Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the third quarter earnings conference call of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited. The call will begin with a brief discussion by the company's management on the Q3 FY 2026 performance, followed by a question and answer session. We have with us today Mr. Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, ABFRL; Mr. Jagdish Bajaj, CFO, ABFRL; Mrs. Sangeeta Pendurkar, Director and CEO, Pantaloons segment. 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. Thank you for joining us today. I would like to welcome you all to the Q3 FY 2026 earnings call of our company, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited. Looking back at the quarter, the overall demand environment remained mixed, with consumption largely centered around festive and wedding-related shopping. Additionally, a part of the festive season shifted to the previous quarter this year compared to Q3 last year, which impacted the reported sales growth, particularly for our mass segment and premium brands. Also, for our Pantaloons format, we have consciously postponed our EOSS by 12 days into Q4, which further impacted the sales growth. Against this backdrop, our business continued to perform well, with all new businesses delivering over 20% growth. The value and mass segments saw a marginal impact with the shift in Pujo and EOSS.
However, performance remained strong, even adjusted for these shifts, including the traction seen in January. We also continued to invest in network expansion through growth CapEx, adding a net 5.5 lakh sq ft of area over last 12 months. This positions us well for future growth and operating leverage as these stores mature. All our businesses remain firmly on their respective long-term growth trajectories. In line with the strategic direction we have been consistently outlining over the past few quarters. Now moving to the financial performance of the quarter. Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail posted 8% YOY growth to reach INR 2,374 crore, versus INR 2,201 crore last year.
Overall, EBITDA grew by 13%, with margins at 15.6% for the quarter, compared to 14.9% in the same period last year. Within segments, our ethnic business continued its consistent margin expansion for the eighth consecutive quarter, with Q3 margin reaching 22.7%, up 350 basis points versus last year. Profitability across TMRW and the luxury segment, excluding Galeries Lafayette, delivered year-over-year improvement. If we see ABFRL excluding TMRW, overall margin stood at 20% in this quarter, up 70 basis points versus last year. Depreciation increased during the period, driven by new store additions. Reported loss was INR 141 crore. This include a one-time exceptional item pertaining to new labor codes this quarter. Otherwise, normalized loss stood at INR 115 crore versus INR 103 crore last year.
As of December 2025, ABFRL held gross cash of around INR 2,100 crore, at the same level as at end of Q2 FY26. Moving to the YTD performance, ABFRL revenue stood at INR 6,187 crore, up 10% YOY. EBITDA grew 17% in absolute terms to INR 655 crore versus INR 559 crore in YTD last year, with margins improving by 70 basis points to 10.6%, despite 100 basis points higher advertisement spend versus last year. If I look at ABFRL excluding TMRW, YTD margins expanded by 150 basis points to 15.2%. Our focus continues to be on driving profitability and at YTD level. ABFRL, excluding TMRW, delivered positive EBITDA on a pre-Ind AS basis, despite our deep investment in establishing multiple new businesses.
Our endeavor will be to improve on this trajectory as these businesses mature. Our overall retail network stood at 1,226 stores, expanding over 7.7 million sq ft as of Q3, and with 50 new additions during the quarter, with area up by 2.5 lakh sq ft sequentially. Now, let me brief you on the performance of individual segments. Turning to the Pantaloons segment, the business performance reflected a shift in festive and EOSS sales into Q2 and Q4, respectively. Adjusting for Pujo and EOSS shift, Pantaloons format LTL stand at 3%. Revenue for the segment stood at INR 1,276 crore for the quarter, with margin at, margin at 18.2%, lower on account of old losses and marginal dip in Pantaloons due to sales shift.
For Pantaloons, our refreshed strategy centered on moving away from value-led fashion and building premium brand proposition is showing some green shoots. Our current month-on-month trajectory validates that this approach is working, as some of the key initiatives, KPIs, are showing encouraging trends. We are enthused by these early results and will continue to build upon it with sharp execution to progressively set the business up for sustainable growth.... all in its new format, posted revenue growth of 54% YOY. The brand expanded its footprint by adding nine new stores in Q3, and now we have 67 stores. Coming to the ethnic business, our ethnic portfolio is now at INR 2,200 crore annual sales, with 650+ stores across the country. Our Q3 revenue is today INR 703 crore, up 20% YOY, despite festival shift with LTL at 10%.
