Financial Performance Highlights

  • Q2 FY27 Consolidated Revenue: ₹463 crores, representing 21% year-on-year growth
  • H1 FY27 Consolidated Revenue: ₹891 crores, representing 18% year-on-year growth
  • Normalized EBITDA Margin: Expanded by 240 basis points year-on-year (on adjusted basis, expansion was 370 basis points)
  • Material Costs: Remained elevated, broadly in line with revenue growth due to inflationary environment
  • Operating Efficiency: Significant improvements in employee expenses and other expenses (SG&A, manufacturing, supply chain costs)

Business Segment Performance

Sundrop Business:

  • Q2 Growth: 19%
  • H1 Growth: 17%

Del Monte Business:

  • Q2 Growth: 26%
  • H1 Growth: 20%

Category-wise Performance Breakdown

ACT II Popcorn Portfolio:

  • Ready-to-eat segment: 38% value growth, 23% volume growth
  • Ready-to-cook segment: 12% value growth, 5% volume growth
  • Blended portfolio: 20-21% value growth, 10-11% volume growth
  • Expansion through cheese variants, sweet popcorn portfolio, and innovative formats

Edible Oil Business:

  • Value growth: 19%
  • Volume growth: 5%
  • Strategy focused on calibrated pricing to protect margins while maintaining volume growth

Peanut Butter (Spreads) Business:

  • Value business stabilized, volumes still under pressure
  • E-commerce growth: 18% driven by new launches
  • New variants (chocolate peanut butter, high-protein chocolate butter, zero separation peanut butter) now contributing 12.4% of portfolio

Italian Portfolio (Olive Oils & Pasta):

  • Q2 Volume growth: 30%
  • H1 Volume growth: 22%
  • Q2 Value growth: 21%
  • H1 Value growth: 15%
  • Pasta drove majority of growth with 33% volume increase

Culinary Portfolio (Ketchups, Mayonnaise, Dips, Pizza/Pasta Sauces):

  • Q2 Volume growth: 13%
  • H1 Volume growth: 11%
  • Q2 Value growth: 21%
  • H1 Value growth: 18%
  • Growth supported by strong B2B momentum and acceleration in B2C

Channel Performance

E-commerce:

  • Growth: 43% year-on-year
  • Contribution: 19% of total sales (approximately ₹90 crores)
  • Key platform for innovation and premiumization

General Trade:

  • Coverage: 400,000 outlets on sales force automation platform
  • Billing efficiency: 80% of outlets regularly billed in Q2 FY27
  • Focus on ROI-driven approach

Modern Trade:

  • Focus on visibility investments and consumer discovery
  • Platform for premiumization and innovation expansion

B2B & Food Service:

  • Expanding footprint through greater account penetration
  • Export business growth in Southeast Asia with new product introductions

Operational Highlights

Innovation:

  • 24 new products launched in Q2 FY27
  • 120+ products launched in last 2 years
  • 6% of total sales from new products launched in last 2 years
  • Innovations focused on premiumization, new categories, and value-added segments

Sales Force Automation:

  • Completed implementation covering 400,000 outlets
  • Improving billing efficiency, execution monitoring, and route productivity

Marketing Investments:

  • Advertising spend focused on high-growth, high-penetration categories
  • Core categories operating at ~9% advertising-to-sales ratio
  • Sequential increase in marketing investments from Q1 to Q2

Gross Margins:

  • Overall gross margin increased by 19% to ₹107 crores
  • Foods business margin improved by 70 basis points despite inflationary environment
  • Improvements driven by manufacturing efficiency, logistics optimization, and better cost absorption

Management Commentary & Outlook

  • Consumption environment remains strong with stable FMCG demand
  • Consumer trends favoring trusted brands, convenience, and premiumization
  • Commodity environment: Volatile but range-bound in recent months
  • Strategy: Focus on volume growth while driving margin improvements through premiumization, procurement efficiency, and manufacturing productivity
  • Priority on capital-efficient growth combining existing manufacturing with third-party capabilities
  • Continued evaluation of inorganic opportunities to build platform

Cash Flow & Working Capital

  • Operating cash flow negative ₹49-50 crores in H1 FY27
  • Driven by strategic inventory buildup due to uncertainty (corn, oats) and receivables growth in line with sales momentum
  • DSOs remained constant
  • Expect improvement in Q3 FY27 as environment stabilizes

Commodity Outlook

  • Popping corn: Secure contracts for next year, no significant inflationary trend expected
  • Edible oils: Stable environment expected in next 3-4 months with movements in ±5% range
  • Selective price increases planned for Del Monte export and key account contracts during annual renewals (expected in Q4 FY27)