Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited ($BECTORFOOD)

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited Q4 and FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anoop Bector, Managing Director and promoter. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you so much, and good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited, I extend a very warm welcome to all participants joining us for our quarter 4, 2026 and financial year 2026 results discussion call. Today, I'm joined by Mr. Manu Talwar, our Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Parveen Kumar Goel, Whole-Time Director and Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Ishaan Bector, Whole-Time Director; and Mr. Suvir Bector, Whole-Time Director. We also have with us our Investor Relations adviser from MUFG Intime. I hope everyone has had an opportunity to review our investor deck and press release, which have been uploaded on the stock exchanges as well as on our company website. FY '26 marks a significant milestone for Mrs. Bectors Foods. We have crossed the INR 2,000 crore revenue mark, a goal we had set our sights on and are proud to have achieved it. From INR 988 crores in financial year 2022 to INR 2,044 crores in financial year 2026, the company has grown at a 20% CAGR over these 4 years. With that, biscuits vertical grew at 20% CAGR and the bakery vertical at 23% CAGR. These 4 years have been equally defined by the foundations we have built across several dimensions. Over the last 4 years, the company has undergone a meaningful transformation across every dimension of the business. We transitioned to a professionally managed setup through deliberate leadership hiring, strengthening of IT infrastructure and benchmarking and execution excellence across sales and distribution. A clear brand and sub-brand strategy was defined to move towards long-term brand equity creation and sharper market positioning. reinforcing visibility and laying the foundation for sustainable demand-led growth. We have made substantial investments in expanding our manufacturing capacity across both biscuits in Rajpura and Indore and bakery in Kolkata, Khopoli and Govadi. These additions represent some of the more significant capacity scale-ups in the company's recent history, strengthening our meet growing demand, support new product launches and build the operational headroom needed to sustain our next phase of growth. A 2-to-2 evolving consumer behavior, we have been and will be deliberately building quick commerce as a channel of significance. Structured mindset of cost optimization through project impact. On the international business front, we have steadily entered new markets and geographies. We have earned the trust of partners through consistent quality and reliable delivery, onboarded new customers through channels and foray into new countries with a calibrated market by market. Today, our products reach consumers in more than 70 countries, a testament not just to do the reach we have built, but to the credibility we have earned on the global stage. In Q4 '26, the company reported a revenue from operations of INR 485.86 crores, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 8.9%. The biscuits vertical delivered a resilient 8.4% year-on-year growth and witnessed a sequential uptick despite navigating geopolitical headwinds from the West Asia conflict. This sequential recovery was partly supported by the GST reforms through increased grammages and reduced MRPs. Though we anticipate this tailwind being tempered in the coming quarter as inflationary pressures from the conflict intensifies, with the raw material and packaging material costs rising and some degree of price sensitivity expected in the market. The bakery vertical recorded 8.5% year-on-year growth in Q4 FY '26 with strong double-digit momentum through January and February before the complete shift of the Navratri season into March tempered the closing months performance. EBITDA margin came in at 12.7%, an improvement of 25 basis points over Q4 '25. On a full year basis, the company delivered a 9.1% growth. The biscuits business delivered a growth of 6.7% FY '26, presented a challenging operating environment across multiple fronts. The year opened with uncertainty surrounding punitive tariffs and close it pressures of West Asia conflict in between the GST 2.0 reforms rolled out by the Government of India, while a positive structural development for the industry over the long term, post the short-term inventory-led challenges in quarter 3 of the financial year 2026. With a discernible impact on domestic biscuit growth during that period, the bakery business delivered a strong growth of 14%. The current environment presence pressure across 3 key areas: disruption in supply chain and logistic costs within the exports business, escalating crude prices, driving inflation across raw materials, packaging and fuel and the recent impact of minimum wage hike across key states. That said, mitigation are being actively pursued is a simulator and project impact with the implementation underway from April 27, the gradual clearing of uncertainty around tariffs has and is expected to provide further tailwinds as we move ahead. While the full impact of inflation-led price hike on consumer sentiment will be seen in the coming quarters barring the uncertainties stemming from the West Asia conflict, we remain hopeful of a stable demand environment across the categories we operate in, undermined by stable consumption trends. A continuing focus on premiumization and sustained investments in brand building. On new product launches, we expanded our health portfolio under Nature Bake. Our clean label brand with the introduction of protein bread, a deliberate response to the growing consumer shift towards functional health forward eating as more Indias actively seek higher protein in their daily diet. We ended our dessert range with the launch of Cheesecake as under the English Oven tapping into the growing consumer appetite for premium ready-to-eat desserts experiences and the broader premiumization trend gaining momentum across urban markets. Rounding out the quarter, our Valentine Day collaboration with BlinkIt continued the momentum from our Christmas partnership with our Danish Butter Cookies then reached over 3 lakh households and generated meaningful brand goodwill. On the operations front, we successfully commissioned our Kolkata plant in January, marking our foray into the East and enabling us to serve general trade, modern trade and institutional partners in the region. We also expanded the English Oven brand into Hyderabad, marking a strategic entry into key growth markets. Our Mumbai plant commissioned in Q4 FY '26. It is now in its ramp-up phase and is expected to progressively scale out over the coming quarters. Together, these initiatives are expected to strengthen in the bakery industry across key markets, improved supply chain efficiencies and support sustained growth through deeper regional penetration. Financial performance. Talking about FY '26 financial performance, the consolidated revenues for FY '26 stood at INR 2,043.6 crores versus INR 1,873.9 crores in FY '25, thus registering a growth of 9.1%. EBITDA for FY '26 stood at INR 257.7 crores versus INR 251.5 crores in FY '25, thus registering a growth of 2.5% with an EBITDA margin of 12.6%. PAT for FY '26 at INR 140.9 crores with a PAT margin of 6.9%. With this, I request you to open the floor for questions and answers. Thank you so much.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Abneesh Roy from Nuvama.

