Dachepalli Publishers FY26: Margin expansion meets a platform push

Dachepalli Publishers Limited closed FY26 with a sharp step-up in scale and profitability, and paired it with a clear strategic message: the company wants to evolve from a K-12 textbook publisher into an integrated academic supply and technology ecosystem.

For FY26, the company reported total income of INR 91.39 crore, EBITDA of INR 23.52 crore, and profit after tax (PAT) of INR 15.20 crore. EBITDA margin expanded to 25.7% and PAT margin improved to 16.6%. Q4 FY26 alone was strong, with total income of INR 35.85 crore and PAT of INR 5.16 crore.

The investor presentation positions the business around academic publishing for CBSE, ICSE, and State Boards, supported by in-house printing and digital learning tools. The concall adds a second leg to the story: Pelican Edu Supply, a school-linked e-commerce platform that is intended to move procurement away from manual school counters and into a home-delivery model.

FY26 performance: growth with operating leverage

The headline trend in FY26 is a strong rise in operating profits. Revenue from operations stood at INR 91.36 crore in FY26 versus INR 63.90 crore in FY25. EBITDA rose to INR 23.52 crore from INR 13.18 crore, while PAT increased to INR 15.20 crore from INR 8.36 crore.

Management attributed margin expansion to a combination of input cost relief and operating leverage. On the concall, the company pointed to a meaningful drop in paper prices versus earlier years and explained that standardisation of curriculum under NEP reduces the need to create and print multiple state-specific editions. Printing larger batches improves unit economics and lowers costs such as printing plates.

The company also highlighted internal operational improvements. Installed printing capacity is stated at 15 tonnes per day, and utilisation increased to about 75% in FY26. It also stated that around 85% of production is now managed in-house, which supports cost control and delivery timelines during peak seasons.

Platform-led distribution: Pelican Edu Supply gains traction

A key strategic theme across both documents is distribution and procurement modernisation. Through Pelican Edu Supply, the company creates a school-specific ordering link that lets parents purchase prescribed kits online, with home delivery. The platform can include the company’s own textbooks as well as other publishers’ books, along with notebooks and stationery. The stated rationale is to reduce operational burden on schools and capture more categories per student.

Management stated that in FY26, the platform scaled to 50 schools and generated around INR 20 crore of revenue. Management also described the model as profitable, citing margins from trading notebooks and stationery and the ability to bundle multiple items into one order. For access to the platform, management indicated that schools typically keep at least 50% of textbooks from Dachepalli and route notebooks and stationery through the company.

A second benefit discussed on the concall is working-capital improvement for platform orders. Management explained that in the traditional channel, payment cycles are long because supply flows through distributors and schools and parents buy over the summer period. Under the e-commerce model, parent payment triggers dispatch, which reduces credit lag for those orders.

Still, the financials show that the overall business remains working-capital heavy. FY26 inventories were INR 54.53 crore and trade receivables were INR 74.52 crore, while cash and bank balances were INR 0.67 crore. Management explained that reported debtor days look extended due to early invoicing under GST and the mismatch between the academic cycle and the financial reporting cycle.

Backward integration and category expansion: notebooks and uniforms

The company’s post-IPO updates include backward integration into notebook manufacturing. The investor presentation states the acquisition of a notebook manufacturing machine to shift from trading ready-made notebooks to manufacturing internally, with expected benefits in gross margins, quality control, and supply chain reliability.

On the concall, management added two operational details. First, in-house notebook manufacturing is expected to be operational within 30 days, by 30 June 2026. Second, the company’s stated intent is that from the next academic year it will reduce or stop external notebook purchases and focus on selling its own notebooks, with a quality-based positioning.

Uniforms are the next planned layer on the Pelican platform. Management said the uniform vertical was piloted in three schools, and that for FY27 uniforms will be added only in the existing 50 e-commerce schools rather than all new onboarded schools, due to execution complexity. Management also stated that uniform margins can be high and mentioned an EBITDA margin close to 50% for uniforms, while acknowledging that it needs more time to quantify the impact on consolidated margins.

Geography and customer mix: expanding the base

The company’s revenue remains largely India-focused, with meaningful concentration in South India but increasing penetration into newer markets. The state-wise revenue table shows Telangana at 32.40% of FY26 revenue and Andhra Pradesh at 21.44%, with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also sizeable contributors.

Expansion into Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Assam is highlighted in the presentation as a full-fledged operational entry with distribution setup and regional teams. Management on the concall also linked part of the FY26 growth to these new states.

Customer concentration metrics moved in a mixed but directionally positive way. The presentation shows top 10 customers contributing 30% in FY26 versus 42.07% in FY25, indicating reduced dependence on a small set of clients.

What management guided for FY27 and beyond

Management’s forward commentary included explicit targets. For FY27, management guided toward a revenue trajectory of around INR 150 crore, and later stated it expects to exceed this level, potentially reaching INR 160 to 165 crore, while positioning INR 150 crore as a minimum commitment.

The bridge management laid out is roughly INR 90 crore from the textbook business and INR 60 crore from the e-commerce vertical, which includes textbooks, notebooks, stationery, and uniforms. Management also indicated PAT margins of around 16% to 17% going forward.

For FY28, management said it expects to cross INR 200 crore and guided roughly INR 220 to 230 crore.

Takeaways

Dachepalli’s FY26 performance combines strong operating results with a strategic narrative of ecosystem building. The company’s reported numbers show meaningful margin expansion, supported by higher in-house production and favourable input and product standardisation dynamics discussed on the concall. At the same time, the business remains seasonal and working-capital intensive, and the new verticals will need clearer disclosures as they scale.

The next phase appears defined by three measurable execution levers: scaling Pelican Edu Supply beyond 50 schools, commissioning notebook manufacturing and ramping internal volumes, and cautiously expanding uniforms after the pilot. If management can sustain its stated 16% to 17% PAT margin while growing toward the FY27 revenue target, the company’s platform-plus-publishing positioning will become easier to validate quarter by quarter.