Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Jyothy Labs' Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call hosted by ICICI Securities. 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 touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Aniket Kamble from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Yusuf. Hi. It's an absolute pleasure from ICICI Securities to host the Q1 FY 2027 earnings call for Jyothy Labs. From the management, we have Ms. Jyothy, Chairperson and Managing Director, and Mr. Pawan Agarwal, CFO. I now hand over the call to Jyothy ma'am for her opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to the Q1 FY 2027 earnings of Jyothy Labs Limited. Our financial results and investor presentation are available on our website and the stock exchanges. I trust you have had the opportunity to review them. Let me begin with the broader operating environment. Rural demand stayed relatively resilient, while urban markets, after showing signs of recovery in the second half of FY 2026, remained subdued during the quarter. Higher household expenses continued pressure on discretionary spends, and cautious consumer sentiment affected urban consumption. Across the sector, companies are balancing commodity inflation through calibrated pricing, premiumization, innovation, mix improvement, and sharper pack price architecture while protecting consumer affordability. We are therefore cautiously optimistic on the demand, with growth expected to be driven by a balanced combination of volume expansion, selective pricing, premiumization, and new product scale-up, rather than the price increases alone.
During the quarter, crude oil and crude linked derivatives remained highly volatile. The West Asia conflict kept global energy markets unsettled. This affected input costs, packaging materials, and the supply chain planning. While the recent moderation in crude prices is encouraging, we remain watchful of geopolitical developments and their lagged impact on costs and margins. Our immediate priority was to ensure continuity in production, supply, and sales, and we largely achieved that objective. However, the price increases taken towards the end of March and in April were not sufficient to offset the unusually high raw material and packing cost inflation. In addition, the company did not have any material benefit of lower-priced older inventory in the Q1. With a large part of our business coming from Fabric Care and Home Care, where crude linked inputs play an important role, margins were significantly impacted during the quarter.
In our assessment, raw material and packaging costs are unlikely to correct immediately even if crude prices remain moderate, as higher cost purchases and contracted inventories will continue to flow through Q2. Any benefit from lower crude linked inputs is likely to be visible only gradually and more meaningfully from October, provided commodity prices remain stable. Margin recovery is therefore expected to be progressive and closely linked to top-line growth. That said, we believe the current margin pressure is largely transitory and near-term in nature. As commodity prices stabilize and volumes improve, operating leverage should support margin recovery over the coming quarters. For FY 2027, excluding the Pril business, we expect double-digit revenue growth. EBITDA margins are likely to remain under pressure during the year due to elevated crude linked input costs, though H2 should be substantially better than H1, subject to demand momentum and commodity price stability.
We are focused on cost optimization, supply chain efficiencies, procurement excellence, value engineering, and selective pricing actions to restore profitability without compromising competitiveness or market share. On channels, GT growth was muted, largely due to urban lower demand. However, all other channels put together delivered impressive growth. Modern trade and e-commerce and quick commerce continued their strong momentum and remain among our fastest-growing channels. A&P spends had been moderated over the past few quarters due to input cost inflation. Going forward, we intend to step up investments in advertising and brand building to support long-term sustainable growth. From Q1 FY 2027, we have aligned our segment reporting with the way management reviews the business and allocates resources in accordance with the (Ind AS) 108. We will now report performance under three segments, which is Fabric Care, Home Care, and personal care.
Fabric Care will continue to be reported separately given its scale and strategic importance. Home Care brings together our key in-home consumption categories, while personal care reflects the growth opportunity in that portfolio. We believe this revised structure gives investors a clearer and more meaningful view of how we manage the business, allocate capital, drive innovation, and pursue long-term growth. Comparative numbers have been restated for consistency. Fabric Care maintained its strong momentum, delivering over 14% value growth and 10% volume growth during the quarter. Detergent powders and grew in double digits, while liquid detergents continued their high growth journey across Henko, Ujala, Mr. White, and More Light. Home Care grew by 2.4% year-on-year, excluding Pril sales. Within Home Care, the dishwash portfolio was impacted by the Pril exit effective 31st May 2026.
