Good day, and welcome to United Breweries Limited Q2 FY twenty-five earnings conference call. 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 Mr. Vivek Gupta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah, thank you very much, and good afternoon, everyone, for joining. Jan and I are actually overseas, so we'll be taking the call on the phone. So if there's any interruption, we apologize. We'll dial back if something like that happens. We've already sent the results. And I'll hand over for Jan to really take you through the summary of the results. But needless to say, I think we continue to stay on course on the momentum, what we talked, and we are quite satisfied with the overall progress of this quarter. I'll ask Jan to give a summary, and then we can take over, take, we can take the Q&A.
Thank you, Vivek. Hello, everyone. Good day. Let's have a look at the highlights for the quarter before we indeed open up for questions. So on the quarter Q2, we see that the volume momentum continues with 5% overall volume growth, despite the quarter being impacted by quite some unfavorable weather across multiple states, which is softening consumer demand. We're particularly proud of the continued growth of our premium volumes, growing 27% in the quarter, with the strong growth coming from Kingfisher Ultra as well as Kingfisher Ultra Max, which is leading to us gaining some share within the premium segment. And overall, volume growth is predominantly driven by UP, Maharashtra, and Karnataka also contributing favorably, partially offset by some other states, including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Looking at the financials, we see net sales increasing by 12% in the quarter, so 10% on a year-to-date basis, driven both by volume and a positive price mix impact. And pricing in key states like Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu is also strengthened by that premiumization effort, as well as the state mix, although it's partially offset by growth in the economy segment, which we see in multiple states, but also see as something that is, part of a maturing beer market. Gross margin in Q2 was 44%, slightly declining versus last year, although improving versus the previous quarter. And, if you look at the half year like for like, we're up around, approximately 100 basis points in margin. So, we see a good trend there on the year to date.
And looking at the shape of the P&L, we're very happy to see that we accelerate from 5% volume growth to 12% net sales growth and then 23% EBIT growth, where we also see that we can show that the work of overall operational discipline is really paying off in the bottom line. Last but not least, we're excited to announce the launch of Amstel Grande in India, a slow brewed beer with fine ingredients, which promises to deliver a very new and unparalleled beer experience in consumers, and we're super happy, super happy to be able to announce that, and to be able to go live with this. I'm very sure about this.
During a recent Investor Day, we already highlighted the key areas of focus, which we continue to bring forward, being beer category growth, winning across different segments in the market, the importance of having a good supply chain network, which continues to get our focus as well, as is, and will be helping to the quality of our beer, and also driving a winning culture in our organization, so we can continue to drive not only category growth, but also keep an eye on profitable growth and deploying capital efficiency.
Thanks, Jan. Just to add a couple of things. I think, first of all, you know, I just want to share a couple of things. First of all, the Amstel Grande launch is going to be one of our biggest initiatives, over the next four to five years on the, on the premium segment. You know, this is just fantastic news. This has been few months in making, designed internally in India, and we'll talk more about it, but, you know, we are launching in the state of Maharashtra. We started shipping yesterday in Mumbai, Maharashtra. But this is going to be our biggest premium initiative, which we are bringing into India, and which is designed for India.
So I think, so we are very excited because it's big news, that we are really looking forward to, the success of that as part of our premium journey. The second thing I would really like to highlight on top of what, Jan shared on the overall summary, I think this is our sixth consecutive quarter of significant growth, and I think, you know, double-digit revenue growth. So we are... Despite all the headwinds, we are continuing to stay on course, and that's what gives us a lot of energy with completely maintaining very strong operational discipline, which is helping us to deliver bottom line as well. So I think with this, we will, we'll hand over back on the questions, because I'm sure you'll have a lot of questions, so we'd rather address the questions.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. In order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, please restrict your questions to two per participant. If you have any follow-up questions, you may rejoin the queue. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. So just had two questions. Firstly, on West Bengal, you know, this, this price increase, you know, led by the tax increases happened fairly recently, a few months back, and we've seen this impact. I just wanted to know, you know, how do you think of it? Do you believe this is, you know, one, two quarter transitory impact, or it is going to have its full four quarter cycle before the state kind of comes back to some kind of growth, for beer? That's my first question.
