Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Q2 Results Investor Conference Call of Dabur India Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Isha Lamba, Head of Investor Relations and M&A. Thank you. Over to you, Ms. Lamba.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the management of Dabur India Limited, I welcome you to the earnings conference call pertaining to the results for the quarter ended 30th September 2025. Present here with me are Mr. Mohit Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ankush Jain, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Gagan Ahluwalia, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, and Mr. N. Krishnan, GM , Finance. We will start with an overview of the company's performance by Mr. Mohit Malhotra, and this will be followed by a Q and A session. I'll now hand over to Mr. Mohit Malhotra. Thank you.
Thank you Isha. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We welcome you to Dabur India Limited conference call pertaining to the results for the quarter ended 30th September 2025. In India, this quarter was marked by Government's announcement of a landmark GST reform, a pivotal step towards enhancing affordability and increasing consumers' purchasing power, thereby laying the foundation for stronger consumption and demand acceleration. Nearly 56% of our portfolio benefits from the rate reduction, including key categories such as juices, toothpaste, hair oils, shampoos, mucos, and proprietary Ayurvedic medicines. With this, 86% of our portfolio is now at 5% GST. We demonstrated operational agility by executing timely price reductions across the portfolio, effectively transmitting the benefits to the consumers. While the GST reduction is structurally positive, it led to a temporary disruption in trade as the channel anticipated forthcoming rate reductions following lower MRP.
This resulted in a short-term moderation in sales in our India business. During September this quarter, our consolidated revenue grew by 5.4% year on year, with international business reporting a growth of 7.7% in INR terms and India FMCG business growing at 5.7% year on year. In the India business, HVC portfolio performed well, 8.9% growth year on year. The Fitbase portfolio continued its robust growth trajectory and delivered a strong growth of 14%, led by Dabur Red franchise and Meswak. Recently launched Swade shi campaign for Dabur Red has garnered a positive market response, supporting volume momentum and strengthening the brand equity in the competitive toothpaste segment. The herbal segment growth in the category outpaced the non-herbal segment by 770 bps, underscoring the strong and sustained consumer shift towards natural and herbal oral care products.
Leveraging this shift, our portfolio outperformed overall toothpaste category growth, resulting in global market share gains. Skin care portfolio registered a high single-digit growth driven by Gulabari and Oxy franchises. In the hair oil portfolio, hair oil grew ahead of the category and gained market share of 232 bps. Shampoo category posted high single-digit growth. We remain focused on premiumizing and expanding our new age offerings in both hair oil and shampoo portfolios. The Home Care portfolio delivered mid-single-digit growth driven by robust double-digit performance in ornaments. Strong performance in Sanifresh. Overall growth was supported by double-digit growth in gel pockets and aerosols, resulting in market share gain of 127 bps. In our healthcare portfolio, health supplements grew in mid-single digits. Sani continued its leadership position and recorded a broad-based volume net growth of 28% year on year. Premium variants like Sunderbans and Organic Honey witnessed good traction.
We continue to gain market shares in Chyawanprash and Glucose in the portfolio. In the Digestive Portfolio, Hajmola franchise posted robust double-digit growth with variants like Chatcola, LimCola, and Mr. Aam now contributing more than 50% to the overall brand franchise. Within OTC and [Ethicus], Honitus registered a strong growth of 28% driven by a surge in demand during monsoons. All the key variants such as cough syrups, drops, and hot sips grew in double digits. Ayurvedic health uses continued to perform well, witnessing 25% growth. Overall category was impacted due to GST transition, and this continued life of business in juices and active. Our premium portfolio, Real Activ 100% juices, continued to scale rapidly and reported a robust growth of 45% led by a twofold increase in coconut water sales.
Nectar sales were impacted by heavy monsoons across the country and floods across Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand. However, we continue to outperform the [CSD] category, gaining market share of 115 bps in nectars and 1,000 bps in active juices. The recent GST rate cuts from 12% to 5% on juices are anticipated to act as a strong demand catalyst going forward. The international business registered a growth of 7.7% in INR terms and 5.5% in constant currency terms, led by a CC growth of 12% in Dubai, 10% in Nigeria, 37% in U.K., 11% in Namaste business, 37% in tertiary business, and 13% in Bangladesh business. New Delhi was impacted by geopolitical disturbance in Nepal, which declined by 15%. The situation has since improved and the new interim government has been formed.
