Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Electronics Mart India Limited Q3 and 9M FY 2024 Earnings Conference Call. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the opinions and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Karan Bajaj. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you very much. Good evening, and a very warm welcome to everybody present on the call. Along with me, I have our CFO, Mr. Premchand Devarakonda , and Strategy Growth Advisors, our investor relations advisors. We have uploaded our results and investor presentation for the quarter and nine months on the stock exchange and company's website. Hope everyone had a chance to go through the same. To begin with the update on the store opening front, in Q3 FY 2024, we opened 7 MBOs. Out of these, 4 MBOs opened in Andhra Pradesh, 2 opened in Telangana, 1 specialized MBO, Kitchen Stories, in Delhi NCR.
Our company is currently associated with more than 100 electronic brands, with over 8,000 SKUs, and has a long-standing relationship of more than 15 years with a certain number of brands, which operate in product categories such as large appliances, mobile phones, small appliances, IT category, and others. In 9 months, FY 2024, we have opened 21 stores. Our store count at the end of December 2023 stands at 147 stores. Hundred and thirty-four of which are MBOs, 13 are EBOs. Out of 147 stores, 125 stores are leased, 11 are owned, and 11 are partly owned and partly leased stores. As on date, we are present in 58 cities across 4 states.
On Q3, we have delivered robust growth of 21% in the revenue year-on-year at INR 1,789 crores and 16% year-on-year for nine months FY 2024 at INR 4,791 crores. Our EBITDA for Q3 FY 2024 stood at INR 115 crores, and for nine months FY 2024, it stood at INR 342 crores. EBITDA margin stood at 6.4% for Q3 FY 2024 and 7.1% for nine months FY 2024. Our SG&A for the quarter stood at 13.4%, and for the nine-month FY 2024, stood at 10.1%. We are concentrating on strengthening our position in the areas where we currently operate before exploring newer markets. This strategy has allowed us to establish our brand in the markets of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Delhi NCR.
This is not only helping our customers with, in those regions to connect with our brand, but also to familiarize them with our range of products. It enhances our understanding of the market and the preferences of our customers. Our future plans involve further expanding our store network in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana. Additionally, we aim to gradually extend our presence to the NCR region as well. Following our focused strategy expansion based on defined clusters, our knowledge in local market dynamics, efficient supply chain management, and strategic inventory control have contributed significantly to achieving cost competitiveness and consistent profitability. The customizations of our product assortment and maintenance of a comprehensive portfolio play a pivotal role in securing enhanced visibility, brand recognition, deeper market penetration, and an expanding customer base. With this, I request Mr. Premchand Devarakonda, our CFO, to update you on the financial performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Karan sir. Good evening, and warm welcome to all the participants. Now, I would like to present the financial overview of the company. Our revenues from operations for Q3 of FY 2024 stood at INR 1,789 crores, as against INR 1,482 crores, with a growth of 21% year-on-year. For nine months of FY 2024, our revenues stood at 497, four sorry, 4,791 crores, as against INR 4,118 crores, as a growth of 16% year-on-year. EBITDA for Q3 of FY 2024 stood at INR 115 crores, as against INR 73 crores, a growth of 58% year-on-year. And for nine months, FY 2024, EBITDA stood at INR 342 crores, as against INR 245 crores, with a growth of 39% year-on-year.
EBITDA margins for Q3 FY 2024 stood at 6.4%, and for nine months of FY 2024, it stood at 7.1%. Tax for Q3 FY 2024 stood at INR 46 crores, as against INR 22 crores, as a growth of 109% year-on-year. For nine months, FY 2024, tax stood at INR 143 crores, as against INR 87 crores, with a growth of 65% year-on-year. ROCE and ROE on an annualized basis for nine months of FY 2024 stood at 20.6% and 14.4% respectively. The working capital days as on 31 December 2023 stood at 53 days.
