CCL PRODUCTS (INDIA) LTD (NSE: CCL) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Aug. 06, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Praveen Jaipuriar — Chief Executive Officer, Continental Coffee Private Limited
Chaithanya Agasthyaraju — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Manish Mahawar — Analyst
Abneesh Roy — Analyst
Abhishek Navalgund — Analyst
Shirish Pardeshi — Analyst
Bhavya Sonawala — Analyst
Richa Agarwal — Analyst
Vignesh Iyer — Analyst
Vaishnavi Gurung — Analyst
Abhishek Mathur — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the CCL Products India Limited QN FY26 earnings conference call hosted by Antec Stockbroking Limited. 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. Continue. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manish Mahawal. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
Praveen Jaipuriar — Chief Executive Officer, Continental Coffee Private Limited
Thank you, Anushka. Good afternoon everyone. I am pleased to host today’s opening call of CTL products. We have leadership team represented by Mr. Chala Cheshant, Managing Director, Mr. Pavin Jay Poriar, CEO Mr. Chaitanya Agastya Raju, CFO and Ms. Sri Devi Dasari Kapnik, Secretary on the call. Without any delay, I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Jaipuriyar for opening remarks post which we will open the floor for Q and A. Thank you. Over to you.
Praveen Jaipuriar — Chief Executive Officer, Continental Coffee Private Limited
Thank you Manish. And thank you Team Mantique for arranging the call. Good afternoon everyone. I welcome you all to the first conference call of 2523.
Let me just give a brief overview of company’s performance for the first quarter. The group has achieved a turnover of Rupees 1,058 crores for the first quarter as compared to Rupees 774.6 crore crores for the corresponding quarter of the previous year achieving a growth of 37%. This incidentally is the first time we achieved a turnover of rupees 1000 crores in a quarter. The EBITDA stands at rupees 161.43 crores as against 131.62 crores which is a growth of 23%. While PBT is rupees 1, 31.60 crores growing at 8%. And the net profit stands at rupees 72.45 crores with a growth of 1%.
The PBT and past got impacted due to higher interest and depreciation component. The domestic market where we sell our branded products continues with its growth momentum. And we clogged approximately 150 crores in the first quarter itself. Out of this 150 crores, almost 100 crores was from brand and the retail business. So. And because of this aggressive growth there is a continuous market share gain across channels and across geographies. As far as the green coffee prices are concerned they have softened 20% or so or 20 to 30% in the last two, three months. However, still there is a lot of volatility in the market.
Every day we see a lot of ups and downs that is happening which is making the buyers, you know, still the buyers are very tentative. The period between the Brazil crop which is ending now, the harvesting of Brazil crop and the harvesting of. Starting of the harvesting of Vietnam crop which happens in December time. I think this is a period of, you know, wait and watch for all of us because if prices were to remain stable during this period then it augurs well in terms of the price softening and stabilizing post the Vietcong crop. So that’s a little brief from our side.
I open the house for questions now.
operator
Hello sir, can we start with the Q and A?
Praveen Jaipuriar — Chief Executive Officer, Continental Coffee Private Limited
Yeah, yeah, please. I said we can open the house for questions. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
All right, 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 and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We take the first question from the line of Akash from CC Products. Please proceed.
Unidentified Participant
Hello.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Hello.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, audible.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah, yeah, you’re audible.
Unidentified Participant
Yes. Good morning and you know very congratulations on good volume numbers. I just have a few questions regarding the volatility in margins because I know the the correct way to go. Your company’s ebitda. Ebitda. EBITDA number that you have previously mentioned. But the huge variations in quarterly margins. What do you think is a stable number to look at? Because I understand with coffee prices decreasing your EBITDA will be the same and therefore margins will increase if the coffee prices stay the same. But then what is the good way to see your margins? Because there is a huge volatility quarter on quarter.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah, absolutely Akash, you’re right. And this volatility is simply because our selling price is related. We operate on costless model. So our selling price is related to coffee prices. And if the coffee prices fluctuate EBITDA as a percentage to top line becomes very confusing. So the right way, and that is what we have guided that the right way is to look at your EBITDA growth numbers. So in most last two, three years we have always guided that our EBITDA will grow in line with our volumes. And we have given a guidance of 15 to 20% volume growth and EBITDA growth year on year.
And that is what we have been maintaining. So if you see our EBITDA growth at a consolidated level, which is at 23%, which is what one should look at, that is this growth momentum being continued or not? And that is how we internally also look at that. Are we maintaining this momentum or not? Because there are a lot of other factors apart from the coffee prices also that determine this percentage to EBITDA, percentage to top line things like what is your product mix, what kind of clients you are serving, what kind of tax sizes you are serving.
