Dhunseri Tea & Industries Limited

Consumer Defensive — Packaged Foods · NSE

₹152.00+₹0.80 (+0.53%)

DalalBaazaar Score

38 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

Very High

Driven by short-term liabilities exceed short-term assets, negative free cash flow, the company is currently loss-making.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, but sales are shrinking. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:46 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of Dhunseri Tea & Industries Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Dhunseri Tea & Industries Limited engages in the cultivation, manufacture, and sale of loose and packet tea in India and internationally. The company produces and sells macadamia nuts. It also provides business management and consultancy services.

IndustryPackaged Foods

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees9,158

Annual revenue₹454 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹454 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-1 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-3 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 9,158 employees supports ₹5.0 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹5.0 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are NESTLE INDIA LIMITED, BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD, TATA CONSUMER PRODUCT LTD, DABUR INDIA LTD. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

Compared side by side in Peers ↓

What is its competitive advantage?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of 2.2% are at or below what the capital likely costs. That is the financial pattern of a business competing largely on price, where advantage has to come from execution rather than position.

Peer median ROE51.0%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved +35% while net margin moved -92% relative to itself. What this cannot tell you is which products, customers or geographies did the work — that lives in the segment disclosures of the annual report.

Revenue effect+35%

Margin effect-92%

DalalBaazaar Score

38/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Return on equity is negative

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

36/ 100

Weak

How good the business is, ignoring the share price entirely.

Valuation

36/ 100

Expensive

What you are being asked to pay, ignoring how good the business is.

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

N/A

No P/E — the company is lossmaking

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from -3.0% to 2.2%.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

Nothing stands out as clearly deteriorating on the years of data available.

Red Flags

5 items require attention · 3 high · 2 watch

🔴Thin interest coverageFinancial
Operating profit covers interest only 1.0x — little room if earnings dip.
🔴Free cash flow negative for 4 yearsFinancial
The business has not covered its capital spending from operations for several years running, which has to be funded externally.
🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹3 Cr in the latest reported year.
🟡Debt is increasingFinancial
Total debt is up 40% over 3 years.
🟡Short-term liquidity is tightFinancial
Current ratio of 0.70 — near-term obligations exceed near-term assets.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

No clear supporting case emerges from the available numbers.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Earnings are hard to forecast
Profit has swung sharply from year to year, so any single year — good or bad — is a weak guide to the next. Cyclical earnings deserve lower multiples for that reason.
Size brings its own risk
Micro Cap businesses are thinly traded, so exits are harder in a falling market and single events move the price more than they would for a larger company.
Several serious flags at once
3 high-severity checks triggered. Individually each has an explanation; together they raise the chance that something structural is wrong rather than a one-off.

🟡 Key Things to WatchMeasurable tripwires, set against where this company stands today

1Revenue growth stays above 8% a year✓ 10.4% CAGR
Latest reported year was -26.0%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above -5%✓ -2.9%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹15 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Interest cover stays above 3x✗ 1.0x
How much operating profit can fall before interest stops being comfortably covered.
5ROCE stays above 8%✗ 2.2%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

4 / 11 checks passed

✗ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✗ Strong return on capital employed (ROCE ≥ 15%)
✗ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✗ Generates positive free cash flow
✓ Manageable leverage (Debt/Equity < 1.0)
✗ Adequate short-term liquidity (Current Ratio ≥ 1.0)
✗ Revenue growing year-over-year
✗ Profit growing year-over-year
✓ Not trading at an extreme valuation (P/E < 40x)
✓ Not buying right at the 52-week high
✓ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

2 good · 2 neutral · 7 weak

Market Cap

₹160 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not meaningful

Loss-making

Earnings are negative, so a P/E multiple can't be read here

P/B Ratio

0.30x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-11.75

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-0.5%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

2.2%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

0.48x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

-26.0%

Shrinking

Sales are contracting

Profit Growth (YoY)

-68.5%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

1.32%

Modest

Small cash return — most of the return has to come from the price

Free Cash Flow

-₹15 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

Operating Margin

18.1%

Good

Healthy core-business profitability

Net Margin

-2.8%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

0.70

Tight

Tight short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.47

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

54%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

148.3 / 146.2

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

68.0

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹337 Cr	₹394 Cr	₹433 Cr	₹454 Cr	+10.4%
EBITDA	-₹14 Cr	-₹147 Cr	-₹43 Cr	-₹13 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	-4.0%	-37.2%	-9.9%	-2.9%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹24 Cr	-₹141 Cr	-₹20 Cr	-₹3 Cr	—
EPS	₹-22.64	₹-134.29	₹-19.08	₹-2.38	—
ROE	-3.4%	-27.0%	-3.9%	-0.5%	—
ROCE	-3.0%	-22.1%	-1.4%	2.2%	—
Total Debt	₹181 Cr	₹255 Cr	₹262 Cr	₹253 Cr	+11.8%
Free Cash Flow	-₹184 Cr	-₹126 Cr	-₹34 Cr	-₹15 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 10.4% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from -4.0% to -2.9% over 3 years (+1.1 pts).

🟢 ROE has risen from -3.4% to -0.5% over 3 years (+2.9 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from -3.0% to 2.2% over 3 years (+5.2 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 11.8% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹965 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹436 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹26 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹28 Cr

Capex

-₹43 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

2.0%

Insider Holding

74.1%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹2

Ex-Dividend Date

12 Aug 2026

Analyst Consensus

Target Price (Mean)

₹19

-87.5% vs CMP

Target Range

₹19 – ₹19

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
NESTLE INDIA LIMITED	59.8x	79.9%
BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LTD	44.1x	51.0%
TATA CONSUMER PRODUCT LTD	59.3x	7.5%
DABUR INDIA LTD	34.7x	17.2%

Recent News

1 positive1 mixed4 general

Dhunseri Tea & Industries Ltd. Upper Circuit: Price and Key Data

Univest, 30 Sept

Dhunseri Tea & Industries Ltd. Shareholding Pattern – Promoters, FIIs & DIIs

Value Research, 30 Aug

Dhunseri Tea AGM resolutions pass with 99.9% support

scanx.trade, 19 Aug

Dhunseri Tea & Industries Ltd leads gainers in 'B' group

Business Standard, 26 Aug

Dhunseri Tea reports ₹59 lakh profit on asset sales, declares ₹2 dividend

scanx.trade, 22 JulCapital return

🟢Potentially positiveCash or shares returned to holders. A buyback is only good value if the shares were cheap when bought.

Why Is Dhunseri Tea and Industries Share Price Falling Key Reasons 2026

Univest, 22 JunPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move rather than a change in the business. If the figures on this page have not moved, the fall is either an opportunity or news they have yet to catch up with.

Watch Items

Revenue growth is negative (-26.0%) on the latest reported period — check if this is one-off or a trend.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

MiddlingGrowth · Valuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Profitability · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Weak on the fundamentals

Poor scores on business quality without a price low enough to compensate. There is no obvious argument for owning this over a stronger company at a similar valuation. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

3 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive; Interest cover stays above 3x; ROCE stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