Yeah, no, thanks, Harit. I think West Bengal, you know, you are completely right. There has been a steep increase in beer duty, which means the consumer price of the beer has gone up. Our Kingfisher price went up from INR 135 to INR 160. So it's a significant jump. Look, we continue to increase our corporate affairs effort as a company and as Brewers Association of India, to really share data with the government that West Bengal had a very good trajectory of category growth and momentum on beer. And these heavy duty increases are actually impacting not only our growth, but also their overall revenue. Generally, when state government do it, it takes three, four months of data and consistent one, because whenever they take a decision, they actually think it will all work out well.
But the initial two, three months shows that there is a slowdown. And of course, you know, there was also the festival numbers also started there in this. So I think we will continue to work the corporate affairs efforts, and we really hope that they listen and to the data, because it's not only impacting our business, but their revenue as well. But from a UB perspective, I think we are also looking at accelerating our premium effort in West Bengal, because West Bengal is one of the states where our premium shares are very low. You know, it's low single digits, because we didn't have a supply chain for premium. So we, without giving much information, we are working an active and accelerated plan so that we can accelerate our premium business to local production in West Bengal.
I don't want to give the timeline, but I can say that, you know, we have accelerated our plan so that we at least you know, we are coming from behind there in that state and work their effort on that.
Good. Good to hear. The second question is, you know, you know, Amstel brand you've just kind of launched. There have been several initiatives in the premium space over the last, you know, few quarters, maybe two years as well. And but it seems like, you know, you're, you know, you seem extremely excited on brand. If you could just, you know, give a sense of, you know, you know, why you think this will be even bigger than some of the things you've done in the past. You know, what gets you more excited on this one? And what could be like a rollout plan from a twelve-month perspective?
Yeah. No, thank you for asking. Look, you know, very simply, I think consumer needs different type of products, and one of the thing in premium, we had very strong portfolio in domestic premium with Ultra and Ultra Max, which is growing very fast, and you see one of the driver of premium growth is Ultra, Ultra Max, which we are trying to get in other states. But there was always a need of premium strong beer, which has international credentials. And, you know, in short, you know, our competitor has that, like, you know, Budweiser Magnum, to be specific, you know, it's international premium with strong credentials. So we assigned a local R&D team to come out with a recipe, which actually is...
And we got a lot of work with the global team to ensure we get enough flexibility on the right you know recipe and what is needed for the Indian consumer. So we actually are launching a completely new beer, which was never here before, which is Amstel Grande . Even the nomenclature is tested by the consumer here. It has 6.4% ABV, so it's in the strong premium segment. It has zero sugar. You know, it is absolutely the best recipe in the segment. We tested with consumer, both blind and the product wherever possible, and we got winning score. The packaging is extremely attractive, automatically drives the purchase intent. In the past, when we did Amstel, we didn't do Amstel in strong. The Amstel was a light premium beer.
The second thing is we never launched Amstel with even wine. We always launched with big bottles, you know, but we never designed the initiative to really build with the premium on-site channel so that we have the trials actually happen. So it is a superior product, great recipe, very competitive on superiority, great packaging, competitive pricing. So we actually think that segment, which is on the premium strong, which is 85% of the premium segment and growing, this is our answer there. Because we already have in the light version, Heineken, which will actually, you know, trade up consumers further to really do that. So we have very ambitious plan on this. Of course, this needs state by state registration, local production.
We are starting with the state of Mumbai, Maharashtra, and you will see every quarter, we will keep adding space. And our goal is that by end of next year, we should be at least in 65%-70% of the country. And we have actually worked the recipe in a way that we can actually produce in a local brewery, by investing some capital, which we are in the process of that. So it's a superior product designed for India, international credentials, great recipe, and, of course, you know, it has a claim which has actually worked well in other countries as well.