So these are all determined and there could be quarterly fluctuations in terms of what kind of product mix was there, what kind of client mix was there, what kind of pack size mix was there. So therefore, keeping all of this in mind, we have always guided that you should look at the growth figures when it comes to EBITDA. And our guidance has always been 15 to 20%. And that is what we have been maintaining for the last three, four years. And that’s our aim to kind of, at least for the next three to four years, that will be our aim to maintain that kind of a growth momentum.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, sir, just a follow up, sir. You know, with Brazil having 50% tariff, okay. And most probably the coffee prices will be. The coffee prices will be passed on the 50% tariff. Is there any chances of, you know, those coffees getting resulted to countries like Vietnam and India for processing and therefore we stand at advantage for that. Is it, is this a possibility?
Praveen Jaipuriar
So there is definitely a possibility because of 50% tariff, they would want to sell the coffee to other regions as well. The good thing about us is that both at India and Vietnam, we are placed in such a manner that we can buy coffee from across the world. So that gives us a lot of flexibility, which is not necessarily there with a lot of producers across the globe. So whether the Raviri coffee gets sold in Vietnam at a good price or Vietnam coffee comes down because of our flexibility, we are always in an advantages position.
So, you know, either way we are not speculating or wanting to kind of, you know, double guess the market that what will happen. We are taking as things come along because, you know, anyways, we are in a good advantages position.
Unidentified Participant
Great sir, thank you.
operator
Thank you. Before we proceed with the next question, ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants, please limit your questions to two per participant. The Next question is from the line of Avanish Roy from Nuama, please proceed.
Abneesh Roy
Yeah, thanks. My first question is on the India coffee costing based on the current tariff structure and these can change, we all know that. But if we assume that this is the current India tariff structure and this is the current Brazil tariff structure and then taking the international price of coffee, my sense is international coffee has corrected 30% from the peak. If you could confirm that and based on the two crops which we have, Robusta and Arabica, what will be your sense if we ignore the tariff related noise and based on the supply demand, what will be your expectation? You expect more coffee correction in India in terms of the India prices.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Swadnish, you’re right, there’s a lot of flux in the market and that is actually has kept all of us guessing. First and foremost is tariff, tariff also we all know while the statement come at a very broad level that there are 20% tariff or 25% tariff or let’s say 50% for Brazil, you know, the final prints have to be read because there are a lot of segments which they are also choosing to kind of let go. So that is keeping, you know, all of us, you know, guessing that what is going to happen. But leave alone that fact because at both India and at Vietnam levels the tariff structures as of now comparatively are at an advantageous position because Vietnam is at 20 and India 25.
So we don’t see any disadvantage on that front as of now. Now coming to your second part of the question that with 30% lowering of coffee prices, see anyway we work on a cost plus model. So any lowering of prices or any table lowering is while it is good news on the front that our holding costs become lower and therefore our requirement for working capital becomes lower, it does not affect our margin profile in terms of growth prospects. One has to see because we have discussed this many number of times that any growing price hikes and declining prices actually are not good news.
The good news is when the prices are stable, that’s when the clients get committed towards longer contracts, towards more volume. So that is the situation today. What has happened is that while the prices have corrected 30%, if you see every day there is almost $100 fluctuation up and down, up and down, that is happening. So everybody is in a little guess mode that people are trying to double guess what’s going to happen in terms of prices going forward. So people are a little non committal. At this point of time. And that’s the reason we said that this interim period between Brazil Crop ending and Vietnam crop starting will be a key period for all of us to watch because if the prices hold on to these levels for the next three, four months and then the Vietnam crop arrives, then I think it will be good news for all the buyers as well as manufacturers because price would have stabilized and that in turn kind of augurs well for all of us.
Abneesh Roy
I understood the cost plus model wanted one follow up here. In terms of the supply side, say the crop quantity etc. In Brazil, is it a good increase versus last year and versus the demand side, is it good? Vietnam crop, you said three, four months. So I think it will be a bit early to really guess there how the supply side is. If you could comment on this.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Actually, yes, we saw there was a good flow of Brazil crop this year and you know, that is actually that was a trigger point for the prices to start softening. And the good part was that the prices softened not only by 30% but for good now, two, three months, the trend has been on the softening side. So that’s a good indicator as of now. So yes, Brazil crop, we had a good flow this year. But more than that abneesh a lot of, you know, if you were to match the supply and the demand Trend for last 25, 30 years, you will see that the difference sometimes is not more than 4 to 5%.
But the speculation and the market spiral kind of make the coffee prices go up by 40, 50%. So actually what happens is that coffee, because of the fact that it’s a second most traded commodity after oil, there’s a lot of interest and therefore leads to a lot of speculation as well. So yeah, but you know, to answer your first question that has the supply been good? Yes, the supply from Brazil was good this year.
