Totally agree, and I’m not trying to say this is new as the top-level management was replaced by Reliance’s employees long back but just that the replacement consistency is making it better. Yes, it might or might not be a big hit but at the small base at which Lotus currently operates even a small rack in every Reliance Retail store would be enough to 10x their EPS. Campa-Cola is a great example and let’s not forget the Acquisition of Metro Cash&Carry which is primarily a B2B kind of business and Metro’s HORECA can be a great channel for Lotus to make its chocolate compounds available to Restaurants.

The Huge Jumps in Quarterly numbers are decent enough evidence of how things are better than before and I do hope this doesn’t end up in the failed acquisitions list of Reliance.

Edit – Seems like some small online sales have begun. Just Came across this site, can help us gauge the segment Lotus is currently operating in.

FIIs are much smarter, they foresee likely reduction in future DPU.

As per their concall with analysts yesterday;

1. Topline for full year should be 200-250 crs range for fy25 & 400crs for fy26
2. Pat margins Fy25 should be16-17% & FY26 should be 20-22%
3. Things should pickup for them post February & they expect decent pipeline
4. Optimisation will happen as more employees are shifted from uk payroll to India payroll
5. Receivable situation is closely monitored by top management & they are on top of the issue, do not foresee any negative surprises there and things will ease by April/may, overall since industry was sluggish hence recovery days have increased, however all their clients are top choice vendors for global studios

I asked a friend about this company, but he had never heard of it. My friend works in the FMCG sector (snacks segment) in West Bengal as a sales manager across various markets, such as Kolkata, Durgapur, Siliguri, etc.

My gut feel is Annapurna Swadisht is a bogus company as is Madhur Confectioners (or Srivari Spices at the risk of digressing). Reminds me of Manpasand Beverages tbh. These are some of the reasons:

1. I have not found any offline presence of either Annapurna or Madhur’s products or listing of their products on trade channels.

2. Cash acquisition at 30x PE Multiple is highly suspect. Especially when Madhur had a networth of 9 cr as on FY23 (as per ROC) giving 20X P/B. For context, Annapurna’s fixed assets are 60 cr. Don’t understand any reason why an FMCG company wouldn’t invest in capex and use cash to acquire a 4-year old business at such high multiples except of course to siphon cash.

3. I have seen their factory videos and Google maps photos of their plants and all look like an elaborate staging.

There is zero information available on the Internet in this company regarding its products except for its website. They have even misspelled a product on their website and social media as “Crispy Diet Chidwa” haha. Just to be clear this analysis is based on my limited research. Happy to get insights from someone who has done on ground diligence such as channel checks, factory visits etc.