Speciality Restaurants Ltd (NSE: SPECIALITY) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 13, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Dhiraj Mistry — Analyst
Rajesh Mohta — Chief Financial Officer
Avik Chatterjee — Whole-Time Director
Analysts:
Charisha Shyam — Analyst
Zaki Nasar — Analyst
Shaleen Seth — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Specialty Restaurants Q4FY25 results conference call hosted by ICICI Securities 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 concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing stop than zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Dheeraj Mistry from ICICI Securities Limited. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Dhiraj Mistry — Analyst
Thank you and welcome all to specialty restaurants food QFY25 result earnings call. So I would like to thank management of Specialty Restaurant to give us this opportunity from the management we have with us Mr. Avik Chatterjee, old time director and Mr. Rajesh Mota, Finance and CFO over to you sir.
Rajesh Mohta — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Mr. Dhiraj. A very warm welcome to all the participants to the investors call of Specialty Restaurants Ltd. On behalf of the management, myself Rajesh Mota, CFO of the company, welcome you all to this investors call for quarter four of FY25 and year ending FY25 which is being done after the approval of the results by the board of the directors and submission to the stock exchanges as per guidelines I share here. The quarter highlights for Q4FY25 vis a vis Q4 of FY24. Revenues for the quarter grew by 8.33% from rupees 94.64 crores to 102.52 crores. This is on standalone basis, reported EBITDA grew by 18.37% from 16.54 crores to 19.58 crores and the PAD grew by 62% from 1.64 crores to 2.66 crores. During the quarter on this reported numbers on the operational EBITDA basis without considering the India’s impact, It grew from 20.5 crores as 2.05 crores to 3.88 crores which is 3.9% of the revenues and 2.3% of the revenues respectively, which signifies a growth of 89.3% year on year basis due to. During the quarter we witnessed a same store sales growth of 5.2% and 2.1% for the entire financial year FY25. The improvement in the margin is the result of the impact of operating leverage which has played favorably as gross margins continues to be steady during the quarter at 70%. These were the few financial highlights. I now request participants to have interactive question answers where we can give answers to the questions you may have. 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 their touchtone phone. 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 Cherisha Shyam Swim Venture Growth Partners. Please go ahead.
Charisha Shyam
Yeah, hello, my first question is looks a little muted. Is there any reason that, you know, some quarters are not favorable or some quarters are favorable and what could we see? How is the future looking like the was not there we could not hear. Could you just repeat the question? My first question is the growth looks a little muted in this quarter. So is there any particular reason for some quarters to show a better growth and how are we looking at the future growth?
Rajesh Mohta
Yeah, we appreciate like say for instance what has happened. The economic environment also had played an important role caused February and March months were weak compared to others witnessed discretionary spend pressures are there and inflation has also been on a steady front. But going forward with the kind of efforts which we are putting in with respect to control on expenses, we will be able to maintain the profitability and the moment the economic environment is better, we are looking forward for a higher revenue.
Charisha Shyam
And what do you see the future outlook like do we stand still on the guidance or Azhar
Rajesh Mohta
As you know we are from a guidance perspective we have been historically growing like let’s say financially we have grown 5% and with the new openings which would be adding to the revenue, we would be please growing to the extent of. 15% financial year 25.
Charisha Shyam
What’s the company level and restaurant level?
Rajesh Mohta
The company level, EBITDA growth. Because we. When you. In terms of level, there is an element of 5 to 6% which is the corporate cost. Rest is all at restaurant level.
Charisha Shyam
Company level, right.
Rajesh Mohta
Company level is 18.37%. See, restaurant levels would be at least 4% more than that because of the corporate cost, which would be around 23%.
Charisha Shyam
And about the cases which we are doing the renovation which we have done. So what will be the payback period for this categoric? What is the payment?
What is the payback period for the cables which we are going to incur for the renovation
Rajesh Mohta
Here? What happens is when we plan our renovation, we generally look at a revised financial evaluation and work towards it that the payback period is between four to five years.
