- **Jay Shree Tea & Industries is a multi-business Indian manufacturer that has been making everyday essentials - tea, sugar and fertiliser - since 1945, under the B.K. Birla Group banner**. **It was built by acquiring and operating plantations and factories across India’s agricultural heartlands, and later brought its sugar subsidiary directly into the fold through a merger approved by the board on 4 March 2021 with effect from 1 April 2020, creating a single company with three distinct production engines**. **The recurring approach is to own the entire production chain - from the tea bush, sugarcane field or chemical plant to the branded bag or bag of fertiliser - while using the Birla name to command trust in mass-consumption markets**. # Business segments Three production engines, each built on owning the asset from field or factory to customer - a tea business spanning India’s finest growing regions, a sugar-and-ethanol mill that can switch output as prices shift, and a fertiliser brand that is the cheapest option for Bengal’s farmers. ## 1. Tea: a quality producer with gardens in every major Indian tea region **The company grows and manufactures tea on its own estates across six distinct Indian regions, sells it under its own brand and exports to over 25 countries, and earns higher prices than the industry norm because its gardens rank among the top in their areas.** - **Owns the bush, not just the brand** - tea is cultivated and manufactured on company-owned estates in Cachar, Assam Valley, Darjeeling, Dooars, Terai and South India, with own production of 13.22 million kg in FY25 and a further 0.72 million kg from bought leaf, so quality control starts at the field. - **Price reflects garden pedigree** - the average price realised for own produce was ₹252.92 per kg in FY25, with Darjeeling teas fetching ₹391.74 per kg and Assam teas ₹244.66 per kg, because the company’s gardens are consistently rated among the top in their operating areas. - **Branded and direct, not just auction** - tea is sold under the “Bagicha-by Jay Shree Tea” brand as garden-fresh direct-to-consumer packs, alongside auction sales and direct exports to markets including Germany, the UAE, Russia, the USA, the UK and Japan, which diversifies the customer base beyond commodity auctions. - **Replantation keeps the asset young** - 2% of the tea area is uprooted and replanted every year to improve the age profile of the bushes, which sustains yield and leaf quality over decades. - **Tourism turns the garden into an experience** - the company owns what it calls the “longest tea garden in the world” with modern facilities for tea tourism, tied up with AMA Stays & Trails by Taj Group of hotels, creating a secondary revenue stream from the estate infrastructure. ## 2. Sugar and ethanol: a Bihar mill that hedges crop cycles with a switchable distillery **A single sugar mill in Majhaulia, Bihar, crushes cane into white sugar and runs a distillery that can shift between sugar and ethanol production depending on which product pays better, insulating the business from commodity price swings.** - **Fungible capacity is the hedge** - the distillery plant, rated at 56 kilolitres per day, is setting up a sugar refinery project to run the ethanol plant to its full capacity of 330 days a year, so the company can sacrifice sugar for ethanol when sugar realisations are weak and vice versa. - **Organic sugar as a differentiator** - the mill is the only one in Bihar to produce organic sugar without the use of sulphur, which creates a niche product in a commodity market. - **Government blending mandate underwrites ethanol demand** - the Ethanol Blended Petrol programme targets 20% ethanol blending by 2025 and 30% by 2030, and ethanol prices are delinked from crude oil, so offtake and pricing are policy-backed rather than purely market-driven. - **Cane development secures the feedstock** - the company undertakes cane development work “on a war-footing basis”, including autumn planting and better seed varieties, to enthuse farmers to plant more cane and increase availability for the mill. - **Grain-based ethanol as a backup plan** - additional equipment was being planned for grain-based ethanol production to supplement molasses feedstock, because molasses shortages can prevent the distillery from running at full capacity year-round. ## 3. Chemicals and fertilisers: the cheapest phosphatic fertiliser for West Bengal’s farmers **The company manufactures Single Super Phosphate under the “Annapurna” brand from its Khardah plant in West Bengal, selling through an established district-level dealer network as the most affordable fertiliser option in the state, with subsidy support from the central government.** - **Cheapest fertiliser in the market** - SSP is generally less expensive than other complex fertilisers, and the “Annapurna” brand is described as the best quality SSP available to farmers in West Bengal, making it the first-choice affordable nutrient source. - **Subsidy lifts affordability further** - the government raised the Nutrient-Based Subsidy on SSP by ₹2,142 per tonne effective April 2025, which directly reduces the price farmers pay and encourages balanced fertiliser use. - **Granulated SSP is the next upgrade** - the company is targeting modernisation or development of a new plant to produce SSP in granulated form, aiming to improve market share with a product that is easier to handle and apply. - **The Haryana acid plant was closed** - the sulphuric acid unit at Pataudi, Gurugram, was shut and disposed of in FY25 because high sulphur costs and competition from larger plants made it unviable, and the 16.59-acre freehold land was sold for ₹100 crore to retire debt. # Group structure and partners **Jay Shree Tea sits within the B.K. Birla Group, holds overseas tea estates in Uganda through a Dubai subsidiary, and has consolidated its Indian subsidiary structure through mergers and closures while promoters commit to backing the company’s liabilities.** - **Uganda estates add African leaf** - the wholly owned Dubai subsidiary Birla Holdings Ltd owns Kijura Tea Company and Bondo Tea Estates in Uganda, which together manufactured 1.24 million kg of tea in FY25 at a cost of USD 0.88 per kg and an average sale price of USD 0.74 per kg. - **Indian subsidiaries have been streamlined** - Bidhannagar Tea Company (originally for a South India demerger that was terminated in November 2024) and Basant Stays (formerly Divyajyoti Tea) remain wholly owned, while North Tukvar Tea ceased to be a subsidiary in FY23 and Jayantika Investment was merged into Jayashree Finvest in April 2023. - **Promoter backing is explicit** - the promoters are committed to extending support to meet liabilities and working capital requirements, which provides a backstop for the company’s financial position. - **Listing consolidation underway** - the Board approved voluntary delisting from the Calcutta Stock Exchange in May 2026, with shares continuing to trade on NSE and BSE.