My first question is on the current cost in same you are seeing. If you could specifically comment on wheat raw material, we have picked up contracting signals, but most of the studies are saying that this year a wheat crop was good, there was a damage because of the unseasonal rains. So how much is the current inflation from the bottom in the last 3 months? And how is the overall scenario for the raw material basket? Currently, when you're seeing the petrol hike and all this. So if you could tell us in terms of RM basket, how much is the inflation? And how is the wheat raw material?

So in the RM side, there has been inflation, especially which comes from palm oil and food and also from our packaging material. So these are actually the 3 major impacts, which have come in. And other than that, we -- because this will be -- on the wheat front, we are as per our AOP, we have been -- we have done good for this quarter. And we also quite booked for the next quarter and the wheat quality like for our -- in the bakery side, our major business is part of our business is QSR, we block it for the year. So our inflations are covered over there. On the biscuit side, where the quality actually only damages certain part of gluten. So biscuits don't require gluten. So we do not feel that there should be a substantial impact. So if it is specific to yes. So in the totally, if I see what we anticipate and what we have seen until now, we look at around 3% impact, which comes in from all our areas, right, which is including labor, logistics. Logistics is very fresh for domestic. It might come in a bit later. We have not yet got it. But so that's where we are. And Manu can talk about the recovery, if you want to know about the recovery of.

5 Yes. I would like to know.

Manu, over to you.

So largely, it is coming from the packaging, as Anoop said, and it's about 3%, including some of the impact on minimum wages because there have been minimum wages, steep revision in rupee as well as now we're hearing in Karnataka also. So -- but yes, we had taken the recovery actions in terms of pricing and cost efficiency. So we expect ourselves to be covered on this inflation to keep our value addition in line in the edge front. So as of now, if nothing further deteriorates on pricing, we should be more or less in line with our gross margin, which is value addition for quarter 1. So with pricing actions and cost some bit of cost efficiency on manufacturing side.

Sir, my second and last question is on biscuits. So 8% growth Y-o-Y, 16% growth on a 2-year basis. Are you happy with this performance given you have huge headroom to expand market share in many states, and what will be the outlook on market share in FY '27? Second is order pricing by, say, Parle ITC of INR 4.5 and INR 9, pricing which they had done post GST 2.0. Did that impact you in any way in the branded biscuits on the -- in the domestic business?

