Allied Blenders and Distillers (ABD), the Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) company behind Officer’s Choice Whisky, reported a robust Q1 FY26 performance with income from operations rising 22.5 per cent year-on-year to ₹930 crore, compared to ₹759 crore in Q1 FY25. Profit after tax surged to ₹56 crore, marking a 398.6 per cent increase from ₹11 crore in the same quarter last year. EBITDA grew 56.4 per cent year-on-year.
Managing Director Alok Gupta said the company is focused on increasing its export contribution and highlighted key developments, including the completion of its malt facility and PET plant in Telangana. He also reiterated ABD’s FY26 guidance of double-digit volume growth and mid-double-digit value growth.
You reported nearly a 400 per cent jump in PAT. Could you share your perspective on how the fourth quarter since the IPO has shaped up?
A focus on profitable volume is reflected in both the P&A salience at 46 per cent. The second focus is on premiumisation, where, within the prestige segment, we have a significant market share driver with ICONiQ, Officer’s Choice Blue and Sterling Reserve Premium. We identified large vodka and brandy price points to launch Golden Mist, our prestige brandy. We also intend to launch our prestige vodka.
The luxury segment is roughly 3 per cent by volume and 20 per cent by profit, so this portfolio will help us carve out more profitable volume.
The second theme is backward integration. All our projects are as per plan and will have a strong impact on our margins. One is our ENA expansion from 30 per cent captive to 70 per cent captive. Second is for malt — from 100 per cent buy to 100 per cent make.
The third is the PET bottling plant in Telangana — 600 million bottles all to be captively consumed. This year, our focus is on project execution on time. The PET plant will start next month, and the mat facility in Q4.
For Minakshi, our recently acquired agro-processing company, a part of the capacity is already up and running, while the balance capacity is under approval, as per the timeline.
Collectively, these projects will have a nearly 300 basis points impact on our margins. This is the gross margin improvement plan.
Were you exporting to the UK before the FTA? Do you see this agreement prompting a greater focus on the UK market going forward?
We are the largest importer of bulk scotch in India, and therefore, this move should expand our margins at an expected 200 basis points.
Our large markets are the Middle East, followed by Africa. Of late, we are more focused on the Western Hemisphere — markets in the US and Europe. In South East Asia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand are up and running. We opened up the US and Spain and are in the process of opening up Canada.
We do not export to the UK yet. Following the single malt distillery in Telangana, we will launch our malt in 2029. This FTA has created an opportunity to take our single malt to the world, including the UK. We will explore opportunities in our gin segment with Pumori and Zoya.
From a distribution point of view, our theme has been India and beyond. While our focus continues to be profitable states in India, we are also looking at international markets.
In FY24, we were shipping to 17 countries. Last year, we added six new countries and went to 23. We have added three more countries and are targeting 35 countries within this year. Our current share of revenue is about six percent of international sales. We’d like to see this revenue more than double over the next few years.
Are you evaluating any inorganic moves?
With acquisitions, we are focused on asset-like play. For example, our acquisition of Minakshi in Maharashtra. It had land to expand and a distillery license. We are already using all the ENA made there for consumption.
Our thesis on acquisition is to continuously think of asset-like opportunities that can be scaled and either impact our gross margins or allow us to enter new profitable segments, both in India and overseas markets.
What’s your outlook for the remainder of FY26?
Our strategy is to grow Officer’s Choice, our flagship brand, with a sharp focus on the gross margins.
The P&A whiskeys will drive market share acquisition on the back of ICONiQ, SRB7 and OC Blue. With the entry of Prestige Brandy and Prestige Vodka, we are looking at double-digit growth from the Prestige segment. From our premium portfolio, our focus will be on CSD this year to drive the sales of Kyron and SRB10 through the channel. The luxury portfolio, coming to play, will do quality work in the on-premise. We will look at international markets to take both our legacy and luxury portfolios.
On the back of this, the guidance would be double-digit growth in terms of volume but mid-double-digit growth in terms of value. The gross margins we have reported in Q1 are sustainable for the year. The focus on interest cost will continue. We may see a strong performance in terms of PAT as well.
