Ladies and gentlemen, today I'm welcoming the Q4 FY23 earnings conference call of V.I.P. 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 call an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note, this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Snighter Albuquerque from Adfactors PR. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Jacob. Well, very good evening to everyone, and welcome to the Q4 and FY23 earnings call of VIP Industries Limited. From the senior management, we have with us Mr. Anindya Dutta, Managing Director, and Ms. Neetu Kashiramka, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin the conference call, I would like to mention some of the statements made during the course of today's call that are forward-looking in nature, including those related to the future financials and operating performances, benefits and synergies of the company's strategies, 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 may involve risks and uncertainties. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Dutta.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking out time for this earnings call. I'm happy to share the results with all of you for quarter four and for the overall financial year. I am sure you would have got a copy of the results and the presentation that we had uploaded. As you would see in that, we have continued our growth momentum for the year. Quarter four witnessed a revenue growth of 27% over the same quarter last year, and for the overall year, the revenue growth was at 61%. And when we compare that to even the base year, which is FY20 pre-COVID, the growth stood at a good 22% for the year. I would say an overall very good bounce back for the business post the setbacks of the pandemic, and I think more importantly, we have emerged much stronger in our fundamentals.
As you would see, gross margin for quarter four saw the impact of both what we've been talking about, our fundamental cost efficiencies that we have been driving quite hard through the year, along with the much-awaited softening of all input costs. Gross margin for quarter four stood at 58%, a gain of almost 800 basis points sequentially, and about 4.6% gain compared to the same quarter last year. Gross margin for the full year stood at 51%. Efficient fixed cost management led the flow-through of the efficiencies generated in direct cost into our EBITDA. EBITDA for the year stood at 15.8% at INR 331 crore. We had to take the final hit of the Future Group outstanding. The charge in terms of doubtful debt was about INR 23 crore for the year, without which our underlying EBITDA for the year would have been at 17%.
We also had an unfortunate incident of fire that razed one of our factories in Bangladesh. While it has full insurance coverage for the quarter and for the year, we have booked an exceptional loss of INR 47.2 crore on account of the loss due to fire. Therefore, the PBT before exceptional loss was INR 41 crore and INR 229 crore for the quarter and for the year, respectively. The final PBT post the exceptional loss stood at INR 197 crore for the year and a loss of INR 6.4 crore for the quarter. I think, to summarize the performance for the year, it was a great success in accelerating not only the revenue growth but gaining back share in value segment and, more importantly, driving transformational changes in our supply chain, which has and will continue to yield superior cost efficiencies for the future.
As we have highlighted before, our own manufacturing has picked up very well, both in India as well as in Bangladesh. We have invested approximately INR 100 crore in manufacturing capabilities during the year, and we plan to further invest INR 200 crore in the current financial year to build our own manufacturing capacities, keeping in mind the demand for the next couple of years. Not only in the backend, but we have also significantly strengthened our go-to-market and channel operations. Our exclusive business outlets have crossed the 500 mark in FY23, and this is significantly ahead of what we had prior pre-COVID. And we continue to have aggressive plans to take this to as high as 800 EBOs during the current financial year.
Our traditional trade distribution has crossed the 1,200-town mark in FY23, and we intend to continue our penetration and driving effective coverage to a target of covering all 50,000 population towns by the middle of next financial year. When we come to the modern trade channel, we all know that it had a huge setback due to the closure of the Future Group accounts. But not only did the channel cover for the loss of stores during the year and made up for the growth through other chains, but now with all the closed stores being fully operational under the Reliance banner, we will stand to have an advantage. When we come to the e-commerce channel, where we seem to have a competitive gap, I'm happy to share that we have initiated an accelerator program.
