Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Sapphire Foods India Ltd (NSE: SAPPHIRE) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated Apr. 28, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Sanjay Purohit — Group Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director
Vijay Jain — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Saurabh Kundan — Analyst
Tejas Shah — Analyst
Gaurav Jagani — Analyst
Devanshu Bansal — Analyst
Avi Mehta — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Safari Food Q4 FY26 earnings call. This conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will win the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Prohit from Sapphire Foods. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Sanjay Purohit — Group Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director
Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to the quarter four and full year 2526 business performance highlights. I’m joined by my colleague and fellow board member Vijay Jain who’s our executive director and CFO. Both of us will take you through the presentation. Quarter four FY26 has been our best quarter in the last 12 quarters in terms of both SSSG and adjusted EBITDA growth. This has come on the back of a strong new consumer recruitment performance by KFC as well as strong performance in Sri Lanka also.
And you will all know this is despite the LPG related availability that we have faced both in India and Sri Lanka and some inflationary challenges. I think this uplift in performance is really encouraging as we move into the new fiscal we delivered a revenue of 7.9 billion rupees with 11% growth yoy in the quarter. Revenue for KFC grew by 15% which is the highest in the last eight quarters and Pizza Hut India revenue declined by 6%. Sri Lanka grew in revenue by 15% in LKR in the quarter we added 19 KFC restaurants, two Pizza Huts in India and three Pizza Huts in Sri Lanka.
Our total restaurant count was 1052 as of 31st March 26th. A consolidated restaurant EBITDA grew 21% year on year and margin of 13% up 100 basis points. Adjusted EBITDA was 61 crores or 610 million rupees grew 20% year on year and consolidated adjusted EBITDA was 7.7%. Consolidated EBITDA post India was 125 crores or 15.8% and this grew 10% year on year it’s actually down 20 basis points. Consolidated adjusted PBT before exception was 8 crores 1.1% and console PBT before exception was negative 2.7 crores or minus 0.3%.
Console PBT with exceptional items was negative 15.5 crores or minus 2%. And these exceptional items include the impact of 6.2 crores on account of labor code changes and 6.6 crores towards merger related cost. Really? The ESOP modification for employee retention. Let’s look at the full year numbers. Full year numbers we delivered 8% revenue growth. So clearly the quarter at 11% was better than the full year numbers. Adjusted ebitda declined at 9% by 9% at 7.6% 150 basis points down. KFC grew by 11% with a restaurant EBITDA of 16.3% down 100 basis points.
We opened 73 KFC restaurants during the year. 575 total restaurants. Pizza Hut revenue for the year declined with 7%. Revenue of 507 crores with a restaurant EBITDA minus 3.3%. 570 basis points below. Last year we opened 7 restaurants during the year. Total of 341 restaurants. Sri Lanka business grew 16% in LKR terms with restaurant EBITDA of 14.9% down 50 basis points. We opened 9 restaurants during the year. 136 is our total count in Pizza Hut. The KFC performance has been driven by the two pronged consumer recruitment strategy.
Plus with the merger announcement with Devyani International. We think that this will enable a unified brand strategy on both the brands and this future proves the growth in the coming years. I’m going to go straight to KFC on page number 19. As I said, KFC SSSD grew at 4% 6% without the impact of Navratri. Navratri. Last year two days were in March and seven days were in April. This year entire Navratri was in March. So underlying growth is 6% and the 6% is highest in 14 quarters. So it really bodes well.
And there’s a clear two pronged consumer recruitment strategy for the more evolving markets where chicken consumption is slightly lower than the more developed chicken consuming market. Our recruitment strategy of advertising plus an entry level burger meal is working really well. This has been promoted only in our dine and takeaway channels and it is really driving sssg. And then in more developed markets we have got disruptive value at a higher price point. So we ran a bogo four pieces of hot and crispy four free and eight pieces of hot and crispy eight free.
Quite incredibly this is also driving new consumer recruitment in some way. This is only in select markets on one day in the month, only on Dine in and Takeaway from an innovations perspective we have had two big innovations. Typically we used to run three to four innovations in a year. We have upped our innovation intensity, dunked. Many of you would have tried, which is a global saucy concept where sauces are not added over the chicken but the entire piece of chicken is dumped into a pot of a sauce.