Abneesh Roy
So my second and last question is on the two line items, depreciation 45% YoY increase 24% quarter on quarter increase. Does the number stabilize at this 34 crore number and the lower coffee costing, you did say the working capital needs will reduce. So interest cost at 34 crores, that should hopefully reduce. If we assume this 30% lower costing will continue.
Praveen Jaipuriar
So both the answers are yes. First one is about that, you know these are peak levels of depreciation. Yes, because after first quarter of last year we commissioned both our India unit and Vietnam unit in the last quarter. So now the full depreciation is coming to the books and therefore these are the peak levels. And secondly, interest costs. Yes, again these are peak levels considering two, three things that one, because of the cash Flows we will be able to over a period of time start retiring the debt. Our working capital requirement if the coffee prices remain at the level that they are will also come down.
So all of these, so improved cash flow, working capital coming down would mean that the interest outflow will be lower. But yes, there is a lag effect that happens because we do hold two months off because of our order book, two months of inventories which will be at higher prices with that lag. I think from next quarter end onwards we can start seeing some relief on that front as well.
Abneesh Roy
And could you confirm gross debt, net debt and cash levels?
Praveen Jaipuriar
I just asked Chaitanya to kind of give you this.
Chaithanya Agasthyaraju
So the debt debt asset 30th June stands at 1,671 crores. It was 1,812 as a 31st match and 1974 of crores as on December 24th. So from 1974 crossed in December 21st we brought it down to 1012 and now it is 1671.
Abneesh Roy
This is gross rate.
Chaithanya Agasthyaraju
Yeah.
Abneesh Roy
That’S all from my side.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhishek Nawalgun from Centrum Broking. Please proceed.
Abhishek Navalgund
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Congrats on a good operating performance. So first question is on basically India and Vietnam SBC capacities which we have. Started like one, one and a half years back. So possible to broadly the utilization levels at both these capacities.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Abhishek, because of the fact that you know a lot of new capacities have come in a staggered manner, very difficult to break everything down. But largely, you know, let’s say if I were to kind of we have doubled the capacity. So one way to look at it is that our existing capacity which was there is running at full capacity level and the new capacity we have started utilizing around 10 to 15% of that capacity. So at an aggregate level you could say 60% of the utilization is there. So that is where we are on the capacity utilization.
Abhishek Navalgund
Sure. And you spoke about the B2C part also. Is it possible to also give some color on the per call outlook in uk Maybe from this year or next year’s perspective.
Praveen Jaipuriar
So Percol Abhishek has, you know we signed off at least two turned the downward spiral that was in this year we are looking to double the value from last year. So last year because we were kind of ending the takeover formalities we were doing around. Just to give you a brief idea on the top line, around 15, 16 crores, we are looking to double that. This year. So that’s what’s happening in uk. We are going for a lot of the challenge in UK is that you only get there are designated times for listing in UK stores.
So we have to wait for that full cycle to get over for new listings and all that. We are getting very aggressive on Amazon and the good part is we have started to build the brand by spending on social media and outdoor to make sure that we build the brand on a sustainable basis. So that the brief on the UK purple front UK India we just launched a couple of months back. You have seen a lot of activity especially in the print media and all. So we are again looking to build this brand as a premium offering in the Indian market.
Trying to capture the niche premium segment in the Indian market. So too early to give any numbers or any. But yeah, things are moving good. We are now selling on almost all the platforms. We are very particular about putting it in very, very niche, you know, modern retail outlets. So all that work is as we speak is going along. We’ll wait for a couple of quarters for us to kind of get a firm hold on the kind of feedback that is that we are getting from this launch in India.
Abhishek Navalgund
So again coming Back to the B2B sorry. So is it possible to share what percentage of our orders are the question I’m asking. The reason I’m asking this is basically just wanted to understand in a gradually declining pricing scenario is it possible to quantify any inventory loss during the quarter if anyone? There’s no such thing for the spot.
Praveen Jaipuriar
There’s not much of change Abhishek, because you know, while the prices are falling I mentioned that, you know in both rising and falling markets there is a sense of tentativeness. We look to see how stabilization happened but as I told earlier also that you know we have full visibility of the quarter, almost near to 50, 60% of the visibility for the subsequent quarters. So that stays see our long term clients stay that they stay with us. Only thing is that instead of giving me a 12 month contract they will give me a three month contract or a four month contract.
So that is how it is still panning out. There’s not much of a difference but we have a feeling that going forward and as we close into the Vietnam stock cycle we will start seeing a lot more long term contracts coming in.
Abhishek Navalgund
So my last question is on tax rate possible to share the.
operator
I would request you to join back. Yeah, thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Shirish Pardeshi some. Please proceed.
Shirish Pardeshi
Hi Praveen Sushant, good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity. This two quick question, Praveen. The prices has come down very severely. So just more curious, what is the high cost inventory we are holding at this point of time? In terms of number of days or in terms of sales?