However, the newly launched bio-enzyme-based Exo liquid has made encouraging progress despite being at an early stage of scale-up and channel expansion. The broader Exo franchise includes bars, powders, liquids, and scrubbers, grew in mid to high single digit in value terms and double digit in volume terms. In household insecticides, the extended summer and delayed rainfall affected category performance in Q1. We have launched the Maxo incense sticks in July to address the growing concern around unsafe and unapproved local agarbattis. Maxo incense sticks is a safe and effective government-approved solution and further strengthens the Maxo portfolio. Personal care performance remained subdued during the quarter, impacted by price increases and transient supply chain disruptions. We remain confident of a recovery trajectory and expect the segment to deliver stronger performance in the coming quarters.
That said, input cost pressures are beginning to emerge with key raw materials, especially soap noodles, witnessing price increases from June onwards. We will closely monitor whether this trend proves temporary or signals a more sustained inflationary cycle. Let me now cover the financial performance. Excluding Pril and Fa, revenue grew by 8.1% in value terms and 5.3% in volume terms on a year-on-year basis. Gross margin stood at 38.5%, down by 950 basis points year-on-year, impacted by abnormally high input cost inflation and lower realizations. Employee cost was 11.4% of revenue compared to 11.5% in the same quarter last year. A&P spend was 6.5% compared to 7.8% in the same quarter last year. Other expenses were 12.2% of revenue compared to 12.1% in the same quarter last year. EBITDA margin stood at 8.4%, down about 820 basis points year-on-year, which is flowing through the gross margin.
Overall, the industry outlook remains cautiously optimistic. Inflation, commodity volatility, and heightened competition are likely to keep operating conditions challenging over the next couple of quarters. At the same time, premiumization, growth in new age channels, continued innovation, new launches, and disciplined cost management should support sustainable long-term growth. We will continue to follow a balanced pricing strategy while preserving affordability. Pricing decisions will remain calibrated, taking into account commodity cost movements, competitive intensity, and consumer demand elasticity. Our priorities for FY 2027 are clear. Scale recent NPDs, maintain a strong innovation pipeline, improve general trade productivity, sustain volume growth despite price increases, and invest in brands in a calibrated manner.
We remain optimistic about FY 2027 while staying watchful of the external environment. Before I close, I would like to thank our teams for their commitment, our trade and distribution partners for their support, and our investors for their continued trust.
With that, I conclude my opening remarks. We will now be happy to take your questions. Thank you.
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. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Siddhesh Deshmukh from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Percy Panthaki here. My first question is, what is the total price increases that you have taken since the start of the war till now?
Overall, about 4%, you can say 4%-4.5%. Out of that, 3% has flown through quarter one, and the remaining will be visible in quarter two.
What is the reason that our price increases are so much on the lower side, given that our portfolio is actually the most exposed to crude amongst the peers? If we see HUL's 5% price increase flowing in Q1, GCPL also has 5% price increase flowing in in Q1, yet we are at 3%. Can we not take more price increases?
Percy, this is a resultant of some competitive action also in certain SKUs, and we are at par with what the competition is. Hence, in spite of taking these corrections, this is how it is. If you see in most of the brands that we are there, SKU to SKU level is matched with competition.
Can you elaborate this competitive activity is more sort of intense? Is it in dishwash or is it more in detergent? Also in which sub-segment among these two?
See, it is broadly there, so I won't be able to comment on that. But largely it is SKU-wise price reductions that has happened. As we speak, when you compare last year, the same quarter, the MRPs of some brands that we have, they were at a higher MRPs, right? So when you compare that value versus this year, it wouldn't suffice. I mean, it is no match to last year's sales. That's why you would see that little bit of de-growth in the sense. But volume-wise, we have a good growth. It's only from a value perspective.
Also, Percy, if you look at it, when I said around 4%, 4.5% total, it's a blended increase. So in segments such as personal care, the price increase is roughly 9%-10%. We have gone up to 9%, 10%. In other business segments, 4%-5% price increases have been taken. So as Jyothy mentioned correctly, it is a function of category, brand, SKUs, and depending upon that, the pricing decisions have been taken.
