Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Welspun Living Q3 FY26 earnings conference call, hosted by JM Financial. 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 and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ashutosh Somani from JM Financial. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thanks, operator, and welcome everyone to the call. I will first thank Welspun Living for giving JM Financial the opportunity to host today's call. Without much ado, I'll hand over the call to Ms. Bharti Agarwal, Lead Investor Relations, Welspun Living, to introduce the management. Over to you, Bharti.
Thank you, Ashutosh, and good evening, everyone. On behalf of Welspun Living Limited, I would like to welcome you all to the company's third quarter FY 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Ms. Dipali Goenka, Managing Director and CEO, and Mr. Manish Bansal, Chief Financial Officer. We hope you have had the opportunity to review the earnings presentation, which has been filed with the stock exchanges today and is also available on our website. During the course of today's discussion, we may make references from this presentation. As usual, we will begin with opening remarks from the management, following which we will open the floor for a Q&A session. Should you have any additional questions after the call, please feel free to reach out to us. With that, I would now like to hand over the call to Ms. Dipali Goenka.
Over to you, ma'am.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Welspun Living's Q3 FY 2026 earnings call. Q3 FY 2026 unfolded in an operating environment that remained challenging and largely unchanged. Persistent U.S. tariff headwinds, muted discretionary demand, and cautious retailer buying continued to weigh on demand visibility and volumes across export markets. However, as we close the quarter, the global trade landscape for India has shifted decisively, and this marks a structural inflection for Indian manufacturing and exports. Over the last few months, India has concluded a series of landmark trade agreements, including the India-U.S. trade agreement, the India-E.U. free trade agreement, and the India-U.K. FTA, alongside early agreements with markets such as Japan and Australia.
Together, these FTAs significantly expand India's market access across the world's largest consumption pools, materially improve tariff competitiveness, and reinforce India's position as a preferred long-term sourcing destination for global retailers. This shift is not about an immediate demand rebound over the next quarter or two. Rather, it meaningfully improves visibility, competitiveness, and confidence for global customers planning their sourcing strategies over the next several years. The India-U.S. trade agreement removes a key overhang. The rollback of punitive tariffs, including the removal of the Russian oil-linked levy and a favorable reciprocal tariff framework, potentially around 18%, restores India's competitiveness versus the peer sourcing nations. Europe, in particular, represents a major structural opportunity. The EU is the world's second-largest economy and a $260 billion annual importer of textiles and apparel. While India's current exports are only $7 billion, highlighting significant headroom.
For Welspun Living, this is not a new market. We already have established relationships and an operating presence. The India-EU FTA materially improves our competitiveness, strengthens market access, and enhances long-term demand visibility in a large, high-value, sustainability-focused region, creating a multi-year growth runway across home textiles, flooring, and advanced textiles. From a portfolio perspective, the combination of India-U.S., India-EU, and India-U.K. agreements reduces concentration risk and supports a more balanced growth profile. With nearly 40% of our business already outside the U.S., we are well positioned to participate in this next phase of global sourcing normalization. As we move ahead, our strategy remains unchanged: stay close to customers, exercise cost discipline, invest in innovation and sustainability, and emerge stronger. Turning to performance highlights for the quarter.
Against this backdrop, consolidated revenue declined 9.9% year-on-year, while EBITDA margin improved sequentially to 7.7%, expanded 80 basis points quarter-on-quarter, driven by sustained cost actions despite elevated tariff pressures and adverse mix. Our core home textile exports declined 8.9% year-on-year, reflecting the residual impact of tariff-related disruptions, cautious retail behavior, and muted discretionary demand in the U.S., our largest market. While recent data indicates a modest, broad-based improvement in U.S. consumer sentiments in-store holiday season sales for home products, it declined 3%, and overall confidence remains 20% lower than last year's levels. That said. With India's tariff competitiveness now improving across product categories, we believe the foundation is firmly in place for a gradual recovery in volumes, with India and scale partners like Welspun well-positioned to gain share as sourcing normalizes.
We continue to expand our presence in higher value categories, such as utility bedding, fashion, and pillows, underpinned by strong innovation capabilities. Our Jacquard facility further reinforces our leadership in premium terry towels globally. Our onshore Ohio pillow facility is ramping up well, with revenues already 2x Y-on-Y, and we remain on track to double pillow business this fiscal year, alongside preparations for the Nevada expansion. Christy, our luxury heritage brand, sustained strong momentum in Q3 with 31% Y-on-Y revenue growth, driven by continued U.K. strength, ongoing Middle East market entry, and strengthening U.S. performance. Performance was further supported by U.K. repeat customer growth of 64% Y-on-Y, strong U.S. marketplace performance, and rising demand across core and premium bedding. Our domestic consumer business recorded INR 185 crores. It grew 4.7% Y-on-Y.