Praveen Jaipuriar
So Sirish, whatever inventory, what we hold is what we have sold already. There is no inventory which is lose inventory with us. We don’t buy inventory at all. But generally yes, because our you know that three to four months off we have definitive contracts which are there. Those volumes are sold. So at any point of time we would hold two to three months of stocks with us. But all of this is sold stocks. So we are not holding any inventory. So prices going up and coming down doesn’t bother us. What bothers us that there shouldn’t be much of a fluctuation around in the market.
Shirish Pardeshi
So you mean to say that the price drop for the inventory immediately can be passed on because we have a costless model.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah, we have a costless model and we buy after we have sold. So price drop can be passed on to the customers. Today. We will do a contract at today’s flight.
Shirish Pardeshi
Okay. My second question is on the outlook. You mentioned that Brazil is already dropping and Vietnam is also looking good. But in that context, if I go back exactly 90 days before, the customers were having the order. But they are not giving you the visibility. But is there any behavioral change which has happened? Sentiment change have happened. People are now giving you maybe 90 days inventory visibility.
Praveen Jaipuriar
So as I was telling that our long term clients, they give us a visibility only thing is that we only advise them not to go for very long term contracts in terms of volatile market situations. So we know we have a visibility. But you know, there are two things. One is having a visibility. And that is the reason we have expanded our capacity. We have given aggressive guidance. Otherwise we wouldn’t have given this aggressive guidance if you didn’t have visibility. The only thing is that if you ask me that do I have a confirmed contract in my hands for next 12 months? Probably not.
That is when we say that okay, for the next three to six months. I know that the contracts are there in the hand. But in terms of visibility, yes, there is a behavioral shift. Now people are breathing a sigh of relief because you know, a lot of these price. There has been an insistent price increase for the consumers also in the market across the globe. And last two years there has always almost there is a price increase of 40% or so which is very steep in any consumer goods category. So what it does is that it probably puts a stress on the consumption pattern.
So now brand owners and suppliers and retailers, they are obviously breathing a sigh of relief because at least they will be able to kind of either reduce prices or hold on to the prices. And this will mean that there will be a consumption drive that would again come back to this category. So I think on that front it is there. Yes, it will translate to orders as we go along because obviously everybody wants to make sure that things are settled now going forward.
Shirish Pardeshi
That’s exactly my point, which I was trying to understand with this visibility. The volume, what we have reported this quarter, does that give the confidence that we will be able to maintain or surpass the volume in the second quarter?
Praveen Jaipuriar
Absolutely, it gives the confidence. And that’s the reason, you know, actually even when the prices were going at a pace, our confidence on volume growth was always intact. Because ultimately there are two things that in fact, not two things, there is only one thing that we are concerned about. The consumption should stay intact. As long as people are drinking coffee, we are in the business and because of the competitive edge that we bring to the market. And that’s the reason we. So even when the prices were at 5,000 levels, we were confident and we had given the guidance that we will grow at.
Yes, we had kind of broadened the guidance from a very stark 15 to 20% to 10% to 20%, but that was about it. We were always committed to that kind of a growth and that’s what we have delivered in the worst of times when the coffee prices were at such high levels.
Shirish Pardeshi
Wonderful. That’s really helpful, Praveen. And all the best to you.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Thank you. Thank you, Ghee.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Bhavya Sonawala from Samasa Capital. Please proceed.
Bhavya Sonawala
Thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah, you’re audible. Yeah.
Bhavya Sonawala
Just two questions. First question that we always kind of fight it.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Sorry, Bhavya, I think your voice got very feeble after the first line.
Bhavya Sonawala
No.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah.
Bhavya Sonawala
So just want to know volume growth that you know.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah. So it not exactly in line. Probably a little lower than the EBITDA growth, but yeah, almost the same pattern continues.
Bhavya Sonawala
Okay. And just wanted to also understand our investment going ahead in the branded business. That which we are already in coffee and plus now we have started snacks, which I understand is going to be a pilot. But in the next two, in terms of advertising and any other investments, can you just throw some light how that is going to pan out?
Praveen Jaipuriar
So I think what Investments we are doing is largely to build the brand. We are not doing any investment in terms of Capex as far as B2C is concerned. Even if we are getting into new category like snacks, we are going for third party manufacturing. So all the investment is on the brand. And what we have now since the brand business itself is profitable. So what we are doing is instead of milking the brand, we are trying to kind of plow in the profits going forward. And that’s the reason we have been experiencing such aggressive growth and we are looking to maintain this momentum by maintaining these spends that we have been doing.
And in fact as the brand is growing, we are in fact increasing these spends as well. So that is something that we will continue to do because not only we have coffee itself, we are very small right now. There is a large scope of to grow but also now we are kind of spending to build on some of the other categories right now at very test market levels. But I’m sure soon we’ll, we’ll start investing there also in terms of brand building. Nothing on the Capex side.
