Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q2 FY 2023 Results Conference Call of EPL Limited, hosted by Systematix Institutional Equities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pratik Tholiya from Systematix Institutional Equities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Lizelle. On behalf of Systematix Institutional Equities, I would like to welcome all the participants who have logged in to this conference call of EPL to discuss the second quarter and H1 FY 2023 earnings. From the management team, we have Mr. Anand Kripalu, MD and CEO, Mr. M.R. Ramasamy, COO, Mr. Amit Jain, CFO, Mr. Suresh Savaliya, SCP, Legal, and Company Secretary, and Mr. Deepak Ganjoo, President, AMESA region. At the outset, I would like to thank the management for giving us the opportunity to host this conference call. I would now like to request Anand, sir, to kindly begin the proceedings by giving his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much, Pratik. Hello, everybody, and welcome to this earnings call. When you look at the previous quarter under review, we had a persistent inflationary environment impacting energy and wages, particularly in the Western world, coupled with higher commodity consumption costs. These have affected many businesses globally. In addition to this, the quarter saw unprecedented currency devaluations versus the U.S. dollar. While the impact of COVID in China is reducing, the zero tolerance policy is still hurting day-to-day business. Despite all of these environmental challenges, I am pleased that we delivered double-digit revenue growth at constant currency with significant sequential EBITDA margin improvement. At prevailing currency rates, EPL grew by 9%, with strong growth across AMESA at 16.9%, Americas at 19.7%, and Europe at 8.9%.
EPL delivered a growth of 1.5% despite the COVID-related challenges. During the quarter, the category that we're now christening as personal care and beyond, which includes B&C and pharma, etc., saw strong growth of 17.7%. Oral care grew by 6.7%, predominantly affected by EAP. Over H1, EPL's share of revenue for personal care and beyond improved to 47.8%, which is 220 basis points better than last year. Excluding the impact of setup costs in Brazil, EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 16.3%, an improvement of 119 basis points, and a growth of 22.9% sequentially. Critically, our efforts on pricing and cost savings programs have started to bear fruit. Despite continued rising costs and currency devaluation, we delivered sequentially improved margin.
In fact, we are pleased to report broad-based sequential improvement in absolute EBITDA across all regions. Our net profit saw a sequential growth of 39.7% at INR 482 million. Considering the widespread external challenges, we are pleased with this set of numbers. EBITDA, including set up costs in Brazil, which are really for long-term growth, stood at 16.1%, and PAT stood at INR 462 million. Sticking with the subject of Brazil, I am pleased to share that the project is very much on track. Construction activity is in full swing and recruitment activity is very much in progress. As committed earlier, we will commence commercial production by the end of this fiscal. What's exciting is that several local and global players are evincing interest in our Brazil supply base.
During the quarter, we have also made good progress on winning new business and driving sustainability. As far as innovations and business wins is concerned, EPL continues to lead the industry in innovation and design disruption with offerings like the NEOSeam, which minimizes the visual impact of the side seam. We are pleased to have received the first commercial order for this technology. We have also developed the Dia 16 tamper-evident tube, which is a special tamper-evident design. Our focus remains on growing the laminated tube market by converting aluminum tubes and rigids. There are some more of these wins this quarter. We have recently been awarded for our anti-counterfeit tube and Platina eco-friendly tube. Moving on to sustainability. Sustainability remains our key focus area, be it product, process, or people sustainability.
We are pleased to announce that two variants of Platina Pro ME and Platina Pro Vision, have been recognized by APR, which is the Association of Plastic Recyclers in the USA. Platina Pro ME provides a metallic look to an eco-friendly tube, while Platina Pro Vision is a transparent tube. Both these innovations provide aesthetically appealing tubes which are fully recyclable. In addition to two oral brands globally, two additional brands in personal care and beyond have embraced the Platina solution. Our target is to double Platina volumes in FY 2023, and I am pleased to report that we are very much on track. We have persisted with our CSR program to deliver benches made with recycled plastic to schools, to accelerate the skill development program and to invest in enhancing the quality of life of the communities who live around our plants.
Finally, but importantly, we have launched a company-wide effort to go for gold on EcoVadis. Overall, EPL will continue to drive sustainability in line with our long-term ambition of becoming the most sustainable packaging company in the world. We believe this will be our sustainable source of competitive advantage, laying the foundation for long-term profitable growth. Finally, looking ahead. In recent quarters, we have seen exceptional and unprecedented headwinds, and every time when we felt that the worst is behind, new challenges have emerged. These include COVID, volatile and inflating raw material prices, high energy costs exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict, wages, and freight. General unprecedented inflation in the Western world are devaluing currency across the board, and these present new emerging challenges. Clearly, volatility and unpredictability is the new norm, and we need to stay even more vigilant and agile in this new world.
