Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to LEAP India Limited Q1 FY27 earnings conference call hosted by Go India Advisors. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Ms. Soumya Chhajed from Go India Advisors.
Thank you, and over to you, Soumya.
Soumya Chhajed
Good morning everyone, and welcome to maiden earnings call of LEAP India Limited. We have on call with us Mr.
Sunu Mathew, the Chairman, MD, and CEO; Mr. Hrishi Gandhi, the Chief Growth Officer; and Mr.
Rajesham Alle, the Chief Financial Officer. Please be reminded that discussion on today's call may include certain forward-looking statements and must be therefore viewed in conjunction with the risk pertaining to the business.
I now request the management to take us through the same and provide some more insight on the quarter and year gone by. Post that, we open the floor to Q&A.
Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you. This is Sunu Mathew here, MD, Chairman, CEO.
A big namaste to all the investors and whomsoever there is in the call. I welcome all of you to LEAP India Limited's maiden earnings conference call.
Let me talk something about FY26. It was an excellent year for LEAP, and our stock market listing actually marked an important milestone in our journey.
As this is our first interaction with the investor community after listing, I would like to begin by explaining our business in a very, very simple terms. We are a supply chain asset pooling company, and these assets basically connects all four pillars of supply chain, namely supplier, manufacturer, third-party logistics, and the retailer.
Everybody needs to understand that we are not a conventional transportation company or any kind of a warehousing company. Our pooling assets form the physical backbone of the supply chain, if pallets are not there, then supply chain is not there.
Whenever any kind of finished products, raw material, or packing material actually moves between warehouses, fulfillment center, and distribution, plastic containers, pallets, MHE equipments actually enable safer, faster, cost-effective, and standardized handling of the same. This is also actually called as unit load.
Our assets enable companies to handle higher volumes by reducing loading and unloading time by up to 80 to 90%. It supports automation through conveyors, robotics, AGVs, thus improving space utilization and the efficiency of the goods which are moving between all four pillars of supply chain.
Now let me give few real-life examples which we experience in our company. I would like to take moment to give an example of two industries where pallets have actually helped business scale substantially and created significant cost savings.
First example I would like to quote is a leading global beverage company which was able to move only 50 to 60 trucks in a day from one plant using the conventional method of loading everything into the truck through labor by hand. Post use of our pallets and forklifts, the number of truck released from the plant has gone to 300-plus per day.
Second example is a global noodle manufacturing company. It has been able to reduce its damages, pilferages, and hence improve profitability using our pallets across its location in India, thereby supporting circular economy and creating stronger stakeholder value.
These developments are creating strong opportunity for us with other companies in the same sector. Now a punch line statement if I would like to give is as supply chain becomes complex and more automated, a reliable and standardized pallet is no longer an optional thing.
It actually becomes an integral part of the operating system. Coming to LEAP, we are India's largest on-demand asset pooling company with a 90% market share.
We manage approximately 14.9 million assets with an asset base exceeding ₹1,690 crores. We serve more than 1,000 customers across 10,500 touchpoints, supported by 28 fulfillment centers, basically warehouses.
Our portfolio extends beyond pallet to containers, crates, foldable large containers, and material handling equipment. We believe we are absolutely positioned to capitalize on a multi-decadal structural opportunity driven by rising palletization in the country, formalization, and the shift from ownership to pooling of pallets.
To put the opportunity into perspective, palletization in India remains significantly underpenetrated at just 14 to 17% versus 89 to 94% across developed markets such as North America, Europe, Americas, US, Australia, and New Zealand. Let me take a moment to explain Movement Hire, which is the core value and the services that we provide to our customers.
Asset pooling in the country is at a very nascent stage. Globally, each pallet travels 4x on average per annum compared with just 0.4x in India.
You can truly imagine what is the runway which is lying ahead of us that from 0.4, we have the opportunity to convert this into 4x. Of India's estimated 106 million pallets, 82 million pallets are low quality, one-way pallets and largely unsuitable for pooling.
Only 18 million pallets are actually pooling grade, of which 10 million are currently pooled, and that is the reason we say 9 million pallet is with us, we have 90% market share. Pooling converts asset ownership into on-demand service.
Customers access the assets they need, where and when they need them, without having to invest in ownership or manage tracking, maintenance, retrieval, or reposition. LEAP takes responsibility for the entire asset lifecycle.
When supplier, manufacturer, 3PL, retailer are connected, this entire asset lifecycle like availability, quality deployment, tracking, recovery, repair, and redeployment across its network. When we talk about network, this is actually the real moat for us wherein from A to B and B to A locations, we have enough load to actually pool our assets.
LEAP owns approximately 9 million of these pooled assets, representing market share of 90%. We are absolutely sector agnostic.
Let me explain that. As organized supply chain expands and customers increasingly focus on automation, we expect pallet adoption to broaden across industries.
We are sector agnostic, and our assets are being deployed across diversified industries and serve 1,000-plus customers. Over and all, when we look at our nearly 1,100 customers which are there with us, we see that we cover to the tune of 38 sectors put together.
Our business is also very sticky as we have not lost any customer since inception. We might have decided not to service the customer due to various reasons, but otherwise we have not lost a single customer.
As we have demonstrated in the past that we take nearly 5 to 9% price increase every year, and this is based on the wood price index which is listed on German stock exchange. For next couple of years, we could easily beat the inflation with price increase.
Given the better changes in country's infrastructure, better roads, better facility center, automation, our asset position is going to get further stronger. With labor market getting tighter as we have seen, labor is actually very difficult to find in India, our forklift loading of pallet is much in demand.
We believe that adoption will take off, and we are at the forefront in increasing our footprint into various other sectors. Being a market leader, we always strive to develop new industries from palletization.
Recently, industries such as dairy, paints, textiles have migrated from traditional methods to pallet pooling. Now let me talk a bit about the entry barrier into this business.
While we own the asset pool, our deeper competitive advantage lies in the 10,500 locations which are our touchpoints, our fulfillment centers, technology-led tracking, technology-led repair and maintenance capabilities, customer integration because we connect supplier, manufacturer, 3PL, retailer, it cannot happen that four different types or colors of pallets are used in one integrated supply chain, and ability to retrieve and redeploy assets efficiently at scale. This combination of assets, technology, and network density gives us a unique advantage.
We always say that we are champions to the sustainability criteria. Sustainability is actually embedded in how we operate.
Our wooden assets are manufactured using timber sourced from sustainably harvested forests where every tree is cut is actually replenished with three more new trees. We own India's one of the largest fleet of 400-plus lithium-ion electric battery forklift.
Let me come to a kind of business financials which will actually talk about that how our quarter one has gone vis-à-vis the last quarter of 25-26. I am very happy to actually announce that we have done customer acquisition at a great speed in the first quarter.
We signed 48 new customers from 11 sectors, which is considerably higher than the normal customer acquisition rate. Normally in a quarter, we actually get 18 to 20 customers.
This time, we have got nearly 48 new customers. This gives us additional 100,000 pallet opportunity in this financial year.