Talking of profitability, operating profit grew by 6.4% and PAT grew by 6.5% during the quarter. Despite the GST transition, seasonal headwinds, and high inflation, more operating profit and PAT grew ahead of its top line in standalone and consolidated business on the back of price increases and cost-saving initiatives. Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the sequential recovery in demand supported by improving macros, good monsoon, recent GST rate reductions, and expectation of a strong winter season. We are pleased to announce the launch of Dabur Ventures with capital allocation of INR 500 crore over the next few years. With this, we intend to make focused investments into high potential new age digital-first businesses that are closely aligned with our strategic vision roadmap. This initiative reaffirms Dabur's commitment to driving innovation-led growth, enhancing its premiumization agenda, and expanding participation in new consumer spaces that represent the categories of tomorrow.
With this, I conclude my address and open the floor to any Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask the question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles participants. You may press star and one to ask the question. The first question is from the line of Abneesh Roy from Nuama Wealth Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. My first question is on the GST impact. You are at a very favorable base last year and ideally you should have obviously gone much faster, which I think you may be doing the pre-GST impact. Could you clarify how much was the GST volume impact in Q2? The market leader said 2%. In October month, are you still facing reasonable disruption and do you see normalcy coming in November, or already in mid-October the normalcy has come?
GST impact is in the range of around INR 100 crore, give or take for us, which is in the range of around 3%- 4% for us. Since the GST announcement, that is where the primary got impacted and therefore the volume sales got impacted off the business because the volume did not happen. I'm sure the liquidation of inventory has happened. We've been monitoring, liquidation of inventory is happening. The impact wasn't restricted to only September. There will be a carry forward impact in the month of October, and I think first 15, 16 days of October will also be impacted. Long term, I think GST has been very transformative for the country and it will unleash volume growth which are much better than what we've seen in the past and has more money in the hands of the consumer.
The sentiment is also positive because of this GST. That's what I feel will be the case.
Related question in terms of the GST cut, which categories you expect more benefit in terms of volume uptake and in terms of lower unit packs. Obviously, there will be grammage increase there. If you could tell us one ballpark number in terms of the GST rate cut portfolio, how much is the LUP where the grammage increase will happen? That will give us some idea where at least initially the volume uptake will be on the higher side. Could you give us some insights here?
Yes. LUP for us contribute to around 27% of the overall business where we are doing grammar increases. I think that is where the volume of the tonnage increase will actually happen. That's what I feel because it will be like a surrogate consumer promotion. Consumer promotion also drives sentiment and therefore uptick in terms of primary sale and also secondary sale and stocking also. The categories which I think will get negatively impacted first of all would be oral care in my view, I think that will be a big upside. Shampoo should be a good upside. Hair oil should gain on account of this. In healthcare our Ayurvedic proprietary branded medicine should change. The rate has come down from 12% to 5%. The pricing will come down in terms of almost at par with classical.
This will give us a headroom to pick up the prices in long term. Also, consumer sentiment in terms of shifting from unbranded to branded will also happen here. Our entire APC portfolio has actually benefited from it, be it Hajmola or Shilajit or all other brands. Also, the rates have come down to 5% that also will benefit and also in the low unit price points of beverages which is INR 10, INR 20 pack should also get an upswing as LUP is from the GST.
Sure. My second question is on the beverages and Nectar entire portfolio has been facing this competitive competition from Campa Cola. Specific question here is with the GST rate cut which has benefited you, how does this help in fighting say Campa Cola? Second is Campa Cola's incentive delay incentives almost double of Cola players. If you could tell us how does your dealer incentive compare with say Campa and would you need to change that because Tata's NourishCo has done that and they have seen a very good growth come back already. Would you need to do that or already you have done some action in terms of the dealer incentives.
I think in terms of overall category now the aerated webinar and Pakistan are juice category because the price index, the related price index actually went up because the price they had dropped and therefore the price disparity between the aerated and the juices went up drastically. With the GST production, the RPI is coming down. Therefore the juices will become more affordable relative to the beverages. It should provide a little bit of tailwind to our beverage portfolio. That said, our beverage portfolio performance has been better in the current quarter compared to the previous quarter and the business has grown by around 1.5%- 2% and flat. At least it's come back on the growth path. As far as incentive is concerned, what the Reliance team is offering is an incentive to the trade.
