Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q4 and FY 2024 Earnings Conference Call of VIP Industries Ltd. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pratik Patil from Adfactors PR Investors Relations team. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Rovin. A very good evening to everyone, and welcome to the Q4 and FY 2024 earnings call of VIP Industries Ltd. 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 be forward-looking in nature, including those related to the future financials and operating performances, benefits and synergies of the company's strategy, future opportunities and growth, 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 may involve risks and uncertainties. Thank you, and over to you, Ms. Neetu Kashiramka.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining the call. As you all know, we have announced our quarter four results today, and I'm very happy to say that after a long time, we have grown by 15% revenue. So whatever I promised that we'll be doing a double-digit growth, I think we have done. Volume growth here is 14%. Secondary sales is also healthy, same as primary. If I have to talk about channels, e-commerce channel continued in the growth trajectory. It actually grew more than nine months, so we grew 143% in the quarter four for e-commerce. Even offline channels like general trade started growth. International business also posted growth in this quarter. We opened 14 EBOs during the quarter. The total count now stands at 507, with a few loss- making outlets closed during the year.
Overall penetration, 1,300 towns. Today, we have 1,300 towns overall. Our distribution strategy, as mentioned earlier, will be focusing on the stores and leveraging the existing distribution instead of expanding further, because I think there's a lot of room to expand the throughput in the existing stores. We have also done some connects with the consumers by doing a successful dealer distributor meets. We also did backpack roadshow during this period. Overall, if I have to summarize for the year, we grew by 8%. Volume growth was 11. International business, which for 9 months was lagging behind, also started uptick in quarter four. Value segment. So Aristocrat actually touched the INR 1,000 crore club in this year. Premiumization, Carlton did very well. It grew. However, VIP and Skybags, I think some more work to do.
With new launches, which we did in April, I think quarter one should see some results on VIP and Skybags. Aristocrat, as we said, will definitely serve at the lower end of the pyramid. Caprese also grew this quarter very well. It crossed INR 100 crore mark for the year. I think quarter FY 2025 base for FY 2025 has set well. We are looking at growing FY 2025 better than the market. For Caprese, we've also signed up Kiara Advani. We're also looking at extending our GTM for backpack. So backpack and duffle are the two categories, which I mentioned earlier also, that we are looking to expand to utilize our Bangladesh better. Gross margin for this quarter was 50%. I know it's not encouraging, but there is no discounting in this.
What has happened actually is the share of business from Bangladesh has reduced, and 5% of the impact on gross margin is mainly because of that. EBITDA 2.3%. There are some one-offs. Close to INR 15 crore is mainly because of one-offs, which will not be there as we move going forward. Fundamental demand indicators, air passenger traffic, hotel occupancy seems to be positive. Also, FY 2025 will be the year of transformation for this company. As I promised, that first revenue will start and then profitability, I still stand on that statement. And H2 onwards, you will start to see profitability improve, meaningful profitability improvement. And yes, internally, we all know that some changes have happened in the team, and we are all geared up now to make VIP as a transformed organization starting now.
Yes, I think, with that, I open the floor 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 touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question... Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Rajan Shah from First Water Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello. Thank you for your time. I have a couple of questions. Our first question is, with a 50% gross margin, how do you plan to achieve your EBITDA margin guidance to reach 18%-20% over the next 12-18 months? And my second question is around your inventory level, which is in excess of INR 900 crore as of FY 2024. What are the plans, that you have in place to reduce these inventory levels?
So, on the first question, with 50% gross margin, I think gross margin is down mainly because of underutilization of Bangladesh. In H2, the utilization will start improving, and my guidance for the current year is 15% for EBITDA, and for next year it is around 18%. So I think I will still go with our guidance of 15%. So H2 will see a substantial upliftment on the profits. And what was the second question?
Inventory.
Yeah, inventory. So out of the INR 900 crore of inventory, close to INR 300 crore or so is mainly soft luggage. And we have stopped producing soft luggage upright. And every month, I think we are depleting. We are selling around INR 50 crore worth of soft luggage inventory. So it is a six months of inventory. So I am not in a hurry because this is not an old inventory, and we'll not be doing too much of discounting to sell this. And I think by end of the year, we are looking at reducing our inventory close to INR 200 crore, by end of the year.