The portfolio also saw a 350 basis point YOY EBITDA margin expansion, driven by strong revenue growth-led operating leverage. As you are aware, our ethnic portfolio comprise of two business segments: designer-led and premium ethnic. The designer-led segment, a strong and profitable business, continued to scale rapidly. The portfolio delivered over 30% YOY growth, driven by healthy LTL growth of around 15%, category expansion, and elevated retail experiences, while also reporting strong double-digit profitability during the quarter. Now, within the premium ethnic wear brand, Tasva continued its strong trajectory, posting 26% YOY revenue growth, led by 8% LTL growth. On YTD basis, LTL stood at 20%. The brand added 8 new stores in Q3, expanding its network to 85 stores. The brand's recent traction reflect the impact of improved assortments and curated wedding-led collections, supported by continued brand visibility efforts.
TCNS reported flat overall revenue growth during the period, largely driven by store rationalization of 50 stores in last one year. Since acquisition, the network has been streamlined from around 650 stores to 480 stores. On this more focused and profitable base, we delivered strong LTL growth of 8% for the quarter, with YTD LTL growth at 10%, reflecting improving underlying performance. Margin was up by approximately 500 basis points, driven by improved product performance and retail execution. On a Pre-Ind AS basis, losses have declined by over 50% on a YTD basis, indicating meaningful progress in the turnaround. New launches are witnessing strong sell-throughs, translating into improved store productivity. This reflects our focused product strategy and the pivot towards a higher mix of occasion wear, as outlined at Analyst Day.
With these strategic foundations in place, we are entering the next phase of expansion with a healthy store addition plan, targeting double-digit growth and double-digit Pre-Ind AS margin over the medium term. On luxury retail, The Collective and Mono Brands' business delivered another strong quarter, with 16% YOY growth, with improving profitability. The business added 3 new stores to the network and now is spread across 49 stores. India's first luxury flagship luxury departmental store, Galeries Lafayette, commenced operations in November 2025 and has seen strong early traction. The platform will continue to deepen consumer engagement through curated experiences, add new and relevant brands, and strengthen its positioning as a premier luxury destination in the Indian market. Our digital brand portfolio TMRW grew by 29% versus last year's in Q3, underpinned by strong backend technology and data science-led capabilities, enabling rapid scale-up.
The business is now operating at an annual revenue run rate of INR 1,100 crore, including TMRW, with improving profitability trends. The portfolio continued to build its Omni-channel presence, closing the quarter with 90+ stores across key markets nationwide. In conclusion, our larger businesses, including Pantaloons and TCNS, continue to progress along a clear strategic path and are now well positioned to contribute meaningfully to overall growth. At the same time, our other businesses, which have reached a significant scale, will now pursue steady improvement, both in terms of profitability and growth. Collectively, these outcomes, along with adequate cash availability, provide comfort on the strategic direction of the portfolio and its ability to deliver consistent value over time for our stakeholders. Thank you, and happy to take questions now.
Thank you, Mr. Bajaj. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use their handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We take the first question from the line of Archana Menon from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. My first question was on Pantaloons. So in your comments, you mentioned that there was positive trends in month-on-month performances and KPIs improving. So if you could share some more details on, how the performance has been through this quarter and in January, and, which are the key KPIs we are seeing improvement, any additional details?
Yeah. Hi, Archana, this is Sangeeta. So, as Jagdish mentioned, our performance for this quarter actually corrected for the shift of festive actually is at about 3%. The other big shift that happened in this quarter, which I'm just giving you first the explanation for the growth. Because we had a good autumn winter, and the season was going well, and one of the KPIs that we saw improve significantly is our sell-through rates on our merchandise, given all the shifts we've made in our merchandising strategy. We actually decided to shift our EOSS versus last year to quarter four. And, of course, this will have an impact on quarter four, and we will see the base has shifted from quarter three, and this will come back looking stronger in quarter four.
To your specific question on the indicators, some of the shifts that we had called out in our strategy was shift in our merchandise aesthetics, and we had taken a big bet, for example, on certain categories. The women's western wear category, non-apparel category. Very happy to share with you that on both of those categories, our growth have been above expectation. Given that the strategy was to be a more fashion-forward brand, that it was very important for western wear to turn around, and which we've been able to do successfully. Our new stores, if you see the new retail identity that we have rolled out over the last few months, those stores are outperforming versus the rest of the network.
Our online business, which today is a small business, but we had made certain choices to get that business to a path to profitability and then start scaling the business. We've moved significantly forward on that business, too. More importantly, we made investments in marketing in this quarter. We signed a celebrity and invested significantly in marketing, in line with the repositioning strategy of the brand. As you know, we've been talking about moving from, you know, a little bit more premium in the mid-market segment itself. But in terms of imagery, making ourselves more premium, our merchandising store strategy, everything has been in line with that, and the new advertising, too.