The gross debt to equity as on 31 December 2023 was 0.33x, and net debt to equity was 0.26x, and our net debt to EBITDA stood at 0.77x. Our cash flow from operations for nine months of FY 2024 stood at INR 312 crore. For nine months of FY 2024, same-store growth rate stood at 10.3%. For this nine-month period, our about 44% of our revenue came from large appliances, 42% from mobile, and 14% from small appliances, IT, and others. In Q3 FY 2024, around 99% of our revenues came from the retail segment, and the top five brands contributed around 60% of our revenue. With this brief, brief presentation, I open the floor for questions and answers.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to 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. We have our first question from the line of Srujana from Ratnatraya Capital . Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Congratulations on the great results, sir. So my question was on the gross margin side. There is some expansion on the gross margin, even if you see year-on-year, 1% out of 10. And in terms of mix, if you see, the mix change has not been favorable particularly. So, can you explain that a little bit? What was-
Hi. Can you repeat your second part of the question, please? I could not get that.
Yeah. So I was just asking on the gross margin front. The gross margin has expanded year-on-year from 13 odd% to 14.2%. And in terms of mix, the change in the mix is not in the favorable, right? Because the iPhone share had increased, has increased. So can you explain that a bit?
Yeah. So, I see the two things here. As you correctly said, the gross margins have increased. So even if you look at the previous quarter, the gross margin was a little high compared to this particular quarter.
Right.
So, there are two major quarters that have a better gross margins than usually we have seen in the past. But now what has happened is because we've improved a lot of other product categories, which deliver at a higher margin, so blended margin overall would look better. So I would say it would remain in a similar range here going forward as well. So definitely since the time in the last couple of years, we've worked really hard to make sure that the product mix is optimized. We emphasize more on margins and make sure that our gross margin levels increase. So that is what we have done, and that is what you see the delivery today happening because of that reason.
The work that we've done in the last couple of years to make sure that our gross margins from about 13.7-13.8% increase to 14.1-14.5%. So that is what we had worked towards. And on the second question, for the product mix would be definitely as the mobile phone as a category is increasing. But at the same time, what we've done is, we've tried extracting more on accessory business, screen guards, tempers, chargers, cables. We're adding up those categories as well, audio categories, headphones, TWS, along with mobile phones and attachments. So usually, when you attach up that particular category along with mobile phones, you would definitely see an increase in margins there as well. So it...
All that put together helps us, you know, increase our gross margin, even though the product mix got a little varied towards mobile phones in the last quarter as well.
Right. Understood. And congrats on the great delivery, sir. Just one more follow-up on this.
Yes.
So on the last call, I think you mentioned that there is some accounting change also, wherein the incentives that we were earlier recognizing as a part of the sale, now in the bill value itself, we are getting the deduction there, so that gets subtracted from the cost. So is that also affecting the margins a little bit? Yes.
So if I say in another way, what was happening is not from the sales, but from the purchase that we used to take in. Now what comes into invoicing are not as a separate credit, not that we used to get. So you would see a little dip in the incentive income that we would be receiving in the last few quarters. It's because now most of the brands are trying to push them to invoice everything in the bill itself, so that you know, the other operating incomes have become a little lesser. That was the plan, and so that the cash flows also get better. So that was the whole plan.
But we're trying, but a lot of brands, because we've been working with them for so long in the same accounting practice, it's very difficult to change them now. So the major component still remains on invoicing, but there are a lot of other schemes like sell-in and sell-out , cash discounts, price drop schemes, defective schemes, marketing, and everything comes as a post sellout, yeah, post-sale support for us.
Understood, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sanika from Sapphire Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. In the previous calls, you had given a margin guidance of 6.7%-7% going forward, and this quarter we can see a slight dip in the margin. So is it because quarter three is seasonally weak or something? Or, going forward, can we expect to come back on track to 6.7%-7% kind of margin?
Yes. Hi, Sanika. So, Sanika, this quarter is a little heavy. If I, if you talk about the EBITDA margins, going a little down compared to the previous quarter, that definitely would be there, because we went a little aggressive on our marketing strategy that we had planned. There were other costs, like business promotion and all, would be little higher and directly proportionate to, you know, the business that we would do. And this being a festive period, all retailers in the market are a little more aggressive in terms of discounting and in terms of promotions and all. So that is where we had to put it under line, under the same way. So that is why you would see that 0.2%-0.3% difference in that number.
But I would say things going forward also would look similar. And this being the largest quarter for us in terms of revenue, also, we had to make sure that, you know, our marketing spends are higher, especially in Delhi. So subsequently, Delhi, we spent around INR 5.5 crore additionally than our budgeted number for the cost of marketing that being higher compared to the regions that we operate in AP, Telangana and Hyderabad. So you would see definitely a dip, but again, it is in line with the gross margin that we had expected and the expense that we would bear for that particular quarter looking at the revenue that we generated.
