Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to the VIP Industries Limited Q1 FY 2022 earnings conference call. From the senior management we have with us today, Ms. Radhika Piramal, Executive Vice Chairman, Mr. Anindya Dutta, Managing Director, and Ms. Neetu Kashiramka, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Radhika Piramal, Executive Vice Chairman, VIP Industries Limited. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, Margaret. Thank you, everybody, for attending our call today. At the outset, let me say that it was a disappointing quarter, understandable within the second wave, but yet a very disappointing quarter. Originally we had budgeted for higher revenues before the second wave. We had started, you know, end of March, first of April, with a bit more optimism than what happened in April and May. So our revenues were half what we had hoped and planned for, and Q1, as we all know, is one of the largest quarters for both sales and profits in the luggage and travel industry. Having said that, having had a disappointing start of the year, there were some bright spots within Q1 that I would just like to emphasize. The first is that our new managing director, Mr. Anindya Dutta joined our company on the first of February.
And he has really settled in quickly and well, understood our industry and is taking positive actions on many fronts. The main, which you can see, is the improvement in our gross margins, which is the other silver lining. So with that, despite the very low revenues, we were able to turn a small profit. And with these gross margins, it gives me the confidence that as and when the demand resumes, as we think it will, and that has also been a pleasant surprise with the sort of how quickly the demand resumption has come back since the end of the second wave. So assuming demand comes back, we can actually look forward to a much better Q2, three, four with the gross margin profile that we have. So those are my very high-level comments.
Overall, a disappointing quarter in terms of our initial hopes, understandable in terms of the second wave, but a much better gross margin profile to see out the rest of the year. And with that, let me hand over to Anindya and Neetu, who will give you a much more level overview of Q1. Thank you. Anindya and Neetu, please go ahead.
Thank you, Radhika. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking out time and joining this conference call for our Q1 results. As Radhika said, the wave two did really hit us very, very hard. The impact was far worse than the wave one from a larger society and a country point of view. However, from a business point of view, while the impact was catastrophic, the pandemic was at its peak, but the silver lining is the recovery was much sharper. The different parts of the country, depending on the intensity of the pandemic, had varied intensity of lockdown, and there is some base level demand that continued. We also saw the airline passenger traffic demand dip significantly, but it showed much better resilience than the previous year, the similar time when wave one had hit.
Our revenues were in line with the demand that the industry did see, and our supply chain was able to meet the demand comparatively better than the immediate past. The fundamental developments in our supply chain, which are largely a higher proportion of own manufacturing, correction in pricing, correction in the channel mix and product mix, all that put together has started to show up in our gross margins. With continued strong control on our fixed costs, in the quarter, we were able to get our head above the water and profits are back to positive zone.
Just reiterating, reiterating some of the numbers that you would have in the presentation, our income from operations was INR 222 crore against INR 58 crore of Q1 of the previous financial year and INR 259 crore of the Q4, just the previous quarter of last year. Gross margin was at 51%. This is after netting off other income as compared to 44% in the previous quarter. So there is, there is a 700 basis point increase in, in gross margin. The EBITDA was at INR 27 crore and at 12%, it compares better than the sequential previous quarter, which was at 8% and a -3% of quarter one of previous financial year.
Overall profit for the period stands at INR 3 crore as against a loss of INR 4 crore in quarter four FY 2021 and a loss of INR 51 crore in the previous year, the same quarter. Going forward, we, we're quite optimistic on the demand. We feel as, as a country and as, as, as a business, we have learned to deal with the pandemic. There is a lot of talk about a wave three coming, but we would believe that it will be, even if it comes, it will be managed better, and it will have a sharper, even sharper recovery. We are striving to continue the progress and consolidate on all the projects that we are built, we are- that are underway to build operational efficiencies across the supply chain.
