Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4 and FY25 earnings conference call of VIP Industries Limited. 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 touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Devyanshi Dave from Adfactors PR Investor Relations team. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you. A very good afternoon to everyone. A warm welcome to the Q4 and FY25 earnings call of VIP Industries Limited. From the senior management, we have with us Ms. Neetu Kashiramka, Managing Director, and Mr. Manish Desai, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin the conference call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made during the course of today's call may include certain forward-looking statements, including those related to the future financials and operating performance, benefits and synergies of the company's strategy, future opportunities, and growth of the market of the company's services. Further, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's conference call.
Ladies and gentlemen, the management's line has dropped. I would request you all to stay online while I get them reconnected. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the management is reconnected. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining the call. Before we move on to P&L performance, I would like to just highlight progresses made on balance sheet commitments we had set out for ourselves at the beginning of the year. During the year, we reduced our inventory by over 200 crores in volumes, approximately 25 lakh pieces. Our cash flows from operating activities improved significantly during the year to 292 crores positive versus a minus 131 crore last year. The cash generated was utilized to reduce borrowings and also funded some of the businesses like e-commerce and modern trade, where the revenues have increased. It has been invested in the debtors. Our debt during the year was reduced by 118 crores. We also got a favorable judgment in the high-value indirect tax litigation. Contingent liability to the tune of 357 crores has been taken away.
So basically, INR 357 crores of contingent liability is no more existing now. Moving to some macro environment, the luggage industry, as we all know, has been one of the most attractive sectors post-COVID. High growth rates, positive travel macros, and low entry barriers have attracted multiple new entrants. Most of these new entrants are in the online space backed by large investor funding. High heat competition has fueled price war in our segment, especially in the mid-price segment. Heavy discounting initiated by online brands and e-commerce platforms has also put some pressure on realization, not only for us but across the industry. Our commitment to reduce slow-moving inventory further added pressure on our average selling price. So while our value growth has been flat after removing the price support, volume continues to grow in double digits at 10% for quarter and 11% for full year.
Having said that, we are trying to balance our premium portfolio with various new product offerings. We have exciting new launches coming up in our premium and mass premium brands. Barring a few, most of these new launches are now made in India, reducing our dependence on China and also resulting in better gross margins. Our commitment towards premiumization is also visible in our recent brand investments for our premium and mass premium offerings. I'm sure all of you must have noticed our high-decibel campaign across the country in the last four weeks. We have included glimpses of the same in our presentation as well. Initial response to these brand activations is definitely quite encouraging. Moving on to the channel-specific performance, e-commerce continued to be the fastest-growing space for us at 40% both for quarter as well as full year.
Focused approach for B2B partnership also resulted in a double-digit growth for this channel. Closure of modern trade stores by partners impacted growth for the channel. Also, our EBOs, we have actually closed non-performing retail stores to the tune of more than 100. Going forward, we will concentrate on penetrating deeper into top 14 markets in the country to ensure better store-level profitability. We are also opening Carlton exclusive stores to improve our premium mix. Overall, today, we have 404 stores. Traditional channels had growth challenges during the quarter as we focused on reducing channel inventories. In fact, we closed our traditional trade sales on 20 March for the first time in Q4 of this year. Multiple planned initiatives to improve our premium mix are underway. Our recent backpack collection received positive response in the market. Backpack was the fastest-growing category for the quarter.
Hard luggage was the fastest-growing category both for quarter as well as for the year. It contributes to 60% of our total portfolio. We've also made headway in travel accessories category during the year. Profitability was definitely a challenge during the year, mainly gross margin, which was impacted by downward pressure on selling prices, inventory provisions, and netting off of price support for e-commerce channel. Multiple initiatives for improvement in gross margin are underway and will help us improve our gross margins in the coming quarters, starting from Q1 itself. Manpower cost optimization with year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter decrease of 16% and 20% respectively. Our employee benefit expenses as a percentage of revenue now stand at 10% against 12% in last year. Other expenses have reported a sequential increase, mainly on account of performance marketing spends for e-commerce, professional fees, and investment towards dealer conferences and product roadshows.
