Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Deepak Jajodia. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Deepak.
Welcome to Jubilant FoodWorks Q3 FY 2022 earnings call for investors and analysts. We are joined today by senior members of the management team, including our Chairman, Mr. Shyam S. Bhartia, our Co-Chairman, Mr. Hari S. Bhartia, our CEO, Mr. Pratik Pota, our CFO, Mr. Ashish Goenka, and our Group CFO, Mr. Amit Chughani. We will commence with key thoughts from Mr. Hari Bhartia. Mr. Pratik Pota will follow him with his perspective on JFL's progress on the quarter-ended 31st December 2021. After the opening remarks from the management, the forum will be open for the question and answers. A cautionary note. Some of the statements made on today's call could be forward-looking in nature, and the actual results could vary from the statements.
A detailed statement in this regard is available in Jubilant FoodWorks Q3 FY 2022 results release and earnings presentation, both of which are available on the company's website under the investor relations section. I would now like to invite Mr. Hari S. Bhartia to share his views with you. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call. During Q 3 FY 2022, the on-ground COVID situation improved considerably compared to the previous period, even though restrictions remained on dine-in, which was capped at 50% capacity. The annual celebratory season in the last fortnight of December was also impacted due to the COVID-led curbs in select markets. In spite of these restrictions, we delivered a strong system and like-for-like growth in this quarter. The dining segment showed good signs of recovery and contributed to the year-on-year growth. Delivery and takeaway channels also registered a healthy growth in comparison to the pre-pandemic levels of Q 3 FY 2020. As you would be aware, we continue to witness inflation across categories with input costs increasing sequentially as well as on a year-on-year basis.
Nevertheless, we delivered strong profitability with an increase in EBITDA margins both sequentially and versus last year. This was driven by productivity and taking some pricing action in December. It is important to note that even after price increase, Domino's remains the most affordable pizza by far and continues to deliver unmatched value for money to its customers. We opened a record 75 new Domino's restaurants in Q3 in India. We also recently inaugurated the 1,500th Domino's store in India, an important landmark in our exciting journey in India. The company will continue to deliver on targets around new store openings and new town penetrations. We have developed the necessary business development competencies backed by data-driven approach around site selection and have the wherewithal to drive rapid on-ground execution. During the quarter, we concluded the acquisition of 35% stake in Thrive, the direct ordering platform.
We will continue to make such strategic investments in relevant and early-stage startups, which in turn will help us acquire strong digital and other capabilities essential for driving growth and further our transformation into a food tech play. Turning to our international business, in Sri Lanka, the company delivered its highest-ever system sale in a quarter. Bangladesh too experienced a healthy growth. The company concluded the reverse book building process and increased its shareholding to 40.29% in DP Eurasia. Popeyes got off to an extremely promising start in Bangalore last month. We were encouraged to see strong and enthusiastic response from consumers despite the prevailing restrictions at that point. Our early experience has reinforced our conviction that Popeyes will be a strong long-term growth driver for JFL, and we look forward to building a large and a profitable network of Popeyes.
Before I conclude, as you are aware, the board also decided to split the shares 1-for-5. I hope this will give larger participation from all stakeholders, especially the retail ones. Going forward, we will continue to focus on delivering our long-term priorities and will strive to achieve the goal of building a multi-brand and a multinational food business powered by technology and digital assets. With this thought, I invite our CEO, Pratik Pota, to share his perspective and insights.
Thank you, Mr. Bhartia, and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining the call today. We reported a very strong quarter today with double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth, record profits, and a strong underlying operating performance. Revenue from operations was at INR 1,193.5 million, up 12.9% versus the previous year. Like-for-like growth, which is the same-store growth of non-split stores, was at 7.5%. This is a much more relevant comparator for our company as we continue to execute successfully on our fortressing strategy in existing cities and improving continually on our customer experience. Notably, the ratio of split stores to the overall new stores opened in the last seven quarters is as high as 46%. Hence, going forward, LFL will be the key metric that we will be reporting to track same-store growth.
We faced strong and broad-based inflationary pressures across commodities and personnel costs during this quarter. Despite this, we did well to drive efficiencies and deliver strong EBITDA margins. EBITDA stood at INR 3,174 million, up 13.9% versus Q3 of FY 2021, and EBITDA margin was at 26.6%, higher by 24 basis points versus the previous year and up 60 basis points versus the previous quarter. Profit after tax was at INR 1,373 million, higher by 9.8% with a tax margin of 11.5%. We further accelerated the pace of new store openings. In the first two quarters together, as you're aware, we had opened 75 Domino's stores. In the third quarter, we matched a new benchmark by opening 75 stores within the quarter itself.
This is the highest number of restaurants ever opened in a quarter by any Domino's franchisee in any market across the world. We also spread our footprint wider by entering 17 new towns in this period. Spread across 322 cities, our Domino's store network stands at 1,495 stores at the end of the quarter. Rather it stood at 1,495 stores. As you're aware, more recently we reached a magical milestone of 1,500 stores and are absolutely confident of continuing our relentless network growth in the periods ahead. Our fortressing strategy is also allowing us to shrink delivery areas and reduce drive times. As a result, a significant proportion of our delivery orders now get delivered in under 20 minutes, thus leading to a vastly improved customer experience.
This has directly translated into a significant increase in our customer satisfaction or NPS numbers. Our NPS is now by far the best in class in the QSR category. Domino's app installs during the quarter were at a record 8.2 million. Our own app sales continue to grow faster than the aggregators, and a dominant share of our revenues continue to come from our own assets. On our emerging brand portfolio, we opened two new stores, one each for Dunkin' and Hong's Kitchen. Our total store count for Dunkin' is 29, and for Hong's Kitchen, it stands at 14. Notably, Hong's Kitchen has become one of the largest Chinese QSR chains in the Delhi NCR region. In Sri Lanka, the company delivered a standout performance and registered its highest ever system sales in a quarter with a year-on-year growth of 95.9%.
Bangladesh system sales grew also healthily at 39.5%. The company launched one new outlet each in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and the Domino's store count is 32 and 8 in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectively. In January, our first ever Popeyes restaurant, the flagship restaurant in Koramangala, Bangalore, got off to a strong start. Popeyes marks our entry in the fast growing and large chicken category. Our early experience has strengthened the confidence that consumers in India will love the strong Cajun flavor that has made Popeyes an iconic brand in the U.S. and across the world. I'm pleased to share with you that the entire India menu for Popeyes has no MSG, and the chicken is antibiotics free. Popeyes has built its own in-house delivery fleet with 100% use of e-bikes, enabling a zero emission delivery experience.