The good news is that we know how to manage these situations, as demonstrated in the last quarter. We will continue to keep one foot on the accelerator of growth by hunting down new business while keeping the other foot firmly on the brake of cost. Some of the interventions for the next quarter include continuing the hunt for new business, persisting with price increases specifically linked to inflation due to energy and minimum wage, sustaining the momentum on our margin improvement plan, continuing the effort on driving sustainability and managing raw material costs that have been adversely impacted by spiraling devaluation. Considering all these factors, we remain cautiously optimistic about the future and are committed to our stated objective of delivering sustained, profitable double-digit growth with margin recovery. Thank you. With that, we will now open this up for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star then one on your touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is on the line of Sanjesh Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, sir. Thanks. Thanks for taking my question. Couple of them. First on this currency movement, can you help us understand how exactly it hurts us and what are the geographies which are negatively as well as positively impacted from the currency. Particularly in the backdrop that a lot of raw material is manufactured in India and China. Again, it is sold in Europe and other geography except America, where I think the currency depreciation should not have impacted. It's only U.S. geography. I would like to hear the complete currency movement and how it impacts us in each of the business segments. Thanks.
Okay, I'm gonna pass that on to Amit Jain to respond to that. If there's anything else then I'll add to it. Amit, you wanna take the point on currency?
Yeah. Sanjay, the currency movement actually when the currency devalues against the U.S. dollar. You are aware that we are buying the polymers from various global suppliers. That impacts at the first level in India and China, where we are manufacturing the laminated structure, which is raw material. Then it's an impact which goes in all countries because the base cost, which is landed cost, has increased because of this currency movement. Because of this devaluation, the landed cost of material goes up. That's how it impacts in each of the countries wherever we are buying the raw material from India, China and the polymers in India and China.
Basically, you're telling there is no benefit because I think we also sell to U.S., which should have positively. We buy at least not positive, it should be neutral. No, I'm still not very clear, Amit, on the currency impact. Because historically we have not seen currency hurting us. If I take a long-term view of this business, say if I look at last five, six, seven years, where currencies against the dollar have been continuously devaluing, but that has never shown up in the margin. Why this time that is different?
Sanjesh, there are two things. One is the currency movement this year, and particularly if you see last six months, it is enormous. It's not a normal devaluation which we see on a longer term. If you see for last six months, all the currencies against dollars have moved substantially, depreciation. That is one which is impacting. Then there are two things. One is on the cost side, and then it, there are pass-through also for the non-contracted, contracted customers, where landed price is also a function of landed cost, the revenue part. The major reason this year is basically the substantial movement in the currency. When you compare it with historically, those movements are not that substantial.
Okay.
If I can just add to what Amit is saying. See, a large part of our polymers are bought in U.S. dollars, just so that you're clear.
No, that.
Those polymers come into India and China and are converted to laminate. The input costs that go into India and China are a large part of it, are dollar denominated.
No, no, that's what I was trying to ask.
Now, only a small part of that goes to America, right? The rest of it goes to Europe, where the euro and the Polish zloty have devalued, comes into India for the rupee and goes into China itself, where there is a small devaluation of the Chinese currency.
No, no, that's the whole point, because Europe has depreciated, India has depreciated. If it's just transactional entry, there should not be any major impact beyond the polymer conversion. Polymer, again, I thought because we buy it in the dollar, my perception was that a lot of it is a dollar billing. Otherwise, this problem creates a significant risk within the system, where the buying currency and the selling currency is significantly different.
Sanjesh, if you see from India and China perspective, India, because we are buying the polymers in dollars, we are net importer in India. These polymer purchases definitely impacts the landed cost of the polymer.
Agree.
Yeah.
No, no, just so that we are clear.
Aren't they linked? I thought this is linked. Basically you're telling that you've always remained that if currency depreciate, the hit is on the EPL or it gets passed on to the customer, right? The perception was that it is well known and that conversion generally get passed on. It's just a timing issue or you think this is a structural issue where we will have to face a impact on the margin because of the currency?
It's a timing issue only. For the contracted customer, when we take the material prices, it is a landed price, which includes the foreign exchange also. It's only a timing difference.