Okay. So, going forward, we can expect to come back to stated guidance, right?
See, I think what happens is, like, this coming quarter, January, March, like, for example, last year, say, our marketing spend would be similar, for example, but then this year if the summer starts a little early in this region, then we would need to expand our marketing budget. Like last year, the marketing budget got split into two quarters, mainly because Dussehra and Navaratri started in September. So our marketing budget got split between two quarters, in Q2 and Q3 for festival period, because whereas this year it was strictly only in one quarter. So you would see that impact of the cost going up for a few things. Same thing with summer this year, like January, March.
Right now it is a little cooler in Delhi and north region, so you know, our spends are next to zero there. But if you look at South, probably you know, next 15, 20 days, we start the summer period here, and according to the sales growth, we could look at expanding and promoting the cashback offers and marketing and all of that. So then it is more like a seasonality of a business that would come in, and then definitely then there would be a little lesser or higher number in the Q1 of next financial year. So it is more of seasonality, but we would remain in the same range, and it would all depend on what the sell-out is and what the revenues that we are generating on a, on a daily basis.
Okay. Okay. And for the next 2-3 years, what kind of revenue potential are we looking at and what are our expansion strategies?
So our expansion strategy would be to open around, anywhere between 25-30 stores comfortably. So we've already identified, a lot of stores in the existing markets that we are operating today. Like for the first nine months of this year, we opened 21 stores. Last quarter itself, we opened 7 stores, and there are another 7-10 stores that are in pipeline to open up in this quarter. So, so on this year count, we would be up to 35 stores that we'll be launching. And, kind of a similar number in the next couple of years. That's the plan. But, most importantly, we don't attribute our growth coming in from the newer stores.
So if I just give you an example, last quarter, on a growth of almost INR 300 crores, the contribution coming in from the seven stores that we opened in Q3 was hardly INR 11 crores. You know, INR 10-11 crores. The rest of the growth came in from the existing stores. So usually we would attribute the store growth in the next couple of years from the new stores that we opened in the last 12 months from that particular year. So that is what we look at. And number two would be we would look at a very comfortable number of 15%-18% kind of a growth coming in for the next few years very comfortably.
You know, until unless there is a new technology product that comes in or a new change in technology that helps us grow better, but what we see in next couple of years, the product or the technology would remain same. So that is where, you know, we would see this kind of a growth coming in from the, existing stores.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Krishna from Capitalmind. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Am I audible?
Yes.
Hi. So first, congratulations on the great Q4 numbers. We can see that operating leverage is kicking in slowly. So I have a couple of questions. I'll start with first one. So, sir, what is the... Generally, what is the number of months it will take for the new store to break even on operating front?
Okay. So, Krishna, there are two things here. So the existing market that we are operating in, suppose Hyderabad, AP and Telangana, the brand is recognized, right? So here we will look at, a 10- to 12-month kind of a breaking period. Whereas the newer markets that we are operating, like in Delhi NCR today, from the first store till what today we are at, we've seen, the projected numbers to go around 18- to 20 months, and that is what we're delivering today. So now once we establish, the brand is more recognized, the more number of stores we keep adding. After that, then it will come on to a similar level that we would expect in our existing geography.
But right now, in Delhi NCR region, it would be around 18-20 months, and AP Telangana region would be around 12 months.
Got it. Got it. Sir, my second question is that you said the current number of stores on the north cluster is generating around 0.2% EBITDA margins. But you are expecting that to slowly move to the current 7% range, which the south cluster is managed to get. So any timeline you have it, sir? I mean, the current 20 stores which we have in NCR, when can we see the margins to go from current to 0.2 to around 7%?
So, so Krishna, right now, these stores have been operational for around 14 months. We have another 7-8 months of build-up for these stores to grow. So right now, we are quite confident because last quarter also it was a similar number. And then, once the summer sets in, because last year we missed on the summer period in Delhi because it was cold then, it started pouring a little early. So north summer went for a toss last year, especially the cooling products, where we have the highest margins. This year, we're expecting that to be in line with our expectation of sell-off for ACs and air coolers. That will set us little more higher margins.
I think we would like to give it another 6-8 months for it to develop further and come down to, come up to the same level as what we're operating back home in Hyderabad.
