Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the First Quarter Earnings Conference Call of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd. The call will begin with a brief discussion by the company's management on the Q1 FY 2026 performance, followed by a question and answer session. We have with us today Mr. Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, ABFRL, and Mr. Jagdish Bajaj, CFO, ABFRL. I want to thank the management team on behalf of all the participants for taking valuable time to be with us. I must remind you that today's discussion may include certain forward-looking statements and must be viewed, therefore, in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. Please restrict your questions to the quarter performance and to strategic questions only. Housekeeping questions can be dealt separately with the IR team. With this, I hand the conference over to Mr. Jagdish Bajaj. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Q1 FY 2026 Earnings Call. Thank you for joining us today. As we reflect on the first quarter, the apparel market witnessed selective growth pockets, largely fueled by higher wedding dates. That said, the broader market sentiment remains cautious, and the pace of recovery continues to be gradual. Against this backdrop, our focus has remained steadfast on driving profitability through disciplined execution and operational efficiency. All our businesses have either maintained or improved margins, demonstrating the resilience of our portfolio. Growth during the quarter was led by our newer businesses, which continue to capture the emerging consumer segments. These segments are fast becoming key growth engines, supported by differentiated product offerings, faster brand positioning, and a stronger consumer connect, as reflected in their growing contribution to overall revenue from 37% last year to 44% this year.
Before financial performance, an update on corporate actions. TMRW gave first investment of INR 437 crore from ServiceNow Ventures in its current round of external fundraising, leveraging the ServiceNow AI platform. TMRW will further enhance its speed to market, dynamic and focused assortments, and seamless consumer experiences across the rapidly expanding omnichannel footprint. Relevant regulatory filings pertaining to the transactions have been completed. On the merger, as previously communicated, all requisite processes have been successfully completed, culminating in the creation of Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands Limited. The company was listed on the stock exchange on June 23rd, 2025. Coming to the financial performance for this quarter, ABFRL sustained a strong profitable growth momentum in Q1 FY 2026, underpinned by a well-defined strategy of scaling its diverse, high-potential businesses with a disciplined focus on profitability.
The company's consistent execution once again delivered healthy top-line growth alongside margin resilience, despite a challenging market backdrop. Revenue for the quarter increased 9% YoY to INR 1,831 crore, fueled by a strong performance across key segments. Performance of ethnics and TMRW businesses stood out, delivering 25% and 38% growth respectively, reflecting the strength of their brand portfolios, expanding consumer reach, and sustained demand momentum. EBITDA rose to INR 169 crores, up 38% YoY, supported by a strong expansion in the ethnic business, where margins improved by 600 basis points. Stable margins in TMRW and Pantaloons, despite a softer market environment further impacted by the shift of Eid. Excluding TMRW , the rest of ABFRL's portfolio delivered an EBITDA of INR 245 crores, which is 49% growth over last year.
This balanced growth, driven by both scale and operational efficiency, underscores ABFRL's ability to navigate market shifts while building a stronger foundation for sustained profitability. As of June 2025, ABFRL held a gross cash of INR 2,070 crores. Let me first cover Pantaloons. The Pantaloons segment reported revenue of INR 1,094 crores, primarily due to the shift of Eid, and the impact of store closure over the last 12 months, adjusted for which growth would have been 4%. Like-to-like this quarter remains flat. However, when adjusted for the shift of Eid from April last year to March this year, the normalized like-to-like stood at 3%. For Q1 FY 2026, the segmental margin stood at 17.1%, marginally lower than last year, largely owing to lower sales.
Despite this, Pantaloons's format once again delivered an EBITDA margin of 18% +, underscoring the consistent strength of its retail operations, controlled markdown strategies, and disciplined cost management across its networks. The Style Up value retail format under Pantaloons continued a strong growth trajectory. The brand expanded its footprint to 49 stores during the quarter and posted a robust 36% revenue growth, signaling expanding store base. This momentum positions Style Up well for accelerated scale-up in the coming quarters and sustained growth in the years ahead. Ethnic businesses, our ethnic wear business continues to be a powerful growth engine for us, anchored by the most comprehensive ethnic brand portfolio in India, spanning designer-grade brands to premium ethnic wear brands. In Q1 FY 2026, the segment delivered a stellar performance, reporting revenue of INR 436 crores, up 25% YoY, one of the highest growth rates across our portfolio.
Profitability shows a sharp split, with EBITDA margin expanding by 600 basis points, resulting in positive EBITDA this quarter versus a loss in the same period last year. The quarter's strong performance was driven by robust like-to-like growth across most brands, with occasion-led brands posting double-digit like-to-like growth on the back of a strong wedding season and sustained demand for occasion-led fashion. Strategic actions, including curated seasonal collections, sharper merchandising, and enhanced retail experiences, further strengthened consumer connects and translated into higher productivity for the store. Our designer-led ethnic portfolio, comprising Sabyasachi, Tarun Tahiliani, House of Masaba, Shantnu Nikhil delivered an exceptional 79% YoY growth in Q1. These brands continued to set benchmarks in the luxury and threat ethnic space, driven by category expansion, accelerated store rollout, and continuous product innovation that elevated consumer experience and brand desirability.
