Thank you very much. We will now begin the question -and-answer session. We have the first question from the line of Abneesh Roy from Nuvama Wealth. Please go ahead.

Thanks. My first question is on biscuits, toothpaste and hair oil. If you could tell us in terms of GST pass-through, have you taken the gram mage route or have you taken the price cut route? For example, biscuits, I think some regional players are still operating at Rs. 4.5 and 9 while the number one player transition fully to Rs. 5 and 10. I wanted to understand that for the three categories, what have you done, toothpaste, hair oil and biscuits. Thank you.

To answer your question straight up, in biscuits we increased the gram mage and in case of shampoo and hair oil, the price benefit was transferred through the pricing itself.

In terms of outlook, how do you expect toothpaste for example, last one year toothpaste competitive intensity, promotional intensity has been high and there is the LUP, the GST benefit also because 30 %-40% for the industry leader at least is the LUP and they are adding back grammage there. If you could comment, how do you see toothpaste industry volume growth and competitive intensity in FY27 and Q4?

So, competition is fairly intense, that is straightforward and it's pretty much since the growth is very limited, anywhere between 3% and 5% so that continues to grow stronger. Our dental care business has done exceedingly well. In the quarter, we did nearly Rs. 340 crores of business in the dental care and we continue to gain quite substantial growth. If I were to compare the dental care versus the last year, Q3 versus Q3 of last year, it's almost Rs. 116 crores. This momentum is driven by two counts. One is the multiple variants that we used, the new brand ambassadors that we got, the packaging changes, some of that which were introduced and very strong traction that we have in B and C towns as well as the rural areas. So that has been a very redeeming feature. And while the market overall, the category may continue to grow between 3% and 5%, our target clearly is that we want to exceed 15% is what we have set on the overall basis as a growth objective for HPC and on a fully annualized basis. I mean, this will take us what we have said that will take 18 months to take the benefit of the margins as well as the growth. But I am pretty confident that we showed the time that we took over the business. We should be pretty much close to 15% growth rate from that time.

That's all from me. Thank you.

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Abhishek Mathur from Systematics. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Sanjeev sir. Thank you for the opportunity. First, just a bookkeeping question. If you can give the EBITDA absolute numbers for the quarter for HPC , biscuits, staples and ethnic foods.

EBITDA, the breakup of each of these, I can certainly give you. So, for the non-food, it's Rs. 157 crores and the margin is about 24.95%. Likewise, for the biscuit business, our EBITDA is Rs. 47 crores. Margin is 9.57%. Foods, the EBITDA is Rs. 151 crores. Margin is 7.54% and edible oil, the EBITDA is Rs. 175 crores, the margin is 2.4%.

Great, sir. Thanks for that. Secondly, I just wanted to check, there has been a strong growth turnaround in our foods businesses, both staples and the higher margin foods, ethnic foods and biscuits also. So How does one think about growth in these segments going ahead? How are you looking at this turnaround and is it sustainable? And what is the steady state growth that we should think about in terms of biscuits, staples and the high margin food segments?

Two parts. One is that our projected long -term growth is very clear that in the food space, we will grow between 8% to 10% will be our growth rate. Our margin construct in the food business will be between 8% and 10% as well. That EBITDA margin, that's what we are ta rgeting. And progressively, we continue to improve that. In the HPC business, when we took over the business, the margin was about 18% EBITDA was with the parent company. We had targeted that we will take that 18% by 200 basis p oints over the next 18 months . But based on several changes that were introduced, we have been able to accomplish almost nearly 25% EBITDA in this quarter. Now, on a sustainable basis, the question that you are asking is that how it's going to grow. So longer term, the guidance is very clear that the food business, 8% to 10% growth. HPC business, 15% growth, which is a high margin category for us and veg oil business, anywhere between 3% and 4% growth is what we target. And we are in the volume terms. And value, of course, is determinant of multiple, how the values ultimately behave. So that is pretty much the set course, how the company is looking at its businesses. And yes, because of the GST relief, because of seasonality part of it in certain seasonal changes that occur, some quarters, you will see a better performance. But broadly, that is the directional outlook that we have.

On the edible oil segment, so now the September last year, import duty hike would be in the base, anniversarized. And we have talked about palm oil prices trending lower. Albeit, you have mentioned some pressures in terms of pricing. So, with this scenario, how does one think about the margins in the edible oil business going forward? That's it from me.

