Marico Ltd (NSE: MARICO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 27, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Saugata Gupta — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Marico Limited’s Q3FY26 earnings conference call. We have with us the senior management of Marico, represented by Mr. Sagata Gupta, MD and CEO and Mr. Pawan Agrawal Group, CFO and CEO, International Business. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded before we get started.
I would like to remind you that the Q and A session is only for institutional investors and analysts. And therefore, if anybody else who is not an institutional investor or analyst but would like to ask questions, please directly reach out to Marico’s investor relations team. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sokita Gupta. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
Saugata Gupta — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Hi. Good evening to all those who have joined the call. I would like to begin with a brief overview of the operating environment during the quarter, after which I will take you through our performance and strategic objective going forward. Demand conditions during the quarter remained stable. We continue to see the building blocks for a gradual recovery in consumption supported by moderating inflation, improved affordability following the recent GST rate rationalization which has been transformative, higher MSPs and a healthy crop sowing season. We believe these factors provide a constructive backdrop for demand improvement across both urban and rural markets in the coming quarters.
Moving on to our quarterly performance, the India business demonstrated a sequential improvement in volume growth despite an elevated pricing environment which started tapering off towards the end of the quarter. Revenue momentum remained strong aided by calibrated pricing actions across core portfolios over the last 12 months. In response to the rise in input costs, our franchises have continued to record strong offtakes with more than 95% of the business gaining or sustaining market share and about 80% gaining or sustaining penetration on a MAD basis among channels. While E Commerce and Quick Commerce were leading growth drivers, we saw a clear improvement in traditional trade marking the outcome of consistent investments and targeted actions.
Over the last two years, Project SETU has continued to strengthen our distribution fundamentals, execution capabilities and the Coverage expansion remains firmly on track led by deeper presence in upgraded towns and pan India rural scale up. We will now commence our initiatives on targeted expansion in urban channels such as chemist, cosmetic and specialty food outlets. These actions are enhancing our direct reach, improving product assortment and availability in rural areas and will subsequently accelerate our premiumization and diversification energy at general trade in the top towns. Delving deeper into the India business, I’ll now share the performance of our key categories continue to demonstrate inherent brand strength despite prevailing consumer prices.
Underlying volume growth after adjusting for MLH reduction remain positive demonstrating remarkable price elasticity and deep consumer trust and loyalty. With correction having set in and copra prices down by 25 to 30% from peak levels, the brand will be passing on the benefit to the consumer in the coming months as and when we believe it’s the right time to do it. While we expect near term performance to remain stable, easing absolute consumer prices will support a gradual recovery in volume growth over the course of the next year. Value added hair oils delivered a strong quarter with accelerated market share gains.
Our value share on mat basis stands at an all time high of nearly 30%, showing considerable progress towards premiumization of the mix and bridging the gap between volume and value share. Along with our intended lines and long term aspiration, we remain confident of sustaining a double digit growth trajectory in the near to medium term supported by sharp strategic focus on the mid and premium segments. Consistent innovation across channels enhanced direct reach to project SETU and structural tailwinds from the recent GSQ 8 rationalization which has driven affordability. Sofola edible oil had a soft quarter and elevated pricing environment with revenue growth moderating as prior pricing actions largely anniversaries in this quarter like in the previous quarter we have sacrificed volumes which are below our threshold margins across certain packs and channels.
Going forward the brand will continue to sharpen its premiumization agenda led by Sapphola Gold and Total Variance and the recently introduced Cold pressed oil which is doing quite well backed by strong equity and focused consumer activations, we expect SOFOLA to chart an improving volume growth trajectory in the coming quarters. The Foods portfolio performed broadly in line with the stated expectations as we had talked about in the last call that we will take a pause on our growth as we some of the portfolio which is not delivering high on profitability so so follow to gain market share and consolidate market leadership.
As we had conveyed earlier, with the portfolio rapidly scaling up to ARR of thousand crores, our focus has been on stabilization strengthening profitability towards building a sustainable profitable growth engine we remain very bullish on value added foods and Nutra Opportunity India and our strategy to invest in fewer, bigger, better plays in terms of our portfolio approach. That being said, we are confident of resuming the accelerated growth trajectory in our organic food business over the next two quarters. We also announced the strategic investment in one of India’s leading premium gourmet snacking brands, 4700 BC. This is renowned for its popcorn and also offers a range of innovative stack offerings such as pop chips, makhana, Kanchi corn and a recently launched nachos with avocado oil.
Would like to share our perspective on this investment when you look at our foods portfolio today. Among Sapphola which stands for healthy foods playing in the mass peak segment True Element which stands for the Clean label, premium breakfast cereal, Nuts and seeds and Snacking segment and Plix which does nutraceuticals, there was a gap in our portfolio of our premium gourmet snack which is better for you and can deliver a mix of offerings for all occasions. I’m particularly excited about how the better for you gourmet snacking brands are becoming a choice for the consumer who want taste and differentiated flavors as a part of their routine.
We believe 4700 BC is underleveraged and underinvested brand that can if afforded the required investment and our overall capabilities including cost channel GTM and with a strong new product pipeline ahead it will continue to push boundaries in the premium gourmet snacking arena. Together we will tap the opportunity to leverage our existing scale in foods and drive synergies and broaden the brand’s presence across channels. It is clocking at about 140 crores ARR in the last three months. We see tremendous potential for the brand to scale its ARR to 3x in the next 3 years. In premium personal care, the portfolio comprising serums, male grooming and skin care grew in double digits and is expected to exit the year at an ARR of 350 plus crores.
In addition, the digital first portfolio is expected to exit FY26 with an ARR of 1000 plus crores. We are on track to reach 2.5x of FY24 ARR next year and we are making concerted efforts to move to double digit EBITDA in the digital first portfolio by end of FY27. Moving on, the international business continued to deliver robust and broad based growth. Bangladesh led from the front supported by a steady coal business and a scale up of new franchises like Shampoos, Vietnam and South Africa bounced back to deliver double digit constant currency growth driven by targeted initiatives.
Mina continued to deliver strong performance in key franchises across both the Gulf region and Egypt. The NCD business also delivered accelerated growth overall. The international business is now exhibiting a virtuous growth flywheel and we expect this momentum to sustain across markets over the medium term. To sum up, we delivered a strong and resilient performance in Q3 with both the India and international businesses progressing well in a steady operating environment. We remain sharply focused on execution, strengthening our franchises and driving sustainable volume led growth in India. We expect to drive improved trajectory in the core portfolio while driving the profitable scale up of foods and digital first businesses.
We aim to sustain the volume growth momentum even as pricing growth is likely to moderate over the course of of the next few quarters. With input cost easing and margin pressure subsiding, we expect progressive improvement in operating profit growth rates over the coming quarters. As we look ahead, we are moving from stability to purposeful acceleration, leveraging a resilient operating model and a disciplined cost architecture. Our priorities are clear, sharp portfolio choices, enabling faster decision making and driving agile execution. Importantly, our agility has enabled us to take targeted initiatives and successfully turn around portfolios within just a few quarters.
This is exhibited by the turnaround of Waho in India and more recently the quick recovery in Vietnam and South Africa businesses. What gives us confidence as we move forward is that this acceleration is grounded in strong fundamentals and a high degree of accountability in the senior management. This balance of resilience and execution discipline, coupled with the tremendous leadership depth which we have developed over the past few years well positions us to sustain momentum and further accelerate the growth for IV we have built. With that, I conclude my remarks. Thank you and we can now take some questions.
Questions and Answers:
operator
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