Dodla Dairy Ltd (NSE: DODLA) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 20, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Dodla Sunil Reddy — Managing Director
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy — Chief Executive Officer
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Ashish Pareek — Analyst
Aniruddha Joshi — Analyst
Resha Mehta — Analyst
Resham Jain — Analyst
Nihal Shah — Analyst
Abhishek Mathur — Analyst
Disha Giria — Analyst
Nikhil Upadhyay — Analyst
Bhavesh Jal — Analyst
Sameer Gupta — Analyst
Aditya Khandelwal — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Joined to the conference. The conference is now being recorded. Ladies and gentlemen, you have joined the Dodla Dairy Limited Limited conference call, Please stay connected, the call will begin shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, you have joined the Dodla Dairy Limited conference call. Please stay connected, the call will begin shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Dodla Dairy Limited Q4 and FY25 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone.
This conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Dodla Sunil Reddy, Managing Director. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Dodla Sunil Reddy — Managing Director
Thank you very much. Good morning. On behalf of Dodla Daily Limited I extend a warm welcome to everyone joining us on our call today. I hope everyone had the opportunity to go through the financial results and investor presentation which we have uploaded on the Stock Exchange and on our company’s website. We are proud to announce that Dudla Dairy has completed 30 years of its journey since inception in 1995. Over the past decades we have grown the business multifold and evolved ourselves into an integrated dairy company offering a diverse range of high quality products under a trusted and well recognized brand doubler.
In the last four years alone, we have nearly doubled our revenue by achieving a CAGR of 18% and have experienced an even faster growth rate in profitability. Additionally, we were able to maintain a very healthy ROC profile and improve working capital efficiencies reflecting our focus on sustainable and value accretive growth. I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude to our entire team. A strong leadership team including the dedicated general managers heading each business vertical and reporting directly to the CEO of the company. They have collectively played a crucial role in this growth journey.
Coming up to the current scenario, this year has been a remarkable year for us as we were able to capture multiple achievements in FY25. We evolved from a net buyer to a net seller of S and P and butter. This strategic move was backed by enhanced procurement strength and resulting in better efficiency and control over the margin profile. We were able to maintain stability in our margins during each quarter in FY25 significantly minimizing the seasonal effects that used to impact our margins. On top of a stable healthy margin profile, we were also able to deliver a healthy year on year growth in every quarter for the full year.
FY25 revenue grew by 19% year on year and stood at 3,720 crores. And we closed the year with a pack of 260 crores. We have started work towards expansion in Maharashtra. It is a greenfield project with a total outlay of 280 crores. On the stand alone project itself. Investment through a common and the investment in this is through a combination of debt and internal accruals. The plant is expected to be ready by the end of financial year 27. Thereby increasing our processing capacity by 10 lakh liters per day. In addition to that, we were able to add more land near the same location.
Resulting in a total of 61 acres of land for the dairy business and another 12 acres for the Orga feed business. Now coming to the quarterly performance, I’m happy to announce that Durla Dairy has delivered a double digit year on year growth for the fourth consecutive quarter in Q4.25. Our revenues grew by 15.5% year on year reaching 910 crores in Q4. Due to summer. It marks the beginning of the lean season for milk procurement. First milk procurement perspective and higher WAP off gate. The procurement prices have been rising and in response to that we’ve also taken a price hike during the quarter which is in line with the industry trends.
We have also started witnessing an increase in VAP demand towards the end of the quarter. A value added product sale for the quarter contributed 32% of our total revenues. And we expect this demand to continue in Q1 FY26. And to increase our lab share, we constantly dabble between build versus buy thought process and hence the acquisitions is an ongoing focus area for us. With a fast track record of successful acquisitions, we are well placed to expand our geographical presence. Generally, milk business growth is related to the GDP growth of the country. But we at Durla believe in outperforming the industry and delivering superior growth to strategic initiatives.
The greenfield expansion Maharashtra is said to be a major drive. Additionally, we are focused on expanding our product reach along with some additions in product portfolio in India as well as African territories. Based on these strong fundamentals, we strive towards continuing our growth momentum. With this brief, I will now hand over to the CEO of our company, Mr. B.V.K. reddy. Thank you very much.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy — Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Sunil sir. Overall, we have seen healthy performance in Q4 25 our Indian operations we witnessed a growth of 11% driven by combination of volume as weather value growth during the quarter we took price hike of rupees 1.19 per liter of milk on consolidated level which is in line with overall rise in procurement cost during the quarter. The price increase is in a seasonal pattern incorporated in the nature of its business and also in line with the overall industry trend. I would like to assure you that there is no major impact in terms of margin and no concerns from the competitive point of view.