No, that's a great question. And I was hoping that we will do that. Because last year, September, the margin construct was very positive. We had one-off gain that we got on account of the duty increase of nearly 22% gain that accrued in September ‘25. And that was more of a one -time gain. Likewise, so previous Q3 of FY25, our margins were Rs. 364 crores on a revenue of Rs. 6,731 crores, about nearly 5.5% But as I have mentioned very often that the vegetable oil business, edible oil business by its very nature, our targeted EBITDA stream is between 2% and 4%. The orientation in terms of the planning that is entirely done by the company is on the volume growth of between 3% and 4%. We are seeing consolidation in that segment. We are seeing that the consumers are gravitating towards the branded players. The larger players have the benefit of managing their treasury and working capital and risk better and superior. So, there is a consolidation happening in that space. But the performance evaluat ion on a quarter -on- quarter basis is always a challenge. Because of the requirements of accounting and the audit, you have to take a particular price on the mark -to-market at the end of a quarter and that starts to change, which is what happened in this quarter as well and after that the uptick has happened. I am pretty confident of not only remaining within the framework of the objectives that we defined for ourselves, but also maintaining that closer to 4% is what we target. And I am witnessing that, there's some change already quite afoot right now, as we speak as well. In the last three weeks, the prices have started moving up. So, we should gain some, all that benefit should accrue in this quarter. So that is broadly the direction we have. And the interplay between Palm, Soya and Sun, because three big import items, that will always happen. So palm, because it had gone down because of the exceptionally high prices, which had exceeded soya and sun, so that will happen. But broadly, on the overall category basis, this is what we are targeting. And progressively, we are expecting with the 15% and 20% growth in food and non -food and the other businesses, I think we should head closer to the stated objective of 50 -50 between the edible oils and the non -edible oils portion of it. So, for example, our margin construct, if you were to look at right now, also two thirds of the margin is now accruing from non -edible oil proportion. So nearly, if I were to say that, the 71% margin (this was said erroneously, segment’s EBITDA contribution was 66.33% in Q3FY26 and 62.34% in 9MFY26) came from the FMCG segment in this quarter, and about 35.6% margin (to be read as Rs. 32.87%) came from the edible oil. Whereas the edible oil segment contributed 69% and the FMCG segment contributed about 31% (in Q3FY26). This spread will consistently, as we grow our revenues on the FMCG side, and we reach closer to the growth rates that we have discussed, closer to about 20,000 crores. I think at that level, this margin profile of the company going towards the double -digit EBITDA that we are targeting, I think will pretty much become a reality. And that's what the objective of the company is looking at.

Right. Great, sir. Thanks for the detailed answer and all the best.

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Shirish Pardeshi, from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Please go ahead.

Hi, team. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. Sanjeev sir, my first question is on edible oil. You mentioned that the imports, generally Quarter 3 declines for palm. Does that mean the system and even us have a higher inventory at the lower price or do you think we are just managing? So maybe if there is a price increase, we will have to take the price increase as and when the price increases happen for the imports.

Yes, that's right. So, Shirish, what will happen is that you mark down the inventory to the quarter end pricing. That's the accounting part. Mr. Kumar Rajesh will explain better. But we have to mark it down and bring it to a particular level. And if thereafter the prices increase, then typically that benefit accrues to the company.

The second thing is that even soya and sunflower is also becoming very lucrative in India. So, does that mean that the shift will happen from palm to sunflower or soya or that is not correct way to look at it?

I would say that your thesis is correct, that the perceived value for soya and sun is at higher level, where people see it as more premium oils and palm is lesser premium or in some cases, the attaching, the health connotations, etc. All three are set to g row. The interplay between them is the prices at the origin in the countries from where they are exported and the global edible oil complex. So many times, that undergoes a change on which there's very little control the companies have. So, then what happens is that the consumers might switch between one versus the other and this could happen. But the pecking order is very clear that sunflower is typically the highest price. The soybean is next to it and the palm is the cheapest. Now occasionally it might happen that the palm may exceed or soya may change or otherwise depending on supply situation. But broadly that is in 8 out of 10 cases, that is how it will remain. Some insecurity, for example, out of Russia or Ukraine, supply uncertainly, the price might spike for sunflower. But broadly that is a spread which will happen and so some shifting happens. But consumers are largely, this price inelastic. So especially in case of sunflower, which is largely sold through the branded form, the branded players, the consumers will stay with sunflower oil, they will not switch to palm oil or soya. It is the industrial consumers typically who tend to switch. So, for example, when the palm went too high, so people started switching from, I mean the indus trial users, the B2B consumers, they started switching from palm to soya. So that may happen but otherwise not too much of a change. This will pretty much remain the same.