Got it. I just have two more questions, sir. So one is that, so I can see that, we are slowly getting our presence in Kerala. So is that our next area of growth or region of growth, in Kerala?
No, Krishna. Kerala was just an acquisition for the existing business of Häcker, the kitchen business that we are, we are into. So that was just a franchisee takeover from them. So, there's no other plans of opening multi-brand stores right now there. We are concentrating on Delhi NCR and maybe Telangana region.
Perfect. Perfect. So one last question. So you said that the majority of the growth will come from the existing stores. So, because the new stores will have some time to mature. So, and we have been doing the same store sales growth of 13%-14%, which is really healthy. So, do you think we can sustain this same store sales growth above 12%-13%, sir, for the next two, three years?
Krishna, I hope we sustain that kind of a number. But then, see, like this year, it definitely helped us with the 5G rollout, you know. So the ACs went up, 5G rollout was good. Large screen televisions during the World Cup sold really well. So there was a lot of category. Audio picked up, accessory picked up. You know, so a lot of categories apart from the core business also picked up and started doing very well. So we're concentrating on those businesses as well to develop an existing time from the existing stores. But, because the stores are at a very high base anyway, it becomes very difficult for it to, you know, keep sustaining at that level. But at a ten percent growth is what we're quite comfortable with, try to achieve that number at least, you know, going forward.
Got it. Got it. Yeah, sir. Thank you. That's it for myself.
Thank you.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Manoj Gori from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good evening, sir.
Good evening.
So my question is on the Delhi market. So see, if I look at the EBITDA margin performance, probably for the first half, you said like, you have done somewhere around 0.4% kind of EBITDA margin. Which currently for the nine months it's close to around 0.2%. So obviously indicating that there have been some losses into Q3. And probably if you look at this was seasonally, in terms of festive season, it was a heavy quarter for the Delhi stores. So though the store, say, a revenue growth seems on the higher side at 60%, but do you feel like, it was somewhat below our expectation and probably the scale was benign, and accordingly we faced challenges in terms of EBITDA?
Hello, sir. So, sir, yes, definitely, yes. As you said very correctly, if I look at the blended EBITDA margin that we delivered this quarter, particularly into the first nine months, it comes up to 0.2%, would look a little lower than the last quarter, is because, though we had generated revenues of around INR 55 crore last quarter versus INR 83 crore this quarter, the numbers on the top line definitely were higher. But then at the same time, we spent over INR 5.5 crore on advertising, which was not attributed in Q2. If I look at that number, instead, that itself is around 4%. You know, so that itself is a very big number. So, we could have added more stores, which are in the pipeline, you know.
So once the stores are gonna come in, probably next Q3, if you look at it, we'll have a similar marketing budget, but with double number of stores available there for us to sell. So it is, it is a strategic plan that we... It's more like an investment that we're doing right now, to make sure that the brand is recognized and the stores that are in the pipeline are opening in the next couple of months are also, you know, they sell out fairly well at the beginning. Because a strategic move, you could have saved this money, you could have saved, saved a little more money here and there, and make this number look better. But our strategy was a little different. We're looking at a long-term strategy for Delhi. So Delhi has to be given 2, 3 years for it to grow.
We're nourishing the baby right now. This is an investment that has gone through, and we're quite happy actually with the performance that we've done in Delhi.
Right, sir. So, so in the medium term, probably from FY 2025 or FY 2026 point of view, looking at the complete Delhi operations or the north market-
Yes.
How do you see margins moving up, probably any aspirational targets that you have set or probably given that you would be having a strong visibility on the overall markets? Where do you see these margins moving? Probably from two years, three years, like, not any specific number, if you can highlight, but at least some trajectory, whether it could be towards mid-single digit, anything on that?
... So, sir, right now, if I look at the existing market, we are hovering around 7%+. And if I try to start comparing that, because the productivity per store year on an average is upwards of INR 60-INR 70 crores, you know. In Hyderabad city, INR 40 crores in the Telangana upper market, and INR 32 crores in the Andhra Pradesh market. So what happens is that if I calculate the cost of running the store expenses, rentals, manpower or electricity and all that put together versus Delhi as a market, so the cost of running all these stores are a little expensive there. So if I look at the actual number there, I do not expect it to reach 7% mark immediately in the next 10 months, 12 months or 14 months, but it definitely would be upwards of what it is today.