Bhavya Sonawala
Just a last question. By the year end, do you see the branded business around 4,500crores? Is that something that is on the people?
Praveen Jaipuriar
So I think you have given as broad guidance that we have been giving 400 to 500. Definitely first quarter itself we have done 400, so definitely we are going to touch 400 now how far we go beyond 400 is the question that we all have. We are putting, you know, all the measures and all that, all our might to make sure that we go as far as possible.
Bhavya Sonawala
Thank you so much. That’s all from my side.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Thank you. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Reacha from Equity Master. Please proceed.
Richa Agarwal
Thank you for the opportunity sir. I just want more insights on with this, different tariffs that are being imposed. Yeah, could you please. Oh, okay. I’ll just try again. I, I just wanted to understand that with this tariff what is the sourcing pattern in the US how much of you know, what is the Brazil share versus India share? And are you witnessing increased inquiries from the US customers with this tariff talk?
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yes, actually there has been increased inquiries but you know, with this tariff also there is a lot of layers into this tariff and every day everybody is discovering newer things. So while Brazil had, you know, Brazil has had 50% of tariffs, we still are trying to figure out that, you know, what is the. Because when Trump announces tariffs he just gives a statement, broad statement, that 50%, 25%, 20%. But in between the lines there are categories which are getting exempted. For example, you know, us said that all the agri products which they don’t grow will be zero tariffs.
So there are news like these also. So we’ll have to see. You know, we have to let the dust settle down. Yes, there has been an increased inquiry, but has it quickly translated into sale? As of now, I can’t say for sure. But yeah, we are dealing with those inquiries as far as possible because, you know, while Brazil has got 50%, Mexico has got a leeway for another 90 days. So there are these kind of, you know, lots of, you know, let’s say, what should I say, fluidity in terms of the tariff thing. The whole world is under confusion and it will take a little bit of a time for us to understand where things are going.
But yes, we are getting more inquiries and we are addressing them as far as.
Richa Agarwal
Okay. And so my second question is on the tax rate. I see some sharp variations. So if you could just guide us, you know, where the tax rate could land over the next.
Praveen Jaipuriar
I don’t think so. There is a variation. We are at full tax rate in India. So whatever the profit that flowed in the standalone, that profit, whatever tax was applicable that is there, otherwise it remains pretty much similar. If you were to see. And this tax is under MAD credit. So a portion of it, you know, kind of just gets into the book. But otherwise in terms of cash flow, it improved the cash flow. So it is actually, you know, good in terms of cash flow. Yes, on the book, in the PNL it does show as that.
Richa Agarwal
Okay, okay. And I just wanted to understand, if I may ask one more question, what would be the margin difference between FDC and sdc.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Which are the margin difference on a base to base thumb rule level could be anywhere between 30 to 40% between an SDC and SDC. But really depends on, you know, what kind of, sometimes even sdc, very high quality SDC is also equally, you know, margin. You get high, high margins there also. So it depends on blend, the type of bag, the type of customer, lots of layers into it. But yeah, as a rule, what would say that SDC would be 30% more.
Richa Agarwal
Okay, thank you. I’ll come back in the queue.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah, thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deepak from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please proceed.
Unidentified Participant
Thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible, sir?
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah.
Unidentified Participant
Sir, could you please highlight what was our yoy volume growth for Q1/? So it was almost double digit. Yes, and that’s little lower than the EBITDA growth because we got better margins this time as well, like it happened in the last quarter as well. So that is how we should look at it. So a double digit volume growth leading to around 23% EBITDA growth.
Unidentified Participant
Okay.
Praveen Jaipuriar
So double digit meaning let’s say between 11 to 12 or 12 to 14 means it was very difficult for me. You know, I’ll tell you what, this is something that we don’t, you know, we give a little broader guidance on this because this is also sensitive information which kind of leads to, you know, a lot of coaching and a short of understanding about us by the competitors. So we stay a little, you know, broad on this in terms of our explanation. But you could, as I told you, volume growth and EBITDA growth generally go in line.
But for last quarter, also in this quarter we have seen much higher EBITDA growth than the volume. So if the EBITDA growth is at 23, we are saying that we have got double digit volume growth here. So double digit means somewhere lying in between. I don’t want to push it towards, you know, the higher remarks. So you could kind of, you know, take the mean median mode of 10 to 20. Okay. And so in this domestic business which we clogged around 150 crore, are we EBITDA positive in that business or we are still to break even at EBITDA level as well? No, to last year itself we broke even last year we were positive and this year also we will be in fact more positive.
But yeah, we are not kind of, you know, keeping. We are plowing back as much as possible whatever the brand requirement is, whatever it requires to build the brand, whatever it requires to be aggressive as we have been. Because there’s a lot of aggression in terms of, you know, the branded business. We are going very handsomely. So we are plowing back a lot of money. But it is, yes, even after plowing back, we are year by year increasing our EBITDA margins on the branded. Okay, is it in the higher single digit or is it, let’s say below 5%? No, no, no.