Supply chain improvements have started to showcase some benefits starting from March 2025. With reduced inventories, we have surrendered 4 lakh sq ft of space in Q4 and another 3 lakh sq ft of space we are in the process of surrendering. All this will contribute positively to our margin improvements in the coming quarters. Future outlook: fundamental demand indicators seem to be positive. There are multiple wedding dates. In fact, this year, the number of weddings is maximum in the last 10 years. Even hotels and travel portals are definitely showing better results. So we are very confident that the demand indicators will definitely be in favor of the category. We are steadfast in our transformation journey. Successful result of the same will be showcased in the upcoming quarter, starting with Q1.
To conclude, I would like to say that the year 2024-25 was a year of big solves across multiple areas, and the results for the same will be visible from the next quarter as we see FY26 to be a much, much better year for us. With this, I conclude my opening remarks and open the floor for questions.
Thank you, ma'am. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with a question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone 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. The first question comes from the line of Dinesh Joshi from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. First of all, madam, can you let us know what is the quantum of slow-moving stock that is now left with us? And also, out of the INR 700 crores of inventory that we have with us, can you tell us what is the quantum of RM and WIP inventory?
So Dinesh, in fact, if you look from the slow-moving inventories, we would not like to give any absolute value. It has come down considerably over the last year. So the pain has almost reduced to a negligible amount as we stand today. In terms of the WIP, WIP is like what you asked about it. Are you talking about the permanent WIP or the capital work in progress?
No, no. I mean the inventory. Inventory WIP.
Inventory WIP is not a significant WIP.
Okay.
It's a split of FG and RM.
Okay. Right, right.
So, RM will be approximately. We are cutting around INR 215 odd crores, and the balance will be clear.
Understood, and also, I mean, on the other expense side, while we have given the reason that it was higher sequentially due to performance marketing and professional fees, also we did some dealer conferences, but is it possible to kind of share what is the total quantum of these expenses which were there in this quarter?
These are contributing a substantial amount. Dinesh, we would not like to quantify on this call.
Can you be available in our annual report, though?
Yeah. It will be visible any which way, but we would not like to quantify anything on this.
Some quantifications we have already given in the presentation.
Okay. One last question from my side. This inventory provision of INR 5 crore, I mean, can you explain what is that and what is the total quantum of inventory that we have that would warrant any kind of future provision if you can call out that? And lastly, lastly, sorry, one more thing. You also mentioned that you have surrendered about four lakh sq ft of warehousing space, and another three lakh is in the process of surrendering. So what can be the savings in the warehousing cost also if you can give some color on that? Yeah, that's it from my side.
Okay. So Dinesh, in terms of the provision, it is mixed against the raw material as well as some slow-moving FG. And without on a base future period would not be appropriate to say any amount which will come because our efforts are anyway on an accelerated way to liquidate those kind of slow-moving inventories. But if the need arises, we'll again do a revisit on this provisioning policy and do provision in the best considering the liquidation moment. In terms of warehousing, I would say that the impact if I buy another INR 3 lakh should be surrendering it. So in a year time frame, we will be saving another INR 2.5 crores minimum on the warehousing side. Considering that next one or two quarters I'm talking about, Q4 again will be a seasonal period. So we'll see that point of time what we need to commensurate into this.
You mentioned INR 2.5 crores, right? Savings. The voice was cracking. Okay, okay. Got it. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Additional to what we have already surrendered.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Got that. Thank you.
I think that saving what he's talking about is for 3 lakh sq ft.
Yeah. Understood.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. So thanks for the opportunity. Ma'am, first question is you indicated on closure of stores by the General Trade partners. Can you provide some more color over here? That's the first question. And secondly, what is the motivation behind Carlton exclusive new stores? Basically, if you could help us underline the thought process and economics. Thank you.
Yeah. So basically, we have closed 133 stores overall, and we have opened 32 stores. The idea is that a lot of these stores are open in tier three, tier four cities where the throughput is very low. For example, a store where my cost is 5 lakh, if my revenue is 2 lakh, I don't think it'll ever be able to make profitable. So going forward, the idea is for exclusive stores, we will focus on top tier cities where minimum threshold revenue is 8 lakh per month. And basis that this year we are targeting to open 50 stores, 20 in Carlton and balance in VIP Lounge. The idea of opening exclusive Carlton stores is in the top areas, for example, like Bandra, Colaba.