We are also progressing well on the development work on all the channel fronts that we are, we have been undertaking. In the coming quarters, we would also increase our aggression on demand-driving activations. We have a slew of new launches that are underway right now, and we are also increasing our investments in, in digital marketing and all other, demand-generating activations. With that, I would like to throw, the group open for questions, and would be happy to take the questions as it comes.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Anyone who would like to ask a question, please press star and one at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first 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 revenue side. Now, I understand that most sales channels have struggled in Q1 due to localized lockdowns as modern trade and retail trade were operating on restricted timings. Even e-com, for that matter, the sales for non-essential items was barred for some time period. But, despite this operating environment, our sales are only 15% lower than Q4 FY 2021. So, just wanted to know which channel actually did well for us this time around?
Okay. So, first of all, the localized part of the lockdown is what helped, so it was not uniform across the country, and therefore, there were parts of the country where general trade, modern trade was working, and it was at different points of time. So the challenge was to, you know, meet the demand where the demand is occurring during the quarter, and I think we did quite fine from that point of view. We saw, almost a reduction across channels compared to the previous quarter or previous lockdown situations during the wave one. But however, within that, relatively, e-commerce, which where was, was, you know, leading the charts in terms of able to sell during this pandemic, continued to play for us even in quarter one of this year.
Okay. And sir, as far as demand for mass products is concerned, it can be strong in the near to medium term, and in the opening remarks, you also mentioned that some launches are planned. So, if you can talk a bit more on that front, and also from a strategy standpoint, what steps are we taking to compete effectively in this segment of the market?
Sorry, can you either repeat the question once again, please?
My question was on the mass products segment, where demand can be strong in the near to medium term. So are we planning any new launches, or are we planning to expand our SKU in that segment? And also from a strategy standpoint, what steps are we taking to compete in this segment, which is hyper competitive in nature?
Okay. So yes, you're right, in the mass segment is what was getting a lot of tailwind during the constrained demand situation, largely coming from possibly more purposeful travel than a purposeful need, and therefore, the entry-level price points were getting little bit higher demand tailwind than others. So, keeping in mind, we have, we had done in the past and we continue to launch new products in the value segment, that's playing up, and largely it is fueled by e-commerce also. So we have out of the almost, you know, 20-25 new launches that we have, a good 1/3 of them are in the products are in the value range. So that's that play we are strengthening further.
In terms of an overall strategy, we, while the value segment is important, our stronghold is the mass premium and premium, so we're not neglecting that. In fact, we feel going forward as demand comes back to its normal levels, which means that all, all key drivers of demand starts playing out, which is weddings, which is, you know, more leisure holidays, international travel. When that happens, where we are very strong on is the premium and the mass premium segment. We will continue to come back, you know, we'll come back and play a hard game there. And, some of our new launches are also in the mass premium and in the premium zone that we have launched, and that is under the umbrella of VIP and Skybags.
So we intend to get back to what we were very strong at, before and play that aggressively while we do not compromise on the value segment.
Sure, sir. One last question. I just wanted to know whether there was any low-cost inventory liquidation that led to gross margin expansion in this quarter?
Gross margin expansion? Did you, sorry, reiterate it? Gross margin expansion, you said?
Yeah, yeah, 51%. And historically, I mean, if I look at FY 2021, we were far lower. So was there any low-cost inventory liquidation which happened?
On the contrary, if you were doing a lot of liquidation, gross margin would be lower. So therefore, this is not, it's not the case. While there is always a little bit of liquidation that we need to do whenever there is a very volatile situation of demand. But proportionally, that has gone down, and that was, has been a very conscious attempt, to make sure that our discounting and our liquidation-related discounting, lowers down in the future. We have a lot of that effect in the previous quarters, because of which our gross margins got impacted. And in the quarter one and going forward, we would have lesser contribution of, you know, liquidation and, and discount sale.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best.
You're welcome.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tejas Shah from Spark Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, team, and thanks for the opportunity. My first question pertaining to gross margin recovery. You spoke about that we made certain interventions to go back to pre-COVID level. So if you could speak about some of the steps that you would have taken to correct it so sharply on Q-over-Q basis and even on annual and pre-pandemic basis as well.