As we speak, we are living through and hopefully seeing off the sharp third COVID wave. Our well-proven playbook developed over the last two years ensures that we focus on employee and customer safety even as we continue to operate our business, serve our customers, and even grow our network. We are really proud of the indomitable spirit and resilience of our food soldiers that have kept us going. On that positive note, I would like to call upon the moderator to initiate the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Abneesh Roy from Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. My first question is on the store addition in Hong's and Ekdum!. It's at a four-quarter low with just one store addition. While I see Domino's quarterly addition at an all-time high and breaking many records. Why this discrepancy? Why this different unnatural trend is there? This is a new business. Domino's is a very mature business. Why not accelerate in Hong's and Ekdum! also?
No, thank you, Abneesh. Thank you for the question. I think your observation is spot on in terms of the pace of store opening. I think on Hong's Kitchen, let me share with you an update. I think we've made good progress in Hong's on multiple fronts. Our quality of food, our menu overall has been accepted really well. Our pricing is seen to offer very strong value for money. Our in-store operations have been streamlined. There is much greater consistency. We also are now moving and working closely with a central manufacturing kitchen and using a lot of our stocks coming from there and products coming from there to ease operational complexity in the stores.
In Hong's we feel that we are in a good place, and you will see us expand our network much more so in the coming periods. I think on Ekdum!, given the fact that we launched it, you know, well after Hong's, there is a lot of work going on in refining the overall Ekdum! model, and you will see Ekdum! scale up, obviously with a phase lag after Hong's Kitchen.
One follow-up on Hong's. You mentioned in opening remarks that this is the largest QSR chain in Chinese in NCR. What metric are you seeing here? Is it number of stores, or is it any other metric in terms of revenue or any other you can share?
Abneesh, given the fact that, credible and reliable, estimates on revenue or other financial measures are hard to come by, my remark was linked to the number of stores and the size of the network.
Sure. My second question is.
But I-
Sorry, please go ahead.
Yeah. My second question is on store closures. I'm coming to Domino's. Fifteen stores closed in Domino's. Now what we are seeing is dine-in in not just Domino's, across retail formats. I think the store footfalls are seeing a spectacular recovery. If you see multiplex numbers came out in Q3, they reported much better than initial expectation. Now when you have been closing stores, when recovery happens in dine-in, would you be at some disadvantage because you closed a lot of the stores from a dine-in perspective? Or your store openings are taking care of that? If you could elaborate on that.
Sure, Abneesh. I think the store closures that we had in the last quarter were very specific and very targeted. A lot of the stores that we closed were in tech parks or in travel and transport locations like metro stations or railway stations. Some closures of regular high street stores for very specific reasons, local reasons, local issues. The number of closures in malls that we had were marginal. Six stores out of the 15 that we closed were in malls.
I think given the mix that we have right now of stores which are in high street locations, and which are in delivery carryout, format, and which are in the more traditional dine-in assembly formats or locations like malls, et cetera, we have a good portfolio, and we are absolutely confident of being able to participate in the full dine-in recovery, when it happens. Even in the last quarter, we saw a very encouraging dine-in recovery, intra-quarter. Of course, which was interrupted by the restrictions which came in the second half of December.
We feel good about the fact that the assortment of stores that we have, the portfolio of stores that we have, and the formats and locations which they are in, we are well placed to participate in the strong delivery growth as also participate and drive the strong dine-in recovery. I do not think there'll be any question of us missing any opportunity. These are very considered and very deliberate closures that we made. As you can imagine, 15 closures over the last three quarters, on a network of a size, that's a very small number.
Last question and essentially a follow-up on Domino's only. When I see a customer clearly is requiring instant gratification, we are seeing Swiggy scale up, for example, 10-minute delivery. You also spoke regarding the 20-minute delivery, which is scoring well on NPS and all that. Also, you said going forward, you will share the LFL data and not share the SSG data. When I see the 75 store addition, which is a record breaker, how important a reason is the 20-minute delivery for this? And if it is important, will the record-breaking spree or very high store addition that is now a fact of life? Essentially you need to be much closer to the customer, so you will need to expand much faster.
Abneesh, as we said, both in the earlier investor calls as also in opening remarks now, driving faster delivery, making sure we reach our customers in the lowest possible time, that is a very deliberate and a very important part of our overall strategy. We made very good progress over the last two quarters. As I mentioned earlier, more than 60% of our orders now, a majority of our orders in delivery now get delivered in under 20 minutes. It's a very encouraging and very robust progress that we made for under 20 minutes. That has led to, as I mentioned in my remarks, a significant improvement in customer satisfaction scores. One big driver, therefore, of our fortressing strategy and our store split strategy is this need to shrink the delivery areas and get to our customers faster.
You will see us maintaining this approach and this strategy as we go ahead. You will see us fortressing markets, but you'll also see us enter new towns. You'll also see us enter virgin areas in existing markets and grow the network in that manner as well.
Sure. That's all from my side. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question. The next question is from the line of Vivek Maheshwari from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, everyone. My first question again is on SSG. Could you just while you mentioned, you know, I mean, after reporting SSG number for so long, what you know drove this change? Why did you think about, you know, moving from SSS to LFL? If you know, if you can clarify that position.
No, sure, Vivek. I think that's a fair question. Let me attempt to answer it and, of course, happy to take any follow-up questions if you have any. I think the inherent logic for reporting LFL and believing very strongly that LFL is a more appropriate and relevant measure comes from the fact that as a very deliberate part of our strategy, we are fortressing our markets, we are splitting our stores. In other words, we are looking to carve out areas of existing mother stores and open up new stores to allow us to serve our customers faster. There will obviously be a pressure on mother store revenues and mother store growth in the short term as these new stores play out.
These splits, as I mentioned earlier, are done to reduce the delivery times and ensure that we get closer to ambition of delivering 20 minutes across the country. LFL therefore is a much, much more appropriate and accurate measure of the real underlying growth in the business because it takes out the impact of that store split. That's number one. Number two, I think just to reassure everyone, the base of stores on which we report LFL like-for-like versus same-store growth, the base is not very different. For instance, in the last quarter, just to you know, give you the numbers and to illustrate, our LFL number was reported on a base of as much as 1,052 stores. It's not a small number. It's a very large number.