Our B2C home textile segment delivered 6.4% growth this quarter on the back of strong performance in general trade and modern trade over a festive base last year. Our Welspun and Spaces brand is well positioned to capture India's next phase of consumption-led growth. In addition, India's expanding religious tourism and pilgrimage infrastructure is creating incremental demand for institutional home textiles, adding a steady growth avenue. Our domestic flooring business continues to perform well. It grew 14% Y-on-Y, driven by housing, hospitality, and institutional demand. Our global flooring business declined 29.2% Y-on-Y amid tariff headwinds. However, we see significant potential in soft floorings. Our area rugs delivered a strong double-digit growth this quarter, and upcoming FTAs are expected to further enhance our competitiveness in global markets across product categories.
Our advanced textiles business declined 20.9% Y-on-Y to INR 104 crore, impacted by softer global demand. With upcoming FTAs, the medium-term outlook for this business remains highly promising across all geographies. At Welspun Living, innovation and sustainability are deeply integrated into how we design products, run operations, and build long-term competitiveness. Backed by an IP portfolio of over 48 patents, our innovation-led offerings enable premium positioning and agility, with innovation accounting for 20% of revenues. Proprietary platforms like HYGROCOTTON, GX Pillow, and WelTrack continue to drive value across categories, reinforcing our leadership in innovation-led growth. This quarter, our sustainability moat received strong external validation. Welspun Living ranks number one globally in textile, apparel, and luxury goods category, with a score of 90 in 2025 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment.
Together, our innovation depth and sustainability leadership create a powerful defensible moat, strengthening customer trust, enabling premiumization, and positioning us to emerge stronger as markets normalize. As we look ahead, India's expanding FTA network and global sourcing realignments open up a significant multi-year growth opportunity. Our focused efforts on cost optimization, faster time to market, and operational excellence continues with unwavering rigor, placing us in a stronger position with each step. We are ready not just to meet this moment, but to rise with it. With that, I will now hand over to Manish to take you through the financial performance for the quarter. Over to you, Manish.
Thank you, Dipali, and good evening, everyone. I will briefly walk you through our financial performance for Q3 FY2026. During the quarter, we reported consolidated revenue of INR 2,277 crore, down 9.9% year-on-year, reflecting continued pressure on volume amid a challenging external environment. That said, the most important financial takeaway this quarter is resilience of our operating model. Despite elevated tariffs, mixed pressure, and muted demand, EBITDA margin expanded sequentially by 80 basis points to 7.7%, demonstrating the tangible impact of sustainable cost actions, operating discipline across the business. While margins are lower on a year-on-year basis, it is important to note that this sequential improvement has been achieved in one of the most challenging operating environments, underscoring the structural work done on overhead, rationalization, sourcing optimization, and plant productivity.
These actions are helping offset tariff-led pressure and adverse mix, even as we continue to benefit from favorable Forex realization. Profit after tax, before exceptional item for the quarter is at INR 21.5 crore. That said, this quarter demonstrate our ability to generate cash even in a down cycle through working capital discipline. Our free cash flow improved meaningfully to INR 395 crore, compared to INR 112 crore in FY 2025. This reflects tighter working capital discipline across business. As a result, cash conversion cycle improved to 88 days versus last fiscal year, demonstrating stronger operating control despite the volatile demand environment. Our net debt stood at INR 1,332 crore in December 2025, versus INR 1,570 crore as on thirtieth September 2025, lower by INR 238 crore.
We are progressing on cost rationalization, procurement optimization, and plant productivity improvements, supported by automation and digitalization initiatives. These actions are helping us improve resilience and predict profitability, even as external pressures persist. Capital allocation remain disciplined. Our CapEx continue to be directed towards productivity enhancement, sustainability initiatives, and selective growth opportunities, aligned with our long-term competitiveness rather than volume-led expansion. CapEx during this quarter was INR 139 crores, primarily towards efficiency enhancement and our ongoing transmission line projects. Going forward, our focus remain on driving cost efficiencies, improving mix, strengthening cash flows, and accelerating diversification across market and categories. With this, I will now leave the floor open for the question and answers. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touchtone phone. 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. Again, to register for a question, please press star and then one. Our first question comes from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from Elara Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on numbers in this difficult time. My first question is to understand the global tariff scenario now, the U.S. tariff scenario. What is the current scenario and, is the thing about cotton, U.S. cotton being used, so, you know, tariffs will be zero materialized, or how do you see it, coming in?
So, hi, Prerna.
Hi, ma'am.
