Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call of Page Industries Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need any assistance during this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone telephones. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Purvangi Jain from Valorem Advisors. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and a very warm welcome to you all. My name is Purvangi Jain from Valorem Advisors. On behalf of the company, I would like to thank you all for participating in the company's earnings call for the fourth quarter and financial year ended 2026. Before we begin, a quick cautionary statement. Some of the statements made in today's earnings conference call may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Such statements are based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to the management. Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements in making any investment decision.
The purpose of today's conference call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and financial quarter under review. I would like to introduce you to the management participating with us in today's earnings call and hand it over to them for their opening remarks. We have with us Mr. V.S. Ganesh, Managing Director, Mr. Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Karthik Yathindra, Chief Executive Officer. Without any delay, I request Mr. V.S. Ganesh to begin with his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, Sir.
Thank you. Thank you so much, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the earnings call for the fourth quarter of FY 2026. I have the pleasure of having Mr. Deepanjan and Mr. Karthik, and we will together present the key highlights of the quarter. I will begin with a brief overview of our business performance, following which Mr. Deepanjan will take you through the financial details. During the fourth quarter, we witnessed a meaningful improvement in overall consumer sentiment and retail demand. This was reflected across all our categories and channels. While the improving consumption environment certainly supported growth during the period, we also believe our performance was equally driven by the strategic initiatives and disciplined execution undertaken over the last several quarters.
These included focused efforts to strengthen our distribution inventory health, sustained brand building and marketing interventions, sharper product innovation, and calibrated expansion across both retail and manufacturing. Together, these initiatives have enabled us to respond effectively to the improving demand environment and strengthen our market position. The strong demand momentum observed in the quarter was instrumental in driving volume-led revenue growth. This has led to healthy sales across all distribution channels. We continue to see encouraging adoption of value-added premium products as well as outerwear which supported premiumization and contributed positively to the average selling price. In addition, we undertook calibrated price increase in select styles to maintain pricing alignment and portfolio parity. We continued to witness inflationary pressure across key input costs during the quarter, particularly in cotton, along with increase in certain other raw materials and operating inputs.
To a large extent, these challenges were effectively managed through strategic sourcing initiatives, supply chain optimization, operational efficiencies, and calibrated pricing actions. Our continued focus on disciplined execution and cost management enable us to mitigate input cost pressures while maintaining healthy profitability. As regards our digital transformation journey, it continues to progress steadily with focused investments in technology, process integration, analytics, and system capabilities across the value chain. These initiatives are helping improve agility, enhance decision-making, streamline operations, and build a stronger foundation to scalable future growth. In parallel, we have continued to strengthen our cybersecurity and data protection framework in line with evolving regulatory requirements and industry best practices. On the financial front, we are pleased to report strong growth in both revenue and profit after tax. For the quarter, revenue grew by 14.1%, while the profit after tax increased by 9%.
For FY 2026, revenue growth was 6.3%, and PAT increase was 4.8%. With distribution expansion, our network stood at around 116,600+ multi-brand outlets, 1,615 exclusive brand stores, and 893 large format stores. We continue to lead across e-commerce platforms, recording strong growth in that channel as well. Looking ahead, we remain positive on the outlook for the coming quarters. The underlying demand environment, coupled with a continued focus on brand strength, product innovation, distribution capabilities, retail excellence, and sharp supply chain, provide us with the confidence in sustaining our growth trajectory. I would like to sincerely thank all our stakeholders for their continued support, trust, and partnership with the company. As brand Jockey celebrates a remarkable milestone of 150 years. We are proud of a long and enduring association with this iconic brand.
We are also deeply honored to have been recognized by Jockey International with the International Licensee of the Decade award for the second consecutive term. This reflects the strength of our partnership and the collective efforts of our teams over the years. On this special occasion, we extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to Jockey International for this extraordinary legacy and continued global success. With that, I now request Mr. Deepanjan to take you through the financial performance in greater detail. Thank you.
