Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Bata India Ltd Q4 FY23 earnings call hosted by Yes Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines are in listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions as the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing the star then zero on a touch-tone phone. Please note this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Udit Rajuwala from Yes Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Yes Securities, we welcome you all to Bata India's UNFRC earnings conference call. From the management team, we have Mr. Gunjan Shah, MD and CEO, Mr. Anil Somani, Director of Finance and CFO, Mr. Nithin Tiberia, VP Company Secretary. I now hand over the call to Mr. Nithin. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. A warm welcome to all of you. We have Gunjan Shah, Managing Director and CEO. We also have Anil Somani, Director of Finance and CFO. We have shared the presentation with the stock exchanges earlier today. We'll be taking you through the same. We navigate slides as well as the page numbers to stay synchronized. On slide number two, we have the disclaimer. I'm sure you have gone through the same. And now, request Gunjan to take over and thank you once again for joining.
Okay. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, joining the call today. I will briefly run through the presentation, which is, as Nithin mentioned, already uploaded. I will start with slide number 4. Just a broader context. When we met for the call last time, we had said that we saw improvements in momentum at that point in time through the quarter between January and March at that point in time. That did improve sometime, but then we did see deleterious momentum in the latter part of the quarter, driven by various factors: heatwave, election, as well as wedding season, presumably. So it's been overall a relatively tough quarter, reflecting in our sales for a long time having dipped actually negative to -1%. So with respect, there were bright spots, and I will talk to a few of them.
I will also try and see if I can get some sense of where we are trying to, you know, in keeping fit to the trajectory going forward, which we are hopeful of. I think one thing that keeps continuing really well, I've been talking about it for multiple quarters, right? Has been Slow. The brand continues significant momentum now on reasonably sizable base, contributions which are upwards of almost 4.5% in retail business, right? And continues to logging highest quarterly sales quarter on quarter. So almost running like a startup. We are also running it like a startup. A lot of investments that we are putting behind it, both in the front-end, back-end, technology, molds, stores, et cetera, and I'll talk a little about it. The other big focus area has been Power.
Power has seen, right from the previous quarter as well as the quarter 1 of 2025, a double-digit momentum. We still want to keep pushing this brand. We feel that it's the right umbrella for affecting the acquisition space, and it's got a good sweet spot in terms of the right to succeed at the market price point in the range of 2,000-3,000 ±, right? And there is a lot of work that's happening. A lot of the technology work that we put behind Power over the last 2 years, et cetera, is flowing through. We will see, you know, 2 large product launches going in with this quarter also, which are with distinct user benefits that we are very confident will give us further traction on this. There is also a relatively better momentum that is on Campus and HRX.
So, you know, the premium continues, though it's been a narrowing gap, but it still continues. And Secret Studios is powering the entire, so it's crossing the entire Secret proposition, expanded to about 740 stores now. On the expansion piece, franchise store expansion continues. So we did see continued expansion. We will continue to see almost 50 to 50 EVOs being added every quarter. We are very hopeful that it will basically this momentum builds on around, and these store expansions will keep us. With that, franchise will be obviously the predominant part, which I have talked about as a strategy going forward, especially in the tier three to tier five, where we are obviously in many, many towns the first organized retailers providing the kind of experience that we are through our EVOs. Vehicle distribution also expanded, though the mass placements continue to have some amount of stress.
It was relatively a little better last quarter despite the other momentum areas that I talked about. So we are hopeful that that reversal journey will give us positive momentum in the balance of the year. Our investments here in stores continue actually a pretty large number. I think 50 stores. So easily we should be in the range of about 20-25 stores of renovation every quarter. This was lined obviously relatively a leaner train, and that's where we wanted to large part of these projects of our store renovation. Our EVO, I will talk about it. We opened one the previous quarter. This quarter also we saw another one, and our ambitions are wanting to keep learning and moving forward on the front.