Speaking about value added products, we have started witnessing a surge in overall demand particularly in products like curd, ice cream, flavoured milk, paneer etc. Our curd sales was 194 crores, ice cream 11 crores, floured milk was 12 crores and paneer 7 crores. Speaking of international business, we have delivered outstanding results in Kenya and Uganda with a revenue growth of 71% year on year basis crossing the mark of 100 crores for the first time since we entered this geography. We also see some improvement in terms of margin compared to previous quarters. Agafeed business also exceptional performance with year on year growth of 48% along with an improvement in the scale of the business, we also see a decent margin expansion.
Currently we cater around 30% of our farmers which with the capacity utilization still below 50%. Agafeed is not only providing a strategic edge while maintaining a relationship with the farmers, but it is also strongly positioned to deliver a faster growth in the coming years. Our overall profitability remained in line with the previous quarters. In FY25 our margins were pretty much stable as Mr. Sunliddy said rightly mentioned that we were we were able to minimize the fluctuations resulting from seasonality trend in the business. We were able to achieve this stability by improving our procurement strength and eventually becoming the net sellers.
We continue to implement this strategic and sell SMP and butter as a commodity whenever required. During the quarter we were able to procure 16.3 lakh liters milk per day. On an average this is around 16.000 liters per day, the same period as the last year. The Average procurement cost Q4 was around 37.36 per liter which was around 35.81 per liter. The same period of the last year. The average Procurement cost in Q3FY25 was 35.6 per liter. Average milk sales for the quarter was 11.7 lakh liters per day, an increase of 8.2% on year on year basis curd sales stood 383 metric tons with year on year basis 6.5% growth.
And lastly the WAP sales were 284 crores with a growth of 28.2% on year on year basis. Overall our focus remain intact and enhancing our procurement strength, widening our product portfolio and expanding our distribution reach in new as well as existing markets. We aim to maintain healthy profitability by keeping our VAP sales contribution above the certain level while continuously growing our other business. With this Now I request Mr. Modali to share the financial highlights of this quarter and as well as year. Thank you Modi.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Mr. BVK Reddy and a very good afternoon to all the participants on the call. I’m happy to share with you that the board has approved dividend distribution of 2 rupees per share that is 20% of the face value. Talking about quarterly performance in Q4FY25, the revenue from operations came in at 900 crores versus 787 crores in Q4FY24. In the quarter our gross margin stood at 27.2% which is broadly in line with our full year GP levels. Employee expenses and other expenses remained in line with the previous quarter. We reported an EBITDA of 83.5 crores as against 75.4 crores.
During Q4FY24, EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 9.2%. Our depreciation expense stood at 18.2 crores. Our finance cost for the quarter remained stable at 1 crore. In Q4FY25. Other incomes to date 25.8 crores. This includes the provision reversal amount of 9.5 crores on the back of securing a favorable Telangana GST Commissioner Appeal and also AP High Court order with respect to flavored milk classification balance amount primarily consists of return on investments made by the company. Our tax expense was 22.3 crores with an effective tax rate of 25%. The net profit stood at 68 crores with a margin of 7.5%.
Now I am. For the full year performance revenue grew by 19% and stood at 3720 crores as against 3125 crores last year. EBITDA margins saw an improvement of 100 basis points and stood at 381 crores. Net profit was at 260 crores as against 167 crores of last year. A growth of 5.59% year on year mainly as a result of higher other income and other efficiency. We see healthy cash flow from our operations which stood at 520 crores. Speaking of cash, our total cash and cash equivalence position as on 31st March 2025 stands at 746 crores.
This includes cash and bank plus our current as well as noncurrent investments as all of those are liquid in nature. With this we conclude the presentation and open the floor for further discussions. 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 and one on the Touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. 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 Ashish Parikh from MK Investment Managers Ltd. Please go ahead.
Ashish Pareek
Hello. Yeah, thank you sir. So two questions. Firstly, the capacity utilization you mentioned was below 50. So can you please tell me in next two years how much of utilization will be reached? And this is before excluding Maharashtra Green Greenfield new project. And secondly Africa business utilization also.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
So basically the 50% capacity utilization was on the Orga feed plant. Because we have just built out a new plant which had no compared to our earlier plant which was around 2,000 tonnes per month. We had built out a plant of 10,000 tons per month. This was keeping in view of this growth that we project to have. And that is the reason why although it is not just almost little more than a year of operation. We have already reached the 50% mark of capacity utilization. So we are assuming that by the time a Maharashtra plant comes into play we will be able to utilize the older plant.