Got it. I'm just trying to understand this gap between the cost inflation versus the pricing taken. That gap, is it in liquid detergents, is it in dishwash, is it in mass market powder detergents? Which part of the business do you see the unrecovered inflation impact the most?
You can see the segment margin, so you will be able to see it. Fabric Care and Home Care, which is 90% of our business, this is where the input price increase was abnormally high, and it impacted us. We have taken the necessary price increases, keeping the market realities in mind.
Sir, any problem in giving a little more granular view because the prices of all the competition is in public domain, so it would really help us to get a better understanding.
Fabric Care was closer to 5% on a portfolio basis, but dishwash was competitive.
Understood, sir. Secondly, just on future margin trajectory, assuming if the crude price remains roughly where it is, do we see margins being suppressed till then, and only the crude price deflation can result in a decent margin expansion? Or do we have some other plan to bring the margins back?
Of course, there are a number of factors which would play out in the coming quarters, but we cannot ignore the market or the external environment reality. The way crude has been behaving over the last four, five months, it's anybody's guess. Keeping that factor in mind, I think our goal is to swing back to the historical margin levels, but a large portion of that is linked to crude prices. While a number of actions are already in place, and we'll build on that to improve margins.
Got it, sir. Lastly, any comments on the Exo liquid portfolio? How is that ramping up?
Firstly, it's only been three, four months that we have launched it. From a launch perspective, it has done reasonably as per expectation so far. We'll be able to probably give you more this thing maybe end of the year.
Got it. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Percy.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Rushabh Shah from BugleRock PMS. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. My question was on the. You mentioned that in the business update call that why do you need a premium brand? In a market like India, there are few takers of premium brand. My question was, don't you think that the entire game in India is of premiumization, and each and every player is making premium products for the market? Just wanted your thought process on it. The second part of the same question would be, looking at a product portfolio, Henko is the brand we can recall for in a premium category segment. Rest all the categories which we see there, no premium products as compared to our competitors. In the new product developments, do we have any? One question broken into two parts.
Yeah. Rushabh, when I said that, I said in a certain context. When I am saying where you see premiumization and all of that is more from a personal care or you would see largely in high involvement categories. Whereas in Home Care categories, if you see or you have studied the market, even if there are premium products, what is happening is it is never operating at its original MRP price, right? There is a significant reduction in MRP, reductions that are happening throughout. Be it even premium SKUs or even competition for that matter, all the premium brands are at a discount today. That is why I said, in a market like this, can you continue that premium momentum in the same price that you intended to launch it? It does not happen, right?
When there is a lower consumption happening, there is this premiumization taking a hit, basically discounting of things, competition introducing very cheap products in the market. Hence, you have to take certain calls. Hence, that comment came in from that angle and not from a premium product as such. Also from a large, this thing, if you see, majority of India, it is the lower prices that still captures the market. If anything to do with lower price you bring, there are takers for it. Premiumization takes its time. That is the context in what I said about premiumization. Having said that, for us, in the SKUs that we are operating or we are at a slight kind of premium, there we are seeing that kind of. But is the 100% market towards premiumization? No. I hope you got the context in what I said.
Yeah. The second part, the product portfolio part?
Yeah. Could you repeat that?
In a product portfolio, Henko is the one which we can recall as a premium brand. There are no-
Yeah. Continue.
Yeah. We are in the premium category. Rest all categories which we see there are no premium products like the Henko which we have, as compared to the competitors. In the new product developments, do we have any?
See, currently, yes, you are right. In Henko, we have a premium portfolio. In dishwash, we earlier had Pril, but that also doesn't mean that Exo is a mass this thing. Exo right now operates at what the competition is, and we are right now sitting at the topmost end of the price ladder there. Within Exo also, you have a premium offering in a dishwash bar as the 500 g SKU, wherein the price that you pay at that one time is higher compared to a INR 10 or a INR 5 bar. For us, that again, is a good enough ratio that there we have within that from a premium SKU versus the lower unit pack. In every product there are these kind of things. If you see liquid detergents as such, used to be premium compared to powders a few years back.