Fantastic. Great, great to hear. Wish you all the best, guys. I'll come back with more questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Avnish Roy from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
So congrats on good premium growth and the current in the current slowdown. My first question is, in Q2, there was heavy rains in large parts of the country, including your key market, and we have seen beverages, non-alcoholic beverages see significant impact, so when you analyze data of your consumption centers, and here we are analyzing for states where there is no big change, right? In Bengal, there is a big change. Let's remove that, so are you seeing that big cities, the slowdown is more versus the smaller cities? Second, wherever, say, the rains impacted pubs and bars, travel or out-of-home travel, there is the slowdown a bit more versus where the pub and bar culture is less or maybe the flooding was less?
Yeah, I think, look, we haven't analyzed that deeply on this one, but I can tell you where the impact is the most. See, our impact is primarily more in first, transportation. And, you know, we had rains in Andhra Pradesh. You know, there were floods. The brewery was flooded. We have rains in Assam and floods in Assam. Kerala, you know, we all know the couple of districts really got badly impacted. So all those places we saw a significant impact. We actually saw growth in the big cities, you know, because, you know, you also know that the, you know, during the monsoon also, humidity also increases after that. And we know the weather was unpredictable, so we saw good consumption increase.
But also, I think, you know, there was definitely impact leading to, you know, transportation losses. You know, specifically, you know, the trucks are stranded. You are not able to do availability issues like Tamil Nadu in particular. You know, there were many districts, there was an impact of that. But honestly, I don't have analysis whether cities versus small towns or here we can go back and check, but it is just based on our internal discussion and judgment I'm giving you an answer. We'll come back on that.
So thanks. My second and last question will be essentially on the slide where you have given total volume and premium volume. So one year back, difference between total volume and premium volume growth rates used to be 3%, and then it became 6%. But last two quarters, it has been much, much higher. It's volatile. Q1, it was 39% difference. In Q2, it is more like 22% difference, but still a very healthy difference. It's been almost now one year, slightly higher than that you have taken over. So what exactly is working here? Because you have done multiple things here. You have done new fresh bottle percentage much higher.
You have obviously focused much more on pubs and bars and on-premises, advertising and presence, and of course, in terms of the stores also, Visi-cooler and all that. So if you could tell us which has been the most successful and most dear to you. And second, where is the path. In the analyst meet, you did cover on the uncertain . That is not my question. But in terms of competing with the top two players in the premium, where they are bigger than you in that, where is the bigger gap currently?
I think, first of all, it's a holistic plan which is working for us. I think we started off with very deep consumer understanding because, you know, what exactly is really, and this is leading to our portfolio choices. Like I gave an example of Amstel, that we found a big gap in the portfolio on especially premium strong, where the Budweiser Magnum and some of the other Carlsberg Elephant and all were gaining share. That we need to add a proposition which has international credentials and superior products versus only our domestic premium products, which are great. So first is the fixing the portfolio gap.
Secondly, I always mentioned that we had a major supply chain challenge, that it was not that we didn't know how to win in premium, but there was no local production, and we are still at the mercy of regulators to give us permits to go interstate, and then elections come in, they don't give us the permits and all those things. So we are also... Second big driver is actually increasing our footprint of local production of premium brands, which we continue to do, as I mentioned to you, and we, that's a big part of our investment. And I think the third is being very, very granular on execution. The simple things which really matter, but they are very clear.
So in October, you know, if you go around, you know, the, we are actually doing the biggest Oktoberfest activation in the country, which is broad-based, key bars, using the pubs. So I would say those are the three factors which are really driving it. I still think, you know, we are just scratching the surface on this, you know, because in many states, even our premium growth in this quarter got impacted because we didn't get the permits. So for example, Arunachal, you know, Assam was not giving the permits to get the truck movement because they had some issue for every company. So we were not able to supply some of the premium brands in other states where we are importing the beers.
We got clinical permission in Karnataka, so we started that in August, September in the market, so it is only two months of growth. But that, you know, holisticity of the plan and the execution is what we are nailing it down, and it will only accelerate. I can only see that, you know, where we are able to execute the plan, we are now significantly growing shares on premium. So we have markets which are growing much higher than the average, and these are markets where their premium has declined because we could not supply. So 27 is the average. So state by state, there are states where we've been big, where we're getting our act together, and we actually think that will continue to accelerate, but there's a lot more to be done here.
