Heritage Foods Share price and Fundamental Analysis

Company History

Incorporated on 5 Jun.'92 and promoted by N Chandra Babu Naidu, Heritage Foods Limited is principally engaged in the provision of dairy, renewable energy and cattle feed products. In dairy division, the company is in the business of Milk, Milk products and Ice cream/Frozen Desserts. The Dairy division is the flagship business vertical for the company.

The company has almost 100% direct procurement network of 3 lakh dairy farmers across nine major milk producing states namely, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. The direct route of milk procurement enables the company to maintain quality at lower prices. The company also operates 209 bulk coolers, chilling plants and procures 1.32 million liters of milk per day. It operates 16 own processing plants and 2 leased processing plants with installed milk processing capacity of 2.09 million lpd through own plants and 0.15 mn lpd through leased plants.

After processing, 1.05 mn litres of milk is sold across 1.50 mn households on a daily basis and the remaining is converted into value added products and products are available across 15 states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, NCR Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The company came out with a public issue in Nov.'94 to part-finance the setting up of an integrated dairy (inst. cap.: 2 lac ltr pd). It established three integrated dairy plants in Madras, Hyderabad and Bangalore, and supporting milk chilling centres at various locations in North Arcot district of Tamilnadu, and Kolar district of Karnataka.

Company commissioned new milk centre at Triuvannamalai in state of Tamilnadu. The Dairy products viz., Ghee and Skim Milk Powder were launched in Consumer Packs in the market of Kerla, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Company established a premier position in liquid milk market of Hyderabad, Madras and Banglore.

Company had strengthened its procurement network, a Milk Chilling Centre has been commissioned at Atmakur, Nellore Dist. A.P. this centre enabled an upsurge in milk procurement. Company Milk Processing Unit at Narketpally & the Sales & Registered office at Hyderabad have been recommended for ISO-9002:1994 certification for implementation of Quality system.

The Company was awarded ISO-9002 certification for processing, packing & selling of liquid milk. During 2001-02 the company established a procurement and packing station at Battiprolu,Guntur District having a capacity of 50,000 Ltrs a day. It is also creating facilities for manufacturing and marketing of table butter to meet the growing demand.

The company had voluntarily de-listed its shares from Madras & Hyderabad Stock Exchanges with the approval of shareholders.

During 2003-04, the Company commissioned 2-milk procurement and processing plants, one at Namakkal in Tamil Nadu and other one at Nandyala in Andhra Pradesh. The Company also started milk procurement and processing operations at Kondapi, Prakasam Distrcit, Andhra Pradesh by purchasing assets of Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Dairy Specialities Private Ltd.

During the financial year ended 31 March 2014, the Board of Directors of Heritage Foods approved/allotted Bonus Shares to the existing Equity Shareholders of the company as on the record date i.e. 29 July 2013 in proportion of 1 Bonus Equity Share of Rs. 10/- each credited as fully paid-up for every 1 eligible existing fully paid-up Equity Shares of Rs. 10/- each.

During the year, the shareholders of the company had approved the change of name of the company from 'Heritage Foods (India) Limited' to 'Heritage Foods Limited' by deleting the word (India)' in the existing name of the company.

During the year, Heritage Foods ventured into the generation of Solar Energy with a division called Renewable Energy Division. The company set up/commissioned 2.34 MW solar power plant at, Masjid Adavi Village, Mulugu Mandal, Medak Dist, Telangana on 29 September 2013 to meet for the captive power requirement. The 2.34 MWp Solar Power Plant is equipped to supply 3.75 million units of clean and green energy annually. A capital of Rs. 1,675 Lakh was deployed to set up the solar unit.

During the financial year 2013-14, Dairy Division has increased milk Chilling capacity by 138000 LPD by commissioning 26 units which includes Bulk mini chilling units, Mini Chilling units, chilling centres and Franchisee Bulk mini chilling units and Franchisee units to increase the milk procurement and to maintain the quality.

During the financial year 2014-15, Heritage Foods' Dairy Division has increased milk Chilling capacity by 35,000 LPD by commissioning of 22 units which includes Bulk mini chilling units, Mini Chilling units, chilling centres and Franchisee Bulk mini chilling units and Franchisee units to increase milk procurement and maintain quality.

The company successfully set up entire backend dairy operations in Mumbai and Delhi markets right from procurement of milk from farmers to chilling plant and there from to processing plants and sell in the market.

The Retail vertical of the company turned EBITDA positive in 4th Quarter of the Financial Year 2014-15. The Retail division witnessed a 32% increase in total trading area at 3,38,000 sqft in Financial Year 2014-15 as against 2,25,000 sqft in Financial Year 2013-14. The total number of Retail stores at the end of Financial Year 2014-15 stood at 92 as against 74 in Financial Year 2013-14.

Heritage Foods, during the year under review apart from the sourcing the fruits & vegetables and custom farming, started the Veterinary care business with an aim to provide the quality feed , fodder and vet medicines to the farmers to increase the productivity of the animals.

