Company Profile
Som Distilleries & Breweries Ltd (SDBL), incorporated in 1993, is based in Bhopal and is one of the leading alcoholic beverages manufacturers in India. SDBL is primarily engaged in production of beer and blending and bottling of IMFL. It offers a broad line of products at every price point to cater to varied preferences of the consumers. The product portfolio consists of various options across beer, rum, brandy, vodka and whisky. The Company has three key millionaire brands (sales more than 1 mn cases per annum) – Hunter, Black Fort and Power Cool. In FY20, SDBL launched Woodpecker Wheat Beer, India’s first filtered wheat beer. The brand has created significant traction in very short period and is expected to gain further momentum.
The core markets of the company are Madhya Pradesh (~45-50% of total revenue; ~35% market share), Karnataka (~30-35% of total revenue; ~16% market share) and Odisha (~10% of total revenue; ~12% market share). The company remains committed to its strategic objective of entering into new markets and further strengthen its foothold in existing markets. SDBL will continue to evaluate markets based on its potential and profitability. This will enable the Company to enhance its market share in medium to long term.
Investment Arguments
Continuous product innovation to augment growth
The Company has strong portfolio of brands including millionaire brands, Hunter, Black Fort and Power Cool. Its key strategy is to develop continuous product innovation to capitalize on seasonal themes and enhance consumer traction and engagement. SDBL Launched Woodpecker Wheat Beer, India’s first filtered wheat beer in FY20; the brand has created significant traction in very short period and is expected to gain further momentum. The Company commands ~3.5% market share in the Indian beer market and has immense potential to grow the market share by enhancing its penetration across India.
Improving geographical diversification
The company has a strong market share in Madhya Pradesh’s beer market, with a presence for three decades. Further, target markets of Karnataka, Kerala, and Odisha are all-weather markets in terms of liquor consumption. The company has increased its market share in Karnataka and Odisha’s beer industry over the last one year, thus strengthening its geographical presence.
Favorable excise policy announced for the FY 2023-24 in the state of Madhya Pradesh
The company’s market position remains healthy in Madhya Pradesh, significant expansion in distribution network and no hike in excise duties augurs well for the company.
Capacity expansion on track
SDBL had increased the capacity of its Karnataka plant from 34 lakh cases p.a. in FY22 to 45 lakh cases p.a. in FY23 through de-bottlenecking. It was able to quickly ramp up the utilization on the back of continued strong demand. The company further undertook the brownfield expansion and doubled its capacity in Karnataka to 90 lakh cases p.a. which has been commercialised. Noticeably, the company has already nearly run out of capacity at its Karnataka plant. As a result, it couldn’t fully service the nearby markets including Kerala and Pondicherry despite getting order enquiries. It is further expanding capacity to 150 lakh cases p.a. at a cost of Rs.70 cr which will go on stream in April 2024.
Capex to drive growth
Som Distilleries has lined up a Rs.100 cr expansion plan between the two plants, one in Bhopal, one in the Hassan plant, in Karnataka. Management had indicated that Bhopal plant will cost us about Rs.58 odd crores, and the Hassan plant would be about close to Rs.43-44 crores. It aims to complete the expansion by Q1 FY2024.
Contract manufacturing to increase plant utilization
Som Distilleries & Breweries has entered into a contract manufacturing arrangement with Radico Khaitan for manufacturing Indian-manufactured foreign liquor (IMFL) and ready-to-drink brands. The company will manufacture the IMFL and ready-to-drink beverages for Radico at its plant in Hassan, Karnataka. This will lead to better utilization levels of SDBL’s IMFL facility.
Entry in new markets
SDBL has already started supplying some brands of beer in Chhattisgarh and the numbers will soon start showing up. It has recently prepared to enter Rajasthan from Q3FY24 with Beer and expects a meaningful contribution from the state from Q4FY24 as it takes about 6 to 9 months to establish a presence and seed the market. According to the management, company has been witnessing a healthy traction in UP market. According to the management, the company’s flagship brand, 'Hunter' has achieved remarkable success and proudly holds the top spot as the best-selling strong beer in Delhi. SDBL has entered into a bottling arrangement with Carlsberg from its Odisha plant which will begin from July 2023. This arrangement will consume 20% of capacity of the plant.
Q1FY24 Financial Performance
SOM distilleries delivered healthy earnings growth for the quarter ended Q1FY24. Consolidated net sales surged to Rs.386 cr in Q1FY24 as against Rs.254 cr clocked in the same quarter of corresponding fiscal, registering a growth of 51% on a YoY basis driven by strong traction in the beer demand and robust volume growth. Consolidated EBITDA witnessed a growth of 40% to Rs.50 cr YoY, despite prevailing inflationary environment. EBITDA Margin stood at 13% in Q1FY24. Consolidated PAT saw a growth of 31% to Rs.34 cr YoY.
During the quarter, they achieved beer volumes of 65.8 lakh cases and 2.2 lakh cases on IMFL. Its flagship brand, Hunter recorded a volume of 21.4 lakh cases while Black Fort and Power Cool recorded volumes of 14.0 lakhs and 29.3 lakhs cases, respectively. The volume in beer recorded a growth of close to 40% over Q1 FY23. IMFL volumes increased by over 17.4% compared to the same period last year. Beer realization for the quarter was Rs. 559 per case as compared to Rs. 506 in the Q1FY23, while IMFL realization for the quarter stood at Rs.760, down compared to Rs.791 in Q1FY23.
Key Risks & Concerns
Highly regulated alcohol industry - The liquor industry is highly regulated by state governments, who control the sales and distribution, making the Group susceptible to changes in Government policies. Any change in Government policies with respect to production, distribution of liquor, taxation, and state excise duty, or any material changes in the duty structure, may impact the liquor industry and the company.
Vulnerability to raw material price increases - Company’s margins and profitability are susceptible to fluctuations in input cost (barley, packaging, new bottles and freight). Any significant increase in raw material prices could keep margins under check for the company.
High Working capital - The Company’s working capital requirements are high, led by its requirement to maintain inventory across its plants, resulting in high utilization of working capital limits.
Outlook & Valuation
SDBL is the only listed company in India having both Beer and IMFL, which complement each other and reduces the risk of seasonality while providing marketing efficiencies. Considering strong portfolio of brands, new launches of products, growing market share, capacity expansion, improving financial performance and Lower penetration of beer and favorable demographic profile provides huge scope for growth.
Recently, the board has approved a fund raise of ~Rs 350 cr to facilitate organic and inorganic expansion. This comes after ~Rs 141 cr warrants issue to promoter and non-promoter group in July 2023. We believe the domestic market offers various opportunities in term of sub-geographic penetration and market diversification. The management of SDBL is cognizant of the same as it intends to seize and increase the company’s market share by exploring untapped markets, through product innovations and undertaking capex.
At CMP of Rs.374, the stock is trading at 27x FY25E which appears reasonable. Hence, we recommend a BUY on the stock.