Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Satya Prakash Mishra. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's call to discuss the financial results for the first quarter of the new financial year 2024-25 of Arvind Limited. Joining me today is Mr. Punit Lalbhai, the Vice Chairman and Director in Board, Mr. Jayesh Shah, Director in Board and Group CFO, Mr. Susheel Kaul, our Managing Director and President, Textile Business, and we also have Mr. Nigam Shah, our Chief Financial Officer. The financial results and related presentations were uploaded to our website. Hope you had time to go through it.
Let me start by reiterating the guidance that we have given in FY 2024 end for the full year of FY 2025, whereby we have said that we will look forward to a double-digit growth in FY 2025, which was backed by better demand scenario from our key customer segments and a strong order book position for the first two quarters that we looked at that time. Also important to remember that we have guided our H1 FY 2025 to be about 40% of our annual plan, which is in line with the seasonality trends of our business.
As anticipated, we have started out strongly in the first half, one and a half months of the year, but with two unrelated events happening together, one being a planned event of general election, and the other one was an unprecedented and unforeseeable strike that happened at our Santej facility, which took about 21 days of production in that facility. While we kept notified yourself and the stock exchanges about the impact, the financial and non-financial impact was difficult to recover from in the short time left during the quarter after the strike got called off. The strike induced production loss resulted in an estimated lowering of revenue of about INR 200 crores and an EBITDA of INR 60 crores, respectively, during Q1 of FY25.
However, with respect to the business, business units that is not impacted during the strike, they had shown tremendous resilience and reported a good set of numbers, particularly our garmenting unit. Now, coming to the results during Q1 of FY 2025. As discussed above, the worker unrest has led to a significant dent in our financial performance, and hence, the reported numbers are not comparable to any of the earlier periods. However, we have still been holding on to a baseline that we have reported a resilient Q1 , and we had silver linings in terms of our operational and marketing performance. In terms of volume growth, garmenting division has reported a 25% volume growth, and we have new customers and new categories that we have added during this quarter. This is in line with our strategy of One Arvind and verticalization.
Overall, the revenue for the quarter stood at INR 1,831 crore, with an EBITDA of INR 150 crore. While we maintained our gross margin at all our businesses, EBITDA margin had a significant reduction due to decline in volume and resultant under absorption of elevated overheads. We are taking measures to optimize our overheads, and, wherever possible, we will safeguard our margin in quarters ahead. EBITDA margin was at about 8.2%, which includes approximately INR 11 crore of increased costs via air fare and additional cost of workers, which we incurred to mitigate, to take the recoil effects of the strike. Please note that Q1 numbers that are highlighted include revenue and EBITDA on account of sale of land, our forestry projects of INR 47 crore and INR 10 crore, respectively.
There is also an impact of INR 10 crore of donation that is included in these numbers, which means, hypothetically speaking, negating the impact of strike, we would have reported a good set of numbers in terms of revenue and EBITDA in Q1 , FY 2025. Profit after tax during the quarter gone by was in line with the revenue that we have just reported and stood at INR 39 crore. Coming to segment-wise performance during the quarter, textile revenues stood at INR 1,350 crore with an EBITDA of INR 99 crore, translating into an EBITDA margin of 7.4%. The said strike had an impact of INR 130 crore and INR 45 crore in terms of EBITDA.
As far as AMD division is concerned, it was also partially impacted by the above said strike and the largest sub-segment of human protection, which is dependent on woven segment for its fabric requirements, had an impact. Also important to note that due to the election season, some of the segments, like mass transport, had shifting of orders to Q2 and Q3 . AMD has reported a revenue of INR 329 crore, and with an EBITDA margin of 13.9%. The strike had an impact of roughly about INR 70 crore in terms of revenue and INR 15 crore in terms of EBITDA on AMD business. Coming to capital management, as guided earlier, this year was to be a year of high CapEx because of our growth for augmenting capacity in our garmenting and AMD divisions.