What's heartening to note is that, the profile of the customer, while it's too early to assess the overall impact of marketing, and it will take some time for the results to come through on, specifically on marketing, but the early signs in terms of the profile of the new customers that we've acquired, there is clearly a shift in terms of the profile being more younger, which again, is in line with the stated strategy. So therefore, I think with, the shifts that we made in our merchandising, in our store strategy, in online, in the marketing investments, all seem to be paying off, and we are seeing, a steady improvement in all our metrics, and that gives us the confidence that, we will see stronger growth coming back, even stronger growth coming back in the future in Pantaloons.
Thanks, Sangeeta, for this. Just following up on this, in line with the premium premiumization strategy that we followed, are you seeing a growth in the average basket size or ticket average bill order so far?
Yeah. So, in terms of our bill value, it has increased a little bit. While we've made sure that we're not taking up our prices significantly, what we've done is to make sure we've packed more value in our products, and that is something that we will continue to drive. Also, with non-apparel being integrated into our apparel strategy, we hope to see an ongoing improvement in our basket sizes as well. So not a very significant impact in terms of the basket size, but in terms of our average selling price, we've seen about a 2%-3% increase, because of the shift and because of our premiumization.
Understood. Thank you for this. On TCNS, what are your store expansion plans for next year?
So, Archana, as you know, in TCNS, as Ashish shared, in TCNS, we were focused on consolidating, the cost side of the business, the inventory, and, putting out fresh merchandise. And the store expansion was really not on the agenda for much of, last couple of years. I think from Q4 of this year is when our expansion agenda is changing. I expect that we'll add between 50-60 stores next year in TCNS, something that we had held back so far. But now that the merchandising performance has significantly shifted, our strategy on both dimensions, which is making the brand a little bit younger and contemporary, as well as increasing, participation in celebration, wear and festive wear through Wishful. Both are playing out well. We feel more confident to store expansion now.
Thank you so much. I'll come back in the queue.
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Gaurav Jogani from JM Financial Limited. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question, sir. So first on Pantaloons, I do understand, you know, the shift to Q2 of the festive season has kind of impacted the revenue growth in Q3. But if you look at the nine months revenue growth also, the revenue growth, you know, in total has been only 1%. Also, if you look at the margins, margins have also kind of dipped 100 basis points on a nine-month basis. So, you know, where are we on the path of, you know, margins improvement going ahead? So should we consider, you know, a large part of the, the rationalization of stores, et cetera, is now over, the, the cost elements, initiatives are over, and probably going ahead, can we see improvement in margins and also in the revenue growth?
So, Gaurav, first, as Sangeeta explained, even if you look at... It's more pronounced in Q3, but if you look at nine-month also, the shift in ESS from December to January has also brought down the revenue growth.... for this quarter or as well as for nine months. But your point still remains. I think last couple of years, rationalization has, sort of, curtailed the revenue growth opportunities as far as the business is concerned, and that's, that's going to reverse now as most of the network rationalization part is over, and we are looking to improve the, so the network addition is going to start from this year onwards, and more specifically next year. On the margin front, Pantaloons margin remains steady. The reduction that you're seeing is combination of two things.
One is the shift in revenue, because it's a very high operating leverage business. When you shift revenue from one quarter to other, for temporary, that quarter looks a little lower. There is absolutely no concern around it. The other reason is, of course, as OWND expanded this year, with the rebranding and relaunch, et cetera, the OWND losses have brought down the margin by that 100 basis point that you're seeing there. As far as Pantaloons' own profitability is concerned, it remains pretty much on the trajectory that we had indicated earlier.
Sure. So just a follow-up on this. Pantaloons, what kind of store expansion can we expect, you know, from the next year, say, for FY 2027-2028? What steady store expansion can we build in?
I think about 20 stores is what we would say, we need to build in. Because, Gaurav, as Sangeeta had explained, a lot of our premiumization strategy was building around aspirational and experienced premiumization, not necessarily significant shift in pricing.
I see.
The Pantaloons' addressable market hasn't come down. It's just that I think as consumers have moved, they're looking for better and more superior experience, which is what we have been testing and implementing. The confidence is now fairly strong that we should get back to the expansion path, and this is what we'll do.
Would the stores be... the sizes would be larger or smaller versus, you know, the earlier network that we used to expand? Because I think now we are looking-
That-
-to expand more in the Tier 1 and metro cities.
Yeah, larger, larger stores.
Any size that you can help us? I mean, 50,000-
So, we are largely looking at stores in the range of 18,000+, going up to 25,000-30,000, depending on the potential of the market.
Sure. Thanks. And my next question is with regards to, you know, the ethnics part of the business. You know, very commendable job in terms of both the growth that you have driven and also the margins that are coming in. But if you can dissect, you know, the profile of margins between, you know, their designer-led brands, which were already profitable, versus the journey of profitability in the other ethnics part of the business, and how it is shaping up, when do you expect that business also to turn profitable?