We also have greased up the trade in terms of the incentives that we are giving and we hope that we be able to bridge the gap not totally, but to a certain extent. Again the rate [RPI] is also [BU] index will get reduced going forward from there. We've done it a bit and we did it after the GST and we'll continue the same going forward a lso.
Your last question, toothpaste, you have done quite well last few quarters. Market leader has not. One question was you said because of the GST rate cut in terms of LUP, you do see toothpaste gaining on the higher side for you. I wanted to understand that bit specific to toothpaste. How much is LUP? Second is inverted duty structure is a big problem for market leader in toothpaste. If you could tell us from a competitive landscape, how does this help you in toothpaste? On an overall basis, this inverted GST structure as a company you also will face some issues. If you could discuss that bit in terms of input and output, how much will be the GST service tax refund issue for years?
Okay, so in terms of overall toothpaste category, I'll give it to Ankush to answer the second part of the question. Overall, oral care category has been growing. If you look at, I'll split up the whole category into herbal and non-herbal. Herbal category has grown at around 5x of the non-herbal category. Non-herbal category has grown at 2% and the herbal category has grown at 10%, actually almost a 5x higher growth. The herbal category now from 30% has become actually 32%. There's a definite tailwind towards herbal natural. This is happening because of the movement of homegrown and indigenous brands which are being promoted. This whole theme resonates with PM Modi's thing also of movement towards the Swadeshi brand. That campaign for us has also paid up. I think the overall business of oral care is doing well. The swart has grown at 25%.
Our egg toothpaste is growing at around 16%. I think new brands, Babool and [LDM], which have not performed, also we are trying to refurbish those brands going forward in the quarter and you will see good growth coming back to these two brands also. We've gained market share, the 60 basis points. Competitively, in terms of lubricating trade from a GST standpoint, we've given better schemes to help and enable the intermediaries to cross over this new price, the old price and the new price kind of differential. We've offered some trade schemes and so has the competitor also offered the trade schemes there. We are doing whatever it takes to help Oral Care go to the next trajectory of growth. As far as the input tax credit, I will ask Ankush to take that question and I can answer in case there's any other follow up questions.
Hi Ankush. Like everybody, input tax will be an issue for us. As you know, 90% of our portfolio approximately in terms of utility has gone into 5% and remaining at 18%. Weighted average output would be around 6.5%- 7% while our input tax we estimate to be around 8%- 8.5%. There is a gap of 1.25%- 1.5% which will get accumulated. Having said that, we are working internally. Also with the help of an e xternal consultant how to bridge that. We have already identified seven. We've already identified certain action points which we are working across sales, across marketing, or even logistics to mitigate this impact.
I think we'll have more clarity in next one month or so in terms of implementation of those action points. You're right, there is an inverted duty issue, which is a recurring issue as the government has still not clarified what would be the problem solution. Technically and legally you can get some sort of refund at least from the raw material and factory perspective f rom services a s the legal functions i t is not refundable. There is an issue and we are working towards that.
Yeah, so we are actually waiting and watching the brief as to what's happening with raw materials and packaging materials where their structures are higher as to what we can pass on to the consumer. If there is no resolve from the government, then we may have to take a price increase. We will see what the industry is actually doing for the raw material and packaging. To Ankush's point on services, we will have to see how renegotiation will happen with freight forwarders or transporters, et cetera, to put it in the price itself. Those discussions are actually underway as you guys speak as far as the intermediaries are concerned, and they are facing the impact of this input tax credit where we are offering a higher credit or higher schemes for them to address this problem in their working capital which has got stuck with this.
We are helping our intermediaries to whatever possible extent that we can by offering them a higher credit or giving them higher schemes. That's happening on a case-to-case basis. I hope I'm clear.
Another line for the participant drop. We move to the next participant. The next question is from the line of Mihir Shah from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Hi sir, thank you for taking my question. Firstly, in continuation with the previous question, post mid-October, have you seen any material improvement in volumes because of the GST reduction? Any clarification of that will be helpful.