However, we have slowed down some of our CapEx plans during the impacted period, but we have since restarted our allocation, and we are confident that we will hit the desired allocation for the full year. In terms of debt numbers, in spite of a difficult quarter, we have still been able to maintain our momentum in terms of debt reduction and reduced our gross debt by INR 55 crore. Our long-term debt has actually been increased during this period, because we have tried to build up a war chest to take care of unfolding situation. We have taken a total borrowing of INR 150 crore of long-term debt, of which we have actually paid back INR 100 crore. With this, I conclude my remarks. I now invite Mr. Punit Lalbhai to give his opening remarks on the business. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Satya, for very comprehensive remarks. Leaves very little for me to say. But, I'd like to sort of qualify some of the things that Satya has said, in that, you know, it was a very difficult quarter. And I think that the resilience and hard work that the teams have shown can only be. I mean, it was very heartening to see the effort that the entire team put in to minimize the sort of impacts of this unfortunate incident. We also would like to put on record and thank our suppliers and customers, who worked very closely with us to manage this situation without lasting long-term damage.
So, while we are coming out of this quarter, seeing it as rather challenging, from the strike perspective, from the perspective of election, from some macroeconomic trends that are going on in the world, there is also a sense of optimism, because the demand that, that fueled our optimism at the beginning of the year is still very strong. The coming quarters look quite exciting in terms of volume growth, in terms of new customer acquisition, and in terms of our CapEx plan. So we still have a positive, sort of outlook for the rest of the year, and we will try our best to partially make up for the impact of the strike. We also...
If I have to speak about the different segments on textiles, I was particularly pleased that despite connectivity issues between fabric and garments, the garment team was able to deliver 9 million + garments, despite delays in fabrics caused by the strike. On the side of AMD, the volume growth looks robust, and it is a segment where we feel that some makeup should be possible, as we move forward in the year. On many of our strategic agendas, we are still going strong. CapEx, as Satya has said, we will stick to our plan. On sustainability, we are still investing.
We received an A- rating for water by the Carbon Disclosure Project, which is the highest in India, so it's quite prestigious that an Indian company has broken into the A category as far as rankings are concerned. And we have also focused on, you know, we also have plans to decarbonize further, be it on the electrical front and/or be it on the thermal front as well. I think that's the sort of commentary on overall on the overall situation. A difficult quarter, but outlook is positive. Love to throw the floor open for questions.
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 their touchtone telephone. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking a question. Participants are requested to limit your question to two per participant. If you have a follow-up question, I request you to rejoin the queue for the same. We request participants to not repeat any questions which have already been answered. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Dolly Choudhary from Niveshaay. Please go ahead.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes.
Thank you for the opportunity. So just, on the CapEx front, as we said, we have slowed down a little bit. So, and I believe we have done INR 260 crores of CapEx in FY 2024. So what is the expectation for this year going forward?
The CapEx plan will remain unchanged. This is just a temporary slowdown of around a month, but we've restarted everything, so we should still hit that INR 450 kind of figure that we had guided at the beginning of the year.
Okay. Stores that we are, that we have approximately 150, how many are we planning to open this year?
Sorry?
The retail stores of Unlimited.
So we should be coming close to 200 stores by the end of the year. I think we are at 150, 151, 140-something, maybe. So around between 40-50 stores should be opened this year.
From the segment that we have, Arvind Envisol. So what revenue have we contributed from Arvind Envisol this quarter?
This quarter, it's around INR 60 crore, this quarter.
What is the expectation going forward for Arvind?
We should be last year contributed about INR 260 crore. We should be well over INR 300 crore. We should be around in the anywhere between INR 310 crore and INR 350 crore, is where we see the year closing, depending on how we close the project business.
Okay, sir, and, like, what is the outlook on Bangladesh situation as of now? Is it having an impact on our business operations?
There have been some small temporary impacts of material crossing over the border, and, you know, communication slow down, but we don't see any long-term effects of this situation as of now.
Sorry to interrupt, sir. There's a lot of echo from your side. You have to disconnect your line and reconnect again. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management connection back on call.
Yes. So I was... Sorry about that. I hope my voice is coming through clearly now. I was answering the Bangladesh question. So as of now, no major impact. But as everyone knows, the situation needs to be monitored closely, and we'll keep the market abreast if there are any significant ramifications of what's happening in Bangladesh. But as of now, we don't see any long-term consequences.
Okay, sir, and just one more request. Usually the company presents the Return on Capital Employed in this presentation, and it was not there this quarter. So can you please provide those figures for Textile and AMD Division?