We have gotten on board BCG, one of the best consulting firms in the field, to build for us the right capabilities and muscles in an accelerated way for the future. When we come to our power brands, I think each of our luggage power brands in the respective segments have done very well. We have invested behind them during the year. If you would have noticed more recently, we have started strengthening our Caprese brand, which is in one of the identified Future Group areas, both in terms of its product portfolio as well as its engagement with consumers. Looking forward, with the strength that we have built and a good demand environment, I'm confident that the team at V.I.P. will deliver consistently, fast-paced, and profitable growth. With this, I conclude my opening remarks and 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 your 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 is from the line of Tejas Shah from Spark Capital, please go ahead. Mr. Shah, your line is unmuted. Please go ahead with your question.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. The first question is about seasonality trends . If I see historically, the growth quarter-over-quarter of the income is usually down to around 95%-100% versus the pre-quarter. This is pre-COVID I'm talking about. Even if I see numbers of some of the companies who have just acquired hotels or airlines, the growth quarter actually did deteriorate pre-quarter on the travel-related companies. I just wanted to know how should we think about the demand in our sector and how should we think about it going forward in the first half of this year.
So I think the demand environment, Tejas, continues to be good. Everything that we track in terms of the lead indicators for demand has been looking good and continues to do so. So from that point of view, going forward, I think we will have the right environment for growth. There is a talk of overall a bit slowdown in the economy, but equally, there has been talk about it is getting negated in many sectors. So while we could say the jury is still out, at V.I.P., we are pretty confident about the demand environment as well as our preparedness to make sure that we tap that.
Yeah. And speaking of gross margin, so the offices that are subsequently acquired by how should we think about gross margin FY24?
So Tejas, I think I have mentioned this, that we are targeting to make sure that we are anywhere between 53%-55% always. That's the intent. While the sequential gain has been very good for the quarters, but I think the competitive environment could emerge in a way where we want to balance margin growth and market share in a way that it works for all the three points. And therefore, my guidance would be around 53%-55% that we will continue to pursue.
What's the impact on EBITDA?
The translation of that to EBITDA should be anywhere between 17%-18% thereof, yeah.
Sure. So it's now begun or provision for doubtful debt on future growth for the impact on of the EBITDA?
No, I think it is done now.
Yeah, I noticed now.
Okay. Okay. We had some claims to come up previously that we had. It was expected. Have you got that money?
We haven't got that money.
Any update on it?
We're trying to get it. Hopefully, it should come in next 2-3 months.
Okay. Last one of the companies, if I may. I looked at our own presentation that was released and just spoke about companies as a fixed growth driver. I just wanted to understand how are we pacing the timeline. So at one point, we are building up the global accelerators and everything that is kind of a franchisee. And then when I saw that we see getting a smooth GT-oriented or slightly kiosk-led modern strategy. So just wanted to understand, are we looking at much more mass-oriented brands, or do we want to actually go EBO and COCO as the brand?
The go-to-market strategy will follow. When I say go-to-market, in terms of what you said in channel and in stores. But fundamentally, the brand is positioned to be in the premium segment, right, but not in the luxury or super premium segment. Yes, in the previous two years, we had possibly tending towards making it more mass. But my strong belief is that there is a huge market and an opportunity in what we call as premium. Between INR 1,000-INR 4,000 ASP kind of a bracket is what we are looking at to play in.
Got it. That's all from my side. Thanks for knowledge.
Thank you.
Thank you. This question is from the line of Jinesh Joshi from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. I have a question on the fire insurance. Tell me, how long will it take for the operations to fully disburse the fire insurance? And if you can also quantify what is the extent of business loss that could occur in the Bangladesh fire incident? And one follow-up we can have is on the performance of the top-line brands. If we look at our top line, despite the sequential fall of about 14%, are there expenses that are way above 4% even if I adjust the Future Group provision of about INR 12 crore or so? I just wanted to understand what is driving this inflation, and is that related to one-off items?
Can I take the last question?
Yeah. Basically, I'll take the second part of the question. On the expense side, since our revenue, if you see quarter-on-quarter, this quarter was the lowest, and therefore, operating efficiencies have not kicked in. The second part is on the INR 12 crore of provision for doubtful debt. Those are the two things which made other expenses higher.
