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Editorial

Can Snowman Logistics Turn Around From Losses?

Snowman Logistics is India’s first cold supply chain company with a nationwide network. It is also India’s leading integrated temperature-controlled logistics company. It was incorporated by Amalgam Foods Limited in 1993. They have more than 25 years of experience in serving their client’s needs related to cold storage, warehouse and transportation. Their rich list of clients includes Bharat Biotech, Walmart, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Mother Dairy, ITC and others.

Why are we talking about Snowman again?

With the exponential rise in Covid-19 cases across India, the need for vaccination has increased massively. Many reports claim that India might look to entertain foreign vaccines as well. One of the vaccines which are used in many countries and have proven to be effective is Pfizer. 

But, the Pfizer vaccine has some limitations due to its vulnerable handling and storage. A very cold atmosphere is required to keep the vaccine safe. That means cold refrigerators have to be deployed for storing these vaccines as well as the same low temperature is required to transport it from one place to another. Logistics has been a huge challenge for the Indian government till now.

If Pfizer is allowed to sell its vaccines in India, the government might have to call companies like Snowman Logistics to help in the domain of logistics. There is not a surety on this and we are not making any claims but the possibilities of this happening are still big. We covered Snowman Logistics in-depth in December when its stock price doubled after getting associated with the Pfizer vaccine for the first time.

Financial Overview of FY21

In the fourth quarter of this year, Snowman Logistics declared a total revenue of Rs 65.11. Their net loss in this quarter was calculated to be Rs 0.42 crore. This was much better than the loss of Rs 1.17 crore reported in Q4 FY20.

Total revenue for FY21 declined slightly to reach Rs 240.57 crore from Rs 243.39 crore. In the same yearly period, Snowman declared a net profit of Rs 0.06 crore against a net loss of Rs 15.01 crore reported in FY20. This slight drop in their revenue can be attributed to the lockdown imposed in March 2020. The non-essential vehicle movement was restricted for a few weeks at that time.

On the positive side, their warehousing department has seen a considerable improvement in margin from 38% to 42%. Total revenues from the warehousing segment increased by more than 5% in FY21 as compared to FY20. At the same time, revenues from the transportation services dropped by 10% which decreased the total revenue as mentioned above.

How will Snowman benefit?

Snowman Logistics launched a tech platform called ‘Snowlink’ to push refrigerated transport fleets across the country. With increasing transportation capacity, it will also aim to offer end-to-end solutions to customers. In the last four months, they have increased their area of coverage to 16 cities. Amidst the time of the pandemic, Snowman has created a new pharma vertical. 

This new vertical will handle the distribution of COVID vaccines in some regions. They also plan to provide Pan-India storage and distribution but have to wait for the necessary approvals from various authorities. The company claims to be well-positioned for the mass distribution of the covid vaccine. Also, they are focussing on expanding in high yield locations to generate more sales across the nation.

According to the company’s CEO, Snowman is already operating at 85% capacity utilization and has a further 15% capacity available for vaccine transportation. He further adds that Vaccine transportation will increase at a rapid pace as the government has opened the vaccines for everyone above age 18. Thus, their business can increase massively starting this May. Any noticeable change in revenues and profits will be displayed in the next quarterly results.

Do let us know in the comments section of the marketfeed application. What is your opinion on Snowman Logistics? Are you also keenly tracking what is going around the company and its business? 

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Editorial

Can Snowman Logistics Benefit From Covid-19?

Coronavirus has impacted everyone’s life. It’s been 9 months already but India, along with most nations, is still struggling to contain the spread of the virus. As of 2nd December, India is very close to 1 crore positive cases. All the hopes lie on scientists worldwide to discover the vaccine. Many possible vaccines have been rolled out in the past two months which are close to getting approvals from the various authorities. To know more about these possible vaccines, click here.

Discovering and testing vaccines is one challenge, but distributing them is another. As the launch of a vaccine comes near, it’s quite natural that focus will shift to many logistics companies as well. One such logistics company is Snowman Logistics.

About Snowman

Snowman is India’s leading integrated temperature-controlled logistics company. Incorporated by Amalgam Foods Limited in 1993, it is India’s first cold supply chain company with a nationwide network. Gateway Distriparks Limited is their promoter and largest shareholder.

