything.

Jubilant Foodworks Limited

Jubilant Foodworks Limited CC-Sep23.pdf · 2023-10-25
Sir, I just wanted your view on a medium term, let's say over a 5 -year period averaged out, what do you think strong brand like Domino's could sort of generate as a LFL growth?
Right, sir. And see next quarter anyways, your base becomes favorable. So, hopefully if all goes well, your LFL on a YOY number will turn positive, but what I wanted to understand is also how this translates to overall growth because between LFL and SSSG, there may be a difference of anywhere between 2%-3% and then again what happens is that the new stores which you open at a lower throughput versus the company average. So, if you're adding number of stores in the region of about 10% to 12%, I'm saying let's say averaged over the next 5 years or so and there is a 5% -6% LFL, in my calculation that should translate to a 10% to 12% kind of an overall sales growth, so would that be sort of in the ballpark of what you also have modeled?