So, first of all, as you know, about our U.S. tariffs, we saw the 25% punitive tariff go. 18% should be done in the near future. When you even talk about now, looking at India, with the 18%, it will become the most competitive. I know there are conversations about Bangladesh that are coming to the fore, and let me put that on the table and address that as well. Here, the conversations are the same that are going to be applicable for India as well, which are right now happening, and it might, it's a little ambiguous, but we'll hear in the next near term. So, definitely for us, with U.S., where we are at 18%, we will also be as competitive as the peers.
When you talk about U.S. cotton, the interesting thing is it's not 0%, because when you talk about towels, 50% is your cotton content, right? And when you talk about sheets, it's around 30%-35%. So it is according to that, that you look at the kind of, you know, the cotton that is grown in USA, getting that benefited and upside. However, as we go forward, more and more clarity will come in the reciprocal tariff of United States of America. And as we speak, we already know that U.K. FTA is done last year, and we will see that coming in the next two quarters. And the Europe FTA being done, which earlier, actually, the FTAs in, these kind of, you know, were cost arbitrage.
But now we are talking about growth as a kind of opportunity, and we'll have—we'll see that coming in the next year.
Understood, ma'am. So, ma'am, at 18%, even if we assume that the cotton thing is not happening, at 18%, how will be the sharing of tariffs be between the customers and us, going forward? And can we assume return to normal margins from Q4... Q1, because Q4 is almost half done. From Q1, can we assume return to near normal margins for, for you?
So I'll tell you one thing, Prerna. One thing, let me be clear. When we talk about these FTAs and 18% and the others, there is a partnership that you have with the retailers, right? Even in these toughest times, we actually worked on sharing a little burden, right? So there'll be that opportunity that will, that will come in. And quarter four, anyway, I've already, already spoken about. See, February is already gone by.
Yeah.
There are still a lot of conversations to happen. The year will go by.
Mm-hmm.
So quarter four still will be in that kind of a thing. But as we go forward in quarter one, we will see a continuous upside coming in. And so I just want to make it very clear, when these kind of implications happen, there's a lot of conversations there that will happen between the customers, because these partnerships are more than over two decades. And we are the most competitive. So this will be same applicable to all the countries as well.
Okay. So-
Yeah.
Understood. So it will still take some time for normal margins to kick in, even in FY 27, is where, how we should look at it?
It will gradually pan out in quarter one, and as we go forward, Prerna, it takes time...
Okay.
- because the orders come in. You know how, how this whole pans out? See, we're already sitting in February. Quarter four is nearly over... and the quarter one just backed up, right? So it will take time, but yes, it will happen as a gradual upside, quarter-on-quarter. Yeah.
Okay. Understood, ma'am. Ma'am, on domestic business, how is the demand scenario now, and what kind of uptick we are seeing in the domestic market?
So, you know, with the GST reforms, we see a huge opportunity here. And, for the next year, the next financial year, we'll definitely see kind of a growth that we are targeting that over 20-25%. And that is something that we are absolutely geared up for our brand Spaces and Welspun in India.
Understood. Understood. I'll come back to the question to you, ma'am, for further questions. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you, Prerna. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Shraddha Agarwal from Asian Market Securities. Please go ahead.
India, hi. Congratulations to the team on a good quarter. Dipali, two questions.
Yeah.
First is, now that India has signed, I mean, tariff is 18% plus, you've signed FTAs with UK and EU. So how should we look at CapEx plans going ahead, which we had stalled for the time being, given there was so much uncertainty?
So hi, Shraddha. The thing is that, you know, we already have invested in towels, if you know about our Jacquard facility. And, you know, we are already working on a fashion, fashion bedding and also the pillows. So I think Shraddha, it's completely geared up in the terms of capacity utilization. So the focus, the focus this time is going to be to sweat our assets, because the opportunity is humongous. Because not only with just 18%, you know, on India, on the tariff in U.S., with the U.K., you know, Europe, now Japan, Australia, you know, the ROW, Japan. You know, the other opportunities that we see here are going to open up more doors for all our categories that we do.
That is our bath, bedding, flooring, and advanced textile as well.
That said, I was more talking about the INR 700 crore CapEx that we had outlined earlier, the phase two, which was to be split between 2026 and 2027 in terms of capacity into spinning and bath and bed all coming through. So I'm talking about that CapEx plan. Where do we stand on that now?
Yes. Hi, Shraddha, Manish here.
Mm-hmm.
So yes, so we are on track on our CapEx, whatever which was agreed, but we are not planning any additional capacity for taking care of any future business. That whatever planned capacity or CapEx we have done, it will be enough to take care of future demand. And maybe after two years, we will review how it looks like.
With the kind of capacity that we have for Jacquards and, you know, we have become one of the largest capacities in the world for towels. Also.
Right. So we are on track to do that, spinning capacity expansion of 40 tons per day, as well as 3,600 tons per annum capacity on the terry side?