With over 25 years of experience in temperature-controlled warehousing and transportation, Snowman has been able to gather some big clients. These clients are from various businesses like pharmaceuticals, QSR (Quick Service Restaurants), meat, seafood, dairy, retail, etc. Few of the client companies to name are ITC, Lupin, Walmart, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Mother Dairy, Mondelez, Bharat Biotech (potential vaccine manufacturer) and more. Snowman offers a variety of services from consultancy to transportation to distribution. 

The chart below will explain their end-to-end solutions in a detailed manner.

[Source: Snowman’s corporate presentation]

The products which Snowman deals with are temperature-controlled. Due to this, it becomes very important to take special care of them. To get real-time updates, Snowman has incorporated an ERP system. This ERP system is a technology with which they trace all their trucks and warehouses. This real-time monitoring helps them to optimize and secure their operations. Currently, they hold pallet capacity of 105,228 in 31 warehoused across 15 cities. These 15 cities include Kochi, Chennai, Banglore, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, etc. You can find Snowman’s 2019-20 annual report here.

Pfizer & Snowman

US-based Pfizer Inc and Germany-based BioNTech developed a vaccine which proved to be 95% effective in preventing Covid-19. The UK government became the first country on 2nd December to approve the use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s covid-19 vaccine. Reports suggest that this vaccine will be available across the UK from next week. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will meet on 10th December to discuss whether to authorize the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc.

Can it come to India? There are many roadblocks of this vaccine coming to India. The biggest is the temperature it has to be stored and transported. According to reports, Pfizer’s vaccine requires an ultra-cold chain of -70 degrees. India does not have many logistics companies which can provide logistics services at such low temperature. Snowman Logistics is one of the very few Indian companies which can offer services similar to what is required by Pfizer’s vaccine.

According to Snowman’s CEO Sunil Nair, their current facilities can provide logistics and storage up to -40 degrees. But if it requires more than that, any company in the world will find it hard to offer their services if the technology is not improved. He added “Going up to -40 degree Celcius if I take that as then we have one lakh pellets positions total capacity and as of now the spare capacity is around 15,000 pellets positions and depending on the requirement we can increase it by creating some more space. Each pellet can accommodate 6000-7000 doses of vaccine.” 

The sudden rise in Snowman’s share price 1-Day candle

The day Pfizer’s vaccine news came out, Snowman Logistics’ share went 8% up. The chart below depicts how the investors have got behind this stock. In March, the stock touched its 52-week low at Rs 24.60. Since then, it has really struggled to get back up. Till 3rd November, the stock was trading in the early 30s. In just one month, it went from Rs 34 to Rs 67.30. Almost a double! That’s why it is often said that the stock market is unpredictable. But believe us, if you know the fundamental reason behind the happenings, you will always be a better and a knowledgeable investor in the long-run.

Financial Performance of Snowman Logistics

The company may have an amazing business opportunity, but how strong are they fundamentally? Let’s check out.

March 2020March 2019March 2018
Net Sales240.20232.55194.28
EBITDA60.1946.7944.46
PBT-6.3110.86-3.56
Values in Rs Crore

Snowman Logistics registered a mere 3% YoY rise in total revenue in FY20. But at the same time, they failed to record a profit for the third time in the last four years. Between 2017 to 2020, they recorded a profit only once and it was in 2019. This is mostly because of the high depreciation. In FY20, the company calculated total depreciation to be more than Rs 50 crore. That means, more than one-fifth of their total revenue was lost in covering for depreciation.

On a positive side, Snowman Logistics reported a positive net cash flow for the first time in the last five years. The company reported a net cash inflow of Rs 1.13 crore. Apart from depreciation, a major chunk of Snowman’s money goes out to pay the debt. They have maintained a very low debt-toequity ratio which means most of the money has come through equity rather than debt. Snowman’s current debt-to-equity ratio is 0.15. This ratio was 0.32 in 2018. Overall, the company has not performed well financially over the past 5 years. Yet, the continuous decreasing debt pattern provides a brighter look to the company. Any company which has less debt, with a good market to compete in, is considered less risky by the investors. You can also look into its peer cold supply chain companies like Blue Star.

In another note, Adani Logistics offloaded approximately 9.59 lakh equity shares indicating 0.57% stake in the company at Rs 55.64 per share last day. This is not looking like a good sign.

Be it vaccines or FMCG products, cold-chain supply in India is set to witness a boom. Can Snowman Logistics take advantage of this? Or will the stock fall after the recent rally based on potential vaccine news be futile? Let us wait and watch.