If I can add something there, I think we expect that this gap between growth and premium for our overall portfolio continues over the next quarters, because we're a strong believer that long-term premiumization is one of the key unlocks to profitability in the beer segment in India, and we're absolutely coming from behind. If you look at our market share and premium for the overall market, then there's lots of opportunities, and that's one of the reasons why, again, we're so excited about the Amstel Grande brand proposition, because we think we really built a strong premium portfolio for the Indian consumer, and as Vivek mentioned, we also really want to be close to the consumer in terms of production footprint, because that's another big unlock for profitability.
And so we're also a big choice for, and where do we push hard for premium, and where are we a bit more cautious in driving volume? Because we want to be able to supply, and ideally, we want to be able to supply from a plant which is as close as possible to the market. So long term, we continue to really push for premium, and we think there's a lot more to follow there with the launch of the new portfolio.
So thanks, I'll come back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ashutosh Jain from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks for taking my question. So I have only one question. Heineken and other FMCG players called out the challenged urban demand in this quarter. Your numbers look robust with not much of an impact. So what is like your view, why it was not an issue for you or any other, you know, commentary you have regarding the urban consumer? Thank you.
See, I would say, so look, versus our ambition, it is definitely an issue for me. See, I'm not proud of 5% growth. I'm happy with it, but I'm not proud of it. So our in-house ambition is very high, and I think if we didn't have the headwind, you know, we should have been expecting much more. So I actually think, you know, versus our ambition, we are still behind. It is a moderate quarter on the volume growth. Having said that, I think there were real impacts in the states I mentioned because of the weather. There are impacts based on the regulatory impact, but we are also seeing some of our other business drivers are accelerating much faster.
As I, as I mentioned, there is some of these states we are growing much faster because of our light portfolio, getting our act together, getting execution. We took a big initiative in Assam, and we have seen a category growth back, where we brought affordability as a big, big focus area. You know, in a state like Karnataka, we grew 16%, behind our London Pilsner launch and our newly launched economy segment, Ultra Max. I think, you know, there are key specific impacts which are quite big, but overall, we still think the beer is a category which generally, you know, doesn't get too much impacted, you know, unless the regulatory changes happen a lot, because it's still limited, it's under-penetrated, there is huge opportunity, so...
And people, you know, are still socializing, and, you know, there is good times or bad times. But we have to be watchful and careful, you know, as we go there. So I don't want to comment about the other companies, but, you know, that's how we see it.
Okay, thanks so much, and happy Diwali in advance.
Thanks. Happy Diwali!
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vishal Punmiya from Yes Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you, team, for the opportunity. Firstly, if you can help us with the numbers from AP for this particular quarter, what was the benefit and what can we expect for the coming quarters from AP?
Yeah, on AP, there was not much benefit this quarter. Our growth rate was there, because if you know this, because there was a policy transition happening. So there was a period in September where they actually were going through the transition, but we are consistently adding business in AP. So in terms of the total growth, the AP contribution will be very in the decimal, but because we already have a brewery in AP, unlike other companies, we already have a local production facility. And over the last three or four quarters, we have been growing there. Going forward, I think the policy is still under transition. It has just started, you know, the private retail.
The pricing policy is still not confirmed because the government said that in the next ninety days they would like to work on the pricing plan and the duties. So there's lot more to be done on the regulatory work, because, you know, when they say that we want to have competitive pricing, which is great, but the duties are much higher in AP versus even Telangana. The realization is much lower for the vendors. So I think it is still work in progress, I would say. But the green shoots are there. But right now our focus is to really start implementing the execution in the private retail.
We are putting, you know, more than a thousand coolers in the stores to make sure that the consumer gets cold beer, and there is a lot of execution work happening on this in AP. But I would say it will take another quarter or so to get clear on the policy before we get too excited.
... Okay, and, once it normalizes, how much volume contribution can we expect from this state?