As I told you, this will carry forward for 15, 20 days. A little bit of improvement will be there due to the festive season. I think it's still a wait and watch situation. I will not say that all the inventory of the old price stock has been flushed out in the system because there's a huge inventory. There'll be around 30 day retail, then wholesale and distributors around 20 days, and also in our CMS space. All that is still getting flushed out. It is not that once the new price comes into effect, it has come into effect but the entire old price inventory is flushed out. Then we can say that things are kind of streamlined. Still, a little bit of issues are there as far as the old prices are concerned with the trade and the intermediaries today.
Understood. My first question actually is on Chyawanprash sales. It seems if Honey has done so well, maybe Chyawanprash has not done so well because the category growth is relatively low. That is also on a very low base where you had destocked in the same quarter last year. Can you talk about how should we think about this category? Is the category still appears to be impacted and what can bring back the category growth going forward? Any steps that you're taking?
Yeah. I think Chyawanprash has got impacted a couple of years due to the season, and the winter season has been contracted. This time we anticipate the business to be more severe and prolonged as compared to what has happened in the last couple of years. Initial hiccups are the fact that the trade is holding old season inventory, and we are getting rid of that inventory also as soon as possible. As soon as inventory gets flushed out, we have shifted the loading from last quarter to the current quarter, A because of GST, B because there's some remnant inventory left from the previous season, and we've been loading it in the current month as we speak. Loading is currently ongoing. Loading is what delayed, which is helping us to actually clean up the system.
GST has been a blessing in disguise to that extent as far as fundamentally what we are doing to the Chyawanprash category. Leading the market leaders, we have launched a couple of variants to make Chyawanprash an all-season brand. Therefore, rather than only a single Chyawanprash, we launched multiple variants. Now the variants are contributing to almost 20%-30% of the Chyawanprash business. We launched a tooth brush especially for women, and that has done exceedingly well in the marketplace. Our sugar free is again doing very well in the market in the current season. Also, we are wanting to launch another variant of Chyawanprash. From the base Chyawanprash, we are premiumizing Chyawanprash where the gross margin is actually moving up while the brand is becoming non-seasonal and getting spread out as we speak. That is one effort that is happening.
Our monsoon campaign had come in good last quarter, which did reasonably well in terms of Chyawanprash. That was second that we had done. We are extending formats in Chyawanprash. Gummies and bars will get launched in the Chyawanprash. That is the third effort which is actually happening in Chyawanprash. All those efforts are ongoing. Plus, we have unleashed new communication which is outside of immunity and more towards long-term build up and habit formation with the kids to have children on a regular basis. That's using Akshay Kumar there. That is also getting launched as we are speaking. A lot of effort is happening. Plus, consumer promotions are also happening. Extra garment is being given free in the current season for the consumers. That's also underway as we speak. A lot of initiatives happening on Chyawanprash.
Got it. It seems that it can be on the path of recovery soon. On the winter portfolio, can you give an update on the winter portfolio? Loading is expected to be delayed, but it is going to be harsh. Would that be sitting in the 2Q sales, or can one expect the winter loading to happen in 3Q, 4Q, and better sales to be seen in quarter 3 and quarter 4?
Winter loading actually got pushed out because GST transitions were happening from quarter 2 to quarter 3. As I told you, we are doing the loading winter portfolio, a significant part of our portfolio, in quarter 3. If the winter is going to be harsh, we expect this quarter to be good relatively as compared to what we saw in the past. I think interloading will happen now, and if the winters are harsh and prolonged, then I think the whole company will actually benefit around a third of a in the winter seasonal scheme in the current quarter.
Last question on the Dabur Ventures that you have set up. Dabur has been one of the most diversified portfolio. Which category should one think that will get attracted to this and what is the kind of investments that you have planned out? I might have missed out the outlay on the investment side on Dabur Ventures.
To the question, first is your diversified portfolio, then why Dabur Ventures, first rationale to that. The second part is outlay. Outlay is simple. The INR 500 crore outlay that we kept for the next couple of years, and the INR 500 crore is meant for digital-first brands, which are future forward-looking brands, so that we can get high growth and we can extend our portfolio into the new age categories of the future. That's the single purpose of creating this investment sort of a venture called Dabur Ventures, so that the focused attention is provided and INR 500 crore is used for taking a minority or a majority stake. We'll be flexible on it in the company wherein we will be allocating capital and we will be growing the company.