See, this is a quarter where we don't publish our balance sheet, so you'll have to wait for Q2 , where we'll publish our balance sheet and the resultant ratios should be published along with that.
Okay, sir. That is all. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikas Jain from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, sir. Am I audible?
Yes.
Yes, sir. Sir, so first question is with respect to our garment segment. While we did a very strong 85% year-over-year growth in garment volumes, our revenues were up by just 3% YOY. Could you just help us understand what exactly was the reason for this? Was it like a product mix change, or was it like a lower margin orders, or were there variation orders that we took this quarter that led to this drop?
No, so it's mainly a product mix reason for the change in for the higher volume growth, but lower sort of value growth, because the knit part of the business, which we do as full garment knits, that has witnessed a lot of the growth, and it's a strong quarter for this category in Q1 . So it is as per plan. So, I think we should track the overall volume growth, and the value will adjust itself because the quarterly seasonality will kick in and correct itself. So by the end of the year, we should see both value and volume growth.
Okay. So you, you trying to say, sir, that it is just a seasonality factor that played out, otherwise the annually, annualized at 25% guidance, that is the guidance for last quarter, for the full year of that remains, is that-
Yeah. So I mean, volume growth, 25%, yes. Value growth will, will sort of be logical. It will not be a, it will not be a, such a big disconnect. And it is not just seasonality, it's also which parts of the business are expanding. You know, so our, our capacity utilization in the knits plant, which was very underutilized last year, has now started to perform. So as... Now, now we have done CapEx last year in denim on automation. In the second half of the year, that will, that will also kick in. So overall, you know, these pluses and minus factors will all sort of play out over a period of time, and very difficult to sort of monitor both volume and value, quarter-on-quarter.
I would just look at volume, which is a simpler thing. We've guided on volume. The value will take care of itself in the medium term.
Understood.
Because all of the divisions are growing.
Correct.
There is seasonality also.
Right. So also, sir, second part, since the volume growth was very strong. Yes, perfect. So is it like we did see some procurement from the outside, or is it like we had enough inventory with us to furnish for that period where the strike was on?
No. So I think we did lose quite a significant part of the fabric volume. We've also made, you know, incurred significant airfreight costs, etc. So there were significant delays, and part of the INR 60 crore loss is, you know, a good part of it is actually, you know, ensuring that our customers don't suffer on account of this problem. So there have been mismatches in timing and raw material availability and all of that for the garmenting business. And that is why I say that a INR 9 million performance is a good performance in this context.
Correct. Correct. Okay. Okay. And just one last question, you also in the presentation-
Sir, thank you, sir. May I request you to rejoin the queue for your follow-up question?
Yes, sure. Sure.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aman Vishwakarma from Phillip Capital PCG. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you for taking my question. You've mentioned, in your remarks, that there were a few elevated overheads. So, I mean, could you just tell me the nature of these overheads that you mentioned?
So, quite a few kind of overheads. For example, one large cost we incurred was relating to air freight as a cost, because we had to deliver the goods to the customers in time for their season. That's the one large cost we incurred, which is part of our overall estimated loss that we incurred on account of strike. The second was taking or getting certain products done outside the factory on a very large, you know, job work charges. That's the second kind of a cost that we incurred. And third was to hire a contract labor to help us out on certain clinical processes. So these are some of the costs that we incurred, as you know, which are on account of the industrial action, which is strike.
Do we expect this to be a one-off thing, or do you expect this to continue over a couple of quarters here on?
No. So-
So there will be some elevated air freight costs still spilling into Q2 , but that will not be as significant as Q1 , and it should be the end of it.
We, as we said, that, you know, we are currently working on full, you know, order book as well as, full capacity operationally. So we don't see a material change on our financial numbers on account of any of this, cost.
Oh, got it. And just lastly, on the garmenting side of the business, so our current capacity is at 45 million, right? If I'm correct.
Yes, around that number.
Yeah. And we so we do plan on taking this INR 45 million–INR 60 million. So is that, I mean, in line with what our expectations are? Just trying to understand that.
That is correct.
So no change there, right? So, I mean, do you expect this INR 9 million to continue for the rest of the year?
No, I think we should, towards the second half of the year, see a higher number.
Yeah.