How does the INR 23 crore doubtful debt, INR 12 crore, was taken in quarter four only? Coming back to your earlier question on the fire incident and the impact of that on the business, so firstly, I'm sure you know, but to reiterate, this is one of the factories that we had, one of the eight factories that we have in Bangladesh. Undoubtedly, the whole operation of this factory ceased after the fire because it was raised to the ground, literally. But we have very quickly covered that with a couple of things. One, an outsourcing stopgap arrangement within India. And also, within Bangladesh, what was in the pipeline to create future capacities, which was taken slightly maybe a few months later, was accelerated, and we have started those capacities in Bangladesh. So this factory in itself will take time to come back to be rebuilt.
But in lieu of this, the space that we had and other factories that were coming up has been made operational. There was a momentary issue in terms of supplies for about 4-6 weeks, but that has been covered now. And therefore, the impact of that, in all practical terms, has been minimized in terms of any revenue loss because of the factory production being shut, that one factory production being shut.
Got it. One last question from my side. I believe this is one of your peers entering the premium category by making a soft launch on a GPT platform. What steps are we taking to ensure that we compete GPT in this category? And also, if we add the industry players, can it lead to a significant price realignment in the premium segment, or do you believe that operating dynamics in the market are completely different and this factory could compete on price not with the premium segment? I just wanted your thoughts on this bit.
I think there are very aggressive and robust plans in the mid-premium and the premium segment that we have under the V.I.P. Skybags and Carlton brand. So brand plans, along with what we are wanting to do in terms of channel and go-to-market, I think they both come together to make sure that we have a strong hold as far as the premium segment is concerned, mid-premium and premium segment is concerned. I'm cognizant of the fact that B2C and e-commerce opens up an area of easy entry for newer competition to come in. And that's why, as I said in my opening remarks, we have decided to leapfrog as far as capability and competencies are concerned on e-commerce, which is not only what we see as marketplace e-commerce but also as a B2C business by V.I.P. So that's something that we have on the cards.
So while we keep a very strong watch on competition and the progress that is happening in the overall industry, but there are effective plans to make sure that we counter any kind of competitive buildup that happens.
One last question. This 200-something CapEx guidance we have given for FY24, can you break it down to think of hard?
Get your question.
That would be at this stage. I think we can come back to you, but it is both in manufacturing sites as well as the plants and machinery for that.
70% is soft luggage.
Yeah. So the larger part is soft luggage here in terms of the investment that will go in. And I'm including when I say soft luggage, we include not only uprights but categories like backpacks and duffles and DFTs as well.
Got it. Thanks so much for that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, please leave any questions to the participants. The next question is from the line of Madhav Marda from Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah, Mr. Anindya , and thank you for the opportunity. First of all, Neetu, congratulations for being promoted as ED.
Thank you so much.
My first question is, in the opening remarks, you mentioned about BCG being appointed to accelerate market share on the e-commerce front. Is it possible to quantify in terms of milestones where do you want to reach in terms of market share versus the timeline, etc.?
I'm sorry, Marda. This is a little too premature to get down to that level of specifics, but I would want to reiterate that the objective, obviously, is finally going to be strengthening our market share, but the focus is usually on building fundamental competencies to become, I would say, best in the class as far as e-commerce operators and e-commerce business capabilities are concerned.
On the backpack side, you mentioned you're planning to sort of invest in manufacturing. A few of your competitors have launched aggressive pricing on the backpack, I mean, below 1,000 MRP. So are we also looking at aggressively entering the segment given that the demand for this is very high?
Short answer is yes. We are looking at backpacks for ourselves to be a very large growth area in the coming years, including the current financial year. So we're going to see the category in a much more holistic way across the spectrum of both pricing as well as various consumer usage of backpacks, right, in terms of all segments within backpacks. And that's why the commitment and the investment behind manufacturing with ourselves as well as continue to source it from India as well as China.
Okay. Lastly, on the BCG, just wanted to have your thoughts in terms of what is the milestone in terms of number of EBOs, shop-to-shop, etc. How are you positioning this brand?