You know, we went a large campaign, try and fly first in the industry to push basically in terms of footfalls and getting the momentum back. And also we did a very different kind of a social media launch of Nine West. Now Nine West is fully present in about 60 stores, and we are working towards making sure that we expand it going forward. E-commerce continues to expand. E-commerce momentum continued even in the previous quarter. And obviously, not only in terms of portfolio, it's also in terms of profitability as well as partners everywhere we can see good momentum. We also saw that momentum reflecting in our Omni-channel as well as Hotel.com. So besides marketplaces, there was some good work happened in the efficiency on the efficiency lines. Capacity utilization was basically the best that we have seen in six quarters in our in-house.
We are at, and you know, it augurs well going forward at the best inventory levels that we have the last almost 8 quarters. Despite that, our availability has been also the best. So I think it's been a good all-around work that's happened on inventory management, and that should augur well for us. In fact, it gave us a little amount of confidence that we postponed our EOS sales in June by 2 weeks compared to last year. That reflects in the stable gross margins that we saw despite obviously the overall momentum going forward. Simultaneously, I've been talking about this. We have now fully stabilized in the previous quarter. Now, you know, what I feel is right at our variable structure performance pay at stores at about 30% as the design.
We also stabilized the ERP module that we have run that's known as Dynamics during the quarter. This is the first quarter where the results came in out of the ERP module. Moving further, a few highlights. The store expansion continued. What you see in the red bar is Coco. What you see in the blue bar is basically the franchise. Did see a slightly higher than normal Coco expansion last quarter. As I said, we do try and take on this relatively quarterly. We feel that from a project point of view, it's the right one to do. And these, however, franchise growth basically track will continue. Another big highlight is the success of this from a partner perspective that now almost 50, half of the franchise additions are coming from existing partners, opening up multiple stores within the radius that we operate in.
We would like that to keep continuing going forward. The other big endeavor that we've had is to continue push towards the newness and innovation into our stores, not only in the 500 stores but even the 800 stores. That's been a big endeavor. We did make shift the needle last quarter, and the next six months will see a significant shift on that. Moving to slide number 7, which is basically in terms of seeing for the future, our EVO, we've talked about it. We started the first store. It's in the north. The second one also has opened in the north. We will want to keep learning on this, and the signs and the feedback are very good. We are getting the kind of leading density that we want from these stores. They are big stores, not more than thousands of people.
That seems to be the model that works. As you can see, it is encompassing largely the kind of portfolio that we want to show from a running sports perspective. That also has digital interaction. It's the Power that we have always been working on for the last about a year or so, as well as some more 6 months or so. We will want to expand to 10 or to about 15 stores in the next 2 quarters, that is December 2024. This quarter, we should see about 4-5 additions. In the same breath, it's more a Power. I've talked about it. We are there in about 70 stores now, slightly more than last quarter.
Now the kind of traction that I have been mentioning quarter-on-quarter for the last almost 2 quarters or 3 to you, we are seeing the kind of threshold that we want. And most probably, I think in another 2 or 3 months, we should be looking at expanding it to almost 100+ stores, ideally double of the 70 that we have. It also has given us a lot of understanding on franchise and making sure that we've got the right price points, some amount of also the material that we are losing. So earlier, we had only polyester. Now we've got also cotton and delicate stuff going. Price point that we have now aggressively put in, et cetera, all of them are working towards this, and we are hopeful of the traction going forward. Other big pieces being Floats.
I've talked about it from a category and a business perspective. A lot of industries go in. As I said, now contributions are pretty essential and quite attractive margins. We also are investing in the brand outside the Bata banner, and the Floats kiosks are the first entry towards that. We are now at more than a dozen kiosks, 16 to be precise. A lot of learnings, but time of EC, the underlying momentum is very clearly visible, and we should be expanding this and doubling this by also in the next two quarters. We will keep continuing on this. There's also work afoot in terms of opening the first EBO Floats. The kiosks are basically in the range of about 100-150 sq ft, as you might be able to guess from the photograph on the screen.