We should touch, we should cross INR 10 million.
Okay, got it. Thank you. That's all from my end. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on the performance in the kind of events that you faced this quarter.
Prerna, can you please speak up a little? Your voice is coming through a little muffled.
Yeah. Sir, am I audible now?
Yeah, much better.
Yes, thank you. So sir, congratulations on a strong performance, given the events that you faced this quarter. Just wanted to understand a few things. One, are we at normalized utilizations now after the strike has been called off across businesses?
Yes. In fact, you know, the utilizations are as high as they can be.
Okay. So how much can we make up, in your opinion, over the year? Because it was only first quarter, so we have enough time to make up for our expectations for the year. So, just wanted to understand what could be the, you know, recovery in the revenue loss over-
Really, Q3 and Q4 are the stronger periods for us, which is 60% of our revenue. So there, our capacity is close to 100% utilization. In fact, we pre-produce a little bit in Q2. So whatever room, whatever small room we have to make up is in Q2, which we will do. But unfortunately, those 21 days, it's difficult to make up going forward because the rest of the year is looking so, so strong on demand.
Okay. Okay. And so you were expecting around 40 million pieces volume for the year. Now that you are at 9 and you are saying that you will be at +10, plus on in the second half, you'll be shorter of your expectations for the year on garment volume?
Prerna, it could be INR 1 million ±, but we are not significantly off INR 40 million.
Correct. Yes.
Okay. Okay, that helps. And also, what kind of capacities are we going to add in this year? Some clarity on this INR 450 crore CapEx that gets commissioned this year?
So CapEx will go into action this year. Of course, for it to come to full utilization takes some time. And the way to think about CapEx would be around 40% of this would go into AMD, around 35% would go into garments, and the rest would go into strategic projects of de-bottlenecking fabric capacity or automation, etc., maintenance. I would like to be able to add another 10 million–12 million garments in the following year.
Okay. Understood, sir. Thank you, and all the best, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akshay Kothari from JHP. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So just wanted to know, have you brought out any permanent solution for the, to address the workers' demand? And, there was no increase in employee benefit expense, so do we expect any increase in, EBE going forward in the coming quarters?
So thanks for this question. So let me, yeah, you know, let me delve into the strike a little more in detail, so it gives everybody, you know, the right context. So first of all, the strike was called illegal by the courts. The way it happened was that only a section of the employees, especially the ones that are significantly above minimum wage, were the disgruntled population. We already have a worker settlement in place, where the amounts of increase are pre-agreed. Now, for this section of workers, because of slightly higher inflation, that pre-agreed amount was not looking high enough for them. However, for the rest of the organization, you know, because we have an agreement in place, it's difficult to change for, you know, only a section.
So that is what, that dissatisfaction in a section is what led to, led to this, and of course, then it got overtaken by other interests, external interests, and that's why it prolonged to 21 days. The other thing that one has to note that the workers themselves realized that this was not the right strategy, and it was called off unconditionally without any sort of promises being made. That said, if we have to do soul searching at our end, then one would say that we will... In the long run, how, why would this not repeat? We would have to, one, address the grievances. So we will be adjusting the mechanism by which the increases are given in consultation with the union. The strike was, you know, sort of extra union.
I mean, they did not take the union into confidence before they went on strike, so therefore it was called illegal. So we will work with the union to come up with the right mechanism going forward. Second, I think we have already invested heavily in improving our feet on the street and communication, so that's an area of personal disappointment that we were not able to detect it on time and nip it in the bud, so to say. So that capability has already been invested in. And the third thing we are doing is we have increased our allocation towards investments that go into de-skilling and automation.
So our labor dependency in the medium term has to be brought down, while in the short term, we have to make our workers happy. So I think all of these things are being done. So hope that gives you clarity into the reasons of the strike. How we are addressing that it doesn't happen again. And then on your third question of why are the employee costs low this quarter? They are low because there is a good variable component to employee benefits, which only gets paid out if the company achieves its budgeted performance. So for this quarter, that budgeted performance is not there, so naturally that is not paid out.
What we've also done is, we've also delayed increments that normally happen in Q1 to later in the year. So, there will not be an impact of Q1 in future quarters. We will just regularize everything as the quarter normalizes and come back to budgeted levels.