Right. Thank you, Tejas. So, yes, the recovery is what we were working on, and that's our rightful gross margin, where we are there now. What led to this was, one, which I was talking about, where we reduced the amount of discounts that we were selling our products on prior to this quarter. That led to a good part of the recovery. Along with this, there has been price increases that we took, which was partially covering though the RM and the commodity price increase that has happened, so that's also helped, which we couldn't do in the previous quarter, which we did. And did in this quarter, helped to take the GCs up. More importantly, the underlying benefit of manufacturing in Bangladesh and our own manufacturing has started to play up.
While it is not reached to its full potential, because even in Bangladesh, we didn't have, you know, continuous production. There were huge disruptions in quarter one in Bangladesh. But the fundamental advantage of own manufacturing and Bangladesh has started to show up, during this quarter. So these three, two, three factors has led to the comeback to the gross margins that we wanted.
So does it mean that Bangladesh share increases from around 50 will be at least the base in the post-pandemic era?
Yes, it will be. It will be in this range.
Okay. Second question pertaining to, in your opening remarks, I mean, you spoke about your wholesale demand recovery, despite having a very challenging quarter. So does it mean that July's early signs that you're getting from your pre-pandemic is very encouraging, and that's why you mentioned the recovery?
I don't understand the question.
Hello?
No, I think we'll. Let me just chime in here. This is Radhika. We'll comment on July when it comes to our Q2 result. Thank you.
Qualitatively, Radhika, also will help. I'm not clear.
I cannot comment on July at this time.
Sure, anyways. Lastly, do we have any live exposure to Future Retail Group and any provision made on that count?
So yes, we do have exposure on Future. We have been doing business with them. And we have made adequate provision, what we feel is required. And yes, there was a charge in this quarter as well on that account.
Okay. Okay. That's all from my side, and all the best. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhargav Buddhadev from Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, team, and, thank you for the opportunity. First of all, congratulations on, for a, very strong gross margin. To start with, on the Bangladesh bit, is it possible to quantify, what percentage of, sourcing, especially the soft luggage, is now from Bangladesh? And you mentioned that there were certain COVID disruptions. So essentially, what could be the runway, that we can expect, this to, increase during the subsequent quarters?
Sorry, he'll have to repeat the question. We are not able to follow what he's saying.
Not fully audible, actually.
Yeah. Can you hear me now?
Yes.
Yes.
So my first question is that how much of the sourcing was from Bangladesh in the first quarter, and what runway do you expect this to improve in the forthcoming quarters?
Okay. So, you know, we, we carry some inventory always. So for the quarter one, specifically, we haven't had any imports from China, specifically for this. Even if it is, it was a very thin slice. So to the extent, whatever we sold, was either from the inventory that we were carrying prior to that or whatever was manufactured in Bangladesh. And going forward, as I said in the, in the past, that, almost 90% of our production, of our sales will come from own production, which includes India, which is in Nashik and in Bangladesh, in the Bangladesh factories.
Okay. So this 90% in-house production, how much could that be in this particular quarter? Is it possible to quantify?
We are almost there, since there is hardly any China imports.
Okay. Secondly, in the presentation, you mentioned that 61% of the share is of soft luggage, and this is where possibly the cost savings will be when you outsource from Bangladesh. So here, again, will this be the trend in the near term, where the share of soft luggage will continue to remain high?
Yes, looks like that. This has been the kind of proportion, in fact, between hard and soft. On a different note, from a consumption point of view, hard luggage seems to be getting a better traction in the last few quarters, largely owing to pandemic. So the soft luggage to hard luggage share has been roughly there at around 65/35 in the past, and we could assume that, you know, from a overall consumption point of view, the ratio would more or less remain same. If at all, it may change for a few percentage point in favor of hard luggage.