Thank you, V.S.G. Good afternoon, welcome to today's earnings call. I will now walk you through the results of Q4 FY 2026. In quarter four, revenue was INR 12,526 million, which is 14.1% growth year-over-year. Sales volume in the quarter was 54.5 million pieces, growing by 10.8% year-over-year. EBITDA for the period was INR 2,605 million, which has grown by 10.7% year-over-year. EBITDA margin was 20.8%. With continued focus on operating efficiencies, EBITDA margin has remained strong. Profit after tax for the quarter was INR 1,787 million, which has increased by 9% year-over-year. Inventory days was 73 in the end of quarter four, as against 64 days in the beginning of the year. Net working capital days was 56 days as against 54 days in the beginning of the year.
For FY 2026, revenue was INR 52,468 million, which is 6.3% growth year-on-year. Sales volume was INR 228.4 million pieces, growing by 3.9% year-on-year. EBITDA for the period was INR 11,529 million, growing by 8.5% year-on-year. EBITDA margin was 22%. Profit after tax was INR 7,638 million, which is a growth of 4.8% year-on-year. We can now take up your queries.
Thank you very much, Sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephones. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may enter star followed by two. Participants are requested to please use only handsets while asking a question. We also request all participants to please limit your questions to only two questions per participant. You may then go ahead and return to the question queue if required. We will wait for a moment while the queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Nihal Jham from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening, team. Congratulations on the strong performance. Sir, I had two questions. First is if we look till last quarter, we were obviously mentioning about the demand environment sort of being not the best and the most supportive. This quarter, we're obviously seeing volume growth see a sharp improvement to double-digit. If you could just give more clarity, both from what changed from a demand perspective versus last quarter, and also from our side, what are the initiatives that we've taken? and if you could bifurcate the growth both from a category and channel perspective, given that we mentioned that athleisure has been facing the impact of a high channel inventory? I'll take my second question afterwards.
Nihal, thank you for the question. Karthik this side. We've definitely seen some level of uptick in terms of consumer demand in quarter four, which is reflecting in the performance. We've also seen some level of revival with athleisure as a category. That's because we've kind of reached the far end of the correction in distributor inventory, which is something that's been plaguing us for the last, I think, two years now, maybe a little over that. Specifically the month of March, we've seen decent upticks. February and January were good as well in relation to the first three quarters of the year, and that's what is reflecting in the performance that has been published. It's a combination of two things.
We've witnessed better tertiary performance at the consumer level in quarter four, and is we've also seen a very close connect between secondary performance and primary performance because inventory levels have now come back to where it needs to be. Something that we've not been able to achieve in the past has finally, in some form, taken shape in quarter four. The combination of these two is what the result is.
Sure, Karthik. Second question was, obviously, you've highlighted about the inflation, and how to think of margins with all the initiatives? Does the range of 19%-21% on EBITDA still stay, or maybe there could be a slight slip to this inflation?
Well, initiatives-wise, I think we are going to be aggressive as far as demand generation is concerned. The macroeconomic conditions is something that we want to keep a very close watch on. The effect of the input costs, which the Managing Director mentioned in his commentary, is real, and that is something we are keeping a tab on. We are still confident that we will operate between 19%-21%. This year, 2025/2026, has been a year of very good performance in terms of margin. We closed the year with 22%, our range, we believe, will be between 19% and 21%, and that's what we'll be targeting for the coming year as well.
Sure. I have more questions. I will come back in the queue. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Nihal.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aryan Garodia from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. This is Videesha Sheth from Ambit. Just again on the volume piece. This 11% growth has been delivered on the base of 9%. Wanted to understand incremental moving parts to the same. Obviously, one part you mentioned that there were positive consumer sentiments along with company-level initiatives. Anything on the festive timing or anticipation of even price hikes playing a role on the volume growth? Has that also aided some acceleration?
I don't think so. From a festive point of view, the only large festival which impacts our business was Eid. The quarter-to-quarter comparison, Eid was well within March in both the years. In a way, there could have been between months or between weeks some level of difference. Within the quarter, I don't think festive has played a very big role. Your second question was in terms of upstocking for price benefits. That's something we don't encourage. We have completely moved towards replenishment. Hence, all of this is purely demand driven. As long as secondary performance happens, primary is an outcome. There is no upstocking in the channel. In fact, we've been working very hard for the last two years to ensure we come back to acceptable stock levels. Hence, we've not encouraged any form of upstocking at the channel level to gain benefits from the price increase.