Okay. That gives a lot of clarity. Thanks a lot, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mithun Aswath from Kivah Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. My question is more on the garment side. You did mention, and you've done a good performance in terms of the volumes, and you did say that it will normalize over a period of time in terms of showing up in the revenues as well. Do you see that in the second half, where, you know, if we are going to see this sort of a ramp up, the revenues and the volume in garments could be similar?
Yeah, there will be a growth in the revenues for sure. However, the product mix will not be exactly the same as the product mix of last year. So there might not be proportionate, but definitely, you know, the growth in volume will reflect the growth in value. Exactly how much will be a detailed calculation, I think we have that, but we probably best share it later, because I'm not exactly prepared with how much of what product is going to grow in which quarter on this call. But we can definitely, you know, give you an indication that I'll ask the team to circulate that.
Got it. And, also, it's good to hear that the AMD business almost was at a INR 400 crore run rate, right? If things were normal this quarter.
Correct. We had planned close to INR 400 crore this quarter.
Right. And I just wanted to get a sense of what sort of growth do you see? Is there a seasonality even in the AMD business where, you know, we can make up in the second half, and we can see very strong growth in that area as well?
So the possibility of making up is higher in AMD than in textiles, because we do have some headroom and capacity, and there the capacity utilization is faster. So all newer investments that are happening can start yielding some return quicker in AMD. So we will push all those levers, but we already had a very robust growth plan for this year. So, you know, this makes that task that much more difficult to achieve in the context of having lost 21 days. But the team will try its best. But you will see, I mean, if you ignore slow Q1, we should see a good growth in the remaining three quarters, in line with what we had planned.
Got it. Got it. And also, you know, you created a separate entity for the AMD business. I just wanted your thoughts longer term, what is the plan here of, you know, how you're looking to grow this business and, you know, unlock value for investors?
So as of now, we don't have any set plans to sort of, you know, have its own trajectory or anything. As of now, we have only housed it in its separate vehicle, so that all options for us are open in the future, and we bring a lot of focus to that sort of part of the business, in terms of how we can reward talent, in terms of how we can sort of make it more visible, and how we can, you know, build just more clarity and separate funding options.
So all of that, you know, all of those benefits will accrue, then, of course, at appropriate time, we will take whatever decisions are right for the company.
Sure. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikram Devanathan from Prodigy Investment Management. Please go ahead.
Hi, am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Yeah. So my question is a general one on the AMD business. I wanted to understand how the competitive landscape in technical textiles works for different end markets and applications. So if you have a good track record in supplying advanced materials for human protection and mass transport, for instance, will this track record of dealing with defense and government type entities, will it help you expand to other verticals like aerospace, nuclear, green energy? How considering the categories that you're already in, how easy would it be to win orders in the other categories? Do we have to compete from scratch and undergo a gestation period, or can we win orders right away?
No. So I think if your first question around competitive landscape, let me try and answer. So in human protection, generally, we are competing with international companies. On the high value side, we see competition from Europe and America, and on the low value side, on the commoditized side, like work wear and simple polyester cotton coveralls, for contractor market, for example, we see competition from China and maybe Pakistan. So, different competitors for different segments. I do expect that there will be Indian competition coming up, but it took us 10 years, 15 years to get to this level. This is a business with high entry barriers in terms of forming of trust, developing IP, going through qualification, all of that. And customers don't switch, you know, for small, small gains, small financial gains.
So I think we have enough of a head start, where if we continue to do the right things, we will continue to enjoy a better competitive landscape. So that's for human protection. Similarly, for industrial fabrics, we have, you know, one or two Indian competition. So it's unlike fashion textiles, where there are literally tens or hundreds of competitors, also depending on the segment you look at. And there again, there are manufacturers in Europe and mature markets that we compete with. So there also the competitive landscape is quite favorable. On the composite side, there are a lot of Indian companies coming up, and there is some competition, one or two competitors in every segment.
But there, the opportunity set is also so rich and so vast, that the direction the business can take is quite open, and a lot of new opportunities can be sort of attacked. Your question around translatability of capability developed now to business in different segments going forward, the answer is yes and no. So the fact that we are doing defense procurement is definitely, I mean, the defense business is definitely making us capable of navigating the system, understanding the product development process, understanding the requirements, the quality levels, all of that, that can translate. However, if it's a completely new product that we have to sort of develop, then of course, in this business, that is definitely a lead time.
