Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
AWL Agri Business Ltd (NSE: AWL) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated Apr. 29, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Shrikant Kanhere — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Saumin Sheth — Chief Operating Officer
Analysts:
Akshay Krishnan — Analyst
Abneesh Roy — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the AW Agribusiness Limited Q4FY26 conference call hosted by ICICI Securities. 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 the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr.
Akshay Krishnan from ICICI Securities. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Akshay Krishnan — Analyst
Hi morning and afternoon to all. Thanks for joining in for the Q4FY26 AWL conference call from the management. We’ve been represented by Mr. Anshu Malik, Executive Deputy Chairman, Mr. Shikanthari, the CE and MD, Mr. Swamin Chair, the ED and POEL Interim Chief Financial Officer. I right now hand over the call to the management for further remarks and questions. Good day and thank you.
Shrikant Kanhere — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thank you very much and very warm welcome and good morning to everyone who is attending this call. We’ll spend a couple of minutes, maybe 10 minutes to discuss about the result. We’ll run through a small presentation and then of course we’ll open the floor for question and answers. We all of us sitting here, we will try and address as much as possible the questions coming in from you all. To start with macro context, I think the quarter saw a lot of events happening in and around and particularly the month of March where we saw the Iran conflict raging up and had got an impact on many parameters of the business.
Factors affecting the business Edible oil prices firmed up because the crude oil prices went up and as a result the edible oil complex also followed more or less similar trends. Conflict also resulted into supply chain availability of the vessels because of the inventories. Tightness was observed throughout the industry. All the crude linked commodities went up and as a result chemical, coal, packing material, all costs shot up in the month of March. Although the impact of all these costs was not felt too much in the March.
But I think in the coming quarter in Q1, most of the industry players will feel the heat of this increased cost. As if this is not enough for the rupee kept depreciating and sharp depreciation that we saw in the rupee in the month of March. And given the fact that we run quite a significant portfolio of imports and exports, rupee depreciation something is we watch very carefully. Export disruption continued in the Middle east because of the Iran conference. So all these events were somehow kept the businesses on the tenter hook and we just tried to sail through all these.
Edible oil prices flared up particularly in the month of March after the conflict started with sunflower settling above $1,400 a ton, soya more or less near to the 1300 level and palm ranging between 1220-1250 kind of level. So what we see today is all the elevated price of edible oil complex which we have not seen at least in last year on the performance. Happy to present a very good set of numbers for the Q4. We have been able to deliver 14% volume growth and delivered close to 1.9 million volume.
We also could able to register a highest ever quarterly revenue of plus of 21,000 crore which is 18% year on year growth both on operational EBITDA and PAT. Also company was able to deliver better numbers with ebitda growing by 40% and PAT growing by more than 50% year on year on quarterly basis. For unit metrics we have been able to maintain what we have been saying. We have been able to maintain gross margins per ton plus of 12,000 and EBITDA closer to 3,400 rupees a ton for the quarter which is again a growth of 19% and 23% year on year for both the metrics.
Similarly when we look at full year number, happy to share that we finally closed the full year with 6.8 million metric tons of volumes which is 4% growth in this 4%. Edible oil grew by 6% mid single digit which is also something which we were expecting. We are happy to share that company crossed the Highest ever turnover of 74,000 plus in the year FY26 with 17% year on year growth. Operational EBITDA at plus of 2,350. We delivered PAT of plus of thousand crore which is in line with the expectation by the street and the guidance which we have been giving to the analysts for past couple of quarters.
Again here also for the full year the per term matrix on a gross profit per turn as well as EBITDA per ton we have been able to deliver plus of 11,500 rupees ton for gross profit and EBITDA closer to 3,500 rupees a ton. Some of the some of the other highlights for the quarter, Fortune as a brand in oil and food put together grew by 11% year on year which is quite encouraging. Koh I Noor brand again for the quarter grew by 39% year on year and all our mastage brands like Kings and Raag and other brands grew by 18% year on year on the volume on channel.
We remain very optimistic about the alternate channel which is growing very fast. For us it grew by 43% year on year for the quarter. Horeca as a channel on which we are putting focus for last couple of years grew by 64% year on year and the branded exports which is again also a focus area for the company grew by 48% year on year. When we talk about the Q4 numbers, full financial performance on a standalone basis we did a revenue of plus of 20,000 crore with an EBITDA of 638 crore which is 38% plus that of 268 crore for the quarter.
