Hello, good afternoon, and a warm welcome to all of you on behalf of Mega Lifesciences. For today's call, we have with us here our CEO, Mr. Vivek Dhawan.
Hello, I'm Vivek. I'm Vivek here, joining from our office. Thank you.
We have our CFO, Mr. Thomas Abraham.
Hello.
Deputy CFO, Mr. Manoj.
Hi, everyone.
Our Company Secretary, Ms. Sujintana Boonworapat, and myself, Francis Rego. We'll be starting today's call with a brief introduction and synopsis of financial performance for 1H24 and 2Q24, followed by remarks from the CEO on the financial performance. Then we'll open the forum for Q&A. While asking questions, we request you to mention your name and the name of the institution that you represent. Starting first with 1H24 financial performance. Overall revenue in 1H24 was at THB 7.7 billion, flat on a YoY basis. Mega We Care Pharma and OTC business continued to show healthy growth. Maxxcare Pharma business continued to show growth, while Maxxcare consumer business revenue in Myanmar declined, as we had guided earlier. Brands revenue in 1H24 was THB 4 billion, reflecting a growth of 2.5% on YoY basis.
Mega We Care Pharma and OTC business continued to show healthy growth, while there was some sluggishness in Nutra business, primarily on account of COVID-friendly products. Distribution business revenue in 1H24 declined by 8% on an adjusted basis. The adjustments were made for dual currency effect in Myanmar. Maxxcare Pharma business continued to show growth as guided. The decline in Maxxcare revenue is fully attributable to the decline of consumer business in Myanmar, which has a very limited impact on profitability as guided. Overall, gross profits in 1H24 improved to 47.7% of operating revenue, as compared to 44.7% in 1H23, mainly due to change in segmental mix. Branded business gross margins remained stable at a healthy level of 65.2% in 1H24, which was quite similar to 1H23 gross margins.
Distribution business gross margins improved to 25% on an adjusted basis in 1H 2024, as against 23.1% in FY 2023. Gross margins of distribution business are influenced by principal mix, among other factors. SG&A expenses in 1H 2024 was higher due to planned spending, representing 28.7% of operating revenue, as compared to 26.8% of revenue in 1H 2023. We expect SG&A to normalize by year-end. Reported net profits in 1H 2024 were THB 991 million, as against THB 984 million in 1H 2023, flat on a YoY basis. The improved gross margins in 1H 2024 were offset by increased planned SG&A, which resulted in flat reported net profits.
Adjusted net profits in 1H24 were THB 1.051 billion, as against THB 1.1 billion in 1H23. Adjusted net profits declined by 11% YoY, mainly due to the impact of Forex loss in Nigeria on account of depreciation of Nigerian naira against the US dollar in 1H23. Operating cash flows in 1H24 were healthy at THB 1.6 billion, representing 162% of net profits. We continue to be a net cash company with a strong balance sheet. On the CapEx front, we have spent THB 99.7 million towards CapEx in 1H24. Majority of the spending was towards maintenance CapEx and capacity expansion for manufacturing operations in Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia, as per the plan.
Going forward for CapEx plan, besides the regular improvement and maintenance CapEx, which is incurred every year in the range of $3 million-$4 million, we have planned an amount of THB 420 million to be spent towards the ESG project, which accounts for around 20 million, and that is for the ESG in the manufacturing operations. Another 400 million baht is expected to be spent towards adding new dosage forms, warehouse, and plant upgradation in the newly acquired Indonesian manufacturing plant. Moving forward towards second quarter 2024 performance. Overall revenue in 2Q24 was at THB 3.95 billion, flat on a YOY basis. Mega We Care Pharma and OTC business continued to show healthy growth in the second quarter as well.