Okay. So Gaurav, as you know, the designer-led brands are very profitable. They continue to remain so and continue to grow also strongly on that level of profitability. So the shift is really what we need to make is in the premium ethnic wear. It consists of primarily two large businesses. One is Tasva, and you know, this is a business we are investing in. It's growing very rapidly. On an annualized basis, we are growing at about 45-50%. The YTD nine-month growth rate is 32% on like-to-like. So very strong traction this business has, but losses continue to be on a small base that we have. Losses continue to be there as far as Tasva is concerned. TCNS, we have made a big shift.
I think as Jagdish in his opening remarks mentioned, that profitability has halved in this nine-month period versus last year. We are very close to breakeven this quarter, almost breakeven. You know, I wish we had made little bit more to be able to declare a profit in this quarter, but on annualized basis, our breakeven will probably be next year. So as Tasva scales a little bit, because Tasva intrinsic margins are very good, the gross margins are very good. Store productivity, as you know, which is the largest driver in a retail business profitability, 32% like-to-like growth on a 80-90 store network over a long period of nine months, indicates very strong confidence that this will also get back to profitability, which we haven't achieved yet. And, this, I'm giving you commentary of nine months.
Of course, festive quarters tend to overstate intrinsic profitability and the summer quarters, it shifts. So there is a bit of a swing, but in an annualized basis, that's how the picture would look.
Sure. So would it be a right inference to say that the margin expansion in the ethnics part of the business still will be continuing over the coming years, and the, the expansion would be meaningful, given you know that from losses you will be actually turning to profitability or breakeven, at least in the TCNS part of the business? TASVA, maybe we can expect the, the breakeven to happen somewhere in FY 2028?
Yes, yes. I think, I think both, the businesses, the swing in profitability will be quite pronounced because, from deep investment phase and the correction phase in TCNS and the growth phase in TASVA, the shift will be fairly pronounced as far as the premium ethnic wear is concerned. So profit trajectory will continue to improve much faster than the revenue growth.
Sure. And if I can just slip in one last question. I mean, I do understand, you know, that the Galeries Lafayette opening during this quarter would have impacted the profitability in the other parts of the business - others segment of the business. If you can call out what kind of impact that had, and also what kind of an impact that had on the depreciation and the lease liability interest?
... So I'll wait if Jagdish can give that answer very quickly. He'll in the meantime, as far as the business launch is concerned, we would have, you know, invested maybe about INR 25 crore in terms of the event initial launch, the first stage of the business, which I think as the business scales up will reduce over a period of time. But that's really the nature of investment so far on the P&L side. On the balance sheet side, we have told you, I think indicated store cost of about 130-odd crores, INR 125 crore-INR 130 crore, and that will go into the depreciation line.
The depreciation, you know, is around INR 10 crore.
Because of this, the impact.
Yeah.
Yeah. No, apart from this, the depreciation is higher, because of Owned to-
No, he's asking only Galeries.
Galeries Lafayette.
Yeah. So I say I think we'll figure that number out for one specific piece, but that's the nature of investment that we have made in this concept.
Sure. So just on the other side, the profitability, would it be right to understand the profitability would have been higher by INR 20 crore-INR 25 crore, if not for Galeries Lafayette? Would that be the right understanding?
Not so much, because there are also some gains. We have done business, there's revenue, there is cost margin, so the difference will be slightly lower than that. I was talking about the total investment that we've done in promoting and launching the business and so on.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for answering my question. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Ankit Kedia from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
I just wanted to understand, you know, over the next two years, what is the target, like for, like, growing Pantaloons, you know, which we are budgeting for?
We are looking for mid- to high-single-digit growth in Pantaloons.
You know, two years back-
In terms of L2L and a double-digit growth at an overall level. Yeah.
Sure. Two years back, we had launched Insignia loyalty program, you know, which is a paid loyalty program like some of our competitors. What is the today overall revenue contribution of that program, and how is the, you know, loyalty being here? Because we're changing the positioning to a more younger audience, more premium. So are you seeing some impact of, you know, middle-aged people going off the platform?
So, it's a very successful program for us. It's a program that allows us to ensure that we have people continuing to shop with us and helps us in terms of retention. We've also figured that some of our older customers have continued to roll over from one year to the other as far as the Insignia is concerned. So it's a top-tier program, as you know, and it is a program that allows us, as I said, on our large base of 16 million plus customers. This, in terms of number of customers, is a small base, but in terms of the contribution of these customers, it's a significant number.
Our overall Green Card contributes to about 70%+ of our revenues, and Insignia sits on top of that.