I mean tastes absolutely fantastic. And then we launched the KFC Shavaurma innovation which is also done really well. I’m moving to the digital agenda. Our digital kiosks now are being implemented in 73% of restaurants and clearly there’s an APC upside that we get from the kiosk compared to what we would get at the counter. You can see some of the new stores that we have opened Epica Mall in Delhi, Punjab, Satyamangalam in Tamil Nadu and Mumbai and quickly Vijay will handle the numbers. The financial Numbers
Vijay Jain — Chief Financial Officer
I’m on slide 25 channel wise sales mix after few quarters of declining trend in dining and takeaway channel mix we are seeing a really healthy performance on that front. The timing and takeaway mix for the quarter remained stable at 57% same as last year. This was on account of improved performance we have seen in those channels backed by the value campaigns which Sanjay spoke about which are exclusively available in dining and takeaway channels only. From SSDG point of view 4% SSHG, 6% ex Navratra and overall revenue grew by 15% with addition of 19 stores in the quarter.
Gross margin improved by 70bps over last year and remained similar to the previous quarter quarter three. This along with the operating leverage which we generated out of positive SSHG meant that we improved our restaurant EBITDA by 110 basis points which came in at 16.8%. Slide number 28 gives the four year and five quarter trend and while the annual restaurant margin dropped by hundred bps the last two quarters, quarter three and quarter four saw an improvement in margin which was generated on back of positive SSLG and this augurs really well as we move on to the new fiscal year.
Sanjay Purohit — Group Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director
Let me take the Pizza Hut business performance, it continues to be challenging. However our strategy of dine in forward Omnichannel with emphasis on great food and great dine in experience it continues to deliver double digit SSSD and Ebitda Delta In Tamil Nadu the only exclusive sapphire market versus the rest of the country. So we believe very strongly that this is the playbook for the future for our number two brand. We’ve got to invest behind advertising, creating top of mind and consideration amongst consumers and there is a big market share play that is possible.
Vijay, the financial numbers please
Vijay Jain — Chief Financial Officer
Slide number 34 the channel wise sales mix, dining and take a bit mix for the brand came at 49% and delivery at 51% just largely remains stable quarter on quarter and over last year as well from a SSSG perspective minus 7% and overall revenue declined by 6% for the brand. Gross margin improved by 40 basis points over last year. However restaurant EBITDA declined and came in at 6% on account of operating deleverage. Slide number 37 gives a four year and a five quarter performance. It can be seen that the overall performance for the brand continues to remain a challenge.
However as mentioned by Sanjay that the Tamil Nadu delivered double digit delta on both SSHG and restaurant EBITDA performance and this acts as a playbook for the future.
Sanjay Purohit — Group Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director
Our Sri Lanka performance was very healthy. We delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of double digit SSSG along with healthy transaction growth. We opened nine restaurants during the financial year. This has been our highest in the next over the last three years and this really shows that Sri Lanka is a highly promising market for Pizza Hut. We should be able to continue this restaurant pace of expansion going forward in the next 23 years.
Vijay Jain — Chief Financial Officer
Slide 41 Channel wise sales mix again in Lanka as well. Our dining and takeaway mix remains stable and healthy at 62% from SSHG perspective 11% for the quarter which was from a revenue perspective 15% in LKR and 16% in INR terms while gross margin improved by 290 basis points and this was a combination of reduction in discount as well as increase in price. We had a margin which came at 14.6% down by 20 basis points and the entire benefit of the operating leverage because of the SSH did not flow through the bottom line on account of high minimum wages being experienced in that particular country and there were two increases last year.
Line number 45 gives four year and five quarter trend. As can be seen, the business continues to deliver healthy performance and we continue to retain and consolidate our number one QSR position in the country.
Sanjay Purohit — Group Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director
Our business performance in terms of numbers comes on the back of certain foundational work that we do. Last time I said that we have been ranked the number one QSR in the country and the number three QSR in the world on ESG metrics as per the Dow Jones Sustainable Sustainability Index. This is a matter of great pride for us. And the two areas where we perform outstandingly well are in the social and governance areas. And indeed when we look at our social scores, there’s another validation of the unique culture that we have at Sapphire.
We’ve been recognized by Gallup as an exceptional workplace in the world. This is among the about 70 companies around the world who have been recognized in this manner to be to qualify for this also there is a need to be among the top quartile of all companies globally on employee engagement scores for four to five years in a row. Only then does Gallup invite you to take part in this. And we took part and we were recognized as a Gallup exceptional workplace. Only Indian QSR organization recognized in the country.