Maxxcare Pharma business continued to show growth, while Maxxcare consumer business revenue in Myanmar declined, as we had guided earlier. Brands revenue in 2Q24 was THB 2.14 billion, reflecting a growth of 6% on YoY basis. Both Mega We Care Pharma and OTC business continued to show healthy growth, while the nutraceutical business, which was sluggish in 1Q24, has improved in 2Q24 and was flat on a YoY basis. Distribution business revenue in 2Q24 declined by 10.7% on an adjusted basis. Maxxcare Pharma business continues to show growth as guided, and the decline in Myanmar revenue is fully attributable to the decline of consumer business in Myanmar, which has very limited impact on profitability, and this is all as we had guided earlier.
Overall gross profits in 2Q24 improved to 48.5% of operating revenue, as compared to 45.7%. This is mainly due to change in the segmental mix.... Branded business gross margins remained stable at a healthy level of 66% in 2Q24, which is quite similar to 2Q23 gross margins of 65.8%. Distribution business gross margins improved to 24.9% on an adjusted basis in 2Q24, as against 23.1% in FY23. SG&A expenses in 2Q24 were higher due to planned spending, representing 28.8% of the operating revenue, as compared to 26% of revenue in 2Q23. We expect SG&A expenses to normalize by the year-end.
Reported net profits in 2Q24 were about THB 513 million, as against THB 531 million in 2Q23, which is flat on a YoY basis. Improved gross margins were offset by increased planned SG&A, which resulted in flatness in reported net profits. Adjusted net profits in 2Q24 were about THB 557 million, as against about THB 641 million in 2Q23. Adjusted net profits declined by 13.2% YoY, mainly due to the impact of Forex loss in Nigeria due to depreciation of Nigerian naira against the US dollar in 2Q23. I now request our CEO, Mr. Vivek Dhawan, to share his remarks on the financial-
Thank you, Francis. Khob khun krap, Vivek Dhawan. I'll speak in English, maybe there are a lot of people who are also from English-speaking parts of the world. As you have heard from Francis, we've had a healthy first half as far as our brands are concerned. And I think we've been directing you clearly that the distribution business in Myanmar, which is the largest part of our business, is affected by the conditions in Myanmar, which are beyond our control. And largely, the consumer side, pharma still remains stable. We had a reasonably good first half on the pharma side, and the second half also, let's see how things are. We are hoping that it'll continue. So the pharma side is okay, and the great thing is that the branded business is doing well.
We have also, in the past, guided you that you saw an extreme peak in 2022 with the COVID products and things then, and they really grew phenomenally high in terms of value. But when we look at the COVID range of products and compare 2019 and now, we are still better than 2019. So it's given a bump to those products, and many products that were COVID and not in our list now are major contributors today. So that's the good side. But the sad side is not the same as COVID. But having said that, all the other products which are non-COVID, even compared to 2022, 2023, are growing. So the branded business is looking good in most places, and we are hoping to see, as we have promised, a 5% and that range in this year.
And we believe we should get there with the branded business in the year 2024. And with the pipeline that we have, the drug, there are about 170 products, as I see here, which are new products registered, applied for, under development. In some form or the other, they will come and get approvals over the next one, two years. So there's a whole category of drugs, pure pharmaceuticals, which are—some are in government, some are privately sold, some are unique formulations, and we are doing a lot of work in that area. So the pharma business will definitely become bigger. It's already grown and become a sizable part. I think now it's nearly 40%, approximately, around there.
Forty-five percent.
45%. So OTC, if we put, we also say, because we put it in consumer health, so 40/60, and about 5-8% of it is consumer health, which is part of the consumer health. But by law, in many countries, it's a medicine, but we treat them as consumer health. So 60/40, already from 20, and we have gone up over the last 4-5 years to nearly 40%. And it's not that the consumer health is not growing. Consumer health is also growing, reasonably well. And we have a lot of products in pipeline, and we see growth opportunities, because we have just got a few registrations in Indonesia, Malaysia. So some new products are just getting launched in the consumer health area in these markets as well. So that's a good sign.
At the same time, as I said, the pharma business is also looking up in most markets, new ones, old ones as well, and new ones that are coming off patent. So we have a large pipeline. At the same time, our plant in Indonesia, the plant is now under construction, already being built. We have a deadline of quarter three, 2025, to have it ready and hopefully operational. So there will be... and but at the same time, because we have the old plant ready, the tech transfer, the development work is all going on. We have, over the last two years, tripled the capacity production output from the same plant. Already, we are producing at three times than we were doing two years ago.