Sure. And, from the store closures perspective, you know, if you can give color on, you know, which type of stores we have closed. Were they only loss-making? Were they smaller stores, Tier 2, Tier 3 city stores? And, while we are opening more metro and Tier 1 stores today, how is the inventory mix now moving from private label? Because we have piloted some stores which are more than 90% private label. So how is that mix changing from store closures, if you can say, and on the inventory mix to metros and Tier 1 cities?
Yeah. So the stores that we have closed is a combination of both, as you rightly said. There are some stores which were loss-making stores, and some stores where we believe the proposition that we've defined for ourselves because obviously we want to be consistent as a format across the country. These were stores either which were very small sizes or they were not in the right markets where the proposition could be represented. So we've shut about 11 odd stores, and that's behind us in terms of store closure so far. In terms of private label, we even today have a mix of stores.
There are certain stores which have a very high mix of private label, and there are certain stores, which are our larger stores, which have a large representation of our external brands. As far as the mix is concerned, I think because of the nature of changes that we've made in the format, opening larger stores, our mix has, over the last two, three years, has shifted by 1%-1.5% in favor of private label.
Sure.
Yeah.
And, my last question is on OWND!. What is the two-year target on store opening and profitability for OWND!? And also on inventory, we see heavy discounting which had happened in OWND!. So is the old inventory, which was being carried forward, from Style Up now pretty much over, and we are starting with fresh inventory today?
So, this model, you know, we've been at it for the last 2, 2.5 years, and we've continued to refine this model as we have, you know, learned every single quarter on this. As you've also seen that, we rebranded it from Style Up to OWND!. This is all the consumer work that we have done. The discounting that we did, you know, if you're referring to the end-of-season sale, it was in line with what we have done before, perhaps a little bit more aggressive, but it has nothing to do with excessive liquidation of inventory. It is a normal EOSS period during which we carried out the liquidation.
And, yeah, most of our new merchandise that we have is all tagged OWND!, and we don't have too much of the Style Up merchandise. However, I'd like to mention that in terms of the aesthetics of the merchandise, we've only gotten better in terms of our fashion quotient and much younger with what we've created with OWND!.
From a two-year roadmap on stores opening and profitability?
Sorry, I'm just answering that. So from a store opening standpoint, we will be looking at opening about 40-50 stores in the coming year. As I mentioned right at the beginning, we have continuously refined this model, and a lot of things are working for us in the right manner. And the moment we believe that, you know, we've got all elements of the mix right, we'll be ready to scale it up even beyond 30 stores.
Is it fair to assume we will not be profitable at least till FY 2029?
Yes, probably.
Sure. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Garima Mishra from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Could you talk a little bit about the competitive environment that both Pantaloons and OWND are witnessing?
See, as far as Pantaloons' competitive environment is concerned, I think we have moved away from a highly intense, price-based, competitive set, where Pantaloons was operating 5, 6 years back, primarily around price-value equation, which is much lower, to space where relatively lesser competition exists as we are premiumizing. Of course, the journey takes time, but I think we are moving to a space where the level of competition is relatively lesser. The OWND! business, on the other hand, operates in an environment which is fairly intense from competitive point of view. There are a lot of new players who are meaningfully large in that, or many others who are entering in that space. So that space has, I think, over a period of time, only intensified in competitive action. Does that answer the question, Garima?
Garima, are you there? Since there is no response, we will move on to the next question, which is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity. Ashish, and Sangeeta, sorry for stressing on this, but from Pantaloons' perspective, we have done a lot of store closures, right? So, but this is still not reflecting into like-to-like growth for us. I'm taking cues from the performance of the other entity that we have, right? So in lifestyle brands also, we have done store closures, but at least from a like-to-like growth perspective, we've delivered about 10% growth in nine months. So, even from a margins perspective, we are investing in terms of marketing, et cetera, and we have done store refurbishments, but still the growth has been lackluster from Pantaloons. So how do you see this business returning to double-digit growth?
Also, if you could provide some more color on this month-on-month growth improvement trajectory that you've talked about for better understanding?
Okay. Let me try and answer your first question. I think you're right. The overall environment across the different price segments and consumer segments is somewhat different. You also see a portfolio for business where we are growing at 25%-30%. There is a premium brand business, which is growing at about 10%-12%. I think the competitive intensity and the overall consumption at the lower to mid segment of consumption has been more challenging for much of last 12-24 months. Much of our store rationalization was not so much about... It doesn't necessarily give you like-to-like shift. It provides store closure, and many times we close stores, although they're barely or marginally profitable.