Similarly when we look at for the full year we on a standalone basis we crossed revenue of 72,000 with a standalone EBITDA of 2,400 crore and a PAT of little lower than 1,000 at 981 crore on standalone. Again the per metric ton matrix, the unit matrix rather I would say continue to be healthy. Gross profit of plus of 12,000 rupees and EBITDA plus of 3,500 rupees for the quarter. Whereas for the full year we are able to deliver a gross profit of 11,200 of gross profit and 3,600 on the EBITDA. When we look at a consolidated level more or less similar story, as I said earlier, we could achieve highest ever revenue of 21,000 plus crore in the quarter with a PAT of 293 crore which is 54% plus.
And for the full year we crossed 74,000 crore of revenue with a PAT of 1,000 crore plus. And here also on the key metrics we remain more or less same what the guidance we have been given giving to the street when we look at the segment wise for the quarter four while we delivered a 14% volume growth in this 14%, edible oil grew very encouragingly by 17%. Food and FMCG grew by mid single digit at 6% and industry essentially at 13%. So overall all the segments delivered the volume growth and also the revenue growth at 18%.
We had a robust operational EBITDA for the quarter stood at 628 crore reflecting a strong growth of 40% year on year. And what we saw is the margin expansion basically was driven by improved profitability across edible oil and food segment for the full year while the volumes grew by 4%. But on segment basis edible oil grew by 6%, food and FMCG grew by 4% and industry essential by 8%. However, when we normalize these numbers with one time government to government business that we had last year, the growth is 6% with edible oil at 6% and food and FMCG at 3% plus and industrial Shenzhel at 8%.
The food performance of single digit growth is basically coming from two aspects. One is we had consolidated NBR business which we had started a couple of years back. Now we are going and focusing market specific business and then we’ll slowly grow it. So number one, number two during the last full year the wheat prices were more or less range bound. They didn’t go up. In a sense all the players who bought the inventory or who bought the wheat at the time of harvest were not able to get the carry cost the way the small players were able to because they were buying from the open market and pricing their products.
So we had a very tough competition from private labels and small players. But I think as we go forward in FY27 we should be able to overcome this and should be able to deliver a strong growth in wheat flour and rice business put together. On other highlights for the Q4 as I said earlier also alternate channel continues to be very focused area for us and it grew by 43%. Branded exports and Horeca again remains on our priority list. We had a couple of new products launched during the quarter on edible oil as I said earlier Q4 it grew by 17%.
We crossed revenue of 17,520 crores for edible oil in Q4 which is 19% year on year growth on market share we have been able to see consolidation in market share of edible oil for the quarter where it improved by 60 basis points in E Com and QCom. Also our market share of edible oil continue to remain about 30% level on FMCG part on in terms of the market share our wheat flour market share more or less remain flattish at 5.3 5.4% kind of number which we had earlier also but one significant improvement which we saw in the Basmati rise where our market share improved by 330 basis point and now we are closer to 9% kind of market share from what we had earlier.
The segment recorded also segment also recorded a profitability of close to 35 crore in Q4 and for the full year we had a segment result of plus of 200 crore. So while we have been positive in food but as we have been saying earlier also that we will continue to drive food aggressively and see to it that we get the top line first and profitability will certainly follow once we get a volume handle on our side. Industry essential. Both Olio and Castor continues to grow better. Segment recorded 13% year on year volume and 11% year on year revenue growth in Q4 26 oleochemical business which contributes 30% of business continues to remain key growth driver for the segment.
And our new installation coming up at Krishnapartnam by end of early the Q1 of Q4 of 27 should be able to add more volume to this segment. And gradually we are diversifying into the specialty chemical which now contributes close to 7 to 8% of the portfolio. On subsidiaries and joint ventures, GD Food which was acquired last year continued to grow in Q4 the volume grew by 24% but and full year volume grew by 15%. Revenue growth of 21% for the quarter and 12% for the full year. We continue to maintain the material margin at level of 55% and 54% for the quarter and full year respectively.
On general trade distribution, our focus continues to play on spreading the distribution. Now we reach more than 900,000 outlets directly 9.7 rather I would say on rural reach we are there 63,000 towns listed. Of those 63 close to 55,000 outlets that build every three months. And this is the area where we would continue to focus and grow. Overall direct plus indirect reach as per the Nielsen is now 2.6 million. So we are reaching close to 26 lakhs outlet which is still not the level where we would want to have because the universe of overall outlet is more than 4 million and so there is a lot of headroom for us to grow which we will continue to do in next couple of years alternate channels.