Anyways, 50%-60% of our store revenue was coming from Carlton, and therefore we thought that it would be a better idea to have a full Carlton assortment across these premium areas, which can give us better premium positioning as well as better revenues.
Great. Ma'am, just to take a step back, thanks for the answers. Overall, on a distribution standpoint, can you just help us with the numbers on EBO and MBO, and specifically if you can break it up between tier one, two, and three? That would be quite useful.
So, exactly breaking up in tier one, tier two, I don't have immediately, but we'll definitely be able to give you. But total number of stores, as we talk today, it stands at 404.
Sure. Just a follow-up, ma'am. When you say INR 500,000 of store cost, what all does it include over here?
Everything. So rental plus the store salary of the store manager, the light, everything. All the cost.
Operation expenses.
Operating expenditure of that store, not the cost of product.
Right. And ma'am, would you like to qualify any headline asset turn, margin profile, or ROC threshold that we look at? You did give a number of 8 lakh minimum revenue. So before we shut down, is there a particular threshold within two years, three years that is something that we?
We definitely give 12 months to the store to at least break even before we decide to take these calls. Most of these stores which we are closing are actually existing for two to three years.
Okay. Thank you so much. I'll just execute. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Dhruv Jain from Ambit Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, team, and thank you very much for the opportunity. Ma'am, my first question is that obviously we've spent a lot in terms of marketing starting April, and also a lot of new product launches have been done. So the idea behind this is to get back our GT market share, which has reduced from 21 to 17, and also our modern trade market share where salience of revenue has again reduced from 26 to 23.
Yeah. So it's not market share. It's basically the salience. So definitely, yes, offline salience for the business has to go up. The idea behind spending the money on the brand is to actually showcase and have a change in the perception in the minds of people. A lot of people didn't know that VIP is as contemporary as any other brand can be. One is that. And also, all these new launches, for example, the product on which we have spent on VIP is the first product from the Japanese designer. And all these are reasonable prices, better margins, and also will definitely increase the confidence of the channel partners.
So ma'am, in your opinion, this e-com share which is at about 31%, do you see this reducing as we get the offline channel sales back?
It may not reduce, but if the category is growing maybe higher than offline, but we want to be at 30% at this for FY26. It should not go up from there, which means that both my channels should grow equally.
But, fair to say that 50% plus gross margin can come only on the back of offline buying for us, or even through e-commerce, we can?
No, it can come with a better product mix. In fact, in e-commerce as well, we are trying to. Now we have just launched Carlton also with Flipkart and Amazon. So definitely in e-commerce as well, we are trying to increase our premium portfolio share.
So that means the focus in FY26 will be to get the gross margin back to 50% type, right?
Yes. Yes.
And lastly.
I would say that most of the backend work is over. It's all about now front-ending, basically selling, and therefore getting the benefits.
This backpack, is it possible to increase the share of revenue maybe to 14%-15% or given the kind of launches we've done?
We are definitely looking at increasing the share, but we have done well, so quarter four, I think we have grown by 23% on our backpack portfolio, and focus is definitely there, and today, as we speak, we have backpack ranging from INR 600 going up to INR 12,500. So we have the entire stack up, and we're definitely looking in FY26 to expand our distribution as well to make backpack a larger salience in overall category, and the good part on backpack is it's a daily use case, so basically, every person almost changes backpack every year, so this has daily use case as well as higher throughput across the country.
On modern trade, any development, any inroads we are making on the modern trade front?
We have definitely made some inroads, but I would not like to talk on this call because confidentiality is very important. But yes, definitely some of the larger doors, we have cracked some of the price points, and we are definitely looking at a larger share of business in the year to come.
Okay, ma'am. Thank you very much and all the best.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Tejas Shah from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Hi, ma'am. Thanks for the opportunity. Just starting with, clearly this year as the year progressed, our priority shifted from growth to repairing balance sheet first. So looking at the current scenario of inventory debt, what are the levels you will be comfortable with to pivot back to growth? And then if you can share the absolute numbers or ratios which you are actually looking to kind of shift focus to growth rather than balance sheet?
I think most of the large-ticket items on balance sheet is done. Now it's all about so we have started focusing on growth already, which is visible from our digital media campaigning, which means we are now looking forward for growth. The other ratios will all start improving as the business improves. However, on the inventory level, I think we are looking at reducing it further by INR 150 crores. The same level we want to reduce our debt in this year.
