NHC Foods To Acquire Up To 88% Stake In Lotmor Brands And Walya’s Beverages
NHC Foods, long known for its agri-commodities trading and food manufacturing business, is now expanding further into food and beverage through two proposed acquisitions. The transaction combines cash and equity, and brings with it a retail network already spread across several states. The company has also added an experienced industry hand to its leadership bench around the same time. What’s still unclear is exactly how the valuation, integration and approvals will play out.
Shares of NHC Foods Ltd are trading at Rs. 2.11, up 4.98 percent on Thursday. The stock touched the intraday high of Rs. 2.11 after opening at Rs. 2.05 before slipping to a low of Rs. 2.03. The company commands a market capitalization of Rs. 199.14 crore.
Expanding Beverage Reach
NHC Foods is strategically expanding its footprint within the food and beverage sector. The company’s board has cleared plans to buy controlling stakes in two smaller players up to 88% of Lotmor Brands and 80% of Walya’s Beverages with the payment structured as either cash or fresh equity at Rs. 6.50 a share (that price could shift after six months, per SEBI’s ICDR rules).
Lotmor is the bigger of the two by some distance, already sitting inside 22,000 retail outlets across 20-plus states and working with names like Reliance Smart and D’Mart, though its FY25 turnover was a modest Rs. 1.80 crore. Walya’s is smaller still, at Rs. 0.22 crore. NHC has also brought Lotmor’s founder, Suryakant Dhondu Walavalkar, onto the board as an incoming Executive Director, though that appointment still needs shareholders to sign off.
Buying Shelf Space
What NHC Foods is really buying here isn’t turnover, Lotmor and Walya’s combined don’t move the needle much on revenue, it’s shelf space and reach. Lotmor already has feet on the ground in over 20 states and relationships with organised retail and quick commerce platforms that would normally take a company years to build. Management has been fairly upfront about the ambition: they’re talking about scaling to 700-plus modern trade stores and 400 distributor tie-ups once things are integrated. And because NHC already makes carbonated drinks and packaged water, this isn’t really a step into new territory so much as it is doubling down on something the company already knows how to do.
The timing is worth noting too. This comes right after a big jump in NHC’s own numbers; consolidated net profit was up 924% year-on-year in Q1FY27 and follows a string of capital moves this year, including a Rs. 53.76 crore warrant issue and the conversion of 19 foreign currency bonds into 18.18 crore equity shares. Put those pieces together and it looks like a company trying to use a strong quarter as a springboard, rather than just banking the gains. That said, this is all still at the proposal stage; the numbers, structure and the Walavalkar appointment all still need to clear shareholder approval before any of it is final.
Financial Performance
Looking at the quarterly results of NHC Foods Limited, the company’s consolidated revenue from operations increased by 234.56 percent YOY, from Rs. 110.50 crore in Q1 FY26 to Rs. 369.69 crore in Q1 FY27, and grew by 43.06 percent QoQ from Rs. 258.40 crore in Q4 FY26.
In Q1 FY27, the company consolidated net profit increased by 923.49 percent YOY, reaching Rs. 16.99 crore compared to Rs. 1.66 crore during the same period last year. As compared to Q4 FY26, the net profit has increased by 155.48 percent, from Rs. 6.65 crore. The basic earnings per share increased by 766.67 percent and stood at Rs. 0.26 as against Rs. 0.03 recorded in the same quarter in the previous year, FY2026.
Riding Beverage Boom
A broader view of the market landscape highlights why this transaction is particularly timely. India’s carbonated beverage market alone is expected to roughly double to Rs. 2 lakh crore by FY28, growing at around 11% a year, and a lot of that growth is being pulled forward by quick commerce it’s simply become far easier for someone to order a soft drink on impulse than it was even three or four years ago.
That kind of growth curve tends to make smaller regional brands attractive takeover targets, since bigger, better-funded companies can plug them into existing distribution rather than starting from scratch, and the smaller brand gets a shot at scale it couldn’t reach on its own. NHC Foods fits neatly into that pattern; it already has a foothold in food manufacturing and agri commodities, and buying into Lotmor and Walya’s is a faster route to capturing beverage growth than trying to build that distribution network organically.
Company Overview
NHC Foods Limited is a Government-recognised Three Star Export House, working across spices, lentils, pulses, grains, oilseeds and other agri commodities. Beyond commodities trading, the company also manufactures carbonated soft drinks and packaged drinking water for domestic and export markets. It’s been steadily building out its sourcing, processing and distribution network across the broader agri and food value chain.
