This swing back to profitability comes despite challenging market conditions,  highlighting the effectiveness of the brand’s focus on value-added products and operational efficiency. Its value-added portfolio grew by 15% year-on-year, with its curd products maintaining a 35% CAGR. The company has been sustainably positive for three years  since its break-even in 2021.

Rashima Misra, Cofounder and ED, Milk Mantra, said, ‘‘Our journey from a Rs 6.56 crore EBITDA loss to a positive 6% margin, coupled with our industry-leading 28% contribution margin, reflects the strength of our business model. This milestone enables us to further invest in innovation and expansion of our ‘Milky Moo’ brand, while continuing to support our network of 80,000 farmers.’’

The company’s B2C approach continues to drive its success, with 95% of revenue generated through its own general trade distribution channel. Its D2C initiative, ‘Daily Moo’, has gained significant traction, contributing 5% of total revenue and serving approximately 4,000 daily orders in Bhubaneswar alone.

The recent USD 10 million funding from USDFC has further fueled the company’s expansion plans. It is on the verge of completing a new fermented products manufacturing plant that  set to bolster the regional expansion of the Milky Moo brand.

Looking ahead, Milk Mantra plans to scale up its D2C model, expand into key markets, and introduce innovative niche products over the next two fiscal years. The company remains committed to growing its farmer network, reinforcing its dedication to ethical milk sourcing and rural economic development.

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The company’s operating profit (EBITDA) surged nearly 163 per cent to Rs 13 crore during H1FY24 (April – September 2023) as against Rs 4.95 crore registered during H1FY23. The company’s margins improved because of better economies of scale,entry into high-margin products and normalising raw material prices. ASL reported an EBITDA margin of 9.92% in H1FY24, an improvement of 238 basis points from 7.55% over the previous comparative period.

Commenting on the performance, Shreeram Bagla, Managing Director, Annapurna Swadisht, said, “The increase in top line during the first half of this fiscal was primarily due to the addition of new capacities penetration into newer geographies along with better penetration in some of the existing markets.”

Sequentially, revenue from operations grew by nearly 39% from Rs 94.93 crore registered during H2FY23 (second half of the financial year ended March 31, 2023).

“We remain bullish about the Bharat story, which lies in India’s rural and semi-urban markets. We have been witnessing good traction in demand from these markets. With the increasing per capita income, we expect demand to grow even further in the days to come. We have expanded our manufacturing capacity bysetting up a new plant at Dhulagarh in West Bengal, which has already commenced operations. We look to strengthen our presence in the existing markets by ramping up our distribution footprint and rolling out more SKUs,” Bagla said.

ASL has five owned manufacturing units spread across West Bengal at Asansol, Siliguri, Gurap, Dhulagarh, and six contractual/leasing arrangements at Kakinara (West Bengal), Hazaribagh (Jharkhand), Ranigunj (WB), Ganjam (Odisha), Siliguri (WB) and Mathura (UP).

Annapurna Swadisht primarily caters to the Tier III and Tier IV markets in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. Its portfolio has close to 72 SKUs (stock-keeping units) across ten broad categories, including fryums, namkeens, snacks, candies and cakes. It has nearly 550 distributors and over 115 super distributors, and the products are available across over 6 lakh retail touchpoints. The company had recently appointed Mr GP Sah, former CEO of the FMCG division of CG group, as an Additional Director and Joint Managing Director of the company to steer the company on to its next phase of growth, where it is looking to ramp up its product portfolio, particularly in the noodles segment.

The company, listed on the NSE-SME platform in September 2022, had raised close to Rs 65.43 crore through a preferential issue of equity shares and warrants by the end of September 2023.

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