So all that is happening in Indonesia, volumes going up, new products getting registered, new tech transfers being done, over-the-counter products being launched soon. So with that, our combined strategy, we are still very hopeful as per plan to, what was that? 2030 to reach, what, $40-$50 million. So in the next five years, we are planning to get to $50 million. I think 2027, 2028, we are looking at $30 million. That was the original, because when we started at 2023, so five years, it was a $30 million plan, so-... I think we are working towards that. We are edging toward that $12 million this year and hopefully moving in that direction, right direction. So that's Indonesia for you.
Vietnam, as we promised you, we have not yet, we are in the process of finalizing the land deal as approved by our board. Hopefully, it should be done within this month, coming month. And then it's a regular process of approval and all it'll take before we start, building the plant. That's Vietnam. Other than that, I mean, there's nothing more than that. I think everything else is as normal, but we are pressing the buttons, and we are looking at growth. You know that we did open Congo, this year in Africa, which we just started, but all and these are, again, we're smaller market. We are not huge. Population is huge, but the markets will take time. We are registering product. We also opened Zimbabwe.
So most of the Sub-Saharan East Africa, from Ethiopia down to Zimbabwe, we are covering most of it. Very few are left, I think. On the other side, we have only done Nigeria and Ghana, but we are evaluating. We are also looking at Angola and some other market. But this is work in progress. They won't have a major impact on business, but East and West Africa, where our focus is, we are working on that, and rest is all Southeast Asia. So that remains our focus with a bigger pipeline and a focus on consumer health and pharma. These two remain the main focus areas. The rest is supportive, and the food business we had is merged into the Mega Consumer Health division now.
So the Baby range and all are being sold for children, growing children, et cetera, as a part of another offering under the Mega range. Wellness centers continues to support, educate, provide services to our clients and pharmacists and doctors and consumers to help them live a healthy life, lifestyle change management. That's not a profit-oriented business. That's providing support, knowledge, education, as a part of our service to the community, and we continue to do that. That's also going with our WeCare platform also in most countries. We have launched some of them for mother and child, for diabetes in Myanmar. In other countries also, we are looking to provide help to the doctors in the countries where they can manage their patients better or patients can manage their health conditions better with help, advice, support, as well as tracking their own health.
So these are not being monetized, but they're part of our brand building exercise of Mega We Care to become a Love mark, a brand that people associate with and a brand that actually cares for their wellness. So that's the part of our journey, part, part of our promise, helping people to stay healthy as long as they live, and we continue to do that. So from my side, I think that is probably all. I would now open up the floor for questions, and I believe there are some that's coming on the chat. And if some things are you want to ask, please, like always, just identify yourself, let us know who you are, where are you from, and ask the question, and we are all here to answer your questions. Please, we are open for question now.
Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Very quiet. Any questions from everybody there? I see a lot of you are there. If you have any questions, please ask. Yes, Lynn, please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Maybe I'll just get the ball rolling a bit. I know you mentioned on sales quantum, the growth, it was partly due to a high base last year. But could you comment on maybe if we exclude any sort of COVID-related products, how would growth have been? And what kind of—I guess, a bit of a guidance, but what kind of a stable sales growth do you expect over the next year?
I think 5% is what we are saying, and next year also we are, as per our plans, that it'll be a little bit higher because a lot of products are getting launched. So I'm hoping, our hope is that next year will be a little bit more higher than this 5-6% this year. And 5-6% is after COVID, because COVID products are not growing. So 25 COVID, if you look at it, it will decline. So if you look at on non-COVID, it will be much higher. The growth rate will be probably in a range of 7-8%?
Yeah. Even pharma, pharma and-
Pharma is even much higher-
Much higher.
because it's coming at a smaller 14% base, so pharma is higher, and non-COVID will be higher also.
Okay.