That was the state of the market. Whereas with lot of trials and lot of competition coming in, now liquid detergents are at lower than the powders now in terms of pricing and both in terms of margin, be it even a premium liquid. Premium always depends on a certain context, is what you need to understand.
Okay. My second question is that we have seen an improvement in the working capital space. How sustainable is this in terms of giving credit to the distributors? We know that Jyothy is one of the best, you have one of the best working capital in the industry. Could you please let us know some points how Jyothy is able to do that, and what are those things that Jyothy is doing differently than the competition, although the competitors have stronger balance sheet strength than us?
I can't comment on the competitor section, but all I can tell you is that our focus has always been on the hygiene of the business. We sell products, especially in general trade, we sell products on advance payment basis. A significant portion of our general trade business is on advance payment basis. Even with modern trade, e-commerce, quick commerce, whatever payment terms we have agreed with our channel partners are comparable. In that sense, the hygiene of the business is always paid attention to. And the distributor level stock is also maintained at 15 - 20 days. These are the fundamental levers that we apply in order to run the business.
Okay. And last question is the royalty payments which you are doing, which are done now. Since they would be saved, where do you think would you use the money? Will it be in advertisements more, like moving the loyal Pril customers to the Exo customers, or it will be in the R&D side of the business?
Anyway, it's a small amount. The royalty amount is not a very significant amount in the P&L over a year. And there is no one-to-one core relationship between line item saving and its application. Of course, the overall cost-saving initiatives are going on in the company, and we are investing behind innovation and product development. All these things are happening parallelly.
Okay, fine. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vishal Gutka from ASK Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, team. A couple of questions from my side. First question was on the Pril and Exo brand. Pril is not to be seen in the market. As per the terms of the agreement, there is a cooling off period. Post they can come into market, if you can clarify, and if they come, that could be some dent to the numbers, in case there is, what do you call, some cooling off period is there. Second question is on the agarbattis that you launched in, I think, southern part of the country. What is happening on the broader color for pricing? What is the broader strategy you are targeting out over there on the agarbattis from the mosquito side? And third question was on the M&A front. I think we have decent cash. I think we have been evaluating opportunities.
One of the deals recently got done, where I think TTK Healthcare got sold a couple of brands to Wipro. It was at, what do you call, decent valuation it got sold. Just wanted to check from you, did we validate that deal? And what was the constraint from our side in case we developed a deal, and overall perspective on M&A. Thank you.
Your first question, Vishal, on Pril, Cool Off, et cetera. As Henkel decided to recall the brand, and they decided not to renew the agreement, we did not manufacture, distribute, sell product beyond 31st of May. There is no specific clause which requires them to wait for a certain period, but the matter is before the court, and hence, we would not be able to comment beyond this. Jyothy would like to address Maxo over with the pricing.
Yes. Vishal, on Maxo, we have priced as per competition, and I think we are the second organized player in this category. As you know and all know that this market has been growing. Yes, we are the last ones to come in, but I think we have come with an even stronger product, and consumers will gain in end of the day. So we have a very good winning product with us, and we hope to create. The absence of agarbattis was kind of also affecting us in a way, and the product has come in at the right time and priced at par with competition. So that is on Maxo. On M&A-
On the specific point that you raised about TTK Healthcare business.
Yes.
Yes, we had looked at the business, but the four divisions of the business, two of them were not aligned to our business strategy, and there were significant overlap in the remaining two, so we did not take it forward.
Okay. But sir, they have just sold two brands, that is Good Home and Eva. I do not know what are the proportion earlier, but what they have sold is they have sold two brands to Wipro. An overall perspective on M&A, I think you have been evaluating, but if you can provide more color, what is happening with that M&A front?
No, Vishal, we are looking at assets, as I keep telling you in every call, that we keep on looking at assets, and we are looking at very aggressively. But again, the filters that we apply, they are very stringent, and it has to be aligned with company's overall growth strategy. Just for the sake of acquiring assets, we are not into that business.
Got it.
At an opportune time, hopefully, you will get to hear from us.