And then we will need a new plant to get a capacity utilization. So that was regarding the capacity utilization of Orga feed. Regarding Dhodla dairy utilization. We are doing a reasonable job. I think we will be around 70 to 75%. And that is also mostly because we have a couple of plants which are meant to be for the seasonal fluctuations. Which is when we have powder which there is excess milk in the system and we have to convert, we will have the excess. So that is the reason why we have that. I think we will maintain these healthy capacity utilizations on the milk front also.
I hope I answered your question, Ashish.
Ashish Pareek
Yeah. Thank you. And second, what was the bulk sale in this quarter and yearly number also console visit.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Basically the bulk is predominantly only what we look at S and P that we look at our sale of S and P because that Is a balancing that we do. I think S and P number will be.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
We have done around 110 crores fail
Dodla Sunil Reddy
in the Q4.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
No,
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Q4 was around 29. 29 crores.
Ashish Pareek
Okay, thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aniruddha Joshi from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Aniruddha Joshi
Yeah, so thanks for the opportunity and congrats for a good set of numbers considering the inflationary pressures. So just the question on milk prices. How do you see the milk prices panning out in next let’s say one year. Because we have seen monsoon hitting early the South India peninsula. So with the reduction in temperature level is there any increase in milk production leading to better procurement prices also question number one. And then secondly, what is the prices currently for SMP and what would be the indicative inventory that we would be carrying as of now? Yeah, thanks
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Juicy.
No, see first question. You know what you have said. You know early monsoon started in South India. I know a couple of years already we have experienced it especially in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, even to certain extent in Maharashtra also. Prices already softening and we, we have already taken one round of price reduction and maybe we are expecting, you know it will go for one more round also very soon. And regarding inventory, we are currently, I think at end of March we were holding around 160 crores of inventory overall. I think out of which only 100 crores would be finished goods. The rest would be regular inventory and it’s a consolidated inventory of all locations put together.
Aniruddha Joshi
Okay. Okay.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
And S and P price. I think BBK will answer on the S and P price.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Yeah, S and P. You know this fourth quarter we’ve sold roughly about. And butter, we have sold, you know, bulk butter around 430. 435. So now SMP is around 255. 260 range.
Aniruddha Joshi
Okay. Okay. No, sure sir. Understood. So with softening of milk procurement prices plus the price hike that we are taking. So should you see that
Dodla Sunil Reddy
even milk selling price also in the third quarter selling price also we have taken up in across all the locations. So overall you know, see that is 1 rupee 25 roughly about you know price hike we have taken in the third quarter and the third quarter now slightly procurement price was high. But fourth quarter now only April after May. May. You know from 10th onwards, you know prices have started already, you know, declining. So one round of you know, procurement price we already taken up.
Aniruddha Joshi
Okay. Okay. No, no. Sure sir, understood. This is very helpful. Thank you.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Thank you. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The Next question is from the line of Resha Mehta from Green Edge Wealth Advisors. Please go ahead.
Resha Mehta
Yeah, thank you. You know, one, I wanted a clarification that what would be our total fat product sales for the full year? FY25. Fat meaning SMP and ghee.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Butter S and P and ghee. Basically we classify fat as both butter and ghee. I think Murali will give the specific numbers of butter.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Butter for the total year we have sold around 2, not 2 crores. And SMP we have sold on 110 crores. That’s what we have told totaling to 312 crores of G2G business. Second is ghee. Consumer ghee we have sold.
Resha Mehta
Sorry, sorry. So butter and SMPs. 312, right.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Put together 312.
Resha Mehta
Okay.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
And ghee, we have sold around 80 crores for the full year.
Resha Mehta
Okay. So that is roughly around 400 crores of fat products. And what was the same number for FY24?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Okay, FY24. Actually we don’t have any butter and assembly sales. We have only g sales
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
in FY24. No, they. We have not sold any SNP. And also butter also we are not sold much actually. But ghee sales, was there ghee sales, you know, so only 2500 tons to 2500 tons per day. And that is roughly up to 42 crores. 42 to 50. 50 crores that has been sold in 24.
Resha Mehta
Okay, sir, so that means, you know this jump in fat products, right, from 50 to roughly 400 crores, right?
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
That is including SMP.
Resha Mehta
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
So earlier, you know, we used to. Be a net net bias smp. So.