So answering on both questions, are we -- were we happy with the last quarter or last year growth on biscuit? I would say it was a somber kind of growth. And we are looking at doing much better than that in this coming financial year. We very confident of touching on the biscuit segment somewhere between low to mid-teens kind of growth in this financial year. Things look promising. Last year, both domestic as well as export was impacted. Export impact largely came because of U.S. tariff issue, which kind of clouded around almost a full financial year on the domestic biscuit side, although GST change was a good change, but it has linked to your second question. The post GST revision, some of the large players continue data 4.50 pricing, as you said, and we had moved to 5 and moved to INR 5 and so that definitely had its impact in the last quarter of the financial year, quarter 3 and quarter 4 of the year. But now, obviously, things are settling in, in terms of rightful pricing by everyone. I would say one of the large players is still into transition has not fully transitioned, but they have started the transition and everybody is coming to the right for pricing. So this year, it should be fine.

Sir, 1 follow-up on that. So that order pricing, was that an aberration because these players have tasted success. So would you be confident that either you or any other player will not go back to 4.59, say when the raw material again remain turns favorable or irrespective of that, ultimately, it doesn't have too much to do with raw materials. If someone chooses to go to INR 4.59, they gain market share. So would you be confident that this is just an aberration by the industry player?

Yes, it's an aberration. And I think that most of the players in a rightful manner went to INR 5 5 will be more careful, including us. The next time, any grammage increase or decrease whenever it happens, I would say at least we will be very, very watchful of the competition and which normally are probably this time was a miss because one of a very large player decided to stay at a lower pricing.

The next question is from the line of Sidesh Deskhmukh from IIFL Capital.

This is Percy Panthaki here. Just a question on your bakery segment. We have been in the past doing high teens kind of growth on that segment. Even Q2 was 16% and then Q3 slowed down to 13% and now it is at 9%. So what is really the reason behind this slowing growth in the Bakery segment? And what kind of growth do you think is realistically possible over the next few quarters?

So the only impact was -- as I'll explain to you, we are largely not bake business. This time, Navaratri -- so Jan and Feb doing very well. Navaratri had -- was in March and Navaratri is a time. Last year, it was in April. During Navaratri, the bread consumption were at depth because of North India, they fast and they don't need nonvegetarian eggs at all. So that's a seasonal cyclic thing, which happened in the last quarter. There is nothing to do with the business trend. Are we -- so we continue to be bullish. English Oven has been growing at high teens for the last 4 years, and we expect a similar trend to continue on that. On the QSR side, there are some initial good signals after almost 2, 2.5 years that their consumption is moving up, and we are very hopeful that trend should continue. So on the QSR side, we expect a low-teens kind of growth in this financial year.

And bakery overall should also be at the low teens kind of a level?

Overall as a company?

Bakery?

No, bakery, bakery. Bakery will be at a mid-teens kind of level on an overall basis.

Understood. Secondly, on margin, given that we are seeing inflation in a few commodities. How do you see -- how do your gross margin and EBITDA margin for the overall company on a Y-o-Y basis for the full year?

So you must appreciate that the situation remains very, very dynamic and the way pricing is volatile literally on a quarter-on-quarter basis. But based on whatever is our pricing and whatever the war impact, which we just stated is close to 3%. We have taken actions to cover it up, right? So we should be able to over up to not impact on our margins negatively on EBITDA margin side and also on the gross margin side. But if something very volatile happens in the future, we will take certain actions, but I won't be able to comment on that. But as of now, whatever impact has come in inflation because the war, we have taken 2 actions to cover up that impact. And so as we told the last time also that we will be -- we will be working towards improving our EBITDA margins. And so as of now, we are fairly optimistic that quarter-on-quarter, we should see improvement in the EBITDA margins, right?

So would it be fair to assume that unless, let's say, crude suddenly spikes up again above 100, we should at least be maintaining EBITDA margins on a Y-o-Y basis?

Yes, we should be maintaining. Yes, unless until the crude kind of breaks the roof. And in India, if you look at India, the oil prices have started going up only recently, and there have been, I think, 4 or 5 revisions in the last 2 weeks' time. It will have a larger impact on the inflation, right? So if you ask me, I see the impact of this to start showing somewhere in quarter 2, right? And that's what -- on the logistics and other side because logistic cost is something fundamental base to everything, which gets moved. So -- but yes, as of now, whatever has happened, we have toward ourselves. And we will take all necessary actions. We will take all necessary actions to be to do our best to cover up the future cost impacts also.