Had we reported SSG, it would've been reported on a base which was only about 100 stores higher. So it's a very significant base of stores on which we report LFL. That's my second point. The third point is that the dispersion and the difference between LFL and SSG is not large. It's a small difference. I think the reason, however, why we are reporting LFL and not SSG is a more conceptual reason, because we believe very strongly that it's important to take out the split store impact, which is a very deliberate strategy that we are embarking on. To take out that impact and to be able to show what the real underlying growth of the business is. That gets captured best by the metric of like-for-like growth, removing the noise of the split stores.
I see. Okay. Just a follow-up, Pratik, because there have been a lot of, you know, investor worries about the change in this reporting. Could you not have given both the numbers as you have been doing in the past? Is there some sort of worry that SSS number will not look good in the foreseeable future, maybe for a few quarters, and that is the reason. I mean, the timing is something that a lot of investors are questioning, to be honest. Any color again would be useful.
Yes. No, no, I appreciate the question, and thank you for asking that question. Look, I think like I said earlier, the reason why we are reporting LFL and we have stopped reporting SSG is a very conceptual reason, that this is a much better indicator of our real underlying revenue growth. Number one. That said, however, Vivek, I want to repeat what I said just a little while ago, which is the difference between the two numbers is not substantive. It's a small minor difference. If there's a concern that it's being done so that, you know, to not show our SSG number, I think that concern is misplaced.
I think, our numbers remain strong, our numbers remain robust, but the LFL number is a far better indicator, a far better measure of the real revenue growth and the real underlying growth, which is why we are showcasing that, this.
Got it. Last follow-up on this, and I'll get back in the queue. Which is basically do you also envisage as you are accelerating and, you know, let's say adding more number of stores, in the medium term, do you anticipate a cannibalization which is far higher than what it was in the history?
That's again a very good question, Vivek. Let me give you some comfort and some clarity on this. I think the really encouraging part of our fortressing strategy is the fact that our performance of both the mother stores that we split and the new stores that we open in these areas remains very strong and very encouraging. Our new stores that we open, actually both in the split areas in the fortressing markets as also in new markets, virgin markets, our stores pay back in under three years. In some cases, in a split store situation, well under three years. Number one. Number two, the mother store that we split gets back to its old revenue pre-split again in well under three years, in some cases in under two years.
The mother store and the new store in its area, the split store together, and as you can imagine, have a significantly higher revenue, a significantly higher EBITDA and significantly improved customer experience, significantly improved delivery times. To make the whole model virtuous and a win-win-win model, our operating costs go down. Our network effect kicks in. Our delivery costs, our cost per delivery goes down. Our logistics costs, supply chain costs go down. Think about the situation where we have a stronger revenue growth, a stronger EBITDA growth, a stronger customer experience and more efficiencies and lower cost. That's a complete virtuous cycle that kicks in as a result of a fortressing strategy, and that's what we are working on.
Got it, Pratik. Thank you. All the very best.
Thank you, Vivek.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Percy Panthaki from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Good evening. My first question is on the pace of the recovery. If we see Q2 versus two years ago, I think the total sales growth was somewhere in the region of about 11% or so. Q3 versus two years ago it's about 13%. There really hasn't been any further sort of incremental recovery versus Q2 or a very, very minor recovery versus Q2. In the past we've heard that as dine-in opens up that will sort of add sales without taking away from delivery.
What we've seen happening in Q2 versus Q3 is that while dine-in has recovered, not fully, but versus what we had seen in Q2, there is a recovery there, but it is not adding to the overall sort of picture because versus the recovery that we had seen in Q2 in the delivery, that number has come off. It's become a sort of a zero-sum game between these two portions. Some thoughts on this topic, whatever you think.
Thank you, Percy. Let me first respond to your question about recovery in dine-in and overall recovery. I think the Q3 performance and the recovery needs to be seen in the context of operating constraints on the ground. The operational hours that our stores were allowed to operate for in the third quarter were as much as 5% lower than the previous periods because of various restrictions, and I'll talk about more of that in just a minute. We had actually lower operating hours on the ground than in the past, number one. Number two, dine-in capacity restrictions, dine-in being capped at 50% continued during the quarter. Number three, in the second half of December, there were far more restrictions that were enforced. Again, to illustrate, there was a dine-in closure and a curfew in Maharashtra from 9:00 P.M. onwards.
There was a dine-in closure and curfew from 10:00 P.M. onwards in Delhi and Bangalore. Across a large number of markets, there was a night curfew imposed either from 10:00 P.M. or 11:00 P.M. When curfew gets imposed at 9:00 P.M. or 10:00 P.M., people plan their consumption in a way that allows them to get back home by 10:00 P.M. We saw a very big hit, both in dine-in and in takeaway in these key period, key days of December in the key day part of dinner. Despite these restrictions, we saw a robust dine-in recovery during the quarter. As you know, I think it's important to recognize that the dine-in recovery was proceeding intra-quarter very well but saw some moderation and saw some pressure in the second half of December.
If I had to split open the quarter by October, November, December, the recovery was very robust until the second half of December, then because of the constraints that I just called out, we saw the pullback on the recovery. That's number one. Number two is that on delivery, I think it's important to recognize that in the third quarter, delivery grew. Delivery grew well versus both the pre-COVID period and versus the same time last year. And within delivery, like I mentioned in my opening remarks, our own assets grew significantly faster. We do not see a pressure between delivery and dine-in. I think there's certainly some play on the ground between dine-in and takeaway because sometimes when consumers are not comfortable dining out, they switch to takeaway. There is some interaction there.
Again, the numbers capture some of that interaction, but it is not, you know, a trade-off between delivery and dine-in. We are very confident that we saw it happen last quarter. That, as restrictions were revoked or whenever restrictions were not there, we saw strong resurgence in all channels, especially in dine-in. What we have seen in quarter three and what you are seeing get captured in the numbers is a direct result of operating restrictions and supply restrictions, not a reflection of the demand either in dine-in or in delivery.