During the financial year 2015-16, Heritage Foods' Dairy Division has increased milk Chilling capacity by 1,00,000 LPD by commissioning of 16 units which includes Bulk Mini Chilling units, Mini Chilling units, chilling centres and Franchisee Bulk Mini Chilling units.

During the financial year 2016-17, Heritage Foods' Dairy Division has increased milk Chilling capacity by 1,00,000 LPD by commissioning of 16 units which includes Bulk mini chilling units, Mini Chilling units, chilling centres and Franchisee Bulk mini chilling units to increase the milk procurement and to maintain the quality.

The company's Renewable Energy division commissioned 2nd Wind Power Plant of 2.1 MW Capacity at Sy No. 291, 292, Vajrakarur, Ananthapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India on 20 September, 2016. The division commissioned (Off Grid) Distributed Captive Solar Power Plants at its six various locations/plants with total capacity of 1.66 KWp on 29 March 2017 with key objective to optimize energy mix by use of Clean & Green (Renewable) Energy sources to reduce carbon emissions and to secure Energy at Low Cost.

Heritage Foods acquired the dairy business of Reliance Retail Ltd (RRL) in a slump sale. RRL operates a pan India dairy procurement, processing and distribution platform under two brands 'Dairy Life' and 'Dairy Pure' with wide variety of products such as packaged milk, flavored milk, butter, ghee, curd, dairy whitener, sweets and skimmed milk powder. This acquisition augurs well for Heritage Foods as it gives new opportunities in states like Punjab, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan where Heritage Foods is not present and strong synergies in markets like Mumbai and Delhi-NCR where Heritage Foods already commenced its operation.

During the year ended 31 March 2018, the Board of Directors of Heritage Foods recommended for sub-division of Equity Shares of Rs 10/- each into two Equity Shares face value of Rs 5/- each which was approved by the Shareholders through postal ballot on September 26, 2017. Accordingly the Equity Shares of face value of Rs 10/- each were sub-divided into two Equity Shares of face value of Rs 5/- each by way of corporate action to the shareholders who held the shares as on the Record Date i.e. October 11, 2017.

As a part of the strategic business restructuring the Retail, Bakery, Agri & VetCa divisions of the company were transferred on a going concern basis as a slump sale to M/s. Heritage Foods Retail Limited (HFRL), a wholly owned subsidiary company. Subsequent to that the Retail, Agri & Bakery verticals of HFRL were transferred to Future Retail Limited (FRL), Mumbai by way of demerger through a Composite Scheme of arrangement. As per the Composite Scheme of Arrangement the Retail undertaking was taken over by the Future Retail Ltd. by the closing hours of March 31, 2017. The Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Benches at Hyderabad & at Mumbai approved the Composite Scheme of arrangement amongst Heritage Foods Ltd (HFL), Heritage Foods Retail Limited (HFRL) and Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on 3 May 2017 and 11 May 2017 respectively. The order copies have been filed with respective Registrars of Companies (ROC) on 19 May 2017 to give effect to the Composite Scheme.

During the year under review, the name of Heritage Foods' subsidiary company namely M/s. Heritage Foods Retail Limited has been changed to M/s. Heritage Nutrivet Limited w.e.f. November 14, 2017.

The company incorporated a Joint Venture Company namely M/s. Heritage Novandie Foods Private Limited on November 28, 2017. The joint venture company was incorporated with equal Equity Shareholding between Heritage Foods Limited and Novandie SNC, France, for production & marketing of Yoghurts.

Heritage Foods' subsidiary M/s. Heritage Conpro Limited had resolved to voluntarily winding up pursuant to the provisions of Section 484 of the Companies Act, 1956 read with rule made thereunder. The Hon'ble High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had approved voluntary winding up the company. The company had filed the necessary e-forms with the Registrar of Companies, Hyderabad on September 2, 2017.

During the financial year 2017-18, Heritage Foods' Dairy Division has increased milk Chilling capacity by 4,25,000 LPD by commissioning of 18 units which includes Bulk chilling units, Mini Chilling units, chilling centres and Franchisee Bulk chilling units to increase the milk procurement and to maintain the quality.

The company was successful in making rapid strides in Maharashtra and Delhi markets in Dairy business vertical.

During the year under review, the company had launched its new premium range of ice-creams under the brand name Heritage Alpenvie' as part of its strategy to strengthen existing product range. In developing the new Heritage Alpenvie' range, an effort was made to understand the choices of its target group of college-goers & young adults. This new range of ice creams delivers offerings which celebrate 'Little moments of Happiness' at an affordable price. The new offerings range from absolutely luxurious chocolate delights, to inclusions which have real fruit like Pineapple, Mango, Strawberry and also traditional offerings like Kulfis and Rajbhog. It has all the diverse formats of ice cream in the form of sticks, bars, cones and scoopable ice-creams for both out-of-home and in-home consumption.