Got it. Pril been out of the system, by when should we expect the double-digit revenue growth to come by? Definitely some amount of price increase you have taken. But better balance of volume and price, by which quarter or maybe by next year, shall we expect double-digit revenue growth to come by for Jyothy?
Our endeavor is to deliver double-digit revenue growth from current quarter itself. This is what we are aiming for. But of course, 3%, 4% price increase will be sitting over there. So high single digit is the volume growth that we are expecting through the year. Jyothy also mentioned in her speech that for FY 2027, excluding Pril and Fa, we expect double-digit growth.
Okay. But if I have to include Pril and Fa, then the reported number will be far lower, right? It could be what they-
Yes.
Around.
Yes.
Okay. Great. Wishing you all the best. Thank you.
Thanks, Vishal.
Okay.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sonal from Prescient Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Sonal Minhas. I hope I'm audible.
Yes, please go ahead.
Yes, go ahead.
Sure. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to understand some bit of context regarding your growth across the channels, specifically the modern trade, quick commerce, and the general trade. Has general trade de-grown year-on-year if we remove the two brands which are discontinued? In quick commerce, what are we seeing in terms of competitive positioning of our brands that will be addressed?
Sonal, in general trade, we are doing reasonably okay, but overall, looking at the urban demand situation, there was a pressure. Excluding Pril and Fa, we are on the positive side in general trade. As far as quick commerce and e-commerce, et cetera, is concerned, both these channels continue to be amongst our fastest-growing channels, as Jyothy mentioned in her opening remarks. They are becoming increasingly important for category development, consumer acquisition, and premium product adoption. While Home Care categories are not growing at the same pace as food and grocery on these platforms as per our understanding, we continue to see healthy growth across our portfolio on e-commerce and quick commerce.
Our focus is on channel-specific assortment, premium packs, better visibility, and improving consumer engagement. This is what we are seeing on e-commerce and quick commerce, and we expect this to continue at a good pace in coming quarters.
Got it. So double-clicking on this Home Care category for modern trade and quick commerce, are there some product gaps? Are there some pricing gaps? Are there some garage gaps which we are seeing us vis-a-vis, let us say some other brands which are doing better in particular?
Overall, our e-commerce, quick commerce, we are also growing in the range of 25%-30%. So broadly, I think we are present across formats, across SKU. I do not see material gaps over there vis-a-vis competitor.
Got it. All right. Thank you. I will fall back with you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Ronak Shah from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
My first question is on the top-line front, wherein management is aspiring for a double-digit growth x, three and four. If we see the second half wherein the relative base is high, how management is seeing the growth trajectory that is part of the business likely to accelerate ahead?
The growth aspirations that we have is across segments. Fabric Care continues to deliver good growth for us. Given the strong product portfolio across formats, across channel, I think the growth momentum will continue. We do not see any material reason for growth to slow down unless there are some external events which are beyond our control. As far as personal care is concerned, we saw good growth in quarter four. Of course, quarter one is slightly subdued because of the pent-up demand, et cetera, and also substantial price increases that we have taken 10%. Slowly, I think quarter two onwards, even personal care will join the party. The dishwasher is something where we have launched Exo, so it will scale up. I think all the three segments will perform reasonably well.
That gives us hope that we will deliver double-digit growth in FY 2027, especially in the second half of the year.
Got it. Secondly, on the dishwash. Sorry.
Yes, please go ahead.
Secondly, on the dishwash front, wherein one of the larger player has also likely to introduce dishwash product into the southern market. How we are confident to tackling that front?
We will see at that point in time, Ronak. Right now, we will see what we have to do, and more people are welcome to the party.
Understood. Secondly, on the margin front, wherein we are highlighting that the larger part of the inflation is going to flow or the larger higher MRP inventory is likely to flow into the second quarter. Net net from the FY 2027 perspective, though we understand the geopolitical uncertainty are there, how management is aspiring to see operating margins to play in from the near term to midterm?
As I mentioned, our goal is to go back to the historical margin levels, of course, subject to external conditions. But in the near term, as Jyothy mentioned in her remarks, our margin recovery is expected to be gradual rather than immediately in quarter two or quarter three. The pace of improvement will depend on commodity trends, demand recovery, and the effectiveness of pricing actions. That is how we are seeing or we are anticipating that H2 of the current year should be better than H1 on both growth and profitability matrices.