Operator
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask Questions may press star and 1. At this time we take the next question from the line of Zaki Nasser, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Zaki Nasar
Am I audible?
Dhiraj Mistry
Yes, sir.
Rajesh Mohta
Yes, sir. Good evening, sir.
Zaki Nasar
Good, good. Good evening. Namaskar, sir, Congrats on having healthy quarter numbers. Considering the environment, sir, how do you see the growth coming forward, sir? Do you? Do you. Do you see your Chinese Oriental growing or there was last year around this time there was some talk of some acquisition. Is that happening? What. What is your thoughts on Sweet Bengal? And One question to Mr. Ajesh is, sir, what is the. What is the liquidity on books and what do you plan to do with it, sir? And another add on is, sir, we had started cross branding for sources and stuff like that. Your thoughts towards the same? Thank you.
Rajesh Mohta
Thank you for the pertinent questions, Mr. Jackie. On strategy, I would leave Mr. Avik to answer that on the cash in the books. See, at this point of time we have treasury investment of almost like 160 crores. With liabilities it would come to around 122 crores. You asked about acquisition. Mr. Avik would update yourself.
Avik Chatterjee
Hello Mr. Zakli, thank you for the question. Yes, sir, we are in continuous talks for the right strategic investment from the pool of money that we have in our treasury hoping to have sharing good news this year itself with all our investors. But we just on the tertiary leg, I would say to close a good fit strategic investment for this year itself. Last financial year we have already acquired restaurants from our franchisees in the south southern region of India. And this year we would be making strategic investments where we can see core synergies in not just in assets but also in the operation leverage that we have. So soon we would be able to close that.
Zaki Nasar
Thank you sir, and best wishes. And what about the cross banding? We had introduced some mainland finance sources. Do you continue to focus on them or they are a part of. I mean you will see going forward how this takes off.
Avik Chatterjee
Yes, right now our key focus is to be growing our brands. Mainly that is Asia Kitchen. So the company strategy lies very straight. We’re a restaurant first company so the sources become a good product that comes alongside the restaurant. As a value proposition. We have put in efforts to grow it through Swiggy, Instamart from Zomato and other aggregator platforms. But our key focus is to grow Asia Kitchen brand with the growth of malls of India. We are tracking them and mapping them very closely. And this year itself we have signed eight new properties with the kind of growth of malls.
And we are looking for even furthermore growth alongside the new malls that come up in India. So that becomes our key sector for this year.
Zaki Nasar
And if I may sir, a small your thoughts on Sweet Bengal and your plans for the same, sir.
Avik Chatterjee
So Sweet Bengal is a very highly profitable brand for us. We are looking at capturing the Maharashtra region at this point. That’s become our key focal point. This is mainly because we want to leverage our capex into the production. Unit that we have already developed, we have increased capacity. So we are at the hunt for newer markets. We are in fact also into the development of a brand evolution for Sweet Bengal itself. That means we will be upgrading the way the stores look, the way the branding looks and also our packaging front so it becomes a whole update button for our brand. So that is what we are doing. And surely we would be into many new areas of Maharashtra soon for this year.
Zaki Nasar
We can see this happening within the quarter, sir.
Avik Chatterjee
Yes, absolutely.
Zaki Nasar
Thank you.
Rajesh Mohta
Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Cherisha Shyam from Venture Growth Partners. Please go ahead.
Charisha Shyam
Sir, could you shed some light on the wet line models which we were having with episode one, which we were looking at for growth
Avik Chatterjee
Two quarters ago? We had already expanded one new unit for episode one and in between the next two quarters, we are almost waiting for the property, but we have already initiated our talks, etc. But once the property is ready, we should be having another episode very soon.
Charisha Shyam
So apart from Asia Kitchen episode one and Food Bengal, are we trying to cut down the other brands or are we trying to. Which other brands are we looking at for the growth? That’s the first and second thing. Can you give some muckwood on revenue and ebitda?