On the slide 8, the other piece has been Nine West. I talked about it. We did do a launch. It's there in about 50 stores right now. And how do you say? We should have enough learnings in place. We should be looking at expanding that to about 70 stores or within the Bata network. On the e-commerce, as I said, I think that continued its positive trajectory even last quarter across marketplaces, C2C platform of ours, as well as Omni, and all of them have been generating momentum across various categories.
The campaign that we ran, we are also wanting to make sure that some of the increases that we have seen in the offline world on brands like Floats and Power, et cetera, we've been investing a significant amount of effort, et cetera, to make sure that e-commerce also joins the party on it in the next couple of quarters. On the MBO side, investment in infrastructure expansion continues. We are also now investing in the top, you know, 1,000 outlets off of this, you know, direct reach that we've got of 50,000 plus if we track for and where our FSE reaches. We are also organizing the way we are putting up the entire range in these top 1,000 stores. They give us good scoop ups on a per month basis.
Besides that, we have invested in the EVA category at a price point of about INR 500 ±. That's given extremely good results and has been doing extremely well despite its overall sluggishness in that segment, in that price point. On the campaigns in the quarter gone by, on slide number 11, we continue to invest in this, and that shows up even in the P&L. Our marketing investments are a big jump over last year. The campaign that I talked about on Cry and Fly, we did a Nine West social media focus launch with influencers. We did obviously a focus and campaign on Floats, which was due to the season. And last but not least, obviously in terms of brand stories coming alive within our stores, some of the examples that you see on the screen in front of you.
It's also been a period in the last quarter where we've got some good awards to see from various stakeholders on the customer as well as on the consumer side. So whether it be the franchise program, the loyalty program, as well as the social media campaign that's done. With that, coming to the last section, which is financials. While the results obviously have been published, sales has been muted. It was -1.4%. Granted, gross margin was flat, slightly positive, but yeah, mostly flat. And that shows towards basically also, I think some of it was to do with making sure that we are able to toggle our inventories reasonably well. We did continue to invest this quarter.
Also, that I had not mentioned is that we have also charged off some expense on our IT projects, especially the largest one being ERP, and that shows up in our other expenses. It's been on the conservative side on that side, and this is the last quarter of our large expense that was there on ERP. Marketing costs have touched about. Overall, it's not been too far from our talk of 250-300 basis points. But versus last year, yes, it's been a higher increase. And therefore, I think a longer-term trend line, obviously disappointing revenue growth last quarter, we are hopeful that that runs around quicker. And we also had relative simplification in our piece where we saw an opportunity and we monetized the Karidabad line. That did obviously show up a bump up in terms of a one-time gain and exceptional income back payment.
As I mentioned, between other expenses as well as some other lines, we had cumulative impacts of some of the expenses that we also charged off in this quarter on a conservative basis, 300 basis points on the level. Therefore, that brings me to the end of the presentation. Thank you so much. We can now do the Q&A.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use the handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Saurabh Kundal from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity. So my first question is, can you please let us know the channel-wide growth between Coco, franchise, distribution, and online? And just what?
Yeah, I don't share the precise numbers, Saurabh, but overall, as I've been mentioning, the piece was that franchise and e-commerce were the channels that grew the fastest, outstripping the overall growth. The marketplace distribution business lagged relatively.
So what is the, I know that you mentioned this quarter, you said that April, May, and June was weak for us. But what is the same store sales growth that you see, let's say, in your Coco network roughly? Even if you want to share April, May, while you were still seeing slightly better, even if you can share this number, same store sales?
It has been evidently negative, Saurabh, and the lower middle, lower single digit negative.
Our endeavor is, and I've stated this, is that we get it to basically mid- to high single digits, and we should see the efficiencies lower at a significant level. So one of the reasons, even if we remove some of the one-offs on the expense side, is that the delta is coming because of the same store sales growth being muted.