If the company will be able to sustain the growth, then gradually, slowly acquire majority stake and therefore harness that growth which is coming from the digital-first brands. That's the logic or the rationale of making this investment vehicle called Dabur Ventures. Yes.
Got it. Wishing you all the very best.
Yeah, just second part of the question with [Sonepat], it doesn't exclude other MMAs like Badshah, etc. that we have done, bacha, etc. It does not include that. We got INR 7,000 crores in our balance sheet. The balance INR 500 crores is too small an allocation as far as the balance sheet is concerned. The other part of the fund would be used for other acquisitions as you print. It doesn't impinge upon those allocations in any case. Yeah.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Percy Panthaki from IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, just trying to understand your performance on a two year CAGR basis. Before that. Sorry, I had another question before. That is, can you tell me as of 30th September what was the distributor days?
Distribute?
So. Yeah. So. So. Hi, the distributor days as of 30th September is around 22 days.
22 days. Okay. Secondly, I just wanted to understand your two year table performance. Even if I adjust for this 4% impact of GST that you mentioned, the two year CAGR comes to about 2%. How do we interpret this performance? I mean. Assuming that the same underlying strength continues in the business, what kind of growth can we expect? Because on a two year CAGR this is only 2% as of now.
Yes. Besides the GST impact, firstly there's been other impact on the weather. As I told you, the inclement weather and therefore our beverage business has almost remained flat and that got impacted, number two. The third impact also came in because, as I mentioned to you, there's loading did not happen, which I did not call out in our GST impact, which is over and above that. That loading of INR 60 crore-INR 70 crore could not happen because of the weather and the trade carrying that kind of inventory. We did not increase our number of days and we are very conscious of the hygiene and therefore have not increased that. These two impacts are there, which also contribute to around 2%-3% of the sales. Otherwise, 95% of our portfolio has gained market share when the business comes.
If you look at HPC, HPC has grown by around 9 if we even started in the previous year. The growths are good. Healthcare and beverages, which got impacted, and that's what is flagging. Plus, there's been an impact of around INR 50 crore-INR 60 crore on Nepal. The general Nepal, our international business, which is growing at double digit, has done a CC growth of 5.5%. The business got impacted because of that. Also, tariffs to the U.S., some bit of impact on Badshah came in and exports to the U.S., which also we get addressed. These macros actually kind of suppressed the business growth.
Got it. Understood. This 3%- 4% GST pipeline impact, it has happened this quarter. Do you expect that similar amount of pipeline fill will happen in Q3?
Not to that extent. As we have cleaned up the pipeline there and we've not increased the pipeline, but we feel it will be relatively better than what we've seen in the past. The loading which did not happen in the previous quarter should happen in the season is doing well. That is what we expect it to be. Offsetting what seen a depression in last quarter should happen, not completely because we don't want to increase the pipeline once again. We want to keep the hygiene at around 22 or even improve it going forward by increasing secondary and lower primary.
Thank you. Sorry to interrupt your policy. Can I request you to come back for a follow-up question, please?
Okay.
Thank you. I request all the participants, kindly restrict to two questions per participant and rejoin the queue for a follow up question. Next question is from Mr. Prakash Kaparia from Kaparia Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Mohit, if you can give us some sense, how do we look at the business over the next few quarters? I would guess there are tailwinds in terms of monsoons being good, GST coming in, which was not really expected. Winter is expected to be good. In this scenario, is there a case, maybe not immediate quarter, but over the next few quarters to get to double digit goals and is there a shift from unorganized?
Sorry to interrupt your organization, but there's a lot of airy sound coming from your line. Can you please speak through the answer?
Yes, one second. Is this better now?
Sure, go ahead.
Is this better?
Yeah.
So. I was trying to understand, is there a case from, you know, unorganized to organized market being possible with the GST card? Could you comment on some of these factors leading to growth? Secondly, from a rural and urban demand perspective, what categories will drive growth? Premiumization seems to be doing well pretty in most of the urban markets. Is that a play for Dabur? Is the time right for new product l aunches at least on the urban side? S ome thoughts on urban and rural o n the game plan that'll be helpful.