Sir, from the pricing front, can we expect that 2Q can be a bottom-out story from the overall margin front, or we can see a more pressure compared to the first quarter?
See, again, given the volatility in crude prices and crude is very important for us as input material, a large portion of the margin recovery is linked to crude, how crude behaves. Having said that, the sharp margin contraction witnessed in quarter one, primarily it is related to the impact of raw material inflation flowing through the P&L, while pricing actions are still catching up with input costs. Commodity prices although remain volatile, the recent trends in crude have been relatively encouraging. That said, the benefit of lower crude prices typically reaches our cost base with a lag because of inventory and procurement cycles. Can't tell you exactly that this is the bottom, but it is not going to be materially lower than what we have reported for quarter one. And we are working towards improving the margins progressively.
Understood. That is it from my side. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Nitin Shakdher from Green Capital Single Family Office. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. This is Nitin Shakdher from the Green Capital Single Family Office. I do note that it has been a tough quarter for the company, along with the licensing agreement also not being there. I would still say congratulations to the management because you have paid almost INR 120 crores-INR 130 crores of extra cost of materials consumed. People do not realize that it has still been a good performance irrespective of that. My question is more in terms of if this is an opportunity for the brand to look into territories where probably let us join some other people's party, as what Jyothy rightly said, is why can't we look into development of beauty and cosmetics, health and hygiene, oral care, baby care, pet care, hair care, skin care? What is the development on that from the company's front in terms of new product development?
Just wanted to understand that.
Hi, Nitin, thank you much for your appreciation. On the question that you have asked, we are working on that front too. Probably, you'll get to hear some good news in that area as well. Like we had mentioned, we won't sit quiet and be at the receiving end from what's happening. We will be creating more products, more products that are better in terms of margin is well on the way. That's what we are looking forward to, we are ambitiously and progressively working on that, our teams are really ready. Right now I won't be able to tell you what, where, when. But rest assured that we'll be joining others also in their parties.
Great. That's wonderful to hear, Jyothy ma'am. One more thing which I wanted to touch base upon is that, is there a way or a strategy that at some point in time over different quarters, can we look at certain products which are not so heavily dependent on petroleum and crude oil derivative chemicals? Some of the new age D2C consumer brands are on biodegradable, coconut-derived surfactants, plant-based. I do understand that's not our core business, but is there a way to try to control the external environment by changing the principles of ingredients somehow in terms of research and development?
Again, it looks like you kind of already know and you're preempting already. We are also on that kind of a journey. Like I said, it's only a matter of time. We are not sitting here and going to just take things as they come. As a company and as a team, we are working on all those parameters because it's a very big lesson learned. We've paid a huge price for that. So, yes, there's a lot of projects which we are working on, Nitin.
Great. That's wonderful to hear that the management is cognizant of the market realities now, and I wish you all the best, and I think we should go from a space of undervaluation to overvaluation soon then of the stock price as well. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Logesh Kumar J, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible?
Yes, please proceed.
Okay. Thank you so much for the opportunity. My first question, I have a follow-up question on the gross margin level. I know that you have explained it in detail that it is a geopolitical lead and an inflation lead. The primary question is that we are almost about 10% down on a gross margin level, 48% to 38%. It indicates that we are due by taking about 10% price hike on our product. This seems to be very structural because no other FMCG company or it generally happens only with a commodity type of business, not to an FMCG company. There seems to be something structural issue like are we not having enough pricing power to increase our products by at least 5% to arrest the drop in gross margin? Or our product is not competitive enough?
How do you see this? Down the line, we were about 18% and now down to EBITDA of 8%. How do you see next two to three years panning out? What is giving you the confidence for you to go back to the 18% or 20% EBITDA margin, let's say, two years down the line? What is the broader strategy as a company you have is like you have on a long-term steady state basis like we will not get into this kind of situation again. Even though if the commodity prices increase or decrease, we should ideally have the ability to increase our product price so that our EBITDA margin is not this much hit. Can you explain on that?