So it’s this year, last year was around 4 to 5% before that I told you with Rokam. And this year will be again between five to 10. But the good thing is that whatever now since last year, what we the interesting thing is that the additional volume that is coming is coming at a very because all the breakevens, the negatives are already built in the base. So which means that if you are adding, let’s say 100 crores to the branded business. That 100 crores is coming at a much higher EBITDA margin, in fact, almost as much as equal to the company EBITDA margin.
So now the incremental business is now no more margin diluting. It is kind of adding to the. Okay, so even that should be helping our this 22%. Absolutely, absolutely. All of it. So there are a lot of things that has helped us and that being one of them. Okay, and so last question means in the past on call we have highlighted that you wanted to expand in some US market for premium coffee and then again Southeast Asia market. So can you just elaborate what is a broad strategy around. It means has something changed in the last six months given the volatility of coffee prices or our strategy remains the same, more or less and we are focused on premium at the western world and let’s say more economic coffee at the Southeast Asian countries.
So yeah, more or less, our strategy remains same. It’s very simple. There are two sets of consumers we are wanting to target. One is the Indian diaspora. Because now our brand has become very brand awareness in India has become pretty high, which means that the Indian diaspora is now, you know, they know our brand. So with the current itself, our own brand, Continental, we are wanting to serve the Indian diaspora. So wherever we would be wanting to launch our brands there and for the Western diaspora or the local diaspora, we are using brands like Perkal and Rocket Fuel which we acquired last to last year to serve the premium of the more coffee or a blend which is more attuned towards the local diaspora.
So that is our strategy, we are working on that and as and when because even in UK now that the brand is gaining momentum, there is a brand work happening, brand building happening. So a lot of European markets we will look to kind of seed the brand because once it is known in UK awareness is there, then other countries also they start showing signs of demand. So that is the strategy for Western Diaspora, for fallen rocket fuel and for Indian Diaspora, our current brand. So that strategy remains the same. And the Southeast Asian market is actually not a low coffee market, low cost coffee market.
It is actually more of a Premix market. So that is a strategy we will, we are looking to kind of, you know, enter the market. That product strategy of how can we enter through Premix. So all that work is happening at the back end and as and when we are ready for launch or some news is there, we’ll share it with you.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you for answering the questions. All the Best.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Anand S from Avindus Park. Please proceed.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Sidh. This is Sundar from Avindus. So a couple of questions. If you were to look about a couple of years ago we had this phenomena when Robusta prices split decline. We had a huge variation between Arabica and our volumes had a significant uptrend. Now is that something that we can expect with onward? Keeping in mind that there has been higher production numbers factored in especially for Vietnam. Global star going over a million to medium term and volumes resuming back about a 20% number.
Praveen Jaipuriar
So basically, you know, what happens is that for a short period of time, even two years ago when the Robusta did not kind of come down and come very close to Arabica, these are short term phenomena because over you’re trying the table corrects itself because Arabica is used a lot for fresh coffee and a lot of fresh coffee is being used in the most developed economies.
So what happens is that the price, you know, kind of if Arabica and they come close to each other or go very far from each other over a period of time, the table corrects and they have that kind of a difference, which is a 30% difference that autocorrection comes to that level. So that is there currently also that difference continues to be there. And while you know, Vietnam is a lot more about Robusta so when the Vietnam crops come, that’s the correction time for Robusta. Now Brazil is also growing Robusta so they also have a good flow of both Arabica and Robusta.
So we don’t see much of a, you know, closure, closing of the gaps or you know, all the gaps widening beyond the justifiable limit. So they are in, the gaps are there. The rightful gaps are there in the market list of all of in terms of Robusta prices, this Robusta price is already down about 30% in the last month and anticipated to further go down with great number. Robusta productions expected to be as voted for talent in FY22. What kind of debt levels can get reduced from our books on price corrections so you know, the debt levels will reduce on two, three fronts.
One is of course the cash flow. Now we are done with our capex. There is no new capex there. See all the cash flow that we will generate will be used to retire the debt. That is one second is that 30%. If the 30%, you know, price reduction stays on track. So the working capital requirement over a period of time will come down by 30% like to like when we speak about it. So that should be there. So we will see this happening, you know, towards the end of next quarter and that is again with a quote that the prices stay where they are.
So we’ll start seeing these kind of deductions and hopefully by the end of the year I cannot just pinpoint a percentage, but there will be a reasonable drop in our debt level.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. All the best. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Vignesh Iyer from Sequent Investments. Please proceed.
