Marico Ltd Q4 FY22 Earnings Conference Call Insights

Key highlights from Marico Ltd (MARICO) Q4 FY22 Earnings Concall

Management Update:

• MARICO stated that looking forward the near-term demand outlook is uncertain, but is confident of staying ahead of market growth, winning market share and gaining penetration.

• MARICO also expect margins to be subdued in the near term, but added that there is some degree of comfort given that copra prices should remain benign throughout the year.

Q&A Highlights:

• Percy Panthaki from IIFL asked how the company is looking at poor FMCG demand evolving over the next 2-3 quarters. Saugata Gupta MD replied that there will be input cost pressure, which is not expected to be abating very soon. MARICO added that it will strive to grow ahead of the market and also gain market share.

• Percy Panthaki from IIFL also enquired about the absolute sales clocked on the Foods and digital brands for the full year. Saugata Gupta MD answered that for the Foods, it’s between INR450 crores and INR500 crores. And exit run rate digital is INR180-200 crore.

• Vivek Maheshwari from Jefferies asked about reducing disclosures quarter over quarter. Pawan Agrawal CFO replied that there were two changes done in the last 2-3 quarters. One was Saffola and VAHO volume growth. And the reasons for not disclosing were because of internal parameters, MARICO had moved to value-led parameters.

• Vivek Maheshwari from Jefferies also asked that given competing oil prices are going up, if it won’t impact copra or coconut oil for MARICO. Pawan Agrawal CFO replied that looking at it historically, 10 years, there’s no correlation between copra and other vegetable oils the usage is slightly different.

• Kunal Vora from BNP Paribas enquired how is Saffola doing in terms of volumes. Saugata Gupta MD replied that volume has been flattish for the quarter. There has been significant inflation, which reduces the conversion rate of people upgrading. If there is consistent inflation for a large period of time, there could be some risk of downgrading.

• Kunal Vora from BNP Paribas also asked about the competition in the VAHO segment, why it’s higher than other categories. Saugata Gupta MD answered that there has been some price increases, which have been taken. Therefore there has been increased activity and some subcategories of brands are growing at the bottom of the pyramid.

• Harit Kapoor from Investec asked if it is possible that coconut oil growth picks up at the cost of value added in the near term. Saugata Gupta MD replied that MARICO should have the right pricing for right conversion from unbranded to branded. MARICO added that it will continue to invest behind rural distribution, as the company’s rural market share is slightly behind urban market share.