That's already on track. That's already on track and already started. Yeah.
Okay. Secondly, on the flooring business, ma'am, I mean, we-
Yeah
... have been facing some pressure on that portfolio for some time now.
Yeah.
In between, there was a decision that we might look to, you know, rationalize our hard flooring sub-segment. Any decision that has been taken, or how should we look at the flooring portfolio going ahead?
So, Shraddha, let me tell you, I haven't been more positive about this business than ever. I can tell you that really very categorically. With the kind of opportunity that we are seeing now with Europe, UK, and rest of the world, our soft flooring business has a massive uptake, and we will see that gradually pan out. You know, with a year or two here and there, our top line will also come through, and our margins will also get... You know, will turn around. This is something which we are seeing coming in the very near future as well.
Right. So we continue with both the sections in our flooring, both the sub-segments, hard flooring and soft flooring?
So, we will, we basically the thrust will be more on the soft flooring, and hard flooring will pan out gradually. Yeah.
Right. Sure, this is helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Bhavin Chheda from Enam Holdings. Please go ahead.
Yeah, congrats to the entire team. Really good results in the environment we are in. Just to carry on the question of the floorings first, if you can update, because after the tariff, there had been U.S. business got impacted in flooring.
Yeah.
So what was the tariff for India on flooring versus competition, where we lost market share? And after the current trade deal, what is the tariff scenario of flooring? And, ma'am, you spoke about the opportunity in Europe also for flooring. So how does the competitive positioning in the flooring space change post recent tariff announcement? If you can update more on that.
Yeah. Yes, sure. So now when you, when you talk about flooring, we are competing with China, we are competing with Vietnam, we are competing with Turkey, right? And Egypt. So if you're talking about these countries, they were very, very competitive. And now with this opportunity that we have, we definitely have an upside. And, so that actually gives us an opportunity, not only in U.S., but in U.K. and EU also, there's an opportunity. The other interesting thing, and you must be knowing it absolutely, that GCC again, is on track for being, you know, having the FTA there, too. So that is very interesting. Australia, we already have an opportunity, Australia and New Zealand. So these are other countries that we will see an upside coming in.
The focus is, we'll see a massive upside on soft flooring, which is the bigger part of the flooring portfolio.
Sure. Secondly, on the advanced textiles-
Yes, yeah.
The utilization has seen a fall as compared to—
Yes
- even quarter two. So, any specific reason, where-
Yeah
the demand slowdown happened?
So the demand slowdown definitely happened. See, now with this kind of tariff implication that we had, we had become completely unviable for countries like United States of America, even for Europe and other, other countries as well. Having said that, now we see an opportunity opening up again, and these opportunities will not only come in for spunlace, which is just commodity, but needle punch, where we created innovative products and also in wet wipes and the other dry, dry wipes and the other categories that we are working on. So, you know, there again is an opportunity to grow this category by 20%, and with strong double-digit margin as well.
Sure.
Nearing twenty.
Yeah, sure. The last one on how much was the U.S. cotton in your overall cotton mix in the quarter and nine months?
So this actually started post the third quarter. In the second quarter onwards. We started seeing U.S. cotton in the second quarter. And it actually depends on the programs and the program mix that we do, honestly. So, and specifically, basically in the bath category, we have seen that coming in as an upswing and mainly also in the second and then in the third quarter.
Can you please share the percentage number? How much, maybe 20-30%?
That actually cannot be-
The overall-
I just cannot share that, actually. Yeah, yeah.
Okay, no problem. No problem. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Sunny Visha from Axis Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. So I just want to understand, depending on the last call that you had and the guidance that you had given, we were expecting the trend or rather the decline to be similar to earlier quarter. But as a matter of fact, it has been not that bad. So I just want to understand what went better than expectation, because I think we were expecting a double-digit decline in the revenues. So what went well or better than expected? And does that mean that we may do even better in Q4? So I think the tariff impact is not there. I mean, the positive impact of tariff is not there. Still, we are able to recoup some growth. So I just want to understand what changed this now?
Hi, Sunny. Manish here. So thank you for your question. So yes, you're right, you know, I, I... It is, the results are better than expectations, and there are a couple of reasons for this. And, you know, as during last call, we have mentioned very categorically that we are going to work on various field in term of managing our cost, cost optimization, improve our plant efficiencies, et cetera. And that has actually given us some results in term of performance results. And we are able to, you know, absorb the cost or hit of the tariff in these activities. And there are, you know, some Forex gain also there, and that has actually helped us to mitigate some of other tariff impacts. So that's the reason we actually able to deliver better numbers.