What would happen is that even if these existing 13 stores that we operate today, or 12 multi-brand and 1 exclusive brand operate, even if they become profit, profitable in the next 10, 12 months and start giving out of the, the higher number of EBITDA, what would happen is the newer stores will pull down these numbers. Because the need for the next couple of years, the plan is to add up almost to 20+ stores. 14 under Bajaj brand, 6 open up in the next 45 days, and then, an additional of another 10 stores in FY 2025, 2026 as well.
When we keep on adding up these stores, a total of 40 stores operating, 35-40 stores operational in the next 3 years, there will definitely be a downside coming in from the newer stores that we open up, until and unless they don't stabilize. So as for the next couple of years, we are not worried about this number. So what we are looking at is EBITDA at least to be positive for us, for the next couple of years. That is, that itself is good enough for us to stay through in Delhi as a market. So that's the plan for now.
Sure, sure. I completely agree with that. So my, if you look at probably on the future expansion plans into north market, so, just to understand from a return profile point of view, are we looking to buy out properties? Anything we have identified so far, or we will continue to work on the lease model?
So majorly it's gonna be in the lease model itself, because right now, say, our expansion is happening at the periphery like Najafgarh, Burari, Nangloi, you know, a few areas outside Gurgaon. So those areas definitely would be a rental model only. But the clusters, as I said on previous calls also, the clusters where our competition is quite big or where the clusters are of a certain size, where we feel that say if it's a cluster where Reliance or Vijay Sales or any other local partner put together is doing INR 100 crore-INR 200 crore in turnover, those kind of places we would like to buy our properties, because that is where the competition is gonna be in intensive in the future, and the markets are gonna keep growing. So for a smaller cluster, we are not interested to buy.
Only in bigger clusters, which are upwards of 100, 200 crores, that is where we would look at buying out. But right now, major expansion of buying out in the major, major pockets of Delhi has been completed, like Lajpat Nagar, Janakpuri, Chittaranjan Park, Rajouri. We completed only 1 or 2 locations in Gurgaon on lease right now, but at the same time, we're not able to find a property. So probably once we do it, we might buy out those properties if required, but apart from that, there's no major plan of buying out properties in Delhi.
Right, sir. Sir, last question: so if I look at the Indian home appliances space and probably the categories in which you are present in, too, so normally, what we expect is like, these categories are likely to grow in double digits in volume terms. Now, when I look at your guidance, probably not guidance, but, the aspirational target of SSG of close to around 10%, so obviously that goes well with the category growth rates, but also on the other hand, you do agree that there has been a shift happening from, general trade to, large organized players. So that should actually lead to higher SSG numbers on a sustainable basis. Correct me if I'm wrong or probably, I'm missing something on the understanding part.
Manoj ji, very well said, in terms of... You're absolutely right, in terms of the market moving and shifting from general trade to organized trade. But then 2 things, it depends on the particular category. Like mobile phone, definitely, yes, are moving from general to larger, format stores majorly. But, when you consider consumer durables, especially in the modern cities, or developed cities, already 90%+ share is with the organized retailers. You know, so only limited shares is with, general partners for consumer durables specifically. Again, kitchen appliances as a category is a general market today. We are talking about mixie, geysers, all kind, that kind of category still is in general, very predominant with that category.
If you're talking about tier two, tier three towns, we're talking about underdeveloped markets or cities which are just about to grow now, you know, or states like Odisha, Goa, these kind of places, you know. Or if I talk about the East completely, apart from Kolkata as one city, all these are driven by unorganized players. Or even up north, upwards of Punjab and Jammu, Kashmir, Haryana, that few of the best there is all driven by unorganized market. But the market that we've been operating, predominantly, majorly say in AP, Telangana, are all majorly organized state markets. So I don't, I would not say that the consumer durable growth there would be coming in from majorly, or we would have to grow a little more higher.
But mobile phones, that is shift you can see because the ASPs of mobile phones has shifted now upwards of INR 28,000-INR 30,000. So that kind of sales of phones, people would not want to go to a small mom-and-pop store. They would like to go in a bigger format store, experience the device, check on the, you know, financing options there, see all the other offers, cashbacks and stuff like that, and then particularly buy from a bigger store and not from a smaller store in that category, at least.