But because COVID was 46%, 48% for two years, now it will come down and back to the... It's still higher than the 2019 number, but it's come down. So that means we are growing the other products at a much higher, faster rate. To be able to on a whole total base, we are still showing what? What did we show, 4.5?
We grew by 6%.
First half is what?
First half is around five-
...2.5.
2.5%. The first half is 2.5, because they were all carrying forwards also that year. The second quarter is what? 6, 6%.
Six percent.
We are hoping that on an average through the year, this year, we could probably end up at 5+, 5 around there, 5+, 5-6.
Yes.
And so branded business only, yeah, not the distribution business. But next year can be a little bit higher. Should be, will be in the 6%-8% range. But we have to... I mean, we are doing our analyses, and we are doing our budgets again, by October. November, we can give you a better idea. But that's the plan, actually. If you look at the plan, it's probably in that range, in that range. But more detailed, meaning internal evaluation, at least what we plan, can be provided in the November call, I think.
Yeah. Can I just quickly follow up there? Do you think something above 10%, is that a bit too difficult to achieve, given your scale? And does this 6%-7%, do you think it represents a slowdown versus historical trends?
I think, you know, see, if you, if you really get into the sales of branded business, Nigeria has declined significantly because there's been a huge increase in, I mean, increase in prices because of, you know, the, the devaluation in the currency. So the huge decline in Nigeria, plus the decline that's happening in the COVID products. If you negate all that, I think we are very close to 8%-9% growth in branded business. So, which gives us a lot of confidence going ahead, because, you know, this year we are, we have-- we are planning to launch around 40 products. Now, that 40 products, because of COVID, we couldn't launch many products in the last 2-3 years, so the... So that's where we had a gap.
Now, with all these new products going in, you know, they will all add to, you know, 2-3% of growth, you know. So with all this, you know, in place, I think, you know, going ahead, we probably feel more confident that our branded business should be more, more stable and growing in a very stable pace, you know, provided there are no more COVIDs and stuff like that. So I hope that gives you a better perspective on the branded side. On the distribution side, unfortunately, as we had guided, you know, the, the consumer side of the business has declined almost 50%. But if you look at the pharma side of the business, it's still stable. So this is exactly what we had guided, you know. Yes, you know, we had said that pharma business won't disappear, but consumer business will.
But despite the fact that consumer business has declined by 50%, our bottom line has held. Again, we had guided that the impact on the bottom line of the consumer business is very limited. So all what we had actually kind of guided you is, you know, going to plan. That's, that's what we could say as of now. Thank you. Yeah?
Also, also Nigeria, if the currency is more stable after this-
Yeah.
That means, that means that negativity will go away, and then now we will start to see unit growth. We are already seeing in some unit changes and growth happening, local terms and units, so we'll see some unit growth also coming back. So that is one of the thing, yeah, Nigeria, which was a big currency change, three times or something like twice.
Yeah, 3 times. It take time, but-
But it's looking, it's coming back slowly, slowly. I think we are... That's something that's good. So with all that happening, maybe we believe if we take that out, then we are probably growing at 8, 9%. And with more products, that opportunity, the chance of that 8%-10% happening next year is higher. That's where we are coming from. And we're not saying that we do magic, but it is the logic behind it, that now that COVID being is out and then the new products coming in, and the old one also growing. If some are growing slower, but the other new ones are growing faster. So put that together, we should see—we have a very good chance to grow that 8%-10% range next year.
Thank you.
Yeah. We hear some noise in the background. Could you please mute yourself? Yeah, we have that.
Hello. I have two questions for you. I just wanna know about your business in Myanmar. I mean, do you expect any further decline in consumer product sales from, like, from the level you have achieved in the second quarter?
See, Myanmar predictions are as good as you and me. We both live here, we have people on the ground. Conditions are not getting better. Pharma can remain stable. That's what we really think about. We don't very much want to make predictions on consumer. We don't want to be forecasting anything, but we think that if the pharma remains, our bottom line can remain intact. Let's see what happens in the next six months in Myanmar. This is not a political discussion, so I won't talk about it at all, but if something changes in Myanmar, things may turn around. But at the moment, it is focusing on pharma for Mega.