Look, we don't know. In the peak of us, we were doing, you know, three X from what we are doing today. So I just don't want to guess. You know, if anyone, you know, look, optimistic will say it can go up to three X, you know, conservative will say somewhere within zero three X. But we need to see. We really need to see, you know, how the policy finally lands, the other aspects of the policy. But we definitely think that we-- that there will be a significant growth if the fundamentals arise.
Understood. Secondly, on your advertisement spends for the quarter, you did mention that you have been one of the best Oktoberfest in the country this year. Also, you are now scaling up Amstel or you have just launched Amstel, so there could be spends for that. What was the A&P for the quarter, and do you expect it to improve in the next quarter?
Look, we are investing on the growth, and we are also prioritizing our investment as well. So we are, on one side, we are investing a lot on the new initiatives, on the volume building pool. Secondly, we are also making choices on doing better analysis on where the investments actually make sense or not. Our A&P spend, you know, is going up, because we are investing in the brand, and we are investing in the premiumization. And also, as you know, with the new advertising regulations, where, you know, you actually cannot do much of the advertising, so a lot of investments is going towards and building trial. So we are also seeing, you know, how all of that stabilize. But I would only say that we will fund our brand, what we need, to get the right trial and right execution.
But, Jan, if you want to add on this?
Yeah, I think, one of the, from a finance or data analytics perspective, or what you want to call it, I think return on investment and getting a better insight in where does investing the money really pay off is one of the focus areas where we continue to get more insights. So we'll have to look at with developing regulations what can we do? But as Vivek said, I think as a company, we're believers in long-term brand building, so to consistently invest behind the brands, and that's obviously true for the new brands and the new innovations, but it's also true for the existing brands and the core of the portfolio.
So we will continue to do this and increase it where we see that it really pays off and that's going to help us to make the right choices to invest behind the portfolio and also into the market in terms of investing in the trade. So you can expect that this will continue quite consistently over the next period.
Yeah, but, would you like to put a number in terms of the absolute increase or change in percentage on a YOY basis for the quarter? Not... I'm not asking for a guidance on that.
Look, I don't think that from a numbers perspective, if you look at the shape of how it impacts our P&L, there's going to be significant changes. Underlying, there might be some interventions that we make, shifting funds from one area to another. But overall, I think we're happy with the contribution to the P&L that we see today in terms of the balance between investing versus top line delivery.
Okay, okay. Just lastly, in terms of the premium opportunity, so, there has been a couple of launches by some smaller players in the market, in the draught beer five-liter keg space. Even Heineken globally has this product, and they do well in that. What's your view on this product, and can it be introduced to basically scale up your premium presence in Heineken?
Look, as, as I said, we have done a very thorough work on portfolio, and we continue to learn. You know, yesterday, you know, me and Jan went for dinner, and there were 20 different types of beer in the microbrewery we end up going, and we said, "Let's bring a sampler and really understand," and we think, "Oh, this can be done, this can be done." But look, reality is we are focusing on big bets, on the key consumer needs , and there are still nods which will be remaining, and that we will grow over a period of time. But it is as, as I said, the category is so small in India right now, and it has the opportunity to grow. Any innovation or competition is welcome.
It will only help consumers to start going towards beer, because our job is to be a category maker versus category taker. And so I think any new innovation which comes, which helps consumer to try more beer is great. So right now, I think our focus on the innovation will be on Amstel Grande, and already what we have launched and expanding it. Heineken Silver, we are doing a very good job in Karnataka, but we have to take it to more states. You know, Ultra, Ultra Max, wherever we are getting local production. Like I gave a West Bengal example. We have only 4% share in premium in West Bengal, and maybe less than that now because we didn't have the supplies. So I think expanding our current portfolio, working on big bets would be the key priority.
But at the same time, we'll also expand our draft offerings, but again, it's we are working on a year-on-year plan to get this thing done.