Okay. I believe that you had also outlined in one of your analyst meet, a strategy change to focus more on the premium segment. You know, the premium segment of Carlton, VIP and Skybags, on a price point of more than INR 6,000-INR 7,000 for a cabin bag, is a very small market. So if... Do you have estimates on how large the market is and what percentage of that market share do you want to capture?
So today, 55% of our business is coming from, other than Aristocrat, which is mid-premium and premium. Overall market in India is close to INR 1,000 crore. Maybe 20% market is premium. So my idea is that if overall today we are at 55, how can we make this 55, 60%? That will definitely give us an uptick on the, improvement in margins. And today, we are very small. Like, my Carlton share of business is just 6% in the overall portfolio. That can definitely become 10.
Okay.
We have done quite a few launches during this period. Like in April, we have done launches in lightweight, we have done launches in sustainability, we have done launches in premium, hard luggages.
Rajan, does that answer your question?
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Jigar Jani from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. So, elaborating on this gross margin impact, so basically, the Bangladesh capacity utilization was low, which has impacted gross margin, is what you are saying. Is that understanding correct?
Correct.
What would be your guidance for gross margin then, for FY 2025 overall?
FY 2025 should be 52%-53%.
Okay. And, ma'am, this employee expenses would include a one-off... Sorry, I missed the one-off number that you had mentioned in your opening comments. Can you just repeat it?
Overall one-off number is INR 15 crore.
Okay.
INR 5 crore out of that is in the employee cost.
What would be the rest, ma'am?
Rest is in the other expenses, basically legal and professional fees.
Okay. And the one-off that we had to take, that INR 5 crore is related to the employees that we let go on the Bangladesh.
Yes. Yes.
That is fully taken in this quarter?
Correct.
Right. And, ma'am, just looking at VIP this quarter, there is a sharp decline even on a year-on-year as well as a quarter-on-quarter basis. Any specific reason why VIP has kind of shown a sharp decline?
VIP brand?
Yeah.
There is no sharp decline. For the quarter, there is a 7% growth, and for the year, it's a 1% growth. There is no decline at all. I don't know from where-
Okay. Okay. There might be some number issue. Okay. And just lastly on expansion strategy, how many EBOs are we planning to add, say, next year in FY 2025?
So in FY 2025, we are not going to add too many EBOs. We are looking at only close to thir-
Close to 35-40 EBOs, but more strategy will be to leverage on the existing strength, what we have, and to optimize the throughput so that we can convert or we can premiumize our brands or the throughput from there.
Okay. Understood. Just last data-giving question, tax rate, what would be the steady state tax rate that you would see for FY 2025 overall?
So generally, we go, what you are saying, the ETR on a consolidated results are on a higher side because of the unabsorbed loss.... of the subsidiary. However, on a standalone basis, it will be driven by the normal tax rate what we have, which is 25%.
25.
The standalone basis will be 25%?
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah, yeah.
Any update on the insurance refund for the fire in the Bangladesh facility?
The efforts are on, and we are very hopeful that it should result into it. There are specific permission required being the unit in the SEZ unit, which is export-oriented one. So that's getting more time, but the full focus is there to get this refunded earliest.
I think it should be something around quarter two.
Quarter two. Okay. Okay, understood. Thank you so much for answering the questions. I'll come back to you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shobhit from Anand Rathi. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. Ma'am, two questions from my side. So, first, so first quarter, I think, is running below expectation for the industry due to less wedding dates. So what makes you very confident of achieving double-digit growth in FY 2025? And second, question is, so how are we replacing this underutilization from the Bangladesh unit? Thank you.
So, at this point of time, Bangladesh will be underutilized for some time because soft luggage, right, we have enough stocks. We are looking at expanding our business for Backpack and Duffel, but that will take some time. So a large part of utilization of Bangladesh improvement you will start to see from quarter three.
Okay. What other question?