Resha Mehta
Yeah, right, right, right, right. We had a change in inventory policy. So basically see while, you know, the headline numbers, you know, look great in terms of revenue growth. But if I were to just kind of look at your revenue growth after excluding these fat products, your feed business and your Africa operations, if I look at the core India dairy operations, I think your revenue growth is somewhere in low to mid single digits. Right. So would you say that you would be particularly concerned about this because you know, the peers have kind of grown at a much faster rate and has it like, you know, has this been below your expectations also? And if yes, then you know, what were the reasons for, you know, low revenue growth in the core India dairy operations? When are we exclude all of this?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
So reshumba what we say, when you say core India dairy operations, we are also looking at it from a point of view of procurement to liquid milk sales. Curd sales and product sales. When we look at fat, fat is adding to a part of the product sale that we have. I think we have grown on an average of the higher single digit numbers of 6, 7% in volume even in the liquid milk and liquid curd sales that we have done. And we continue to be with that, that we will maintain that growth rates of Note volume of 10% and value addition growth that we normally do.
I think a small aberration here or there of 1% or 2% will be more than compensated in the years that come forward. So we are not very much concerned about that. But we are very much more worried and focused about our profitability margins. We will not produce, just push volume for the sake of volume. We will try to balance both. And in the balance now we are coming to the net seller of commodity rather than becoming a buyer. And that’s why you will see that the fluctuations are also we are trying to keep our most stable operations.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Resham Jain from DSP Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Resham Jain
Yeah. Hi. Good morning. Congratulations sir for consistent performance. So first is on the overall procurement growth. This year we have seen procurement growing at close to single digit, mid single digit. So what is the expectation given that. Maharashtra plant will come only in end. Of 27 for the next two years. Organically what is the kind of procurement volume growth which we can do?
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Yeah, see this year you know we have done the average procurement is roughly about 17.1 lakhs in 2425. And even in 24, 2324 also more or less, you know, the same thing. But you know, see 2324 now we were having a third party, slightly third party procurement. That third party procurement in 2425 totally closed. That’s why you don’t see much jump in 2425 in procurement growth. But actually own procurement growth is there already in 2425 also and 2526 we are already targeting, you know, 18 lakhs average. So that only in India and including, you know, Africa it is 20 lakhs.
So say 17 to almost. Now we are forecasting 17.1 to 20 lakhs unconverted basis.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
So Reshamma also coming to a point of Maharashtra coming in 27. Even before Maharashtra what BVK was saying that we are planning on this aggressive growth. We are continuing to be progressing with procurement of our own growing. Not looking at outsiders or any milk company coming in. So that we have the advantage of quality and pricing and the procurement we will keep pushing aggressively even this year because we still have two powder plants of our own. And comparing the balancing we can afford to manage even if there is a surplus in the system.
Resham Jain
Okay, so I actually didn’t got what is the growth you are expecting? Is it 10%, 12%.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Procurement? We have taken a target of. We have taken a target for this 25, 26 additional volume 15%. Roughly 15% of volume in procurement is what we’re looking at growth.
Resham Jain
Okay, understood sir. So the second question is with respect to the overall margins. Given that the procurement prices have started. Coming down now, while you might take one more price hike, an industry also may do so. So should one expect that margin should. Be slightly better off sequentially now because. In Q1 anyways the curd sales and. The value added product sales is slightly better.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
So ration will maintain the same status quo of margin profile as percentages of what we are looking and absolute number growth will continue to be as what we continue to grow. This is predominantly because although on one side we see procurement prices cooling off again, the weather cooling and coming earlier, the value added component in terms of the product mix will not be the same as it used to be in the previous summers. So profitability and growth numbers will continue to be the same tandem of the double digits that we maintain and grow in the same manner.
Understood?
Resham Jain
Clear sir. So last question is with respect to AGA feed. In the opening comments I heard that you supply this feed only to 30%. Of your overall farmer pool. Is that correct?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Yes.
Resham Jain
So how, how are you planning to scale up and what like why not? Because we are operating at 50% utilization. What are the bottlenecks here in terms. Of getting into or penetrating with more farmers?
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Yeah, see actually you know the higher capacity field plant we built only in 2324. So actual full C production capacity commenced only in 2425. So already we have taken you know around 40, 45% capacity utilization in the past year itself. So this year we are expecting you know last. See the last 24, 25 we have done 132 crores. Now these are almost. We are expecting 200 crores. So we have taken a sizable jump in fluid sales. So see that, that we have taken. But battleneck is only to see supply and collect money recover from the total from the farmers bill.