I will not spend much time. I think we have spoken earlier that it is continue to grow at 43% revenue growth of 51%. And now the quick commerce which is one of the one of the parts of the organic channel contributes close to 32% of the overall alternate channel volumes. There are a couple of new product launches. We launched our new series Fortune Premium or premium brand under which we launched Olivoy and also launched Cold press mustard oil. So this is something which we will develop. Currently we have launched a new range in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore markets which is where we find customers are there for such kind of products.
As we go further we will be tapping more metro and 50 lakh plus population towns to see that this category also expanse. Now we have quite a few products at a premium range as well as health and convenience focused foods which include soya nuggets, biryani kit, whole newer brown rice and then premium cold pressed oils. Apart from that now we have a blended oil portfolio which is more focused on the health and convenience and we will continue to develop this portfolio. That is all from my side. As far as the Update on the Q4 numbers as well as performance is concerned.
I have with me Mr. Malik who is Deputy Chairman, Mr. Swamin Seth who is our Chief Operating Officer and Pankaj who is our interim CFO here. And I request now operator to open the floor for question and answer. We’ll take questions one by one and try to answer. Thank you.
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 n1 on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press Star. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Avneet SH Roy from Nuama Wealth. Please go ahead.
Abneesh Roy
Yeah, thank you. Firstly congrats on good recovery. First is in terms of Iran crisis we saw two three levels of impact on the sector. One was of course gas availability to a lot of the canteens and restaurants was severely restricted for few days. And then we obviously saw inflation in edible oil etc. And a lot of the local edible oil players would not have been able to manage the working capital sourcing for a few days the way you would have manage if you could tell us on a overall basis did you gain or did you lose?
Because in Horeca I think there could have been some adverse impact. You could clarify on that. And second of course convenience food there was some upstocking for few days because some consumers got worried that availability itself could get impacted. So overall holistic level, what is the impact in Q4 of Iran crisis?
Shrikant Kanhere
See Abnesh on the Q4 per se. If I say I think the impact is not that much because the prices while prices went up in March but it also saw a recovery of significant demand in the month of March because trade tried to accumulate lot of inventory and therefore we saw huge amount of demand coming in the month of March so that to some extent offsetted any issues with respect to the pricing and other things. One second yes, the prices of lot of things has gone up like packing material, chemicals and coal.
I think all this will get reflected in the Q1 number because this real cost which has gone up will actually hit because Month of March, most of the players were having the inventories, sufficient inventories to take care of the cost. This will be impacting in Q1. Initially we did saw some demand destruction because of this LPG shortage and other things. But after that we didn’t saw. But yes, when we got into April we did see some of the sluggishness in the demand because a lot of people who had accumulated inventories in the month of March are now consuming it.
And therefore we see not a very encouraging demand scenario as far as the Apple is concerned. But I am very sure that in the May month of May and June it will recover and we will have a Fairly good quarter Q1 as well.
Abneesh Roy
Okay, until now, how much price hike you have taken pre Iran versus now across your products? If you could tell us given packaging cost will be say 20% of your broad raw material, how much hike you would have taken across different parts of the portfolio Specific each if you can tell
Shrikant Kanhere
See the packing cost as I said will start hitting you actually from the month of April. So there is no question of getting taking any price hike because of the packing material.
Abneesh Roy
So April only I’m asking now.
Shrikant Kanhere
Yeah, so in general the edible oil complex went up in the month of March close to 10%. And I think that 10% of increased prices and every player has passed it on to the consumer somewhere in mid of March or end of March. So that is already happened. As far as the packing material is concerned. I think slowly people will start passing it off. But packing material for us is you know, close to, I would say to two and a half, 3% of our overall cost, not more than that. And if it has gone up by 10 15%, the overall impact per se would not be more than a quarter basis or a 50 basis point.
But as we approach to end of April, I think we will take the corrections accordingly.
Abneesh Roy
My second and last question is on alternate channels. If you could tell us total alternate channels as a portion of domestic business, how much it is and how is the profitability versus overall business? Is it better? Is it slightly worse? And second question will be part of this. On Kohinoor we have seen a spectacular recovery. Of course first few quarters were very challenging. So which means base is quite favorable here. So it could tell us X of the base effect. Are you now happy with this performance because the base had seen declines and now it’s a growth.