Right, right. My next question is on the high-performance marketing investment that you have been doing. Can you let us know what is the, how do we measure what improvement or what impact it has had? For example, if you could let us know the footfall now versus before, or any other measures that you track internally to see the effectiveness of these investments.
Yeah, yeah. There are a few, Saurabh, and it can be a long discussion, but there are a few project metrics.
There are a few outcome metrics. Eventually, the business case of that project, which has now been fully, you know, how do you say, implemented, is basically in terms of impact from an outcome perspective on 3-4 large pillars. One is, you know, Gross Margin, markdown, a combination of that, and therefore obviously improvement on it. The second one is in terms of Inventory Turns. We would want to see, and as I mentioned, even when I mentioned the presentation, some early signs, but we will want to see, you know, we measure it for consistency on trailing 12 months, which will take another 6 months of consistent performance, particularly inventory versus sales ratio. Last is going to be availability, right?
We do measure for availability versus what has been a designed assortment for a store and for each size and how are we present every day and every week. So all these three are cloud metrics. There are many other processes which cannot drain out here.
Okay. Could you give us an idea of what are your compliance sales? So the same kinds of sales that are not discounted in a year?
My discounting on an average is at high single-digit. Do I have the full price sale contribution? I'll need to offline report to you. I'm sure we can figure that out.
Sure, sure. I'll connect you there, sir. That's it for now. Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Agrawal from Ikigai Asset Management. Please go ahead. Hi, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity.
So I had one question. I've already done the sales and channel network. We spoke about the Secret Studios store adds across top 24. So we want to understand the question. Can you just elaborate on what the plan for SIS and MBOs is the revenue savings overall? Because I'm relatively, I'm not really sure how much you think this is contributing to our business. And the related question was from a gross margin and ROC perspective, how would they be different? So that's the first question.
Okay. So you've, Rahul, you've asked multiple questions. Can you just, can you just repeat it quickly?
Yeah, sure. So while COCO, Fofo, shop-in-shop, and MBOs, how do you plan to increase that network? I understand COCO, Fofo, shop-in-shop, 40, 50 per quarter. And gross margin and ROC, how are they different between both vendors?
Okay, got it. Got it.
The second one I have stated in the past also, Rahul, and the ROC is, so there are two ways of looking at it. One is at an extra level, and the second one is at ROC, and both of them are important. Actually, both of them franchise by default is better from an ROC as well as an extra level, as long as it's, there is a threshold at which it switches over. So the threshold at GFS team is roughly in the range of about a, you know, annualized turnover of about INR 2 crore. So anything about INR 2 crore and Coco kicks in, it's much more appreciative, right? And an ROC by default, the franchise is much better because a lot of inventory and multi-capital is loaded onto the franchise because we follow an outside model, right? So I hope that answers the second question.
The first one was the ratio between EVOs, I mean, Coco, Fofo, SIS, and MBOs. We don't do ratio from the numbers because MBOs are very large numbers and throughput per store is very different. That's why I showed it to you separately. Even similarly for SIS, also our throughput per store is much lower than obviously the Fofo and the Coco. And between Coco and Fofo, if I'm looking at, let's say, for example, about 40 stores in a normal pattern, let's say, or in a quarter or a quarter length, it should have about 35 Fofo and about 10 Cocos. Does that answer your question?
Yes, yes. And secondly, and then I'll come back in the queue, the manufacturing and outsourcing mix situation. What is it right now overall and any updates from a BIS perspective?
Yes. Thank you, Rahul.
I should have actually included that in the presentation also on the BIS, but thanks for bringing it up. So a couple of things, I think in those manufacturing versus contract, the ratio has moved to about 25 or 75. Another big milestone while I declared and we had charged it off, I think in a couple of quarters back, which was a VRS cost, one-time cost. But we have also now formally notified the closure of the South Pan factory, which was in Bangalore. So the ratio will only keep moving. So it's in the ballpark of over 25% right now. This was still about two years back at about 35. So there has been a shift and I think one of those big reasons has been South Pan itself. The second piece is on BIS.