That is only the Battlenet
Dodla Sunil Reddy
and also. Ration as we have been looking at it, we have built it with a view of at least a three year. I think it is coming down quicker than that for what we are using our the fleet plant that we built out. And second thing is also when we are saying Maharashtra for example, sometimes distances also play a role in terms of pricing of a cattle feed movement. So as volumes grow in the areas where we are operating, we’ll utilize this facility for our existing operators in and around our cattle feed facilities. And by the time the Maharashtra grows, we will be able to build up further capacities and utilize there.
Resham Jain
Understood sir. Very clear. Thank you and all the best. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nihal Shah from Prudent Corporate Advisory. Please go ahead.
Nihal Shah
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a great set of numbers. So here we can see the curd volume going up only by 6% odd which is the biggest component in our value added product. So why was that so in this quarter? And our procurement has reduced till second half of this financial year against the second half of last year. So was that because we are sitting on good level of inventory that we had piled up last year or was there the high procurement cost? The reason.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Question of yes, curve did grow by 6%. And what we have also milk which grew up. That’s why we were saying that normally we look at it as growing at like I kept saying earlier that our value added overall in the bucket normally grows by 1,2%. This time it moved up because of fat. Because the same trend will continue. It won’t grow substantially overnight. In terms of the consumptions coming to the procurement. Yes, we did have higher inventory and prices when they were not suitable for being hired. We were able to contain. And third, like we said, we totally cut out all the high cost of procurement which was coming from any other third party or whichever and improved only our procurement and which is the way we will be going forward.
And so that was the reason and that our procurement was slightly, it was mostly I think controlled by us rather than non controllable factor which now we are again going to be accelerated.
Nihal Shah
Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhishek Madhur from Systematics Group. Please go ahead.
Abhishek Mathur
Yes. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. So just wanted to check after a strong FY25, what is our outlook in terms of the volume value growth for the overall business and also for the key segments of VAP Milk and Africa, if you can sort of elaborate. And what will be our plan for geographic or distribution expansion that will support this outlook? That’s my first question.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Basically what we are looking at is I think we will continue to maintain our the cagres of what volume that we continue to grow as a double digit in terms of the value and the revenue growth that we are there. We will maintain those growth targets. Africa will not show this significant a move as we have seen this year of the growth rates being almost 60, 70% because I think the Kenya acquisition that came and we played out well and it is taken a significant year. But this should also maintain in line with our 15, 16% growth rates is what we are considering even for the Africa business.
And also when we look at Orga 3 is also we will continue to look at the same 15% growth rates that we look at. So I think we maintain those growth rates. The reason why we are saying that is that we don’t want to accelerate rapidly or decelerate rapidly is keeping in mind that we have to balance both our procurement and sales in terms of profitability and how do we take it forward. So the same standard statement that we always make that we will maintain our growth rates not in view with our CAGR that we have been, but last year was significantly larger.
We do not expect that kind of a significant jump. But it will continue to be in the high single digits, sorry, high double digits. Sorry guys.
Nihal Shah
Right. And just to follow up on that, what is the plan for our geographic expansion or distribution expansion that will kind of support this? Because if you’re saying that Africa will probably not continue to grow at the rate that it has grown, which means the India business has to step up significantly. So what would be the kind of expansion that will kind of support this growth?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
India we are looking at it as we will look at non certain other areas of expansion which we are looking actively in terms of models states to be added for our growth which can also give us our growth and we will also see how our depth works. But I think we’re also doing well on the other end of our products like Ghee Paneer which we have almost doubled from last year and we’re hoping to do better. We’ve also been penetrating into modern trade. We have been trying to get more into online trade, regular existing markets.
So with all the initiatives and also we are doing the significant spend on brand. We are hoping that with all that our existing market growth rates also will continue to be maintain and additional growth we get from new territories will make our going forward. Our additional territories will be more in terms of more deeper penetration into Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra where we are already operating and maybe a few new states they come across for us.
Nihal Shah
Would you like to sort of elaborate on which new states or which new territories we are looking at right now.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
We will keep looking going forward towards the northern part of the country. We are not. I think we will be more specific, specific in coming couple of months as to where it will be. We will disclose that a couple of months later. But we’re actively looking towards more north of the country.
Nihal Shah
Sure, sir. And finally, just a bookkeeping question. Sir. If you can provide the consolidations for the overall VAP and milk sales for the quarter. Please.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Come again, sir. Overall for the WAP and milk as two segregated items.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Realization.