Only 4 Indian organizations recognized globally. So with this we conclude our number and our business performance highlight again the quarter performance especially on KFC as well as on Sri Lanka bodes well as we get into the new fiscal. April also is trending similarly and that gives us confidence for the new fiscal. I want to reiterate here, the KFC performance is work that has been done to improve new consumer recruitment and you would have heard me speak about this several times over the last quarters.
It has taken us time to find the right marketing mix to deliver on this intent but we think we’ve got it now and that’s very heartening. Over to you all now over to you for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Please note in order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, kindly limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow up question, please rejoin the queue.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
Sanjay Purohit
Okay, let’s go. Iqra,
Operator
The first question is from the line of Sourav Kundan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Kundan
Thank you Sanjay and Vive for the presentation. I want to ask you are these value initiatives in KFC now rolled out across your network? Especially the north and west where you have the 99 rupee initiative.
Sanjay Purohit
So we started it Saurabh in about 150 odd stores in the month of November December then rolled it out to perhaps 200 stores in January, February, March, and as of April, all our stores, except our Tamil Nadu stores are running this new consumer recruitment value offer. So it’s not a promotion. I want to underline this. It’s not a promotion. This is a permanent. This is a permanent value layer that we are building
Vijay Jain
North and west and south. We are implementing a different strategy.
Saurabh Kundan
Understood? Understood. And what’s the same store transactions group that you are seeing? And if you could remind us what the trend has been last, let’s say four quarters.
Vijay Jain
So we have not given out the numbers, but yes, our SSD has been closer to the SSHD performance in the previous quarter. It follows a similar trend line. It’s closer to our SSHG performance.
Saurabh Kundan
All right, all right, last question for me. You’ve also stepped up marketing in kfc. Could you give us an idea the margin that we are seeing in kfc, the restaurant margin, how much has the marketing and ad spend gone up as a percentage of KFC sales? What was it earlier and what is it now? Earlier as in before these initiatives were introduced.
Vijay Jain
So while I’m not giving out the exact number, anywhere between 75 basis points to 100bps additional marketing spend, we have put behind the brand
Sanjay Purohit
And we have put
Vijay Jain
So the regular amount which you end up spending as per the contract. This is over and above the regular amount.
Saurabh Kundan
And this, this will continue as long as, I mean this becomes a prominent now, right?
Vijay Jain
Permanent or not. Because right now the focusing, getting, focusing on getting the transactions and getting the sshg. So a marketing investment or a gross margin investment right now becomes a bit secondary in terms of the focus. As long as we are able to get a positive SSSG and transaction and thereby finally create a accretive bottom line, I think that’s the focus area.
Saurabh Kundan
Got it. Can I just ask one more question on gross margin? So in the previous quarter you were not fully rolled out. This quarter you’re fully rolled out yet your gross margin is similar to the previous quarter price hike as well involved here. Or so
Vijay Jain
The primary reason is that this particular offer has been also supported by our vendor partners as well. As a result, we’ve been able to hold on to the gross margin. That’s the reason. Having said that, if I look it into the future and if the vendor partner support goes away, we expect a gross margin impact of anywhere or a gross margin investment of anywhere between 50 to 70 basis points. That’s our estimate.
Saurabh Kundan
All right, thank you so much. Thanks a lot.
Vijay Jain
Yeah,
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tejas Shah from Avendus Park Institutional equities, please go ahead.
Tejas Shah
Hi Sanjay. Vijay, thanks for the opportunity. So the last quarter had two distinct shades in terms of operating environment. Jan Feb at one end and March was very volatile, especially on operational front. Despite that numbers came out very well compared to what the quarter was painted operationally. So just wanted to know, Jan Feb had a very good momentum which got disrupted I’m assuming got disrupted in March or was it uniform throughout?
Sanjay Purohit
Yeah, so March was also good I would say. While there was disruption on LPG and indeed the significant inflation that has happened on lpg, the we were still able to manage to keep our stores alive. Now that, when I, when I say that manage it’s a day to day activity. So our teams on the ground just do an incredible amount of work. So we have not store closures have been restricted significantly in wherever we have still been able, in some cases we’ve been still being able to operate with a truncated menu.
Tejas Shah
How’s the current operating environment
Vijay Jain
To add to that? So KFC had zero closures. Okay. So while availability was a challenge, I think we’ve been able to manage the situation quite well. So there was a zero closure on KFC and there continues to be zero closure on kfc. Few stores would have been impacted by truncated menu, few stores would have been impacted by truncated timings, but those are a handful of the stores. Hence March went very well from that perspective. In Pizza Hut we had closures which I would say for 10 days, 15 days, but the number of stores would be less than 5% of the overall overall brand for Pizza Hut.