Within premium ethnic wear, Tasva posted another standout quarter, capitalizing on the wedding season to deliver 72% YoY sales growth and 39% like-to-like growth. The brand further deepened its presence in key wedding hubs and strengthened its connects with Indian consumers, expanding its network now to 70 stores. TCNS posted growth in revenue over last year, despite the store closure, demonstrating the resilience and strength of its brands. Growth was multichannel, led by 4% retail like-to-like alongside strong momentum in other sales channels. After a slow April, businesses moved into a consistent double-digit LTL growth trajectory. Profits of the quarter saw a significant improvement versus last year, driven by higher growth margins and improved retail performance. Our luxury retail, comprising the multi-brand format the collective and other mono brands, continued to deliver double-digit profitability, posting single-digit YoY growth in Q1 versus last year.
The format added three new stores to the network and now encompasses 54 stores. Now, TMRW portfolio grew by 38% versus last year this quarter. This strong organic growth was fueled by an expanded product portfolio, enhanced focus on D2C channels, and impactful brand-building initiatives. Portfolio brands accelerated their offline expansion and executed the quarter with 25 stores across key markets nationwide. The current fundraise will position the brands well to continue to keep this high growth momentum and realize our ambition of building multiple large digital first brands. In conclusion, this quarter's results underscore ABFRL's ability to achieve profitable growth, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year margin expansion. This reinforces our confidence that our emphasis on innovation, retail productivity, and disciplined cost management has strengthened margins and maintained resilience, even amid the cautious demand environment.
Going forward, we'll continue to scale our core market-leading brands while accelerating momentum in our newer high-potential segments. With the festive season arriving early, we are well-positioned to capture demand through compelling product stories, enhanced retail experiences, and a wider omnichannel presence. Our strategy remains clear, built on the strength of our brands, sustained profitable growth, and creates long-term value by staying ahead on evolving consumer preferences in the Indian fashion and lifestyle space. We are open to questions now. 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 telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and then two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking your 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 Aditya Soman from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, and thanks for the opportunity. Two questions from me. Firstly, on the sort of very strong EBITDA trajectory for the ethnic business, we've seen strong growth and now sort of EBITDA also improve. Can you give us some sense of how you see this trajectory evolve over the short term and then, more importantly, over the medium term and where you see a steady state EBITDA for this business should be? Secondly, for the Pantaloons store closure, there was a sort of a 2.7% store reduction, but I see that the area is actually flattish. One, anything to read across on that? Secondly, would this represent sort of the normal in a normal business you'll see further store reduction or do we think for now they are well-called in terms of store count and could potentially clear the space somewhere?
Thanks, Aditya, for those questions. On the ethnic portfolio, I would first say that there is consistent improvement across the portfolio of the brands, but we have a mix of brands which are well-established, highly profitable, brands which are in the turnaround phase like TCNS, and the brands which are in build-up phase like Tasva. The first part is most of these businesses benefit from wedding seasons, which is largely in the second half of the year. The cost base remains pretty static, but the revenue is significantly higher in the second half versus first half. You will see a much faster increase in profitability as we move towards the second half of the year. Having said that, the three constraints—this is designer brand, the turnaround business of TCNS, and Tasva—will all have different trajectories. I think designer brand portfolio is quite stable.
I would argue in high 20s in post-index terms to some of them in high 30s is really where the steady state margin will sit. The premium brand portfolio, which is Tasva, is still scaling up. You can see the quarter performance, really 71% growth, 39% like-to-like. I think we'll continue to put this. Profitability is somewhat away as far as this business is concerned. We think FY 2027 end is where we'll get to the break-even in Tasva. TCNS has been showing strong improvement, but still, while at the post-index level, it's turned positive, in pre-index terms, it's still somewhat below the break-even level. I'm very enthused by the turnaround trajectory in TCNS and the acceleration in Tasva, while the designer brands by themselves are already in good space.
As a portfolio, therefore, Aditya, if you look at it, ethnically a business which we had zero presence in FY 2020, we now have a business which is last year close to INR 2,000 crores, growing this quarter 25%. I would say even going forward, one could imagine a 20% kind of growth rate. As TCNS kicks in, perhaps that could be even stronger. Our portfolio level of post-index EBITDA margins north of 20% is what we could look at as far as this business is concerned. We're not there yet. There is also a seismicity between first half and second half, but that's surely where we think the ethnic business. It's a very beautiful business shaping up extremely well, both in terms of size and profitability.