Nihal Shah
Yeah, Consult realizations. Yes, sir. Yes. Consolidations for overall VAP and milk.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Yeah. Consolidated Q4 is 60.87 for the full year it is 62.24.
Nihal Shah
And so for VAP and milk, also for fourth quarter.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
VA for the full. For the fourth quarter it will be 67.25. WAP milk is 56.16.
Nihal Shah
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So that’s all from me. Thanks.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Disha Giriya from Ashika Institutional Equity. Please go ahead.
Disha Giria
Hi, good morning. Congratulations on a great set of results. I just had a bookkeeping question. You have mentioned in your presentation that the Africa business had contributed around 10.2% in FY25. What would that number be for FY24?
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
We have done 24. 1 lakh 6 thousand average sales. 1 lakh sales, you know, we’re done 1 lakh 27 thousand. And in 1 lakh 11 thousand for the entire year, 2324 and 24 25, we are down 1 lakh 80 thousand average.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
I think the sa me percentage also it would have been this as a percentage, it would have been the same.
Disha Giria
All right. Okay.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Yeah, that’s 60,000 liters. Last financial year because, you know, we acquired in a Kenyan plant. With that Kenyan plant, we ordered almost, you know, Kenya. We want to put together 60,000 liters. We added.
Disha Giria
Okay, great. That is it for my.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil from Simple. Please go ahead.
Nikhil Upadhyay
Hi. Congrats on a good set of numbers. Three questions. One is, see, when we had. Matthew, your point was that we launched keep in markets because we had a good presence earlier and because product consistency was not there, we were not able to launch and supply the markets. Can you talk about. Because on the numbers you mentioned, it seen a significant growth. How is the profitability in that business and how is our market share in markets where we’ve launched?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Market share in terms of ghee will be very small because after milk, ghee is the significantly large thing in the dairy pie that is there. So what we are looking at volume wise, the percentages will be insignificantly small. But I think we have almost doubled our sale of consumer sales in the presence of markets that we were from almost saying that, let’s say if it was 2 tonnes a day to 4,5 tons, 4.5 tonnes a day of sales in the markets. So the markets are now, we have not yet penetrated as deeply as we were earlier.
In the northern states we are now again relaunching. So it will take some time to get there. But in the states where we are present, our presence has started to increase, improve significantly. And I think this year you will see even more volume. I think we are expecting this volume to also become double from where we are in the past year. So that is where we will take so over. We have to also, like we said, and you had pointed out rightly now we want to make sure that we don’t pull out of the G market in the long run.
So that is when we will also start enhancing prices for profitability improvement as we go forward once we create our presence felt over all the places that we want to be.
Nikhil Upadhyay
Just so eventually, would the profitability at ghee be better than our console profitability of 9, 10% or and is it.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
The same percentages or slightly less by a percentage or 2 because of freight or distances of travel. But it can be premiumized over a period of time but otherwise it will maintain the same levels of profitability.
Nihal Shah
Okay. Secondly in Africa, so this year we had seen some impact on margins. How do you see the scenario evolving and where do you see the margins to stabilize? Like would it come back to that 20% level or should we consider a 14, 15% as a sustainable margins over longer term?
Nikhil Upadhyay
So I think our margins were normally in the range of that 15, 16% and 20% will be an aberration once in a while. I think BBK will answer the rest regarding where, why the margins of the last year, where and where they will be as we go forward.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Last year we have taken up the Kenyan plan. So see we were expanding our market in Kenya market because since that is a new plant, so that’s why, you know, you see some margin, you know, decline in the last financial year, but this year it is going to come back 13, 14% average EBITDA levels there.
Nikhil Upadhyay
Okay.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
And a significant base increase.
Nikhil Upadhyay
Yeah, and last question, and maybe I missed it and I couldn’t understand it properly. You said procurement prices may go down or may remain stable while companies may increase prices. Is that right what you mentioned or.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
No company is a lot increased. Selling prices are already increased. I think in the third quarter, fourth quarter of last year itself we have taken price increases. Those increased prices will continue to stay. Procurement prices will come down.
Nikhil Upadhyay
But one point, see the procurement prices had also gone up because there was lot of issues at the cooperative level. And cooperatives had increased the prices for the farmers. I understand now with grains and probably things and maybe things are better. But will the cooperative also roll back those prices on procurement?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
See, basically it’s a supply demand issue for whoever it matters. And I think even cooperators will be forced to reduce prices. Because if we have too much of milk in the system, we normally reduce the prices and a portion of it gets converted into the products and then it will be stored in use. So based on that, so we are anticipating already early monsoons are showing signs of higher milk procurement coming in. And normally the private sector reacts a little earlier. Cooperatives do follow.