Are you happy till now? Whatever has happened in terms of the acquisition, is it. Is it something you are satisfied or still lot of things left to do Here
Shrikant Kanhere
See on alternate channel I will answer. And then for Kohinoor I will request Mr. Malik to revert to your question. So on alternate channel. Now in edible oil we sell close to 15% of our volumes comes from the alternate channel. And as I said earlier it is growing by 40, 44. Similarly for the food it is close to 25% of volume which comes from the alternate channel. And this channel certainly more profitable than any other channel. Whether it is a general trade or whether it is export, I think we will continue to grow on this.
I request Mr. Malik to specifically answer your Kohinoor related query.
Akshay Krishnan
See on Kohinoor we clocked around 50,000 plus tonnes this year. 25:26 showing a growth of almost 20% over the last year. Kohinoor as a brand has its own salience and very strong in south and western India. We have concentrated in these markets more. But because of AWL’s distribution strength we have taken it to entire country. And we see good traction coming from eastern India where the brand had a good traction earlier. But in between there were no supplies by the earlier companies. But we have taken it and we are not doing it well this year also I expect this momentum to continue and even do more.
Our Horeka brand is Kohinoor Chef’s choice which has a legacy in hotels and restaurants. And many top hotels wants our flagship brand Kohinoor Trophy Royal. So that way if you ask me, Koh I Noor has come back into full action and we will see more growth coming in days to come.
Abneesh Roy
Understood? Sure sir. That’s all from my side. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Manoj Manon from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Shrikant Kanhere
Hi sir, I have only one question, you know which is let’s say going into you know the later half of FY27, what’s your worldview on inflation? Specifically agri inflation. Are there pockets? You know given the disruption
Saumin Sheth
System currently which can impact soy etc. Just your worldview on agri inflation general going into fiscal 27 later part. Thank you.
Shrikant Kanhere
Today CPI is at close to three and a half in which food contributes significant 40% of the weightage. And food itself which wherein you have all these edible oil and other food stuff is there. It’s actually sitting at three and a half. Very difficult to estimate anything right now. Because in today’s world it’s too much of dynamism there I think. I don’t know how things are going to pan up tomorrow. But if edible oil complex more or less remains same I think the inflation rate of this 3 1/2 CPI of this 3 1/2 to 3.775 should remain same.
And demand and whether this will have any impact on the demand. I think our industry is more of essential products rather than discretionary products. So the demand destruction generally doesn’t happen in our case. What in our case happens is down trading for which we have a requisite brand architecture in place where if consumer wants to buy a lower brand, we have that brand also to offer to him. So the customer remains within our of the things. But yes, if inflation goes up the more impacted are the discretionary spend FMCG products where customer would try to cut.
Akshay Krishnan
Thank you. Thank you sir.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dheeraj Mistry from jas. Please go ahead.
Akshay Krishnan
Yeah. Hi. Good morning and congrats on good set of numbers. So my first question is related to foods. The kind of improvement what in terms of margin, what we have witnessed in FY26 because of restructuring. Can we assume that now this kind of profitability is a new base going ahead if not material improvement from year round it can stay at current level.
Shrikant Kanhere
See, that’s what we have been saying that the food profitability is something which all depends upon what kind of opportunity that we will get in the market to grow the top line. And therefore our first focus of course will remain to grow the volume. And we have been saying this that at least till end of FY27 the priority will always be a top line and not the bottom line. But whatever level we are today, I think we should be able to continue. But maybe we may become little aggressive as the opportunity comes during FY27 to see that we give priority to the volume over the margins.
Akshay Krishnan
Got it. Got it. And in terms of new product launches and food segment that the kind of premiumization what you are trying to do in edible oil with the recent launch, is there any particular action you would like to highlight in food segment where you are trying to drive premiumization and improve your gross margin as well as overall profitability?
Shrikant Kanhere
Yeah, absolutely. I mean these. All this category of premium products will certainly has got a better margin profile on the gross margin as well as ebitda. But right now they are at a very small scale. So doesn’t change the metrics at an overall scheme of the things. But premiumization is something. It’s not only limited to this niche products which we are launching. This niche product is just a beginning. I think over the years we will develop this into a bigger category but premiumization we continue to do in other market, other products also which is our normal brand where we have both the under index market and over index market.
So the markets where we are very strong, we try to work out how can we improve the margins from there. So that process is continuous should reflect on the pertinent or unit matrix which we have been communicating.