Avik Chatterjee
The first question that you asked about the growth of brands. Yes, we are focusing mainly on Asia Kitchen because we have been very. After a long time we have been able to hybrid model within Asia Kitchen. And let me give a quick one liner on what the hybrid model is. The hybrid model lies that we have an Asia Kitchen. Wherever we have a new Asia kitchen, we also do have a great delivery benefit of the brand Mainland China and the brand Haka which all lies in different price points. So what happens is the delivery revenue boosts tremendously and adds to the total top line for the same store.
So hence we feel with the growth of each Asia Kitchen, it parallelly grows our cloud brand as well. So most dynamic as well as the most strategic front, it becomes the best investment for us for which we feel we want to capture all the high football locations of India, primarily the malls because they guarantee the footfall. And we have some great partnerships with the real estate of malls. So that becomes our focus there. Episode one, on the other hand becomes our. Red LED format which again can be planned with the growth of malls. Like the last two quarters ago we did it in Viviana mall. And soon we’ll be looking at another mall in Mumbai which I can’t name yet because we haven’t finalized the LOI that should be coming up very soon. So these are the two fronts for that Sweet Bengal. I rightly mentioned in the last question that it’s going to be updated very soon. And what I mean by updated, the avenues of Sweet Bengal grows. That means with the aggregator partners today we are trying to enter the gifting market which is a huge, huge market that we feel is the current growth for brands like Sweet Bengal. So that has been our key focus strategy. Apart from that, as I mentioned earlier, acquisition is something that we are very closely and firmly looking at it as a team. We’ve in fact developed a new acquisition hunting team inside the our corporate office which is solely day and night working for the same. So this becomes our macro strategy for this financial year for sure.
Charisha Shyam
So by acquisition you mean the inorganic. We are looking at inorganic growth, right?
Avik Chatterjee
Yes, absolutely.
Charisha Shyam
Bengal. Are we planning to close the other kitchens? Hello? Hello. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, ma’ am. Please stay online. Management. Sir, you may be on mute in case you are talking. You are still connected to the call. Ladies and gentlemen, please stay connected while we reconnect the management. It thank you for waiting. The management is back online.
Avik Chatterjee
Our apologies to have got go ahead with the Hello.
Charisha Shyam
Yes sir,
Rajesh Mohta
We are able to hear you.
Charisha Shyam
So I my question was like are you going to stick with the other brands or we are and are we trying to expand them? Are we trying to stay in contact with the number of store accounts for other brands first and also could you also talk on the catering business if you are looking for further you know growth in that and the third question is on delivery segment like on Zomato Swiki how are we doing and what do we see the growth like in upcoming quarters?
Rajesh Mohta
Adam, if I may answer your first question. See what is happening is the other brands these are I not say would continue to operate those brands and restaurants which are still profitable for but the expansion as Mr. Mentioned oriented cheese brand. Second and last let’s say for instance when you talk in terms of aggregators platform increase etc. Yes, this is the new normal and we are associated with all the aggregators and we will continue to spend money on aggregators platform also grow. The primary reason for this growth is that the kitchen within kitchen that is the restaurant where we operate our other brands as well. This becomes more from a sweating of assets point of view. And this is the like I mentioned new normal. So we continue to be on aggregators platform for delivery and booking on dine in for our dine in business.
Charisha Shyam
Got it. So and about the catering business.
Rajesh Mohta
Catering is a way we have catering division in Calcutta where we are doing decent I would say large scale caterings of doctors conferences, some international conferences where we have 2,000, 2,500 people. And in Bombay we have started doing specialty experiences which is high end niche catering. I would say where if I may be allowed like say for the play per plate cost is almost like touching four to five thousand rupees. But yes, that is niche and we are putting effort to grow that particular business in Bombay. But Calcutta we have a fairly large presence.
Charisha Shyam
One question sir, like we see inflation. Yes. And some expenses due to the renovation going on. But what are the major challenges which we are facing which is hindering us from growing further and growing more.