Nikhil Upadhyay
Okay, okay, sure. I’ll come back.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Thank you sir.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhavesh Jal from DV Investment Advisory. Please go ahead.
Bhavesh Jal
Hello sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So just wanted to ask that in the past we have done capex in Africa business and as compared to our major competitor who has done, who has invested amount to build value added products ecosystem in India. So just wanted to know your outlook. How do you see these both the markets Africa and domestic market in terms of growth prospects. And also how are you planning to deploy cash to build Oodla? Much more stronger brand going ahead.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
So basically when we look at it as the value add component versus the milk component that we look at it, I think the ratios of what we are at will be maintained because it’s the general consumption pie as I keep repeating in terms of the whole overall dairy consumption pie is in such a manner milk will take the lead followed by ghee, followed by Paneer and then followed by other the host of other products that come into play. So that is where the pie will be and we will will also be investing accordingly. Like for example, if we are investing let’s say in milk, we also simultaneously do a proportionate investment in the curd lines that are required and improving our product mix.
Also in terms of ghee and other products coming to Africa, Africa is great in terms of the return on capital deployed. For example, if you look at our current rates of what we are Doing in terms of we have deployed around 60 crores of capital roughly and our returns are also close to that 40, 45 crores in terms of EBITDA. It’s a very highly profitable market but difficult market to crack which we took the time to crack it there also we have a little more opportunity in our existing areas for growth. For example, in Uganda where we are almost a significant share of the country’s market, we are now looking at penetrating into pasteurized milk which we were not there earlier.
We were only doing long life milk and curd. And now we are also looking at penetrating into the other segments where grow. So Africa will continue to grow after Kenya stabilizes and with Uganda a little bit of expansion of what we have as facilities. We will not look at other countries at the moment. In the short term. In the short term, between Africa and Kenya, sorry Uganda and Kenya itself, we are confident of maintaining the present growth trajectories. And in India, by adding Maharashtra which will give us a significant move towards our milk movement and also give us more areas for market or Maharashtra for products, we will maintain the same profile approximately as the consumption patterns.
Bhavesh Jal
Okay sir, thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind the participants to press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infoline. Please go ahead.
Sameer Gupta
Hi sir and thanks for taking my question. Sir, firstly on the call you mentioned that almost around 350 crore of excess fat and SMP has been sold in FY25. But I don’t see any impact on margins. And my understanding is that these are almost sold and spot prices with negligible margins. So unless we have benefited in terms of rising prices on this or gains on inventory margin being stable or actually standalone gross margin has seen an increase. Just wanted you to give a clarification on this aspect.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
So like I always keep saying, the excess stock or inventory always acts as a buffer when we have a surplus. In terms of milk, maybe the commodity price of powder and milk might be lower. But the impact is that we get better benefit from lower milk procurement prices and therefore we get a better margin. And the other way around, if there is less of milk in the system, the products do the commodity have a price increase and they will help in buffering the margin to make it stable. I think in the current year, to your point of why there’s not been a substantial difference or whatever, I think we were able to manage to sell it at the right time and keep the Inventory position going at the right side.
So we didn’t have a significant increase in margin. Neither did we lose money. We maintained our margin profile by keeping our required margin and disposing it as and when it was required. So that’s the reason why we were able to maintain. If we do it early or late sometimes we can get a benefit or loss. But we will try to maintain it at that level where when we get our required numbers of profitability we try to dispose our inventories.
Sameer Gupta
Again a follow up here. Sir. So you are saying there is no inventory gain on this 350 crore of excess fat in SMP. Is that reading?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
No, no, no. No inventory gain. Neither did we have a loss. Also it is almost a little break even and a little operation.
Sameer Gupta
So that would imply sir that your base business is actually delivered very good margin expansion. If you exclude this SMP and fat. And what would be the.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Yeah. Maybe a half a percent of margin expansion. This was because it’s overall 3700. It’s only been around 300 crores. Or if I remove the that fact 150 crores. So it is a smaller volume.
Sameer Gupta
Got it sir. Got it. Second question. Sir, you mentioned price reduction. Now I got confused. So we have not taken any price decreases at a consumer level. Is that understanding correct?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Procurement price reduction, not the sales price.
Sameer Gupta
And how much is the procurement price reduced by? Can you give a number?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
I think around rupee per liter.