So the bigger challenge right now is the LPG price where the impact could be anywhere between 25% to 40% increase in terms of the cost which could impact the EBITDA by 30 to 50 basis points. But as long as we are able to keep the store open, I think that 30 to 50 basis points impact right now in relative theory it’s not so material.
Tejas Shah
There are consensus expectations on energy price increase coming coming quarters or coming month. So any, any price hike that we have planned or already rolled out and, and in general if inflation picks up, what will be our strategy? Because inflation is coming after a long time.
Vijay Jain
So currently for KFC the price hike has happened in the range of one odd percent. And in March also a small amount of price hike happened. If I add up the both the price hikes, it’s in the range of 1 and a half to 2% price hike for KFC. Similar price hike has been taking place for Pizza Hut or has taken Place for Pizza Hut as well in the month of April, round about 2%. We don’t see any further price hike in the immediate future unless we see the situation at the ground going dramatically southwards.
Whether raw material prices or for that matter specifically oil prices go out of the wax. Unless that happens, we don’t see any other price hike happening in the near future.
Tejas Shah
And just one clarification on the reply to previous participant question. You said that despite the broader rollout of the value offering, the margins did not come under pressure because it was supported by vendor partners. But I thought this was largely for dine in. Right.
Vijay Jain
Dining takeaway. And when I say vendor partners, the raw material suppliers, the suppliers of the chicken fries and the beverage partners.
Tejas Shah
So they cross subsidize, is it?
Sanjay Purohit
Yes,
Vijay Jain
Yes. Because they, they gained volume so they
Sanjay Purohit
Get substantial volumes.
Tejas Shah
Okay. Okay, that’s all from my side and best, best wishes for the coming quarter.
Sanjay Purohit
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Chagani from GM Financial. Please go ahead.
Gaurav Jagani
Thank you for taking my question. The question is with regards to KFC again and specific to margins, would it be prudent to say that your confidence in terms of the new strategy and the way you have managed the cost that the margins now have bottomed out and we can see the recovery in margins going ahead.
Vijay Jain
But if you can, you the margins have what if you can come again, have
Gaurav Jagani
They bottomed out at the margins bottom out and can we only see recovery margins going ahead despite, you know, the raw material inflation etc?
Vijay Jain
Yeah. So as long as we’re able to hold on to the sshg, we feel confident that we should be able to hold or improve the margins. So the SSSG is the key and that’s what we’ve been saying for last two years. The drop of margin has been a direct result of lack of SSSG for last two years. So yes, the quarter three and quarter four, the moment we hit the SSHG it has helped us improve the margins.
Sanjay Purohit
So there are two margins, one gross margin and restaurant ebitda. He was, Vijay was mentioning restaurant ebitda.
Gaurav Jagani
I guess you were referring
Vijay Jain
To restaurant EBITDA margin itself. Right? That’s what you,
Gaurav Jagani
What I was alluding to. Yes. Yes. So Sacha, just further on this, you know, given that, you know, now we have a very low base to hit and also the strategy is to work for us. So, so how is the confident of, you know, how confident are you of achieving mid single digit kind of an SSG in KFC over the next Couple of years.
Vijay Jain
So I, I don’t think the confidence comes from the low base. If that was the case. I think for last three years we’ve been still struggling, right? Every year we think the base has gone low and yet it was now three years for us to get a 4% SSSG. So the confidence does not come from the low base. It comes from the strategy which is right now working at the ground which has been now in operation for last four months or so. We have been quite cautious of expanding from 150 stores to 220 now to 400 plus stores.
So I think that the traction at the ground gives us the confidence and the way the April has also gone so far gives us the confidence that we should be able to deliver reasonable SSHG as we move forward.
Gaurav Jagani
That is what I meant actually. You know, what I was trying to ask you is that what has really worked in changing that traction? Is it your strategy that is working? Is it the consumers are coming back? Are you seeing a shift in the consumer sentiment that is helping? What is actually leading to this recovery?
Vijay Jain
It’s a combination of two things. Certainly we believe the consumer environment from a demand perspective has certainly improved in quarter four. And this is what we were alluding to when we had a quarter three con call as well. But that backed by our specific strategy in terms of driving consumer recruitment. The two fold strategy which is 99 rupees chicken crisp burger mill for driving customers or recruitment in north and west, which is the more or less developed or less evolved markets in terms of sea commuting patterns and another which is the abundant and disruptive value.