Just a follow-up question on this. If I look at the operating hours for Q3, that is the December quarter this year, and compare it to the September quarter of this year, the immediately preceding quarter, would you say that there is a reduction in the December quarter in the operating hours versus the September quarter?
No. I think sequentially quarter to quarter, there wasn't a reduction. I think both year on year and within the quarter sharply towards the last part of the quarter, yes, there was a reduction. Most certainly.
Okay. What I'm trying to understand, and I'm sorry for digging deep here. If I don't have enough time, I'll restrict myself to one question only. What I'm trying to understand is across different consumption segments, Q3 has been a little more robust compared to Q2 on overall sales. We might debate on the sort of mix of the channels, et cetera. Because of the reopening trade, et cetera, Q3 has been little more robust. What we are seeing for Domino's is that that's not really the case. The two-year growth for Q2 was 11%. The two-year growth for Q3 was 13%. Very, very small kind of increase.
If I look at even the sort of sales per store on a two-year basis, I think that the average number of stores added over two years is about 11%-12%. The sales growth is 13%. It's only 1%-2% growth in the sales per store across a 24-month period. It seems that the recovery which we saw in Q2, and that was a robust recovery, but it has more or less stagnated at that level and there is not much further recovery going ahead.
What do you think, like, going ahead, of course, Q4 will be impacted by COVID, but assuming that by March end, COVID is out of the way, do you think that the sales per store still has some amount of, sort of, catching up to do or some amount of leeway to grow versus what we've seen, right now?
Firstly, let me answer the question in two parts. The first point that I think is important to underline is that for the restaurant industry and the food service industry, December is a huge month, and the second half of December is when sales and orders spike. In this largest peak period in the year, we had very strong operating constraints put in.
Mm-hmm.
Therefore, the impact of that 10-day, 12-day closure or restriction was disproportionate. It wasn't just linear. It wasn't just a 12% of hours reduced in that time. It was a far greater and a far more disproportionate impact, as you can imagine, given the nature and given the importance of consumption in those days for our category.
Mm-hmm.
Had we not had those restriction headwinds, you would have seen a performance that is significantly higher. We saw the numbers in the month of December slipping very strongly, and we saw the numbers get challenged the moment we had restrictions, the moment there was curfew imposed, the moment movement and mobility on the ground was restricted. We saw that across the country, especially in the peak metros which matter for us the most. I think it's important for us to recognize and factor in in other consumer companies, and I won't speak on behalf of them, but I dare say maybe that relationship is not as you know as it is for our industry. It's much more linear and much more evenly spread out.
I think our industry gets impacted disproportionately in December, which is why I think it was a body blow for the entire industry, and for us in the last couple of weeks of December. That's your first part, Percy. Second part of the question about sales per store. I'm sure you are factoring in the, you know, the impact of store splits and our portfolio strategy when you look at sales per store. Because, you know, we are, as I mentioned earlier, very deliberately embracing a split store. You know, obviously the store will have a lower revenue at least for the first couple of years, and before it has a glide path back to recovery.
We are doing that as a part of a deliberate strategy. I'm sure you're factoring that in when you look at the numbers. Look, we see growth. We do not see a demand challenge. I think we have struggled with operational challenges on the ground because of restrictions, operating hour constraints, curfew hours, et cetera. We do not see a challenge on the demand front.
Sure.
Does that answer your question?
Yeah, yeah. Thank you. The last point on this is, if I were to remove the last 10-15 days of the quarter, say take only the first 75-80 days of the quarter, then on that basis, the 7.5% LFL, how much higher would it have been?
Look, Percy, in all fairness, I wouldn't want to speculate a number because that's hypothetical. I can tell you the number would have been significantly higher. It would not be fair on my part to give a number because that's all, you know, hypothetical and subjective. We saw a significant impact of the restrictions in that last fortnight of December, especially the last 10 days.
Okay. Yeah. That's all from me, Pratik. Thanks and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Manoj Menon from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Just again, you know, two questions only. Just one again on the SSG LFL, Pratik. I'll just tell you, maybe Vivek was, you know, I would say, you know, that question, so just following up on that. You know, look, Pratik, the problem which I have is, look, there are definitions which are globally accepted. That's point number one. Point number two in retail industry or restaurant industry.
The second aspect is, let's say when I look at a, let's say an FMCG company, I know that I'm not asking a question saying that, "Look, what is your penetration led growth versus let's say, per capita consumption growth?" So when it comes to retail, SSG is obviously an element, you know, which is needed for an absolute evaluation and also for a relative evaluation. The second aspect, you know, here is that, you know, as I said, I'm not aware of any global, you know, such template. The most important point the way I see here is that, look, the smart investor, the way I understand, does not really care whether there is SSG or new store growth.
SSG is only a hygiene element to actually evaluate saying that, "Look, you know, what is the core growth there?" I would strongly request, you know, you and the board to reconsider this and, you know, give LFL and SSG both.
Manoj, first of all, thank you so much for your feedback. I'll say a couple of things. Of course, I think your feedback has been, you know, heard, and we certainly huddled together and respond to it. While we do that, let me just give you a couple of points.
Sure.
I think LFL, Manoj, is not an outlier metric. It's not. It's a metric that's reported by the QSR industry, and indeed by the Domino's franchisees across the world. Most franchisees actually report LFL and not SSG because LFL, like I mentioned earlier, is a far more accurate descriptor of the true underlying growth in the business after taking away the noise of a store that we have split deliberately and by design. I would say that, if you look at a trend line on LFL, you will get a very good, very accurate and a very appropriate measure of how the business is trending and performing. That said, we've heard you, Manoj, and thank you for your feedback.
Understood, sir. Since sometimes most, you know, we are just being messengers, you know, for our journalists in that sense, right? I mean, kind of, you know, so just because investors, many of them normally won't, you know, come on a call and convey this. They'll probably do it one-on-one. I'm sorry for that actually. Thanks.
No, no, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Yeah. The second part is, just wanted to pick your brain on, you know, a longer term trend, which may be thanks to COVID may have happened actually. At least in some part of, you know, e-commerce, et cetera, I've been hearing this from them saying that, "Look, now convenience is actually a far important vector, you know, for the consumers, and that has fundamentally changed consumer behaviors, et cetera." The point I'm trying to understand is when you move from 30 minutes to 20-minute delivery, et cetera, is it, is this also one of the things which you first of all agree that hypothesis, that convenience and to that extent, you being the pioneer, would need to now, you know, create newer benchmarks? That's first one question here.