And last question, if I might squeeze in on the biscuits portfolio. Could you just tell us like without specifying any numbers if that's a problem, like which are the 2 or 3 states, which are sort of growing significantly above average and which are the 2 or 3 states whose growth is lagging versus the average in the biscuits portfolio, not just for this quarter, but let's say, for FY '26 as a whole?

So you see our growth -- okay, let me explain to you how are we driving? So we have -- we are driving our distribution primarily in -- within 400 kilometers of our North plant, which is in Rajpura, which is Punjab. And that will be the large source of growth for us. Secondly, as our MP plant Indore plant, our plant has come up. So we will be driving our distribution in the Central India and some part of Western India. So that will be our source of growth. So these 2 will be source of growth. So within not, of course, we have a higher share in Upper India. So that part of source of growth will be lower part of growth.

The next question is from the line of Soham Samanta from Motilal oSWAL Financial Services.

Sir, just wanted to check on this quarter buscuit number. So we have grown -- I mean it grew 8%. So within 8%, what is the bifurcation in export and domestic this last quarter, export was a low single-digit, so how is the export markets go right now?

So export was again low single digit even in this quarter, right, in the quarter 4. But yes, things are optimistic and things are looking brighter now. And you should get to see good growths in both export and domestic in the quarter 1, quarter 2.

Again, exports will grow. What is our target, mid-teens kind of a growth we take for FY '27?

Mid-teens, low to mid-teens kind of growth.

Last quarter, if I'm not wrong, challenges what these completed pressure from Latin America and all, how is the competition right over there?

So it was -- you see, it was not a competition kind of issue. There was an issue on account of local competition, creating regulatory and duty pressure on us. So we have collaborated and taken help of our Commerce Ministry and External Affair ministry, rather, our Export Head and Director, Suvir Bector wasn't there. I just returned it from there, having meeting with the Indian ambassador well as ambassador to India in, he was presented in that. So these efforts are now giving some positive results, which had created pressure in the last financial year. And we're very hopeful that with all the efforts by the Commerce Ministry as well as External Affair Ministry and by us and our partner there should resolve this problem, and we should be able to grow well in this territory in this financial year.

Okay. And sir, next question on English Oven, last time we spoke, our target we are catering the market like Chennai, Hyderabad and all, how we are looking at this market as now? Or what is the traction over there right now?

I would request Ishaan to take up this.

Yes. So we have launched Calcutta and we've launched Hyderabad. I think the response in Calcutta has been fairly good. On, I mean we are already reaching a single-digit market share. So clearly showing that brand opens there, I think we're also making strong inroads into GT to general rate. Hyderabad has -- is positive, however, slightly muted compared to Calcutta. Right now in Hyderabad, we're going to be focusing largely through the coupon segment as we said to establish the brand in the market, followed by them getting into general trade. But we're very hopeful of these 2 markets adding to our portfolio because as we scale success in not only these 2 markets, but other couple of markets is going to be very important for the growth of English Oven.

What are the next couple of markets you're looking?

So see, we've been getting a good response in Punjab as well, right? We will further make improvement to Punjab. I think Chennai will be another market that we will look at. If you ask me where the biggest opportunities for English Oven are at the moment? I think our biggest opportunity still is is Mumbai, right? I think we still have low market share. I think the new plant that is coming up is going to really unlock supply chain inefficiencies that we have at the moment as we are very largely dependent on co-packers -- and it's been -- and we are very hopeful that this new client is really going to bring in that supply chain efficiency, cost reduction, but also significant improvement in quality. So I think if you're asking in Mumbai, we can 3x from where we are at the moment. So I would say that Mumbai, Calcutta and Hyderabad and then maybe Chennai or Ahmedabad.

The next question is from the line of Ronak Shah from Equirus Securities.

So my first question is regarding the export incentive. So last out, there is a hold on the export incentive. So is there any update on that? And secondly, the managed was trying to offset that via a few initiatives. So what are that initiatives are? Are there any benefit coming from that aspect?