It has been now, I mean, at least the question marks have been completely clarified. It is effective from 1st of August. The government has been extremely engaging and we have been partnering with them for the last almost about 18 months now, right from even the kind of quality control order etc. that have been issued. It encompasses about from a portfolio perspective, almost about 90% of our products. There is a small amount that is still not issued quality control orders, but a very small amount. The rest of it is all now covered and most probably for the broader footwear industry itself. We have successfully transitioned, I think actually about a month or so prior to even the 1st of August from our sourcing as well as manufacturing days.
There are some small parts of the portfolio, very minuscule and non-material where there is some action still to be done or rather stabilization in terms of getting the domestic sourcing done, especially where we've got very low volumes, right? And those are the ones that are still being stabilized, but we are confident that they will not disrupt our initiatives for marketing as well as merchandising and store. So that's the broad update on BIS.
Perfect, Gunjan. I'll come back in the queue. Thank you so much.
You too.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pratisha Seth from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question was on the expenses side. We could have employee and other expenses increased by 15% and 18% while we are expected to be during the quarter.
Now, while other expenses had been impacted to one-time tech-related investments, what's left to the 15% increase in employee costs? And also, how should we be looking at the cost side going forward as despite large part of the franchise-related expansion, we still have increase in expenses? I understand that the expenses and calculated spend will increase, but simply we don't have to encourage store-related expenses due to COVID crisis, right? So I just wanted your clarification on this one.
Yeah, yeah. So no, you're right. So basically, other expenses I have broadly talked about, right? Even in terms of payroll as well as the... Where have I lost the chart? Okay, yeah, yeah. So as well as payroll, etc., there were, there's no, I mean, basically broadly underlined, we are actually pretty tight on it.
Next month, these that I talked about from a store level, variable cost structure, etc., will start kicking in in terms of benefits. We don't see it outpacing sales growth going forward. This quarter, there was some one-off related in the payroll, etc. Any chart? Simulated impact, as I said, was to the extent of about 300-320 basis points, you know, between the ERP, the IT switches, as well as some payroll basically.
Okay, perfect. In continuation to the stabilization comment that you mentioned, specifically, we could say that 30% of the incentive is variable in nature. But when we try to get an understanding from the FS24 graduate report, the sales commission line item has a percentage of total employee spend, something could be only 14%. So is it only because of corporate employees did the 20% decreasing?
I need some expert advice on this.
So principally, what you're talking about is an annual report. The annual report, we report the total payroll cost.
Just to understand it better, how you are correlating from the annual report, a variable piece of it?
So in other expenses, we have a line item referring to this commission. So would that...
My sense is, Vinisha, my sense is your hypothesis is correct. The denomination does not necessarily include only store payroll. But it's been offline corrected to you, but the construct has been what I'm stating. Yeah.
And lastly, can you help us to contribute to some new launches or fresh inventory in the quarter?
Okay, so the number of lines that we would have launched in store and they're not necessarily new to the system. So let me tell you, okay. So a little more elaboration. So we've got a large network divided into store clusters, right?
Depending on the cohort of consumers that it is in. Because the merchandise in, let's say, a high street in NCR has to be very different from a merchandise which would be in a mall in Gurgaon, Faridabad and Mumbai, etc., right? Therefore then we have it divided into almost four or five clusters. So when I buy a successful product, let's say in tier two cluster, let's say a cluster two, not necessarily tier two town, but cluster two, and in the season I take it to tier three, because it's seen a certain amount of success, etc., it is a newness for that cluster and therefore that consumer part. It gets to you, then the eventual newness that we are talking about to these clusters or stores is to the extent of about 30%.
The sales contribution is in the range of about 15%, so about 14%-18% depending on the month. Understood. I'll join the shift. Inventory allocation also is in the range of about slightly higher, about 14%-18%.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Anurag Lodha from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, Anurag. Thank you for the opportunity. So I just have one question. So your premium product portfolio has particularly done well. So I just want you to understand how has the value segment performed? What are the savings between premium and value right now?
