Sundrop Brands Limited showcased robust financial performance in Q3 FY26, delivering consolidated revenue growth of 10% alongside an impressive 80% surge in EBITDA. The company's diversified food portfolio strategy continues to gain traction across multiple channels and categories.

Strong Financial Performance Across Key Metrics

The company's Q3 FY26 results demonstrate consistent growth momentum across various business segments. Key performance indicators reflect the success of strategic investments and operational improvements implemented over recent quarters.

Portfolio Performance Drives Category Leadership

Sundrop Brands operates through three major brand franchises: ACT II (popcorn and ready-to-eat snacks), Sundrop (staples led by edible oils), and Del Monte (culinary and Italian foods). The company maintains market leadership positions across several categories while expanding into high-growth segments.

The popcorn business demonstrated strong momentum with 12% volume growth and 18% value growth in Q3 FY26. Ready-to-eat popcorn segments showed particularly impressive performance with 36% growth, driven by expansion in out-of-home consumption channels. The company launched 6 new products in the ACT II franchise during the year, contributing to innovation-led growth.

Category-Wise Business Performance

E-commerce and Alternative Channels Expansion

The company's e-commerce business continues to outperform with 31% growth in Q3 FY26 and 39% growth on a year-to-date basis. Quick commerce emerged as a significant growth driver, expanding approximately 50% and contributing substantially to the overall digital channel performance.

Management is leveraging e-commerce platforms to launch new categories including oats and breakfast cereals, which showed over 200% growth in modern trade and e-commerce channels. This strategy enables testing and scaling of innovations before broader distribution rollouts.

Margin Expansion Through Operational Excellence

Sundrop Brands achieved substantial margin improvements through focused cost optimization and operational efficiency initiatives. Gross margins expanded by 330 basis points in Q3 FY26, with material costs contributing 230 basis points improvement and manufacturing/logistics costs adding another 100 basis points.

The company implemented sales force automation across 58% of its network, covering approximately 220,000 outlets. This initiative aims to improve productivity and distribution metrics while providing comprehensive KPI visibility for strategic decision-making.

Innovation Pipeline Contributes to Growth

The company launched over 70 new products across its brand portfolio during the year, with innovations contributing approximately INR55 crores to sales, representing about 5% of total revenue. Recent launches include 7 SKUs in the peanut butter portfolio, with 4 focused on high-protein segments to address evolving consumer preferences.

Strategic Focus on Core Categories

Management maintains disciplined investment allocation, focusing on packaged foods business with specific emphasis on popcorn, peanut butter, culinary products, and Italian ranges. Core categories now represent 61% of total business, significantly higher than historical levels.

The company's three-brand platform strategy positions it well for both organic growth and potential inorganic expansion opportunities. Complementarity between Sundrop and Del Monte operations enables synergies in distribution, manufacturing, and market coverage across different consumer segments.

Sundrop Brands Limited has released its detailed investor presentation for the Q3 FY26 results conference call held on February 13, 2026, providing comprehensive insights into the company's strong performance and strategic initiatives. The presentation, made available on the company's website at www.sundropbrands.com/analyst-calls.aspx , showcases significant growth across multiple business metrics and reinforces the company's position as an emerging scaled food platform.

Strong Q3 FY26 Performance Highlights

The company demonstrated robust growth across key performance indicators on a like-to-like basis, combining Sundrop Brands and Del Monte numbers. The quarter witnessed substantial improvements in revenue, margins, and digital channel performance.

Year-to-Date FY26 Achievements

The nine-month performance further strengthened the company's growth trajectory, with enhanced investments in advertising and significant margin improvements supporting the overall business momentum.

Core Categories Drive Growth Momentum

The presentation highlighted the company's strategic focus on core categories, which now contribute 61% of total business compared to 53% in FY23. The core portfolio includes ready-to-cook popcorn, ready-to-eat popcorn and snacks, peanut butter, breakfast cereals, spreads, ketchups, sauces, mayonnaise, and Italian range products.

Category-wise Q3 FY26 Performance

Digital Commerce Excellence

E-commerce emerged as a key growth driver, with the channel leveraged as a platform for business expansion in emerging categories like oats and breakfast cereals. The 39% year-to-date growth was supported by focused investments in performance marketing and quick commerce growth.

Innovation and Product Development

The company launched over 70 new products across ACT II, Sundrop, and Del Monte portfolios during YTD FY26, contributing approximately ₹55 crores or 5% of overall sales. Key launches included ACT II Popcorn Kernels, Sundrop High Protein Peanut Butter variants, and Del Monte's expanded culinary range.

Operational Excellence Initiatives

Sundrop Brands implemented sales force automation across its operations, with 97% of frontline sales teams now tracking visits and productivity through technology interfaces. The system covers 217,000 outlets representing 58% of total coverage in Q3 FY26, significantly improving operational efficiency.

Financial Strength and Margin Improvement

The presentation emphasized the company's strong balance sheet position with net worth of ₹1,463 crores, free cash balance of ₹20.20 crores, and borrowings of ₹21.50 crores as of December 31, 2025. Margin improvement programs led to sequential enhancement with gross margins expanding by 230 basis points year-to-date.

Strategic Vision and Market Position

The company positioned itself as an emerging scaled food platform with presence in high-growth, high-margin categories. The strategic focus includes renewed emphasis on core portfolio, increased salience in fast-growing channels, improved EBITDA and PAT margins, and a capital-efficient approach to building scale through organic and inorganic routes.