On your second question on Pantaloons, we did a fairly deep network correction if you have followed the business over the last 15 - 18 months from a network of stores which is north of 416. Now we are talking closer to 400, and much of it has happened in the last 12 - 18 months. I think you hit the bottom end in terms of store closures. You are going to start to see net store additions as we go forward. The new store in line with the strategy that Sangeeta had sort of laid down is about opening larger stores. While the number of stores will be fewer, the size of the stores will be more like 20,000, 25,000. If you see any of our new Pantaloons stores, it's cleaner, bigger, more impactful, and very modern and contemporary. Some visuals you can see in the presentation as well.
That's the direction for Pantaloons, which we've been consistently following as a part of our repeat which we started 2.5 years back when we made the correction in distribution as well as imagery of Pantaloons.
No, I understand very clearly, and thanks for that detailed answer. Just maybe one follow-up on Tasva. Obviously, growth there is very strong. When we sort of look at, when we say it's available across 70 stores, this includes, are these just standalone Tasva stores or these are also other?
No, no. These are absolutely, that is just standalone Tasva stores.
I understand. The like-to-like growth is just this 39% is only the standalone Tasva stores versus standalone?
Yeah, about 15 - 50, up to 70 stores would be part of the like-to-like growth.
Perfect. That's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Archana Menon from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. My questions are on Pantaloons. Firstly, on the marketing and brand-building side, what is the spend currently as a percentage of revenue for Pantaloons and how has that been in the past? Are they thinking of taking that up in this year and the years to come? The second question was in the retail identity. There's an announcement on new retail identity and some pictures. I would just want to get a sense from you that of your total 400 odd stores, what percentage of stores would we say are under the old retail identity, which maybe I'm not so happy with, say, maybe five years earlier? What is that percentage and how are you thinking of refurbishments and delays?
Okay. So, Archana, as far as Pantaloons' marketing spend is concerned, they have been in the range of 1.5% to 2% historically. At its peak, maybe 2%, 2.5%. At the low point, maybe 1%, 1.5%. Typically, 1.5% on an annualized basis. Of course, quarter in quarter, these numbers look very different, but on an annual basis, I think we could assume a 1.5% kind of base as the number that we have. We expect in a shorter term, which is next year or so, this percentage to marginally go up primarily because we feel we now have a new proposition. The Pantaloons stores, the product portfolio, the aesthetics, the design cycle, everything that now is represented in the new Pantaloons is a bit shift from what we used to be. Every element of innovation, aesthetics, retail display, the consumer experience has significantly moved.
Towards the fact to start, you know, spend a little bit more for a short period of time, I don't think it will change the long-term sort of investment of 1.5%, 2% kind of range. It won't be any different, but a short period of time, you might see in some quarters some of the more targeted spend typically closer to the festive period.
Retail ID.
On the retail ID, it's been evolving stories. The latest retail identity that we're talking about is obviously very, very new, but if I were to count the last one or the ones that we are very happy with and it's modern and contemporary and in line with the current position, about 50% of our network is past the new identity that we're happy with. There is a task in the remaining 45-50%. We will take it slowly over a period of time. Not all these stores are based in big cities where, you know, it's required as those cities are experiencing better retail environments far more rapidly. We'll pace the rollout of new retail identity and take it over a three to four-year period.
I see. I have two follow-ups. Firstly, I think it's a bit heavy with the steady presence of Pantaloons now after all the store closures. Secondly, for TMRW , after the fundraise, what would your stage be right now?
City, about 155 cities is where our presence is, 185 - 190. Is that what you're looking for or are you looking for any more granularity than that?
No, sir, this is good. 185 and 190. How long TMRW on your stage currently?
TMRW , it's early double-digit stake that ServiceNow Ventures has invested in for INR 423 crore. It's 11% odd kind of stake. The exact details are probably in the filing, but that's the rough stake that they have. The remaining stores lie between ABFRL and a small part within that, in the ESOP and employees.
Understood. Just the last question, sir, what should your current investment be in TMRW so far?
TMRW , we have invested INR 770 crore through equity investments in different forms over the last three years, three or four years.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kunal Shah from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My question is also on TMRW . With this capital raise, your cash burn in this business is not that high. What are the areas where this will be invested? Are there more acquisitions planned or offline expansion, or how would this capital be allocated under TMRW ?
So, Kunal, two parts. One, capital growth process is still on. We expect to raise more capital in this round. The first announcement is soon, but as I've always maintained in our previous calls, we're looking to raise close to or north of $100 million, half of that cash flow. Where would this be used? You're right. There is a part which will go towards the funding of the businesses since it's still not cash flow positive or EBITDA positive at this stage. The first part of it, our focus currently is on growing what we have. We have a portfolio of very powerful brands. Some of them will be acquired whereas as low as INR 10 crore a year and have grown from INR 100 crore to INR 200 crore a year. Some brands where INR 200 crore have grown to INR 300 crore. Some require acceleration.