We are focused on pharma, get products in, make it available, sell where there's demand for product, because we are in that country with those products for more than 25, 30 years, and our products are well established. So we think that if we can do that, we'll be able to at least achieve-
... if not the revenue, but the bottom line, goals, and be able to continue overall growth rates as we are talking about, including that situation in Myanmar, unless something drastically changes there.
Okay. And another thing, could you please, like, elaborate a little bit more on what is your planned spending that you have, that it is mentioned on the MD&A that has caused higher SG&A expenses?
Oh, yeah, but what happens, Vinay? You also know in business, we don't quarterly equate and say equal spending. So I think in the beginning of this year, we had a plan, and we have invested money from a marketing perspective on advertising on above the line this year. And that's part of the plan to build a Mega We Care brand. In the country, in Thailand, you must have seen us on TV, on billboards, et cetera. So this is an additional spend, which doesn't show automatically growth in bottom line, you know, immediately turnover, top line growing, multiplying at that rate. But it'll taper down in the next half, right? So over the end of the year, it'll probably become average out.
So you will see some uptick here now, but you will probably not see it in the third quarter. So that's how it works. And also, we are now, over the next five years, we'll have a new strategic plan. As our brand become bigger and we want to multiply, we'll be spending more money on ATL, less somewhere else. So the mix will change, and you'll have some quarters having higher because you don't spend it all through the time. Sometimes there's holiday. No point spending during this season. Nobody's here. You don't spend money in July, August. People don't watch. They're on school holidays. Some countries are in... During Eid, there's no spending. In some countries, there is no spending during Chinese New Year and Songkran. So I think the timing varies when you start going on ATL.
You select periods to put money on TV and all that, but overall, you'll probably end up in that 27%-28%, 27.2% range, I think. That's what we've been hovering around for a long time. Plus or minus should not be very far, very far. Unless one year, if we decide that we are going aggressively to build our brand for one or two years, then we'll inform you that our plan this year is to spend two years to go above the line. Because a lot of our business is not above the line, right? So, so at the moment. And that's the situation at the moment, you know.
Is it typical that your second half expense, I mean, SG&A expense is, like, typically lower than in the first half?
Yeah, where the sales are higher, I mean, sales related. Most of it is to do with sales related, you know? It's, it's, promotion expense based on sell-in. So it's related to sales. It's not ATL based. It's not unrelated. When you go on TV, sometimes you are proportionally much higher above the sales, but you also have... But second half is mostly promotion, sales related. When you sell, you have commission, you have travel, you have all the other things that we pay, right? So it's, it's to do with the sale, units sold, value sold. So you will find that it's, it's quite standard, it's lower. And sales also is higher. On average, if you... I don't know, historically, we are 55, 45, 52, 48, 50, 47, 53.
Right.
Something like that, right? Every year, generally, except one year or something, we were a bit more equal because of-
Yeah.
the COVID time, it was more because that time COVID went up in December or February, so the end year sales went up a lot. People bought a lot. But generally, if you look at history, 10 years, and we take out the COVID, you'll find 45, 46, 47. So you have a higher sales spike. I mean, everybody has. It's not us. It's also designed that you close the books and people buy whatever is the agreed quantities to meet their targets, et cetera. So 3-5% is skewed. 3-4, not very much, 2-3% is skewed towards the end. Also, seasonality also, holiday, more holidays in Chinese New Year and all this in April, Thai New Year. End of the year, less holidays. So all these things makes a difference.
Okay. I think that is for me. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Hi, yeah, this is Peter Hong from SPARX. Can you hear me? Yeah, is it clear?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We hear.