Due to extended summer season, I believe the demand from the existing beverages and preform segment persisted in quarter one along with the wave of opportunities brought by the entry of major player in cola segment. Growth of e-com and consumer goods reflected in 3PL customers such as DP World, DHL, Yusen Logistics, which added another 30,000 pallets.
E-com and quick-com wave continues to see rise with 25,000 pallet addition, basically into Zomato and Blinkit. The e-commerce and consumer goods demand, I believe, will continue to rise in quarter two and quarter three with upcoming Big Billion Days, Ganpati, Durga Puja, Diwali, and all the festive season.
Let's come to agro companies like Garud Nandi Seeds, Kaveri Seeds, and global brands such as Corteva Agriscience have added further 20,000 more pallets. When I'm talking about that these are the industries which are actually performed well, the performance in textile was subdued on account of supply shortages due to the war and the cost has also increased, there had been a subdued performance in textiles in the first quarter.
Movement Hire business has been signed with marquee customers like a major cola company, Gulf Oil, Bhilosa Industries, Filatex, [Bikalol Synthetics?] .
In automotive, we have won the business with Autoliv and Bosch. Movement Hire, last year we have actually moved 711,000 pallets, and this year we have increased it by 80 8% to 766,000 pallet.
Let's come and talk about a bit of MHE business. In MHE business, Taron has added 174 new machines in the first quarter, and we did a revenue of 35.3 crores with 33% growth over last year.
Let me talk about something which is the pillar of our business, which is the supply chain that runs our company. We are an execution-driven business, and our transportation cost as percentage per revenue has reduced from 11% to 10%, and our repair cost has reduced from 6% to 4.7%.
Our warehouse cost definitely has gone up by 7% because of one-time settlement for closing down three warehouses, but you have to understand that our volume in FMCG and automotive has increased by 20%. Few new technological developments that we are doing, one I can bring to the point that we are going to introduce 3D printing solution for inserts, which we develop for automotive companies, textile companies, etc.
By next quarter, we will automate our crate cleaning system also. After giving a brief on the business front, definitely Rajesham will be able to talk more about the numbers, let me talk about a bit of corporate governance.
As a listed company, our focus is firmly on long-term value creation, strong governance, and disciplined growth. We are supported by the experienced board and a very, very strong leadership team which we call MANCOM, which is Management Committee.
Our growth priorities are absolutely clear: deepen existing customer relationship, [enter?] into new industries, participate across a wider range of supply chain movements, broaden our product portfolio, and selectively enter new markets.
We will pursue these opportunities with continued discipline around asset utilization, return on capital, and balance sheet strength. With that, I will now hand over to Mr.
Hrishi Gandhi to explain the multiple growth opportunities available to LEAP and how we intend to translate them into the next phase of value creation.
Hrishi Gandhi
Thank you, Mr. Mathew, and very good morning to all the participants.
I think Mr. Mathew has given a very comprehensive background about the palletization, pooling industry, and now in my speech, I would like to take you through our growth story, how we have evolved over a period of time.
I would like to start my discussion with one statement that no nation can move from a developing nation to a developed nation unless and until there is an adoption of pallet part of supply chain ecosystem. LEAP is taking that particular lead in introducing pooling of pallet and to reduce the overall supply chain cost.
I'll explain this growth story in two points: that how this entire pooling solution is expanding within the supply chain ecosystem and what are the multiple growth opportunities, what even we are pursuing. In the year 2013, with a focused pooling offering, we started this thing.
Over a period of time, we have expanded the territories also, we have expanded the product portfolio to plastic assets and into MHE also. Our growth has been supported by steady expansion of our operating network.
We have diversified our customer base, and we have diversified to now 38-plus industries also. Some of the key operating parameters where I would like to draw attention that as compared to last year Q1, where we were operating at 13.65 million assets, we have added 1.26 million assets.
Now we have closed the Q1 with 14.9 million assets. A lot of corporates are struggling with growth; however, at quarter-on-quarter, we are adding assets and we are penetrating into the market through pooling of assets.
Our asset utilization has also improved from 88.6% to 89.2%. Mind well, our constant effort and endeavor is to improve asset utilization, and we expect in a quarter to come, we will cross this 90-91% and next couple of years and it may go up to 92% plus also.
Always our focus at LEAP is to diversify customer base. Last year Q1, we had 900-plus customers from varied industry, and now we have improved to 1,000-plus customers.
Constant is to add newer and newer industries, newer and newer customer base. At LEAP, our biggest strength is our network infrastructure.
We have now moved to 10,000-plus touchpoints. You hire from anywhere, customer can dehire from anywhere.
This is the biggest strength. If at all the competition decides to get into this particular business, they will take couple of decades to build this 10,500-plus touchpoints.
Now let me share some of the phases of how this pooling ecosystem evolves. It evolves over a period of three cycles.
One is education phase, static hire phase, and the Movement Hire phase. Now the way it has evolved pooling business in India, we have crossed the face of education phase, educating industries about supply chain automation, advantages of pooling, cost reduction, and various other aspects.
Then the static hire adoption takes place, and from that on once the client starts hiring pallet inside the factory, warehouse, and they see the advantage, then the Movement Hire business picks up. We can see the advantage of Movement Hire business for last couple of years, and the journey has begun, and the same will continue.
In every year, we improve upon our Movement Hire business. For any customer, we start first with static hire business, they take the pallet for using inside the factory for either storage or continuous production or storage of finished product.
Then over a period of time, the same evolves to Movement Hire business. Here I would like to share two examples.
Okay. One leading dairy company, which is a pan-India presence, they are very classic, but then there was a resistance in terms of migration towards automation.
Over a period of time, we explained them the advantages of ASRS, which is Automated Sorting and Retrieval System. Now they have adopted that, and initially with one location, it started with some few thousand pallets.
Now after seeing the advantages in terms of storage of cargo, evacuation of humongous amount of cargo, safety aspects, less damage to the product, and the cost reduction, and the environment advantages and all that thing, now they are pushing to their sister dairies, they are asking all the dealership to take the palletized cargo, and we have reached up to 86 depots of them. With the success of this dairy company, our business has gone to eightfold last two years' time, and the other dairies, the smaller dairies also has started approaching us in terms of adoption of pallet.
Another example I would like to share with you all is about the textile industry. Textile industry is a very conventional industry.
Over there, tech adoption, there was a great amount of resistance, but now with the joining of new-age promoters and all that thing, there also they are exploring adoption of ASRS automation system. It took some time for us to convince one of the leading textile manufacturers in terms of adoption of pallet, adoption of Movement Hire, but now the entire system is working very well and they can see the great amount of saving into logistics cost, great amount of saving in terms of damage to their raw material.
As Mr. Mathew has mentioned, there are another five, six new textile entities have approached and we would like to replicate the success of that.
Okay. We integrate with raw material packing material supplier, manufacturer, 3PL, and to the retailer.
That is how we start working with over there. Now we have broadly five strategies for our future growth.