First of all, I think, let me talk about urban and rural question first. Rural is sustaining growth for the company and also overall, I think there's a huge growth. There's a 5.6% growth which is happening overall in FMCG. The rural is growing at 8.5% and urban is growing at around 3%, sustained resilience in the world. In the case of Dabur also, and Dabur growth also, if you see the difference, there's around 400- 500 bps difference between urban and rural growth for us also, which is the case. We see a 7% odd growth happening in GP in rural and we see around 3% odd growth happening as far as our urban exposure. If I leave aside the modern trade and e-commerce, this is completely urban feet. There is a tailwind of rural.
To capitalize on this tailwind, we are looking at the LUP bundles and doing a lot of activation in rural and harnessing that growth of rural. We see one of the pivots of growth for us is definitely bottom of the pyramid and rural, leveraging our distribution of superstructuring and substocking also. We are looking at initiatives expanding our distribution going forward, reaching out to more number of villages and increasing our portfolio, increasing visibility to our sales as far as the rural is concerned through SFA and through BMS and upgrading our sub stockists greater than around INR 6 lakh, INR 7 lakh of turnover to become stockists. We have a project [Suction] which is currently ongoing and we are working on expanding our rural footprint as far as India is concerned. We feel a huge rural and monsoon has been great.
Agricultural output is fantastic, acreage is kind of improved, MSP is going up, MGNREGA allocation is not there. Everything is in favor of rural and rural, I think, will drive the business growth, especially the volume growth forward as far as urban is concerned. Urban is also, last couple of quarters, actually inching up for us. To drive urban, we have now very systematically taken premiumization as one of the initiatives and that was also mentioned in the seven moves of our strategy. We are tracking premiumization in category after category. We are looking at premiums, as I mentioned, in terms of, we are looking at dummies and hair oils, we are looking at survival added products, and we are looking at serums with oral care and Home Care and hair supplementary rotating products and in food, wellness food.
We're looking at premiumization and we're driving premiumization percentage of the overall mix, and the way we define it, 20% higher MRP and also accretive to the gross margin of the respective category. Premiumization is the agenda that we are driving as well as again unorganized to organized movement we see because the price points are quite bridged between unbranded and branded. There'll be a movement happening from unbranded to branded, which I mean from unorganized to organized. Things are looking up and season is also looking up. For the balance of the year we look at mid- to high-single-digit growth backed by low to mid volume growth. We don't want to promise high here. That's the kind of guidance that we are looking at going forward for the next half of the year.
The first half obviously got impacted by weather and GST transition, but the second half our guidance remains what we've already alluded to before.
That gives us confidence to the recovery part. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Alay Mehta from Macquarie Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi sir. Just a clarification, mid- to high-single-digit is for the second half, sir, or for the full year? I'm sorry, I missed that.
Yeah, so mid- to high-single-digit, we're talking about the second half actually. That's the guidance that we, that's the second half backed by volume growth of around 2% single digit. That's the volume growth going to be. Yeah.
Okay sir, the reason why if I may push back, we have winter also working. We also, I mean the loading is yet to happen. We also have DST related kind of coming back. Could there be an upside risk here? That is what would be the case because you know initially we're hoping to kind of drive a more mid- to high-single-digit for the full year. Just wanted to appreciate how are you looking at this guidance and how should we see it? What is driving the expectation?
Yeah, so you know I'm being a little, you know, high single is what optimistically we should be able to achieve. I'm giving you a kind of a mid to high to be not faltering here, but a high single is what we should be achieving. Everything comes in our favor because, you know, with Gen Z protest in Nepal, we did not count for this Trump tariff. We did not. There are unforeseen events that actually happen which actually push back the business. I'm factoring that in case something, otherwise a high single digit should look quite possible for us and backed by mid single volume growth. Don't hold me onto it. That's what we think should be.
Fair enough. Very clear, sir. Just if I may, on the margin side also, if you could give us, should we see EBITDA growth being higher than sales growth for the full year, is that an expectation that we still have? If I may put the next question, sir, just, you know, clarification on Dabur Ventures, while I, you know, understand the philosophy, could you just deep dive into any categories that you would look for? In particular, whether there'll be adjacencies, new categories, and you know, IRRs, what are the metrics or things that you would kind of focus on when you're doing investments? Those are the two questions. Thank you.