Yeah, yeah. I'm just wondering, yeah, for our brand of business, is there any change between the pharma product mix versus the nutritional product mix? That are we seeing the pharma product mix increasing, even-
Yes.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yes, you're right. Yeah, you're right. I think we just mentioned the pharma is 40% and is growing at a faster rate. It's got a much higher growth rate in the first half compared to the consumer health. In the consumer health, we have both. We have supplements, vitamins, herbals, nutritional, medical nutrition, probiotics, plus we have over-the-counter as it depends on the definition, but we call it self-medication, like Gofen, Loraze, GOGAZ, all the... They are registered drugs, and they are for an indication, but they can be self-medicated. So that's had a slower growth, but excluding COVID product, that's also growing at 7%-8%. But pharma is definitely growing faster in the first half. And also, going forward, we see because the number of products coming out in pharma are much larger in the pipeline, and the market size also is much bigger-
... in the countries we operate. So pharma will grow probably at a faster rate. How the ratio will change, we'll find out, but it could be in 1, 2 years' time, 2, 3 years' time, it could be 50/50. It's possible. It's very, very likely, because the number of products they are coming up and growing, and this also growing, but in spite of that, it may end up at 50/50 in 2, 3 years' time. And we haven't looked at those numbers, but I think we'll get there. We haven't seen... We'll see our target and plan, but I think we'll probably get there.
So Indonesia pharma will also be-
Yeah. Indonesia also, yeah.
I see. Understand. And what's the GP margin difference between the pharma versus the consumer health?
What is that, sorry?
The-
Oh, gross profit margin. Similar.
Yeah.
I mean, it's actually very similar over a period of time. So, you know. See, I think another thing that you probably want to also look at is, we have always said that, if our growth in branded business is 5%, your bottom line can grow at a faster pace. Now, if you look at this first half as well, if our SG&A was within, you know, the 26.5% mark, our bottom line, on a reported basis, would have still grown at 10% or thereabout, despite the fact that our branded business has only grown at 3%.
Just to reinforce our guidance that we are always guiding you, you know, you know, branded business is very critical, and if we can grow the branded business, the company will steadily, you know, go on the track that we expect it to go. Thank you.
I see. Understood. And maybe my last question is on the Maxxcare, the distribution side, because we are seeing that actually our GP margin has improved quite a lot. So yeah, if-- can you maybe elaborate more about, like, why-
That, I think you can elaborate.
Yeah, you want to elaborate.
I mean, it's basically because the branded business has grown at a faster pace. The gross margin of branded business is 65%, while distribution is only 25%. So it's purely because of that, you know, the growth in branded business is faster than the distribution business.
MaxCare?
Yeah, but,
He's talking about Maxxcare.
MaxCare.
Oh, oh, oh. Maxxcare. Sorry, sorry. Maxxcare business is basically because, you know, the consumer business is less contributing, so as the decline is happening in the consumer business. So the gross margins of pharma business is higher. So that's why the gross margins of distribution business is looking up overall, on an overall basis.
Oh, I see. So that's also the mix for the pharma, because we are like, you know-
Correct.
Selling pharma mix more. So that's why on the distribution. Okay. Yeah, understood. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you.
Yes, Narumon, sir.
Go ahead.
Hi.
...
... where they are new, old, existing. So I think it's a long thing to discuss marketing here, but you should compare us with peers in our category in the area and how well we are delivering as a company on return on investment and the money we are spending to create and grow the brand. So sometimes you are in growth phase, you will have to spend some more money, right? So that's all I can say.
So just to add to that, if you look at our history, you can see that this used to be, SG&A used to be 33%-34%. It has continuously improved to what it is now, which is around 28, 27.5%. So that is if you want to have a measure of efficiency, you can look at that. You know, just to add to Punit's point. Do you have Manoj?
Yes. On the branded business front, after deducting our SG&A cost, our branded business yields a beta of 28%. You know, historically also, if you see, we have been at that level.
It's beta of 28%. I think the best way is to compare peers, if you want. That's called benchmarking, but we don't do it. We are in a different category. We have a generic drug business, and we have a consumer health branded business. So then sometimes you want to compare Blackmores. They only have vitamin supplements. The other companies are MNCs, who have few products.
Compare some-
Compare. You have to compare some peers who have similar categories and then see how well we perform.