Some require more branding efforts. By and large, it's for acceleration of growth of the businesses where the capital will grow. As you would have seen in our presentations, the CBO expansion because we want to truly build an omnichannel digital-first experience, but omnichannel for our brands. Our brands such as Bewakoof, the Indian Garage Company, Nobero , etc., have started expanding offline. Wrogn already had some presence. There would be a part of capital that would go towards that.
Understood. The second question is on TCNS. If I heard it correctly, you said after April, this business has moved to a double-digit like-to-like growth. Is that understanding correct?
Yeah, yeah. This business, as you know, had been struggling to get organic growth for some time in the past. In the last four or five months, we've changed the trajectory. Only April was affected to some extent, and that was also partly due to shifts of Eid. If you leave that aside, every month is delivering good, strong, high double-digit like-to-like growth. That's a very assurance for us because a lot of changes have been done in merchandising. Retail execution has been significantly revamped. The old inventory is out of the system. Poor stores are out of the system. We are finding a very strong trajectory. Therefore, our thesis on investment in TCNS is looking much more shorter and stronger now at this point versus any time in the last 12 - 18 months.
Understood. If I may, little data on what is the percentage of revenue that this, or what is the percentage of revenue coming from retail, which is like-to-like growth captures, if I can have some understanding of that. In the other parts, the other channels, are you looking to consolidate or has that already happened and is that as behind?
So it's north of 50%. I'll just figure out if there is a significant deviation in the retail shares. Yeah, it is about 50% odd. Department stores and e-commerce constitute a large part of the remaining business because the MBO business is very small. I think the business is now well-positioned with everything that needed to be thought about to even grow in the platform store channel, which had stagnated over a period of time in the last one or two years when we were fixing the products. I will see growth coming there also in the next couple of quarters, as well as online business. Although online business as an overall business is only about 15%, 18%. I expect the share to rise as far as online is also concerned.
Understood. Any plans to expand the store network now again in the retail channel, or is that still sometime away?
So Kunal, as we had mentioned, a part of our strategy was first to remove bad inventory, bad costs, and bad stores to see data in the first 8 -1 2 months. Then, the plan was to revitalize the merchandise as well as revitalize stores, which is what we were executing. We are very happy to see the kind of outcome that's delivering in terms of sales performance. As we move towards the second half and perhaps towards the later part of this year, that is when the expansion would start. The real impact of that you would start to see only next year.
Understood. In that case, pre-index profitability also should come next year probably on a full year equals?
Yes. Yes.
Understood. Thank you, sir. That's all from my side.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Gopal Nawandhar from ACL Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Congratulations on this external fundraise for TMRW . My question was on, you know, we have seen improvement in the profitability of TCNS. When should we start seeing the addition of network in TCNS?
Gopal, thanks. As I was explaining to Kunal, you want to be sure that your business is in a good place, product is working, stores are working, the viability is strong. In the last four, five, six months, we have started to see the outcome of it when the like-to-like first moved from negative to positive and now moved from positive to double-digit positive. This gives us a lot of confidence. Of course, the pipeline takes some time to build. You start to see perhaps the second half of this year, you might see 30 - 40 store addition. Next year onwards, if this trajectory continues, we're very confident that this improvement is quite structural and strong. We'll start expanding more rapidly next year for the out. We will start to do it towards the second half of this year.
Most of the benefit of that will probably come next year.
Okay. For Pantaloons' side also, we have seen consolidation of network. What is our plan there in terms of will there be a network addition this year or still continue to reject the sizes of the stores?
I think in absolute number of stores, there may not be significant addition, but the network is improving both in quality and size. The number of stores that we are opening between 20,000 - 30,000 is where the focus of new Pantaloons is. While a lot of our network of small stores is what we are looking to rationalize, this year there may be only marginal increase in network, although the space increase will be material. Going forward, I think Pantaloons has gotten out its stores that we wanted to close, and we expect next year onwards to start adding to the core network as well.
The TMRW side, losses in this quarter was a little higher versus what has been the run rate in the last few quarters. With this fundraise and our focus shifting more on the offline stores, how should one see the profitability trajectory for this business?
You're right, Gopal. I think the quarterly performance, while on the revenue side was very strong with 30% organic growth. The network had marginally gone up. In percentage terms, they were similar to last year, but in absolute terms, they had gone up. I think in the second half of the year, we will see that trajectory also beginning to change. Fundraising, of course, we put forth also expanding offline business to get the balance between offline and online. Offline business is the benefit Gopal brings. He is a brand which you have seen only online. The credibility comes and stature comes from offline presence. Offline business also allows us to typically increase the gross margins by higher price points, superior products, which sometimes get lost in online business.