It's just a transactional issue, right? Next or a quarter beyond that currency should not hit us incrementally, correct? We should normalize to the earlier level. Is that assumption right?
That's right, Sanjesh Jain. When it gets into the timing difference, there'll always be a lag, correct, on the pass-throughs and other things. That impacts.
No, the thing is that we have on one side polymer prices falling in the absolute US dollar terms, and then there is a currency. I thought in the rupee terms it has not. Because I track a lot of polymers, and I have seen in rupee terms, they have actually fallen despite currency being weaker. That makes me even more that the polymer prices drop is much higher than the currency. Why this should happen, right? We have taken a price hike for the higher polymer prices.
Now I understand there is a currency mismatch, but I'm telling you got a much bigger offset in terms of polymer prices itself falling. It is just we were sitting on a high-cost inventory and hence this is happening. No, I'm not able to reconcile because the results of other polymer companies and the reasoning is very different.
This currency movement which has happened this quarter for the current which is going on, the depreciation of dollar INR and dollar is huge.
No, I am gladly offsetting the softening of the prices.
Let me take it offline. I will send you the prices. Probably we can have a more, discussion. My second question is more on the freight side. I think, I can understand power cost in Europe is elevated, but falling freight costs now should be an incremental margin driver, in the quarters coming by. Will that be a fair assumption?
Yes, Sanjesh Jain. Freight costs are coming down. This will help compared to the last three quarters. Prices are coming down. Freight is coming down.
that will help us improving the EBITDA margin in the quarters coming by, right?
Yes.
Great. On the EAP side, Anand Kripalu, sir, if you can give us more color in terms of how the market is shaping up. Sequentially, we had a phenomenal growth, 12%, but we are still below the peaks what we have done in EAP. How should one see the EAP shaping up from here, with COVID restrictions slightly coming down? At least it is moving on the easing side.
Yeah, absolutely. I think the worst is behind us, but all the restrictions have not gone. Okay? What has happened is, right, in Q1 we were kind of -6% revenue in EAP. Right now we are at +1.5%. Okay? We are not back to where we need to be. I think that's where some of the restrictions that are in the short term at least hurting business, those restrictions are still there, right? We were expecting some big announcements post the Communist Party elections. They have not happened and yet. Therefore, the zero tolerance policy continues. I think the silver lining for us in EAP is, and clearly the best is to come, right? The worst is behind us.
I think the silver lining is that despite the significant impact on top line, right, the overall P&L is very, very robust. The confidence that certainly I take away is that as things start loosening up in terms of the restrictions, right, I think we will get huge positive leverage as far as EAP is concerned. Now, the question is, longer term, EAP remains a very, very big domestic market, probably the largest domestic market in the world, right? That's what we are all aiming to serve. Some of the geopolitical issues, right, and not just for us, but even companies like Apple and Tesla and everybody else. Some of those geopolitical issues could impact EAP, particularly China, as a global sourcing hub for multinationals, right? Everyone is trying to build a plan B against the sole China as a supply base, right?
Some business is going to shift out of China. You know, our business, I think, is well set up to serve the local market. We have huge headroom to gain share and grow our business. I remain, you know, I would say, you know, positive about, you know, how we manage the crisis in China. The fact that things will only improve, right, as each subsequent month comes, and that will, you know, help the business. That's how I see it.
No, that's fair. That's fair. My last question is on the pharmaceutical side. That business looks like still not growing. We remain quite optimistic on aluminum tube shifting to laminate. In terms of performance, if I look at pharmaceutical, it has really not delivered the anticipated results. The growth in beauty and cosmetics are fantastic, but that's not replicating in the pharmaceutical side. Any one-off or any challenges that we are facing in the pharmaceutical side of the tubes?
I will say this, that, pharma is doing really well in AMESA, right? We have a lot of work to do to crack bigger unlocks, right, in the other regions as far as pharmaceuticals is concerned, where our business is relatively small.
No, no, I'm telling that even within AMESA, we are not growing at industry rate. The revenue is flattish YOY.
Have we shared the numbers there? Deepak, you are there on the line.
Yes. We do share that on the presentation.
Have you shared pharma growth numbers for AMESA?
No, you share the mixed number. I derive the growth number.
Sanjesh Jain, there are lot of conversions in India when pharma is taking place.
Okay.
We are actually doing really well in pharma.
Yeah.
Sanjesh Jain, if you see half yearly, pharma category has grown for us.