Deep mining of the existing relationship. If we are successful with one large player into e-commerce, the success story we replicate with the other e-commerce players or quick commerce players into that.
We replicate the success stories with other players into that. Something similarly, we always work towards development of newer and newer industries, newer and newer territories also.
At LEAP, we take pride that we have one of the largest logistics engineering team. The focus of that team is to provide solution to the newer and newer industries for adoption of pallet, advantages of that, and successfully implementation of palletization.
Now after capturing this 90-odd percent market share, we are also exploring, and as we have mentioned in our DRHP and RHP, we are pursuing our growth opportunities outside India. We have established our entities in Gulf countries, and due to western conflict, we have adopted a cautious approach.
However, we have established a core infrastructure over there, and very soon, we will go live with our pooling business over there, and customer has rolled out red carpet welcome for us. Before I wrap up my presentation to the group, I would like to provide one clarity about this recent market commentary on the related party transaction.
I would like to assure all our investor friends that LEAP remains committed to transparent communication and high standards of corporate governance. All related party transactions are at arm's length and having audited and disclosed in our RHP and in accounts also.
With that clarification, let me hand over this to our CFO, Mr. Rajesham Alle, who will provide the background about the financial performance.
Mr. Rajesham Alle.
Rajesham Alle
Yeah. Thank you, Hrishi, and good morning, everyone.
I will take you through our Q1 FY27 performance where we continue to deliver growth in revenue, EBITDA, and cash earnings while maintaining high asset utilization. For Q1 FY27, our total income increased 19% to 2,134 millions.
EBITDA grew at 21% year-on-year to 1,141 millions with EBITDA margin expanding by approximately 118 basis points to 53.5%. This improvement was supported by higher income, cost optimization, and operating synergies.
At the bottom line, PAT outpaced the revenue growth by growing up 30% to 247 million with a PAT margin of 12%, up by 114 base bps points, while cash PAT increased to 23% year-on-year to approximately 812 million, supported by strong EBITDA and operating leverage. We believe this reflects the core financial characteristic we want to preserve as we grow: scale the pool, keep the asset productive, and translate operating growth into stronger capital efficiency.
With that, I will hand the call back to the moderator for the question-and-answer sessions. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question-and-answer session.
Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone 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'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
Our first question comes from the line of Akshat Jain with Six Sence. Please go ahead.
Akshat Jain
Good morning. Congratulations to the entire LEAP team on a successful listing and excited to see LEAP's journey from here on as a listed company.
I just had a couple of questions. We've noticed that in the first quarter, assets have grown by 9%, but the revenue has grown by 19%.
Going forward, how do we expect the revenue growth to be split between the asset growth and the higher throughput per asset deployed?
Sunu Mathew
If you look at it, we have grown by say 9% to 12%, and our growth eventually actually comes from churning of our assets. Say last year, we have moved nearly 2.8 million pallets plus.
This year, we will be moving somewhere round about 3.7 million pallets. In the first quarter, you will see that as compared to the last quarter of last first quarter of last year, we did 711,000 movements Movement Hire, and this year we have done in the first quarter 766,000 pallet movement.
If [unclear] So just hold on. That is one of the probable [unclear] That could be probably that is one of the reason that say suppose in beverage sector, we are getting a particular transfer hire pricing, this time we have been able to move more pallets into textile industries and other industries.
That has given a growth of 19%. Looking at the same terms, if you look at our MHE business, MHE business actually has done nearly 35.3 crore turnover, which is which actually has put in 174 new machines and it has also actually grown by 33%.
It is upon the value of the asset that we put in, and that leads to the growth of our business. Technically, there is no much correlation between the number of assets that we are adding and and the growth that we are getting.
Akshat Jain
Okay. Sure.
Thank you.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you, Akshat.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vijay Shah with Insightful Investment.
Please go ahead.
Sunu Mathew
Vijay.
Vijay Shah
Good morning. Am I audible?
Sunu Mathew
Absolutely audible.
Vijay Shah
Perfect. Thank you and congratulations on the new listing.
I had a couple of questions, sir. One, can we get any kind of guidance in respect to margins for the rest of the year, especially EBITDA margins?
Sunu Mathew
Okay. Now if you look at our EBITDA margin since last six to seven years, we have hovered around 47% to 56%.
This business is also such that as you keep growing the business, the cost actually comes down. For that, I will give you a small example that if there is a warehouse, it was storing 5,000 pallet, it can go vertical and store 50,000 pallet and 250,000 pallet.
What cost actually gets incurred is the salary of the warehouse people who are actually managing it. There are definitely great chances for us to improve the EBITDA and which we have demonstrated.
If you look at our last full-year EBITDA margin, that was somewhere round about 50.5%. This first quarter, it has actually jumped to 53.5.
We very clearly say that 100 to 200 bps on EBITDA margin can be added. This is also a bit varied about the seasonal business.
You can see that our volume growth has happened between 18 to 20% in both FMCG and automotive, but still we have been able to control our repair cost, warehouse cost, and transportation cost, and thus we have been able to increase the margin. You should not be taking it that every quarter we will be able to increase EBITDA margin by 3 to 5%.
That is basically not possible. Say suppose if MHE is doing a bigger business and better business, then there the ROCE is very good, PAT is very good, but EBITDA is a bit subdued in MHE business.
It will be a combination of pallets, automotive, and MHE business. One thing I can very clearly tell you that it will hover around 47 to 56% margin for next couple of quarters.
Vijay Shah
Okay. Second, sir, if we could get some guidance on top-line growth, and I would like to see if you could give us a little sense on the organic growth and also from new geographies what we can get.
How do we look at this opportunity at Middle East? What kind of revenues do you estimate can come in FY27, '28, or even three years down the line, sir?
Sunu Mathew
Okay. First let me answer to you a question about the top-line growth.
See, the guidance that we have given is that quarter-on-quarter, we will be clearly going ahead 20% plus growth as far as our revenues are concerned. That is what we have told investors during our roadshows also.
As far as our new geography is concerned, now you can see that in the last quarter in in in the last year same quarter, we have spent round about 110 crores on our assets. This year first quarter, we have only spent 76 crores.
What this talks about is that in the Middle East, currently the turmoil has increased a bit, we are very, very cautious. We are not deploying that kind of an asset right now, but we believe that it is a very natural extension of our business because GCC is a completely importing country.
There are lakhs of thousands and lakhs of pallet which goes to GCC on a hire dehire model. Currently, it is on the sales model.
We are converting customers so that we can give the pallets over here and we can actually collect the pallets in GCC. This will actually increase our margins in India also.
As and when this war actually stabilizes, I I believe it's a great opportunity for us to actually get bigger, better revenues from GCC because of the one important factor: nobody actually loads product into the truck. Everything is pallet in and pallet out.
All the trucks in GCCs are absolutely operating on palletized mode. There is nothing which is which is ignorance that we have to deal with in GCC.