Ma'am, second question pertains to this branding spend that you spoke about on VIP. Ma'am, in the last decade or so, we would have done multiple attempts to kind of make look VIP standalone brand contemporary. And obviously, I don't have data to judge whether it has worked or not, but at aggregate level, how do you judge ROI on spend? And when we see some of these brands, even old age or some new age also, would have achieved scale without spending so much on branding, so how do we kind of think about the spend, which we kind of do every two, three years to revive VIP as a brand?
So there are two parts to this question. One, do we really need to spend the money on the brand is what you are saying. So if we just give discounts and we want to sell, that's one, which we are not creating brand, we are just selling commodity. However, as an organization, we believe that we have brands and therefore it needs to be nurtured to get the right ROI. I can tell you we have spent on three products. We have spent on Lexus in VIP, we have spent on Paradise in Skybags, and we have spent on Gemma in Carlton. In two of these three cases, we have stocked out already, and one of the cases, we have sold 22,000 pieces in 30 days, which means that we have already done the ROI.
I'm going to spend in this quarter INR 12-15 crore, and I've already earned that money. So which means we got the ROI. And it's not that we are going to spend like this every month, but this was required for us to also get confidence from our channel partners because for the last few years, we have not spent. Also, they need to know that yes, VIP is back. We are still alive. And as earlier also said, I will only spend when I can make money. So which also gives an indication that I'm spending because I'm earning.
Okay. No, my question was largely on VIP standalone. Carlton and Skybags fully understand. I was just wondering whether it was.
No, I have a view. I have a view that VIP is known to everybody in the country. It's we who have not capitalized this opportunity. I will definitely, if I were to choose between which brand to spend more, I will spend more on VIP. Because I always say that bacha bacha VIP को जानता है, but ले नहीं रहा है. Why? We already know that answer, and therefore I have to make sure that in next 12 months, people buy VIP. So all my efforts on getting better products, getting technology-driven products will be all around VIP. One more big initiative which we are doing is from 1st July onwards, all my products will be in case of VIP and Skybags, of course, Carlton will come with a tag, Find Me tag. Every bag will have that.
It's again a special feature which nobody else is offering. Nobody else is offering in the world. So all my products will have that.
I genuinely wish we find growth also with this. Ma'am, last one on store expansion. We are definitely going consolidating phase. We are shutting stores and we are opening where ROIs can be better. We are also cutting down our storage areas or warehouse areas also. I was just wondering, obviously, you have a very tightrope walk over here. I was just wondering, at one end, we are actually kind of shrinking the growth input parameters, and then we are trying to revive growth also. We are expecting very high productivity from lesser input going forward. I just wanted to understand how we are thinking about this.
Okay. Again, I'll break this into two parts. One on warehouse. We were having 63 lakh pieces of inventory when we started on 1st of April 2024. Today, as we speak, the number is around 38 lakhs. Now, because the inventory is reasonable, I would say it has to come down to 30. And for that, I'm surrendering the warehouse space. So I'm not saying that I'm reducing my input, but I am actually cutting down on inefficiencies. The second, again, on the stores. If my store throughput is less than my cost, I don't think it is viable. And now we are going to open only focusing on 14 top cities. And therefore, throughput will definitely come. Which doesn't mean that I'm giving away the area where I was having a store and where I've stopped.
What I'm doing is that area will be serviced through MBOs, will be serviced through my GT, will be serviced through my other modern trade partners. I'm not vacating the space. I'm only saying that instead of selling it directly through my exclusive store, how can I service it through an MBO which will help me reduce my fixed cost? So basically, it is all about efficient working and removing inefficiencies.
Very clear. And if I may squeeze in the last one, ma'am, we would have done our inventory planning for this year, I'm assuming a quarter back or two quarters back, and we started on a good note this fiscal year. But what unfortunate events have played out in the last one month or so? Do you believe that somewhere there's a risk of a slowdown happening in our calculation for the first quarter or first half of this year, which is non-wedding season largely?
First quarter is a big wedding season.
Big wedding. Yeah, so if you're referring to the vertical, if you're referring to the vertical listing, it will have some kind of bearing, but people are just what we heard and what we came to know about it is people are just changing the destination to travel, but they are not stopped traveling yet. So we are not seeing any kind of disruptions or larger substantial disruption coming on the way because of this kind of concern, and that's where we stand as of now.