Okay. Yeah. Fine, sir. Fine. That's it from my side. Thank you for answering all the question in best of your
Yeah. Do pick up this issue of FX offline, because actually it's a very simple and clear issue, and maybe we've not given you enough clarity here. Right. The only point I want to leave is that FX challenges that are there are all built into contractual customers, so it'll never be out of pocket apart from the phase lag that Amit spoke about. It is not as if it's going to be out of pocket if there are significant currency movements.
Point noted, sir. I will take this.
All right.
Probably discuss it with you.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infoline. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir, and thanks for taking my question. Just following up on the previous question. What I noticed is that most of the RM prices, aluminum, HDPE, et cetera, they have been continuously declining in the past six months. There has been a continuous effort towards price hikes from our end, and crude price has also been range bound. Apart from currency, just trying to understand reasons for sequential decline in margins. AMESA, Americas, Europe, all three regions I see a sequential decline. Now, Europe, I understand there have been multiple issues in terms of energy, et cetera, but what exactly are the reasons in the other two geographies? Is it mix? Is it something apart from currency that we are missing? Because over to you on this, sir.
I think, and I'll give a few lines there, and then the team in the boardroom can elaborate on it. I just want you to recognize that our consumption costs of inputs, right, which is the entire cocktail of polymers, aluminum, all that put together, our consumption costs actually peaked in Q2. Right? That's based on the inventory that we carry. Right. I just want to clarify that point, that, you know, consumption costs will come down, right? Part of it is going to be eaten up by the FX movements that we've discussed, as a response to the previous question. In this quarter, right, consumption costs actually peaked because this is what we consumed here between July and September is what we bought three months prior, right, three, four, five months prior.
That is when we actually hit the peak of input costs. Okay? You know, over to Ram, Amit, to comment any more on that.
Yeah. No, you're right, Anand, that this quarter was a peak quarter for the consumption. Sameer, for your question on the sequential, I think from the sequential angle, all the regions have grown in the EBITDA absolute and EBIT absolute. I'm not sure that on the sequential number, why you are seeing that.
Yeah, Amit, I was mentioning about the margin, not the absolute amount. Second question, sir, from my side, and.
Margins, I think, Sameer, for all the regions and AMESA is a small dip, but on the other regions, even margins have improved compared to June sequentially.
Yeah, I mean, fair. On the other side, sir, what we have seen is historically we have delivered 18%-20% EBITDA margin even in times which were challenging. Now, I know the reasons, and we have seen a dip in margin to around 15%-16%. What is our thought process here? If you are, let's say, getting a double-digit growth, are we okay with this kind of a margin, or the strategy is clear that we have to claw back, plow back to our hygiene margin of around 18%-20% even delivering with the double-digit growth?
I want to make this very clear, okay? Now, I'm not going to get to 18 or 20, right? Our absolute aim is to restore the profitability of this business. The profitability, right, save for any translation losses that have happened because of pricing, right, because of the mathematics of the numerator going up and the denominator going up as well by the same amount. Okay? That is our aim. Right? You know, we're not going to give quarterly guidance and so on and so forth. Our strategy and all the efforts that we are putting in, right, is absolutely aiming for us to get there.
The concern is, and that's as much of a concern for us, is that every time you put a complete plan in place and you feel you are, you know, that goal is around the corner, another funny bit happens, like this quarter was, you know, FX. Okay? It was just a funny bit that happened, right? It ate up. Yes, it is, there's a phase lag thing, but in this quarter it did eat up, right, a sizable amount of margin. Okay? I think fundamentally, the way you guys should look at this is to say that, you know, I'm not going back to the denominator number, but sequentially, right, this business has moved forward, right?
The last quarter, Q1, was the worst margin we had, right, in many, many years at 15.1%, when I think we were in the midst of that perfect storm. Okay? Now, certain levers have started improving, while certain levers have continued to pull us back. The good news is that more things have taken us forward than have pulled us back. Therefore, you've got to believe that some of the interventions have started bearing fruit. Now, I've called out the kinds of the scenarios that we're in and the kinds of things that we are doing, okay? You know, at some point in time, uncertainties and unknowns are going to disappear, right? I mean, there are only so many variables in a P&L finally in the environment. And then our absolute aim, right?
Now, I don't think this management team is going to rest till we get back to the levels of profitability that we enjoyed as a business, right? Save for any percentage losses due to translation. I just want to be very, very clear about that.