So on the export center, we are pursuing with the government. And on restart of the incentive, but still the file is in progress. I think probably with certain amendments, they might be bringing out the file. But nothing concrete as yet. On the import side, we had evaluated certain possibility, but have not been able to fully utilize direct import other than we are importing some whey protein like whey protein, not protein, whey powder. So which is being used in the biscuit side. But other than that, this is still, I think we are pursuing with the Ministry of Food Processing and to take this forward.

Mr. Ronak, I will just add further to that, that you asked what we have done in the business, export business is that we have worked on our cost efficiencies as well as on pricing with customers. So we have moved well in terms of covering that part of DFI incentive partially. And while we continue to pursue for that incentive, rather there was a ministry and roundtable, just about 3 days back with Secretary to processes, and we have taken up with them. But yes, we have worked on cost and the pricing to cover up quite a bit of that impact.

Understood. Understood, sir. Now second question is on the project impact 1.2%. So it's been last a few old quarters when we have implemented. So are you seeing any quantitative value create, which you can highlight to us? Because if we last 6 quarters, your margin is largely into the range of 12.5%. So can you highlight what are the benefits you are yielding right now? And what can be the trajectory going forward?

So Mr. Ronak, this is now project impact, which we started 2 years back, has become an annual where we when we do our annual plan, we do make cost efficiency. And last year, this impact had a fairly very good results for us, both on the manufacturing cost side, somewhat on the supply chain side, somewhat also on the FMB side, right? These were the key areas where we kind of worked on and also on the recipe rationalization side. So this year, again, we had made a plan and we review it on a monthly basis, which is definitely, as I told you in case of exports also that through the cost efficiency, we are recovering some part of the impact of DFI. So this program is certainly running fine and building up in terms of defining the target for cost savings and then monitoring them on a monthly basis to ensure they are fulfilled.

Got it. Got it. And sir, lastly, on the distribution front. So we have realigned strategy via focusing more near into the plant vicinity. So now if we see the throughput per store, how you are seeing the changes in trajectory? And secondly, in terms of the overall distribution expansion, have you are now revisiting your earlier targets in terms of the direct and the overall reach?

Yes. So what we are planning for this financial year definitely is that we are going to take our build outlets, which we track and we were around 310,000, 320,000. So that we are targeting to take it about 40,000 outlets in this financial year and keep building it up. Yes. Our focus, as I said earlier, would remain within 400 kilometers of our plant.

Okay. And in terms of the overall reach, what is the current status? And over next 2 to 3 years, how you are aiming for that?

You see I would say that we in North India, are around 35% weighted availability as per AC Nielsen and our reach is around. So objective over the next 3 years or next 4 years, rather 2030 would be to take this weighted availability between somewhere around 40% to 45%. So that should be the target, which also would mean that in terms of outlets, which all over India, we are around over 700,000 outlets label. So we should get somewhere between 900,000 to 1 million outlets. But the large focus will always remain on the weighted outlets, because that's what we want to achieve take our weighted availability to up by 15% to 20% over 4 years.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Lokesh Manik from Volarem Capital.

Sir, my question, I just had a clarification. In the frozen food segment when we are supplying to a lot of cash

Our management line has dropped.

Yes.

Yes. We have connected with the management. Yes, go with the question, please.

Sir, my question was on the Frozen Foods segment. So just a clarification here. When we say that we are supplying to small cafes, are we supplying the bread itself? Or we are supplying the finished products in the sense that even the ingredients we are making in the sauces and everything, it's the finished product that we are supplying? Just a clarification.

So it's a mix of both. So in some cases, we supply which is not like a big bread. In some cases, it's a big bread. And in some cases, like we have products like toast, which also have sauces and cheese and on it. But -- so they are not procured from outside. So it's not like we are manufacturing those sort of anything. I mean it's all procurement. But it's a nice of ready mean, which is.

Okay. So how do you see the growth now going forward here? Because this is a very interesting segment, given that your association with a lot of QSR players, you also help them come out with new products on their menus, which you can leverage towards these small B2C outlets. So what is the thought process your strategy to scale this part of the business which looks very interesting as a future growth driver?

