Q&T Foods Limited

Consumer Defensive — Packaged Foods · BSE

₹32.86+₹0.16 (+0.49%)

DalalBaazaar Score

71 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

REASONABLE

Risk

High

Driven by moderate debt load, negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, with both sales and profits growing well. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:01 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Q&T Foods Limited manufactures, distributes, markets and sells bakery products in savoury category. Its products include breads, buns, pizza bases, and Kulcha. It offers breads, such as milk bread, white bread, multigrain bread, and brown bread.

IndustryPackaged Foods

SectorConsumer Defensive

Employees37

Annual revenue₹55 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹55 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹9 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹15 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 37 employees supports ₹1.48 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹1.48 Cr

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?Some evidence

ROCE of 61.2% is above what capital typically costs, which suggests some pricing power, though not yet the sustained, wide gap that marks a durable advantage.

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 +49% while net margin moved +7281% 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+49%

Margin effect+7281%

DalalBaazaar Score

71/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Micro Cap: thinner liquidity and sharper drawdowns are normal
✗ Profits have swung sharply from year to year — earnings are hard to forecast
✗ Negative free cash flow means dependence on external funding

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

74/ 100

Good

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

Valuation

88/ 100

Cheap

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

A good business currently available at an undemanding price — the combination this framework is built to look for.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

4.5x

Sector Median

51.7x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Against its sector it trades 91% below the peer median of 51.7x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Cheap

51.7x median of 4 peers · -91%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

4.0x

PEG

0.01

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well6

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 2.3% to 15.3% over 3 years.
Cash flow has turned positive
Free cash flow moved from negative to positive over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from 9.8% to 42.5%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 14.9% to 61.2%.
High return on capital employed
ROCE of 61.2% is the mark of a business that converts capital into profit efficiently.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

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

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 3 high

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 50% over 3 years, from ₹7 Cr to ₹11 Cr.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 123% against revenue up 49% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.
🔴Inventory building faster than salesFinancial
Inventory up 412% against revenue up 49% — stock may not be moving.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 61.2% means each rupee reinvested earns well above what capital costs. If the company can keep deploying at this rate, growth creates value rather than just consuming cash.
Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 2.3% to 15.3%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 91% below the sector median. Either the market sees a problem the numbers do not show, or the discount closes.
Earnings have proved durable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years. Consistency lowers the risk that any single bad year is structural rather than cyclical.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 123% against revenue up 49%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
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 11% a year✓ 14.1% CAGR
Latest reported year was 17.0%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 13%✓ 15.3%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹0 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.3x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 58%✓ 61.2%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

8 / 10 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

Price history

Quick Metrics

7 good · 3 neutral · 1 weak

Market Cap

₹23 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

4.5x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

1.29x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹7.33

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

54.0%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

61.2%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

0.90x

Moderate

Moderate leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

17.0%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

90.1%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

None

No dividend yield reported — usually means no payout, but verify if one was recently initiated

Free Cash Flow

-₹2 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

ROA

21.2%

Good

Assets are working hard

Operating Margin

24.7%

Good

Healthy core-business profitability

Net Margin

9.5%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.21

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

52W Range Position

Near low

Near its 52-week low

Technical Snapshot

RSI (14)

37.6

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹37 Cr	₹40 Cr	₹47 Cr	₹55 Cr	+14.1%
EBITDA	₹1 Cr	₹4 Cr	₹5 Cr	₹8 Cr	+115.9%
EBITDA Margin	2.3%	9.4%	10.3%	15.3%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹0 Cr	₹2 Cr	₹3 Cr	₹5 Cr	+378.7%
EPS	₹0.07	₹2.77	₹3.86	—	—
ROE	9.8%	80.3%	38.9%	42.5%	—
ROCE	14.9%	63.0%	45.8%	61.2%	—
Total Debt	₹7 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹10 Cr	₹11 Cr	+14.6%
Free Cash Flow	-₹2 Cr	-₹2 Cr	-₹1 Cr	₹0 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 14.1% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 115.9% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 2.3% to 15.3% over 3 years (+13.0 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 378.7% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 9.8% to 42.5% over 3 years (+32.7 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 14.9% to 61.2% over 3 years (+46.2 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 14.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹2 Cr to ₹0 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹27 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹14 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹1 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹4 Cr

Capex

-₹4 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

64.6%

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

6 general

Q&T Foods (BSE:544872) - Stock Analysis

Simply Wall Street, 15 Oct

Compare with

Equitymaster, 18 Oct

Q&T FOODS LIMITED Share Price

Upstox, 19 Aug

Q&T Foods fixes IPO price at ₹115 a share; offer to open on Aug 12

BusinessLine, 08 Aug

Q&T Foods IPO Date, Review, Price, Allotment Details

IPO Watch, 19 Aug

Q&T Foods IPO share allotment in focus today: GMP, steps to check allotment status online

Livemint, 17 Aug

Watch Items

Trading very close to its 52-week low — worth checking whether this reflects a temporary setback or a structural problem.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · Valuation

MiddlingFinancial Health

WeakRisk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Attractive on both counts

A good business currently available at an undemanding price — the combination this framework exists to look for. The work left is qualitative: whether the advantage the numbers imply is one you can identify and expect to last. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

All 5 tripwires holding · see Key things to watch ↑