One follow -up on this, we have 3-4 brands, Sunr ich and Ruchi Gold. So , within these four categories or subcategories, which has grown faster in Quarter 3?

Quarter 3, the largest size that we clearly have is the Sunrich, we have made very big inroads. We are nearly today doing close to, from that perspective of doing nearly 12,000 tons a month now. And we will continue to gain momentum into the sunflower oil. So that has been the fastest growth on a percentage basis. But in absolute terms, our growth has been largely through soya and palm.

My second question is on FMCG. You mentioned that biscuit growth is about 26.4%. Is that driven by the volume and grammage changes? I am just trying to understand if the volume and price is half and half or volume is higher?

So, it's obviously very volume driven without a question. So, it is not, price is not the bigger driver in this. As I was mentioning earlier that actually, in case of biscuits, we increase the grammage for the GST. So largely, it is not driven by any price inflation. It is entirely on the volume growth. And this has come through distribution expansion and natural velocity that we had on the growth rates of the biscuits market. So overall, that has been a very redeeming feature for the biscu its business because we are outpacing the industry by a very substantial wide margin.

And the last question on HPC. I think you mentioned that we are trying to ramp up in South. So, if I look back overall as a company, what South contribution was there, including all the FMCG categories a year before and now what your target is as a distribution?

So, there is a very good pickup. But I just want to, because this is very often discussed. If I would look at the overall distribution, but this is obviously not a correct reflection because palm oil is very substantive. Our Ruchi Gold sells largely in South, which is a branded play. I will just give the overall numbers just for benefit of everyo ne. I was just pulling out that why don't we consolidate everything and see where the numbers stack up. So, zone-wise, mix 33% is contributed by South, the largest. If I were to look at the overall, including edible oils and FMCG, North is 31%, East is 18%, Central is 9% and West is 9%. Now, if I were to look at the FMCG part of it, if I were to look purely at the FMCG, I would say that this number would be closer to about 10%. And that has caught on the lower base that is growing at 15% to 18% now. And there we are expanding, putting a l ot of energy where this base of growth we want to establish and gain momentum. And a lot o f products are now gaining a lot of traction. So, for example, our food products, some of the HPC products now, so they are getting a lot of traction. And we are quite confident that the reach that we have in the distribution, the cross -selling amongst the distributors and retail that we are pulling work towards. So there is a reasonable amount of confidence that we should be able to pull through on that and put a good growth rate for South India.

Thank you.

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Tanya Sharma from TAS Capital. Please go ahead.

Hello. Good morning, sir. So, I had a couple of questions. So first, Staple continue to be a drag and that is little brand loyalty in this category. What are our plans from the FMCG mix perspective?

So broadly, what has happened over a period of time, Staples have always been a revenue driver and less from a margin perspective, as you rightly mentioned that there's a bit of lower margin compared to the ethnic foods. So clearly, as I mentioned in my opening remarks and the release that we gave as well, that for example, in ghee, we had exponential growth. Of course, it was led to a large extent by the festival demand, etc. and some of the promos that we ran. So, there was a huge pickup in the ghee business. Likewise, so in terms of the, like we did almost Rs. 470 crores, Rs. 468 crores in ghee in the last quarter. And it was nearly jumped. So, it was driven a lot by the overall buoyancy that we saw in the demand side. So, there is a lot of effort that is happening towards pulling businesses on the ethnic food side on the higher level. But at the same time, Staples have a particular way of coming in because the demand is not in the sense that it is not very defined. So, it is also seasonal, and it is very price driven as well. So many times, if they find a greater value in what we are offering, so the demand pickup is very suddenly that people are buying a lot more because there the brand loyalty is lesser. And the focus is a lot more on the in terms of the value proposition that you are offering on the Staples pricing. My sense is the mix will not dramatically alter. The mix will pretty much remain same. But progressively as the ethnic foods category will continue to increase, I think we wi ll start seeing better margin construct as well in the overall foods category as we speak.

Next one. Ghee can be very cyclical in nature. So how do we manage consistency in procurement throughout the year?