Rajesh Mohta
See, one of the biggest challenge which we I would say restauranting business is trained manpower. And secondly, let’s say for instance real estate is also an issue because we need to do an evaluation for a real estate which makes financial sense for us and results into profitability. So constraints we look at. But yes, trained manpower is the biggest challenge.
Charisha Shyam
Any strategy behind, you know, resolving it. And I mean and the last question is like what numbers can we, you know, bank upon in next three years?
Rajesh Mohta
See to answer your first question, the strategy what we have, we are tied up with various institutes to train people. Like in Calcutta we have in IIHM have created our own catering college wherein we are trained our own staff in our place and put them online training for restaurants directly on the restaurants. But that particular process is on. But the train manpower what happens is there is people who wish to open restaurants take away trained manpower from our end. So this has become a continuous exercise and we continue to grow. So the training aspect which is being taken care in Calcutta is feeding most of our new restaurants. Coming to the second strategy in two, three years.
Let’s be as far as short term is concerned. Like Mr. Avik mentioned that we have already signed eight restaurants during this financial year. The basic idea is that we should be doing eight to 10 new restaurants every year to grow on both top line and profitable at bottom line.
Charisha Shyam
Got it sir, Got it. So any numbers which you could give for revenue and EBITDA percentage like I know EBITDA is 15 to 20 which we discussed in the last call. But any number, any thing on numbers
Rajesh Mohta
From a guidance perspective we’ve already said. But let’s restrict ourselves to the numbers in next two, three years.
Charisha Shyam
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Charlene. From Sears Fund Management. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Mohta
Equal in a voice we are not able to hear.
Shaleen Seth
Is it better now?
Rajesh Mohta
Yeah, yeah, much better
Shaleen Seth
. I was just saying congratulations Professor. Looks like a pretty good branch up.
Rajesh Mohta
Thank you. Mr. Shah.
Shaleen Seth
My question is related to the capital WIP. Hoping to get a guideline on that as to when do we expect that to be applied.
Rajesh Mohta
See the capital what WIP which is there in our books is primarily with respect to a building in Calcutta where we’ve built four floors and it’s been completed by a developer. We hope to complete in this ancillary where we will have banquets and our commissary type which would take care of our Dariel business from there. So it should be up and running this financial year, sir.
Shaleen Seth
Okay. Towards the end of the financial.
Rajesh Mohta
We hope in the. Let’s say in another eight times.
Shaleen Seth
Okay, so the second question was related to Chirangi. So anything specific that happened there because we see a significant difference in the standalone and concern.
Rajesh Mohta
As you would have seen sir, economic environment in London is not very conducive from a spend point of view because of the higher interest rates and the inflation. So there have been a dip in covers there in Chaurangi but efforts are on to bring back customers back into the restaurants. So this particular financial year we had seen a degrowth in revenues but we hope things to improve because we have tried to control our expenditure and ensure that we make money there.
Shaleen Seth
Great, sir. And specifically for Siciliana. So this is Italian and anything that you can tell us about it.
Rajesh Mohta
Siciliana is actually a byproduct of Mizuna. So we are. We’ve named it Ceciliana by Mizuna. What we have noticed is to give a brand differentiation we just have a 20% menu upgrade particular outlet which is the Sicily. But apart from that, let’s say 80% is going to be the same food of Mizuna. It’s just. It’s giving the customer a reason to within both outlets in the city rather than just coming to one.
Shaleen Seth
Correct. Okay, makes sense. That sounds like a different strategy. We like it.
Rajesh Mohta
Right,
Shaleen Seth
Great,
Rajesh Mohta
Thank you.
Shaleen Seth
Nice to talk to you. Congratulations to the team. Thank you,
Rajesh Mohta
Thank you.
Shaleen Seth
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one at this time. As a reminder, participants who wish to ask questions may press star and one at this time. I repeat, to ask a question, please press N1 now. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Rajesh Mohta
We are extremely thankful to all the investors who participated in the investors call of specialty restaurants for the quarter four of FY25. We are very confident that we would be able to work harder and improve performances going forward. Thank you
Operator
On behalf of ICICI securities limited that concludes this conference. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.