Once the business actually starts, we will be able to see good inroads into the business because our our model is that first we give as a static use as Mr. Hrishi Gandhi has explained, and then we get into the pooling.
Pooling is the value that we provide which is already persisting in the GCC model. We will be doing a handsome amount of turnover from GCC, but we have many levers within India if the if the war persists.
We have many levers in India to compensate that growth with within the growth of India.
Vijay Shah
Sure. Just one small clarification on this and just to summarize that I understand this correctly.
You said we will see quarter-on-quarter 20% growth. I believe you mean to say YoY, right?
Sunu Mathew
YoY, yes. YoY, quarter-on-quarter, yeah.
Vijay Shah
Got it. Sir, if I don't worry on quarter-on-quarter basis, but I look at on a year-on-year basis, if our top-line growth theoretically will be 20% plus, would you agree that the EBITDA growth should be higher than that?
Sunu Mathew
Absolutely. EBITDA growth will be absolutely higher on that, and I can
Vijay Shah
I understand there might be quarterly variations as you explained, depending on the mix and the seasonality of the business. If I look at it on a full-year basis, the EBITDA margin should tend to go northwards if we have a 20% plus growth in a given year.
Sunu Mathew
Absolutely. Yeah.
See, our split of the business is like 22% in quarter one, 24% in quarter two, 25 in quarter three, and major chunk comes from quarter four, which is 29%. So 1 or 2% here and there variation will be there, but on a yearly basis and for a long period of time, we are definitely anticipating 20% plus growth.
Vijay Shah
Got it. Sir, all this when we're saying 20%, this is all largely India business.
Middle East will be an over and above opportunity.
Sunu Mathew
Middle East will be over and above business, so that is what we are expecting.
Vijay Shah
Sir, if I may, three years down the line, if you were to guestimate, what kind of revenues can we get from Middle East?
Sunu Mathew
See, three-year down the line, we believe that it should be somewhere to the tune of 150 to 200 crores.
Vijay Shah
Sure. Thank you so much, sir, and all the best.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you, Vijay. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the questions from the participants, we request you to kindly limit your question to three questions per participant.
If you have a follow-up question, you may rejoin the line. Our next question comes from the line of Vishal Mehta from IIFL Capital.
Please go ahead.
Vishal Mehta
Hello, yeah. Hi Sunu, Hrishi.
Congratulations on a very successful listing. A decent set of numbers, I would say.
Just a few questions on specifics. Firstly, on the container side, the revenue growth has been relatively modest, right, at 13% vis-a-vis the growth we've seen in other assets.
In FY26 also, if you see our growth over FY25 pro forma was in container was around 8-odd percent types. The asset addition here is also in the range of 3 to 4% kind of a growth.
Any slowdown that we are witnessing here in this segment? What is the outlook here?
Sunu Mathew
As far as business is concerned, Vishal, we are not anticipating a slowdown, but we are anticipating and we are seeing a huge growth in the container pooling business wherein we have internally also given a very high-number target to our internal teams. For example, if component manufacturing companies are asking for four units of crate, we are able to just deliver 1.5 to 2 units.
Why? Because the cost of raw material has tremendously gone up since last so many months.
If I am getting a crate for ₹650, now it is costing ₹1,200, ₹1,000. My entire ROCE goes for a toss if I acquire new assets.
We are going slow on that, and that is one of the reasons that in the first quarter also, you will see that as compared to 110 crores investment vis-à-vis last year, this year we have just done 76 crores. We are just going slow on that.
We are asking our asset management team to retrieve it faster so that we can actually pool it. These are unprecedented times, we really want to be cautious and not put too much of money into buying the assets at double the cost.
Vishal Mehta
Okay. This is just to do with the RM inflation that we've seen for the containers.
Otherwise, business is normal.
Sunu Mathew
Absolutely. Business is very well.
Vishal Mehta
Okay. On the pallet side, I wanted a clarification.
From the COGS if we were to infer the trading revenue, it's almost up 3x YoY. Adjusting for that, then pallet revenue growth would be in the region of 12 to 13% types.
Would that be a correct inference? No,
Sunu Mathew
no. See, what happens is that we are not into selling of pallets, okay?
At least in India, we are not into selling of pallets. What happens is that we pick and choose our customers: A, wherein they are ready to take quality pallets which we make, okay?
B, we look at a certain margins that we can get it from them. The most important criteria that we select to sell pallets is that over a period of time, this should come back to us as a pooling thing.
Because you see, 1,100 companies, 1,000 companies as customers that we have, some or the other company gets this idea that why not I purchase the pallet and then do this business? We never actually demotivate them.
We say that okay, you want to go purchase the pallet, no problem. You better purchase it from us so that we give you a quality pallet.
When people get tired of handling it and they keep losing the assets, because asset management is the most integral part, then they come back to us in 6 months to 1-year time. This has happened actually with 10, 12 companies in the past, and this time a very big company has also started that we will buy pallets.
After 4 to 6 months, they have come back and said that very difficult to manage it across 88 locations pan-India. That is the reason you have you can see a inflated selling number, but otherwise our focus is absolutely on pooling of pallets.
Pooling of pallet also, you can very easily contain that as 17 to 18% growth year-on-year.
Vishal Mehta
Okay. Just one more on MHE.
The count of MHEs in the prospectus FY26 end was 4,700-odd. In 1Q, the presentation states 4,500.
Is there a reduction here, and do we also include batteries here? Are batteries charged separately from the customers?
Sunu Mathew
Yes, you're right. That is a charge separately from the customers.
That also comes into the asset. As far as the machine and the forklift is concerned, we have said that it is 1,440 forklifts that we have in totality, and Taron has actually added 174 new machines into the system.
You need to understand that when we talk about 174 new machine, there are few old machines which actually comes back to us also. The important point that you need to note is that our average turnover from the pooling revenue of MHE was 9.6 crore, which has actually gone up to 11.6 crore.
That is the average that we are doing every month, and that is the reason we have done somewhere round about 35.3 crores in the first quarter, which is actually a 33% jump from the last year first quarter. That is how batteries keep fluctuating.
Say suppose we have called for certain machines and we call for two batteries, and then we look at the certain number of machines which on the basis of the number of years that it has spent in the market, we say that we need to keep a spare battery, or a controller. All that actually is been taken in our asset pool.
Vishal Mehta
Okay. The reduction would be mainly because of these controllers and batteries and not on machines per se.
Sunu Mathew
Yes. Not
Vishal Mehta
on machines.
Sunu Mathew
No.
Vishal Mehta
Okay. I'll join back in the question queue.
I have few more. Probably I'll get Achha.
Sunu Mathew
Okay.
Vishal Mehta
Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Maulik Shah with B&D.
Please go ahead.
Maulik Shah
Hi, Sunu sir. This is Maulik.
Good morning. Congratulations on the successful IPO.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you.
Maulik Shah
I just wanted to understand this in the entire world, this business has been considered the most complex business. Can you just help us to simplify this, that how this complexity has helped you to turn around this entire story of growth?