In fact, I have had discussion with two or three large travel companies. They said people are just changing the destination. If they were going to Kashmir instead of that, now maybe they are going to South or they are going to Thailand. But people are going.
Perfect. That's all from my side. And all the best for coming quarters.
Thank you.
Thanks, Tejas.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Ma'am, just wanted to understand with all these initiatives that you've spoken about, what is the growth that you think is achievable in this year? And how do you see whether we should think about double-digit growth coming in? And how would the volume and pricing play now, given that last year was a big price correction year? So do you think we can see price increases or premiumization helping you to gain ASPs at an average level?
That's the endeavor. This year, most likely, our volume and value growth should match. On the growth front, I would say that whatever is the category growth, we should do 1 or 2% better than that.
Okay, so if the category growth, for example, is around 10%, we should be able to do 12%. Is where we have to?
Yeah. That's what I'm saying.
Okay. And it should be equally divided between volume and value. Is that right?
Yes. That will be our key focus area.
In terms of hard luggage versus soft luggage, do you see the weight of hard luggage increasing further as the industry trend is moving towards soft?
No, we don't think so. In fact, maybe a little bit soft luggage should go up because suddenly we have started getting inquiries regarding soft luggage premium portfolio. So premium consumers are definitely asking for more soft luggage. And we have a few soft luggage product lineup getting launched in the next two to three months.
Visibility from the competition portfolio also suggests that the ratio should tilt slightly towards more on the soft luggage.
3%-4% more, I think soft luggage will happen in the future.
What is attracting people to soft luggage? I mean, is there any?
Not attracting. There are some consumers who are still hooking on to soft luggage because of the ease of opening and also less breakages. So basically, only after you use, you know, the pluses and minuses. Hard luggage is definitely prone to more breakages versus soft luggage.
Okay. So people are shifting back. So then why?
I would say shifting back. It's like their preference is soft luggage and therefore they need and these consumers are actually the premium consumers who are eyeing for soft luggage. People moved from soft luggage to hard luggage mostly in the entry points because of the INR 1,000 reduction in the OPP. So soft luggage opening price point used to be INR 2,500. However, hard luggage opening price point started with INR 1,499. That is where the low end totally shifted. But I think premium consumers, there is a set of consumers who are still liking soft luggage. And I think that will remain. So 30% in the upright, I think soft luggage will definitely have a share.
Okay. Okay.
That is good for us because we are the best in soft luggage across the industry.
Yeah. Makes sense. Makes sense. So in terms of sourcing, how are we using our Bangladesh facilities? Is it completely on soft luggage even today, or we've started with hard luggage over there?
Out of actually 20% only capacity remains for soft luggage upright now. Balance is duffels and backpack. And as we speak, we are utilizing 90% of our capacity.
Okay. And, ma'am, is there any capacity available in hard luggage as well in India? Because we talked clearly fully utilized at 90% in Bangladesh.
No, Bangladesh is soft luggage, and we can increase capacity in Bangladesh just by increasing the number of hours of shift, so today, we are doing eight hours of work. We can make it 10 hours and 12 hours, and then we can increase the shift, so basically, the capacity can be doubled by just adding one more shift.
Okay, and what is the situation in Indian capacity?
No constraint. It's only always a constraint remains with the assembly, which is easy to do. So we do not have constraint on shell blowing and basically injection molding, and it has no constraint.
Okay. And how do we see the trajectory for margins going forward? Because you've seen even at 50% gross margins because of other expenses being higher while we repair our balance sheet, margins have not turned up higher. So how do we see the EBITDA margin panning out for you going forward?
So as I said, we would not like to give any forward guidelines, but you can understand from the current year which we have talked about repairing the balance sheets, although we work parallelly on the growth. You heard MD talking about various steps we have taken on the cost optimization, including the manpower and the other related cost. This all should go into improving our EBITDA margin as well as EBITDA margin as we move forward.
And it will be visible from quarter one itself. So I think it's just a matter of two, three months to see.
Okay. Last question on advertisement expenditure. Then I'll come back to the question queue again. Advertisement expense, do we see a substantial increase this year, or it should be at last year's level?