So right now, in the immediate term, in the short term, we're going to make sure that we become a dominant e-commerce player in green supply chain. That's the first milestone from a go-to-market point of view. In fact, even prior to that, we wanted to go back to the drawing board and work on our product portfolio, our positioning, our sourcing, and therefore the price points and all that. I think a large part of that having been done, or at least we are feeling now at a good space there, we are taking this whole strategy and the flight into the market now. The first milestone will be e-commerce and B2C. In fact, for your knowledge, hey, Capresebags.com is fully functional. We've had a lot of breathing issues. All that has been now behind us. It's a brand.
It's a website that's doing, I would say, good business to begin with. Every day hits a high. So these are early stages, but that's the long-term vision and the commitment there. And thereafter, we will also look at creating an experience on the ground with our products and our brand, which would mean EBOs and concept stores. But I can't give you more specifics on that side in terms of number of stores there, but there are things that are getting put there. And maybe in subsequent quarters, we can come back to you with more specifics on how we're going to look at Caprese. But the larger growth of Caprese on the overall business in V.I.P., I would think it would be visible more in the next financial year.
This financial year would be more strengthening the foundation, creating the fundamental strength that is needed to really get into a very fast-paced growth going ahead.
Fair to say this year will be driven mainly by backpacks and growth on the premium side of your portfolio.
That's right. And I think value will continue to grow because of the unorganized sector yielding into organized, and I think that will continue to remain almost with a similar amount of tailwind as much as it was in the previous year. So really speaking, what will happen is value will continue to grow. Premium and mid-premium will join the bandwagon, right? And backpack is far more unorganized than in the luggage sector. So there, the unorganized sector and overall growth of the category itself is very high, and we've got to just play it right in this segment.
Sure. Thank you for your thoughts and all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. This question is from the line of Piyush Khandelwal from Bank of India Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. So firstly, on this BCG expense that you mentioned, can you quantify, I mean, how much should be the amount, and this is for how long?
Well, I can't share right now expense related to this, but the engagement will continue for almost the full part of the year, about 10-11 months. It'll cover almost the full part of the year. They are going to partner us through the journey of building the capability as well as converting them into execution during the year.
All right. Understood. Now, my second question on this, with this increase in in-house manufacturing that we are doing, will there be any kind of furthermore efficiency on the working capital side that we can see? I mean, right now, we are operating at, what, 90 days that you mentioned in the presentation. So any kind of further working capital efficiency that we can see because of this in-house manufacturing?
Yeah. Definitely, we are looking at 15 days of multi-production on the overall working capital, 75 days.
This is, I mean, by 2025, 2024, 2023 years?
In the next 15-24 months.
All right. All right. And this will be majorly led by hard luggage or, I mean, soft luggage?
It's going to be across. Yeah. It is in the mix of the business that it has, and it'll follow that. So our manufacturing footprint is increasing with our projected mix of business between hard and soft. We are setting up facilities keeping in mind what we project as the demand. Therefore, all the impact of those will be visible in the same proportion of how the demand will be.
Understood. Understood. And then with these 300 EBOs that we have planned for December 2024, I mean, will this be a franchisee-led or mix of FOFO and COCO?
It will be a mix, but the majority of this would be franchisee-led.
Around 80%-85%?
Yeah. Right now, we are going with a mix of about 75-25, intended mix, but we'll have to split by the year as we go along.
Understood. Understood. Got it. Sir, in your opening remarks as well, you mentioned about this demand. If you can highlight, I mean, what kind of expectations you're looking for the industry growth picture over the next two to three years given this luggage sector especially doing well versus other consumption sectors. I just wanted to get the sense on the growth rates for the industry.
I think the underlying growth rate of the overall industry would be about 8%-10%. But the organized sector will have an accelerated demand, and that's the assumption and expectation. So I think the organized sector will be at about anywhere between slightly upwards of 15% is what we are expecting to continue for the next few years.