Can you please help us to understand how it is run by you?
Sunu Mathew
Okay. See, Maulik, thank you.
This is a very generic question, but I can tell you that I always wanted to do business which is a bit difficult to replicate. For that very reason, there are only five companies in the world which has done this business.
There is only one company which is listed, that is Brambles, and that is also listed in Australian Stock Exchange. I was a part of Brambles for 6.5 years in India from 2008 to 2013, and all the offshoots in the world, if you look at it, have actually come out from CHEP.
India needed a different kind of a customer servicing. First I started with the automotive business, and when I got the funding, then only I entered into a capex-driven business, which is into pallets.
If you look at it, the moat which revolves around this is that how quickly you are able to create your network. Once you create your network, then it is very easy for you to move the assets.
See, this is a very, very execution-driven job. So 365 days, 24/7, you have to be absolutely on the foot in order to do this business.
This is not a very charming business for companies to actually take because once the load is been delivered, pallet has been considered as nothing. We have to tell the customers that this is not your pallet and you cannot throw it.
We have a SRC model called sorting, repairing, conditioning. We go plant to plant.
We have a repair mobile van. If they even break 20 pallets, we go to each and every location.
We repair those pallets. It is a very cumbersome kind of a business, but I believe that my team is absolutely adept.
Slowly and steadily, we have grown, and they are the one who are running this business. Once we have created this moat that from Chakan to Chennai, we take our load, we pick it back, give it to the customer to the OEM, then again we clean it, again give it to somebody in Chennai and bring it back to Chakan.
If we do not have this moat, then this is a bad business to do. If you create your network, it actually took us nearly 1.5 decade to actually create it, and we believe that we will go from strength to strength from here.
There is a great team which is backing me, my MANCOM and all the top managers. This is a very different level of skill set because nobody understands asset management in the country.
We have to recruit people from premier institute and actually put them into the water, explaining them how actually we trace and track our asset. This is my generic answer to your question, Maulik.
Maulik Shah
Thank you, sir. Thank you for highlighting and all the best to the team.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mukesh Saraf with Avendus Spark Institutional Equities.
Please go ahead.
Mukesh Saraf
Yes, good morning and thank you for the opportunity. Congrats to Sunu and team.
Sir, my first question is on the pallet addition. I think this quarter we are standing at about 9.2 million pallets end of quarter.
Just trying to understand what's the target there in terms of this year. Where would we want to end the pallet count?
Sunu Mathew
Okay. Mukesh, see, since last 6 years, we are continuously adding 700,000 pallets to 1 million pallet into our pool.
This is the same target that we have taken, that we will be adding somewhere round about 850,000 pallets net addition into this financial year. Normally, if you look at the first quarter, Mukesh, say suppose we were at 9 million pallets, we used to be negative 100,000 pallets, we will come to 8.9 million pallets.
This is the first time because of the adhik maas and because of the extension of rainy season, there was an extension into the beverage sector, beer sector, water sector. That has actually moved from March to April, May.
That is one of the reason you will see positive addition of pallets. Now as our season starts with Durga Puja, Ganpati, and Diwali and New Year, from here the pallet pooling actually gets a kick-start.
If I can tell you something which is related to the current month also, we are ahead of our numbers. These are some of the points, yeah.
Mukesh Saraf
Got it. Just in relation to this, like you mentioned about your crates, the cost of acquisition going up with material cost going up there, here as well we are noticing that lumber costs are going up plus the INR depreciating would also impact your cost of acquisition.
How is that playing out right now? Is it significantly higher the cost per pallet?
Will that impact your addition of pallets?
Sunu Mathew
Okay. I would like to bring you to the point that as compared to last year, we have done ₹25 crores less deployment in assets.
That is the point of pallets also, GCC also the war is intensifying, there also we are not putting too much of assets, and also the automotive part. What we are trying to do, as I have already explained in my previous roadshows, you see we have already got a buffer of 900,000 pallets.
If you look at our utilization, our utilization was 88%, now this time it has gone to 89.8%. So 1.5% utilization increase is actually 70 to 80,000 pallets which we have not bought.
Mukesh Saraf
Okay?
Sunu Mathew
What we have said, we repaired round about 12 lakh pallets in the first quarter. This year, we have repaired round about 14 lakh pallets in the first quarter.
We said that we will repair more and we will purchase less. Having said that, the container cost has increased, but you will see that since last 1 month, the cost of timber has actually reduced.
Mukesh Saraf
Okay. Okay.
Okay. Understood.
Understood. Thanks for that.
Second question is in your speech you have mentioned about the continuous integration with CHEP. We did notice that a couple your fulfillment centers have now gone down to 28.
I'm assuming that is also part of integration. What more is there in terms of integration, sir?
Is there more to be squeezed out of say some of the cost elements or say on the business side of it? What can we expect with more integration here with CHEP?
Sunu Mathew
I think very very good question on future, Mukesh. I believe we have the opportunity to close two more warehouses, which are 300,000 square feet warehouses, and that can be integrated in the second to third quarter.
That is one point. Second point is that we may open up also small warehouses.
What is happening, say we have got Sanathan Textile, we have got Reliance, we have got Alok Industries. This comes into I'm just giving an example, this comes into the part of Silvassa.
There is a possibility in order to service them faster and not take the pallets from Bhiwandi to that location, we may start a 40,000 pallet pool out there. These numbers will keep fluctuating, but as far as CHEP's utilization is concerned, we really believe that and we are having the plans to actually close down nearly 250,000 square feet warehouses, two warehouses.
Mukesh Saraf
Okay. Okay.
Okay. Got it.
Got it. Just last question from my side is on working capital.
How does that stand in end of 1Q, if any sense you can give us? See,
Sunu Mathew
working capital, we are currently into a comfortable kind of a situation. Our DSO basically has reduced from 131 days to 119 days.
I'm not saying that it is great as far as LEAP is concerned. Taron is continuing to do well at 62, 63 days.
We believe that every quarter, we will be able to reduce 10 to 15 days into our DSO. In next two to three quarters, we will be up to date with our working capital cycle.
Got it.
Mukesh Saraf
Got it. Thanks a lot for this, Sunu, and all the best.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you, Mukesh. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aagam with Aagam Capital Limited.
Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.
Sir, two, three questions quick. First question, in the GCC region, on the EBITDA front when you said, is all the costs and all is been incurred?
Or yet any more cost we have to incur to set up the GCC business? On the one comment you said for the revenue growth of more than 20%, EBITDA growth should be more.
You said the margin will keep on fluctuating. These two things don't match up.
If the revenue growth comes up and if EBITDA has to outperform, the margin also percentage also has to increase, right?
Sunu Mathew
Aagam. First let me talk about the GCC, and then I will talk about one second, EBITDA.
Okay? First GCC, yes, the cost has been actually incurred.
Most of the cost, we have got the MISA license in Saudi, we have got the business to do license in ADGM and also in Dubai entity. Previously, we felt that we will keep one company under one umbrella, but geopolitics is continuously changing.
