Marico Q4FY25: Less Hair, More Flair
Everyone’s busy counting margin bps Marico, meanwhile, is swapping engines mid-air — moving from legacy staples to ₹1,600 Cr worth of Foods + D2C, adding q-comm shelves, and pushing deeper into rural
🔢 Q4FY25 at a Glance: Pricing > People
Consolidated Revenue: ₹2,730 Cr (+20% YoY)
Domestic Volume Growth: +7%
Parachute Value Growth: +22%, Volume -1%
Saffola Oils: Revenue up, volume flat to negative
International Business: 16% CC growth; Bangladesh +11%, MENA +47%, SA +13%
Gross Margin: 48.6% (-300bps YoY)
EBITDA Margin: 16.8% (-260bps YoY)
Ad Spends: Up 35% YoY
PAT: ₹345 Cr (+8% YoY)
Marico raised prices aggressively (~30% YoY in Parachute). Volumes didn’t rise much. But smaller brands couldn’t keep up. The result? Marico walked away with market share.
📉 Margin Squeeze: Blame It on Copra & Confidence
Copra prices surged 48% YoY — eating into gross margin
Vegetable oils also stayed elevated
Yet Marico increased A&P spends by 35% — brand building over band-aid fixes
EBITDA margins took a hit, down to 16.8%, but management expects recovery only from 2HFY26, once input inflation cools. Until then? Keep pricing, keep spending, keep scaling.
🥣 Foods: ₹900 Cr and Hungry for More
40%+ growth in Q4
Led by Saffola Oats (still market leader), new SKUs like Cuppa Oats scaling fast
FY27 Target: ₹2,000+ Cr revenue (8x FY20), 25%+ CAGR
Distribution expanding to GT and chemist/pharma outlets
Margin profile improving YoY
This isn’t an experiment anymore. Foods is now core — with PMF, brand equity, and retail muscle.
💻 D2C: ₹750 Cr ARR, and This Time It’s Profitable
Beardo: Double-digit EBITDA margin
Plix: Low-single digit now, targeting 10%+ by FY27
Just Herbs, True Elements: On path to break-even
D2C portfolio = 22% of India revenue
Unlike most VC-backed D2C plays, Marico’s bets are quietly profitable — and growing.
The D2C stack covers hair care, skincare, snacks, and wellness — not just flashy websites, but actual P&L assets.
Beardo: ₹1,732 Cr revenue in FY24, EBITDA positive
True Elements: ₹764 Cr revenue, margins improving
Just Herbs: 75%+ gross margins, 60%+ YoY revenue growth
🛒 Quick Commerce: It’s Not a Channel, It’s a Shelf
Q-comm contributes 3% of total India biz
7% of Foods + BPC already on Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart
Management views it as “incrementally accretive,” especially for impulse & premium categories
They’re not just present on q-comm — they’re optimizing for it. Short shelf lives, low-volume high-AOV SKUs, bundling strategies. It’s D2C with better delivery time.
🛻 Project SETU: The ₹100 Cr Offline Growth Engine
Target: 6M direct outlets by FY27
Already live in 11 states
Focus: expanding rural GT, increasing range selling, bypassing wholesale leakage
Helps push digital-first and food SKUs deeper into Tier 2+ India
While others build apps, Marico builds distribution muscle. Offline still drives FMCG, and Marico wants control — not dependency.
🥊 Market Share & Competitive Edge
95% of the portfolio held or gained share
80% improved penetration
Premium mix in international biz jumped from 20% in FY21 → 29% in FY25
Strong scale + procurement advantage shielded them from inflation impact that crippled regional players
Inflation didn’t hit consumers. It killed the competition.
Marico weaponized scale during a high-cost environment. While smaller players dropped out, Marico captured shelf space.
📈 Valuation & Financial Outlook
MetricFY25FY26EFY27ERevenue₹10,831 Cr₹12,075 Cr₹13,473 CrEBITDA Margin19.7%20.3%20.8%PAT₹1,658 Cr₹1,848 Cr₹2,130 CrEPS₹12.8₹14.3₹16.5P/E54.9x49.3x42.7xRoE42.5%41.9%39.2%
High P/E? Sure. But this is one of the rare FMCG plays with:
Growth across both legacy and new-age verticals
Sector-best capital efficiency
Clean, profitable D2C scale-up
Margin recovery visibility
💬 Final Take
Marico is swapping its growth engine in public markets — slowly, quietly, and profitably.
From oils to oats, from kiranas to q-comm, from Parachute to Plix — this is no pivot. This is a rewiring.
While others chase new categories with borrowed cash, Marico’s funding tomorrow’s growth with yesterday’s cash cows.
Margins will recover. But the business model already has.