Yeah, yeah, and if I can add here something as well, that as we're building a portfolio, and Vivek mentioned we want to make big bets, so whatever we bring to the market, we want to do well. And part of the reason why we are so excited about the launch of Amstel Grande is because we're learning from how the category is developing, also from innovations in the past. And I think one of the most exciting things about-
... the Amstel Grande launch is that it's been designed specifically for India. So we've been able to identify where is the right spotting opportunity in our portfolio, and we think we have a super strong proposition to build that up. And it's a newly designed product specifically for India. And of course, having the Heineken portfolio to tap into is an advantage, and we'll definitely not shy away from it if we see that that's the biggest opportunity. But at this point in time, we think that launching this India-specific product is the best contribution to our local portfolio. But of course, in the future, if we see opportunities that can be tapped into with the help of the Heineken portfolio, we're absolutely in a full position to do so.
Because from a Heineken perspective, there's a strong belief in India growth and also building portfolios that serve consumers across India and across the different segments in the portfolio. So for the future, this is something that we look on, but for now, we think that the right choice is to bring an India-specific product in that premium strong segment with the international credentials. So that's the number one thing on our priority list today.
Got it. Got it, thanks, team, and happy Diwali to the entire team.
Thank you. Happy Diwali.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Krishnan Sambamoorthy from Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
In the recent analyst meet, you had indicated that you have identified reasons why the market bottle returns were not as strong as what they were before COVID. Could you elaborate on what were these reasons, and when do you expect it to go back to that 70%-80% levels that you had in the past?
Sorry, you know, your voice was breaking. I apologize. Can you repeat, or can anyone repeat what was it again, please?
Yeah, Amit, can you hear me now?
Yeah, this is better.
Okay, yeah. In the analyst meet, you had indicated that market bottle returns were not as strong as what it was before COVID, and that you have identified reasons for this, right? So what were the reasons? Can you just share that and also timelines when bottle returns, the market bottle proportion can go back to the old levels?
Yeah, I think you're talking about bottle returns.
Yes.
I think, you know, one of the big reason was that in-home consumption significantly increased in COVID because all the bars were, you know, they were not serving in stores. So when people were drinking more in home or drinking outside home in the fields or wherever in the rural areas, it was very difficult to have a proper bottle return system. It is always better when there is on-premise. It has a better return because there is a system to do that. So the second part was, of course, the infrastructure, whereas lockdowns having people on the ground, you know, having operational discipline got impacted because a lot of those people, they lost their work during the so-called uncertain. And the third is, of course, the increase in costs.
You know, many of the glass manufacturers, they started incentivizing the broken bottles of glass to improve their operating efficiencies in their factories to really do that. This is still an issue because if it is cheaper for the glass manufacturers to get a broken bottle versus, you know, ask to return, that becomes a problem. So we are trying to solve the problem on all the angles. We are in touch with glass manufacturers because we are their buyers, and we are giving them a long-term impact of the category and why they should really look at the total cost. We are improving our operational discipline and our relationship with our associates, and those who actually collect the bottles with us.
We took a price increase for them at the start of this year, you know, so that it is also commercially attractive for them to do that. And third, we consistently are working on models to improve the bottle returns. Now, of course, the rains have a huge impact on bottle returns, like floods and all of these things. You know, the return costs get significantly impacted on that part also. But going forward, you know, one of the things I want us to be conscious of is that we are driving a lot of new initiatives and premiums. We'll also, you know, put a lot of new bottles in the system, which actually will take time to do that. But operationally, we are working through this.
We have also done a lot of analysis to see where the gaps are. For example, you know, we have observed that a lot of bottles from West Bengal go to Bhutan. So we are actually working with regulators to say, you know, "How do we ensure that bottles are not going from India to Bhutan and Nepal and in a border town?" So, those are the things also which are opening up here. But I would say that the... It is very difficult based on our assumptions, to go back to the pre-COVID level. I think we actually think that we will have to make gradual progress, and consistent progress, but it will be...
And we are also working with regulators to have systemic programs, like Goa is testing a new program where there's basically a deposit scheme for consumers on the bottle. But so we're also working at an industry level to see what are the other options.