Because one of the things that we also look at, I mean, three things that we look at in terms of thinking about store closure. One, is it in line with long-term strategy? And, we look at it. Second, financially, does it make sense from profitability or loss point of view? Will there be further cash losses, and can we turn it around? And third, which is not visible in the numbers, is, what's the capital productivity, particularly from inventory point of view? There are stores which make money but have lower throughput.... and in some ways, then creeps back into higher inventory and, higher markdown, which is not visible on the surface. And we look at all this, and therefore, necessarily, to your point, store closure, store rationalization doesn't necessarily lead to, Like-to-Like improvement in significant manner.
Having said that, I, I agree with you. I think the performance in this segment has been lower than our premium segment or which is lower than the super premium segment, in some ways tells you the story of the market as well, apart from the challenges that, you know, business would have faced. On the more recent improvements, I think Sangeeta had given a color of it. Sangeeta, do you want to add-
Yeah.
Something more to it?
Yeah, Devanshu. So, like I mentioned before, I think all the improvements that we have been working on, as they've kind of gotten rolled out, we've seen significant improvement in metrics, and more so in our performance in the last 3-4 months, as Jagdish alluded to it. So, the metrics on the efficiency of our merchandise, our inventory, or be it the performance of our newer stores with the newer design, newer retail identity. These are larger stores that we have opened, and some of the stores that we've opened, even in Tier 1 towns, have started off exceedingly well. There is also this bit in terms of the marketing investments that we've made with the repositioning. We've seen the shift in the customer base, which actually was very heartening.
Our focus has also been in terms of execution in stores and in-store experience. Again, on both of those, the inputs that have gotten and some of the metrics that we have seen, the efficiency with effectiveness with which the store staff launches the new merchandise, a significant shift in the execution parameters, and a lot of other improvements that we are making in terms of creating a harmonized in-store experience with our customers. I think these are several actions across every single element and every single touch point, which has given us the confidence. It's of course there in the results, but gives us the confidence for the future as well.
Got it, Sangeeta. Thanks for answering. Secondly, sir, there is some level of leadership exit now at TCNS, right? So how have you, sort of taken care of, this knowledge retention, for this particular segment, from the outgoing leadership? As historically, our presence has been limited, in this category, right? So maybe if you could throw some light on that.
So fair point. I think, as you know, we had invested in TCNS business almost 2.5 years back, September of 2023. So while Anant has been leading the business for nearly 15 years and has done incredible job in building the business literally from scratch over this period, there's also been a very strong leadership team with him, which has played this role. And as Anant transitions out of it, first of all, he's spending next 3-4 months with our next leader, who's Sooraj, who's been in this ethnic business for the last 2-3 years. Was responsible for growing and building Sabyasachi business, looking after Jaypore, so reasonable familiarity, perhaps not as much as Anant has had over the last 15 years.
But Anant has also taken upon himself to help Sooraj transition over the next 3-4 months. It could be slow and deliberate transition, but more importantly, the team that has worked on it has been also a very stable team. And we think this is a very sort of steady handover, which we'll get from the business over a period of time.
Got it, Ashish. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one. We take the next question from the line of Rajiv B. from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. So first, a few housekeeping questions, if you can. Tell me the cash in hand currently, the cash burn during the quarter, the CapEx number, and the free cash flow for the quarter, and nine months, if possible.
So, as I covered in my speech, the company as a whole, we have roughly INR 2,100 crore cash. With ABFRL standalone, we have around INR 1,600 crore rupees cash. In this quarter, the cash burn was not there. Whatever, you know, from INR 2,100 crore to INR 1,500, 1,600 crore with me, it happened in H1. That is number one. CapEx across business for nine months is roughly INR 300 crore, including security deposits.
Sure. So secondly, on Galeries Lafayette. So what is the total capital employed in this bit? And in terms of, let's say, a steady state number, what is the kind of ROC you are looking from this? And thirdly, what is the model here in terms of... Is it an SIS model? Is it a trading model? You know, how do we take our commission in it?
So, I think it's a combination of multiple models. The store investment is by us directly, but we have differential arrangements with different kinds of brands and also different categories. Beauty, for example, is by and large, a concession model. In luxury brands, there is a commission model. Most of the business, however, is on, a large part of fashion business is on, buy and sell for the brands which don't exist in India. As you know, we have launched close to 250 brands in the store, of which 70% don't exist in the country. So many of these brands, the inventory is on our books. Overall, as I mentioned, the gross investment in fixed assets is about INR 125-130 crore or in that range.
The inventory would be about 60-70 crores with... And therefore, the total capital employed will remain in the range of INR 150-200 crores, INR 180-200 crores, in that. As we expect the business over time, I mean, there's still some way to go. We have a few luxury brands which are which are to enter towards the middle of next year. There's an F&B, which is still six months away. So there is some part of the store proposition which is yet to be completed. In steady state model, we expect the store to make between close to 15%-20% in first two, three years, on the revenue. And as we go forward, this is a one-time investment.
