Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and very warm welcome to LT Foods Q1 FY27 post-result earnings call hosted by Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited.

On the call today, we have management team being represented by Mr. Ashwani Kumar Arora, Managing Director and CEO, Mr.

Sachin Gupta, CFO, and Ms. Monika Chawla Jaggia, Chief Corporate Development Officer.

We will begin the call with the key thoughts from the management team, thereafter we will open the floor for Q&A session. I would now like to request the management to share their perspective on the performance of the company.

Thank you, and over to you, Ashwani.

Thank you, Sumant. Monika, please.

Thank you, Sumant, for the introduction. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today on the post-Q1 financial year '27 earnings conference call of LT Foods Limited.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that certain statements made during this call may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

The result documents are available on our company's website as well as stock exchanges. A transcript of this call will also be made available on the investor section of the company's website.

I'm pleased to share that LT Foods has delivered another strong quarter, achieving 26.4% year-on-year growth despite a challenging operating environment marked by geopolitical uncertainties, supply chain disruptions, and freight volatility. This performance reflects the strength of our brands, resilient business model, effectiveness of our long-term growth strategy, and disciplined execution.

Before Mr. Sachin Gupta takes you through the financial highlights, let me briefly update you on the performance across our key geographies.

India, the engine that's just getting started: we are grown profitably for the three for the last three straight years with a CAGR of 12%, wherein the profit has grown faster than the revenue with a CAGR of more than 30%. We believe we still have a huge scope of growth as Basmati remains majority unbranded in India as on date as well, and every year, more households shifts to branded and trusted Basmati.

Our financial year '30 ambition is a step change of more than doubling the revenue with expanding margins driven by reaching consumers at every price point, building distinctive brands, expanding availability, and scaling our organizational backbone digitally, also by expanding our portfolio in the adjacent categories by leveraging our brand equity and distribution network. The United States, category leadership earned the hard way: we are growing faster than the category.

Our US Basmati import share is now more than 60%. Royal and Golden Star continue to pull ahead as clear segment leaders on the back of consistent brand investments, innovation, and execution across every channel.

Tariff shifts created pricing volatility this year, and we are focused on converting dollar growth into the real unit growth as the pricing normalizes while broadening our reach across every price point and format. Europe and UK, they both are in the investment phase.

Europe and the UK are currently in investment phase, and we remain very positive about the long-term potential these geographies carry. We are continuously investing in the capacity, the cost structure, and the right channel mix, and we expect these investments to translate into the profitability over the coming quarters in the medium term.

Another geography is the Middle East, wherein we are building inroads. It's a tough and saturated market.

Middle East is a saturated market, and as a relatively new entrant, it is not an easy one to crack for us. Despite regional disruption to shipping this year, our demand held firm, and our e-commerce business took the number one category position.

We are approaching the market across multiple price points to build inroads, and we are encouraged by the progress so far. Rest of the world, wherein we are strengthening our share: though it's a small market in terms of the Basmati consumption, but we are enjoying leadership position in most of the countries, and we are further solidifying our position with the continuous brand investments and the distribution expansion.

The other segment that we are into, which is organic: so financial year '26 brought cost pressure as we changed the business model from wholesale to the CPG and we expanded our European capacity. We still see organic as one of our most exciting long-term bets with white space in the Americas and in European organic ingredients, which will help us to balance growth and margins in the medium term.

India is a proven growth engine, still in its early innings as there is a huge potential lies in front of us. The US is generally category leader working through near-term tariff headwinds.

Europe and the UK are in the investment phase with strong long-term potential, and the Middle East is a tough market wherein we are building inroads. Organic is a long-term bet where we are reset course, and all the geographies and business segments are moving forward with full rigor.

Now I hand over to our CFO, Mr. Sachin Gupta, for the detailed financial update.

Sachin, over to you, please.

Thank you, Monika. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.

LT Foods delivered another strong quarter, reflecting the resilience of our business model and the strength of our brands and the effectiveness of our long-term growth strategy. During quarter one FY27, the consolidated revenue on a year-on-year basis grew by 26%, on a normalized basis, it grew by 19%, and the revenue stood at ₹3,161 crores driven by strong demand across our key geographies and sustained momentum in our branded portfolio.

The gross profit during this quarter increased by 19% to ₹1,029 crores. The EBITDA grew by 20% to ₹363 crores.