The second aspect is also is it also to do with, let's say when I look at some of your competing brands, you know, some of these listings, et cetera, recently. Is it also a case of, you know, likely relative competitive intensity increase while respecting the fact that there is a huge opportunity for everybody to grow, but at the same time there are competing brands which may have reached a certain threshold size which begets A. Thank you, sir.
Manoj, let me respond to the question in two parts. I think you made a passing reference to the fact that convenience is becoming a much bigger driver in multiple categories. I think the exciting part about our category is that the home consumption, the home delivery market is growing, driven by convenience, driven by the need to break boredom, to find some relief from home-made food and the much greater acceptance and the lower gatekeeper barriers of non-home-made food. But even as that plays out, I think the relevance of on-premise occasions, relevance of dining occasions remains very high because that's an occasion to celebrate, to socialize, to get together with your friends and get together and live it up. Of course, that's constrained right now because of COVID.
When things normalize, you will see a strong resurgence of dining even as the home delivery consumption habit holds up and indeed grows. I think that's an important point to keep in mind in our category that we are in a good place from point of view of category growth and category formation. That's number one. To the second part of the question about the delivery speed. I think, 25 years back we pioneered the concept of home delivery. For the last 25 years we've always been the defining benchmark in this category. The consumer has looked at us as delivery experts and as people who provide the best-in-class delivery experience. We have decided to challenge ourselves and delight the consumers and surprise the consumers by reaching her even faster. We know that time is the enemy of food.
The faster the food comes to you, the better it will taste, all else being equal, the better will be your experience. Therefore, we are challenging ourselves to really get to our customers much faster and give a much better customer experience. I think we do not navigate our decisions by what's happening in the competitive space. We are guided by the consumer and how we can delight him or her. That's been the primary driver, to be honest, of our effort to go from 30 to 20 minutes in delivery timing. Like I mentioned earlier, it's something that's working for us. We are seeing it translate into greater customer satisfaction. We believe that this will become now the new definition for good delivery and great delivery in the Indian marketplace.
Look, we have to challenge ourselves. Nobody will challenge us. We have to challenge ourselves and we have to raise the bar by ourselves. That's what we are doing on this.
Absolutely. I completely understand because, yeah. Thank you, sir.
If I can add, Pratik, to your remarks and I think all of you have seen that we have added in the last three to four years the new design, ACE design, for our stores with the belief, with a very strong belief that dine-in as a segment will continue to be very attractive for customers who would like to come to the store, watch the pizza being made. That's why our stores are opened. Pizza is considered as a theater and our new design is very attractive for people to be visiting the store. That's the belief. That's why all our new stores, wherever we open, whether in India, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, have really designed for dine-in or take carryout experience.
The other thing on the delivery point of view, on 20 minutes, I just want to really remind everyone that we start making the pizza the time you order, and then we deliver within 20 minutes. It's not a packaged or pre-prepared food in any manner that some of the cloud kitchens do deliver. I just wanted to say that achieving 20 minutes with a freshly made pizza after ordering, it requires a lot of effort and this is what we are pioneering in India.
Thank you, sir. I truly appreciate it. Actually, in fact, you know, we at ICICI Securities had visited one of those open kitchen stores two years back and, you know, written about it as well. Truly excited. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Manoj.
The next question is from the line of Jaykumar Doshi from Kotak. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is, you know, when I look at your revenues versus December 2019, it's up 13%. When I look at employee costs, it's down 3%. When I look at other expenses, it's up 27% versus December 2019. Is there any change in the mix in terms of are you handling larger volumes of delivery through third-party logistics providers and that cost is not getting captured in employee costs? Can you explain this part, please?
Sure. Ashish could chip in here and respond, please, and I'll add to that.
Yeah, sure. Sure.
You're welcome.
Thanks, Jaykumar, for your question. I think yes, you're right. We have, as you know, very consciously been variabilizing our costs to give a better flex to our P&L. Part of the reason you see a reduction in, you know, employee costs because of the variabilization of cost and that cost getting reported under manufacturing and other expenses. Even if you were to normalize for that, Jaykumar, I think I would like to, you know, highlight that even if we were to normalize for that, we have seen a reduction in our employee cost, both sequentially and versus prior periods because of the fact that we have also been driving productivity and reducing wastages across our cost lines, especially on manpower. Also we have been getting benefits of operating leverage.
It's a combination of all three.
Understood. What percentage of your delivery volumes are currently being handled by, you know, third party? And what was that number pre-pandemic?
No, we don't deliver through third party.
Yeah.
Ashish, you should clarify that.
Yeah, yeah. To clarify, we still have our own delivery fleet. Just that when I say variabilization of manpower, instead of fixed, you know, service contracts, now we have variable contracts with the same employees, where we have various models in terms of flexi working hours, pay per delivery. But it is not third-party delivery that we're using.
Understood.
Different deliveries are happening through our own fleet, yeah.
Does it get captured in employee expenses or does it get captured in other expenses?
It gets captured in other expenses.
I see.
Because technically speaking, they are no longer employees and therefore, as per accounting norms, we get clubbed under manufacturing and other expenses.
I see. That's helpful. Second is just from a definition perspective, you know, how do you sort of, you know, define a split store in terms of, you know, in what radius of an existing store, if you open a new store, you consider that as a split store? When does that split store again come back, both the mother store and split store come back into the network for LFL calculation?
Yeah. Ashish, you wanna take that one?
Yeah. I'll answer the second part first, Jaykumar. We believe that a store takes about 24 months to maturity, and we allow that period for the store to then come back to the base in terms of the calculation of LFL. All stores which have opened up to, say, 31st March 2020 are taken into account in terms of calculating our LFL.
Right. No, no, in terms of definition, if you are opening a store within half a kilometer radius, one kilometer radius, how do you sort of define that a store as a new store or a split store?
Yeah. Any store, Jaykumar, that is in the delivery area of the mother store and takes away orders and revenue is defined as a split store. The extent of the split varies, depending on, you know, where the store is located and how much of the mother store areas it feeds into.
If it leads into the mother store's orders and revenue, it's defined as a split store.
