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1 — At a Glance
Cosmo First sells thin plastic film used for packaging, labels and lamination. Consolidated revenue for the three months to June 2026 was ₹1,166 crore. A year earlier it was ₹800 crore, a rise of 46%. Operating profit came in at ₹136 crore, against ₹92 crore. Profit after tax was ₹53.8 crore, against ₹42.9 crore. Operating margin came in at 12%.
Management got in front of the revenue figure themselves. They say volumes grew 9%, and the rest is polymer price inflation passing through after the West Asia conflict. In a pass-through business, input-cost changes are handed on to the customer. Management says dearer raw materials lift the revenue line and the bottom of the margin sum alike. So a 46% topline can sit beside a thinner margin, on their own framing. They report an EBITDA margin of 12.6%, against 14.5% a year earlier. EBITDA is profit from operations before interest, tax and depreciation come out. Management’s preferred yardstick is EBITDA per kilogram, which they say rose about 15%.
Elsewhere in the quarter, the specialty and semi-specialty mix was 61%. The company calls that its highest in five quarters. Film capacity utilisation ran near 85%. Net debt stood at ₹1,166 crore, the same figure as the quarter’s revenue. The coincidence means nothing, though it is the sort that makes a spreadsheet feel haunted. Leverage, which sets net debt against a year’s operating profit, was 2.3 times. A year earlier it was 2.9 times.
Three other things landed. A 50:50 Korean joint venture was incorporated. A United States customs duty refund of about 7 million dollars arrived in July. The pet care business grew 70%.
2 — Introduction
Cosmo First has been making BOPP film since 1981. BOPP is a thin stretched plastic film used to wrap and label goods. That start date predates liberalisation, the internet, and several generations of people who call packaging a sustainability play.
The company was Cosmo Films until the year to March 2023, when it renamed itself Cosmo First. The new name arrived alongside a genuinely wider business. What was one thing is now five. Films sit beside specialty chemicals, rigid packaging and consumer films. The fifth is pet care, which involves dogs.
The recent history is a capital spending history. Per the company, more than ₹1,200 crore of strategic capex went in over three years. A specialised BOPET line came in the year to March 2023. Rigid packaging followed in the years to March 2024 and March 2025. Then came a CPP line, and window films in May 2025. An 81,000 tonne BOPP line was commissioned in June 2025, at a cost above ₹400 crore. A coating line arrived in the three months to December 2025. A coating-lamination line followed in the three months to March 2026. Installed BOPP capacity went from 196,000 tonnes a year to 277,000. Crisil, a credit-rating agency, records that BOPP line at ₹350 crore in its September 2025 rationale. Crisil says the funding was split 80:20 between debt and equity.
The quarter’s presentation is titled “Entering Phase of Superior ROCE & Business Scale-Up”. Management’s framing throughout is that the building is done and the sweating begins. They say the capex cycle is complete, with focus shifting to returns on capital employed and cash generation. ROCE measures profit against the money tied up in the business. Management says ROCE is around 11% now, and wants 15% to 20%. Their stated window is 12 to 24 months.
Recent corporate events, in order. A writ was filed in the Gujarat High Court in January 2026, seeking an incentive refund of ₹58.34 crore. The company expects ₹33.53 crore of that as accrual. The head of the specialty chemicals business resigned in February 2026. The Korea joint venture with Filmax was notified in November 2025 and incorporated on 15 May 2026. Zigly acquired a Bengaluru animal healthcare business in July 2025, and a Mumbai clinic in April 2025.
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3 — Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?
They make thin plastic, at enormous scale, and charge different prices for what looks like the same thin plastic.
Films are the core, at roughly ₹1,034 crore of the quarter’s ₹1,166 crore. That segment grew 45% on a year earlier. Within films, the whole strategic argument is a taxonomy. Base films face heavy competition, with little pricing power and little research behind them. Their gross margin was ₹30 a kilogram this quarter. Semi-specialty film ran at ₹45 a kilogram. Specialty film was around ₹63, and per management has held above ₹60 for five straight quarters. The company’s own table rates “Customer Stickiness” low, medium and high down those three columns. That is corporate-speak for please stop shopping around.
Product categories run to packaging films, lamination films, label films and industrial films. Cosmo describes itself as the world’s largest supplier of thermal lamination films and industrial application films. It also calls itself second largest in specialty label films. It places itself among the top four globally in BOPP specialty films. Crisil, a