Yeah, Q1. So confidence of doing a double-digit growth for the year is behind two, three things. One, we feel that by doing right, we will start to gain market share. And if the industry is growing... And most of the people are saying that the industry will grow 12%, and that is the confidence I'm getting. I should do 1% or 2% better than industry, and that's how I'm saying that we should do a double-digit growth.
Okay. Thank you.
Travel is doing well. Like, travel, if you look at airline data, if you look at hotel industry, travel, I think at this point of time, it is giving positive signals.
Okay. Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jinesh Joshi from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Madam, I have a question on our pricing strategy with respect to Skybags. I just observed on one e-com channel that entry level three-piece hard luggage of Skybags is priced similarly to one of our peers, which basically caters to the mass market. So I just wanted to understand our pricing strategy on Skybags, given the fact that the brand positioning is more on the economy side. So when we were playing this discounting game, why did we not choose Aristocrat, and why did we go ahead with Skybags?
So Skybags strategy is definitely, more with mid-premium and not, opening price point. This particular range, what you are seeing, I, know why, and that was mainly because the channel partners sold at lower than what price we sold them. So that was their investment and not ours. And we have actually asked them to increase the price, because that's also hurting my brand, and secondly, it's also hurting my other channels.
So, the course correction has happened, right?
Has happened. If you go today, you will not find it.
Sure. And, madam, my second question is on gross margin. I know quite a bit of discussion has happened surrounding it. We are seeing that the gross margin has declined due to reduced share of the Bangladesh operations. But I believe we typically manufacture soft luggage in Bangladesh. And in which way the share of soft luggage sales has been declining, because currently the trend is more towards hard luggage. So in that case, how come a swing in Bangladesh can essentially impact our gross margins by 500 basis points?
So actually, your question has the answer. If you see overall, Bangladesh used to add, let's assume, last year, same quarter, Bangladesh added INR 36 crore to my gross margin. Okay?
Mm-hmm.
Sorry, INR 72 crore. And for this it is less than 30. So that gap is what is changing the gross margin. So overall, share of business of Bangladesh has come down. So Bangladesh standalone P&L, if I have to tell you the quarter, the revenue is INR 89 crore versus INR 175 crore, and the corresponding gross margin.
Got that. One last question from my side. The borrowings on our balance sheet have increased to about INR 53- odd crore, and I think that could predominantly be due to higher working capital, given the fact that we have INR 900 crore of inventory on balance sheet. You have mentioned that we are aiming for an INR 200 crore reduction by FY 2025. So correspondingly, should we expect the debt levels to also go down, or how should we look at it?
Yeah, definitely. We are looking at debt to be around INR 250 crore.
Sure, madam. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tejas Shah from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
... Hi, ma'am. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on good revenue growth momentum. Ma'am, in the recent past, we have seen how industry like ours, which rely heavily on wedding, travel, where there is no syndicated reliable data to understand demand forecast. And then and, and it happened actually played out in the last six months on wedding demand itself for many industries, which is associated-- which are associated with wedding-related demand. We have seen in our company also episodes of demand forecasting going wrong. And in past, we have survived such episodes because of very strong balance sheet and, and, and cash on books.
But now with very high inventory and the debt point, which was raised in the earlier question, do you still, like, first, what are the measures that you have taken so that this 12% demand that you spoke about, we are very sure of that coming through? Because, I'm assuming that your inventory ordering also will be based on that kind of forecast. And second, what are the questions, let's say, for whatever reason if the demand doesn't come through, how are we trying to protect inventory balance sheet P&L, in case if macros are not in our favor in FY 2025?
So, 1, at this point of time, we are very, very cautious on ordering RM for soft luggage, especially. Okay, hard luggage, actually, we are not having much inventories. It's generally 15 days of inventory. Even 15 days of inventory is not there today as we speak. And, soft luggage now, any RM ordering actually requires a signature from CFO or MD. Otherwise, it's a clear, clear zero ordering. Unless this inventory of soft luggage comes down to the level of 200,000-300,000 pieces we are very cautious. And we understand we have a high inventory and high debt. Both go hand in hand, and all our efforts are on to make this reduce. So reduce both borrowings as well as reduce inventory.