Vignesh Iyer
Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is due to the. You know, China imposed on Brazil of 50%. I mean there’s a lot of reports. Coming up saying that additional teams might make, might make way towards China and eu. So considering I remember from our earlier calls that we have said that we. Target China and Middle east as a market where we see potential growth. So how does this, you know, new.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Set of competition that we foresee due to this tariff situation. So you know, momentary speaking, yes, these news are there. But you know, Brazil green coffee coming to China and other places. See we also have our setup at Vietnam. So in fact last time, if you remember, we had also told that last year because the Brazil coffee prices went below Vietnam prices, we also bought a lot of Brazil coffee. So when these news comes, these are largely about green coffee itself in terms of instant coffee. I don’t see Brazil having an advantage over us if they want to sell in China.
Right. Because from Vietnam also there is no duty to China and our logistics will be much faster there than the Brazilian products. So I don’t see Brazil having any advantage in Asia because they want to supply more to Asia because of the US tariffs. And if this tariff was to continue for Brazil, I think it will give us an advantage in US So it’s a good news for us because we will not lose any advantage in the non strong Brazil market. But we will get an advantage if it is a weak strong market like us.
So let us see. But as I told you in one of my answers to the previous question that we need to see how the dust settles because while these are again we are quoting broad numbers of tariff, 50%, 25%, 20%. We also know even if India is at 25%, some of the iPhone components and iPhones and pharmaceuticals, they have either been kind of, you know, given leeway for that or they are thinking to reduce tariffs to zero percent on those product categories. So let’s see how things settle down maybe for coffee because they don’t Brew coffee.
They may also want to kind of give leeway on coffee imports as well. So we will wait and watch on this front. But as of now things are pretty fluid and double guessing is, you know, is not going to help anyone. Second question on our interest part of, you know, this quarter, the, the last two quarters now we’ve seen around 34 crores of outflow. When it comes to interest with prices coming down, you know, can we more or less say that this could be the peak interest cost and some form or type of short term debt, you know, will be reduced due to lower working capital requirement? Yeah, yeah, 100%.
These are peak levels. Don’t go beyond this going forward. This will only come down. But as I was telling you because of the lag effect, it may take a little time but definitely the interest cost will be on a downward trend. Okay. So.
Chaithanya Agasthyaraju
In addition to what I said, we have a debt reduction plan in place now. So the process will come down over a period of time. But as pointed out by Praveen, there will be a lag in terms of reflection interest cost. Interest cost will obviously come down multiple lag.
Vignesh Iyer
Right. Got it. Got it. Yeah. That’s also my side. And all the rest of the year ahead. Thank you. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gopinadha Reddy from pnr. Please proceed.
Unidentified Participant
Yes, thank you. Sir, coming to continental brand that we are selling in India as retail when it comes to instant coffee small cortex. Last time, last conference we said that to maintain the prices. Your voice is breaking. Could you please fix that?
Praveen Jaipuriar
Okay, I’ll repeat it. When it comes to continental brands in India in retail, sir, when it comes to small buckets due to the coffee price increase we said that we are changing the mixing of roast, mixing of kikori and roasting and. And that has changed the taste obviously. Is it not going to impact our brand image? When it comes to a particular brand, a customer expects that particular brand to have particular taste, right? How are we looking into it? So there are two things that we do internally. We make sure that the taste doesn’t change, right? So we do very strong consumer test and only when we release any blend or any blend change.
So this is done with utmost so that the final taste doesn’t change. So that is something that we take care because with the brand we don’t want to. As you rightly said, the taste change should not be there. So we don’t take any blend change without doing any consumer test. So very strong consumer test happens very Detailed consumer test. Only then when we get a final pick on that, only then we proceed. Okay, sir, I got the feedback from customers so I just said whatever. I got to know that I’ll be happy to kind of, you know, if you could share the feedback with, you know, on our website or on the mail, I’ll be happy to engage and then you know, kind of take it up with our R D.
But that is something that we make sure that we don’t kind of, you know, tamper with the taste at all. Sure. But would be happy to kind of, you know, take this feedback. Yeah, sure. Thanks. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vaishnavi Gurung from Craving Alpha Wealth Fund. Please proceed.
Vaishnavi Gurung
Thank you for taking my question. Sir, I just had two quick questions. The one was on the revenue that if we can provide by geography for the company and second one was with plans to reduce debt, what debt level we can expect in next for one year.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Okay, so first thing let’s say if I were to give you a sense of a feel of the geographical split out of our exports business, around 10% or so comes from the American market. Around 35 to 40% comes from European markets including Russia and the CIS countries. And the balance 35:40 comes from Asian markets with very little business in let’s say Australian market. So that’s the split in terms of our export market. Add to this again, our brand only right now is selling in Indian market. Yes, a little bit of export is now started to sell in the UK market.