Saudi is talking their tune and UAE is talking their tune. We have separated that, and two companies will be operating in that very region.
Our recruitment is not in full phase, but technically we have five people. We have completed round about 20 discussions with our customers and we will start to move ahead.
As far as money is concerned to set up the business, it is not further required. Now whatever will be required will be something to create asset base out there.
Now as far as EBITDA is concerned, now you see this is not a mathematical connection. Say suppose one quarter I get order from somebody to supply 100,000 pallet.
Business will grow, but EBITDA will be less, but PAT will increase. Say suppose one quarter from 15% contribution, MHE business contributes to say 17%.
Say I get a order from say Coca-Cola for 200 machines or from BALCO or from Vedanta or for somebody else. If that happens, the ROCE is fantastic, ROCE improves, but EBITDA gets subdued.
We have three different lines of business. Yes, if we have done 711,000 pallet pooling last year in the same quarter, this year we have done 766.
If you look at the growth opportunity which we are talking 20%, if pooling has happened to an extent of say only 8%, then EBITDA margin will not go to that an extent. Say suppose I get repairing of pallets.
Say this time we have repaired pallet, which is called T1 board. When 1.4 ton is kept on the pallet and forklift comes and hits it, the first board which breaks is T1 board, we spend X amount on repair.
Say suppose in a quarter, I get few pallets which is been broken from the connector board. If a connector board is broken, I have to cut first all the 11 planks which is on top and then I have to repair.
Repair cost goes high and EBITDA comes down. There are many levers on how this fluctuates.
We cannot put a mathematical calculation that if you are growing by 24, 25%, our value in EBITDA will definitely increase, but our margins can be say 50%, 51%, but the value will go up. This is absolute term,
the growth will happen, you're saying, right? Yes, yes,
Sunu Mathew
yes, very well. Always, Aagam, since last 6 years you look at our numbers, it is between 47 to 56%.
Abhi kisi ne mujhse 200 forklift maang liya toh I cannot tell Vedanta, "No, no, I will not give. This is bringing my EBITDA down."
It all depends.
Broadly, you expect the mix to remain the same or can't say?
Sunu Mathew
It will remain the same. No, what has been remaining same for last 6 to 7 years, we have grown further, Aagam, from pillar to post, slowly and steadily.
Now we have got the largest pool of lithium-ion battery in the country. Because if you ask anybody to give a lithium-ion battery, first they will take 50% advance and then they will go to source it.
We have 140 machines standing ready to be delivered anywhere. We have 800,000 pallets ready to be given to any company.
Now automotive, yes, I understand that the cost is humongous right now, we are not buying too much of crates. There is a bit of slowdown, but we actually, Aagam, work on 38 sectors.
One or two sectors going down actually does not move our EBITDA margins towards that extent.
Okay. Also on the growth front, Q4 base is the highest for us, right, as you said?
Sunu Mathew
Pardon? Q4, yes, yes.
Q4, yeah.
For the Q1, you have almost matched Q4 and you have grown 19%. Is 20% being on a very much conservative side?
Because the way the run rate is showing, we should cross it, right?
Sunu Mathew
Q1 basically contributes 21 to 22%. We have grown by somewhere round about 21.5%.
What I'm saying is the market is going in the same direction. See, because of adhik maas, all our festivals have got stretched by 1 month.
For us, the season for the beverage industry also got stretched because of less rain. Whether it is beer industry, whether it is water industry, whether it is cola industry, from March it has actually come to June March to April, May.
That has actually helped us to actually overdeliver on whatever numbers. Yes, the guidance that we have given to the market is 20%, but we are trying our level best to absolutely outperform and create great value for the shareholders.
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Wish you the best.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of Ajit Motwani with Diamond Asia. Please go ahead.
Ajit Motwani
Good afternoon, team, and congratulations for good set of numbers. Just wanted to understand your two aspects.
One was the traction on the Movement Hire and as well as the rate increases on the total asset side.
Sunu Mathew
Okay. Good question.
The Movement Hire, as I have told, that last year we moved round about 711,000 pallet, and this year we have moved 766,000 pallet, which is basically an 8% increase into as quarter-on-quarter even though we have grown by 21% on our overall revenue. This is not a desirable desirable area.
This has actually happened because of slow performance in the textile industry. See, all the raw material cost, whether it is for plastic crate, textile, has gone over the roof.
Companies which were into this kind of industries actually did not do too much of transfer hire movement, which which actually contributes 4 to 5% of our overall Movement Hire turnover. This is probably one of the reason why Movement Hire was less.
We work on a Salesforce management and Miller Heiman theory. We we absolutely believe that the numbers that we have put in for the entire year, which is 3.7 million pallets, we will add round about 800,000 to 900,000 pallets into our pooling model.
We are we are in just to the target of that. Now so in in future times to come, in future quarters, we will definitely keep improving our numbers for Movement Hire.
As far as the price increase is concerned, we have taken a 5 to 6% price increase as compared to last year. What you need to understand is that last year same quarter, we were at a per pallet yield of ₹1.45, and this quarter we are at a per pallet yield of ₹1.54.
That is a fantastic jump, and and this is how this is how we actually look at our business. We have, yes, taken price increase of 5 to 6%.
Since this is a very, very sticky business, Ajit, and we have not lost a single customer since we have formed this company. Yes, we might not have serviced the customer due to various reasons, but per se we have not lost a single customer.
Since this pallet, crates, utility boxes, foldable large container, MHE business MHE material handling equipment, belts and wedges, everything is provided by us, we have a solid ground to take 5% to 6% price increase year-on-year, which will absolutely beat the inflation. This is on a very scientific method on the basis of the stock exchange price of wood which which fluctuates, and the base we take is German wood price index.
Price increase price increase we definitely take, and all the agreements that we have is a 3-year to 5-year contract. This price year is price increase is already mentioned in that.
It is not that we have to go and renegotiate price every now and then. This price increase is already mentioned.
Ajit Motwani
Got it. As we move into the balance part of the year and also going forward, do we in the stronger half of the years, do we see you're saying you'll see better Movement Hire, and that typically is very highly margin accretive, right?
Sunu Mathew
Yes, yes, absolutely,
Ajit Motwani
absolutely.
Sunu Mathew
That is the right thing, yeah.
Ajit Motwani
Typically, our price increases are, as you said, kind of linked to the index, and so do we take the price increases for the balance 9 months as well? Is there a fair enough
Sunu Mathew
Yeah, yeah. See, we have renewed 24 contracts in the first quarter.
By default in the 24 contracts, the price increase will come.
Ajit Motwani
Got it, sir. You will have both these coming in the balance half, both the Movement Hire and the price increase.
Very much, very much,
Sunu Mathew
very much. It all depends upon when the contract is going to come to an end.
If the contract is coming to an end in the month of July, we start 6 months in advance for the pricing negotiations and few points that we want to add on to the contract. Once July comes, we sign the contract much before that, and we take a price increase and move on.