Sure. But ma'am, at the same time, you have also identified the problem statement. There's the freshness of the brand and inventory. So how would you manage this conflicting objective, where we have to add freshness to the inventory also, and at the same time, we have to reduce inventory also?
So-
So, this, in fact, reduction in the inventory will be on a soft luggage because that's the bottleneck what we have. Whereas if you look into the hard luggage, what MD rightly said, we are hand-to-mouth kind of situations and inventory being done in a such a way that we can go to the market and fill the requirement. More importantly, our objective is to go more localization, and that's why it becomes more supply chain also become more robust or more kind of tightly done in order to fulfill those kind of requirements. But yes, the challenge in terms of the new product launches and everything is still around, but I'm sure we'll overcome as we move forward in this direction.
Also, most of the new launches are in hard luggage now because that's the market need or demand.
Perfect. And then second and last question on Bangladesh being the cause for not achieving our goal on gross margin front. What will lead to this under-recovery in second half, as you called out? What are we seeing that will change from today, which will lead to this under-recovery on Bangladesh utilization?
So one, we are forcing our soft luggage inventory to deplete in next six months, by September, and therefore, Bangladesh will start producing soft luggage. So earlier, we had a capacity of 2.2 lakh of soft luggage upright at Bangladesh. We have reduced it to 75,000, and today we don't produce at all. So once this inventory is over, there's a natural demand at least of 75,000 to 80,000. And we have already cut costs of 4,000 people to take care of only the relevant demand. But I don't want to reduce further because then I will not get the skilled labor which I need to manufacture this 75,000 pieces.
Perfect. So, ma'am, this 15% margin, will it be much more back-ended? In the sense, should I, should we expect that second half will be way above 15%, so that weighted average will be 15%?
Correct. This is what I said in my statement also, that H2 will see much higher profit as compared to the first half.
Okay, ma'am. Thanks and all the best for FY 2025.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhavin Rupani from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, ma'am. Thanks for the opportunity. I had one question related to raw materials, ma'am. As per my understanding, one of the major proportion of cost in manufacturing hard luggage are aluminum and hinge. Please correct me if I'm wrong. However, aluminum costs have increased almost 10%-15% in the recent past. Do you think this will have a bearing on margins going ahead?
Not really. 50% of our trolleys actually have already become MST. It's become fungible now. And overall trolley cost as a percentage of the luggage is not substantial to make a dent into the profitability.
Okay. Clear, ma'am. And, my second question is related to channel economics. Can you please provide the breakup of margins across different channels?
I cannot give you the margins. What I can give you is margin range. Retail trade is the best margin contributor, followed by DT. Modern Trade and e-commerce are the lowest. CSD is also close to retail. MT and e-commerce go hand in hand with lower margins.
... Okay, ma'am. Is it possible for you to give some sense on how much higher and lower the margins are, considering maybe EBO as the base?
I don't think that much detail we can share.
You're asking for too much, sir. All right.
Given, but it's a bit confidential, because that's what we would like to keep the interest of our channel partners also been intact with us and associated with us. That's the prime reason, nothing else.
Okay. And when you say retail is the best, it includes EBOs and MBOs, right? So it, both of them are equal.
No. So this includes only our own EBOs. MBO is part of general trades.
Okay. Got you, ma'am. Ma'am, as far as capacities is concerned, last time you mentioned that 10 lakh pieces is our hard luggage capacity, 7 lakh is around soft luggage. You had mentioned that we will be taking it direct, taking it to 20 lakhs. So how should one understand that? What should be the breakup right now?
10 and 7 for soft luggage, 2 lakh- 3 lakh we are going to increase in hard luggage at this point of time.
So 13 lakh will be the hard luggage capacity and 7 lakh will be the soft luggage capacity.
Yeah, by end of the year.
All right. That's it on my end. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, you may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Dipak Saha from DR Choksey FinServ Pvt Ltd. Please go ahead.
Hi, ma'am. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a good set of top-line. Just one question, if the industry is growing at 10%-12% in terms of targeting-
Yeah, the line to you is sounding muffled. If you could please use a handset, should be helpful here.
Hello, is it audible now?
Yes, much better, sir.
Yeah.
Please go ahead.