But having done that for the last 10, 15 years, I feel we've become better at doing it as time goes by. And so compared to an absolutely new entrant, we would be probably better placed to win business faster. Hope that answers your question.
Okay. So there will be some gestation period if you are entering new categories, right? But you are better positioned to get the approval process done faster.
Sure. That is correct.
So my, my second question was, regarding the CapEx. So combined FY 2024 and FY 2025, you'll be doing around INR 700-INR 750 crore of CapEx, right? I just wanted some clarity on how much of this will go towards AMD in particular. So out of the INR 700 crore outlay, how much is going towards AMD?
I would say about 40%, 35%-40% will go to AMD. Between INR 270 and INR 300.
Okay, thank you. That's all from my side.
Thank you. The last question is from the line of Surya Narayan from Sunidhi Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible?
Yes, sir, you're audible.
Yeah, yeah. Thank you, sir, for giving the opportunity. So, just to understand, that will be the realizations in the garment segment is not improving. So, what is the scenario like? You know, why is it not actually improving? Number one. And number two, even though the industrial segment is very small, so there, we are continuously seeing degrowth. So, agreed that, you know, in the human protection, due to the labor strike, there were some decline in the revenue to the extent of 5.6% YOY. But why, why the industrial segment is remaining low, and then, we can see a revival in this the segment? And, last and third-
Second question first. Industrial will not see degrowth this year. In fact, we planned with good, robust growth this year. So by the end of the year, you'll see a good growth there. Industrial was an impacted division during the strike, so we did lose, you know, almost a month's production there. So that's why perhaps you are feeling that way. But it is going to only go up as we go through the remaining quarters. As far as garment realization is concerned, as I mentioned earlier, we sold more knitwear. Knitwear is a $4-$5 business, whereas denim and shirts is more like an $8-$10 business. So when the product mix will change, the realization will change, but it is that was already planned.
Our growth in Q1 was supposed to be maximum in knits. We have come very close to our targets, both on shirts and denim in terms of our dispatch plan. All I'll say is the garment is going as per budget, and even in the face of huge worker shortages in April and May due to the election season, we were able to deliver this result. I say that it's quite a decent performance on the garment.
This year, the garments will lead the growth miserably, you see?
Yes, in textiles. In textile segment, definitely garment. Growth in garments is what will lead to the overall growth, because we are not growing much in fabric.
Okay. So what kind of growth, you know, we can I expect, because last year, I mean, we grew-
I think that the overall company will grow at double digits, so AMD will be, you know, in the 20% range, and, you know, that means textiles should be, you know, 10%+ overall on a very large base.
Okay. Sir, lastly, the other new verticals in the AMD, like, you know, mobility solutions and defense, any sort of traction you can give, so that now we can understand the end-the value segment for the different segment. Any new orders, you know-
Both those segments are doing well. We are, we are growing this year in both those segments.
Okay. So, but it is not that significant as of now, and the traction may be from the as we move towards the year. I mean, that is the current-
Significant growth. I mean, we will grow more than 20%–30% in each segment, of those segments.
So, can we expect.
Mass transport and defense should cross INR 200 crore.
Okay. So can we give a separate revenue segment for next quarter announce for the-
So, I'm not, I mean, see, these things are not well tracked quarter-on-quarter. A lot of this is project business, so it will be lumpy. You will have to look at it year-on-year.
Okay. Okay, thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Devanshu Sampat from Endowus Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello, sir. Two questions from my side. So, would like to get your view on life ahead after the resignation of Mr. Ashish Kumar. You know, this will... Will this bring about challenges in keeping the momentum going? Or, you know, I'd like to get your comment on this. I understand you'll be, you know, heading the division in the interim, but can you talk about the plans for the vacancy?
Sure. So we'll bring in the right leadership at the earliest. In the meanwhile, I'd like to reassure everyone that I understand this business extremely well. I started it, and I've been sort of looking into it and sponsoring it very closely with the management. So I don't see any short-term disruption due to this change. The reason I'm very confident in that is that we have an excellent second line that is all intact. And so the customer relationships, the day-to-day operations, the purchase, the financial regulation and control, all of the critical aspects of the business were being done by the second line and the teams below. The strategic direction, the interdepartmental coordination, the relationship management that was being done at the top are also held by me.