Okay. So even on the revenue growth terms, I think we are doing better than expected. Especially, I think domestic business has sure started showing signs of a good sustainable growth. So do you think that we can expect further traction in domestic and overall revenue growth, where do you expect to end for the full year now?
Yes, you're right. We are expecting growth in domestic business, and that is a continuous focus area for us, and we will continue to do that. Probably we will be able to share the updates in some time.
Okay, great. I'll wait for that. Congratulations on your growth. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Ashutosh Somani. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question.
Hi.
Dipali, while you have stated that a lot of clarity is yet to emerge on how the U.S. cotton benefits will flow through for Bangladesh-
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Just want to understand some two parts of this equation. One is: What does the U.S. cotton usage do to the unit economics of our product? Okay. And secondly, how high can the usage be in percentage terms in a product category? What is the highest number you can think of? The context of this question is that the number doing the rounds for Bangladesh is 70%. So 70% usage of cotton, U.S. cotton in a product, makes them eligible for zero tariff. So in that context, just wanted to understand two things from you. One is, is it even viable to have unit economics in your favor after using 70% U.S. cotton, setting in Bangladesh or India?
The second is, can we actually go as high as 70% in any of the product categories?
Go ahead, Ashutosh. Sorry, Ashutosh.
No, thanks. I said you can continue. Thanks.
Yeah. So, first of all, let me tell you, like for our towels, we know that it can't go beyond 50%. In sheets, it can't go beyond 30%-35%. Similarly, it's applicable to all the categories. So maybe apparel could be maybe 10%, here and there more. That is the unit economics that we can talk about. However, even in the elements that you know about Bangladesh deal, let me also clarify, there's going to be a quota about the goods that are going to be exported out of this cotton, because Bangladesh doesn't grow any cotton. They anyway import cotton, right? So they'll be importing more U.S. cotton. But that is going to be, again, having a quota. Then the other, the rest of it will have that 19%.
Similar deal is what the government has been talking here for India as well. So that I also, I just want to table. So people can say 70%-80%, as I know very well, right now for my products, this is where the cotton consumption remains.
Sure, Dipali, this is very helpful. The other question is, you know, are we, you know, from the outside, it looks like it's a great time to be in textiles with the, you know, the addressable market size increasing manifold from a 3- to 5-year perspective. UK FTA will be ratified at some point in time, EU FTA maybe after 6- to 8 months of UK. And then you have the-
Mm-hmm.
You know, these issues with U.S. has been resolved and new markets, Oceania, Middle East. So are we, like, now comfortable from a five-year perspective to report high double-digit revenue growth sitting here in India?
So, while this all looks very good, and we are actually geared up to do what it takes to achieve the numbers of growth and, you know, even margins. But, Ashutosh, it will all now be seen. Like, if I look at it, U.S. will happen in next year, this year only. U.K. will happen in the next couple of quarters. We will definitely see that upside happening. But there would be other elements that we should be even looking at in the terms of this dynamic environment. But, Ashutosh, just to give you a perspective, we are feeling very positive about the kind of upswing we'll have in this business.
Very helpful, Dipali. Thank you. Yeah.
Thank you, Ashutosh. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Aradhana Jain from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand, given that now the U.S. market seems more favorable to us, so from E.U. perspective, what are the growth drivers that we feel that E.U. can bring to us? Because the reason I'm asking is that if I consider the FTA, before that, the tariffs were—the rate was around 9%-10%, right? So the incremental benefit that we get, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is from the aspect of that 9%-10% going away. But my understanding is that from home textile perspective, U.S. is much larger market, and for us, that remains. So from E.U. perspective, what exactly now changes besides the rate changing? So is the market more favorable for home textiles?
Like, from a macro perspective, wanted to get your thoughts on the home textiles space in the EU market, and how are we going to tackle it? Is there going to be a different strategy for the EU market? And what kind of growth can we expect from that market, not maybe in the near term, but over a period of time? Yeah, that's my question.
Thank you. You know, thank you. That's a very interesting question and very, very valid as well. So, as I spoke in my, you know, opening remarks, that EU is the world's second-largest economy, and the—it is at around USD, it imports around $260+ billion of textile and apparel. And India's only current export is $7 billion. So the important aspect is that the other countries, like you can imagine, Pakistan, Bangladesh, have kind of an upside on this. While at Welspun, we already are present in 27 countries, but, and across all the categories, this will give us a mega, mega boost in the terms of being competitive with the countries like this. The important thing you spoke about being the largest market, the U.S., of course, is the largest market.
Europe being the second largest, it is a fragmented market. But having said that, the opportunities are definitely huge. For us, there are certain retailers we've seen that we're doing very well, and these are mass retailers who have a span of around 2,000 stores, and they're opening a store every day. The opportunity here, even with our Disney presence that we have, we are not only present, you know, penetrated in the West Europe, but also in the East Europe. So with us, the base is set. Along with this, not just the retail play presence, we also have a hospitality presence now in the U.K. and Europe, and this is going to continue to grow for us at Welspun, too.