So I would say that we'll earn to spend. And whatever spendings we are doing is based on what we have earned. So it will definitely increase from last year, but not disproportionately.
So what percentage can we look at?
Additional 2%.
Additional 2%. Okay.
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you, ma'am, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Shirish Pardeshi from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi Neetu, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. Just two quick questions. On the retail front, I mean, general trade and retail, what is the March closing inventory you are working with? I mean, at the shelf.
You're talking about the retail channel? You're talking about the distributors and the retailers or stores or own stores? Because retail.
Retail and general trade.
General trade would not be high, considering what MD put in the opening remark is. The last 10 days was going into clean up the shelf and other stuff to make available for the Muhurat billing. So we won't expect a high accumulation of inventory with the retail channel.
15-20 days of inventory.
What kind of DSO we work with, general trade?
7 days.
Okay. My second question is on the journey which you walked about last one year, looking at new designs and new colors and more to suiting with the new Gen Z population. So the quick question here is that what is the contribution of these efforts which you have made in terms of overall sales, in terms of volume or value you can share?
In the current year, FY26, we estimate 40% of our revenue to come from new collection.
What was that number in 25?
25, maybe 27.
Somewhere around 25%-28%.
Just last follow-up on this, this all-new collection which you have launched in the market, is the gross margin better than your overall company gross margin? Or I'm again asking gross margin, not EBITDA.
It is, yes.
What differential would it be?
Too much.
We would not like to quantify given the confirmation.
So for example, if you're targeting 50%, is the ambition, will it go to 55% if that number comes to 40%?
It won't go to 55%. It won't go to 55%.
Okay.
It can go to 52, 53.
All right.
See again, you can say 52% is going to come from the existing lineup, and we have to calibrate on the price point. So definitely, it will have a big impact.
Sure. All right. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Prachi Kotikal from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, ma'am. So if I recall, in the phone call post Q3 results, you had guided for a double-digit exit EBITDA for this year, around 12% if I remember correctly. And obviously, we've not sort of achieved that. I just wanted to understand when you gave that double-digit EBITDA guidance, you would have had certain expectations in mind of how things would pan out and how they have actually panned out. Just wanted to understand where are the big misses between where you had guided and what has actually happened? A few areas you could help us understand why we've missed that guidance would be very helpful.
So, two, three things. One biggest thing is that we took some calls in the view of reduction in inventory to sell some of the items at cost or slight, very little margin. So that was one. Second, we also decided to have lower inventories with the channel partners. All this we have done for a sustainable future growth. Otherwise, a lot of our channel partners were unhappy because they were holding stocks, and therefore their ROIs were also low. And I wanted to start my FY26 with a positive note, and therefore we took some of those calls.
Okay. Understood. Understood. And then does it mean that the double-digit sort of?
That's why also we did inventory provision, so basically, the idea was that let's leave the baggage in FY25 and start FY26 with a positive note.
Understood. Okay. And so your expectations for a double-digit margin in FY26, does that still stand or we could expect something?
Yeah. I don't want to give guidances because I have failed, I would say, in last two quarters. And therefore, let's see first quarter, and then maybe we can then further discuss.
Understood. And on the pricing intensity, the competition last two months almost, or one and a half months of this year, if you could just give us some sense as it cooled down or as it intensified?
I would say in last 45 days, it has been same.
Okay.
I don't see it has intensified. And I believe that some common sense will prevail in everybody. And I feel this is the bottom where we have reached. Below this, I don't think anybody can survive. And we are not seeing it like in this year. We are not seeing that kind of a pressure below what we are already there.
Okay. So this is the bottom you feel?
Yes.
All right.
As an organization also, I feel worse is behind us.
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. That was very helpful, ma'am, and all the best to you for the next year.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ritesh Gandhi from Discover Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, this is just a follow-up on the last person's question. Look, this was halfway through February where we were talking about double-digit 12% EBITDA exit run rate. Even earlier when we had met, we had discussed that there were a certain amount of rationalization of expenses which had already happened. So it would naturally move up and that the numbers were already in the bag. So I mean, what would be helpful is that we understand that and we appreciate that you are accepting that we have missed the number, but just wanted to understand that with a little more granularity of how much of it was inventory hit, how come we hadn't already realized that some of our clients were actually holding inventory and that there were pricing hits we were going to take.