I think this has clicked and it has not been easy to be fair over last one and a half years. We did several experiments, several pilots. We did that epic saver campaign as well. We ran it for the first nine months. So it has been hit and miss. Good part is that we have finally been able to arrive at something which has clicked with the customers, resonate with them and we are able to see traction. So that gives us the confidence.
Gaurav Jagani
And just one last question on the Sri Lanka bit. You know, Sri Lanka also faced challenges in terms of LP shortages and the intensity of the issues there were a bit higher versus India. So, so how do you see Q1 so far panning out for Sri Lanka in specific in the margin profile?
Sanjay Purohit
So it’s a, it’s a tough situation from being able to manage both fuel for our transport vehicles as well as lpg. The quarter has started okay, has started well only, but we’ve got to see how it lands over the next couple of weeks.
Vijay Jain
So this LPG situation is ever evolving situation. It’s very difficult to say how the quarter quarter looks like taking that particular parameter into consideration. So that’s evolving in India as well. That’s evolving in Sri Lanka as well.
Gaurav Jagani
It was the question more in context of are the consumers also feeling the pain and have they, you know, cut down on their discretionary spends in any way which then could have a ripple effect on the demand.
Vijay Jain
So but from that perspective I think the April has gone reasonably okay. Of course we have been delivering double digit SSHG for last two years. So it’s, it’s a really high base. So coming out of that kind of a base. But yet we continue to deliver positive SSH in April as well.
Gaurav Jagani
Okay, thanks. That’s all.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from MK Global. Please go ahead.
Devanshu Bansal
Yes sir. Hi, thanks for taking my question sir. First we wanted to understand the separate commentary. So when you say trends have continued, you mean the quarter SSD trends or the comparable SSD trend. So maybe if you could help me better understand that comment.
Vijay Jain
Sorry, when you say SS you are asking SSSG trend, what does it mean
Devanshu Bansal
For a fail?
Vijay Jain
Yeah, so the,
Devanshu Bansal
Yeah
Vijay Jain
For the quarter we delivered 4% with x x Nagata 6%. So that kind of momentum we are seeing in April as well from a SSSG point of view.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay, but Vijay, that loss that happened which got preponed to Q4, that should have benefited you, right? So in Epson.
Vijay Jain
So I, so I am calling out in a like for like scenario. So just like four becomes six. So I’m comparing on both sides. I’m comparing the underlying number is X Navratra benefit or X Navratra impact, whichever the quarter you’re looking at. So I’m stripping that off.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay. Okay. So underlying consumption if we say for Q4 was 6% then in Q1 also that similar trend is sort of shaping up. Right. Like
Vijay Jain
Looking at a similar trend.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay. With a few sort of clarification from balance sheet front. So I noticed that in financial assets both current and non current, if we combine them there is some hundred crore increase. Right. So what can this be attributed to?
Vijay Jain
So right now that balance sheet which we are facing is a post India 116 impact, right. So there are a lot of other impacts in terms of how lease accounting comes into the picture, how a right of use comes into the picture, the tenure of the agreement. So right way to be able to look it after stripping of that particular impact and maybe in that case we can take this question offline. You can connect with us separately.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay, sure. And from a Capex perspective also there is about 320 crore of capex that we have done and we open about 90 odd stores. So how should we see this? Because it seems to be a tad higher. Right.
Vijay Jain
So the Capex has three components which are material components. One is of course the new store opening. It also also has a component on the refurb capex which every 5 years and 10 years the store needs to be refurbished as per the agreement. There’s also a renewal fee which comes into the picture now apart from the initial so renewal fee because now as a supplier we have completed 10 years. So there’s a renewal fee component which kicks in every year. So it’s not just the Capex on the stores. These are the several components which adds up to the overall Capex.
When I look at the coming year we see a similar number of Capex. Similar number in terms of the capex spent for FY27 as well.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay. Possible to break them into these three buckets. Broad numbers. If you could help us understand
Vijay Jain
From an initial fee or an innovative. We are. We are not allowed to share that number publicly to be fair.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay. Yeah, got it. Thanks for taking
Vijay Jain
To do a modeling. We have always called out what the kind of a KFC number looks like per store. Right. So KFC number looks like anywhere between 2.1 to 2 point crore post store. That’s pure Capex without any initial fee or renewal fee as a part of it. The Pizza Hut we have always called out that first two capex was like 1.35 to 1.4 cr per store. So that’s the number you can look at from a modeling perspective.