We are finding almost a 10% difference, you know, 1,000 basis point difference between the gross margin that we deliver in offline business versus online business. Still, the squared up path line is very small. As it improves, the type of profitability will start to shift there.
Sir, can I ask questions on ABLBL and this?
They will probably, Gopal, not be able to address that in this call, but we will reach out to you separately for any questions. I'm at your connectivity.
Thanks a lot and all the best, Gopal.
Thank you. Thank you, Gopal.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Harsh Shah from Bandhan AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. I forgot my question. So basically, Ashish, just like Tasva, like Style Up would be in the investment sale, I would believe, right? And while you kind of laid down your ambition for Style Up over a 5-year period, I would just want to know probably what would -- I mean, kind of guidance for the next couple of years, let's say, what would that be? And currently, at what revenue per square feet, let's say, the initial cohort of stores, right, it might be 10, 15, 20 stores. What revenue per square feet basically are they operating at currently?
I think our projections for startups, they have mentioned as a long-term plan. We currently have about 59 odd stores now, 50, 55 stores at this point of time. We look to add about 40 stores this year, which will increase the size of the business. The productivity has been varying between, you know, if you look at sales per square feet per day, between 20 - 25 in some of the lower-performing stores to 35 - 40 in some of the higher-performing stores, depending on the location, the kind of market that it is. It needs to go up from there, but at the current level of performance, the store network as a whole is profitable, which means the contribution at the store level is positive for the entire store network of 49-50 people.
We still get some leverage of scale both on the gross margin as well as visibility of the brand. I think that's where the positive slide in this chart is setting.
There is immediately an EBITDA level based on cash burn in this format as well.
There is a cash burn at EBITDA level to cover the overhead costs of the operations of the store.
Corporate overhead. Okay. The format level basically is EBITDA positive, but let's say corporate level.
Retail store level is positive, but the corporate overheads are not covered.
Okay. That would not be what is being in this business at EBITDA level? When we foresee at what level of scale are these stores once deployed?
See, I think we'll discover it perhaps in the next 18 - 24 months because if this rate continues, which means as we add more stores, the store losses are not there. Therefore, we have a higher leverage available to fix on fixed cost. We also recognize that on the other side, as you scale the business, you'll have to also increase your team size, operations. Fixed overheads will also grow at this point of time. Maybe for the next two, three years, we will have some level of losses at this point of time because overheads, we may have to increase a little bit more ahead of actual expansion. That's the period we'll go through.
I think both the size of the opportunities as well as the current performance gives us confidence that it's a fairly scalable business and therefore leveraging of overheads is something that we'll be able to achieve in maybe three, four years.
Is there a chance when you see to kind of accelerate this? I think because as currently I'm seeing at what you know you're saying, probably 40 stores look probably, you know, slightly on the lower side. Is there a possibility that given the confidence that you have in this sort of format and the sort of profitability, this can go up to 60, 70 stores or something on that cost?
I think the only point I would make is that it's a very large opportunity and a market which provides a very long-term growth piece. You don't want to rush into it because this will be an opportunity not just today, but in FY 2030 and FY 2035 also. Therefore, we are equally focused on making sure that we get it right, continue to refine the proposition, improve the product while simultaneously growing this year at 45, 50 stores, but after that, between 75 - 100 stores is pretty much on the card.
Got it. One more on company strategy, I mean, at least for this quarter, I think fantastic. If we look at the last couple of quarters, two to three quarters, the growth rate has not tapered off. What really changed in this quarter which led to such high growth? If I was able to give some quality, you know, tell about it, it would be helpful.
I do think with growth rates, last even the quarter before was fairly stable, good growth rates, of course, not like 40%. Remember, all ready-wear pieces. Tasva, 72% growth, Sabyasachi, whatever, close to 40% growth, Tarun Tahiliani, all the businesses have also benefited from a low weather base of last year. To that extent, this is not an organic growth number. This is a reflection of a lower base, and because to some extent, it's what is showing up in anybody who has a share of exposure to wedding-related purchases.
Okay.
I don't think, however, there is any absence of growth momentum in the brand. It's a very, very powerful brand. Obviously, it's a brand which you don't want to rush in and grow like you may want to grow with Tasva or Sabyasachi to that extent. The brand trajectory will continue to grow extremely well.
What is the format of, let's say, jewelry in, what would you consider to be at least, let's say, on a volume basis? Typically in jewelry, apparel, and accessories, I would say, per diem and what they have. Are they contributing to stable on a volume basis or is it more like a driven by appetite?