Sameer Gupta
This 36.5 rupees is now 35.5. Your average procurement price.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Yeah, that’s what it is.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Cool. Sir, that’s all from me. Thanks.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one. Now the next question is from the line of Kiran Kumar from Green Investors. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hello. Thank you for the opportunity. This is a follow up session with respect to your answer regarding the bulk sales in an earlier question. Just to Repeat the numbers. SMP sale was 29 crores in Q4 25 and full year number was 110 crores. And there was no SMP sale in the previous financial year. What would be the whole bulk sales like including the bulk butter and Ghee and SMP all taken together in this quarter. Q4 25 and whole year. And the comparables for the previous year as well. To understand the revenue growth excluding the impact of bulk sales.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
So I think Murali will answer the question for you. He will break it up into total full year of what it was as a difference between bulk sales. Right? Yeah. So Murali Will go ahead and answer.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
So full year current year butter is 202 crores. SMP is 110 crores which is totaling to 312. This was not there in the last year. So for 312 if I add 80 crores of giesel total in sale is 392 crores. Whereas last year we have only 42 crores of ghee.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, sir. And what would be the figure for quarter?
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Figure for the quarter current year butter is 9 crores. SMP is 29 crores. Overall put together 38 crores.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And he.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Is basically 19 crores.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And this is similar figures for the Q4. 24.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Q4 24 of is 9 crores 9.8 inch. Around 10 crores of ghee.
Unidentified Participant
Right. And no SMP and butter only.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
No butter and no SMP.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Participants may press star and one at this time to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Aditya from Securities Investment Management. Please go ahead.
Aditya Khandelwal
Yeah. Hi sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir. First question is after the recent round of price size taken by most of the players. So what is the current price differential between us and the cooperative? So has that reduced or has that remained stable?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
So the price difference between cooperatives and US is still there. With the significant 15, 20% higher will be the private sector. Although they have taken a price increase. It’s not that. It’s only been. Maybe they’ve taken a price increase of 5, 6%. And we are still maintaining our higher prices than them. And the gap still maintains.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Especially in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka. Gap is high.
Aditya Khandelwal
The gap between us and the cooperative is high.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Yeah. It will be around 78 rupees at least.
Aditya Khandelwal
Okay. Understand last year also the price definition was at similar levels.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Yeah, similar levels. It’s not much. There might have been repeat this way. That way because of price timing of when they increase their prices to when we increased our prices. But almost similar levels were maintained.
Aditya Khandelwal
Understood? Understood. The second was now this year we have had around 300350 crores of bulk factories. And one of the reasons was last year we had built up a significant amount of inventory. But when I look at your inventory this year that has reduced sharply.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
No, no. We maintain similar levels of inventory. Because the season of production happened and then we sold this inventory. Current year also will go. Like we said earlier in our bin. We are moving away from being a net buyer to a net seller of powder and butter. This has done more with with the view of having our own milk. Supplies throughout the year and in the days to come to improve our base quality of milk. We will be able to use fresh milk more and more in terms of throughout the year and maintain product stability also without using powder or other things required for making up of fat or SNF which will be there.
So I think we will maintain similar levels of inventory again coming in the season of this year.
Venkat Krishna Reddy Busireddy
Yeah. Add to that, you know see now we have taken in more than 2 lakhs aggressive procurement target this year. Also that 2 lakhs, you know it is going to go for only for conversion of butter and s p. The. 2 lakhs proceed milk will. Will give you roughly about you know 350, 400 crores top line. So indirectly selling in the form of butter and smp.
Aditya Khandelwal
Got it. Got it. Understood. And so just last question. What was the curd sales amount in. Rupee terms this quarter.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
For the quarter is it.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Card sales is 193 crores for the quarter.
Aditya Khandelwal
Got it. So sir, those are my questions. I’ll come back with you.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one. The next question is from the line of RIA from EN Capital. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello, I’m audible. Yeah. First of all thanks for this opportunity. Just wanted to understand on the employees cost like do we expect to see any further increase in our employee expense in FY26?
Dodla Sunil Reddy
It will always maintain our growth rate. So what we meant I think for the overall 5, 6% increase in the cost that will always go on a year on year basis for what we give as increments. But I think on an absolute number. But we are confident with overall volume growth as a percentage of the expense. This time it will maintain the same levels as last year.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, so that answers my question. Thank you.
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We will take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Dodla Sunil Reddy
Thank you everyone for joining us today on this earnings call. We appreciate your interest in Durla Dairy. If you have any further queries please contact sga, our investor relations advisor. Thank you so much everyone.
Murali Mohan Raju Reddycherla
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. On behalf of Dodla Dairy Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.