Akshay Krishnan
Got it. And so my next question is related to the balance sheet. What we have seen is that there is a significant dictation in inventory while there is an increase in trade credit. What we are we avail to buy edible oil. How do we read this to line items?
Shrikant Kanhere
No. So basically the trade credit and the borrowings keep exchanging between the lines. And therefore what you should be looking at is, is that overall inventory plus receivable as compared to the borrowings. And if you compare these two set of numbers you will find more or less no major moment within these two. Because sometime we opt for a buyer’s credit rather than a trade credit and sometimes we opt for a trade credit rather than a buyer’s credit. So that number keeps fluctuating between the schedules.
But if you look at the current liabilities versus current assets, I think we are quite comfortably placed.
Akshay Krishnan
Got it. And son one request. Can you explain the divergence in your quarterly press release what you highlighted where you said that the food volume growth would be around 1% and top line growth would be in a mid single digit while what you reported is 6% volume growth and 18% top line growth. Thank you. That’s it from my side.
Shrikant Kanhere
So I think what you are talking is basically between the stand and console. So the consolidated. I think we. What we are saying is that the food volumes where actually 3% growth after normalizing that G2G business standalone is what we are saying that it is degrowth.
Akshay Krishnan
Got it. Thank you very much sir.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harsh Shah from Bandhan Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi sir. Good morning. Am I audible?
Shrikant Kanhere
Good morning. Good morning. Audible.
Unidentified Participant
Hi sir. So just continuing on the comment which you made on the previous participants question that in the foods business we will prioritize volumes over margins here if an opportunity comes, especially here. Basically wanted to know at what volumes would the margins. Would you be able to maintain the margins?
Shrikant Kanhere
Yeah. No sir, to answer your question is very straight. I don’t think that we can quantify now because many a times opportunity comes in and you are able to grow also and without, you know, without diluting on the margin. So that’s, that’s something which Is very difficult to say. But what we are actually trying to communicate is that we will have priority on the volume because we would certainly want in FY27 food volumes to grow in double digit, at least in mid teens kind of number which we are looking at profitability, profitably.
I mean that should be the first. But however, if we have any constraint on that, we will certainly give a priority to the top line having. And therefore it’s difficult to say at up to what volume you would be a profitable up to up to after what volume you will not be. Because it all depends upon what kind of opportunity that we will get in the market. I was saying in my initial commentary that last year we didn’t get any opportunity in wheat flour business because wheat prices didn’t go up and therefore we had a significant competition coming in from the smaller players.
Now this is an opportunity which was not there. If this opportunity comes in this year, I think we will grow volume as well as profitability also.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so where I was coming from is that is it fair to assume that as you mentioned that your ambition is somewhere to be to grow in mid teens. That basically is that the base case for you in your aop, you know, when you make your eop that okay, fine, this is something which we grow. And let’s say if the additional opportunity as you mentioned in wheat, let’s say from what we are seeing currently the prices are firming up there, would that be an add on what you are building as your base case of meetings Growth, Volume growth?
Shrikant Kanhere
Yeah, of course the base case is certainly double digit growth which is mid teens kind of growth for food. But opportunity strikes and the things comes favorably to us so we would suddenly try and make it even better than this. That’s not an
Unidentified Participant
That of course is there. In that case, whatever that three odd percent margins which we have done would be slightly lower
Shrikant Kanhere
Maybe. Yeah.
Unidentified Participant
And sir, again by 26 as well is probably characterized by, you know, reversing too many opportunistic calls which we had taken in the previous year. Right. So when you talk about these opportunities, right. Are these short term tactical opportunities or these are some things, you know, where these are areas where you can create a structural edge or benefit and then build on it because we would not want to see that reversal, you know, going ahead as well.
Shrikant Kanhere
No, of course these are all structural changes that we want to do. I mean, and there are only two things which happened last year when with respect to the food. One is of course that one time government to government business, which was not there. And the other is we are just trying to consolidate the NBR business which we earlier tried that we will penetrate across India. But then we thought that it is better to go region by region and then build this portfolio. And that’s the only change which we did in the food business.
I think that should continue.
Unidentified Participant
NBR is a private label, right?
Shrikant Kanhere
NBR is non basmati rice.
Unidentified Participant
Non basmati rice. Okay, yeah,
Shrikant Kanhere
Yeah, yeah.