Technically, we may not be getting the full price increase of 12 months, but at least for the next 7 months, we'll be able to get that.
Ajit Motwani
Okay. The pricing increase would be the prevailing prices then, right?
Yes,
Sunu Mathew
yes. Prevailing prices are the base for that.
Ajit Motwani
Got it. Sure.
Thanks a lot, sir. Thanks a lot.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you, Ajit. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder to ensure that the management will be able to address all the questions from the participants, we request you to kindly limit your question to two questions only per participant.
Our next question comes from the line of Mayank Jha with First Bridge Fund. Please go ahead.
Mayank Jha
Hi, Sunu. Thanks for this call.
Just wanted to understand, is there any estimate for the synergies that we have got from the CHEP acquisition that we had?
Sunu Mathew
Yeah. Mayank, the synergies that we have got is on automotive sector.
You will see that previously before CHEP, the overall automotive business used to contribute round about 13.5 to 14% to the total turnover. Now this has gone to 20%, and we have given targets internally to actually take it to 22 to 25%.
We were number one in to pallet pooling at that point in time, and CHEP was at 20%, we were at 80%. The consolidation that has happened has actually put us pallet number one and also automotive pooling number one.
Second very important point was that they were very good with their system, we have integrated a lot of stuff with their system. Third very important thing was that they had few molds, few crates, which is very, very difficult to replicate.
We have got hold of the mold also, and that is how we have actually gained great amount of strength into our automotive pooling. I believe that component manufacturing is going places in India.
They are doing so very well: MAHLE, Behr, Visteon, Lucas, Sundram Fasteners, Minda. After COVID, these guys have found even exports and all other businesses.
We can say that component manufacturing has gone to the next level in India and it is growing strength to strength, and that is one of the reason we are totally focused on everything which is related to battery vehicle. Whether it is a boot, or a shaft, or a hose, or a seat belt.
Autoliv absolutely makes seat belts. We have just won another business with Autoliv and Bosch.
We are focusing a bit on that. A, the mold, B, the concentration of our business into automotive, and C, the 1.4 million pallets which they were having with different customers have also come to us.
Actually, Mayank, this has also helped us to tell us that the depreciation that we take for pallets is 15 years, but actually the life of the pallet is perpetual: 40, 50, 55 years. How we are demonstrating it: CHEP was started in 2006, 2008.
It's been 20 years that their pallets are into the system and they are still generating revenue. 1.4, 1.5 million pallets have come to us and it is still used by the customers and they are paying the rent.
We keep repairing it and it keeps getting new. This is a very important point for all investors to know.
When you look at a P/E kind of a model that what is the P/E of this company, then the depreciated value is actually the life of the asset of the product. In our case, why we say that there is not a single company wherein you can actually compare it and say that this is a P/E multiple that you should put in, we say that the life is say 15 years, but it actually runs for 45 to 50 years.
We can give international example of Brambles wherein they have 422 million pallets in 56 countries, and carte blanche, they have not changed the pallets anywhere in the world. In India also to our local investors, we want to prove that we have taken a company which is having a 20-year-old pallet, and still we are generating revenue out of that.
The moment 15-year-old pallet can work for 15 years, good business. The moment it becomes 20-year pallet, 25-year pallet, 30-year pallet, then from good, this business moves to great.
Mayank Jha
Thank you. Second and last question that I have, in the investor presentation, you talk about moving from static to Movement Hire.
What is the kind of revenue uplift that we can expect from this if a pallet is on static hire model, if it earns ₹500 a year, then what is the kind of revenue uplift, just for the sake of numbers, but what is the kind of revenue uplift we can earn from a Movement Hire?
Sunu Mathew
See, it depends on the sector that we are going. There are few parameters: the sector that we are going, the value of the product which is kept on the pallet, the distance that the pallet is going to travel, do we have a pooling business when it reaches the next location.
There are round about 16 parameters on which we judge that what is the kind of Movement Hire charges we should apply on this business. At the same time, we say that if there is any conventional method which is been used by the customer, we should give at least 20 to 30% cost-benefit analysis.
We give cost benefit to them. Having put all of this together, everything boils down to our per-pallet yield.
If we say that our per-pallet yield is ₹1.54 today, we are generating round about ₹550 per annum. As this pooling increases, say we have 9 million pallets and out of 9 million pallets, we have moved 2.9 million pallets Movement Hire.
We will go to say 9.6 million pallet or 9.5 million pallet, but we will move 3.7 million pallets. From 0.3, we will move to 0.4, 0.5.
The moment this point movement increases, this actually brings in great amount of value, which sits on our PDR, which is per-day rental, which is a static hire. It can happen that we may end the year at say ₹1.62, ₹1.
This ₹560 will go to ₹600, this can go to ₹650, ₹650 to ₹720. This all depends on how fast we are able to actually pool pallets within our system and take this 0.3 into 0.5 and 0.6.
Asset remains the same. We may not have to put a new asset.
With the same base, first we enter as static hire, and then we start to move the pallet. Then there are various parameters on which we will be able to build it to the customers.
Operator
Thank you.
Sunu Mathew
Thanks, Mayank.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we request you to please limit your question to one question only per participant.
Our next question comes from the line of Nikhil Agarwal with TVF Capital. Please go ahead.
Nikhil Agarwal
Hey, hi, Mr. Mathew.
Good afternoon. Like you described on the Movement Hire going up from 0.3 to 0.6, right now 0.3 seems very low for a country like India, whereas the global peers like CHEP is at almost four times or even higher in most developed countries.
What are the challenges that you see in the Movement Hire picking up? Let's say in next 3 to 5 years, how do you see the movement ratio picking up from 0.5 towards higher numbers, and how can that change the return on capital for the business?
Thanks.
Sunu Mathew
Okay. Nikhil, I can very well say that since last 4 years, our Movement Hire started with say 250,000 pallets to 500,000 pallet, then it went to 1,100,000 pallet, then it went to 2.1 million, and last year we have done 2.8, 2.9 million.
Every year, we are adding somewhere round about 800,000 to 900,000 pallets into pooling arena. I believe that this is not a great scenario, but this is still an okay scenario.
Say suppose if I would have stopped myself at 8 8 million pallet, then this would have gone to 0.5. Static hire growth is also rampant.
If you look at that in this first quarter, we have signed round about 48 new customers like Lear Automotive, Minda Instruments, Hexalog Logistics, Woodpecker, GreenAgri, Sriram Foods. These are few of the marquee names.
Normally we sign 15 to 20 customers in a quarter. In this quarter itself, we have signed 48 customers.
This is going to bring in additional 120,000 static hire pool. My static hire pallet is also expanding, it is actually looked at as 0.3, 0.4.
The reason why it is not happening is because of a very, very fragmented transportation system that we have. We have to the tune of 1,000 different sizes of truck.
If we have to standardize it, we have given few recommendations to the body that it should be at least curtailed to 10. Then the palletization and the movement actually becomes very, very feasible, and then you will be able to cut down your supply chain cost by 5 to 6% onto the GDP.