Profit after tax stood at ₹183 crores, registering a growth of 9%. EPS likewise stood at ₹5.3 per share, a growth of 9%.

Profitability remained healthy. However, the EBITDA margins moderated from 11 to 11.5% as compared to 12.1% primarily due to ongoing restructuring within the organic food segment.

Now coming to quarter-on-quarter basis, the revenue grew by 8%, the gross profit margin grew by 13%, EBITDA grew by 21%, and the profit after tax on a quarter-on-quarter basis grew by 35%. Turning to the segmented performance, our core Basmati and specialty rice business continued to perform exceptionally well, delivering revenue growth of 34% year-on-year basis to ₹2,845 crores.

Importantly, the volume grew by 11%, demonstrating the sustained consumer preference for our flagship brand across market. Despite the geopolitical uncertainties and freight disruption, this segment EBITDA margin stood at stable 13%, highlighting the strength of our business model and operational execution.

In India, the revenue grew by 23% on year-on-year basis supported by continued marketing share gain and deeper household penetration. Our market share reached to 23.1%, while our household penetration increased to 64.4 lakh households, reinforcing the growing strength of our Daawat franchise.

We also continue to maintain leadership position across e-commerce, quick-commerce platform, which remain strong drivers of our premiumization and consumer acquisition. International business also continued its growth momentum and contributed 71% of our consolidated revenue, with North America maintaining the leadership position with 49% growth.

Normalized growth during this quarter was 27%. Middle East and the rest of the world grew by 44%.

Our brand continues to strengthen in these markets across all geographies. In organic food and ingredient business witnessed a temporary decline in the revenue due to remodeling of the organic business.

The revenue stood at ₹254 crores, with EBITDA margin at 4%. However, the underlying demand fundamentals remains healthy, and we are expecting gradual normalization over the coming quarters as the business mix improves.

We continue to believe strongly in the long-term opportunities within the global organic food market. The ready-to-heat and ready-to-cook portfolio delivered revenue growth of 13% on year-on-year basis, with 42% growth coming in the Biryani Kit.

This portfolio continues to represent an important strategic growth avenue for the company. Our RTH facility in the US is expected to become operational in this quarter.

With it, it will accelerate the growth in this segment in the upcoming quarters. From the balance sheet perspective, we remain focused on disciplined capital allocation and efficient working capital management.

We delivered meaningful improvement across key operating metrics during the quarter. On year-on-year basis, inventory days reduced from 221 days to 187 days, receivable days improved from 30 days to 26 days.

With these improvements, our overall working capital reduced from 195 days to 170 days. These improvements reflect our continued efforts towards enhancing efficiency across the value chain.

Our return on capital employed remains robust at 21.1%, demonstrating our ability to generate healthy returns while continuing to invest behind the future growth opportunities. While net debt to EBITDA improved during the quarter to 0.48x, our net debt to equity also remained comfortable at 0.15x, providing adequate flexibility to support future expansion initiatives.

To summarize, our quarter one FY27 revenue has been a strong start to the year with record revenue of ₹3,161 crores, EBITDA at ₹363 crores, PAT at ₹183 crores, and a EPS of ₹5.3 per share. Importantly, these results are in line with our annual estimates, and we are on track for the full year across all financial parameters.

With this, I now request the operator to open the floor for question and answers.

Hello?

Yes, Pooja.

Congratulations on a good set of numbers. I wanted to understand how much is the planned capex for the Australia facility?

We have just opened the company, there is no plan for the capex right now, but we'll see how it evolves. At the moment, we have just infused a very small equity to open the company.

Right. Also second question is if you can give me some regional flavor on what are the key drivers that are responsible for driving revenue and profitability for each of the regions?

For India, I will request Ritesh to take this question on call.

Hi Pooja. For India, the focus is multi-folds.

We are obviously increasing our distribution. As we move forward, there is a robust plan in place that we've created in the last year, which is helping us go deeper into every city.

Outlet expansion is one lever. Every channel is in focus where we are largely focusing on premiumizing our product mix as well as looking at white spaces in the market to launch newer products.

These two are the key levers for growth in revenue as well as gross margins.

Right.

Pooja, just to add what Ritesh said, broadly, we have three areas where we will grow. One is in our core, which is specialty rice, and second is organic, and third is RTE and RTC.

The specialty rice is across globe, and RTE is bigger in USA. We have doubled our capacity.