Over a period of time, this business will grow as Indian consumption grows, as the luxury market around the world and in India is showing. We're very confident of a strong trajectory on this.
So you think of INR 30 crore-INR 40 crore is our take, is it? That is the EBITDA on the-
No, no, no. This is, this is our business. This is, so it's not somebody else's take. Is that the question you're asking? This is a business fully invested by us, but on inventory, they, we have different arrangement. Inventory and margin, we have different arrangements with different nature of brands. Some are concessionaires, some are revenue shares, some are buy and sell. So each one of them, of course, have different margin structure also, depending on what's the level of exposure and investments we are making.
So I was asking, for example, for this INR 200 crore investment or, let's say, INR 90 crore inventory in this case, what is your peak revenue you're looking for, and then associated to, say, EBIT level number?
So this, this business may start with INR 150-INR 200 crore over a period of time will grow. We think over the next 3-4 years, should be able to get to much higher revenue on that. And that's the number on which we look to make about 20% store profitability.
Yeah. And, and lastly, what is, what is the size of this store? Usable-
About 90,000 sq ft.
Great, sir. That's all from my side. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infoline. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening, and thanks for taking my question. As a whole business, ABFRL, including TMRW, on a pre-Ind AS EBITDA basis, by when do you envisage a positive EBITDA? I understand Tasva, TCNS, TMRW, are still under losses, and at least, two of the three you expect to be breakeven in FY 2027. So any, any guideline you have internally that, you know, 2028 will be the first year of positive EBITDA on a pre-Ind AS basis, or it can stretch beyond that? Any, any color here?
So, first, where do we stand today? For the entire business, without TMRW, we are nine-month EBITDA positive or breakeven.
This is pre-Ind AS numbers. Yeah? Therefore, the losses, even at consolidated today, this includes all the losses that we talked about currently in TCNS, Tasva, OWND, Galeries Lafayette, et cetera. With all that included, we are breakeven today, ex TMRW. We expect as these businesses mature, TCNS turnaround, Tasva scaling up, et cetera, the profitability for ex-TMRW business will grow sharply over the next two, three years. It's already breakeven for this nine month, and next year, full year onwards, we should start making pre-Ind AS profit, which will increase post that. As far as TMRW is concerned, today it is at about 12%-15%, sort of, losses compared to its revenue, and on a secondary basis.
We expect TMRW, as we have mentioned in our various, sort of presentations, including investor presentations, to be somewhere between FY 2029, is when TMRW should breakeven. So the two trajectories are slightly different, but this is really, what are the internal goals we have set for ourselves.
Got it, sir. That's fair. Second question is, sir, the understanding was that it is a subdued quarter for wedding-related categories. You also mentioned that during the Birla Lifestyle Brands call, but we've seen a Sabyasachi stellar performance, 44% growth. Tasva is doing well this quarter as well, healthy LTL also. So, is it like these brands have been an exception versus the overall category, or there are certain one-offs in this quarter?
No, first of all, there are no one-offs, and let me explain both the comments that were made. As Sangeeta in her commentary, Vishak earlier in ABFRL commentary said, this quarter, part of festive had shifted to Q2, and therefore, to that extent, the business didn't get that benefit. Secondly, weddings in the second half of December were also low. And therefore, it is a fair comment to say that the wedding related businesses didn't have the benefit of a very strong quarter from timing point of view. Having said that, for different reasons, Tasva, because it's growing very, very rapidly, I think in a very accelerated manner, and this is been established over last year and a half, too.
The designers, whether it's Sabyasachi, Tarun, and other businesses, I think, again, this is, this would give you a sense of the belief that we had in these businesses, that currently they're under-penetrated. With time, these businesses are set to grow at fairly rapid rate, and therefore, they will see several years this kind of growth, with or without the wedding date. I mean, the business, these numbers would have been even better if the wedding dates were stronger in the second half of December. So I would say it's because of they, they stand out compared to what the market is.
Got it. So it's, it's basically an organic performance, and had the wedding quarter been better, the performance also would have been better. That, that's a correct understanding, right?
Yeah, because they're all in different phases of the business. These are not as mature business as, let's say, some of the larger business of lifestyle brands are.
Got it, sir. That, that's very helpful. Last question, if I may squeeze in: so, deferment of EOSS in Pantaloons, 12 days, and the competitors have had it bang in the middle of December, like a Shoppers Stop and a Lifestyle. A rationale for deferring, I understand, but is there a risk of, you know, market share loss? Because you will probably having be having an end of season sale where, you know, most customers looking for discounts, they might have already had shopped in your competitors. So is it, like, as a strategy, can it backfire?