In terms of growth, how much growth do we expect this new market to, not new market, but the EU market to, bring to us maybe in the next 2-3 years' time?
So let me tell you, in our portfolio right now, America used to be around 70%. Now it is around 65%. Our portfolio will grow as a pie, where we, we are right now at 40% with Europe and, yeah, you know, rest of the world. This will again increase another 10% of the pie. So we want to continue to grow this market. This is what I can say as, as of now today.
Understood. My second question is on the FTA with Bangladesh. Now, there are a lot of apprehensions, talks around, you know, whether the reduction in the rate that has happened in Bangladesh from 20% to 19%, while it is obviously favorable for them, but the additional clause of, you know, the, the, the clause that they might be also eligible for 0% for selective cases. Do you, from your perspective, do you really think that's going to be a value add for them, given that there are talks that if you import from U.S., your logistics costs and a lot of other working capital requirement increases?
Yes. Yeah.
So from that perspective, how do you look at this deal that has come through from a 0% tariff? Because you also said that we are, we could also be eligible for that, right?
Yeah.
So-
Yeah, yeah.
So, if we, if tomorrow we are eligible, will it really help us, to, you know, get to that 0% and from cost perspective, is it viable or not? Is what I wanted to know.
First of all, first of all, let me clarify one thing on this deal that is happening with Bangladesh, and it's still going on as a conversation where the quotas are there. So there'll be a certain quota that will be on, on the country, and then the rest will be on 19%. And similar thing has been work out, worked out for India. That is continuing. There's a conversation happening there, too. So we will have to see how this pan out, pans out. For Bangladesh, getting a U.S. cotton to make... You see, U.S.--Bangladesh doesn't grow any cotton. Anyway, it was importing from India. Now they'll import it from United States of America. So anyway, that was one thing that they were already doing. So that was the cost they were anyway incurring.
But this, it is also the quota that is going to be a very interesting opportunity where they are looking at, but the rest will be at 19% only. Now, if you look at Bangladesh, it is better upside for apparel, and, I mean, their inflation has also caught on with them as a country. So we'll see how this pans out going forward. But let me be very, and I think we should be confident as a country where with this 18%, we are far more competitive, not only in the terms of the tariff, but in the terms of being a stable democracy, with cotton having that next door, with a strong infrastructure and a backend with MSMEs as well. So I think, as a country, India, we should be very confident about, you know, this opportunity that we have.
In terms of raw materials, how much percentage of our raw materials would be cotton and the rest of, say, MMF fiber for us?
See, mostly for our home textiles, it is 100% cotton, and for our flooring, that's where we have the man-made fiber. So that it just is that much, and along with our advanced textiles, where you have others like viscose as well. So that actually makes around in the portfolio around 10%-15% of our, you know, inputs of MSME-
Right.
These man-made fibers.
Is it fair to assume that most of the cotton we are procuring from India itself?
70% of our cotton comes in from India, and the rest comes in from the different parts of the world. Yeah.
Understood. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you, Radha. Thank you.
Thank you. The next follow-up question comes from the line of Prerna Junjunwala from Elara Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity again. For U.K., since the FTA is nearby, have we started conversations with our U.K. clients for enhancing orders? How are things moving on the U.K. side?
So Prerna, if I may say here, that we have already been present in all these countries and with all the major retailers, and now the opportunity is to scale that up. We already, our presence is there, our offices are there. We also have our warehousing in U.K. Our teams are sitting there, actually seeding the market on a regular basis. Now, from there, it is only going to scale up. The opportunities here is like how we have in the United States of America. Now, here we are going to do, you know, there's an opportunity to do business plans together, look at kind of an opportunity growth here, Prerna. So that's going to be another next level where we're going to take it.
Okay, so, still, I mean, what is the kind of market in the U.K. in terms of, you know, price points that we're seeing, and the order sizes that we are seeing? It's going to be materially different than what is U.S. right now, right? So just trying to get some understanding on how we can see the scale-up in U.K. as Europe is still far.
So I'll tell you one thing, UK will have an opportunity in the terms of quality more than quantity. And like there are certain retailers, like John Lewis and the others, where you will have far more premium luxury products, and the others, others will be the opportunity in the terms of, yes, value. And there also it is pretty substantial in the terms of our towel category. The other opportunity that we'll have is in the terms of bedding and sheets, where because we couldn't compete with these countries, like Pakistan, we now that will also open a door for us because we'll be competitive there, too, Prerna.
Okay. Okay. Understood, ma'am.
Yeah.
Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you, Prerna.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and then one. Our next question comes from the line of Ritesh Gandhi from Discover y Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, ma'am. Just had a question with regards to, again, on this EU FTA. Just want to understand how large is the EU market compared to the US market for the bedsheets and towels? What is our market share in the EU? And, effectively speaking, is the primary reason why our existing market share is low because of the duties are keeping higher? And so is it that the actual opportunity? Just want to understand the scale of it, you know.
No, as I said earlier, that U.S., you know, like if I talk about Europe, which is the sector, you know, we have, you know, I said it in the opening remarks, Ritesh, that $260 billion, the imports of textile and apparel. And now, that becomes India's opportunity, because India was just doing $7 billion of world business with Europe and U.S.
Got it.
This is a huge opportunity. The delta is huge.
Got it, got it.
So that actually helps us to compete and sets that platform for us. The stage is now set to scale that up.
Got it. And the other question I had for you was with regards to, you know, you indicated that it would take a few quarters. I understand that obviously, the Q4 is, I mean, almost over. But with regards to, I mean, wouldn't it be almost instant, where Q1 onwards, the I mean, support which we would have been providing for the 25% oil tariffs would go away, and therefore, the, you know, growth, revenues, you know, margins should again be on with the previous, actually, the trajectory?
Yeah, I'll tell you one thing. The thing is, it takes time to scale up now, right? Because with the 50% tariff, there's a lot of supply chain to the whole system, right? And that's what it will take for us to scale up for the retailers as well.
Got it.
So now from quarter four, that's the reason I said it's going to be a scale up from here.
Got it.
It is definitely a gradual process, because the supply chain in textiles is a longer one comparatively.
Got it. And just to understand, are the inventory levels at the retailer level at the moment reasonably low, given I would assume that ordering would have been slower, given the tariffs which are there and hope of a resolution, or is it that not the case?
So I'll tell you one thing. A lot of it has been taken care of, because it has been, December has been quarter three of ours, is their, end of year, right? Financial year.
Yeah.
Already they have taken care and their books are closed. So now January onwards starts their new year. So that's where they have their all their reconciliations done, and then they move forward.
No, but I'm asking, are the overall, I mean, inventory levels at the retailer end reasonably low and thin, and therefore there'd be some amount of restocking opportunity as well, or that's not the case?
So that actually is—that needs to be seen, because retailers like our clubs and mass retailers, the inventories would have got over, because they've already have passed the Black Friday and the sales. So the sales have happened, though it was relatively lower, but I think they would have been there in the terms of, you know, reducing the inventories by 60%-70%. The rest is in there, which is on the road anyway, Ritesh.
Right. Understood. And just the last-
Sorry to interrupt, Ritesh.
Okay, no problem.
May we request?
No, no. Okay.
Thank you so much. Our next question comes from the line of Vishal Mehta from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on a resilient performance, I would say. So, my first question is, I just wanted to understand the tariff-related impact, you know, in this quarter. While, you know, it's difficult to probably quantify on the volume loss, but if you could quantify, you know, a discount-related impact that you've had in this quarter, and does it impact, you know, both revenues, or you just probably take that hit in the cost and, you know, it's seen only in margin? So just a clarification there would be helpful.
So, you cannot quantify this. First of all, let me just put that to you. The important thing is, revenue and margins are related. Because imagine most of the retailers increase the retail prices, right? And as a result, you would see a kind of inflation setting in. You will see that kind of an impact in terms of buying. So that actually becomes kind of a setback that you would have seen. And yes, the impact has been there, but quantifying it is a little difficult because everything is in a pipeline, it's on the road in terms of your goods in transit to the kind of dispatches and to the other things as well. But yes, it has been a massive impact as well. I just want to say that.
No, ma'am, just the discounting related impact, even that is difficult to quantify, as in the discounts that you've given to customers?
See, it is 25 + 25, right? So we were definitely most uncompetitive compared to all the countries, right? So because of our strategic partnerships, we could see how we could work together through these challenging times. So we like in the terms of the oil tariffs, how, how could we take that burden, and the reciprocal, how could we, you know, they could work through. So that's the way we moved that forward.
Okay, fair. The next question probably was, you know, on your home textile branded piece. You know, I see in your presentation that, the-
Yeah
... the business has probably broadly, you know, stayed flat or a minor decline.
Yes.
But in your comments, you mentioned that Christy-
Yeah
-grew well, you know, 30-odd%-
Yeah
-plus growth that you've seen in Christy brand.
Yeah.
So, does this imply your other brands kind of declined, and, you know, what led to that, and what's the outlook on your other brands, if you could probably give some sense around that?
Absolutely, Vishal. Now, let me give you a perspective here. So when we spoke about when you saw your brand sales there, you, you see even a licensed brand there, right? So that's where you-
Okay.