Understood. Very useful. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next follow-up question from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah, just one question on your first half performance. So I think you've already executed last year. You know, you were building up market share at an overall level. I remember you were close to 50% and then if you look at the first half performance, you know, this roughly 5% volume growth, it's with double-digit revenue growth. In your opinion, in your analysis, is this kind of, you know, market competitive performance that you've been able to deliver both overall and premium? Premium certainly looks the case. I just wanted to get your sense on overall, you know, how you've seen it.
Yeah, I think on the premium, we are 100% growing share. We have whatever data, because the data is not available to do that. On the overall volume, I think we are flat, because, you know, there are volume three states we are growing share most of the states, but overall we are flat on the volume year to date, if you talk in the first six months. And there are two, three drivers. I think one is, you know, as I mentioned in the previous quarter, we got impacted more in election than others, because we are the market leaders in some states with 60-65% share. So when we don't get a shift approval, you know, our volumes get impacted the most to do that.
The second is, you know, the supply situation in such states, like, if they are not interstate permits, then of course the local brands sell more, and of course, with the duty changes, you know, again, like, it has an impact on the other one, but overall, we are flat on the volume share, but the good part is we are able to drive the category growth, I think both in the premium and in the volume segment, so overall, I think we are not too worried about it, because our goal is to grow the category and get the right, you know, shape of the category growth as well, but there are state-specific issues we are addressing, you know, and which gives us confidence that we can be on track.
All right. That was my question. Thank you.
Thank you. Last question is from the line of Ajay Thakur from Anand Rathi Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Just want to understand a bit more on the gross margin, which has kind of contracted by 70 basis points during the quarter. So if you can just elaborate what is driving this correction? And also if you can highlight, you know, how or what kind of growth or input cost narrative we can build for the next few quarters, that will be helpful.
Yeah. No, absolutely. I think, in the quarter, from a margin perspective, we see a bit of impact also from the premium growth, and as Vivek mentioned earlier on, it means that we're also investing a lot of bottles, and something that we also believe is really building towards the future. Secondly, state mix plays a different role also around the quarter, where we see that there's on the one hand positive impact from growing in Maharashtra and Karnataka, but also offset partly by Tamil Nadu. I think some of these items also play a role in longer term, over the next couple of quarters. Of course, we are looking to expand margin, always one of our top priorities.
the extent we do think that premiumization here plays a role, even if it may be, it may need a bit of a runway. We have to inject the bottles in order to get the system, but we have to build the local capabilities in our breweries to bring that premium production closer to the market and to the consumers. But long term, these are some of the unlocks for margin. Overall, we are looking also at input cost, of course, where we see some mixed bags, and also for the next couple of quarters, we're seeing some ups and downs in the outlets, if we look at commodities and also glass pricing and these type of things.
So it's a combination of things, where first and foremost we will be looking at growth, but also with an eye on margin, because expanding margin is part of the long-term strategy. But again, I think we're very much focused on the longer term to make sure that we build that balanced portfolio that's really gonna help us drive that GP margin. And next to that, I think what's important too here is also how can we drive volume across the different states, both from a sourcing perspective, from a stocking perspective, from a demand perspective, and what can we do to really use the data analytics that we have to win in all the stores and win in the markets?
So that we can make sure that that's not only benefiting volume growth and premium premiumization as such, but also to drive margin, to make sure that we win in the right channels and the right products, and where consumers' interest is gonna help us, not only to win in the market, but also win in terms of financial returns.
Understood. So, if we were to kind of continue with the premium kind of a growth, in the coming quarters at the same pace as that we are kind of, you know, doing right now, then obviously our gross margins will remain, bit under pressure. Is that a right kind of a conclusion, if I were to make it?
Yeah, I think it's. I mean, we're playing the long-term game here, and we see that contraction and it's been under pressure, and we are bringing it up slightly and slowly. So that is the overall expectation that we have, that we will continue to increase our efforts, but it's not gonna be a linear road towards margin expansion. I think that's something that we need to be careful about, but also realistic that this is what it is, and we will actually absorb some hiking pricing and some right from an input material perspective. And then we continue to also increase our efforts and our capabilities in terms of-...