Hopefully, in 3 years' time, we are aiming to make our ready-to-eat business double,

10.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you and congrats. My first question is on the El Niño impact.

Clearly, currently sowing of the rice is happening, and of course, in many areas, there is a deficit, some areas there may be excess also. If you could update what will be your prognosis of the sowing season, and what will be your plan of action if yield is low because El Niño can impact yield, and the cost of irrigation also goes up because diesel usage is higher?

How do you see on the margin side given there is the inflation, and on the yield side, are you now going to source from other markets also if there is an option?

Abneesh, fortunately, the majority of the Basmati-grown area have an alternative irrigation, which is canal on the ground water. Historically, we have not seen much impact, but there will be little bit impact, but it's too early to project on the exact size of the crop.

By mid of August, we will be very clear. If there will be a lesser crop, then there will be inflation, and we have all the plans to make sure that whatever the demands LT has is for brands, it will be met.

If inflation comes, then historically, we have been able to pass on to the consumer, and quite confident that we will be.

Yes, thank you. Second question is on India market as a demand side.

Two things: one is on organic side, I see companies like Tata Consumer which has done a brilliant acquisition in that space ramp up gradually for the India market. I understand you feel that regulations in India are not stringent, you are focusing in terms of organic more outside India.

If you could update on what will be the India plans in the next 1 or 2 years on the organic side? Second is on the Basmati India, clearly, the number three player, we are seeing ramp up, Fortune plus Kohinoor.

If you could tell us next 3 years, would you expect top two players to lose market share, and will there be healthy coexistence? It becomes a slightly three-player market with third player still much smaller than the number top two, but still gaining some share.

Would you be worried on that?

Ritesh, are you taking this question?

Sure. For us, the larger focus is on market creation.

The focus is to increase the market size of Basmati as Basmati still very underpenetrated as a category. Our focus is on improving our availability and creating market where the larger focus is to gain share from households which are consuming Basmati, but loose, and shifting them to branded Basmati.

That's the larger focus on the core Basmati side, and we believe that this will lead to increase in our market share. On the organic bit, we've also launched I am Organic in Daawat in e-commerce.

We're starting this journey of launching organic product range, and this will continue as we will launch more products in this space in the future.

Two quick follow-ups, and I'll end there. One is in terms of organic, are you charging a premium versus Organic India of Tata Consumer?

On Basmati, any aggressive pricing by the number three player, and have the top two players lost some market share? I'm not referring to the official market share data if you're referring to that.

Please give me a real sense of the market share because that doesn't give the true picture generally. The top two players would have grown slower than the number three player because number three player is already out in terms of results?

We have gained market share in the last quarter. I don't know about the other player, but we have gained market share in the last quarter, both in all the channel mix, as you can see in our growth rate as well that our first quarter growth has been good.

The second or the first question on organic, yes, we are charging a premium over in the space of Basmati and Sona Masoori to all the players that are available in the market.

Sure. Thank you.

That's all from me. Thank you.

Thank you, Abneesh. Yeah.

Hi. Congratulations on the great set of numbers.

My first question is I would like to just re-touch upon the El Niño part. Largely, Basmati crops remain irrigated, right, from the canal or be it the groundwater.

What are the current groundwater levels in the areas where we source from? Till when do you expect it to get utilized?

Because below a certain level, we cannot use that groundwater, right? What is the study of ours on that part?

Saurabh, I may not have the exact figure on the water levels, but broadly, our ground survey is telling us that, and historically, we have also seen. Till date, there is no red alert on that it will impact.

Some district, we have issue, but majority district is not a challenge. Say in 20% of the area where it is grown, there is an issue, but I think we will have an exact thing by end of the August.

More or less, we don't see the crop to be more than last year as we were expecting as farmer has got a good price last year. The prices will remain firm in the coming crop also.

Okay. Still, on an average, what percentage of the Basmati crops gets supplied via the irrigation and what percentage via the ongoing rainfall if that?

No,

I will say 80%, 85% is by the alternatives sources also, which is canal and the groundwater, and 15, 14%, 15% is where is dependent on the rains.

Okay. The second question, if we look at the standalone numbers, if I talk of the subsidiaries, can you give me a bifurcation of what are the gross margins and the EBITDA margins separately for the standalone and for the subsidiaries?

Because what I see is for the subsidiaries, this quarter, both the gross and the EBITDA level margins have fallen on a YoY basis. What is your read on that?