See, as I would say, as we are upgrading our facilities. So with the new bread plant, which is coming up in Khopoli, right? We are also talking about setting up the Bangalore facility. Our idea is to have each plant, which can do breads and value-added products. Now those value-added products could be frozen. It could also be dose, right? In fact, in our North-based plant, we have just increased capacity for our breads in the market, right? So at the end of the day, their focus is on value addition. I think through the commerce space, now we are playing not only on the B2B side, but also on the B2C side, on all these categories. So you can see that we have a frozen range of products, which are available on in Delhi NCR. We are seeing month-on-month growth there. Sour is something where we always had a capacity bottleneck actually, right? So with that happening, that is going to bring value addition to our English Oven brand as well. So as these bakeries mark, I would say that in the, let's say, coming quarters, the coming years, we will get a fair sense of how much capacity is needed in each of these businesses. But what is very positive is when we understand the business, we already have a proof of concept. We are already selling these products in the market. So we've already started building our relationships with our customers both on the B2B and the B2C side, which gives us a lot of confidence that as volumes ramp up, we are able to scale quickly.

Great. So just if you can give us a sense of perspective that today, value-added products will be what percentage of revenue for bakery or consol, whichever is convenient for you? And what is the aspiration to take this let's say, 4, 5 years down the line by FY '30, if that's the vision?

See how we look at it as we look at, let's say, our premiumization that we look at internally. So we are at about 55%, 56% premiumization on the English Oven front. Like Nature breads, right, Nature breads as a business as a new brand, I would say, at the it's become quite reasonably accepted in the market. And we'll be talking like an ARR of almost INR 10 crores for a new brand, right? And we see it scaling up quickly. So our focus on premiumization is going to continue, right? I think Nature Breads has seen very, very positive movement towards the clean label side, coming in. So I think our target more so than is how can we bring this premiumization to let's say 65%, so see positive uptick quarter-on-quarter on these metrics.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Achal Pal from Monarch Network.

So I have 3 questions. First, how much did the export business grow on a full year basis? And second question is on Khopoli plant. So just wanted to know what is the current utilization rate? And have you commissioned second production line? Or any update on that?

So yes, I'll take the. Manu, you start, okay then I will follow up.

So export growth last year was in single digit, right? So that was the kind of growth we had on Khopoli can update you.

Yes. So Khopoli, our has already been commissioned and has already started. So since it's a very large line, we are a little bit -- we are yet working with our equipment suppliers to have it fully commissioned within the right manner because a major part of the equipment comes from abroad. On the bread line, bread line is nearing completion. I think within this quarter, we'll be rolling out products end of the quarter. And so I think we are in tune, we are in line with everything here.

Okay. So any number if you want to quote on the utilization rate, like what is the current status and?

utilization because right now -- currently, on the utilization side, we're running both the lines. We're running up old line also, we're running the new line also. You understand. So whenever we find a small defect, we pass on the line to the to the team, okay, now because we are running the line -- I mean, substantially, but whenever there's a need, we have to pass it down, right? So we're running both the lines. So it will not be very fear to tell you exactly percentage, this is the percentage. But the line is well commissioned. It has come out beautifully well. It's a very automated line. And in fact, we would -- once in the probably after the monsoons now because Khopoli got lots of rain, we would definitely invite you all to the facilities. It's one of the best facilities in not only in India and probably a lot of many other European countries, too. So we will not be able to specify today. It will not be fair on me, but on utilization, it will lead to a substantial utilization because also QSR numbers are also growing now and they're more positive. So I think it will be very fair. So right now, we -- it will not be right to give you the number right now.

Okay. Okay. My last question. In this quarter, we have launched our desert. So what kind of traction we are getting for this? And which are the markets we have launched it?

So currently, we are focusing only on Delhi NCR. BlinkIt has been our launch customer, but we have 2 or 3 customers who are following up with us to launch the product sale with them as well. We have also made a small investment for a line automated line, which can increase our capacity for doing desserts that can we have rate not only in B2B, also in B2C. So right now, it's still small scale. But from what we have looked at the unit economics are very positive. In fact, even with the limited supply chain, we are cash flow positive in this business. So I think as our capacity increases, not only will we be more bullish on B2B, but also on B2C.

The next question is from the line of Rohit Harke from Aditya Birla Money.

My question is on the biscuits export business. So with U.S. tariffs having from peak levels. So are we seeing order volumes come back for this business?