Understanding really what drives the margin and how to influence the demand side to make sure that the margin increase efforts get the most of our resources. And it's gonna be a balancing journey, and not a linear approach, but definitely something that we continue to keep an eye on. And I think you are right just to be clear, but it will completely be under pressure. Also, if you look at the global scale, I think margins have been under pressure across many global scale, but there's an immediate upside short term, and obviously we see the effect of that as well.
Yeah. First thing I would say, premium is one variable, but in India, the state by state is another variable. So while we will be investing in premium and all, we are also looking at states where, with a low gross margin and working very actively, on the plan. So there's various variables which are coming, but premium is only one variable, I would just say that, as we look at the market.
Okay. And also there was this fact that there was mention of moderation of the glass input, the new glass cost structure. So I was just wondering that is kind of not reflecting the current quarter, but the impact of the premium actually is kind of more offsetting that. So I was just, so you can kind of coming from that perspective as well.
Yeah, I think, as I said, the state mix is also an important one. So here, as we look into the gross margin, you know, we have states where the gross margin is extremely low. And you know, we are waiting for pricing to happen. We work with the government, give the pricing permission, and we have seen the gross margins are reasonable. So I think it's there are a lot of other factors which have come in, which also impact the gross margin. But as I said, you know, consistently, you know, if you see versus previous quarter, the gross margin, there is a significant gross margin improvement on quarter on quarter. But what we are definitely doing is we are not slowing down our plan to just hit the growth numbers that we are grow.
But we are very cautious of it.
Thanks for that. And just last part of it, you, Vivek, you mentioned about, you know, certain states, which still are kind of having issues. So if you can mention those states and, what kind of, you know, what are the things that we are doing to address the concerns in those states? That will be last part of it.
Yes.
Thanks.
Yeah, I would say there are three types of states which are issues for us. I think, let me start with one where there is an issue related to regulatory, you know, where the duties have gone up significantly on beer. And that, in fact, we have in West Bengal is a good example, where we work consistently with the Brewers Association of India and consistently on the corporate affairs. And then we also look at, okay, what do we need to do in our portfolio to keep that in both? Then there are second kind of states where there are a lot of operational issues in the state government. Like, I don't know how many of you heard about Delhi excise portal did not work for a period.
You know, Jharkhand had an issue in September, where the excise orders were not accepted at all. The permits were not given from one state to another through this. So there are operational cooperation issues, which is also impacting. You know, this is industry level impact, which we are consistently communicating, understanding, offering for help wherever we can, even our technology resources, so that there's a continuity with the state distribution. I think there's a third, you know, issue which we really need to understand deeper, you know, at a state level, where we have to actually work on is just our own competitiveness portfolio, which is mostly in our control.
And those will take time, you know, because a lot. You know, fixing the portfolio, getting the pipes connected, and when I say time, we are actively working on it, but you will see over the coming quarters that we will address that. So I think those are the three ones. But primarily, I would say the first one related to policy ones, West Bengal, Punjab, they are really the concerns right now. In terms of the excise system, separately, it was Delhi, Jharkhand, were the states to be well on the curve. I gave you some examples as well.
Hi, sir. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments.
Good. Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining and for your questions. Again, I think we could say that we're happy with the results here today, with the continued momentum in the volume, as well as our translating to P&L, where we see that sales is or revenue growth is ahead of the volume, and translating into very solid EBIT growth. And we continue, we see a continuation of this progress ahead of us. We're confident that also with the contribution of Amstel Grande, that we can continue this journey in building a strong company that's going to grow the beer category in India.
Yeah. And just I want to wish all of you very happy Diwali and festival time. I think if you are in Mumbai, you know, in the first week of November, you do try Amstel Grande, and give us the feedback, good or bad. We'll take the feedback because we are really excited on what it can do to our business and the category going forward. But thank you for joining. You know, we continue to. We are on a journey. It's not a one quarter journey. There's a lot of things to really build this category. There will be ups and downs, you know, two steps forward, one step backward, but we'll continue to work on that. But thank you for your engagement with us.
Thank you very much. On behalf of United Breweries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.