The major reason for the fall in the gross margin is two two factors. Firstly, the change in the payment or the shipment terms that we have changed from the CIF to C and I basis, and secondly, there has been a drop in the margins in the organic segment.

The organic segment initially last year had a gross margin of 35%. This year, it is at 33%.

This had an effect. Otherwise, on the overall basis, our margins have improved, gross margins have improved, and this is reflecting in our EBITDA margins as well.

The EBITDA margins, if you look at on the last quarter itself to this quarter, our EBITDA margins have improved.

Perfect. Okay.

On the sourcing cost part, what is the current level of inventories we hold, and, if you can share a average price? Going forward, what is the level till we don't have to source for the inventories?

Because as price rises, given there's an adverse effect of El Niño, we will have impact on the margins on a lag basis, say for 4Q of FY27 or 1Q of FY28. What is your read on that?

As far as the inventory level goes, the inventory as on June 26th, our rice inventory is 346,000 tons at an average rate of ₹56, and paddy inventory is 164,000 tons at an average rate of ₹38. Whatever the inventory we have, we have sufficient inventory to service the next year whatever the branded demand or the sales that is.

Yes, the new crop or the season what it comes out, that we are still wait-and-watch situation as Ashwani told.

Saurabh, just to add on the last ask, that if the inflation comes and if there is a price rise as last year, as I told you, we are confident that we will be able to pass on to the consumer, there will be no issue on the demand side. Because Basmati is specialty rice, premium rice, there is no impact of demand and on the margin side also.

Perfect. Just one last, yeah, would you like to add something?

As far as the margin can be, historically what we have seen is that Basmati is around 13%, 14% EBITDA margin. There can be a plus/minus 1% if things happen.

Yeah.

Perfect. Just one last question.

The standing 10% rate got expired on 24th of July, what is the current rate? I assume it is 10% again, and what percentage to be passed on to the consumers?

Tariff.

No, whatever the reduction has been reduced, the prices has been reset.

The current rate is 10% as the previous rate, 10%. It has continued after that expiry as well.

Correct. We are passing on the entire tariff to the end consumer, right?

Yes.

Okay. Perfect.

That helps. Thank you.

Hello. I just wanted to ask on the geopolitical crisis and how they would have impacted our transport and logistics and how did we cope with the same?

Pooja, it has impacted two geography big way: one is the Middle East and Europe, UK. That has impacted our margin, that's why in this quarter also, these geography has been in negative because of this logistic cost.

Hopefully, in the coming quarters, we will be able to partly pass on to the consumer. There is impact on the business in Europe, UK, and Middle East of this disruption.

In Middle East, the freight rate has gone from $200 to $4,000, and that market was difficult, as competitive landscape has not allowed us to pass on to that market. Right.

Okay. Got it, sir.

Thank you.

Hello. Thanks for the opportunity.

I had a couple of questions. One was that you have been referring to restructuring this organic business and the impact from the same.

I just wanted to understand when would we have completed this restructuring and when can we see the margin improvement in this part of the business?

In terms of changing our route to market, earlier we were selling to the wholesaler, now we are directly selling to the retailer, which we call is CPG. All the infra has been set in terms of organization as well as the capex.

Now, I think in the coming quarters, I think we are expecting that in 1.5 year, every quarter, it will improve.

Okay. Do you have a sense of what it could be by the end of this year, the margins from this segment?

We are expecting that end of the year, for example, this organic business will be around ₹70 to ₹80 crore of EBITDA. Understood.

Understood. Thank you.

I had a second question on your experience in the Middle East markets. I understand that the current geopolitical crisis has given some setbacks, but adjusted for that, except for that, what have been your early learnings from entering this tough competitive markets?

If you could throw some light on that.

You mean about Middle East or Saudi?

Middle East, particularly the Saudi market.

Saudi and Middle East is almost same, very mature market, very tough entry barrier. As a strategy, we are in this market for the last 15 years, but we are going slow and steady.

Every year, the business is growing, and we are choosing either channel or the product where we have a better right to win. We are quite confident in the coming time, we will make a respectable position in that kind of market.

Because in Middle Eastern, mostly, it's a very commoditized end of the market, and we have chosen our playground where we will be growing and making margin also.