I can take it up. So yes, the tariffs has reduced substantially. So we were actually visiting the U.S. a week back. We've discussed a lot of potential new business with clients. And with the reduced tariffs and India's good relation with the U.S. customers are already onboarding us on some new projects. So I think it will be a great start with a couple of new retailers and new projects going forward.

And this low single-digit growth for Q4 in exports, was it because of the West Asia conflict or even the U.S. contributed to the lower growth?

It was a bit of both, but a lot of influence was there from the U.S. tariffs because as these tariffs were at 50%, which made it hard for a lot of importers who were importing our brand or their own white labels. It made the order for them to change the price point for the consumers. So that had happened the business a bit. And right now, we are seeing, like I mentioned, the positive trend started to go forward. And we had a little impact also because of the U.S. and Iran conflict going on.

And for the H1, so some of this impact should continue, right, from West Asia and U.S. to ramp up. And then H2.

So a bit on the West Asia, minor impact will be there, but we are already finding other avenues of growth in other territories, and we are still working on building the volume in the GCC region, only majority 2 of our markets have been impacted, which are Bahrain and Kuwait. Barring that, we are still able to deliver our shipments into the UAE, Saudi and Qatar through the Saudi. So our teams are actively working on finding solutions to still deliver the growth in the market and being very competitive at it.

Okay. So for FY '27, mid-teens kind of growth can you expect or right low-double digit?

I think yes. So as the CEO mentioned, our target is low to mid-teen growth coming in. So that's our target as of now.

The next question is from the line of Darshit Vora from SC Meta Institutional Equities.

am I audible?

yes, sir.

And I just wanted to add that in the previous con call, we have said that we are stopping, I mean, we were able to start to get towards the 14% kind of margins by H1. And then for the full year, more than 14% of the margins. So given the prices that we've done and considering that there is no further raw material deflation from there onwards. Do you see that to be something that is achievable? Or are you slightly?

As the situation stands now, as I said that we should see improvement in our EBITDA margin quarter-over-quarter. So quarter 1, we should see improvement over quarter 4 and quarter 2 also, we should see improvement over quarter 1. Objective is to get as close as possible to 14, but you must appreciate the kind of disinflatory impact, which have been there, which we have done our best to cover up. But yes, as of now, where we stand, we should see improving our EBITDA margin, both in quarter 1 and quarter 2.

All right. All right. Got it. And finally, would it be fair to say that our domestic vehicles has grown in low early?

Pardon, sorry?

Our domestic retail bakery has grown by early double digits?

Yes. They have grown in high teens, yes.

The next question is from the line of Abhishek Mahrukh from Systematix Group.

On the biscuits business, just wanted to check what is our sales salience of the INR 5 and INR 10 packs currently in our portfolio? And related to that, do we also maintain certain forward covers in certain key commodities such as B or palm oil, something like what the market leader does. That's all I want to check.

I'll just quickly tell you on the percentage of INR 5, INR 10, which is about 65 to 70 -- around 65-odd percent, which is fairly in line with the industry. And I'll hand over to Anoop to brief you on the.

Yes. So we would -- normally, if you ask me, is there a strategy to hedge for a particular time currently, no. But wherever we feel the situation needs hedging, we definitely do hedge. So like in case of wheat, we would hedge wheat flour. So in case of sugar, when we feel that sugar prices, we can climb up till this particular type of month. we will hedge milk powder. We normally -- we hedge. So edible oil, we also hedge. But how much are we hedging or what has been our hedge at a particular time when prices have gone up or gone down is actually -- it's not to be disposed. So but we definitely see to secure over time. So I mean we harvest is in April early March. So we will see that we are hedged depending on the wheat crop. So this year, the wheat crop has been good. So our hedging would be restricted for particular quarters, right? Last year, there was -- they said the -- what we felt was that there was a wheat shortage, because the year last year, we saw a lot of inflation. So it all depends very situational. Yes, whenever there is a need, we definitely work towards hedging.

Ladies and gentlemen, due to the interest of time, this will be the last question. I now have the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, ma'am. Sir, over to you for the closing.

Okay. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. I hope we have been able to answer all your queries. In case you require any further details, you may please contact us or MUFG Intime, our Investor Relations partner. Thank you so much.

Thank you. On behalf of Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.