See, any strategy can backfire, but I think this should give you a sense of confidence that we've, we have got to in our merchandising cycle in this business. It's taken us some time and, you know, fair bit of understanding of business. You can be sure we have sort of thought deeply about it. It's a very difficult, as you're rightly alluding, it's a different call, difficult call. But we also believe over a period of time, in the peak period of Christmas, winters, when consumers are actually buying, and holidays, when consumers are actually buying and shopping for the right reason, every good retailer over a period of time should try to maximize, margins apart from sale in this business. We've, we've had...
We are confident that whatever we lose in this period, we'll be able to gain back in the months of January or February, or at least the quarter four, and that's what Sangeeta was indicating.
Great, sir. One last question, if I may squeeze in. So sorry for this, but I think Jagdish Bajaj mentioned the gross cash numbers. Can I also have the net cash numbers for, like, end of three Q?
With me, is around INR 800 crore.
So consolidate, sorry, standalone entity has INR 750 crore of long-term debt. So from 1,600, you can take that down. That's why he's talking about INR 800 crore. There is a further TMRW, because of the fundraise, is sitting on a net cash of about INR 400-500 crore.
Okay. So basically, INR 800 crore net cash in standalone entity, plus around INR 400 crore for TMRW. So our overall, INR 1,200 crore kind of a net cash.
No, no.
No, there is also multiple subsidiaries-
Subsidiaries also.
So, I think, I think the number... Maybe, Jagdish, you want-
Yeah, yeah.
Because each of the subsidiaries is-
So what I'm trying to say is, firstly, these borrowings are long-term in nature. So, you know, like I have INR 16 crore cash with, debentures and small, you know, WCDL here and there, INR 800 crore borrowings, so INR 800 crore cash. With my subsidiary, there is a, more borrowing than the cash they have. So if you see at a net level, I will have around INR 600 crore rupees.
INR 600 crore net cash on a consolidated level?
Yeah, that's right. There is some debt in the subsidiaries as well.
Got it, sir. Yeah, that's all from me. Thanks, thanks a lot, and all the best for the future.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one. We take the next question from the line of Garima Mishra from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for the opportunity again. Our first question on the Pantaloons segment. Is there any sense you can give, give us on the contribution of OWND! to the, let's say, INR 3,500 odd crore revenues in nine months that Pantaloons reported?
...It's very small, Garima, and that's why we are not splitting it. At this point of time, it's a very small revenue on that base.
Got it. Second question was on TMRW. So 34.31% Y-o-Y growth in the nine-month period, pretty healthy number. Was there any inorganic component to it? That's number one. And second, within TMRW, which sub-brand or sub-brands are driving up this fast growth?
So, Garima, there is no inorganic. Even last year, our growth was close to 30% on full year, which was fully organic. This year, again, 30% growth for nine months is fully organic. So there's no-- That just reflects the sort of level of momentum that these businesses have and the way TMRW is rising. Now, over a different period of time, different brands sort of have trajectories. Some of the bigger brands are slightly slower growing on relative terms, but there are many brands which have grown north of 40, 45% as well. Bewakoof, which was one major brand that we had sort of acquired and which was struggling to growth in the early years, is now beginning to record 40%-50% growth.
Nobero is another very strong brand which has been growing at a very rapid 35%-40% growth, CAGR over 3-4 years. So there are multiple parts of the businesses. As we acquire the businesses, we understand the operations, figure out the opportunity, we're able to practically, without exception, in every business, we are able to find the opportunity to grow between 30%-40%. Of course, it takes time to understand and correct the inventory cycle and product proposition in some of the cases. So we are driving two things, Garima, in this. One is, many of these brands operate with gross margins, which are much lower because they've been chasing growth. We actually get into each of the business, improve their inventory cycle, improve their gross margin, product proposition, premiumize it, manage the inventory flow a little better. In some,
The second thing that we do is to make sure that their channel strategy is right between balance between D2C, marketplace and offline. And increasingly, we're finding that offline is improving, help us improve both the gross margins as well as, the brand visibility and familiarity. So we are taking some of the more successful brands more rapidly in offline. And third is really driving the organic performance, which is efficiencies of performance marketing and all that to drive the growth in each of the business.
Got it, Ashish. Last question from me, again, on TMRW. What proportion of, let's say, the nine-month 26 revenue came via the online channel?
So I think 95% of the business, while we have started to open stores, but even now, at a 9-month level, 95% of the business. We don't expect this to remain at this level. I think as these brands are finding traction in offline, we'll bring that share down. But I think these from 95, maybe it'll come down to 85, but these are primarily online first brands.
Understood. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we conclude the question and answer session. 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. Now, you can disconnect your lines. Thank you.