Understood. Thanks for the response.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Just again on the Middle East market, it's clearly a sizable market, and I think we have, as you mentioned, we have been here for 15 years, but I think we would just have reached maybe ₹1,000-odd crores in terms of annual revenues here from the disclosures that you have given. Just wanted some if you can give some more color on what is our strategy now to maybe crack this market further.

We would probably have scratched just about 2% to 3% of this market. What is our strategy in the next maybe 5 to 10 years to further make inroads here if you can give any color in terms of country-wise or product-launch-wise or distribution-wise how are we planning to sort of make further inroads?

Or at some point is there a thought to maybe exiting, abandoning because we've not made further inroads even after 15 years? Yeah.

As far as exit is concerned, no, that's our core business, and we will remain in the market. As far as the strategy is concerned, a very clear strategy that we will mostly play where the gross margins are good and maybe in the premium and mid-segment, not in the lower segment.

As far as route to market is concerned, in some of the market, we will have our distributor in place, and in some of the market, we will have our direct distribution. This is broadly the strategy on the product side and as far as go-to-market stand.

Okay. Just another question, a book--

The growth will be in the range of 15% as the base is small, but we will keep growing in the Middle East.

Got it, sir. Just a second question, a bookkeeping one.

The other income for the quarter seems to have been quite low, any one-offs or call-outs here? Because in general, the other income for the past two, three quarters has been a bit irregular.

Any comment here?

Abhishek, in the previous quarter, what happened, there was certain revaluation of the investments that happened, and that created an income. There was a one-off income that was there.

Now it has normalized everything, and this income will remain as such.

All right, sir. Got it.

Thanks, and all the best.

Thank you.

Congratulations on the good set of numbers, and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is related to the company has shifted the shipments from CIF to CI, the freight cost have been reduced, I assume the freight cost should be reduced, but if I look at the other expense as an absolute numbers, it has been increased from 1 ₹419 crores to ₹486 crores.

Could you please provide the breakup of this?

Firstly, I want to state one thing. This change in the shipment terms has happened with a related party, one of the subsidiaries that is in the US.

We have changed that terms. It is just a movement from the other expenditure that has come to the GP margins.

Okay. Hello.

Continue, Sachin. Yeah.

As regarding the other expenditure, yes, the other expenditure has increased in this quarter from if we're comparing with the immediate year-on-year basis from ₹419 crores to ₹486 crores. This is mainly because of the increased operations if you look at, because now the Golden Star, one of our subsidiaries, that has got consolidated.

In the last year, it was not getting consolidated. There was no consolidation of the revenue or the other expenditure.

This has resulted in an increase in the revenue side as well as the other expense side as well.

The second question is related to the US. US revenue has been grew by 49% on normalized basis on 29%.

Which company have talking about some discounts. Is this grow is after discount, or it is the discount is yet to be passed on and it will be impact coming in next quarter?

No,

the sales are recorded at net basis, there is no discounting or other things that happen. It is the net sales that are being recorded.

The promotions and these are always as per the accounting itself, this is to be net off. These have been netted off.

Okay. The another last one is on the supplier financing side--

Given that in the last quarter, the Golden Star was not consolidated, in this quarter, it is consolidated, so that is the normalization. Consolidated.

Not the discounting.

Yeah. Got it.

The last question is related to the supplier financing. Supplier financings have increased our interest cost, but our working capital have been reduced because of our reduction in the inventory days and the debtors days.

How much working capital optimizations have been realized due to this, and how much it can be reduced further?

We hope we are at the optimum level of the supplier funding or these kind. Yes, some legroom 4, 5 days might be there, but not a major one from this current levels.

That's it. Thank you.

Good afternoon, working management. I have one last question.

Today, I just wanted to understand looking at your medium-term aspiration of becoming global food FMCG company, if we exclude the traditional Basmati business, which vertical do you expect to contribute the largest share of incremental EBITDA over the next 3 to 5 years, for example, research,

staples-- [unclear]

He's saying you have a growth aspiration, just out of the three business segments, which segment you feel would be able to grow faster?

Sir. Good question.

I think the Basmati will grow in 10%, 12%, the RTE, because it's a small base, that will grow in 15%, 20%, and organic will be in the range of 10%, 12%. That's the guidance has been given.

Sir. Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks for the opportunity, and congratulations, Ashwani, Ashwini-ji for a very good performance.

Thank you.

My first question is can you give the volume and revenue for each of our all four major geographies: India, US, Europe, and MENA region?