Okay. And my last question is that you mentioned that you will take some steps in terms of demand generation. So, does that also mean that you will relook at hiring a few of the sales force, those who were laid off last year? Because that would also be very critical from a demand generation perspective.
So we from sales force that impacts demand generation, we haven't had much of a shaving there, and it is directly linked cost. So at best, it will be a promoter who stands in a store to sell, while we had some reduction during the peak of the pandemic last year, but about 20-30% of whatever we reduced. One, we reduced a thinner slice, and whatever we reduced had come back. And in fact, it won't go back to the same proportion, because I believe that there are many efficiencies there we can achieve. But we're not going to shy away from putting investments to drive demand going forward. But we are going to be very watchful about the efficiency of that investment that we put in.
Okay, thank you for your answers, and all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amandeep Singh from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. So firstly, in terms of recovery, the 1Q was at around 37% of pre-COVID. But will it be possible to indicate month-wise stack-up of recovery of 1Q versus the pre-COVID number?
Within the quarter?
Yeah, like, April, May and June was X, Y, Z percent of the pre-COVID. Will it be possible to share that?
We can't share monthly numbers, but what we can share is first 15 days of April was very good. From 15th April to 15th May was negligible, and then after 15th May, started improving.
It's not very relevant because the demand plays up in the offtake from the shelf, and our sales is more selling into the trade. So, it is not reflective of how really the demand happened on a weekly basis or a monthly basis.
Sure, that's helpful. So just as a follow-up of that, now, with few of the states announcing partial opening of schools, so what are your channel partners saying about on-ground uptake in backpacks demand, if any, or still it's early days?
You're right. It still seems like early days, but you're equally right that there is some bit of, you know, murmur there, where there seems to be there could be an impending demand coming. But right now, states are more talking about it. Very few schools have opened, and people are also going to be very watchful about, you know, getting into this fully. So I think it's too early to even comment on whether a demand from a school and therefore backpack will come in the near future.
Okay, thanks for that. And secondly, when we speak about 90% of the demand catering from in-house manufacturing, so is it fair to assume that now even VIP and Skybags brand would be manufactured in Bangladesh, versus only economy brands earlier?
You're absolutely right. We can't go to 90% without having VIP and Skybags range getting produced in-house.
And finally, you have been also speaking about the increase in OEM opportunities with Penney. And now, is there any update on it, or are you seeing China coming back as a supplier for global luggage brands? Any thoughts on that?
No, once again, I, I spoke about that in the previous call. It's too early, and there are many other centers in the world opening up for, for taking, you know, if, if China drops. So it is going to remain competitive, but at the right time, when, when we have catered enough to the India demand and we've got everything streamlined, we would look at opportunities which are in the OEM zone or on the OEM area.
Awesome. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Niket Shah from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a very good gross margin number. Just two questions. One, on if you can let me know, your market share on the e-commerce side and another backpack side, because most of the peer sets are very weak in backpack, unlike you guys, where you were very strong in backpacks. So just if you can help me with the market share number?
Backpack category currently is at a very, very, you know, low demand level, and therefore, market shares are not something that is extremely relevant.
Maybe pre-COVID level would be very helpful as well.
No, unfortunately, I won't have it ready for you to share that with you.
Okay.
But if you have beyond the number, if you have a question which I can help you with-
No, just, just on the e-commerce part of it, on the market share on e-commerce, that is it.
No, I'm sorry, e-commerce backpack specific number on market share. I would not have that information.
Okay. Perfect. Perfect. I'll come back in here. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bharat Chhoda from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. So basically, I just wanted to understand that we had a cost saving of around INR 180 crore in FY 2021. So how much would be sustainable in FY 2022 of that? Could you just elaborate on that anything?
50%. So we have mentioned that 50% of this is sustainable, which will be a part in the employee cost and balance in the other expense.
Employee and other expense?
Yes.