So that’s, that’s broadly the split between the markets and the debt levels. I think Mr. Samya, you could give a color by year end it should be so. As indicated in one of the previous sessions we were at 2,000 crores. As of December 24th we brought it down to 1,800. That’s a reduction of close to 150 plus crores in a quarter. Then again in this quarter from March to June, we brought it down by additional 170 odd crores. So our target is to take it to 100500 crores probably by September and additional 150 crores by end of December.
Vaishnavi Gurung
Sir, can you please read the number?
Praveen Jaipuriar
So that would be around 1350 crores as of December 25th.
Vaishnavi Gurung
Okay, thank you. Sir, just one more question on the UK India fta. Do we anticipate any benefit or are we seeing any increase in queries?
Praveen Jaipuriar
Sorry, sorry, what did you say?
Vaishnavi Gurung
Sir, my question is regarding the UK India FTA. Since you mentioned that 30 to 40% comes from UK so not UK.
Praveen Jaipuriar
I said Europe. Europe. Sorry, I said you’re off.
operator
That’s it from my side. Thank you. Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Abhishek Mathur from Systematics. Please proceed.
Abhishek Mathur
Hi Praveen. Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to check our volume growth guidance. Is it maintained at a 10 to 20% that you had mentioned sometime back Also what was the EBITDA per kg for the quarter? If you can sort of guide on that. And what is our guidance for this metric going forward? And finally on the inventory that we keep a few months of inventory, is there some mark to market revaluation that we do which hits the ebitda? Those are my questions.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Okay, so yeah, the volume projection remains the same 10 to 20%. But EBITDA guidance is like between 15 to 20% for the. So that also remains the same. The EBITDA per kilo is approximately, if I’m not wrong, around between 125 to 135 somewhere in that range. And no, there won’t be any hit on the EBITDA because of the inventory that we carry. Because once we have sold the coffee that rate remains. So there is no change in the rate when the green coffee prices either go up or go down. So that won’t change our ebitda.
You know, it won’t hit our EBITDA at all.
Abhishek Mathur
Great, thanks. Just wanted to clarify one more thing. Do we also do some bulk sales at a lower ebitda? Is that part of our volume also?
Praveen Jaipuriar
Yeah, so we do lots of types of sales. Right. From low EBITDA sales to high EBITDA per kilo sales. So that is part of our strategy. It’s not that we don’t kind of thing. But yeah, below there are certain things which we don’t like to do. We don’t like to do pillar coffee or an adulterated coffee and things like that. So that quality we maintain so beyond the point. We also don’t kind of do the race to the bottom kind of strategy. But yes, there are low margin contracts also which we do.
Abhishek Mathur
Great sir, thanks for the clarification. That’s all from me. All the best. Thanks.
operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Manish Mahawar from Antique Stock Broking limited. Please proceed with your question.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, most of the question will be answered few data point. I wanted to understand during 1Q. What are the growth SDC and FTC possible to share?
Praveen Jaipuriar
Manish will kind of give a color separately but we don’t kind of share the you know product wise and market wise or customer wise growth and all that. Okay, but FBC will be better than. It’s higher than sbc. That is right. To understand this quarter. Yeah. Directionally it will be higher than ftc. Understood. And just in terms of. Just wanted to reconfirm the date number. What the said right number was 1671 for the.
This is a gross date of net debt. 1671 for the quarter. Net debt. Okay. And you said by, by December 25th it is 1350 right. It. It. It will be 15 0. So the plan is to bring down the debt by around 164.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay, understood. And by by March 25th what was the number you looking out? An additional 150 port should be around,200. March 24th. March 26th. March 26th. March the 26th would be,200.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Okay, understood. And capacity you checking you said at the opening right around 50% utilization at a blended basis for all the capacity. Right. Can you break it up in terms of India and Vietnam utilization level? So at a you know, broad level both the places and we are taking it as a, you know as a. As a group only it’s at around 60% managed because the last capacity or let’s say the existing capacity is now fully utilized. 10 to 15% is the new capacity utilization. And both these places the figures are similar. Okay. 60% at a company level.
Company level. Right. Yeah. Okay. And definitely VSM will be bit lower because the new capacity came into 4Q only. Very, very so. So that buildup is happening. So I think yeah, there is a little catch up here. But even in India there is a catch up to happen with the full 16,000 tons of FDC that is there. So, so it’s like you know, quarterly basis there could be a little up and down but at the year end we are looking at a similar kind of utilization at both the place.
Unidentified Participant
Understood.
Praveen Jaipuriar
And Last1 in B2C what is the number you said in the call Branded business revenue? Basically almost 104. We did this quarter. 150 crores was the domestic number out of which 100 was B2C.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. Sure. Thank you. That’s from myself.
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Due to time constraints we take that as the last question and would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Praveen Jaipuriar
Thank you very much. Thank you Antique and team for organizing the call. We will look forward to interacting with you in the next quarter. All the best to everyone.
operator
Thank you. On behalf of anti Stock Broking Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.