Okay. Just as a follow-up to this, the calibrated price hikes that you all have taken till now, what would be the quantum of the same and when were they effective from?
Yeah. We took a price increase. We initiated it in the month of January, sometime mid-January, as far as production is concerned. I think the benefit of that has flown in only from mid of March. That's because of the FIFO model that we operate with, and that is to the tune of about 2% weighted average. In terms of how much has flown into revenues, it'll be quite minimal because, let's say about two to three weeks at best within the quarter where we would have realized the revised prices.
Got it. The second question was, again, pertaining to margin. Of course, we've got that inflation piece. Incrementally, channel feedback also suggests that incentives in traditional or trade distribution channels have also increased. Would you expect that also to play its role? Of course, that would amplify revenue growth or volume growth as well. From a margin standpoint, how should one be thinking about the same?
For the bygone year, I don't think there's been increase in incentives as a percentage of revenue.
Sorry, I should have clarified. I meant for FY 2027.
FY 2027. No, I don't think there is a conscious push to increase margins. We are going to be investing in the brand. We're going to be investing in demand at a consumer level. That's the work that is happening, and that's where additional investments will go. The intent is not to, in a way, load more stock into the channel by just providing incentives.
Okay, got it. I've got a few more questions. I'll get back. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Avi Mehta from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Congratulations on this performance. I just wanted to double-click on this volume growth momentum. Given this trend that you're witnessing, is this something that is despite the macro environment? Are we seeing this sustain? Is that what is giving us confidence? Is that volume driven or is the price hike? I just wanted to kind of better appreciate the confidence in looking at continuing the 14% growth momentum.
Avi, thanks for the question. Like I mentioned, I don't think we've accrued any significant price increase benefits in quarter four. To some extent, yes, because the weighted average price increase itself was 2%. From a period point of view, like I mentioned earlier, about two weeks, at best three weeks of the quarter is where we would have gained from the new prices going into the market. I don't see too much of a difference there. The delta between volume performance and value performance of about 4 percentage points is largely a reflection of mix and premiumization, and very little to do with price increase. Our intent in the year going forward is a volume growth intent. Of course, anything that reflects because of price increase would be largely driven by input cost related measures, but not as a means to increase top line.
When you say sustain volume, just a clarification, when you say sustain growth momentarily, you mean volume growth sustaining at the current levels of 11% and pricing probably depending on how it pans out. Is that understanding correct?
Yeah. As an organization also, we are chasing volume growth. That's what the entire team in a way chases. Value growth, obviously, at a management level, at the CFO level, we are obviously accountable for that. As far as sales intent is concerned, it's essentially to drive volume growth. What we will be targeting going forward is to try and maintain this momentum of double digit as we take on the new year.
Perfect. The second bit I just wanted to clarify, you see you've retained the guidance of 19%-21%, and you've been kind of arguing or reiterating this guidance. We saw last year you've been able to deliver a much higher margin trajectory. What is it that changes now, which will change this? Because I'm not able to appreciate fully why 22% levels that we saw. There's no one-off year should kind of moderate. Any understanding over there? Because the initiatives.
So multiple-
Have already been done this year. That's where I'm coming from.
No. I think there are multiple things. Yeah, please go ahead.
I'll explain that. The 19%-21% margin range that we typically target is considering certain cost components such as marketing at 5%, maintaining certain gross margin levels, certain costs of salary and corporate staff. Considering all those factors, we aim for a margin range of 19%-21%. Last year, specifically, the fact that we got slightly higher margins was because our marketing expenses were lesser than 5%. We also could sustain the gross margin significantly. Going forward, if we have a normal level of marketing spend, which is at 5%, and we do see some inflationary pressure coming into the product cost, there will be some pressure on the EBITDA margin for sure. It's not expected to be as elevated as 22% last year, but still be within the range of 19%-21%.