Oh, thank you. Sorry for the inconvenience. So, ma'am, the first question is, if the industry is growing at 10%, 12%, and when we are targeting say 15% and plus, so it means we are definitely targeting the higher market share gain. So if, correct me if I'm wrong, then my understanding is probably we are targeting, as you highlighted earlier, also the premium segment. So is, is, is it the right understanding, that you're trying to gain more market share on the premium side?
I think it will be all, because I don't want to leave even the lower end. The good part is that VIP as an organization had brand across categories, so focus will be on all. However, if you see last three, four years, we've not grown in our premium and mid-premium. So that is where we want that the growth in premium and mid-premium should also be there, also be reasonable, and not-
Okay.
Growth should not only be there in Aristocrat.
Okay, and then-
You calibrate our strategy to be considering the market at front, right? So if you can't, you can't behave differently than what market is asking for.
Yeah, exactly. So on that front again, now, if you see on the premium side, typically the perception that is built around VIP on the brand side. So what kind of improvements we are doing to align that perception regarding VIP towards the premium side? Because I think we need to certain work there to get the alignment on the premium side as far as our brands are concerned, especially on the VIP side.
So mainly we'll be focusing on coming out with better products. So there is a three-pronged strategy here. One is a lightweight product, the second is using technology, which is tech-enabled luggages, and the third will be on luxury. Now, under all these three strategies, we have launched something or the other in the month of April. I would request if you can go to our store now, you will find all of them. In fact, in the presentation also, we have mentioned what are the new launches in all the three themes.
Okay. Okay, that's helpful. And then one last thing. In one of the earlier concalls, you mentioned that you want to become a travel solution company. So by that, I mean, if you can kind of share some texture on some additional products or something that we're coming up with or something that's on the plan, what exactly you are directing towards?
Strategy, which is in next five years' time, I think in FY 2025 and 2026, more focus will be on the existing, you know, getting back to our profitability and then look at additional growth. One or two things I can give you the example. We are looking to launch accessories in the second half of this year in a meaningful way, and some such things. So basically, when a customer needs anything and everything for a travel, he should be able to get into my store. But that's a long-term plan. My first focus is to get to 15%-18% EBITDA margin. Post that, we will focus on the second piece.
Okay. Okay. And just before I wrap up, just one last thing. What's your borrowing number? I think you said, I kind of missed it. What's the—what would be the borrowing number for the year ahead?
My net borrowing today is INR 485 crores, which we are looking to make it half of what it is, so around INR 250 crores.
Wow!
That is the number.
Thank you. Thank you, ma'am, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dishant Rakesh Jain from Quasar Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible enough, ma'am?
Yes.
Hi.
Go ahead.
Yeah. So I just wanted to ask maybe a repeat question. So how much inventory would you be able to sell by the end of, or maybe reduce by the end of FY 2025? You said INR 200 crore, right?
... Yeah.
This does not include the soft luggage inventory, right? That's INR 300 crore plus INR 200 crore, that is INR 500 crore.
No, no. Today we have INR 900 crore of inventory, which includes around INR 300 crore soft luggage inventory. Out of this 300, we are saying 200 will go down.
So by end of 2025, INR 200 crore will go down?
Yes.
Okay. Okay, thank you. Thanks for the clarification.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Subrata Sarkar from Mount Intra Finance. Please go ahead.
Hello? Hello?
Yeah, yeah. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So, just two clarification I want to understand on the margin, what you are saying, like, guiding. So when you are talking about 15%, kind of EBITDA margin, is it a exit EBITDA margin for Q4, FY 2025 you are talking, or you are talking about the full year EBITDA margin? This is number one. And number two, like, again, on the same clarification, like, when you are guiding for only 2% improvement in gross margin, like, how, what, what is the mathematics behind, like, reaching to 15% EBITDA from 2%?
So there are a lot of high costs sitting below EBITDA. One, warehousing cost. Since today my inventory is at all-time high, we are incurring huge on the warehouses, warehousing costs. My freight is high because I am incurring detention charges. Some of my warehouses, when there is no space, the truck comes and stands for 5-6 days. So all these costs, which are sitting in the other expenses, will come down. If you look at FY 2023-2024 numbers, you'll be able to guess that there's a huge gap. In fact, I can tell you, my other expenses in last full year was INR 500 crore versus INR 700 crore now. So there is a INR 200 crore delta sitting there. I can definitely get INR 100 crore delta out from there immediately.
