WESTLIFENSEQ4 FY26May 07, 2026

WESTLIFE FOODWORLD LIMITED

8,086words

112turns

16analyst exchanges

4executives

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Management on call

Akshay Jatia

President & Chief Executive Officer

Saurabh Kalra

Managing Director

Shardul Doshi

Chief Financial Officer

Chintan Jajal

Lead Investor Relations

Key numbers — 37 extracted

1.5%

t trends and sustained profitability. For the quarter, same-store sales growth stood at 1.5% while overall top line grew 9% year-on-year. What is particularly reassuring is the underlying im

ility. For the quarter, same-store sales growth stood at 1.5% while overall top line grew 9% year-on-year. What is particularly reassuring is the underlying improvement in footfall trend w

INR 6.6 billion

ous for across both dine-in and delivery channels. For the quarter, consolidated revenue stood at INR 6.6 billion, growing 9% year-on- year. For the full year of FY26, revenue stood at INR 26.3 billion, translati

INR 26.3 billion

ue stood at INR 6.6 billion, growing 9% year-on- year. For the full year of FY26, revenue stood at INR 26.3 billion, translating into 5% year-on-year growth. The quarter ended with a positive same-store sales grow

g 9% year-on- year. For the full year of FY26, revenue stood at INR 26.3 billion, translating into 5% year-on-year growth. The quarter ended with a positive same-store sales growth of 1.5% at the s

rs,

growth also ended the quarter nearly flattish and a meaningful improvement versus previous quarters, and that too on the back of GC momentum which was marginally positive. From a channel standpoint

m a channel standpoint, on-premises sales grew 9% year-on-year while off- premises sales increased 6% year-on-year. Growth across both channels was supported by positive comparable guest count primar

68.1%

anchor our margin performance. Gross margin for the quarter remained near historic high levels of 68.1%, improving by around 60 basis points sequentially. Restaurant operating margins improved by appro

60 basis point

ce. Gross margin for the quarter remained near historic high levels of 68.1%, improving by around 60 basis points sequentially. Restaurant operating margins improved by approximately 70 basis points year-on-y

70 basis point

ng by around 60 basis points sequentially. Restaurant operating margins improved by approximately 70 basis points year-on-year. Our operating EBITDA remains broadly stable year-on-year despite higher advertisin

INR 487 million

advertising and promotion spend and continued growth investments. Cash profit after tax stood at INR 487 million, representing 7.4% of sales. FY26 witnessed continued inflationary pressures across key commoditi

7.4%

nd and continued growth investments. Cash profit after tax stood at INR 487 million, representing 7.4% of sales. FY26 witnessed continued inflationary pressures across key commodities, notably cocoa

Guidance — 20 items

Chintan Jajal

opening

“This will be followed by Saurabh taking us through the key operational and financial highlights.”

Chintan Jajal

opening

“Throughout the call, we will be referring to earnings presentation and financial releases, which are available on the NSE, BSE, as well as investors page of our website.”

Akshay Jatia

opening

“I hope you’ve had the opportunity to review our Q4 and full year FY26 results.”

Akshay Jatia

opening

“Going forward, we plan to further accelerate our expansion by opening 60 plus restaurants annually with all new stores fully equipped with digital modern design and McCafes, reflecting our confidence in the strength of our industry and the opportunity that lies ahead.”

Saurabh Kalra

opening

“For the full year of FY26, revenue stood at INR 26.3 billion, translating into 5% year-on-year growth.”

Saurabh Kalra

opening

“FY26 witnessed continued inflationary pressures across key commodities, notably cocoa and coffee.”

Devanshu Bansal

“This would help us better project the underlying consumption trends.”

Devanshu Bansal

“So, when do you expect these initiatives to reflect into better growth for us?”

Saurabh Kalra

“That's how we are looking at the business going forward.”

Saurabh Kalra

“In addition to that, if I look at it, we have got supply chain initiatives and we did a cost project internally, which has worked out quite well for us and we've been able to save some amount of gross margin which was able to not only mitigate inflation but also give us saving beyond that, which is what you see.”