Right now in this quarter, you mentioned earlier that 1,052 stores were considered for split LFL calculation. 100 stores were not considered, right? Now, when you get to, let's say, about 2,000 stores, assuming you add 200 stores for the next two to three years, will that gap widen significantly, you know? Will this 1,000 versus 100 become maybe, you know, a 300-400 store gap? 200-300 store gap?
No. The way this will work is that, as Ashish mentioned, stores that are opened or split before first of April 2020 would have got taken into calculation for this year. On a rolling basis, we will open more stores and we split some of them. We don't expect this gap to widen because already, as I mentioned in my opening remarks as well, split stores comprise a significant part of the overall stores that we've got.
We don't expect that ratio to change significantly because of, again, what I mentioned in my earlier remarks. I think to Vivek as well, which is that our opportunity is not just in doing fortressing and going into existing markets or existing store areas, but also we have a large opportunity in opening new towns, which is why we opened 17 towns this quarter. We have a large opportunity in looking at new virgin areas in existing markets. The opportunity is tremendous across all of these markets, and therefore we don't expect this gap in SSG and LFL to widen.
Understood. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arnab Mitra from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi team. My first question was on new stores. You know, in the past, how we used to think of Domino's growth was there was an SSG number, and there would be many new stores, and you typically started at 70%-75% in the first year itself. If let's say you add 15% stores in a year, one would assume it's a 10% addition to the top line. Given that there's lots more of splitting given this 20-minute target that you have, should we therefore build in lower contribution from new stores on the overall growth of the company? Of course, for the longer term it increases the competitive advantage, but in terms of absolute sales that it generates incrementally for the system, it will be lower than what we have seen in the past.
Arnab, it's, I think. Well, let me respond to that by repeating what I said a little while ago, which is that when we look at the performance of a new store that we are opening, the new store payback is well under three years, and I think it's improved over the years. The recovery of the mother stores, again, the glide path to recovery has improved, and we are looking at a recovery again well under three years. If anything, the equation of same stores versus existing stores, that equation has improved. I think you must also keep in mind, Arnab, that there is also a lot of noise in the numbers on account of restrictions and the COVID-related issue that we spoke about earlier.
It's important to sift that apart while looking at your modeling and your predictions. I think from our point of view, it's important for us to underline that our performance of new stores is very encouraging, very robust. When we were opening 60 stores or 75 stores last quarter, we see them doing well and paying back in well under three years. We see the mother stores wherever there's a split doing well, recovering well under three years, much faster than three years. From our point of view, the performance of the new stores is very, very encouraging.
Sure. My actual question as a follow-up was that, you know-
Mm-hmm.
Incrementally, let's say this year you've added 175-180 stores. The percentage of new stores which are essentially cannibalizing some sales from earlier stores, that has increased and will possibly increase given that you have the target of lowering the delivery time. From that point of view, while I completely take what you're saying in terms of payback period, that all is intact, but you know, the incremental overall sales addition from new stores is at a slightly lower pace for the system average. Would that be right, like how you would also see it?
No, Arnab. I would repeat again what I said, that when you open new stores, the new store opening logic is not governed only by splitting existing stores or only by doing faster delivery. The logic for opening a new store is driven by three or four things. New town opening, a new town opportunity. We are present in 322 towns. India has more than 700 towns with more than 100,000 population, so there is a huge runway for us to enter new markets. Go deeper in existing markets. Towns that we have one store, we can open the second one. If we have two, we can open a third one, and so on and so forth. Number three, open more stores in areas, in existing towns, even in large markets.
We have a large network, but we see the opportunity as being even more in virgin areas. We have seen the urban sprawl grow in metro after metro with increasing urbanization. Therefore there's an opportunity which comes up in these new emerging micro markets. Then, of course, there is room for us to split the stores to do faster delivery. All of these are very important and different reasons for opening a new store. It's not just driven by a split. Which is why we expect this delta between SSG, LFL that we spoke about earlier, not to widen. There may be some noise quarter on quarter depending on the phasing of stores, but it will not be a dramatic trend of widening. No, not for sure.
Got it.
Yeah.
Sure, sure.
Now, if I may just add, Pratik, and, to be specific, to your question, Arnab, let's see the incremental sales or revenue that we see from a split store versus a new store in a new town, and the buildup of revenue is actually not very different. Yeah, so that I think should answer your question. Secondly, the ratio of split to new that we are seeing in the past couple of quarters is not unlikely to be very different in future as well.
Got it. My last question was on the inflation that you mentioned on food as well as fuel. If you could just let us know in the pricing that you have taken, does it kind of mostly cover for the incremental cost pressure that you're seeing on the cost side? Any kind of negative reaction you've seen from a consumer demand point of view after the price increase was taken? That would be the last question.
I'll take on that question, Arnav, thanks. We did make a pricing intervention towards the latter half of December. I think the pricing has gone in well. We are continuing to see, you know, headwinds on inflation in the current quarter as well. We'll keep watching the space very closely. As you know, the situation is quite dynamic. We are seeing the way crude has been moving up and the pressure on commodities are continuing. Right now, we believe that the pricing intervention that we have taken towards the end of December should cover for a large part of the inflationary headwind that we'll face in quarter four. We'll keep watching this space closely.
However, we are committing to delivering a very healthy level of margins.
Okay, thanks. That's it from my side. All the best.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Avi Mehta from Macquarie Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Sir, I just wanted to kind of again check on the SSG and LFL definition. What I wanted to understand is that, you know, the gap between, you know, overall revenue growth and LFL, that has reduced over the years, despite store additions as a percentage remaining more or less constant at around 10%, 11%. I wanted to just understand conceptually, is this reduction in gap more because of splitting? The reason why I say is first quarter, the difference between LFL and SSG was 6%. Second quarter, it was 3%. What number should we assume to be so that we can understand the new store performance?
Avi, I'll try and answer this question. It may seem like a repetition to you, but please bear with me. I think we are seeing tremendous opportunity in opening new stores. The new stores come with very good paybacks. Our mature stores that we split recover revenues very, very quickly. We also obviously are seeing the new stores give incremental system revenue growth. Now, I think there will be some noise quarter-on-quarter in terms of the gap between LFL and system growth.
I think the underlying point to recognize is that we are seeing strong underlying like-for-like growth of stores that we haven't split, bolted on and accompanied by growth coming from new stores that we open, which do well with payback in under three years, and that together leads to our system growth. There may be some dispersion and some difference quarter on quarter, but I think the larger point is that both our split stores and our new stores are doing exceedingly well.