See, which category, Sabyasachi's brand has been growing consistently over a period of time. It's a very large category. Sabyasachi's brand, as well as Sabyasachi's Indian jeweler, has reached a level of identification that he has, not just in India, but outside. Obviously, compared to the size of the market in jewelry, it's a small business that as a part of this mix, it limits the mix on going at the core of the overall portfolio.
Okay. Got it. Got it. Just one more, basically, on a specific marketing style, I thought Style Up. If Style Up is coming to the market, is the net cash currently with that? Is that what you're doing?
Tasva's store addition plan is about 40 stores this year, plus/ minus a few, but that's only the triple store addition plan for this year. On the gross to net cash, there is a deadline in TMRW and there's a deadline in standalone entity and there's that part of the ethnic subsidy. So, Jagdish can --
See, Harsh, with us at a standalone level, I have cash of around INR 1,900 crore and a borrowing, which is INR 750 crore for a long, this is long term, falling due in 2029-30.
Okay.
We are adequate to ask for these future responsibilities.
That's bringing in.
And TMRW it also will get stepped by the current fundraise. That number will move a little bit closer to suppose. There is a deadline in some of the ethnic subsidiaries next again in this year.
Okay.
The gross earnings is right. I mean, if you could quantify that, maintaining gross at the end, I think at the end, that's another,
maybe another is at INR 600 crore. I don't know.
Yeah, about TMRW .
Without TMRW , it's not more than INR 200 crore.
Yes. So about INR 200-odd crores lying in subsidiaries.
And TMRW, of course, we will again turn net positive because the debt currently will be offset by the equity raise that we're doing.
Thank you. Our next follow-up question comes from the line of Kunal Shah from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi. My follow-up is on this TMRW capital raised. Because I cannot understand this 11% dilution would imply, I think, valuation of around INR 4,000 crore, right? Is there any, you know, performance benchmarks or is this valuation independent of all of those things given it's a subsidiary as well?
No, this is like a broader equity investment in investment in time of CCPS. No, there is no chance to assume that I will soon rush to it. No.
Understood. Do you include the plan that is not consolidated? I think one of those. The total revenue would be around INR 1,000 crore, right, for this business?
Last year, I think annualized revenue would have been close to about INR 1,000 crore.
You're already pushing INR 900 crore per account revenue on a future to take some weight. Understood. Understood. Understood. That's clear. That's clear. Thank you for that.
That's okay.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Gaurav Jogani from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
In the one-time case, I'm saying what we are computing would be also damage of that stores is equal to the rest of the end of the stores.
That's one-time capex. If you assume that, I think the overall CapEx plan for other businesses put together will be in the range of about INR 300 crore.
If you add, it would be INR 500 crore from ABFRL?
Yeah, yeah. Definitely.
That could be lots of negative things TMRW . I don't know that, surprisingly. You think, I think the EBITDA also constitutes the deals, the losses of Wrogn in that? Am I correct in my understanding?
Yes. Wrogn is already my share of our losses. He consolidates in losses, although we don't take his revenue. It is inclusive of that class.
That is also one of the reasons why the losses used to be high in our stores in that context.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. Sir, with regards to, you know, again, TMRW , what would be the plan here? I understand that, you know, it would be in a higher interesting expansion mode, which is something if you want to explain a little further. You know, when can we see if we are pushing that even during these core numbers?
Sir, to that, I see there's not too much of a difference between post and pre-event number. There's some, and as we increase the share of offline, perhaps that may grow over a period of time. As we have indicated in our investor presentation outcome, which we made to you as part of the set, we are looking at FY 2029 as the year in which we would try to look at EBITDA break-even. That's the journey that we should be on.
Okay. Given the performance and total of the top-line growth, etc., is encouraging, do you think that it would be sooner versus what you would have expected earlier than that?
No, honestly, I don't see that. I don't, I mean, we would be happy to get there, but at this point, I wouldn't want to indicate that.
Okay. Absolutely. You know, the Pantaloons page, we are seeing there's very strong losses because of the Style Up business here in the region. I mean, X of these, X of that, and X of the marketing spend, as we indicated, the profitability would have been higher. Once you know Style Up also starts to continue to profit increase, what kind of margins then you expect Pantaloons to deliver on stage in this?
If you were to stay with post-index and then we'll come to pre-index, I think Pantaloons itself is currently consistently operated about 18% + EBITDA margin. Style Up is obviously taking away while it's marginally better, but it's taking away because the segmented results are close to 16% - 17% depending on which quarter you're talking about. This quarter it was 17%, previous quarter it was 15%. I think that's the range in which the current profitability is operating. We don't think we have achieved the right level of profitability in Pantaloons itself, and we think another 300 - 500 basis point improvement in profitability, whether you look at pre-index or post-index, is really what we need to deliver in Pantaloons. Style Up will start from a lower base. In pre-index terms, it will go through a loss phase, which is what we're going through.