Yeah.
Okay, understand. So, is it fair to say that we should see growth of the branded sales after you spend the marketing in the second quarter? I mean, I mean, in the second half outlook or probably next year, you could see some growth for the branded?
I think we are already saying that we are growing the branded business in the range of 8% if you exclude the COVID product. If you heard us a while ago, we explained, take out the COVID, which is anyway a decline from its peak. In spite of that decline, we've made up about... I think last time we, we said it's about 16% or 18% of our business is COVID product. That's declined. So we have a reduction of 6%-7% there, but we are still growing the branded business by 6%. So that means the pharma business is growing and the branded business, which is the consumer health, is also growing, excluding COVID products.
So all our business is growing, so we are hoping, and we believe based on this logic, because we have a lot of products in pipeline being registered, that we have a good chance to see 2025 in a higher, higher than the 5-6% we are saying this year, to go up to maybe in the range of 8% or more next year. That is what we are saying. But we will come back with more details in November when we talk to you, closer to date, when we have done our budget. But looking at the facts today, looking at today's growth of both pharma business and consumer business, excluding COVID, we are already doing that. We are even- we are already doing it. So there's a very good likelihood it will happen. It's nothing to do with spending money.
Spending money, sometimes we do to build brand, build credibility, build a lot of things, you know? So it's not an automatic, you spend one dollar, you get so much return. But not all marketing money is spent. Some time on advertising generates immediate results. And anyway, you will see by the end of the year, maybe our SG&A will drop from the 28-point-something to 27.2 or 27.4 or 27.5, in a normal range like last year. Right.
Regarding to 8%-10% growth of the branded product sales, what is the contributions from a new product launch?
New product launch is always very small.
Okay.
It's 2-3%.
Okay.
We never have—we don't have very large new product. When they get launched, they take the time to register. But 2%, 1% coming out of these 20 new products is also large overall. If you're talking about 8% growth, 1, 2 come from new, is already 1 or 2% coming from new products, right? And when you have many-
Ka.
Some are only launched this year, so that will show results next year.
Ka. So how many products you plan to launch per year, naka?
Many, many. I think if you read the IGNA and all, there are 38 products already planned to be launched, right? There are-
Last, last 3 years, we have launched 30 products.
Last two years, we launched 30 already launched, and we have 117 in pipeline.
Okay.
So 38, 38 unique products in 2024, and 67 new product, unique product were launched from 2022 to 2024, last two years. 67 have been launched in between these three years. So you will see some result in 2025, of the 67 products launched already, and then some new one will be launched again in 2025.
Mm.
Which we will give you the detail. I don't have the 2025 detail of launch plan yet, but 67 have been launched from 2022, 2023, 2024, three years, from 2022 to 2024, 67.
Mm. Di, ka. Khop khun mak, naka.
Thank you, ka. Thank you. Khob khun ka.
Hi, good afternoon. It's Andrew. Just on more on the SG&A line again. I just want to understand, when you say the SG&A spend for the year will be 27, is that 27 in the second half or for the full average for the full year?
It will reduce because we'll have correction will happen, 27 plus something. It won't be exactly 27.
Sure.
28 will come down.
One percent.
1% plus minus is in the range generally, you know? Because-
That's for the... Sorry, that's for the full year. The average will be about 20s around, let's say, around-
Yes
... twenty-seven.
Yes, yes.
Got you. Perfect. And then just on sort of, I suppose, the operational leverage of this business, obviously, you talk about, you know, the Mega We Care business, the branded business is growing 6% this year and hopefully 8%-10%+ next year. Obviously, we're trying to get an idea of how much of it is, how much you spend on marketing and how much is G&A. And I just want to understand the operational leverage in the business. Is the marketing spend likely as a percentage of sales to remain static? I don't know what the number is, but I want to assume as you're launching more products, that number won't really fall, and it's the G&A part as a percentage of sales that is coming down, that's giving you the operational leverage.
Can you just give us a bit more color on that?