Okay, sir. Well, I mean, the inherent reason I was asking is just to understand this better, and so we can appreciate if it is split related, as you rightly said, it'll recover with a lag. If it is new performance related, we would have liked to understand what is the reason. I hear you.
Avi, just to sort of repeat what Ashish said a little while ago, I think, in terms of the payback and the performance of both our new stores in, you know, in new virgin areas, as also the performance of our split stores, both of them are very strong and very robust and not very dissimilar in terms of payback.
Okay.
I think sometimes you might see the numbers vary because of the timing of the store opening intra quarter. Depending on when we open in that quarter, we open in the first month of the quarter or the second month or the third month, et cetera. There might be some noise coming because of that. Conceptually, the larger point is that both our split stores and our new stores are doing exceedingly well and doing similarly.
Okay, sir. Clear. So the second bit was essentially on the, you know, as we reopen now, while you have pointed towards operating restrictions, what you had highlighted in the last quarter is there is the increase in promotional activity that you witness. In that context, A, whether that is sustained and B, with the price increase, have you seen any consumer pushback? If you could kind of give us a sense on how that is happening. Thank you.
Avi, I think on your second part of the question first, we implemented, as you know, a price increase in the month of December. It's been now almost 45 days since then. We have not seen a pushback from customers on pricing acceptance. I think it's important to remember that even after the price increase, we remain the most affordable, and then, and dare I say, the best pizza, and therefore the most value for money pizza offering in the market. We have been tracking our value for money scores very closely in the last 6-8 weeks. We think they've improved and there's been no pressure on value for money. We feel good about the way the market and the consumers accepted our price increase.
Yeah.
On the promotion point, sir, you have said. If you could kind of just comment on that.
I think what has happened, Avi, on the promotion intensity is that as inflation has hardened and there have been very real cost pressures across the category, we've seen the promotion intensity across industry become a little bit more moderated. We expect that to continue also in quarter four. We are seeing brands become a little bit more selective about promotions. We use a lot more of targeted promotions and targeted discounts rather than blanket across the board discounts. Our strategy is similar. We are using very targeted discounts based on discount affinity based on the you know purchase propensity and responsiveness to discounts. We are doing very focused discounts and promotions to drive conversions without you know having an across-the-board discount being given out.
Okay. Thank you.
Just to also underline what I said in the last call as well, we are competitive in our promotions, and we will remain competitive. Our promotions are obviously structured in a way that we incentivize customers ordering from our own assets, and therefore the best promotion and the best pricing is obviously available to customers on our own assets, and we see that translating into a higher growth and higher stickiness for our own assets.
If I hear you correctly, you're saying the relative price index, if I were to kind of put that remains more or less similar to second quarter despite the price increase because of the change in promotion intensity. That's the right feedback to take away, right, sir?
No, I didn't say that. That was your interpretation, Avi.
Yeah.
That was my interpretation, but I just wanted to confirm.
No. Yeah. No. Just to clarify, of course promotions continue, but for the category as a whole, there has been some moderation given the inflationary pressures. Our pricing has been received well and it's gone down smoothly.
Okay, sir. Okay. Thank you very much, sir. Thanks.
Thank you, Avi.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gautam Rathi from CWC Advisors. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, this is Nishit. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations, Pratik, for opening 75 stores. Great achievement. Very happy to see that. We just wanted to understand one point. I know you've already answered this question before, you know, but still, you know, just trying to get a slightly better qualitative view if you could share something more out there. Is the fact that, you know, you came out and said hypergrowth is what you are kind of looking to target, right?
You know, the question I'm trying to understand is with all the noise that was there in this quarter, with the last 15, 20 days seeing restrictions, with you closing stores and all those things out there, were you seeing hypergrowth in the period that things had started to normalize, right? As per your this thing or, you know, was that the big reason?
No, thank you for the question, Nishit. I think short of using semantics, I think it's important to recognize that the operational constraints during the quarter materially impacted the performance. Of course, the constraints that were increased during the second half of December aggravated that impact. I think our opening of 75 stores underscores and points to our belief in the hypergrowth potential of this category in the period ahead. The fact that notwithstanding the restrictions, we have, if anything, increased the pace of new store openings. The fact that, as I mentioned earlier, Nishit, our street stores experience remains very strong. I think that points to the fundamental momentum in this category.
It's hard to see that translate entirely into numbers because of the operating restrictions, but we feel good about the inherent and underlying momentum of this category.
Pratik, where is the
I think it's important to recognize, Nishit, that and we discussed this last time. Sorry, if I may just finish.
Please.
Yeah, sorry. I think it's important to remember that COVID and the pandemic is going to be a structural pivot point for this category. It is leading to, and it will lead to even more, the industry becoming a lot more organized as consumers seek out and prefer the safety of known brands, established brands with hygiene standards that, you know, can be taken as read. We will see this structural change happen, and we are seeing already play out. We see the formation and, pardon, the growth of big brands within this category. All of these are the tailwinds. I think there are these, off and on headwinds that come from COVID and the restrictions that are imposed because of that. It's hard to pull apart the noise.
The fundamental belief that we had in the category's potential and the growth two quarters back, one quarter back, remains absolutely unchanged. If anything, we are even bigger believers.
Pratik, just one. Because the only point I'm trying to understand here is you mentioned December is a very important quarter. If my understanding is right, December 2019, the share of dining would have been much higher, right? If you see a massive de-growth in that category which has not come up, all the good work that would have been done from the delivery and takeaway is kind of optically getting washed. Is that? I'm just trying to understand, trying to peel the layers of this 12%-13% number that is out there, right? Is that fair? Because otherwise this number would have been much better.
No. I think, like I said earlier, I think the impact on the ground that we had in December was material and significant. That happened because of restrictions coming in in the most important period, the most important days of the month, the most important days of the year. The answer is in the affirmative that yes, had we not had those restrictions, our performance and the numbers would have been significantly higher. It's hard to hazard a guess as to what would have been, and I wouldn't want to go down that path. Yes, we were impacted materially by the restrictions in December. It's important to remember also that there were restrictions ongoing even before that, especially on dine-in.