Unidentified Participant
But let’s say segment by segment. If we think of wheat, rice and let’s say others, right? Soya, sugar, etc. Where do you see? I mean you mentioned that a few categories are already going at 30% in your pre quarter update. But let’s say going into FY27 which. Where do you see the largest opportunity, Sir? Let’s say the next one two years in terms of growth for us.
Shrikant Kanhere
The largest opportunity, to be very frank with you, sits in rice, wheat flour, besan and we also have a sugar which is also a volume puller for us. So these are the four categories where. And pulses of course. So these are the four, five categories where we, we see a huge amount of potential to grow.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, okay. And to the earlier comment which you made on wheat, right. That we did not have the opportunity last year because the prices were quite stable and you know, local competition also went in. So basically if the prices firm up, would it also mean that apart from growth even the margins of that particular wheat flour business should improve for us this FY27 versus FY26?
Shrikant Kanhere
No, not necessarily. I think if prices forms up, it will be a benefit beneficial to the big organized and big players like us who buy the stock at the time of the harvest. Because since we are delivering a consistent quality to the, to the customer and the local players actually doesn’t not able to compete with organized players like us, it will help us to build volumes. Not necessarily. It will have impact on the profitability. Yes, it will have. If we, if the prices goes up even beyond the carry cost.
So that is a completely a margin accretion which will happen to us. Because if prices goes up beyond a carry cost which normally you account for, certainly it will add to the margins also.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And longer term horizon sustainably. What is the kind of margins do you foresee or envisage in the foods business?
Shrikant Kanhere
Now in the food business we are actually saying, if you read, if you, if you go through our earlier comment, we have always been saying that food will remain in EBITDA neutral till FY27 and after that we will try and build 1500 per ton to 2000 rupees a ton kind of EBITDA in the food from FY28. So this is what we are working on while we are delivering it today also. But that certainly doesn’t mean that it is something which is sustainable, at least for the year. But that’s what we are looking. And then from there that from the journey will start wherein you should ideally get to a margin level where you start benchmarking yourself with your competitor.
Like for us in wheat flour the competition is with ITC and in rice we have ARBR and LT foods. So you have to go to that level. We are not there right now because of course we are still at investment and growth phase.
Unidentified Participant
Got it, sir, thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Akshay Krishnan from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Akshay Krishnan
Hi sir. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is on. At what point in time does a business from the reinvesting gross margin gains delivering sustained EBITDA expansion and what are the key triggers for this transition?
Shrikant Kanhere
This. You are. So your question is specifically for the food
Akshay Krishnan
For the goods? Exactly.
Shrikant Kanhere
Can you repeat the question again?
Akshay Krishnan
What I’m trying to see is at what point of the business. So the shift happens in reinvesting the gross margin gains to delivering sustained EBITDA margins and what are the key triggers for this?
Shrikant Kanhere
So I think key triggers remains, I mean good market share which you have and only then you have a pricing power to charge prices until at that time you are just playing aggressively on pricing and growing. I think food anywhere closer to or anywhere more than 1.5 million tonnes of volumes. I think we should be able to start consolidating the margins. This year we closed at 1.2 million. I am hopeful that next year we will go beyond 1.5, 1.6 million as far as the food is concerned. From there I think the consolidation will start on gross margin as well as the EBITDA margin.
Akshay Krishnan
Okay, okay, but. But technically you also gain market share in this quarter. So is it that. Are you focusing more on market share gains at the cost of the margins then?
Shrikant Kanhere
Yeah, at least for. At least for FY27. For sure. And maybe some part of FY28 also. We will certainly give priority to the top line rather than margins.
Akshay Krishnan
Okay. Okay. My second is on the volatility in the oil that’s been going on in the recent trends. I just wanted to have done any sensitivity analysis on every five or ten rupee drop or increase in the cost of oil? What is the impact on the margins and how do you protect and this price through the pricing measures?
Shrikant Kanhere
So can you just repeat your question? What I’ll. I’ll suggest that Soumin to come in and answer but just repeat the question for sake of clarity.
Akshay Krishnan
So basically the recent volatility in edible oil, I just wanted to understand the sensitivity analysis. So for every five rupee or five dollar, a ten dollar decline or an increase in the or crude oil prices, what is, how are you managing the inventory and how are the margins being protected through pricing in this?
Shrikant Kanhere
Hi. I think as prices goes up every.
Akshay Krishnan
Our experience says that at every 10 rupees we see demand slowing down by 1% and vice versa. As prices comes off, the demand increases. This is the international price analysis. We also revise our inventory and supply chain and also depending upon the season then the festivals. So depending upon the prices and the trend, we
Shrikant Kanhere
Revise and we manage our inventory supply chain.