Got it, sir. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Nihal Jham from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much and good evening. Sir, one question was you highlighted at the start of the call about the seasonality part and the fact that the quota was good. Generally, is it that there is any change in terms of how we look at Q3 and Q4? The only reason I'm asking that is because this quarter, we saw many more weddings in terms of the wedding calendar, which is ideally supposed to be a driver for the business. So just from that angle, if you want to comment and if there is a change in the way the seasonality of the business is going to play out in the future?
Just so that I've got your question right, you're talking about the wedding calendar for quarter one. I mean.
No, for Q4. Q4, Q4, FY23. There were many more wedding dates in Q4, Q3 versus Q3. So maybe the expectation was that the revenues that we end up looking should have been similar, just based on that being one of the drivers for the business.
Well, we can correlate data here, but in our understanding, Q3 had more wedding-related purchases that we usually experience. So it is more the festive season and the wedding which kind of comes together. And that's how we see quarter three on the wedding part of it getting more support from the wedding demand.
Understood that. But irrespective of that, how we look at 3-2 quarters play out separately, there is no change in the way you would expect it to play out in the future?
When you ask that question, I just want to say that for the coming year, quarter three wedding season looks better than most of the previous quarters that we have seen. So we are far away from that from quarter three. But this year, quarter three will have the peak of festive season. It's slightly delayed than the previous year in terms of Diwali, and the high number of wedding dates that we see for quarter three is slightly higher than the best that we have seen in the past.
Okay. Just one more question was while you've alluded to the BCG tie-up, I just wanted to understand something around that. You highlighted about Q3 becoming a dominant player in e-commerce. And historically, we have discussed maybe from the value segment, it's not that attractive on the channel. At the initial stages, currently, do you have any specific brands of the ones you have which will create a dominant share at this point in time in the online space, or it will be the preferred ones to gain share on that channel? And sorry, there's a little am I audible? Just.
Yes, sir. You're audible.
We are in the process of identifying land and more important areas where we set up the manufacturing, a Greenfield manufacturing in India.
Sorry. I couldn't hear you clearly. I mean, this could be the data.
Okay. Let's hope it works now. I would repeat, as I said, that the e-commerce investment is both in India and Bangladesh. As you rightly said, it will be a combination of the brownfield both in India and Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, in the same SEZ location where we are there. In India, we are in the process of scouting for the location and thereafter the land or whichever way we find the right opportunity to establish a greenfield or brownfield in India. It's work in progress right now.
Sure. Will there be any Soft Luggage expansion in India as a follow-up to this question?
No, yes, there will be. So most likely, while we manufacture mostly in Maharashtra, we are going to look at, for now, up north, we are putting up possibly an integrated plant of both hard and soft luggage. But soft luggage will be included in this.
Sure. As a follow-up, when we look at the top 3 players, so combined capacities as of FY24, range should be closer to 4.5 dozens of annual manufacturing units. So can you talk about utilization? And as you can also comment on whether we can see a scenario where possibly for 1 or 2 years, it could be extra supply or more supply in the industry?
Well, I can't talk about the industry. I can talk about V.I.P. And yes, we are building capacities keeping in mind the next three years that we will need, and we'll activate the capacities as and when whichever year that demands. So we have something called an LTCP long-term capacity planning. That exercise, we do once or twice in a year, and we continuously look at a rolling period of three years to say what demand, which location, which part of the country, what categories. And our manufacturing footprint is the creation of manufacturing facility is an output of that exercise which gives us both what category, what quantity, and what optimized location. So that's how we are progressing. But on your comment of how the overall industry is going to be in terms of capacity and utilization, I would refrain from commenting on that.
Sure. Lastly, as a follow-up on manufacturing soft luggage in India, so we have seen a scenario where in 2000, manufacturing shifted to China. In 2015, manufacturing shifted to Bangladesh. And now again, we're seeing manufacturing shift back to India over the next few years. So if you can comment on unit economics, how this is different in manufacturing soft luggage in India versus Bangladesh versus China?