As regarding the quantitative one, the India revenue in this quarter itself, it was 109,000 tons of that was there, and internationally, there was 117,000 tons of sales that happened in this quarter itself.

109,000 India and US?

That--

I think Vipul, we can give the breakup later on.

Okay. Sir, second question is regarding why the margin has reduced so sharply, margin and volume contribution of organic business has contributed so sharply in organic food business?

Vipul, we have restructured the business model of organic. Earlier, we were selling to the wholesaler.

Now we have opened up our stock-and-sell distribution in Europe, we have set up the plant there, and we have created an full-fledged organization, sales organization there. That's why the EBITDA margins are lower, but in terms of gross margins, we are there.

Hopefully, with the as I just told that when the business is scaling up, by the end of the year, we are expecting the organic business EBITDA to be in the range of which is right now 4%, will be in the range of 7% to 8%. Going forward, it will come back to the double-digit EBITDA.

We have sales in US also from organic division, right, sir?

Yes. Two are our main market: one is Europe, which is the biggest, and followed by America.

What is the tariff rate we are paying on organic food at US right now?

Same, 10%.

10%?

Yes.

That appeal where our tariff was reduced from more than 300% to 75%, right now, we are not paying 75% on organic food? Vipul,

you're confusing with the soya case CVD, that was on soya thing. That is, we are not now exporting soya to USA, mainly rice and oil seeds go there where we have a 10% duty.

That case is we have got a reduction already, and whatever the balance is left, we are in the court. Hopefully, we will get a win there.

Lastly, sir, soya--

Hello, am I audible?

Yes.

Sir, in the rice business, the volume growth was 11%, but the revenue growth was 34%. I understand there's a 10% tariff also in US, but overall can you bridge that gap in terms of what is driven by higher realization?

Can you give some color?

If I've understood, because your voice was echoing, you said your top line has grown than the volume growth. It is a impact of two: one is inflation in the commodity, which we have passed on, and second is duty, which was in USA.

In the if you see-- Hello?

Yeah. Sorry for [unclear].

Hello. Thank you so much for the opportunity and congratulations on an excellent set of numbers.

My question is two-fold. The first question that I had was on the market share.

I've been looking at your market share since the last 2 years in India, and it has consistently gone down from 30% to now 23%. In fact, FY26 was 23.7%, and it's now 23.1%.

Any reason why this is going down? Is it because of the competitive intensity rising because of that third player coming in that someone had mentioned before on the call, or is it something else?

That's the first question. Secondly, in the US, while you've said that Basmati in the US is a far faster growing business, but because it's a smaller market, it's going at a faster level, Jasmine rice is the larger market going at a slower pace.

Has that changed, or is it the same thing, same dynamic going on in the US?

Thank you. As far as India business is concerned, we are consistently growing double digit, around 18% CAGR growth in India for the last 3 years.

As far as market share is concerned, this quarter, we have improved, and 2, 3 years back, Nielsen has reset their way of doing the things. We are consistently very strong player in all our strong market, which is Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, we are number one.

In some market, we are focusing on e-commerce as in urban market, lot of sales has gone to e-commerce where we command around 40%-plus market share in all platforms. As far as household penetration is concerned, we have also increased 20 lakh households in the last year.

Hello?

Yes, it does. That's the first question, methodology change that happened with Nielsen and not really your market share going down, that answers the first question.

The second question, Basmati market size and Jasmine rice market size in the US, has it changed? Has anything changed there if you can just help us understand?

No. The category is growing in USA, there is no impact of the duty and all these things.

That's how our US business is, of course, growing better than the category, but category is also growing.

No change there.

No.

All right. That was useful.

Thank you so much, and all the best. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

I have two questions. First is regarding the organic segment, what is the expected revenue growth once the restructuring is done?

Second is regarding RTH and RTC. Even though there is revenue growth, why EBITDA margin is declining?

Is there any change in the target period for the break-even to happen?

In organic business, the guidance we have given is that we will grow in double digit once I hope this quarter, it has improved than the last quarter. Last quarter was negative.

Going forward, every quarter, we are expecting and we are confident that it will come back to the double-digit margin and double-digit growth. As far as RTH is concerned, the break-even what we have given the guidance--

It is a break-even that will be coming at a revenue size of ₹400 crores, ₹400 crores at that, and we are on track on achieving that. It will take a 2 to 3 years' time for achieving that number.