Okay. As far as contributions go, I had mentioned that also, which was that basically the premium product, which is, you know, about 2000, continues to grow faster. That continues even last quarter while the in the elasticity has been narrowing, but it still continues to outpace.
The contribution is that greater than 2000 is in the range of about 25%. Greater than 1000 is in the range of almost about 60%. And less than 300, which is largely the mass distribution, the distribution business contribution, that would be in the range of about 15% now.
So are you suggesting that value segment is kind of picking up suggested differences kind of now?
We are hopeful. I think in absolute, it has still not turned around completely. We are hopeful seeing some of the savings that we are seeing on the ground on that front. That's in the coming quarters, we should see that turning around for us.
Got it, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Priyank from Valem Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir.
Could you speak about the categories which are working, which are working well, which are not working well, and why? What are the broader trends that are planning out in your footwear category? We are four years away from the COVID, so there would be some sure large consumption shifts that would have happened. And one senior shift that is witnessing from your results is that sports and athleisure category is for sure looking very promising. So any particular data points or any particular insights you would like to share on the broader category trends would be helpful.
Sure, sure. Okay, thanks, Priyank. I didn't speak as much time on it. So one is that I can give it in the perspective of last quarter, last quarter, but I can also give you a little more broader one that's what you're looking for.
So on the broader front, and that's very clearly reflected in some of the highlights, some of the efforts that we're talking about, the investments and resources that we're putting in, etc., has been democratization, casualization, as well as in terms of fashion. So these are three big pivots. Now they manifest themselves in many ways. And let's say, for example, one example is clothes. It's a classic case of casualization, right? Give good style, give good technology, add the right price point, and there is momentum to be created. And that's inspiration that despite the kind of overall consumption, you can make your own headway if you get it right. And similarly is on, as I said, on the democratization piece, as well as on that leisure as a combination under it, which is why the apparel piece, etc., comes in.
The last piece was, you know, fashion, premium, etc., where Hush Puppies, some of the stuff that we are trying to do on non-footwear, especially Nine West handbags, etc., right? So one specifically last quarter that did show some amount of obviously stress disproportionately was the textile piece, both ladies as well as men. In my sense, it has to do with which was otherwise doing reasonably well, I would say. But that obviously did not do well last quarter and most probably had to do with some of the occasion leading days, etc., etc., which should bounce back, I guess. I hope that answers.
The broader three trends, which is sneakerization, casualization, and fashion. What would be our sales contribution coming out from this trend, which is in our favor? And actually, what is driving such strong momentum or such a great acceptance of consumer in this category?
How are we strategizing to benefit out of this? And on the other side, why formal as a category, which is again very large for us, is not picking up? Is there some work to be done from our side as a market leader?
Right. So formal, let's say, for example, if I go backwards two years, formal has been doing well, right? That piece that I commented on was, less specifically, within that, which did not do well last quarter. And my sense is because of, you know, some of the events that I talked about. But otherwise, over the longest period of time, I think it's relatively doing better. The one that is, you know, the longest one trend, I think there is a lot of work to be done. We can do a lot more.
I think even, let's say, for example, Clothes, for example, they would be in the range of about 1.2-1.4 million pairs for a year. My sense is that this can easily scale to about 5 million pairs, right? Both offline, online, etc., all competition come together. So there's a huge opportunity that is there. In some of the places, we have to also fix the proposition as well as the mechanism of making sure that we are able to facilitate for consumers. So are we putting up the stores together? Our EVO, our apparel, the entire athleisure umbrella, etc., is an endeavor towards that. We do see that if you put in the right kind of technology, the right kind of initiative and the proposition to consumer, you will see traction on it. And that's what we have seen for the last two quarters in our outlets.
So yeah, so there is traction, but there is a long way to go.
So you didn't answer about what would be our contribution, revenue contribution as of now, and what would we see going ahead with these three trends? Where are we positioned?