Saw kind of a trend. But when I see about our own brands, that is Christy, Spaces and Welspun, we have seen an uptake. So Christy has had a massive uptake of around 30%-31%. Even our domestic businesses in Spaces and Welspun have seen an upside, which will continue to grow. Yeah.
Okay. Okay, fair.
Thanks.
Lastly, on advanced textiles, ma'am, last question.
Yeah.
Um-
Yeah.
You know, in advanced textile, we have another peer in the industry, you know, who's probably growing his advanced textile business well and has not seen kind of a tariff pressure. But that, but we've continued to see pressure in this segment. But going forward, more so, are we looking to you know add more products in this segment? How are we seeing this particular segment of ours going forward? Hi.
Let me first clarify a few things. When you talk about advanced textile, there's a very different kind of... There's building materials that come in, which will not get impacted. For us, there are materials where we are doing our spunlace, which is commodity. The others are your wet wipes, needle punch, where we are making far more innovative products. So we were not competitive compared to the countries where it was imported from, whether it was Europe, UK, and primarily United States of America, I would say. But now with the opening up of all the FTAs, this becomes a huge opportunity for us.
Even in USA, in the terms of wet wipes, with the major retailers that we're talking to, or even in U.K. and Europe, in the terms of innovative products that we're working with or rest of the world as well. So let me just put that in. It's a huge opportunity for us in the advanced textiles, where we will see that growth of double digit and also very strong margins as well.
Sure. Thank you. Thanks, and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Rohit Ohri from Progressive Shares. Please go ahead.
Hi, Dipali. Two questions from my side. First one being, when you mentioned that, our procurement for cotton has a split of 70/30, my question is that, what percentage is imported from U.S.? May it be Supima, Pima, or maybe Egyptian Cotton. What is the percentage that we take from U.S.?
See, Egyptian comes in from Egypt.
Okay.
Pima, Supima, and the Upland cotton or cotton grown in USA, comes in from United States of America. As I said, that 60 to 70, the 70% comes in from India, because India is the primary grower of cotton. 30% is the cotton, which will have that strong mix of US cotton-
Mm-hmm.
Also the Egyptian Cotton and other cottons as well, and organic and Australian, too.
Okay. Okay, my second question. In terms of the traditional sales mix, which we had, which was 60%-
Mm-hmm.
40% America, 40% UK, and if we split it further, it becomes 20% UK, and then Europe is having 7-13%, sorry, and the rest of the world also has... With the focus coming on ANZ and Japan, do you think that the mix or the pie will shift? Because in one of the interviews also at Davos, you also did mention about artificial intelligence, which could be applied for fetching better productivity gains or maybe reducing the inventory levels or improving the workforce. So do you think that the pie will shift or it will remain more or less the same?
I'll tell you one thing: Pie will grow. Rohit-
Okay.
The pie is definitely going to grow. Right now, we will see that opportunity upstream coming in. The pie is definitely going to grow in terms of share of the countries. Earlier, it was primarily. We had a disadvantage of the U.K., Europe impact in terms of our, you know, duty-free element-
Mm-hmm.
But now that has opened up, and other FTAs are opening up. Now, you know, the Chile coming in, the Peru coming in-
Sure.
Canada coming in. You know, GCC opening up. Australia, New Zealand already happened. Japan is again a very interesting country, where we'll see again an upside. So this pie will grow. So you can automatically see that across all the categories that we do, is where you will see an opportunity. And when you talk about AI and the workforce, see-
Mm-hmm.
You already know that textile is a very labor-intensive, you know, industry, right?
Yes.
To get efficiency, to get productivity, AI will be a very interesting element that we are actually exploring and continue to implement in smaller way, and continue to grow that. Because it's going to be a very big element going forward to keep us competitive here.
Any number you would like to put in terms of the spends that you'll make, probably towards the Industry 4.0 and AI going forward?
See, the investments will happen as we go forward, and these actually become a part of the OpEx cost, you know?
Okay.
We'll continue to grow here, and we have to get competitive, guys. I mean, I'm very clear about it. This is something, through port, our cost, everything will have to get competitive going forward.
Okay, makes sense, Dipali. Thank you for answering my question. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you. As we close quarter 3, FY26, the external environment is beginning to turn more constructive. The recent trade agreements meaningfully enhance our export competitiveness in our core and emerging product portfolio across all global markets. At the same time, India becomes a very important opportunity for our domestic brands, supported by improving affordability and steady consumer demand. The investments we have made over the past few years in capacity, capabilities, and brands, position us well to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Thank you for your continued trust and support. We look forward to engaging with you again next quarter.
Thank you. On behalf of JM Financial, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.