Okay, perfect. I'll come back in the queue for that question. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Jogani from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. My first question is with regards to the overall competitive intensity. In a rising pricing scenario, that is inflation scenario, do you think it kind of benefits to a market leader like you when the other people kind of struggle to get the raw material and other stuff? That is also in some extent is helping to drive a better margin versus the past year, and coupled with, of course, the improving consumer sentiment.
Gaurav, I would agree with what you're saying. Usually when there is adversity of any form, be it inflationary pressure, be it macroeconomic conditions, we've seen it in the past multiple times. Typically, a market leader, a large player with sound supply chain capabilities, sound investments, well-established stable distribution network tends to gain. We've gained from such situations in the past, and hence, if any form of adversity should come by. I would imagine we would be competitively in a much better position than other players, and hence we will stand to gain. Also, given the healthy margins that we today enjoy, it is a choice for us to absorb those inflationary pressures to the extent possible and not really pass that on to consumer, so that we can still hold and grow share, and keep top lines intact and demand intact. That's a choice.
That's something that we will take a call as we study the market, as we see what form of pressures come in, as we see how competition behaves, and also see how consumer sentiment moves forward.
Also, just one follow-up to this. We have been hearing about the women's wear space. One of the large competitors kind of facing some heat. Are you also seeing the same and is there an opportunity for you to gain that part of the market?
I'll reserve my comments on what's happening with another brand. Yeah, if there is a vacuum that is created in the marketplace because of whatever reasons, and we believe that it is a space that Jockey can own and serve consumers, by all means, yes, we will certainly be very aggressive in enhancing product portfolio and deepening our presence in those areas so that we can capitalize on the opportunity.
Just one bookkeeping question from my end, for demand gen specifically. The inventory this time around is quite higher versus the earlier levels. Is this a deliberate strategy, keeping in mind the coming inflation and we are stocking some garments because of this? Also on the subsidy that we expected to receive from the Odisha. That's it, Sir.
Okay. On the inventory side, you're right, it has been a conscious call to build up inventory, both as a hedging technique against anticipated raw material price increase, as well as to ensure our supply chain is adequately stocked. From both the perspectives, it has been a conscious call to build up the inventory. Also, typically, in the quarter four, we do have a buildup of inventory because the Q1 is typically much heavier. That way, yes, it's a conscious call. On the subsidy part, yes, we didn't plan to realize any subsidy in FY 2026, but yes, in FY 2027, we have plans to start realizing the subsidies. Over the year, I think we are expecting we should be getting around INR 40 crores-INR 50 crores of subsidy, and that will happen. Yeah, currently we have not yet realized anything.
Within what period it will continue to receive the subsidy?
There are multiple subsidies in Odisha, for example, wage subsidy, which will be available for us for seven years. Power subsidy, which will be there for almost five years. There is capital investment related subsidy, which is there for three years. There are multiple subsidies, and which is spread over more than one year.
It'll be okay to assume that this INR 40 crores-INR 50 crores number will at least continue for the next four to five years, at least?
No, it's not that way. It depends on multiple factors. For example, as far as wage subsidy is concerned, it depends on the number of people that we recruit over time. Depending on that, the wage subsidy can vary. The current INR 40 crores, INR 50 crores is related to certain fixed subsidies which we are expected to get a subsidy this year, and a portion of it is a wage subsidy. This INR 50 crores is more static in nature relevant to this financial year. Going forward, the amounts can vary.
Thank you. That's okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infoline. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, sir, and thanks for taking my question. Firstly, this is the second consecutive year where we started the year in a tepid manner, end has been strong. Now, if I go back, let's say, three years and look at the share of the subsequent quarters, 1Q used to be very high at around 28%, and 4Q used to be the lowest at 20%. This has changed materially this year. 1Q is at 25% and 4Q is at 24%. By any chance, is it more a realignment given that we have gone into an auto-replenishment system and now primaries are much more aligned with secondaries than what it used to be in the past, therefore, if one has to gauge a more representative growth number, it is closer to the full year growth rather than 4Q growth?
In conjunction to this, if you could give the EBO channel growth in 4Q and how it was in 1Q or any data to validate or invalidate this analysis would be great.