So China is becoming more and more expensive with the wage rate going and more volatile. And therefore, from our perspective, that's something that we would like to build in terms of our backend ourselves. But it's just not to manage the volatility and the cost, but it's also about strengthening ourselves to overall be more competitive, which China also should be for sure. In terms of India versus Bangladesh, there is a trade-off between the logistics cost and the cost of manufacturing in Bangladesh. India is increasingly becoming better in raw material availability and all that. I mean, not immediately, but overall in the longer run. So when I said a north facility, a lot of I mean, it makes sense to service lots of north, which is more produced in north versus coming from Bangladesh.
That's the underlying concept of looking at wherever it is more optimized to manufacture to make sure that my total cost of delivery to the consumer has to be optimized irrespective of the source. That leads to the decision of where we should have manufacturing.
Sure. And last question, pardon me if you've answered this earlier, Neetu, but on the insurance receipt for Bangladesh, can we expect that?
As of now, we don't know because it's a process. But definitely, it should take 12 months. We can come on this exact timing dates maybe a quarter or so. But as of now, it is in very initial stages.
Okay. Sure. That's it from my side. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Manish Sonthalia from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
This question, what would be the peak potential of this one?
Sorry, Manish, you are not audible properly. Can you repeat?
I wanted to ask, what would be the peak potential of this CapEx that we have?
I'm sorry, sir, but your voice is getting cut off in between. Can you come into network area, please?
Sure.
All right. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akhil Parekh from Centrum Broking.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is, you mentioned that 70% of the CapEx will be going on soft luggage while we see that the industry is moving more from soft to hard luggage. Our numbers also read the same thing. Any specific reason why we are expanding more on soft luggage instead of hard luggage?
So when you say soft luggage and hard luggage, it is the uprights, the suitcases that we are talking about. The other categories which are backpack, DF, DFTs, and also the part that we do for CSD which is outsourced, a lot of that is a capacity that when we insource, we will, one, get a benefit. The other is soft luggage, when I said it includes backpack and DFT.
Okay. Okay. It means that larger part of the 70% will go towards the backpacks and the DFTs?
Yes, you could put it like that. Yeah.
Okay. The next question is on the mid-premium, premium segment, right? As a percentage of case, it's still stagnant if I look at it over the last two years. And even though the international travel has fully opened up and we see the numbers coming back to pre-COVID levels, are there any specific reasons why mass category continues to outpace the premium, mid-premium segment?
Yeah. That is the unorganized sector which the organized sector is kind of getting its growth from. So as the unorganized sector gets into the organized, it is more into the value segment. So it has a far bigger pool of growth because of the shift. And therefore, what is more important to see would be the growth rate and not the mix between premium and value.
Okay. Okay. I understand that. And lastly, have you seen any impact of the heat wave in terms of demand during the first quarter of this year?
You mean to say as we speak now in this quarter?
Yeah. Any negative impact or any down because of the increase in heat wave?
No, there is nothing that we can correlate to the heat wave as of now on demand.
Sure. If I can squeeze in one more question regarding the fire incident, right? If I look at the last 10 years of history, this is the third fire incident. Are there any specific, I mean, difficult to comprehend any happened on our side why this has been happening frequently, and probably what we can expect from a company like V.I.P.?
Yeah. No, unfortunately, there is nothing common among them or neither in terms of the practices that we have. The factories have been built in the specifications of all fire safety and best practices currently that they are in almost all our factories and warehouses, right? So I could only say that these are unfortunate incidents which when we see, seems to have a common thread, but it does not.
That's very helpful. Thanks a lot. I appreciate the comment.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Manish Sonthalia from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks. I just wanted to understand what would be the peak revenue potential from this manufacturing KTEX?
Peak revenue potential? Well, one, we got to understand that this CapEx is not for this year or just the coming year, but because there are greenfield projects involved, so we have a perspective of the next three years including the current year, so FY2024, FY2025, and FY2026. But if we were to convert the CapEx that we are putting in right now, the peak that this CapEx and capacity can go is up to about INR 3,200 crores-INR 3,500 crores.