Sir, just a clarification. When you say profitability, do you look at the margin or do you look at the EBITDA per tube kind of a metric?
No, no, I'm going to look at, you know, EBITDA per tube kind of metric for the moment, right? Because like I said, percentage has a translation loss associated with it.
Great, sir. I'll get back in the queue for any follow-ups. Thank you. Thanks a lot and all the best for future.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star and one. The next question is on the line of Jenish Karia from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. The first question is with regards to the Brazil opportunity. Last quarter, if I'm not wrong, we had announced some amount of investments and so, what will be the full year investment amount in that? What is the market size opportunity that we are in? Some color on what revenue potential that we see from this region.
You know, I'll just tell you that our interest in the Brazil opportunity actually have gone up in terms of excitement. Because ever since we made the announcement and started the investment, right, and our plant is kind of, you know, at least the shell of the plant is almost ready now and equipment is on the high seas, right? The amount of queries and interest that we have seen from multiple other local and global players, right, is very, very encouraging. Okay. We remain very excited. If anything, our excitement levels have improved ever since we made our announcement.
Now, we are not in a position, right, because I don't think it is appropriate at this point in time to give you a sense of what the potential is for the revenue contribution that Brazil is going to give, right? I'm conscious that you guys want to know something, and we will do it at the right time. I don't want to hazard, you know, giving you something now, you know, as this project is evolving now. Obviously, we have a business case internally, right? The business case aims to deliver a good quality of payback in line with the nature of business that we are in. Okay. Beyond that, you know, I don't think we would like to share at this stage, you know, more about the revenue or margin potential that the Brazil opportunity offers.
Now, Amit, what have we said earlier and is there any more flavor that we are in a position to add on the investment that we are going to make in Brazil?
No, I think you have covered. Jenish, just to give you the comfort is that we are entering into Brazil on the back of a contractual customer. That's a starting point because normally in a new geography, entering into with an anchor customer is always good. Once we are on the ground, we'll look for other customers, and we already started that exercise, and that's why Anand was saying that there are multiple customers which are showing interest on this project.
Okay, great. For now, what I understand is that our CapEx of INR 1.3 billion for FY 2023 is what is committed and as and when there will be developments, we'll be knowing about it. Correct?
Yeah.
Okay. Second question is on part of other expenses, that has gone up sequentially. Is it only primarily because of the foreign Forex loss or some basic fundamental reasons?
See, again, in the other expenses, Jenish, there are parts of, like, packing material cost and the power and fuel also, which is going higher sequentially. You know the Europe market and even in America region, there are some disruptions on the power supplies, so that is impacting the other expenses.
Okay. My question is on the gross margin perspective. Correct me if I'm wrong. We are seeing the polymer price declining and that is
Sir, we're not able to hear you clearly.
Yeah, is it better now?
Sir, can you use the handset mode while speaking and on the speaker phone?
Yeah. Hello, is it better now?
Much better. Thank you.
Next question is on the gross margin perspective. Gross margin has declined on a sequential basis. Correct me if I'm wrong. Polymer prices have declined, and the benefit of that decline has been offset by increase in the dollar rates. Is it because of that, I mean, how do we look at the gross margin contracting-
Jenish Karia, if you want to see quarter two specifically, the quarter two was a peak for material consumption because whatever we bought in previous earlier, that has come as a consumption in this quarter. Q2 was at peak prices for materials.
Okay, there will be some amount of inventory loss in the,
Definitely. Any business will keep some inventory. If you see Q2 is the peak on the prices and the softening impact we will see in future. What we are saying is that because of the currency depreciation, devaluation against dollar, those softening of the prices are getting largely affected by the exchange rate on the landed price.
Okay. If you can quantify the amount of inventory loss or broad flavor on that also is fine.
Jenish, maybe we can take those offline because, I can't be that granular on the call.
Okay. No problem.
Yeah.
Thank you so much. That's all from me.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask question, may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Samridh Rela from Value Research. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Just wanted to know the CapEx commitment that you have made for the Brazil project.
I think that we have shared in the last meeting. It is INR 138 crores for the Brazil project.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shalabh Agarwal from Snowball Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah.
Yeah. Thanks. Thank you for giving this opportunity, sir. Sir, just on Brazil, without really going into the numbers, just qualitatively wanted to check, do we get preference to supply tubes to a customer to whom we may be supplying tubes in another geography? Because some of the oral care customers would be the bigger customers across geographies, I would believe.