Akshay Krishnan
Okay. Okay, perfect sir. The next is on the alternate channel. So you’ve been scaling up rapidly and I just wanted you to just help me in understanding and pick your brains on how can you quantify the margin different versus generator trade and how this evolves with scale.
Shrikant Kanhere
So I think this alternate channel certainly is a more profitable than general trade because there are less number of intermediaries involved because you are then dealing directly with the E. Com and alternate channel operator. And also the stocks are moving very fast. So you certainly have a better margin profile as far as general trade are concerned. But again on the alternate channel also you have other costs which you have to incur because alternate channel is all about ensuring the visibility of your product on the platform.
Plus you will have to also spend some amount of time, some money on ensuring that the fill rate doesn’t go down. And therefore you have to keep supplying to them through your logistical capabilities. So all these costs are there. But in spite of taking all this, it’s better off in terms of margins as compared to generated. And therefore we are saying we are quite optimistic about this channel growing. It’s a channel of the future and the way it is growing at a 40% although the base is low, that’s why the 40 50% looks very good number.
As the base increases, this growth rate will certainly come down. But I’m sure in the years to come we will have close to 30%, 35% of our volumes coming in from the alternate channel which is today at 15%.
Akshay Krishnan
What would be the margin difference versus general kit in this?
Shrikant Kanhere
The margin difference is like Our it’s not more than it’s very minuscule margin different. But maybe if in general trade we are making X percentage, I think the general trade versus this is hardly a 50 60bps lower than higher than the general trade because in our overall scheme of the things the margin itself is 1.52% at the end of the day. So any change in 25 30bps is quite a significant for us.
Akshay Krishnan
Okay. Okay. And one final last question. The PERT and EBITDA has improved yoy but it’s been volatile on a QQ or on a sequential basis. Now what is the steady state range that we should be building in across these cycles from this?
Shrikant Kanhere
So steady state range you can build is around 3,600 rupees a ton or 3,500 for a safer side, you take it. I think we should be able to deliver within that range.
Akshay Krishnan
Okay, okay. Okay. Even given given the volatility that’s been going on. Yes.
Shrikant Kanhere
Yes.
Akshay Krishnan
Okay. Thank you and good news.
Operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question I reminded to all the participants. Anyone who wishes to ask a question please press star and 1. The next question is from the line of Nilesh Doshi from Prosperity. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thanks for the opportunity sir. Congratulations for the strong volume and revenue growth in the quarter four. Sir, my question is related to whether the Wilmar define itself is a branded product company or a simple commodity company. Because we are valued far below the other peer group company like the ln LT Food which has a brand of Dawat, KRBL brand India Gate Patanjali. We are trading more than the one time of the revenue and we are far below because our market cap is around 26,000 crore rupees and revenue is 74,000 crore rupees.
Can you explain the reason for such anomaly, sir?
Shrikant Kanhere
First of all, AWL Agribusiness is food FMCG that we classify ourselves because 70% of our revenue comes from the brands. And I think this is what has been we are saying and this is how our numbers sell. Now as far as the valuation is concerned, I will not be able to comment too much on it because it’s ultimately a market driven price discovery. We can only say that the kind of potential that AWL agribusiness has got the investor is taking their own time to understand that potential. And we are quite hopeful and very positive that sooner or later investor will understand that potential and will give valuation that we deserve.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Next question. Why the management is constantly guiding the margin per ton? Because though we are Selling the product on brand and under the small packaging. When we are selling as a brand and under the small packaging, the margin much more higher than the per 10 per ton basis. So what is the logic to guide the margin per ton rather than the in a percentage term of each segment?
Shrikant Kanhere
See, the reason for giving guidance in margin per ton is very simple. Because the product levels at which we operate gets impacted due to the price movement in the commodities, whether it is edible oil, whether it is a wheat, whether it’s the rice. And therefore what happens is that since we operate very significantly strong brand most of the time, we are able to pass on the price increase or a commodity price increase to the consumer. And therefore when you pass on the commodity price rise to the consumer, your margin percentage actually goes down.