Okay, so casualization would casual overall sneakers and casual combined should be contributing to about 50%-55%, 55% of our business. My sense is that going forward, this should come about 60%-65% in the longer term over the next 50 years.
Perfect. And just last question on the BIS regulation mention about your positioning about the non-compliant implementation. Could you see competition from, say, MNCs winning out because they might take some time to realign to supply chains, in particular into the sports and athleisure category? And also for the unorganized players, if you could comment on that.
Yeah.
No, I've been asked this question. We will have to see how this pans out. See, the industry in various inventories and the extent in those companies can be used, right? To the extent of about 4-8 months of inventory at any given time, right? Depending on the business model as well as the various brands/layers. Now, this is despite NPO as well using its own inventory, etc. So I don't think trends as well as some of these insights will come out so clearly so fast. But over a period of, let's say, about 4-6 months, we will start seeing some understanding of, you know, how people have adapted to it. We also see on the positive side, right?
To be fair to the industry, there has been a lot more upgradation of technology and capabilities within India that has happened over the last about a year or so. We have also benefited. So some of the products that we used to import, those are also now getting easily domesticated, and we are able to make them at even better margin/price points. So fingers crossed should not be a big disruption. That I think we'll have to wait and watch for the next about six months to see what the trends.
Great. All the best. Thank you for answering all the questions.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Vishay Getham from Alpha Invesco. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the question. I wanted to know, understanding what are your plans on store openings on geography or region-wide?
What sort of target areas are we looking at? And then in the newly opened stores in like year three and beyond, what are you looking at the trends? I mean, is it like Clothes and Evalite working there, or is it like sneakers and Power working out there?
Okay. So there are multiple facts of the question that you have asked. Different formats of stores between Coco as well as, I think, the banner and the concept that you're talking about in terms of Clothes as well as Power. Clothes and Power, we have mentioned the immediate near-term ambition has been what I mentioned in the presentation. So I'll not repeat that. But overall, in terms of store openings from an EVO perspective, we should be looking at annualized about 120-150 stores.
As I gave an example, about 75% or 80% of them will be in the Coco corporate. Does that answer Abhishek?
Yeah. No, some more on geography, Jay.
Let's start with geography. Sorry, guys. I was glad you shared it also in the TEAs. Geographically, we have spread all across, right? I mean, it's almost true for all that it's equally distributed all across, maybe slightly higher index towards south. Our additions are also spread all across from a region's or state or province perspective. From a TEA perspective, I would say that 70% of our 70% of distributions would be TEAs downwards, overlapping very closely with the franchise model. Has it really increased to south more? And after that, will it be north or west? It is to south relatively slightly more.
I mean, it's a small percentage kind of a thing, but otherwise it's equal across regions. North is technically our largest region.
Understood. So you explored Evalite growing very fast in even a laggard market. So what sort of, if there is staying in that band or anything specific that there's an organized market is going off it? So you're seeing growth there? What's happening?
Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's to do with the fact that it's in a very high price point, obviously in the mass distribution channel. It's at about, as I said, 500 plus or minus depending on the fashion of the articles. And it is something that we have launched about 6, 7 months back. It's seen traction, but early days, right? I mean, it's only 6 months.
So two quarters of performance, which is to the extent that I had to highlight it and share it with you all. So we are now also investing on it. I'm sure I think in another quarter or two, I'll be able to give you all a lot more insight, which is based on far more, you know, how do you say, consistent data points that we see also over a period of time.
Understood. So this one last question. So we had the company level, which we are focusing on some of the 50% gross margin. So how does that model if someone wants to reflect the franchisee owner? Or on the margin side?
Okay. On the gross margin side, Abhishek, I mentioned this.
On the gross margin side, it is actually lower than Coco, naturally so, because we pass on costs and we pass on margins to our partners. Eventually, at an EBITDA level, it is equivalent to the Coco model.
Gotcha. Thank you.