The encouraging part is that loss will not grow rapidly with the net worth because the net worth itself is not moving on. I think as we bring scale and create greater sort of brand visibility through supply by more stores, etc., we expect to improve that performance. We'll continue to remain loss-taking for at least next 3-4 years, but not at a very high level of losses.
Sure. But then you said that the original Pantaloons would see some 300-500 bps from that level and then we have to blend…
Okay.
Okay, that would work out.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sameer Gupta from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. I'm Sameer Gupta from Capital again. Firstly, on Pantaloons, it's been some time now that we've been hearing about the new identity that has been rolled out. I heard on this call that around 51% of stores are now on the new identity. Let's say the top end of these stores maybe just spent around two years under this new identity. Any performance metrics you can share there, same store sales growth, the revenue per square feet kind of metrics that they're tracking? Are they on the right track? Is the strategy showing results? Anything that you can highlight on that front?
I think I would say the answer to your question is very simple. If you look at Pantaloons as a business, it was at that point between when we started the firm before we were able to margin according to 15%. As we stick to this, you can look at last quarter, last three quarters, we're operating 15%. Is the strategy working? Yes. I don't want to get into specific store level slices. I don't have it at this point of time, but I can also reconfirm to you that the new stores, the better stores are performing better than the old stores. That should be natural. But eventually, the outcome of it is showing up in that absolute store -- absolute numbers that we are talking about.
Got it. Internally, do you slice it?
We look at it, but we look at it at every store level also because what happens for me is sometimes the location, its potential, all that also matters in coming up with numbers. Sometimes averages miss out the bigger picture. 400 stores is not too many stores, and we are looking at, you know, 40, 50 stores that we're converting into new identity either through new store addition or through renovation. It's a number which we very closely track.
So Ashish, see, the point I'm trying to make here is that margin improvement is great, but Pantaloons, if you look at it over a longer-term history, we have been able to improve margins and ROCE profile. The only problem area that I find is that there is no real history of same-store sales growth on a consistent basis. And with this new identity rollout, if that problem is still persisting, then it's a problematic area, right?
See, I think for us, the more important thing is to figure out profitability. If we figure out profitability right, I won't worry about other pieces. The intermediate metrics don't define the end outcome. Does every retailer need same-store growth? Absolutely right, Sameer. Is Pantaloons delivering it? I think for quite some time, it's not been managed. It's not managed to do that. However, it's the journey. Therefore, as you're seeing it, we'll hopefully start to get that. Sometimes there are some lead factors and some are lag factors. We are beginning to see some of those starting to show up in a network. The total numbers of same-store growth will take longer to show up as the share of these stores increase over a period of time. Many of these stores are also, remember, new retail identity, are new stores.
They will also increase their share as the number of such stores go up from currently at 45% of network to 60%- 65% of network. Indeed, that's the Holy Grail you're trying to choose, which was getting to the same-store growth. I completely agree with you. That's something that Pantaloons has not delivered consistently for some time.
Great idea. That's great to hear. Second is on Tasva. Now, I understand you mentioned 40-store additions this year is what the target is. If I look at more recent history, we've been very slow in terms of store expansion. We were at around 57, if I remember, by end of March last year. Right now, we are at 70. Is this a conscious strategy that we just look at the first 50, 55 stores as a pilot and, you know, be conservative in terms of store additions and then scale up? We're still trying to figure out store economics.
Yeah, I think we've gone past the stages questioning the viability of looking at the concept. If you see any of the Tasva stores now, you get a sense of fairly established concept. You obviously want to be careful. It's a category which has very high seasonality. We are not opening 2,000 square feet stores if you look at Tasva. For a few months, most of the Tasva stores are fairly large stores in a fairly well-established market, which means large rentals in absolute terms, both by rentals and through size. We want to remain cautious. This is a market which is available for us over a long period of time. As we have mentioned, our goal was to get 200 odd stores over the next three years. Currently, Tasva is perhaps not at the right level because we are currently likely to grow a little bit over 90 stores.
I know that Tasva will be able to expand that a little bit faster. I don't want to do it in a hurry. It's not a value format which you can scale up very easily and, you know, buy a lot and get enough customers at that price point in any locality. Another thing is shopping. It's better to get the right stores, right location, right facade. That's taking somewhat more time than what we would ideally like. From the concept itself, the retail viability, there's no question about it. I think it's a format which is working very well.
Got it. This question is very, very helpful. Last question is on exclusion and it's related. Now, Tasva, you mentioned it is a more measured strategy in terms of store expansion. Pantaloons, in any case, 16 stores around you're targeting. They are also your measure. Designer Brothers, anyway, sells for people. TCNS is on the path to profitability. TMRW , you expect losses to come down from the second half. You are still sitting on a decent amount of net cash. What was this, you know, need to raise capital in TMRW at this point? I understand there is a trajectory of losses that you foresee in the coming year. At this juncture, why did you get to this capital raise?