I think generally, G&A is an expense on manpower and all this, which doesn't grow at the same exponential rate as sales grows. Though we do add in new markets, people. We are a growing company in new markets, so we don't fold our hands and tighten our hands for growth. Our objective in the next five years will be to grow and try and double this business. That's what we are looking at. We want to double our branded business. So we're going to invest money to grow it and look at what the bottom line as the outcome. So this will be done, and I think for that, we'll have to spend on people, all kinds of things that we are doing. But having said that, G&A, you are right, generally as a percentage, reduces with growth because you don't need as many ...
Once you have the base, office, manpower, regular med rep, sales rep, it doesn't multiply at the same rate. What goes up is S. That is marketing expenses. Selling is directly related. You have a promotion, you have a plan, you have a display, so as you open more outlet, it's related to sales. You put in there, and then if you have schemes or annual targets, then you have this. Because if you have sales, then only you get it. So one is sales related. If the sales goes up, you get more otherwise. But advertising, in some cases, because as we become bigger in certain brands and we have come to a point where we can start advertising, it's worth it.
Mm-hmm.
Then you have an ATL expense, which is sometimes not exactly cannot be related to sales. You won't get one-to-one result. You put $100, you'll get result today. That's where the challenge happens-
Sure.
But that's for a very small part of our business. That's why we don't see that changing 20, it become 32.
Mm-hmm.
Because if we don't do it, we can't do advertising for 40% of our business anyway, which is drug, right?
Yep.
The other 60% also, there's another 40% you can't advertise because, A, you are not allowed to say anything. FDA doesn't allow, this doesn't allow. There are a lot of restrictions. I mean, we can't advertise corporate in this country, so there's no advertising for IP corporate here. So the law restricts you once, so you have very limited areas where you put ATL money.
Sure.
So when I say that even if it goes up in one quarter or one year, you plan it and then it will not affect the SG&A or the selling expense by more than 1%-2%, I think overall.
Sure.
But so that's what variation you are talking about. If it doesn't work, you spend money and you don't see it in sales, it'll be a 1-2%, but you taper that down over the whole year, again, it flattens out to 27.2%, 27.5-6%, not very far.
Mm-hmm.
So we do generally, by design, by plan or whatever you call it, by the type of products we have, we end up in that range, you know? And you look at consistently for 10 years, whatever we have done, it's somehow ended up there.
Sure.
When you are smaller or grown, the percentage hasn't moved very far, though the sales have grown. You look at-
Would you, I mean, sorry.
Sorry.
Would you ever consider splitting out for disclosure purposes, how much your selling is and how much your G&A is as a percentage of sales?
No.
Have these two separate lines.
No, we don't do it now. It's very difficult at the moment because a lot of it also, you have to understand, in our business is people.
Yep.
Sales is also related to sales, salespeople, services, training, expenses, commission. So it's very hard to separate it out, right? We are paying them also as, as med reps or sales reps and doing a lot of activities on the ground. So there's so many heads, ATL, BTL, below the line, there are at least 100 items. Now, to separate them out is a lot of ... and 33 countries to bring that out, you know, very difficult job-
Sure.
at the moment.
Okay. Understood.
Maybe at one day, I don't know. Today it looks very cumbersome, but, an idea we can definitely discuss with you, if you want to talk about it.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, I think we are close to time now. It's 3:49 P.M., and if there are no other questions, we would like to thank all of you for attending the call and all your questions. And if you still have any more queries, I'm sure Sujintana, for our Thai explanation, she's very well aware. She can give you all the answers in Thai. พูดภาษาไทย คุณได้กว่าที่ไม่พูดเลยนะคะ.
Yeah.
Sujintana, we have Francis and Manoj, Thomas, we are all here at your service to give you facts as much as we can, honestly. We are doing our best. We promise you to grow the business, and we are hoping to continue this journey to make it stable, stronger as the years go by. In spite of all the difficulties around the world, I think we're still hanging in there and doing a job, making it work, building brands in difficult markets, where we believe over the years we can have a very strong, stable business. So once again, thank you so much, and I look forward to talking to you again next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.