As far as margin is concerned, definitely I think we've seen, despite whatever headwinds we face in international business or in the domestic business, the 5% GST, our margins gained by gross margin have been higher. Plus there was huge inflation, 8% inflation that we faced in the first half. Despite that, our margins have kind of held up and 20 basis points increase in our gross margin and the operating margin has also gone up and our first half margins are operating margins around 19% broadly. I think for the full year our margins will definitely be better than the top line. We are looking at saving initiatives also in the first half, saving initiatives in the range of around INR 60 odd crores. We are continuously tracking those saving initiatives as we go on.
I think margins we are good as far as currently passed down all the inflation to the consumer. While we take a 5% price increase, the inflation was 8%, our saving initiatives came in. All that we've been able to pass on. As far as Dabur Ventures, what categories we look at, we will restrict ourselves to our existing categories and we will not go beyond existing categories because earlier also there was a question on diversification. We are already quite a diversified portfolio. We restrict ourselves to home and personal care, HPC, health care and wellness, foods and beverages. That is what we will restrict ourselves.
As you can see across this portfolio, which are premiums that are resonating in the institutional first consumer with a Gen Z and Gen Alpha, we will get into modernization of formats and any digital-first company which has got a head start to what we can do it organically ourselves is what we will kind of speak to and get the company in the early stages of its formation. That's what this venture is meant to do, not to get diversified into multiple other categories. We want to stick to our meeting and our categories and adjacencies what it may be. As far as number of companies that in terms of IRR is concerned.
In terms of our returns, we think it should be superior than our current revenue.
Over the long term, we expect the returns to be ahead of our treasury. Our treasury returns are in the range of around 6%- 7% and we expect to be a little higher than the treasury over a long term. Immediately when you acquire a company, obviously there will be a hit in the P&L, but that will absorb for the long term better yield.
Got it, sir. Got it. Wish you a lot of luck and thanks a lot.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec India. Please go ahead.
Just one clarification. Firstly, you know the presentation mentioned the g rowth X Badshah for India FMCG. Just trying to understand why that is the case in Dubai. You kind of X that out by giving the numbers.
As far as the published finances are concerned, we put Badshah in the consolidated numbers. From that point of view, we've given X Badshah. That's the reason. Also, the domestic business has grown well.
Got it. The difference between standalone and the India.
Yeah, I think that, you know, the Badshah does not get into India. It's consolidated at a consolidated level, sync o f India.
No, I understand. I understand. I was just one. I thought maybe in the presentation you would give a console number. I got the point for the India FMCG. The difference between the two is still the export piece, right? I think you have an export piece, so that's the difference between your India FMCG and standalone number. That's the way to look at it. Got it.
Yeah. There's a piece of private label, piece of a guar gum business, there's a piece of intercompany export. All that is a difference to the India FMCG plus private label plus guar plus intercompany exports which comes through the total standalone business.
The second thing was, you know, you mentioned that you passed on this pricing about 5% but when I look at the numbers, you know, 5.7% and 2% doesn't fully reflect. I was wondering, has that happened through the quarter and will you see this kind of 4%- 5% on pricing in quarter 3, quarter 4 going forward? Is that the right way to think about it?
Yeah, the pricing will lap over. Not lap over, pricing will carry forward in quarter three. Also, we expect inflation of 7%. This will carry forward into quarter three also because we've just taken the price increases. The difference why it strictly doesn't add up is because a lot of across trade schemes and consumer schemes also get netted off on the top line, and that is why. We have to lubricate the trade because of GST; also, we have to give additional schemes, so they get netted off on the top line as well as the primary driven scheme that we operate in. That's why you don't see a full difference between the two.
Just a follow up on this part. The gross margin actually sequentially has improved quite a bit, 300 basis points despite your lubrication of the trade and not the full impact of the pricing. Is there a mix element here also because toothpaste has done better, foods not so much, which would have driven a higher GM and that should to some extent normalize in the quarters going forward as food also starts to pick up.
Yeah. As you know, when you try to answer what we're seeing is sequentially down by 300 bps. Ours is a seasonal business. In the first half of the first quarter it is more juices, Glucose, and other stuff. Here, you start with loading of Chyawanprash and some bit of Honey itself, and hence this is empty. Therefore, you can't compare sequential margins in our business because of seasonality.
[Ankush], I was just trying to understand.