What typically happens in ghee is that the sell side, as I mentioned, there's some cyclicity, not volatility in pricing, but seasonality uptick is always there. The procurement is very consistent. So, there is a season in which you are able to procure. So that market is, of course, depends a lot on supply side and how the demand for the cow butter sector is there. So that we have to do. But the supply chain is fairly well-oiled machine. There is a large vendor base. There are companies who supply on a consistent basis the cow butter to us. We secure our suppl ies over a period of time. So that works in general quite well. And there is some bit of pricing change there as well. So that may have some impact on the margin profile of the business. And that is one reason why the raw material pricing plays a very crucial role in business verticals like biscuits and ghee and some of these areas where you might see certain degree of variation. And which is why we always target that 8% to 10% is a good blend of margin between ethnic and the staple food. We should be able to generate constantly that.

No, we have no immediate plans of introducing new dairy products. We have enough on the plate. We have, of course, that innovation constantly happens. We want to introduce a new product. But on the dairy side, I would imagine the variations of ghee we will certainly do. But products like butter or cheese or liquid milk or flavored milk, etc. , that category, perhaps, there is no immediate plan for that.

That answers my questions. Thank you so much.

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Priya Kulkarni from CN Capital. Please go ahead.

My question is, like, on the product side, for which product lines are we planning to expand? So, we have not had many new product innovations and the new agent brands are giving competition, like companies give us this competition. So, what is your take on this and on the product innovation side?

There is a pipeline of products that are constantly planned. And we continue to introduce new variants. SKU within the SKU itself, there's a constant mixing of new products, new SKUs, new ideas in the blend sector, as I was just mentioning, and also responding to the vertical through which the channel through which it is getting distributed. So, for example, as the change in e- com and quick-com has defined and redefined in the way consumers shop, and likewise for the modern trade and general trade. And so, to avoid the conflict, many times those adjustments are done. Some products on a trial basis largely a re tried out first on the e-com and quick-com and then on the modern trade and then finally to the GT. But to answer your question specifically, as I mentioned, that is a constant work which is happening. You will see a SKU of products that will get launched. So, this quarter, for example, other than what I mentioned in the call, you will see that in the biscuits category, we will have multiple premium products that will get launched now. I would not be able to give the details on this call, but that is under the works. Likewise, for the HPC category, we are planning at least three more new product launches which will happen over the next 6 months in the skincare and some variations in the dental side, as well as in the haircare. So, a lot of work in the home care category. So, there is a constant sort of product pipeline. Yes, competition is there from the new age companies. And yes, they are doing a great job. And so, we will do our job and we will be found nimble. We will be found quick and we will be able to respond to any challenges.

My last question is about like last year; we had signed up multiple brand ambassadors. So just wanted to ask that when do their contracts expire? And are we likely to renew it? And if yes, what will be the cost and the tenure of the contract?

So, cost and I would not share on this call, and that's confidential. But the tenure continues to run with all the five ambassadors. Mr. Dhoni is signed up for an additional 2 years. The contract for Mrs. Shilpa Shetty continues and likewise, both for Tiger Shroff and Tamanna Bhatia and similarly for Mr. Shahid Kapoor that also continues. So as we speak right now, the contracts are very much on and active.

Got it. Thank you. All the best.

Thank you.

Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Shagun Ka bra, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Good morning, sir. I wanted to understand regarding area under cultivation. So, it is approximately 16% for the total area allocated. Could you guide how much hectares are we going to add in the area under cultivation?

You are talking of oil palm, right?

Yes, sir.

Oil palm currently what we have is that 1,08,000 hectares (to be read as 1,08,164), which has been planted. This year, our target is that we should do close to 40,000 additional hectares, which is a mix of 20,000 in the northeastern part of the country and 20,000 in the South India. And for that we need to prepare well in advance on getting our sprouts and nurseries and others. And we are very much on course for that. What I am saying this year is ‘26-27. I am talking now.

Yes. And the area under cultivation, the area is being allocated by the government. So, is it a long-term lease and how much amount does it cost us?

So, we don't pay any amount. What the government does is that, so we of course, to give an answer to that, it's in perpetuity. So, it's for 35 years, the life cycle of the oil palm. And after when it gets closer to the trees having lived their life, then you can extend that by doing the replanting. So, there is no tenure fix for that, for the lease, because the land continues to be owned by the farmer only. And we simply work in close collaboration with the farmer and work alongside him for 35 years. So that is almost it can be seen as perpetuity because government is not asking to do anything on that. They are saying that this company is allowed to do the oil palm plantation work along with the farmers and ensure that they are able to 100% work on this. That's it.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference back to the management for closing comments. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you, everyone. On behalf of Patanjali Foods Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining with us today and you may now disconnect your line.