Just wanted to understand this little more granularity because this isn't a small miss. It's a very, very large miss.
So, maybe two, three things, and Manish can add if required. One thing on inventory with channel partners. So, in February, we did some meetings. As we also mentioned, we did conferences, road shows, and we met some of the large channel partners, top 25. And this was a common problem which everybody alluded. And as an organization, I think we took this big call that for a future sustainable business going forward, we need to take those kind of tough calls. And I think we consciously took that call. Whether we should have spoiled one quarter or we should spoil a few years, I think that was the balancing which had to be done. The second thing on inventory, definitely we had plans to reduce our moving inventory to maximum. But we always know that if we are planning to do 100, sometimes that 100 has not happened.
And therefore, again, I thought, let's take this provision so that we don't have these kind of baggages hanging around us in future. I think those two big calls which we took made this happen. Right?
Right. Those are the two particular things.
Okay, so then if we understand correctly?
If we compare one quarter versus confidence of our channel partners for future.
No, but I mean, what I was asking was that if you were expecting to already be at 12% EBITDA. I mean, things we were expecting in February when we had the call would already have been normalized, and it would be a little bit strange for us by then not to already have a feedback from our channel partners, know the inventory they have, know the ROI hits which they're taking, and for it to just happen so last minute.
Actually, we started doing conferences and meetings after 15th of February. This is when we had open discussions, and we took those decisions. I think on 3rd or 4th February when we met or we had a call, we had not made up our mind, or I did not know the granularity of the problem maybe.
Okay. And is that a reporting issue? Is that an MIS issue? Is that like a communication issue that we didn't already let know that our channel partners are unhappy with? I just want to understand that.
See, channel partners will not come directly and talk to me on a daily basis, right? This was my initiative. Basically, I wanted to meet them and make them happy for next year and it so happened, I spent 15-20 days in the market, and this is what I realized was the biggest problem for us and I wanted to solve it.
So this is going to end with the Shubh Muhurat preparation, Manish. When we do it, we'll find out a channel check in more detail. And that's why it got emerged out of it, in addition to what MD said just now.
Okay. And the other question is that with regards to given the overall increase in kind of competitive intensity, which is not there in the industry, while the industry, I mean, growth rate obviously continues to be robust, obviously the competitive intensity, D2C, etc., has increased materially. Do you think that could lead to a structural impact on our overall profitability and marginal levels, and that this isn't only an exceptional year, and that structurally we will have lower margins?
See, structurally things have changed a little bit. For example, in the past, we have made 17%-18% EBITDA. But we are not saying that we will go back there. We are saying that it should be in the range of 12%-15%. So some structural changes have happened, which means that our realizations have come down. I don't think it is going to go up meaningfully or it is going to go up to the extent it used to be three years ago. Because there is a structural change in the hard luggage mix and the hard luggage opening price points. But when it reaches a rock bottom from here, it will go up, but not to the extent from where it came down.
Got it. And the last question I had was.
Mr. Gandhi, I would request you to rejoin the queue for any more questions.
Okay. Sure. Sure.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Nitin Jain from ValueQuest Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. So before I ask my question, just a piece of feedback which I had given last quarter as well, just reiterating it now. If you could release the investor presentation a little in advance rather than just five minutes before the call, it would be helpful. Thank you.
Yes, definitely.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for taking part. So my questions are, what is the quantum of debt reduction we are planning in FY26? And the second question is, some of the expenses like professional fees and product road shows, etc., that have bumped up the other expenses this quarter. So which of these do you think are one-off and which ones could repeat in H1? Thank you.
So, reduction in debt, INR 125 crores. And legal and professional 50% is one-off, which will not be there in H1. In fact, both of them will not be there in H1. Mostly these road shows are done in March, but not to the extent what we did this time on a lower scale. But this time we did definitely on a larger scale for us to basically talk to our channel partners that we are back.
Right. Right. And even the dealer conferences would be one-off, I understand?
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks for the time.
Okay.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Manish Desai from VIP Industries Limited for his closing remarks.
So I hope we have answered all the questions satisfactorily. If anyone still remains in the queue, I would request them to reach out to us, and we'll definitely provide clarification and answers to it. Thank you, and have a good evening to all of you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of VIP Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.