Immediately, when I say, I have to, I have to do a lot of work around it, but that's something which is sitting there. That's the plan.
Okay. And when you are guiding, like, 15% EBITDA margin, is it Q4 exit EBITDA or for the entire FY 2025?
Q4 exit EBITDA should be, like, 18 and not 15.
Okay. So in that case, like, H1 also, like, there should be marked improvement from this 2%-3%, at least?
Yeah, 2%-3% improvement you will see, I think, in starting from-
No, madam. Yeah, what I'm saying, madam, if you are guiding for, let's say, 15% and Q4-
We request you to please rejoin the queue for further questions.
No, I'm just asking for a clarification, actually.
Yes.
When you are guiding... Yeah, when you are guiding for, like, 15% overall EBITDA for the year and 18% exit EBITDA for Q4, then your EBITDA should be at the range of at least 10% in H1 also. So, is it right understanding that we are in a position to do that?
Yes, we are.
Okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jigar Jani from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the follow-up. I just wanted to understand this Bangladesh gross margin a little bit in detail. So ideally, your capacity utilization shouldn't really impact your gross margin. It will be below bottom line in terms of expenses. So just to understand, this is because your soft luggage production has stopped in Bangladesh, and you are manufacturing more duffels and backpacks there, where the overall gross margins are lower. If my understanding correct?
What happens is, Bangladesh used to add, I explained also, let's assume INR 75 crore last year was added by Bangladesh gross margin, which has almost become half in this quarter, line to line, and that is the reason for reduction in the gross margin.
Yeah, but per unit gross margins in percentage terms will then change, right? I mean-
But we are not, here the Ind AS or the, you know, the accounting standards are not per unit, no. I have to add two P&Ls when I add in Bangladesh. So my—if you look at my standalone results, the gross margin is flat. Just see that.
Yeah, so that's what I'm saying, that suppose you were making standalone margins of 50% and Bangladesh was making, say, 40%, just giving numbers, that 40% will only change when you are making-
I don't think I can explain this, like, so easy.
Okay.
It's in the Excel, I can.
I will take it offline. I'll take it offline.
Uh-
Thank you.
Just connect with Manish and understand from him.
Understood. Understood. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhavin Rupani from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, ma'am. So, ma'am, we have been refurbishing certain ECL stores in India. What changes have you seen post the refurbishment? Can you please share your insights and observations on that?
It's too soon for that, because it takes three to four months for refurbishment. But I can say the store which we refurbished six months ago definitely has seen a much throughput. But we can't say that it is because of refurbishment. It can also be because I have, I have put better portfolio, better products.... So but yeah, yeah, it's too soon. Like, some of the refurbishment has just happened.
What will be the expenses that we incur to refurbish a store?
Not all the stores have been refurbished already. I think we have a budget of around INR 10 crores-INR 12 crores for the year to do that.
INR 10 crore-INR 12 crore includes how many stores?
It all depends upon what kind of refurbishment you have to carry out. If I take even the average INR 30 lakh-INR 40 lakh to go into it, that's where the lot of stores will get into a refurbishment.
Okay. Second question is related to e-commerce. What is our target proportion in e-commerce that we have increased significantly over the last year, but what is the target?
Today it is 22, industry is at 25. I think we will be with the industry.
All right, ma'am. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that will be the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Neetu Kashiramka from VIP Industries Ltd for closing comments. Over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, everybody, for joining the call. As said earlier also, I think me and my team are all geared up to make VIP successful. Please bear with us for one or two more quarters. I think at starting H2, you will definitely start feeling happy. Along with the revenue, we'll also get bottom line, meaningful bottom line, and that's what I can say. If you have any other questions, you can connect with Manish, especially on this gross margin thing. Maybe he can explain. Otherwise, thank you. Thanks, again.
Thanks to all of you.
Thank you. On behalf of VIP Industries Ltd, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.