Right, sir. Thanks for the detailed answers and,
Thank you, Manoj ji.
All the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and 1 to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Neil or Piyush Gandhi from Kovill Capital . Please go ahead.
Hi, am I audible?
Yes.
Hi, Karan. Congratulations on execution here. Very good job there. I just wanted to understand the free cash flow that we've reported for nine months seems to be a very big number.... So, does this go down in Q4 before we fill the inventory for the AC business?
I see. So thank you very much. Yes, definitely, so definitely in Q4, we've already started stocking up a lot of inventory for air conditioners. And we're seeing a little fervor of summer falling in place in this region at least. So by the end of Q4, you'll definitely see a similar number that we've seen last year at the end of thirty-first March, or probably a little higher. But in the same line only because AC and cooler needs to be picked up and kept as an inventory available with us. So we will see definitely a you know a decline in the cash flows there and increase in the inventory levels being maintained. And Premchand or Ram sir would like to add something there, please.
Sir, normally what happens, at the end of the season, you can see, the free cash flows will be on a higher side. But at the beginning of the season, it will definitely go down. That is the scenario.
No, that I understand, and completely appreciate it. What I was just trying to figure out was that, given that this year our margins are much better than last year, do we end up in a free cash flow positive situation, or you still feel we'll still be negative? That's what I mean.
It will be positive. Definitely, it will be positive. And secondly, yeah, that's all. So it will be positive.
Okay, fair enough. Karan, I just wanted your perspective. The general understanding in the market, at least from the FMCG side of the business, industry, is that there's a slowdown in the rural areas. We also have substantial operations in rural areas. So what is your sense? Is that K-shaped recovery something which you are also observing, or it's not true for the consumer durable space?
We still have, we've not felt that. In the last six months out, we've not seen that, the consumption has reduced or, you know, we don't see that effect in the stores there. Definitely, yes, the tier two stores that we opened are majorly in the last two quarters only. So for us to judge also and tell them, because the base is zero there for us, and we've started operations, so definitely we would see a growth coming in those stores month-on-month. But probably, if I tell you an example of where, you know, we've been operating in tier two, tier three towns for the last four, five years, few of them, even they are growing and there's a demand, especially for premium products, increasing in those sectors there.
We're talking about 85, 90, 75 inch, inch televisions, talking about side-by-side refrigerators or Apple devices or high-end mobile phones. There, definitely we see an increase, so we don't see a slowdown there at all. So that is, that momentum is quite positive for us, even in tier 2 and tier 3 towns.
Oh, okay. Fair enough. And, correct me if I'm wrong, you mentioned 35 stores for 25 financial year. Is that the number we should look for, or that's a little higher?
Something like this year, we only opened 21 stores in the first nine months of this year. And then another 7, out of which were in the last quarter. We will end up opening another 7-10 stores in the next 45 days, out of which few of them we opened last week as well. So, 35, 30, 35 plus is very comfortable that we'll open. We've already identified, the paperwork is done, so there are already 10 stores in the pipeline that will open up in the next financial year, because they're getting ready, so they won't be opening up before 31st of March. So that's why we know that another 10-12 stores will open up next year, which are already signed up for.
Then another 20, 21st locations is what we've identified across Delhi NCR and AP, Telangana. We are quite confident that, you know, we very comfortably will end up opening 30+ stores in the next financial year as well.
Oh, so 35, we are talking about this financial year. This, I mean, I mean, because we were at 21, we said 7 odd are ready, and then we would reach to 28, and then you're saying another 7 will get opened. So 14 stores in this quarter itself. Is that right?
No, no. So 21, we opened the first 9 months of the year.
Okay.
Out of which seven, we opened last quarter itself.
Okay, that's ... So 28, around 28 odd, this financial year, 2024, and 30 odd or 30 plus in next financial year.
Is that your understanding?
Yes, yes.
Okay. Okay, fair enough. In the last couple of quarters, we had actually disclosed this revenue from sale of the warranties and guarantees offered by the third parties. Would it be possible for you to share in this quarter, how has that number moved? Because that was kind of adding a lot of profit.
I'll take it offline with you, because I don't have the exact number right now, because we have increased our sales for other categories that would include extended warranty, accessories, audio and headphones. So that overall put together, there is an increase of almost around quarter-over-quarter, there's almost increase of around INR 24-25 crore, out of which you could attribute it, 50% of it towards extended warranty, 50% of it towards other categories.