Okay, ma'am. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pritesh Chheda from Lucky Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Ma'am, we have surpassed the gross margins that we would have recorded, you know, before the pandemic, what we see in quarter one, and the reasons ascribed is also to higher insourcing. So, are these something which is sustainable or there is some product mix angle, which is also at play, which needs to be considered?
This is sustainable.
So, if I can answer, it is not based on product mix so much. I think today the gross margin is impacted by the raw material cost and the ocean freight. A large part of the raw material comes from China still, so the ocean freight has gone very high. So, the inflationary pressure will be there, but as a like-to-like comparison, fundamentally the advantage of, you know, own manufacturing would continue to be an advantage for us when we get to the levels that we're wanting to get to.
Okay, a simple math seems to suggest that, you know, if you're doing about 16% or 17% margin, let's say 15%-17% margin, pre-pandemic, and with INR 80 crore of cost saving and this 400 basis points- 300 basis point of gross margin, our EBITDA margin actually will start looking higher than 20%. Is this, a math which is, a comfortable math, or there is some, case of overestimation here?
Yeah, and that,
I think it is about 15%, 16% is a bit high. But the rest is. Neetu, will you comment on this?
Yeah, I'm in this.
So yeah, it is aspirational, and this is what we would love to have on our charts. But there will be, you know, while we get efficiency there on account of supply chain, we may want to increase our investments on consumers and to gain back share. So, you know, comment on EBITDA is not something that we can do going forward exactly, but we continue to be going strong on getting the benefit out of the operational efficiencies.
I missed on the earlier comment that starting level of 15%, 17% is high. So, so there are two numbers here. There was a 17% margin in 2020, and there was 13% margin before that, and, it's been a fairly volatile, margin profile for us for the last three, four years. So, if you could tell us what should be the starting number that we should look at?
See, we don't want to put a number to it, but if things are good, revenue comes back, then yes, we can definitely have better margins, more than whatever we have seen in the past.
Okay, ma'am. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. In your presentation, you have mentioned that the gross margin improvement is also a case of better product mix. Could you please throw some color on this as well as brand performance, which have seen better acceptance in the current market, and where your focus will be in the brand side? Which brands will you focus for this year and going forward?
So as I said, from a mix point of view, unfortunately, the previous year, large part of the focus was in the value end, which was the Aristocrat brand, because that's where the demand was playing out the most. But we are a multi-brand, and we straddle all the, you know, all the price buckets and equally in the value segment as well as in the mid-premium and premium segment. So we would have, b ecause we have three brands straddling the three zones, we would have the requisite focus on each one of the brand, and we will renew the focus and push behind the VIP and Skybags in coming quarters as the demand profile becomes more normal.
Okay. Um, t he cost inflation that we've seen in the raw material prices, is it fully reflected in the current cost of goods sold, or there is some headroom even, even today to recover?
It fully reflects the current cost situation on raw material and ocean freight reflects on our gross margin largely.
Okay. And it will be helpful if you throw some light on Caprese brand and the traction that we are seeing in this brand in this quarter and the year.
So we've had, I would say, a decent quarter for Caprese. We had the requisite stocks. The focus on Caprese brand is shifted a lot into the e-commerce to maintain consistency of supply to the demand that we are generating. So we're gonna focus, increase our focus on the e-commerce side for Caprese as a brand. And we are starting to manufacture Caprese also in Bangladesh. So to that extent, we would be trying and leveraging the Bangladesh cost advantage onto the brand. But it is for us to see how, you know, demand comes back, and that's-this is not the center of the plate right now in terms of our focus. But we are continuing our play in the Caprese segment.
Depending on demand profile and the overall situation, we will put more impetus behind Caprese going forward, in terms of bringing out new ranges, maybe more in the affordable segment, and therefore start playing more in the mass zone also in that, and leverage the Bangladesh cost advantage.
Okay. Any revenue targets that you would like to give for Caprese over the next three to five years, Caprese or Skybags or Aristocrat? Aristocrat, largely because mass segment is gaining a lot of traction currently, and maybe it will remain in focus for some time now.