To be fair, I think if you look at absolute cash in the books and the businesses we need cash, the question is absolutely valid. I would also remind you that we've been fairly consistent about our philosophy of capital allocation in various businesses. When we launched TMRW in 2021, we talked about that initially we'll do a salary spend, give it some level of investment, allow the business to come to a certain size, and we will get external investors. Over the next 8 -1 0 years, build a company which can find a very digital native path to this industry, which is the fashion industry, and have its own public market journey as you go forward from private to public.
In line with that, we have stayed with stating even in the last fundraise, we have called out that the capital will not be used for TMRW because TMRW has its own access to capital and potential, etc., not for that particular type of strategy. That is actually what we just played out. The theme of what we supported back to you is that focus market.
Agreed. Agreed. This is very, very consistent to what you have been saying. Isn't the message going then that you're not very confident of the future of TMRW ? What is the other brands? There are other brands in the portfolio which are lost marketing as well.
No, but TMRW we created, Sameer, as a separate company five years back. We have consistently stayed with exactly what you said. As I said, this is our strategy. When we play out our strategy, we will stay with what we have found. There's no reason to change it dramatically. I don't understand where your question is coming from. It was clearly stated in our capital allocation principle, which we laid out six months back, which we laid out four years back also. This has been our strategy.
I think that answers the question. Thanks again for taking this helpful back in this learning follow-up.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jignanshu Gor from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you. Thank you for taking my question. As you said, I know we discussed a lot about Pantaloons. I just wanted to get clarity on one thing. This new rebranding exercise that you want to do and probably in general, our quote-unquote turnaround approach for improving the same-store sales growth as Pantaloons to recover our rentals, etc. What are we changing with this new identity? Like, what are we solving for? Is it more premium experience and hence better margins? Is it a larger variety? Is it just a look and feel to differentiate it or modernize it? I think that would be helpful to understand. Thanks.
Okay. You guys are first, I would say that while we are telling you're telling your new retail identity, there's no rebranding. It's the same Pantaloons brand. We prepare the style change, the retail experience change. The landscape is changing. International brands are creating more aspirational retail environments. New retailers are coming. This is in keeping with the times. This is something which retailers around the world do when the markets are evolving. Invest in mature markets where the maturity has already been reached. This happens once in 7, 8, 10 years. In a country like India, which is still a well-going consumer experience and different differential levels of retail experience, you have to constantly evolve. It is not something that we're doing at a one-time exercise.
We've been actually improving retail experience in line with what we felt was the current state at that point of time over the last five or seven years. The shift is just reaping here. Coming to a more substantive part of your question, the whole idea of this, if you look at the bottom of the pyramid in value retail, there is a fairly large number of competitors who are actually crowding that space. More are coming, selling clubs between INR 300 to INR 1,000, whether it's a large number of online players or multiple offline players. Pantaloons, over a period of time, has delivered for an Indian body class a good quality, reliable, and reasonable fashion for its customers over a period of time.
As the definition of good quality changes because now it started with its pyramid and more price points, Pantaloons need to upgrade and rectify it and attract that customer to upgrade from cheaper products, better quality products, to better reliable products because the brands are still further up and they're far more expensive. This is what we're trying to do in the journey therefore that happens. Your customer could tell me too, wanting to get out of cheap products and looking for better quality, I would assume that you are taking away the customer topically. Start to look at better offers and Pantaloons is very close to that. It's a familiar brand and it's offering that. In financial and economic terms, it obviously improves average sales sales. It increases the gross margin because you're able to offer better products with slightly better quality.
Also, see, one of the other benefits in terms of cleaner customer commands and lower stock density and therefore better in key terms, lower markdowns, all of which actually both financially and for customers create value. That's the journey for us. That's been the consistent path on which we've been going.
Thank you so much, Aditya. Very important, very detailed answer. One quick follow-up. What is the interface between the every year of Pantaloons and our retailers? Do you think of that as a complementary competitor to each other? I don't quite see the product inside Pantaloons, but we can do.
The TCNS has been selling inside Pantaloons for 20+ years. It's India's -- W, for example, is India's most successful, the largest ethnic wear brand for a long period of time, and Pantaloons has had share of external brands all the time. TCNS continues to be a part of it. W is the number 1 external brand in Pantaloons.
Okay, great. That's a nice observation. It enhances our understanding of the metric. We'll put a time of notification in the team.
Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the management, we thank all participants for joining us. In case of any further queries, you may please get in touch with Mr. Amit Dwivedi. He may now disconnect your line. Thank you.
Thank you.