Okay, fair enough. Fair. Yeah, that's it from my side, and best of luck for the future.
Thank you, Neil.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajvi Shah from Bright Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I just had couple of questions. The first one is, can you shed some light on the product mix this quarter, as many festivals were there?
Yeah. So, the mobile mix was around 40%, the large appliances were around 44%. Other categories was around 14% of small appliances and IT and other category. So that was a major split this quarter. So there was a decrease in the large appliances category and increase in mobile as a category, mobile and IT. Large appliances, televisions, grew, whereas refrigerators and washing machines were more or less flat only this quarter. The AC went up, though, in that category, but the volume of that product category in refrigerators and washing machines were more or less flat.
Oh, okay.
Air conditioners were the maximum growth, if you look at Q3 versus Q3. So air conditioners grew by around 50%.
Okay, so I just had one more question.
Yes.
What guidance can you give on the future revenue growth?
So guidance for the future revenue would be in same line that we've been delivering in the past. Probably a little more, I could not say we're not gonna go a little more aggressive, because the majority of the stores coming in the next few years would be in Delhi NCR region. So the market size is big there though, but it will take us a little more time to establish those stores and make sure that, you know, they reach a certain threshold that we expect them to be at. So for the next, you know, couple of years, we would be in the same line, so we would not go aggressive in terms of the number.
But because the store expansion, the contribution on the store to develop over a period of 12, 14 months, and we start delivering as the expected numbers would be there. So we would be in line with what we're doing right now, and for next couple of years, that is the strategy.
Okay, that was helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Dolly Choudhary from Niveshaay Investment Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a great set of numbers. I just had one question: so, like, as we know, the NCR is a big market for the company, but at the same time, I think it's very competitive also. So I just wanted to know what specifically company is doing to attain the market share there?
So, Dolly, I would say that that is our business secret, so I would not like to, you know... But actually, on a serious note, see, it is a technology product that we're selling, right? So most importantly, you got to sell a product category that is prevalent in the market today, the brands that are prevalent. Customers come in for an experience, that is what we try to improve. So right now, you know, we spend a lot of money in our back end and our front end, store experience, product categorization, add up new product categories, bring everything under one roof. You know, give a better retail experience. So that way, not only we are competing with our offline peers, but even competing with the online space as well.
So that is really important, that your after-sales service, your team on the floor, everything makes a lot of difference when you want to compete against your competition. And price is not just one factor majorly, if you ask me. Never consider price to be a major factor in differentiation. I think the product mix, the brand that we deal with, the new categories that we've launched and growing in those product fronts, giving out the best service to the customer, that is all put together is what makes a lot of difference.
Like, overall, you're targeting on customer experience?
Yes, yes, yes. Like, for example, in terms of, see, it's not, not only that, but in terms of marketing now, we started spending a little more on, say, Google Ads, a little more on YouTube, a little more on digital than the predominant print media that we used to do. So we try experimenting with that as well, quarter to quarter. We are doing a lot of events. Like, last week, we just finished a Comic Con event, where we attracted a lot of people. Over 8,000 walk-ins were there for that event, where, you know, there were kids between 18-24 years of age who are pure gamers, you know, so we could increase our gaming laptop as a category. So it's smaller events, but we're trying to strategize individually for every category.
Like for kitchen appliances, we're doing events for cookery shows and stuff like that. For every category, we want to emphasize our depth of product displays that we have, conducting individual events, you know, so in just apart from the regular prints or radios that you know, we've been historically doing.
Right. Thank you. That is all.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pooja Kamdar from Geojit Securities . Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Sir, I just have one question. Have you encountered more sales through credit facility on YoY basis, and what percentage of revenue is it?
It's not much of a change, Pooja. These are, like, probably hardly a difference of 1%-2% increase in the credit card sales, whereas NBFC still remains the highest contributor. Second would be credit card, third would be, you know, wallets and cash. So, NBFC still is the prevalent category for us.
Okay. Yeah, that was helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. That was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. So I would like to thank all of you for joining into the call. I hope that we were able to answer all your questions. And for any further queries, you may get in touch with our team or SGA, and we'll be happy to address all your queries. Thank you once again. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Electronics Mart India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.