Risks & concerns — 5 flagged

On the operations front, we continue to closely monitor LPG situation and have taken proactive measures to mitigate operational risk as much as possible.

— Saurabh Kalra

Value is not difficult in a current environment to get, but we wanted to really, really focus on volume.

— Saurabh Kalra

There is of course lot of pressure which is there on the suppliers too with the geopolitical situation, so there'll be some inflation.

— Shardul Doshi

Now you called out that it’s a very volatile environment as we are entering this year.

— Tejas Shah

So, my question is around that in the recent quarters we've seen some slowdown in the QSR space as a whole.

— Siddarth

Q&A — 16 exchanges

Yes, hi, good evening, everyone. So, congratulations on good store openings as well as good gross margin performance. Sir, Q4 was impacted by supply side disruptions, there was some preponement of Navratri as well. So, wanted to check if you could help us better understand the normalized SSG during the quarter? This would help us better project the underlying consumption trends.

Saurabh Kalra

So, as I spoke when I was giving you the review of quarter four, we had high mid- single digit guest count comps. Needless to say, there were other pressures beyond Navratri also like LPG not being available in a few restaurants. 10% of our stores were impacted pretty much from 10th of March onwards. So, I think, but all of this in the big picture is all fair because last year also something would have happened. So, what we would like to believe is if we take the same store bucket, what has it done this year? This is the number which comes out. So, I would not like to break it further and be a

Hi, this is Percy Panthaki here. I just wanted to get some insight into your gross margin. What is the reason for the very healthy expansion that you have seen there?

Saurabh Kalra

Percy, we've been able to always make, there are three, four levers in gross margin and when all of them play together, we are always able to maintain and improve margins. I think last year, inflation was a little bit in our favour versus what we normally get. It might not repeat this year. In addition to that, if I look at it, we have got supply chain initiatives and we did a cost project internally, which has worked out quite well for us and we've been able to save some amount of gross margin which was able to not only mitigate inflation but also give us saving beyond that, which is what you

So, I think, we've always committed to this larger number of 580 to 630 restaurants in our Vision 2027. And as we’ve been deploying all our initiatives to further grow our average unit volume, we've seen great momentum and we do feel that in our region there’s a lot of opportunity for penetration. And we’ve always maintained that we will continue to penetrate as we feel is logical and we feel now from 45 to 50 restaurants, 60 plus is the number that our market can handle in order to grow sales profitably. So, I think that's how we came to give out this guidance and we're quite confident that i

Akshay Jatia

So, in a retail environment, actually to operate most optimally you do have to keep re-evaluating your portfolio. We call it portfolio management. And across 500 odd locations there will be locations that either become redundant or are no longer commercially viable and actually it's best for the network that you optimize. It’s one of the most effective ways to run a network. So, I think in the past we've been very prudent. We will continue to be, but as our network keeps expanding you will see store closures to optimize our portfolio and I think the current number would probably be a fair repr

Hello, hi guys. Can you hear me?

Management

Yes. Firstly, I just wanted to understand the 80-bps year-on-year improvement in opex...

Saurabh Kalra

Rishi, your voice is your voice is not clear. It’s a little wobbly. So, if you can be closer and can be louder. Is this better? Little better. All right. So, I wanted to understand firstly the 80 bps Y-o-Y improvement that you’ll have shown on the opex front in your slide. What has that led to? What's led to that improvement if you could help me understand that? So, I think that, you know, we'll just take a look at what you’re referring to. Which opening which number are you talking about? Just a second. I have the PPT open with me. I think Rishi, I think this question we can take offline. You

Just a quick follow-up. Let me just check that with the management. When you said 5% customer growth, you meant 5% unique customer growth, or you meant like 5% bill cut growth?

Saurabh Kalra

So, obviously we don't give breakups. Needless to say, any business has a Pareto, lot of people customer come new, some are regulars. Now on this call, we do not give and share that information. But when you see 5% growth in any company there would be a lot of new customers which would have come in the fold and a lot who would have continued to transact with us. All right, got it. Thank you. That’s all from my end.