No, that's fair. That's fair. One last thing. Can you share your NPS number because you highly rate if you can get that number?
No. I mean, I think it's a fair question to ask. Look, we are maniacally focused on tracking NPS, and we feel really good about and very proud of the progress that we made and the team, you know, the team that has driven it. I'm really proud of the work they have done. We have moved the needle on NPS significantly, and we have moved the needle despite the operating challenges on the ground in terms of COVID, in terms of restrictions and constraints. I think quarter on quarter over the last two years, our NPS scores have moved up. They have moved up in dine-in, they've moved up in delivery, they've moved up in takeaway.
I mean, I would not be able to share the numbers, unfortunately, but I think the reality is that our numbers are absolutely right out there in terms of being best in class.
Thanks a lot, Pratik. I'm very excited to be part of the journey.
Thank you so much for your questions.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vishal Punmiya from Nirmal Bang. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity and firstly congratulations to the team for the launch of Popeyes in India. Really best of luck for that business. In terms of store additions, continuing from the previous question, with 16 net additions this quarter, are we revising the store opening target from 150-175 for FY 2022?
Vishal, as you know, we've already opened 150 stores. It will be fair to say that the number that we'll be delivering will be higher than 150-175. It'll be closer to 200 stores that we open in this financial year. That is what we are targeting. Of course, remember that there are challenges on the ground in terms of COVID and operating restrictions. Those are the on-ground challenges and they, you know, they will certainly impact the way, the pace at which we open the stores and the phasing of these stores. Our objective is to go after now a revised number of 200 stores.
Understood. Secondly, you mentioned that for the Popeyes business, there would be an in-house delivery fleet with 100% use of e-bikes. If you can also help us with the number of e-bikes that you use today in the domestic Domino's business? Is there any target in terms of e-bikes for the domestic Domino's business in terms of the number of bikes as well as in terms of the investment that would be put behind that? Thank you.
No, thank you, Vishal. I think the Popeyes use of e-bikes, while we call that out, the reality is that we have been moving a large part of our fleet in Domino's to electric in the last couple of years. A dominant majority of our new bikes that we purchase are e-bikes. There are some delivery situations in which e-bikes become difficult, mountain, hilly areas, et cetera. Other than that, in most other store locations, all the new fleet that we buy is e-bikes in nature. You will see us progressively increase the contribution of e-bikes in the Domino's system as well. It'll become it comprise a large and a dominant part of our overall fleet in the next three to four years.
Would it be fair to assume that?
Yeah, please go ahead. Sorry.
Yeah. Would it be fair to assume that the mix of e-bikes would be more than 10% of the total number of bikes for the domestic Domino's business?
Vishal, we don't give a number out, but since you're asking me a very specific sort of thing, the answer is yes. I mean, it will be significantly higher than that.
Okay. Thank you. Best of luck.
Thank you, Vishal.
Thank you. We take one last question from the line of Chanchal Khandelwal from Aditya Birla Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Can you hear me?
Yes, Chanchal.
Thanks, Pratik. Thanks for taking my question. Just one thing on your journey to become a food tech company. You're already 1,500+ Domino's. Now, if I look at all the other brands put together, you're like in 100 stores. My thought is how fast you want to accelerate that? Because it's time for you to accelerate. Competition is heating up in this space. Why are you slow here? And, say, if you take a three-year view, how many stores, if you can give some guidance here, it'll be useful.
Chanchal, just to be sure about what the question is. Your question is about the pace of expansion of the new brands, is it?
Yeah, all the three brands put together. Hong's Kitchen, Ekdum! and Popeyes.
Got it. No. Thank you for the question. I think, let me begin by underlining how excited we are with the prospect and the potential for all of these brands. Let me start with the newest brand that we have, which is Popeyes. The first store that we opened in January met with a very strong consumer response. And just to update, we opened a second store today. And we expect to open, you know, the third store as well in the near future.
The momentum that we are seeing in Popeyes and the response that we are seeing from consumers is very positive, and we feel very good about being able to scale up the Popeyes network in the few years ahead. On Hong's Kitchen, we've had the learnings now from our experience on the ground. We have now become the largest QSR network, as you heard me say earlier, in Delhi NCR. We are now fine-tuning the model, and we were looking to scale this up progressively outside of Delhi NCR, you know, in the periods to come. Similarly on Dunkin', as I mentioned in my last call, we are focusing the brand a lot more on coffee now. That is the early feedback and early indicators are positive.
Again, you will see us do more of that in the periods to come. Ekdum!, like I said, is still a phase behind Hong's. Again, there's a tremendous potential in the brand that we see. Biryani of course is a large, the largest category and the fastest growing category. It is delivery friendly, it is sharing friendly, so it's a category that we intend to really double down on. We see, again, good potential there. Between the portfolio of brands, we see our network expand significantly over the next three to four years.
We do not have a number to give you right now, but as a portfolio between Domino's India and the momentum that we are seeing there, plus the potential of these new brands, I think we have a really exciting portfolio we're gonna be building out.
Sure, Pratik. Thanks. That was useful. Any Popeyes when you have signed up, do you have any target in terms of number of store, given your parent? Also, I mean, I'm a little disappointed by seeing the Hong's Kitchen. Have you got the unit economics right, or you are still working on getting the unit economics before you scale it up?
Chanchal, on Hong's Kitchen, first your question. I understand that there is a convergence of multiple tailwinds here in Hong's. The food is working well. We've got the value for money credentials being underscored. We've got the in-store operations piece refined. Our delivery experience is very positive, and of course, the financials, you know, increasingly are falling in place.
which is why we feel good about being able to expand next year on Hong's. On Popeyes, I want to take you back to our press release that we'd issued when we signed up with the RBI for the master franchise. We had talked about the potential for hundreds of Popeyes stores in the country. Whatever we are seeing makes us believe that the potential is something even more. We are very excited by Popeyes, and you will see us scale the network up progressively in the period ahead.
Sure. Thanks, Pratik. We wish you all the best.
Thank you, Chanchal.
Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Pratik Pota for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you everyone for joining us and for your time on the call today. I hope and trust that we're able to answer your questions. Of course, if you have any follow-up questions that you believe that we wanted to throw more light on something, please feel free to reach out to our investor relations team and to Laksh. We'll be happy to get back to you and respond to your queries. Thank you so much. Have a good evening and stay safe. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.