But you normally able to maintain per kg or per ton of margin. And that is the reason why we say we are not a pure play a discretionary FMCG product where you try and maintain margin as a percentage of a revenue. Our revenue gets impacted because of the inflationary pressures and therefore we say it is better for us better for investing community to track our margins on a per turn basis.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kenil Mehta from Boring AMC. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
What portion of your 15 to 15,000 growth in volumes in edible oil was real consumer demand versus distributor stock up and consumer stock up before the price hike? And are you seeing slowdown in volumes in April due to commercial LPG issue across the restaurant and interviewees?
Shrikant Kanhere
No. See in our scheme of the things, the primary and secondary keeps happening hand in hand. So you have a primary in one month and say followed by the secondary in the another month. What we are saying is that between one month and two months there are certain pipeline corrections between the trade which keeps happening and therefore you might see some slum is one month which is getting then replicated which is getting replenished in the next month. So it’s only a stopgap which happens between one month and another month.
I think for us, whatever we are able to sell, I think it’s reflective of the secondary itself. And on your second question, does this slowness in the demand in month of April is suggestive the fact that there is a shortage of lpg? I don’t think that is there now in on the street we don’t see any shortage of LPG across the country. And coming months we have quite a few marriage season coming up and therefore we are hopeful that demand will pick up from here.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. And also sir, is that as the Palmer price reduces is is it a margin remain stable or we have to pass on the low prices to the consumers also?
Shrikant Kanhere
No. So for us when the price goes up or price goes down, since we operate in a brand, we don’t change the prices quickly. In the case whenever the prices goes up, we have that ability of passing on the price to the consumer quickly because of the brand. But when the prices goes down we try and time our time it such that we are able to get as far as margins before passing it out to the customer. So that that happens both the way.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. And so are you also planning to enter into palm oil plantation business like your peers like Patanjali Foods and Guruj Agrovate due to government push? So
Shrikant Kanhere
No, as we speak today we don’t have any plan because our promoter Wilmar itself they are into a big plantation in palm in Indonesia and Malaysia. But as far as AWL is concerned, as we speak today we don’t have any plans to get into it. Okay.
Unidentified Participant
And so as an industry was, do you think the Indonesian government of increasing palm oil usage in diesel instead of importing it will see some sort of a price hike and lower production exports to other countries?
Shrikant Kanhere
Yeah. I’ll request Swamin to answer this question.
Akshay Krishnan
Yeah. Hi. So as you mentioned, Indonesian government has planned to increase the biodiesel consumption to B50 and that is happening across the world. That all the producing countries are increasing their biodiesel blending into the diesel. The main reason is today the biodiesel is cheaper than the fossil diesel because of the war situation. And Indonesia is on the right path to announce and eventually consume more palm into biodiesel. That may not start from tomorrow, but yes, the plan is from the second half of the year.
That may impact the price structure which may help palm prices to go up and the other competing oil to remain at a reasonable price spread. Which is probably probably good for AWL because we are, we are mainly soft oil consumer packways, strong software consumer pack. So I think eventually it will help us.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Devesh Advani from Indusin General Insurance. Please go ahead.
Saumin Sheth
Yeah, congratulations on good set of numbers. What I wanted to ask is how have we the traction in edible oil and foods in the month of April and how do you see it panning out in the month of and June going forward?
Akshay Krishnan
You are, you are talking from the consumption point of view.
Saumin Sheth
Yeah, from the consumption point of view.
Akshay Krishnan
See normally April 1st half of April is always slow because the new year or the wedding season starts from 15th of April. So the first half we always see little slow and then the demand picks up. This year the overall summer has set in quite strong and we have seen very high temperatures which has cut into the consumption overall. Small disruptions in the out of home consumption has been seen. Hotel workers or other workers going away either for the election or for the wheat harvest season has also disrupted the entire labor force in many of the places.
So this type of disruption we have seen. Again after the 15th of April onwards the season picks up and this will continue till June. This year the wedding season is good, so the consumption normally will be good. One harvest has been good so we expect the rural to do well. Because we eat mustard and channa has been good harvest. We only now have to see how the monsoon sets in. Overall overall consumption wise I think Q1 should be good. April is low, but May and June basic.
Saumin Sheth
Okay, so overall a growth of double digits in terms of edible oil and foods. Edible oil
Akshay Krishnan
Not possibly double digit but surely a single digit growth.
Saumin Sheth
Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. That was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Shrikant Kanhere
Thank you very much for attending this call and keep tracking us in case of any further queries. You can write down to our IR team and we will certainly respond. Thanks again.
Operator
Thank you on behalf of ICICI securities limited that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us today and you may now disconnect your lines.