If you look at the year on year, I think year on year looking at and there it's a 20% improvement. There's not a three year sequentially the portfolio differs and you are rightly to your point, this is not do as well very high in the first quarter. I think the season ends in the first quarter and you end into a lean quarter in quarter two. That goes down, which is inherently a low gross margin as compared to health care, and home and personal care is a high margin for us. It's a category play and a product play. That is what is impacting the margin. On the positive side.
My last question is in Ventures. So Dabur Ventures, is there a separate team leading this initiative?
Yeah, we've got Mr. Abhinav Dhall who joined us from McKinsey. He's an expert as well as private equity venture capitalist and he's got a huge experience and very talented gentleman. I think he will be heading ventures and if need be then we'll be supporting him with other members also who will be exclusively working on Dabur Ventures. Today he will be exclusively leading this whole venture.
Great. That's all for me. Wish you all the best, country.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Mehul from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Sorry, my questions are answered. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from Nitin Gupta from Emkay Global Financial Service. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. First question is around your guidance around mid- to high-single-digit growth in second half. If I be particular about Q3, we have multiple benefits in terms of interloading, primary sales, shape shift, GST benefit. Any sense you can provide in terms of how you see the domestic growth in Q3 particularly?
It's very difficult for me to give you a guidance of such a short term business. Long term I can comment upon, the short term where the skill level, it all depends upon how the season pans out because this quarter is going to be very season dependent and very winter centric for us, and a third of the portfolio is winter centric. While our winter products are doing well, Honey this last quarter will give us a growth of 28%. Honey has also grown by 28%, etc. We expect the Chyawanprash is a big one and all depends upon how Chyawanprash offtakes and is fielded in the market. It's difficult for us to give you a guidance in such a short term.
This is fine. My question was also pertaining to the price growth. We are sort of having around 5%, so that itself takes to mid single digits. Any headwind particularly you see which is limiting your guidance or aspiration? You can say like will not save you for the number, but just wanted to have some clarity on this.
Not really, we don't see any headwind as of now. I think we are only seeing the tailwind. The only headwind which I told you is that the GST transition is carrying forward into the October month also, and there is an old price stock still with the trade. Till the time that gets flushed out, the whole system is not getting streamlined. That is the only hiccup that we see in the current quarter. Otherwise, not much. We have seen even Nepal situation is relatively better as compared to the previous quarter, and we hope the Trump tariff situation also getting resolved in the short term.
Thank you. Second question is with respect to like we have the widest portfolio in FMCG, and the question is around like how we are aligning our portfolio with youth. So HUL in this quarterly call have highlighted that Gen Z is 400 million and they are basically driving the shift in growth, and they are looking to sort of align their portfolio with youth. Do you agree with the view? Could you provide any perspective here? Thank you.
I think it's not aligning my view to hn. I think they've got their own strategy, we've got our own strategy. As I told you, there are two pillars of growth as far as Dabur is concerned. One is the growth of premiumization where we are modernizing and contemporizing our portfolio and all our brands. Whether it's hair oils, whether it's shampoo, whether it's Home Care or skin care, we are modernizing and that is towards this 400- 500 million cohort. This is an urban cohort of consumers. Out of that, only 2% or 3% are in the income bracket who earn more than around INR 2 lakh, INR 3 lakh per month kind of income bracket. It's a more razor-sharp approach of going to e-commerce and doing premiumization. That's the premiumization pivot of growth.
The second pivot of growth is a renewal pivot of growth towards the bottom of the pyramid, which is towards LUP, etc. Two growth folks for us: one is the premium end, which is where we are contemporizing the brands and premiumizing it and making it more relevant to the Gen Z and the new generation. To your point, like giving you examples like Chyawanprash gummies coming in, that is a good thing. Launch of science that we've already done, that is happening. Launching a Shilajit resin, which has already happened. All those initiatives are meant to relate with the new consumer, but that will be more of a premium vision, more price-driven, more profit driver, and the bottom of the pyramid is going to be more volume driver and more bulk driver for business.
That's our strategy in terms of premiumization and innovation and relating to the current Gen Z.
Thank you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. As there are no further questions, I'll now hand the conference over to Ms. Isha Lamba for closing comments.
I would like to thank all the participants for joining today's call. The webcast recording and transcript will be available on our website. Thank you and have a great evening ahead.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Dabur India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.