No, I think it's, it's too early to start talking numbers at a brand level and at a segment level. I think it's important for us to get a sense of where, you know, when normalcy happen, and first we have to come back to the kind of mix that we had. And from then we would be able to aim beyond that and understand the full-fledged, if there is any change in terms of, you know, trend that we are seeing from value segment to a premium segment.
Sure, sir. Thanks for detailed answers. All the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikunj Gala from Principal Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, everyone. So my first question is with respect to the working capital. So going forward, do you see any structural change in the terms of trade or, you know, what kind of a number you are working with?
So we have made some changes in the working capital. It has improved, but as we move along and the business revives, it is further going to improve.
My question is, what kind of a normal, a normalized working capital days you are looking forward? Whether it would come back to the original level, or from there you can see further improvement in the coming years.
We should have an improvement of 30 days-40 days from where we used to be.
Okay, sure. Okay, and my second question is with respect to your, you know, treasury management. When I see your current investment in your annual report, so just want to understand the philosophy, because in the last, you know, year, where we are, we were able to, you know, release, good cash on account of, you know, working capital. So, you know, when you are, investing in the short-term papers, so what kind of philosophy, you know, you use to invest, into the short-term papers or any kind of, you know, investments?
So, AAA and so, safety is the utmost important when we are investing, so we only invest in AAA papers.
Okay. Okay, sure. Yeah, yeah, thanks.
Okay.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question at this time. The next question is from the line of Ankit Kanodia from Smart Sync Services. Please go ahead.
Thanks. I would like to know a little bit about the difference between the competitors or the situation in the unorganized sector, compared to what we are in. I mean, we are in the organized segment. Assuming that the pandemic has been so difficult for us, so it would, I would assume that it would be far more difficult, and some of our channel checks say that they are having a much more difficult time. So what is your view on that? If you can throw some color on that, that would be great.
So I would also assume that our level of difficulty is similar to, or they are also facing the same level of disruptions and difficulty, in fact, more, because it's not so easy to bring in products from outside, right now in terms of cost point of view. So to that extent, we have to now see how things unfold going forward. At this stage, it is quite volatile to comment on whether there will be a demand spike for organized sector. But currently, there are pointers which says, which tells us that it's possible that the shift from unorganized to organized could be faster going forward, but it's speculative to that extent right now. The situation is very volatile.
We'll have to see how things stabilize in the next two to three quarters at least.
Sure. And my next question would be related to the, to the airline, traveling, travel and demand. One of a celebrated investor, he has recently openly shared about his plans of starting a new airline company, and where he talks about, he's seeing a, a lot of airline demand. What is our house view on the demand coming back? Any color or any numbers on that, it would be really helpful.
As we say.
From a long-term point of view, I'm not talking from next quarter or something like that. From a long-term point of view, say, 2, 3 years from here.
I, I would tend to agree with, and that's what I said, that, overall, quite optimistic about the long-term, future of the, of the category, of the travel industry and related products, which we are one of the strong, players in that. So overall, India would, as situation normalizes worldwide and, and India gets back to its growth, trajectory, this is an area which will get significantly fueled, you know, with increasing money in people's hand, travel, vacation, leisure, and celebrations and all that is, is bound to increase. So I, I remain quite confident about that.
Okay. And, sir, based on our recent strategy in terms of expanding our Bangladesh operation a little more compared to the last few years, if the situation normalizes, are we going to go back to the China import thing, or we are not going back there at all? I mean, what would be our stand there?