Thank you for taking my question. I have two sets of questions largely related to margins. So, first one is, with regards to your guidance on the gross margin front, you have mentioned that in the near term the gross margins could be at the 67% plus. So, is it largely in caution with the inflation that we are seeing on multiple counts? And if yes, you know, that's approximately 100 bps lower versus the current levels. So, any guidance on the same will be helpful.

Shardul Doshi

Yes, it is in line with the inflation which we are seeing currently in the market. There is of course lot of pressure which is there on the suppliers too with the geopolitical situation, so there'll be some inflation. But there are also some cost optimization programs which we run and hence we have given you the indicative number of in terms of the 67% COGS going forward. Sorry, the gross margin going forward. Okay, okay. Thank you. And just an alluding question to this is with regards to the guidance for the Vision 2027 margins. Now for this year, if we look at the pre-Ind AS EBITDA margins,

Hi, thanks for the opportunity. My first question pertains to the interplay between SSSG, gross margin and footfall that you have called out. So, clearly the fact that footfall has been higher than SSSG, I am assuming that a lot of recruitment of mix would have gone on the value format side. But still we delivered very good gross margin. So, was just trying to deconstruct that what worked on raw material side that you -- which worked in our Favor this quarter?

Saurabh Kalra

See luckily for us supply chain is managed on an annual basis. We've got contract sometime those contracts we are able to deliver higher volume so cost comes down and then the next protocol starts etc. etc. So, to me that's why we gave a guidance saying this quarter we've been able to achieve this, which is true for the year. Our internal goal is to be able to as close to the yearly number as possible for the next year, but realistic guidance is what Shardul gave you that, that's what we see is sustainable. Got it. Second, the acceleration on store expansion target restaurant expansion target

Yes, thank you very much for the opportunity. Your value platform initiatives have obviously given you encouraging results with guest count being in mid-single digit. Going forward, do you plan to accelerate these initiatives? Related question is this the 99-value meal maybe other value initiatives that you have, have they been completely rolled out or you expect to sort of roll them out further into your network?

Saurabh Kalra

I think like I said, value is something which is intrinsic to the industry and especially McDonald's globally. We do the highest guest count and sales numbers across the globe because we are a strong value player in an omni-channel environment, right? So, there are plays which are not yet played out. You will see us having a lot of exciting stuff coming in the next one to two years and value as the work has just started in our opinion. Okay. Okay. This just trying to ask it in another way. There’s a gap between the SSSG that you’ve reported and guest count. So, can we expect this gap to furthe

Hello, sir. Thanks a lot for the permission from me to now raise a question to you. So, my question is around that in the recent quarters we've seen some slowdown in the QSR space as a whole. So, considering the recent Middle Eastern tensions and the LPG crisis going around, what's your forward-looking outlook in terms of the SSSG in terms of the existing operations? I would just like to have a view on that.

Saurabh Kalra

I think we've been repetitive on this front. We reap what we sow. I think we did not shy away even when we had negative growth that these are things of our making and some decision which we made did not play out the way we anticipated it to play out. We've gone back like Akshay said back to our basics to be able to go back to a model which works globally also and replicate that playbook in in India back to basics, back to EVM and we do not see with that strong platform us not having enough to increase the momentum on the same store sales growth front. Okay, understood. So, is there any revenue

Yes, thank you. Question is on the McCafe performance…

Management

Is this better now?

Management

Yes, sir. Hi. Thanks for the follow-up opportunity. I just wanted to sort of check on this partnership which we’ve entered with Jio-bp. Is that also leading to this improvement in store outlook that we’re sharing?

Saurabh Kalra

Actually, we've got partnerships with HPCL, BPCL, and now Jio-bp. So, that is those partnerships are meant to expand our footprint on the highways. We've done a good job as far as Mumbai-Pune highway is concerned and we see a lot of access control highway coming in and we want to make sure that we've strong partnership so that we can put the network in. But all this was already baked in when we had given the guidance of going to 45 to 50 and then now 60 plus. So, it will not be basis one partner or one place. It is holistic. We do want to have more restaurants in airports; we want to have more

Yes, am I audible now?