Devanshu Bansal
No, that’s fair. But that number 170, 180 crore. Right. So there was the additional 140 crore of CapEx that has been done. So that was what I was inquiring.
Vijay Jain
Yeah. So also what we do what. What gets probably missed out in this is let’s say the store closures in Pizza Hut. While the store opening for the calendar year 25 was zero, there were close to 15 to 20 stores which we shut down and we opened something else. So that’s another angle which gets missed out in the overall Capex when we are looking at overall number. But yes, largely these are the components.
Devanshu Bansal
Got it. Yeah. Thank you Vijay.
Vijay Jain
Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Avi Mehta from Macquarie. Please Go ahead.
Avi Mehta
Hi team. Two questions. First, you know, this April SSG of almost about 6%, you know, is a very stark contrast with what, you know, other discretionary peers are at least suggesting that there’s a caution consumer sentiment, post Iran conflict. Now, one wanted to kind of get your thoughts on whether this, this strength is more due to what we have done. Would it be right or is it also seen? Is it like because the industry is going up? So, you know, any thoughts or any, you know, if you could give some thoughts over here, please.
Thank you.
Vijay Jain
Just to correct. You said that april ssh of 6%. I never quoted april ssh 6%. Yeah,
Avi Mehta
Yeah.
Vijay Jain
I wanted to before Sanjay pitches in
Sanjay Purohit
And I wanted to understand Aviv, what are other people saying? Because we don’t have access to that. So you seem to have better access. So at this moment, from our perspective, I mean, if I look at the change that has happened from say quarter three to quarter four in April, something that we are doing seems to be working. Undoubtedly we are offering. Let’s see as to how this pans out.
Avi Mehta
Where I was coming from is, you know, if I were to look at other apparel retailers, you know, not exactly comparable, but they have kind of stated that there is a, some sign of a caution in the consumer sentiment. And hence I was, you know, because you have at least. I was just trying to kind of read maybe from a food industry perspective whether there is a moderation that has been seen by other peers which you have bucked the trend and that is where the context. So you know, the impact from your initiatives is actually very strong.
But any, any sense over there, if you could give.
Sanjay Purohit
So we believe that it is work that we have done, but we are the first to go off the blocks in terms of announcing full year and quarter four result. So we’ll wait for all other results before making a definitive statement there.
Avi Mehta
Okay, sir. So then in that sense, the other bit that I wanted to kind of understand is more from, you know, a structural thing. You know, while it’s encouraging to see KFC deliver 15% growth, you know, when I contrast it with aggregators, you know, like Colonel just kind of reported today as well, they saw almost 19% Nov growth. So wanted to get your thoughts on this on how do you see this gap in growth rates behaving over time.
Sanjay Purohit
So I guess if we have to. I’ve not seen the, I’ve not seen the eternal numbers, but one of the things that we just got to check here is how much is coming in from both advertising revenues and improved Take rates. So I’m not making any judgment on either front. But without seeing this, it’s difficult to comment. If we look at our own business
Vijay Jain
With
Sanjay Purohit
The aggregators, it is in line more or less with, you know, with our overall SSIG numbers.
Vijay Jain
Having said that, what’s different this quarter has been the performance of the dining and takeaway. The delta which used to exist between the dining and takeaway Visa with delivery that is certainly reduced by a big margin. And also over the last one one and a half years, or two years for that matter, our own channel, own delivery channel, our own app performance has continuously exceeded the delivery partners in terms of the SSLG and the growth and that’s by quite a bit of margin in terms of the performance of our own delivery at Visa vis aggregators.
Avi Mehta
Would it be okay if I read this comment as over time the way we would foresee is our growth rate as a brand could kind of at least equal or become ahead of aggregator industry growth. Is that something that you see panning out?
Vijay Jain
Very difficult to comment. But in the very, very long run, eventually the brand and the aggregator growth, it has to fall in the same line, right? As long as there is a kind of arbitrage which is available. So for today also in India, the delivery convenience comes at a price which is slightly lower. And we have seen in more developed markets that over a period of time the cost of delivery eventually goes up. And then the arbitrage available to few of the customers who look at it from a dining versus delivery channel, this goes away.
So in the very long, long run, we expect the mix to stabilize. But now when will that happen? It’s very difficult to come.