As I said, the strategy is to do in-house production, whether it is Bangladesh, whether it is India. So therefore, we would not want to import from China because we cannot manufacture, right? So if there is at all any, any kind of import ever happens, it could be a very small section or some specialized products. But largely, the strategy is to do in-house production. And therefore, whatever it is needed to, to do that, whether it is in Bangladesh or in India, we will continue to invest and grow ourselves on that account.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Niket Shah from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, again for the follow-up opportunity. Just two questions. One, Neetu, ma'am, you highlighted there was a charge for Future Retail in this quarter. Could you quantify that? And the second question is, on the exports part of the business, while when we speak to most of your peers sets in the listed and unlisted space, they seem to be extremely aggressive on the export opportunity. Any specific reason why we are not going aggressive at this point in time, on the export part of the business?
You want to take the first one?
Yeah, the first question, INR 3 crore in this quarter.
Okay, thanks.
Yeah, on the exports part, it's not that we're not working on that or we're not exporting. I think we had a good amount of export business. Like in the domestic business, the first task there is to get back to where we were, and that work is continuing with the international business team they're doing. But a large part of the, you know, strategic development focus that we have is more in India, in getting the largest part of the demand going, as well as the, you know, the operations and supply chain part in the immediate future. That's the prime focus.
Got it. Got it. And, you know, whatever loss of sales we would have because of Future Group as such, is it possible for you to guide us at how do we compensate for that sales? I mean, is there other channels? So e-commerce is obviously coming, but other, other players within the same segment where you would have increased your share?
So yes, there was a bit of disruption, but overall, you know, the particular banner you're talking about has resumed, and the base level demand that we are seeing, other channels continued there. However, you know, our approach is to continue looking at each account and looking at how do we increase our share within the account. And to that extent, we are, you know, aggressively pushing all the partners and the banners and chains that we have. So it's not one versus the other, but it's an overall channel development that we are looking at.
We are making sure that if there is a drop of consumption from one particular banner to other, we stand to gain directly because we will, we want to maintain our share or grow our share within a particular store or within a particular chain of stores.
Got it. And one final question is any thoughts of M&A? I mean, I obviously understand that things have been extremely bad for us, but it obviously means that the company like VIP, which is very reasonably much stronger balance sheet than most of the other unlisted players. Any thoughts on acquiring some smaller companies within this category, given the challenging times or we are not looking at that option?
No, I'm sorry, there's nothing that we can discuss on those lines right now. And maybe at a later date, we could, i f there are some developments there, we'll come back to this forum.
Got it. Thank you, sir, and I'll come back in soon.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Actually, I had the same question with respect to unorganized players as previous participant asked. We're hearing that the unorganized players are finding it extremely difficult to import from China due to this cost inflation, and with cost inflation of raw material as well as the sea freight, and hence India and other countries are becoming much more competitive to supply. Do you think this is creating opportunities for us because we have our own manufacturing facility? And as a previous participant asked on the export front, this could be an opportune time maybe to you know, leverage on our assets that we have built in over the last so many years.
So I would agree to what you're saying. Our approach here would be to build our capability and our, you know, manufacturing capacity and the headroom, and as and when the demand comes, and what you're saying, we are also observing or hearing the same, but we are yet to witness that level of demand coming because of the shift from unorganized to organized. But more importantly, I think it is about getting ready with our ability to manufacture and having the headroom in our capacity to cater to that demand. That is something that we are working on as we speak.
As I said in the previous question, exports and international business is definitely an opportunity that we would be eyeing, but current immediate focus, short-term focus, would be to first cater and get back within the domestic market, get back to the levels that we were before.
Sir, a follow-up on this. How are the inquiries from different countries who want to source from alternative China sources?
No, I don't think there is much, because there is also, you know, opening up that's going on there. And as things stabilizes more, while they are ahead of India in terms of the pandemic and getting over that, but I don't think there are very aggressive inquiries that are coming our way, at this point of time.
Okay, thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Neetu Kashiramka from VIP Industries Limited for closing comments.
So to sum up, I can say that as an organization, we are doing every bit to make the company future-ready. As and when the demand is there, we should be able to capitalize and move on. So I would like to thank everyone again to join this call, and if anybody has any further clarity required, please feel free to call me anytime. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of VIP Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.