Thank you, Abhishek. Bye-bye.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jasmine from VP Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, Sam. My question is more focused on the Nine West region that we have. I wanted to understand the position and play in Nine West and what would you clarify as our right to win in the category?
In this, what is the first part of the question? The agreement and what is our right to win? Agreement and right to win in the Nine West. You're talking of the licensing agreement? What's your...
Yeah. Is it any royalty that we're paying? Is it a transfer agreement?
I just wanted to understand.
Okay. All right. Yeah, for sure. There is, it's a $1 billion-plus brand largely housed coming out of, you know, New York. And therefore, a large part of the franchise of Nine West comes from, you know, whatever the fashionista of New York, etc. We did this launch and the announcement on this almost two quarters back, Jasmine. And we did talk about it in terms of what is it here for us. It fits into our strategy, Jasmine, of two or three areas. And whether it's organic and some of the work that we are trying to do through, you know, let's say Power or Clothes or athleisure, etc. There are two or three key areas that will unlock some good opportunities, both in terms of growth as well as corporate goals, which are athleisure, casualization, as well as high fashion premium.
Now, what this Nine West is basically the third, which is high fashion premium, younger ladies, right? And that's where we see that there is a very clear area that we can penetrate into. And that's where we are hoping that Nine West will be too. Obviously, she comes with a very large credential spread across almost about 70-odd countries. As I said, $1 billion+ of retail sales. And very, very strong, you know, fashion credentials along with some of the technology.
And in terms of the agreement, could you shed some light too?
I can't share obviously details for obvious reasons. It's a royalty agreement, right? It gives us a pretty large, wide agreement of longest of period. We feel confident on investing in creating the brand in India.
It is also a B2B business, so it is right from manufacturing to retail across all business channels and consumers in India.
Great. Thank you so much for that. All the best for you in the future.
Thank you, Jasmine .
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arun Gajaria from Boring AMC. Please go ahead. Ma'am, your voice is cracking a little bit. Hello? Hi. Ma'am, can you please use your handset or a mic or headphone mic, please?
Oh, yeah, I am trying to use my handset. Am I audible now? Yes. Is it better?
Much better.
Okay. Hi, Jasmine. This is Arun. And thank you for the opportunity to share. When shares 50% store addition in Tier 3 towns, does it stay off like Power and Nine too?
Sorry, we c ould not.
70% store addition in TEAs three towns is under, what did you say?
Will this same apply to Power and Nine West too?
No, no. It will not apply. And this is why I mentioned to another analyst just prior a few minutes back that we have different facts. In Power, we are focused very clearly to follow a cluster strategy. So we are largely focused in areas of NCR and BGF economics around it, where we want to go with the Power EBO concept. And that's got nothing to do with the overall logistic expansion of COCO and FOFO.
Okay. So marketing campaigns also will be more targeted in those areas?
Yeah, the store-level marketing campaigns. While overall Power campaign itself, because we do sell a large amount of product of Power and the brand is sold through the Bata banner all across, that will obviously be t argeted.
Right.
And when we talk to Tier 3 towns, what is the competition landscape in these areas? And what is the plan there?
Okay. So it's very ambiguous kind of a thing. India is very complex to give a very simple answer to this. But at a very average level, in most of these zones, there is a, we see very clearly, the feedback and the pickup is extremely fast because this is a unique. Okay, so it plays both games. I mean, it's an EBO experience. We are most probably the first brand to get into some of those markets, etc. And it gives consumers a great aha. Simultaneously, it also takes some time for consumers to adapt to a great plush retail environment, right? You get air conditioning, etc. You are largely catering to consumers which are otherwise going to MBOs and, you know, high street brand stores, etc.
So all in all, I think we do see great traction, and which is why I said now, you know, bulk of our openings are coming from existing partners opening multiple stores.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this was the last question for today's conference call. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for their closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, for joining. Looking forward to interacting with you again.
Thank you, Udit and Yes Securities team. Thanks.
On behalf of Yes Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now connect your lines. Thank you.