Yeah. I mean, you may or may not get preference. On this particular case, you will obviously get preference from a customer who is our anchor customer based on whose commitment we have made the investment. Okay?
Sure.
Now, on the back of that, I said earlier that there are other players, local and global, who are evincing interest, right? We are excited about that. There could be other players in oral care, but also beyond oral care, right, who may join the bandwagon. I think the preference could be because we have a good relationship, and the anchor customer is obviously because we have a good relationship with them on certain categories in other geographies in the world. Okay? Because many of these companies are truly global in the way they operate.
Right.
For some of the other customers, it could be because we are the most credible local supply base that's available in a country like Brazil compared to other players who may not have the credibility that EPL has, right? They'll come to us. I think it's a mix of both, really.
Sure. Secondly, I also wanted to check, you know, how is the customer concentration for us? Like, how big would be the top the biggest customer or the top five customers for us? And what would be our wallet share with them? Some qualitative color if you can provide.
Ram, do you want to share a little bit about the concentration of customers?
Sure. I think we should see from the category perspective, and you know that the oral care is basically four major customers, which is having the market share globally.
Right. Right.
there you might see some concentration because these four players are taking most of the shares of the market. If you see the personal care and beyond, which is other categories.
Right.
There are a lot of customers because it's a fragmented market, and different geographies will have different brands and other things. From that angle, there is no concentration on those categories.
Okay. What would be our wallet share broadly with some of these the biggies in the oral care segment?
that we can't share, but it's different for different customers. We can't share the wallet share.
Okay. Would we be the biggest for all the four biggest players? Would that be a correct statement to make?
In some regions we are bigger, in some regions we may be a second. You know, most of them have two supplier policy, right? In some regions we will be bigger, in some regions someone else will be bigger. Overall, in most of the market, we are market leaders.
Okay. Just lastly, just wanted to check, you know, Albea, you know, how big would Albea be in terms of the tubes they manufacture? Just trying to, you know, have a sense of, you know, where we are placed with respect to Albea. You know, would their share in DMC would be higher than us?
There are various types of business models. There's a big difference. See, we are predominantly Asian player, right? Our market is very big in India, very big in China, where large population lies, right? Their market, they are larger in western part of the world because they started much earlier than us. That's the difference. There are within the market, there are segments. In some segments we have started gaining even in western part of the world, our share in the oral care is very large. Their share in beauty and cosmetics we are working on to catch up. That's all we need to see. Overall, globally, we are the largest.
Sure. Thank you, sir, for taking my questions, and all the very best to the entire team.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumant Kumar from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, sir. My question is regarding USA business. Can you talk about, considering higher inflation, how the demand side in USA is, and we have seen the higher margin contraction competitively and slower single-digit margin in USA business. How is the cost scenario in USA?
I mean, broadly speaking, the demand scenario in the U.S. is, I would say, still solid, right? Still strong. There are significant pressures on the cost side in the U.S., right? And therefore, the need for inflation-related price increases, right? And some of which are still due to come in Q3, right? Which have now been approved by the customers and will come. The cost side, right, the inflation-related costs, which are largely to do with wages, right, has been very significant. Because, you know, you'll speak to anybody in any industry in the U.S., they aren't able to find people to come to work, right? And you've got to pay more. And yes, you have absenteeism and things like that, and then you have to end up paying overtime and so on.
Earlier it was COVID-related and so on, and now it's just that people don't want to come to work, and you've got to pay higher wages and pay overtime when they don't come to get others to work so that they can produce. There are cost-related challenges that are significant, right, in the U.S. But we are now pushing very hard to get price increases to compensate for general inflation-related costs, right? Some of which are going to come, have been approved to come in the next quarter. That's the situation in the U.S. U.S. is not a demand problem really.
Okay, thank you so much.
No problem.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, that was the last question. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pratik Tholiya for his closing comments.
Yeah, thanks, Lizelle. On behalf of Systematix Institutional Equities, I would like to thank all the participants who logged into this conference call. Thanks to the management for answering all the questions. I would request Anand sir, if he has any closing comments to make.
No, I just want to, you know, thank everybody for their engagement, as evinced by the questions that they've asked. Also for their continuing support and I think importantly, patience, as we have ridden through some of the most challenging phases in the history of this company, right? I just hope people are beginning to see some of the silver linings that are now evident, you know, as the problems become more behind us rather than ahead of us, right? Start believing that this business is all set to start moving forward.
Right. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Systematix Institutional Equities, that concludes this conference call. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.