Okay. Thanks. That was the only question.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ajeet Kumar from Subhkam Ventures. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Good evening. A couple of questions. So you mentioned the next sector is expected to grow at around 15%+ for the next few years. Would we accommodate the market cap at 2024 and 2025?
See, in the hard luggage category, we would expect to grow faster than this part because this is the growth rate we are talking about largely in the luggage segment. So maybe we would always strive to gain shares. So maybe a few percentage points more is what we will target. But we are also looking at growth areas which are premium and growth areas which are international in the slightly mid-term to longer term. So overall, growth guidance could be ahead of 15% for sure.
Can it be like 20%-25%?
The ambition is to grow it at about 20%.
Okay. And so I just wanted to understand the maths of operating margins. I mean, in Q4, your gross margins were 58%, but operating margins were around 17% after adjusting to the Future Group provision. Now, for the next year, you are guiding for a similar operating margins of around 17%-18%, but with a lower gross margin of 52%-55%. So can you just explain that? I mean, are you expecting any operating leverage or lower other expenses? What will?
Yeah. This will be basically due to operating leverage. So the overrides will not grow in line with the revenue growth, and then benefits will get into the bottom line.
Okay. But what I recall was that earlier, you were guiding for some 93% kind of gross margins you were targeting. So that is still on course, or you're just trying to be conservative here, or you feel that 17%-18% is the normal margins?
The mix is changing, right?
Yeah. No, coming from where we are coming, it's good to be conservative and deliver better. But right now, if you ask us, yes, that's what we would like to say. But yes, internal ambition would be in the range of what you're saying.
Okay. Okay. And lastly, how is the export opportunity? What's the visibility there? I mean, earlier, you guys were talking to be dealing with Walmart and all those large commerce stores and overseas markets. So what's the status of KTEX, sir?
No, I think we had clarified a few calls back that somewhere this thought came into the conversation that we were looking at Walmart and OEM. That's not on the cards. I would like to clarify. But international business, more from a branded business point of view, is what we would want to do. I think we have taken initial steps, and it has worked very well for the last financial year. If you see even the contribution to the total business, it has grown. And internally, we know that we've done our highest ever in international business in FY23. FY24 also, we will continue to build again strong foundations.
When I say foundations, we are more looking at instead of expanding many markets, we are trying to go deeper into the markets that we are present in, looking at having more than a foothold, maybe a worthwhile market share in some of these markets and to invest in those markets to grow market share. That's the level one strategy. In the horizon too, as far as international business is concerned, we would then look at European and U.S. market but may not be in this financial year, FY 2024, but we will prep for that so that we could have a big growth impetus coming from international business in FY 2025.
Okay, sir. That's it, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Jigar Jani from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, in your presentation, you said manufacturing capacity will increase in FY23 to 250. Just to understand, is this only for the brownfield capex, or is this the greenfield expansion that will come online after this?
This is our own manufacturing which includes greenfield and brownfield. But this is not third-party. This is our own manufacturing numbers that we have put there on the presentation.
Also, this is expansion initiated. So basically, what will happen is some of the capacities will start the next year. For example, then we are building, and then finally, by the time the commercial production starts, it will be the next year, so which is FY25.
Okay. So by FY25, you expect to have this in place?
Correct.
Capacity getting operational will be in FY25. Yeah.
Staggered, so.
Understood. Could you highlight what is the current capacity utilization of the 1,400 capacity that you have?
Currently, the capacities are almost 100%.
Out of this 1,400, 80%?
Yeah, 1,400 because the 1,400 is not fully got.
Commissioned.
Commissioned as of now. That's why we had put these capacities. But going forward, we would have about 80%-85% capacity utilization is how we have built the capacity. The capacity plan is done keeping in mind 80%-85% utilization, and rest is headroom for peak seasons.
Understood. Okay. Understood. Got it. Thank you so much for your answers. Thanks.
Thank you. That was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Neetu Kashiramka from V.I.P. Industries Limited for closing comments.
Thanks, everyone, for joining this call. In case you have any other questions, you can comment. Thank you so much.