Saurabh Kalra

Yes, Vishal, loud and clear. Okay. So, my question was on McCafé, if you could help with McCafe’s performance in FY26 in terms of maybe revenue contribution or how revenue per store for McCafé has improved in FY26, that would be helpful. And secondly, in terms of strategy for McCafé going forward, while there are many smaller cafes opening up every nook and corner, we also have a big QSR now entering the cafe space. So, any change in thought process or strategy for McCafé going forward or in terms of aggression? I think the more the merrier as far as coffee is concerned. Coffee is a category w

Hi, thanks for the follow-up opportunity. Just one question and this is one at industry level and one at our level. So, at a very broader level, QSR industry actually started massification or focus on value segment post-COVID revival phase. So, do you believe that from competitive landscape we've hit the price point in terms of where it doesn't make sense to go further below so that mix at industry level should not deteriorate from here? That’s one. And it could be this could be conjecture answer also. Second is actually in our mix also, from price point perspective do you think that we have r

Saurabh Kalra

I would like to believe that India is growing, per capita income in India is growing. So, what we have currently is a great value proposition for the consumers. The first question will be for how long should we hold this to make sure that we keep unlocking the consumer base of India to, which we want to. To me, that’s the bigger question rather than us being able to say this is optimum, not optimum because see what value means keeps changing. Immediately after COVID when we created even the Vision 2027, a large amount of assumption was big burgers will play a big role while it’s not all which

Thank you so much, everyone, and we look forward to seeing you next quarter.

Saurabh Kalra

Thank you.

Speaking time

Saurabh Kalra

Moderator

Rishi Mody

Akshay Jatia

Devanshu Bansal

Tejas Shah

Vishal Punmiya

Percy Panthaki

Gaurav Jogani

Saurabh Kundan

Opening remarks

Chintan Jajal

Thank you, Rutuja. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Westlife Foodworld earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31st March 2026. I am Chintan Jajal, Head of Investor Relations at Westlife Foodworld. From the management team, I have with me Mr. Akshay Jatia, President and CEO; Mr. Saurabh Kalra, Managing Director; and Mr. Shardul Doshi, Chief Financial Officer. As always, we will begin today’s session with Akshay sharing his perspective on company’s overall strategy and outlook. This will be followed by Saurabh taking us through the key operational and financial highlights. Post that, we will then open the forum for questions and answers. Throughout the call, we will be referring to earnings presentation and financial releases, which are available on the NSE, BSE, as well as investors page of our website. With that, I now request Akshay to commence the session. Thank you, and over to you, Akshay.

Akshay Jatia

Hello and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I hope you’ve had the opportunity to review our Q4 and full year FY26 results. This quarter, our performance was anchored in strengthening our everyday value platform and on- ground execution. Our focus was primarily on driving guest count growth by making everyday value accessible to everyone. Despite the challenges, we delivered a steady performance underpinned by improving guest count trends and sustained profitability. For the quarter, same-store sales growth stood at 1.5% while overall top line grew 9% year-on-year. What is particularly reassuring is the underlying improvement in footfall trend with positive growth across footfalls across all three months of the quarter. Similar momentum is continuing into April as well, setting the base for a good start to the new fiscal year. That said, these are still early days, and we would refrain from calling this a sustained revival until we see a few more quarters and month

Saurabh Kalra

Thank you, Akshay. Good evening, everyone. I hope all of you are doing well. Coming back to the results, the fourth quarter reflected steady execution amid challenges with our performance driven by improving guest count momentum, disciplined execution, and sustained profitability margin. Throughout the quarter, we remained firmly focused on sharpening our consumer value proposition, which Akshay also spoke about, while consistently delivering the great customer experience McDonald's is famous for across both dine-in and delivery channels. For the quarter, consolidated revenue stood at INR 6.6 billion, growing 9% year-on- year. For the full year of FY26, revenue stood at INR 26.3 billion, translating into 5% year-on-year growth. The quarter ended with a positive same-store sales growth of 1.5% at the system level driven by mid-single-digit guest count growth, which is the real heartening part. While the West continued to outperform, I'm especially encouraged by the progress in the South

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