So, I don't see any short-term impact of this. In the long term, we'll get the right management that will be able to take this business to the next level.
Sure. Sure. Thanks for that. The second question I have is, if you can just talk about, you know, some of the newer clients or categories wins that you may have had in both AMD and garmenting, if you can comment on it, please.
Sure. So we are adding a lot of vertical customers. Customers that will... So if you look at, you know, how many customers were in our INR 100 crore club, that two years ago and that now is very different. So our dependence on one or two brands was disproportionate earlier. That has gone down. So I don't want to name individual brands because, you know, we are covered by NDAs, et cetera. So I don't want to be disclosing that without prior permission. But that suffice to say that garmenting as a key capability and the One Arvind position consolidating the organization under Mr.
Susheel Kaul has driven a lot more customer confidence, so that we see that INR 100 crore plus and INR 200 crore plus brand club increasing as we go forward. So I think that's how I'd like to answer the question on the garmenting side. On the AMD side, I'll talk about the segments that are increasing. So I think in all three areas, there are two things happening. The bigger trend is getting deeper with customers. So as we evolve in our product capability, as we evolve in our track record, there is headroom still to have a larger share of wallet with the existing large customers, and that trend is playing out. If you track a graph of many of our strategic customers, it is pretty good reading.
So that is one trend from where the growth is coming. The second trend that's driving growth is the addition of new capability. For example, we have increased the defense business. We have increased the newer segments like sports and mass transport are generating higher revenue as their capacity utilizations are dialed up. We are adding new product capability in industrial. For example, we have added monofilament capability and, you know, PTFE fab capability this year, which will add to, you know, revenues in the second half of the year. So three ways, you know, getting deeper with existing customers, existing segments, increasing business in new segments with existing capabilities, and then having new customers and new capabilities all together.
That's the three ways in which, you know, the volume expansion will happen, and it has.
Sure, sure. Thank you for that. Wishing you and the team all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have the next follow-up question from the line of Aman Vishwakarma from Philip Capital PCG. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for taking my question. Just a quick one on the debt, right? I mean, we had an excellent momentum of debt reduction. Yet we went on and took a small loan out of it. I mean, despite our cash flow from operations being in the range of INR 50 crore–INR 60 crore, I mean, why was there the need of taking this debt, and what exactly is this watches that we have?
So this quarter, because, as you know, we were struck by this unforeseen situation of strike, so and we didn't know the impact thereof. So to be on safe side, we borrowed large amount of money and kept it as a war chest to tackle any eventuality. But as we saw strike going away, we in fact repaid most part of it and the balance will get repaid in a shorter period of time.
Okay, and what is our targeted debt repayment for this year, for Arvind?
This year, we are in fact wanting to spend more on CapEx rather than focus on further reducing the long-term debt, so it may remain ±10% the same level.
Okay, got it. So that's on the debt part. And just lastly, on the AMD part, right? There haven't been any major announcements, of course. And so, I mean, have we added any new client? Because I believe your mass transport division is something that is very promising, right? So have we had any sort of order wins, or how does our order book look like as of today, and, I mean, how are we projecting the growth?
We don't announce every order. I mean, that's not the way, you know, our past has been, nor would we want to do that. I think we are on track to achieve 25% growth or 20%+ growth. Going forward, I think that's how we should see this business. Are we achieving, you know, year-on-year growth to the level that that is expected and guided? And I think we are on track for that. So I wouldn't say that there is. There hasn't been much happening. I mean, to now at, you know, INR 1,500 crore base, to grow it at 25% is quite a good level of growth.
Okay. So do we, do we expect the AMD, overall AMD business to grow to about INR 2,000 crore sort of business in a couple of years, broadly?
Yeah, should do that and hopefully better.
Okay, got it. Thanks. That's, that's all from my end. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Satya Prakash for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone, once again for participating in the call. I hope most of your questions are answered during the call. Me and my colleague, Himansu, are just a phone call away in case there's anything left out. Have a good day. Looking forward to meeting you all in upcoming conferences. Thank you once again.
On behalf of Arvind Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.