6 June 2015
C
orner
O
ffice
the
Interaction with the CEO
Fortifying moat; Enhanced growth visibility
Aspiring to be a Total Foods player; margin expansion theme still relevant
Britannia Industries
Our meeting with Mr Varun Berry has reinforced our preference for Britannia as one of our top
ideas in the Consumer space. The key takeaways from the meeting are as below:
Vision to become a complete Foods player—replete with ideas for the next 10 years.
Several category adjacencies to be leveraged.
Multiple growth drivers besides Biscuits—Dairy, Bakery can be 3x-4x in five years;
Biscuits to benefit from industry premiumization.
Mr Varun Berry
Margin expansion not over yet—confluence of portfolio premiumization, raw material
Managing Director
tailwinds, and further cost efficiencies in supply chain.
Moat strengthened, growth visibility enhanced. Retain BUY and preferred idea
Mr. Varun Berry, holds a
graduate degree in BE
(recommend adding on every dip).
Route to success—six drivers of transformation:
Over FY12-15, Britannia has
delivered 13%, 40% and 42% CAGR in sales, EBITDA and PAT, respectively. After
seven years of sub-par performance (FY05-12 sales, EBITDA and PAT CAGR of 20%,
6% and 2%, respectively) and loss in market share, we believe that Britannia has
undergone massive transformation. This transformation is driven by six factors: 1)
Expansion of direct reach, higher throughput from existing outlets and reduced
dependence on Wholesale trade. 2) Five focus brands: Britannia used to advertize
16 brands with negligible spends behind each brand and limited effectiveness. This
has been cut to five focus brands, resulting in a significant improvement in visibility,
offtake and market share. 3) Fixed cost rationalization: Fixed costs increased
dramatically to prepare for high growth that the company had planned, but which
did not come through. Over the last three years, these costs have been rationalized.
4) Efficiencies in commodity sourcing, supply chain and logistics planning and waste
minimization. 5) People policy as a key driver of change: Promotion of several in-
house experienced hands by 2-3 levels of hierarchy by giving challenging roles has been the biggest contributor
to the turnaround, per Mr. Berry. 6) The Britannia promise: Britannia is actively working (training, benchmarking
v/s competition, etc) on recipe and taste of its products to make them best in class and minimize any quality
issues. Share of captive production has moved up from 30-35% a few years ago to 50% in FY15, and is expected
to rise to 60% in FY16
Vision to be a Total Foods company:
Mr. Berry wants to gradually transform Britannia from being a “Biscuits”
company to a “Total Foods” player. It is evaluating relevant food categories where the company can have a
“Right to Win” and leverage the strong brand equity of Britannia by potentially entering adjacent categories. In
the long term, it is aiming to move from its current positioning as “Side of the plate” player to “Centre of the
plate” player. However, it will not be gunning for mass segments.
Multiple growth drivers in place:
Within its existing portfolio, it believes there are multiple growth drivers. For
example, despite higher penetration levels, Britannia’s market share in rural is only 60% of its urban market
share and leaves enough scope for accruing share gains. Exploiting price point portfolio to augment its reach in
new markets and continued numeric distribution expansion will drive Britannia’s growth (it expanded its direct
reach from 7.3 lakh outlets in FY14 to 10 lack outlets in FY15.) As per media reports, Britannia has crossed Parle
in market share, per latest monthly Nielsen data.
Gautam Duggad
(Gautam.Duggad@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3982 5404
Manish Poddar
(Manish.Poddar@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3027 8029
Investors are advised to refer through disclosures made at the end of the Research Report.
Motilal Oswal research is available on
www.motilaloswal.com/Institutional-Equities,
Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Factset and S&P Capital.
Mechanical from the Punjab
University. He has also
attended a course in Strategic
Management from Wharton
University and the Global
Leadership Program at IMD,
Switzerland. Mr. Varun Berry
joined the Company as Vice
President & Chief Operating
Officer with effect from 1st
February, 2013. He has an
experience of over 27 years
with premier companies like
Hindustan
Unilever
and
Pepsico, both in India and
overseas and a successful
track record in leading start
ups,
turnarounds,
joint
ventures
and
growth
businesses.