See, any developed country if you look at it, it is not that they can do anything with the body of the truck. In India, you can actually go and do anything with the body of the truck.
Now we are talking to the OEMs also, they are also understanding that one size kind of a container is the name of the game in future, and that is one of the reason why our supply chain cost will come down. I believe that this is a bit of ignorance into the supply chain network.
People are not even aware about few of the things which can be automated into warehouses, which can actually look at the efficacy of palletization. We are as a nation very low experimenters.
We will go with what is actually going on. Suppose one cola company gets into pooling, rest everybody joins.
For example, one paint company we cracked, now all paint companies are our customer. We just cracked one company as far as textile is concerned, from Sanathan Textile, to Bhilosa, to Alok Industries, to Reliance, everybody has started working with us.
It takes time in India, but then the growth is rock-solid.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sannidhi Shah with PL Capital.
Please go ahead.
Sani Vishe
Thanks for taking my question. Most of those have been answered, and I think we are short on time, I'll just ask for a couple of clarifications.
One thing is you said that the India market is much more underpenetrated compared to other markets, including GCC. I just wanted to understand why not continue focusing on India market rather than going into GCC?
I completely understand you explained the growth potential. Do you think it is better to stick to within India compared to GCC?
Secondly, what is the targeted revenue mix? Because I see that the MHE business has outpaced the other businesses, and that has a bearing on your margins and ROCE.
Just wanted to understand how higher can it go?
Sunu Mathew
Okay. Sannidhi, as far as GCC is concerned, look, I am a brand guy, I look at all businesses from the PLC model, product life cycle model.
There is an introduction stage. Today we are on a hockey stick growth stage.
In say 2 to 3 years when our 3 3-plus years if our growth actually comes down or it becomes from hockey stick growth, it goes into a linear growth, I need another market which will pick up the pace from there. Probably maybe 2 years down the line, we will look at another niche, another product, another market wherein when we will say that, okay, 5 million pallets or 4 million pallets in GCC is actually moving 12 million times, then it is the time for us to go and invest in something else.
Because you see, this business is something that it takes time to build this business. It is not that you will go tomorrow and you will start selling the product because I can get into any website and I will say that I offer this product and I will do my turnover in next 1 month.
I just cannot increase ₹1 turnover, or I cannot give a scheme like FMCG to anybody and they take 12 plus 1 scheme and they will let my target gets completed. I really need to prepare 2 to 3 years in advance that what I am looking at.
GCC is one of the lever. Few product introductions which we are going to do, say suppose tomorrow we may rent AGVs, automated guided vehicle.
We are already into experimenting of that. We should have five, six levers so that this growth for our shareholders actually continues.
This is one of the reason, and staying only in India actually limits the thought process of my people. We have not seen a great amount of supply chain revolution in the country.
If you go to GCC, they are more inclined towards West, and typically Europe and US. If you talk about ASRS, automated supply chain retrieval system, everything is already there.
The people whom I send from here, from logistics engineering and all those, they learn 10 things from there, come back, and they try to implement that in India. These are few of the reasons because the cost is very less and the Movement Hire is very more.
One pallet technically moves 3 to 3.5 times in GCC. Nobody handballs anything into the truck.
That is a great business for me to actually explain it to my own people within the company that see, this is how palletization happens. For those reasons, we are going to GCC.
Plus, as I explained, Sannidhi, GCC is an importing country. There are so many pallets which people take from here, they break it and throw it there.
We will give a lot of value to our own current customers. I will just take an example of PGP Glass, Piramal Glass.
They supply 40,000 pallets to Jebel Ali and Ras Al Khaimah every month. If they are spending ₹1,200, ₹1,300, we will be able to cut down the cost by 30% and give them the pallet and then collect it over there and then pull it out there.
You think about it, a ₹1,750 pallet, I actually take out the complete money in 2.9 9 years. I will be taking just half the time to actually recover the entire money from GCC.
That is one thing. Second, you asked about Taron and how fast this business can grow.
See, Taron will always remains within a bracket of 14 to 17% even though it is growing very fast, but palletization and automotive crating and everything is growing on a long-term basis will grow much faster than that. I believe that even if Taron has grown by 33% this time, but if you will see in the future quarters that automotive and FMCG business picks up the pace with them.
Base is very small, Sannidhi, for Taron actually.
Sani Vishe
Thank you so much, sir.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you, Sannidhi.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, due to the time constraint, we'll take the last question from Devesh Chenani from Equities World Advisory Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Devesh Chenani
Hello.
Sunu Mathew
Hi, Devesh.
Devesh Chenani
Good afternoon, sir. Thanks for taking up my question.
Sir, most of the questions have been answered for me, just had a one question on the Gulf expansion that you are doing. The revenue guidance which you have given of about 20% in the further years, is that inclusive of the Gulf expansion or how is it?
From when can we [unclear]?
Sunu Mathew
Yes,
Devesh Chenani
it
Sunu Mathew
is.
Devesh Chenani
See,
Sunu Mathew
it is included, but we understand that there is a situation which is there in the Gulf. We have another three, four levers which can compensate this.
Say suppose we have said that X revenue will be generated out of GCC, and as we wanted to go in August, and August the war has actually intensified, we are planning for September mid. We have levers within India.
It is just a small fraction that we have budgeted for GCC. We have got four, five more levers that if that doesn't happen, we will be able to gain that number from within India.
Devesh Chenani
Are we looking for further acquisitions of the company in the GCC region to expand our base over there in the further year?
Sunu Mathew
See, in our last board meeting, which was been conducted yesterday only, in few other matters to be taken, we have actually informed our shareholders and board members, which is now in public also, that we have looked at few acquisition opportunities. We are just at the nascent stage, and we are looking at in India and elsewhere also.
As you have seen that we grow organically also and inorganically also. We have certain acquisitions in mind, which maybe in the second, third quarter will see more colors and we will inform investors and our board members as and when we move forward on that.
Devesh Chenani
We can see the acquisition coming in the light in the further quarters, right, as agreement goes about?
Sunu Mathew
Yes,
Devesh Chenani
yes. Yes, yes, yes, Devesh.
That's really helpful, sir. Thank you.
Sunu Mathew
Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today.
I now hand the conference over to the Managing Director for the closing remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Sunu Mathew
Thank you, everyone, for joining us on our maiden earnings call as a listed company. This is an important milestone for LEAP, but more importantly, it marks the beginning of a new phase of growth and long-term value creation for all the shareholders.
We are grateful to our customers, employees, partners, and shareholders for their trust and great support. We look forward to building this business thoughtfully and creating sustainable value.
For any additional queries or follow-up discussions that you may have, please feel free to reach to our investor relation advisors, Go India Advisors. We look forward to engaging with you again.
A big namaskar, and thank you to you all.
Operator
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Go India Advisors, that concludes today's call.
Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Sunu Mathew
We can disconnect?
Operator
Thank you so much. On behalf of Go India Advisors, that concludes today's call.
Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you, sir.
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