We are on track on achieving. It is just

for

RTH. It's the US that has somewhat effect what that has done, but we are on track.

Okay. In the case of organic segment, whether it's lower double digit or upper

double digit? In terms of growth or in margin?

In terms of both growth and margin. Both,

that's what I just told that we are confident that the organic business, both in terms of growth and margin, will be double digit in coming quarters. When I say coming quarters, we are saying 1.5 year, by year '27-'28, it will be fully back.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Yes.

Are you able to hear me?

Okay. My question is regarding invalidation of duties that happened in the US.

Haan ji.

The duties, any update on whether we are eligible, and if we are eligible, how much?

Sir, your voice is a little bit cracking. Can you repeat your question, please?

This is regarding the invalidation of duties in the US by the court. Are we eligible for the refunds, and how much we are eligible?

Yes, we are eligible for the refund, and partly it has come in the first quarter, and yes, but we have not booked any income yet. We are in talk with our customer.

Okay. My second question is regarding convenience food.

Currently, we are growing around 13% in the last quarter, and if we are to reach level of 25% to 30% level, is it possible?

Sorry, you know-- What's possible for convenience segment? He's saying

we have achieved a revenue growth of 13%. Can we achieve 20%, 25% growth?

That's what we've said that the new capacity is going to start in the coming time. In a 3 years' time, we wanted to double the revenue of RTH.

That's the goal we are following.

Okay. That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. I would like to just re-touch upon the margins.

On a Q-on-Q basis, our gross and EBITDA margins have improved. Despite the elevated freight cost, we are showing an improvement in the gross margins.

What has been the major driver, and can you just quantify what as a percentage of sales the freight cost got elevated? I have a follow-up question on this too, this was my first question.

Saurabh, what happened in the last quarter, the the tariff that was in the US, that was at 50%. This has got reduced to 10%.

As we can't be earning margins on the tariff itself. That was the main reason for the improvement and the decrease, if you call it a decrease, in the last quarter.

We are on the basis of that, we have increased the GP margins this year this this quarter.

My question was on the freight part, as a percentage of sales how much freight got elevated? Despite the elevated freight cost, in the 1Q on a Q-on-Q basis, our margins are higher.

What is driving that was my center question. Haan, to so

in the last quarter, what happened, there was certain one-off exceptional events that happened as in our last presentation itself, there was a demurrage, detention, and the other things that happened in the last quarter. That have phased out in this quarter.

As far as the logistic cost as a percentage to revenue, it is 4.7% of my revenue cost as the logistic cost. This has normalized.

The last quarter, there was certain exceptional events that affected my margins.

Perfect. Secondly, on the Jasmine rice versus Basmati, at what rate the both are growing in the North America segment?

There, what is the industry size of the both? On the pricing front, I believe Jasmine price is higher than the normal Basmati rice.

Are we possessing a higher margins on that part or what is the scenario? Any comment on this?

Saurabh, two are different, Jasmine is three times bigger than the Basmati rice market, and there are a different consumer for Basmati and Jasmine rice. There is no cannibalization on this.

On the prices side, sometimes Jasmine is more expensive, sometimes Basmati is more expensive, and that's how the pricing is done. Hope that answer your question.

Just a follow-up on this, can you just provide a growth rate at which the Basmati and Jasmine has been separately growing in the--

More or less, both the categories are growing in the range of 5% to 10%, but Jasmine is growing a little faster than the Basmati growth.

On the margin side, what is the margins that the Golden Star JV possesses versus--

Now Golden Star is 100% the Golden Star is 100%, it's not now JV. Both business has a good return on capital employed because in Jasmine business, we have a working capital cycle which is roughly 120 days, whereas in Basmati, we have a bigger working capital cycle, and therefore, gross margins are higher.

In terms of return on capital employed, both business are healthy.

I believe Basmati has a higher EBITDA margin, but Jasmine has a higher ROCE? Correct.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. That helps.

Thank you.

Thank you.

On behalf of the management of LT Foods, we sincerely appreciate your participation in our post-earnings call today. We remain excited that there is a growth journey that we are eyeing at.

We hope we have been able to address most of your queries and provide clarity on our performance and outlook. For any further questions or follow-ups, please feel free to reach out to me or our investor relation partner, Ernst & Young.

The team will be happy to connect with you offline and assist you with any additional information that you may require. Now you may please close the call.

Thank you once again, and we look forward to staying engaged with all of you. Thank you.