Avi Mehta
Fair enough sir. That’s all from my side. Thank you very much for these comments.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rehan Sayyat from three Netra set managers. Please go.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hello, good evening your team and thanks for taking my question. Sir, I want to, I want understanding regarding your Sri Lanka business. So despite macro volatility, Sri Lanka has delivered consistent double digit same store sales growth. So how much of this is technical? Market share gain versus recovery rate normalization. And also do you see any opportunity to access to reduce in Sri Lanka given the stronger for feasibility profile related to India.
Vijay Jain
So yes, the country has gone through a multiple macro or a geopolitical situation impact starting from few years ago where the economy went down dramatically. Prior to that there was a Covid impact. Now this geopolitical situation. Yes. So something or other has been going on. It’s I Think the, the strength of the brand and the organization structure which we have at the ground that has helped us tide over the situation. And also I think the belief in the value strategy. One of the very strong things which we have done over the last two years in Sri Lanka also that we have not taken price increase in line with the inflation that country had seen a year or two year and a half ago.
The country saw a combined inflation of almost 90, 95% over a period of 18 months. And at that time also our price increase was restricted to 50 odd percentage. So a huge focus on making sure that we make our products more affordable in terms of value. That has played a really big hand in helping us drive this double digit sssg. This of course backed along with the innovations which we have done over the years beat Mel. So while Mel’s started off well in India and then it lost momentum because of the lack of the marketing budget but in Sri Lanka we continue to back it for a very long time.
So those kind of innovations have also helped us deliver the double digit ssh. From a store opening point of view. I think we have opened nine stores this year which is highest in the last three financial years. I think from where we are in terms of the margin, the sssg, the overall business condition, we should be able to accelerate store expansion and as well in Sri Lanka which could be anywhere between, let’s say a high single digit or low early double digits as well. So that possible for the next two to three years.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay, fair enough. I mean that’s it from my side. I’m coming. Quarter.
Vijay Jain
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharat Gyanani from MC Research. Please go ahead.
Tejas Shah
Yeah. Hi sir, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, you mentioned that in part of 4 the LPG. Well, the KFC level 0 closure and about 5%. Sorry to
Operator
Interrupt. Bharat, can you please use your handset?
Tejas Shah
Okay. Okay, fine, I’ll be there.
Operator
Thank you.
Tejas Shah
So is it better now? Hello.
Saurabh Kundan
Yes,
Operator
Yes please.
Tejas Shah
Yeah, so. So my question is that you have given comments on the LPG shortage leading to about zero closure in KFC and approximately 5% stores in Pizza Hut. That was for quarter four. So sir, just wanted to check on the current status. I mean what you are seeing on ground is the situation same as quarter four or has it worsened or has it improved? So just wanted your comments on that.
Vijay Jain
So while you’re saying quarter four I’m just clarifying that it’s, it’s the situation was March so Jan said went comfortable March Was also while availability was lesser of an issue than the inflationary energy prices or the gas prices were of more of a concern. The April remains the same. So we, we haven’t seen any KFC closure in April as well. And in fact in case of Pizza Hut the closures were which was less than 5% in March it has come down now it’s less than 3% in case of KFC in case of pizza and KFC continues to be zero closure.
Tejas Shah
Okay, okay. So it is so this commentary that was there for that was specifically for March and you’re saying that in April it is. The situation has improved. Basically
Vijay Jain
The situation has remained same for KFC because it was zero and slightly improved.
Tejas Shah
Slightly improved. Okay, okay, fine. So thanks a lot and all the best. That’s all for myself,
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kevalia from IFL Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is unmuted. Please proceed.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hi sir, this is Percy here. So my question was you mentioned earlier that over the last four, five months you have done a lot of work and that is giving you rewards in terms of investment, improved sales performance. And one of the things you mentioned is that you have a sort of very strong focus on value apart from the BOGO recruitment tool. Can you elaborate what exactly you mean when you say you have a small focus on value? Does it mean that you have launched more products at entry price points or does it mean that you have increased the intensity of promotion and thereby delivered more value or does it mean something else?
And related question to that is that if you have given more value to the consumers, what is the while you would have of course gotten more transactions. What is the impact on the bill value because of this initiative?
Sanjay Purohit
Yeah. So Percy, in the past we have run 99 rupee product offers and they have not worked as well. Remember we had a snackers range at 99 and so on and so forth. So I think what is working here is I don’t know whether you’ve seen the advertising that we have run along with with the 99 along with the 99 products. That advertising is really addressed directly at aware non users and it encourages them to come to KFC and see the kind of range because that is the consumer. That’s the simple consumer insight.