Thanks for the question. First of all, ours is not a commodity business. The input price increase which has impacted us is to the tune of 30% - 35%, which has never happened in the recent memory of the company. 90% of our business is linked to crude oil prices. Crude oil has swung from whatever, 60, 65 to upwards of 100. This kind of increase has never been witnessed by the industry. A combination of all these factors has caused a 9% impact. Out of that, if you see the raw material impact itself would be about 15%, 16%. We have taken some 3% price increase and also 3%, 4% efficiencies and mix. That is how the impact has been contained at 9%, 9.5%.
Having said that, we understand that the heavy dependence on crude-linked material is a risk, and accordingly, we have been working on it for the last 1. 5 years. There is a lot of work which is happening in diversification and reducing the dependence on crude link raw material. Our innovation gives us scaling up of innovation, new products, et cetera, gives us confidence that the margin recovery would happen, should happen once the raw material prices or crude oil cools off. I do not see a major concern in terms of going back to the historical levels if the external environment calms down a little bit.
Okay. Let's assume that the external environment remain the same for the next one year. Do we have the ability to increase the price and then recover back to the margin? That is the major question, because the external environment or crude prices doesn't seem to be any time softening at all. In that kind of situation, how would be your reaction is?
Logesh, the thing is, you calling it a commodity is completely wrong. We are a very good brand, house of brands, in the sense we have good market shares. For your information, who behaves as commodities are competition. The moment we enter categories and the moment we launch, there is competition that reduces prices, and that's where the commoditization happens. To give you a proper This thing is, some few of our recent launches, competition has taken the prices down. It is up to you to decide who is actually a commodity. Okay. Also, one thing to be noted is when you keep increasing prices, you also need the consumer to buy your products. If everybody keeps increasing prices the way it is, the demand and the consumptions will also come down. It is a complex thing about all of these.
Yeah.
Right? The moment JLL brings in or launches a competitive good product, there are enough big competition who brings down their prices. Okay? That is the biggest thing that you need to keep a note on. That's the big and short answer for your question.
Okay. So, ma'am, I completely understand your point. There should be some sort of calibrated price increases, right? Because every other company in the same space as we operate, at least have maintained or able to take a calibrated price hike and able to protect the margin to some extent. Nobody else except Jyothy has taken this kind of hit. That is the main
You are right.
Yeah.
Yeah. You are right because, for us, 90% is Home Care, right? The companies that you are talking about have other categories as well. If you see 90% Home Care has a direct relation to the crude prices, and hence you see the difference, right?
Yeah.
Like I have said in the past, we are on the journey of increasing personal care and bringing in other products also, high-margin products also. You will see those changes in the future. But currently, as we are structured, we are into Home Care 90%, and that is why that has a direct impact. Now, when you say about pricing is competitive. It is what most of our products are at par with competition. There is no dilution there. Okay?
Okay.
I hope that answers.
Thanks for the clarification. Shall I know what is the net cash balance available now, free cash balance available now?
About INR 850 crore.
Okay. All right. Thank you so much. That is it from my end.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Darshit Vora from Asit C. Mehta Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hello, am I audible?
Yes, please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted to follow up to what you said earlier, you said that the incense sticks of ours is a better product. I just wondered, I have two parts to this question. One is that how is it a better product when compared to competition? The second part is, how are we communicating this to the consumer? For example, GCPL has this RNF molecule that they worked on, and they are putting that through as a differentiator. So what kind of proposition do we have or are we working on to create a difference in the minds of the consumers that our product is better than the competition?
Darshit, why I said it's a better product, because we have a trusted molecule there, and it's a very stable molecule. Our lab results have shown that we are in much better product when we have compared other products. So that's the confidence with which I said. It is a perfume product, it is a government-approved product, and our incense sticks acts within two minutes immediately. So that is the confidence in which I said that ours is a better product.
How are we communicating this to the consumer?
Communicating will happen because as and when the product reaches everywhere, we'll start our communication as well. Different methods, but right now too early to tell you.
All right. Thank you. That will be all. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take this as the last question for the day. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.