There are people who are aware of the brand but they still don’t come in because of misplaced thoughts in their head about the brand. I think it’s a combination of behavior changing advertising along with a core meal at 99. So these are the two things that are working. So we ran a core meal at 299 didn’t work as well. Also our advertising there didn’t call out and didn’t address this aware non trier as you know, effectively as we wanted. So this has been, I think it’s a learning experience that we have had and perhaps this did well in November, December we extended it in about a third of our stores in by January and now in April all our stores except the Tamil Nadu stores are on this
Unidentified Participant
Impact on bill value.
Sanjay Purohit
So initially we find that there is an impact on. There’s a difference of transactions are higher than and the build value is negative. But over a period of time this closes quite rapidly. So it is also showing that the person comes in and then buys other things. Also the consumer comes in and buys other things but there will be about a 300 to 500 basis points difference in transactions will be higher than SSD.
Vijay Jain
So again Percy, so we are talking about two prong strategy, right? The 99 rupees mil there is a difference or there’s a lower APC over there and higher transaction. But then what we run in the south market which is the Bogo is at a higher end in terms of the ticket price. So while there is a drop in transaction dropping ticket prices in north and west because of one particular kind of offer, the idea is to drive through a higher ticket price to a different kind of offer which is a Bogo offer on select days.
So at the organization level what Sanjay Singh probably anywhere between 2% to 3% from a, from an impact on an APC on these offers per se. There are other sales which happens where we also try the pricing up or the ticket price of not the pricing of the ticket price up. But these are, this is a very specific to this particular offer a 2 to 3% drop.
Unidentified Participant
And while you mentioned that in Bogo the vendors are also participating and it therefore doesn’t impact your gross margins. But what about the 99 rupees meal? I mean I’m sure that is at a significantly lower GM versus the rest of your average portfolio. So is there any kind of impact of GM on that? And if so how are you mitigating it?
Vijay Jain
So Percy is actually other way around. We called out that the 99 rupees crisper chicken burger meal that’s where the, the participation is there from the vendor partners, not on the BOGO side.
Unidentified Participant
Oh I see.
Vijay Jain
I think you understood other and I also called out, I also called out that as we move forward probably the impact if the vendor partner support is not there. Also, depending upon what kind of mix we drive and generate, there could be a potential impact of 50 to 70 basis points on gross margin as we move forward.
Unidentified Participant
Right, Right. So in that case, my question would be is there any significant impact from the BOGO offer on the gross margin?
Vijay Jain
The answer is yes, there is an impact of BOGO offer on the gross margin, but it’s, it’s there for that particular day because we don’t run it on a continuous basis. It’s on a select day or couple of days in a month. So even if that margin impact is there, more than gets made up by the kind of volumes and throughput we see on that particular day. So overall at a restaurant EBITDA margin percentage level also it is equity.
Unidentified Participant
Understood? Understood. That’s all from me. Thanks and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Kevin Gandhi from Catgrow Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello sir, I just had one question. I just wanted to understand that the expected also when is the expected to be completed?
Vijay Jain
I, I. Your voice was very feeble, but I, I guess I got your question. It was about the timeline of me and when it’s expected to get consumed. Am I correct? Is that your question?
Tejas Shah
Yeah, yeah, that’s the question.
Vijay Jain
So from a process point of view, when we, when we announced it on 1st of January called it out that it’s a 12 to 15 months process. In that process where we are currently our registered office change got approved by shareholders initially. Subsequently we have received an approval from the authority also for registered office change. The formalities will get completed in next two weeks. So that’s one agenda which will get done. The second big ticket item is getting approval from sebi. We have already had a few round of queries from NSE and BSE that’s got cleared.
Now it’s moved to the sebi. We expect that clearance probably have to happen over next 30 to 45 days. Once that happens with the registered office change in place and the SEBI approval in place, we should be able to go to NCLT and make an application. And NCLT approval process can be anywhere between 7 months to 10 months from approval process. Parallelly we will make a CCI application as well. So I would say it looks like by the end of this financial year we should be in a position to consume the merger.
That that’s the likely scenario by the end of this financial year.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you.
Vijay Jain
Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. That was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Pruhit for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Sanjay Purohit
Thank you everybody. Like I said, good quarter bodes well for the fiscal going forward and it’s been a all round performance. So when you see our ESG scores and our employee engagement score, these are what contribute to the and being and continuing to iterate on strategy till we get it right. I think this is what is enabling us to deliver this result. That’s it from us. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you very much on behalf of Sapphire Foods. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us today. And you may now disconnect your lines.