Sameer, firstly, I think excellent observation, and you've answered the question as well. As we moved from a push model to a pull model, it's only natural that sales curve across the year normalizes. Of course, this normalization of sales curve also is a phased manner, so year- after- year, you will see the differential between quarters becoming probably lower. That having said, I will not attribute all of the performance only to that, and hence your second hypothesis of hence should we look at the annual performance as the performance going forward. I wouldn't probably allude to that because also quarter four has gained, in terms of better consumer sentiment than what we experienced in the first few quarters. If you recall, we've had floods, we've had Operation Sindoor.
We have multiple things that had operated in the first half of last year, which also was in a way reflecting in our performance. In terms of the sales mix across the quarters, I am in complete alignment with your observation that, yeah, going forward, you'll see better normalization between quarters in terms of performance. You'll still have a few quarters doing better than the other because there is festivities in Q3, there is winter in Q3, there is Q1, which is the start of a financial year where purchases typically tend to be high too. These factors still continue to apply, but yeah, when compared to the past, you'll see better normalization.
Karthik, if you could just give out the EBO?
Yeah. On the channel level, we don't give away numbers, but all I can say when I say consumer sentiments have gotten better, it means our reading of consumer sentiment is from our D2C business, which is largely our EBO Jockey.in kind of a business, where we are able to measure like-to-like performance, where quarter four has seen decent level of uplift when compared to the first three quarters.
Great. This is very helpful. Second question is, this has been asked in various forms by previous participants, what is the current level of inflation that you're facing in the input cost basket? I understand there are inventories and I understand there are other mitigation factors, just looking for the specific number as to our input cost inflation at this point.
[crosstalk] Sorry, go ahead, Deepanjan, please.
The current purchases that we are doing, yes, there has been a slightly higher inflation percentage that we are looking at. The situation is quite dynamic. There are different inputs coming in and different purchase rates that is being quoted. The situation is quite dynamic. Yes, there is a bit of elevated inflation for the fresh purchases.
Deepanjan, just a follow-up here. Do you also anticipate wage inflation because employee cost is a big part of our P&L and there have been a lot of minimum wage hikes that have been announced by a lot of states. Is it fair to assume that there'll be a decent or, let's say, higher than normal wage inflation this year?
Not immediately. For example, in this part of the state, Karnataka, wage increase has been, DA increase has been already announced. We have not seen any abnormal increase there.
Same with Odisha as well?
Yeah. With the new wage code around, there can be changes, but we have to see on how it goes.
Got it. Thanks a lot for taking these questions. I have a few more, but I'll come back in the queue.
Sure. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tejas Shah from Avendus Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible? Hello.
Yep.
Yes, sir.
Yes, Tejas. Go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Given the inflation backdrop, just wanted to understand the thought process of working which has gone behind 2% price hike. Just trying to understand why not 4%, 5%? What are the limiting factors or the thought process that goes behind this?
Good question, Tejas. Thank you for this. Am I coming through? There seems to be an echo.
Yes. Tejas, Sir, please mute your line while the management is speaking.
May I? Yeah. Thanks, Tejas, for the question. The price increase that I mentioned about was something that was activated in January, and that was much before the inflationary pressures because of macroeconomic conditions had to come by. That was not a measure to mitigate inflation. It was essentially taken because we had upgrades and enhancements in many of our products, and selectively across products, we had taken a price increase, which turned out to be a 2% weighted average for the brand. We had not increased prices of all of our products. Very selectively we had taken it. Far, we have not touched the prices for inflationary pressure, but I think we will be doing it soon. We've been able to cover a lot because of measures that we had anyway taken in terms of inventory repositioning.
In quarter one, we are expecting to again touch our prices, given how the input costs are trending.
Clear. Second, Karthik, just a couple of months back, you were quoted in media, and I'm not sure if it was not a video interview, but you were quoted somewhere that you said that company has not maxed out the margin expansion potential. That was when we had a trailing margin of 22% +. I just want to know that today's guidance and that commentary, how should one reconcile that?
I think if you look at it, today's guidance is largely given a year or two's outlook, and that's why we're looking at a 19%-21%, because there are going to be investments in technology which is unprecedented as far as Page is concerned in the previous years. That's going to add to costs, and we're also looking at, like I mentioned, because of the inflationary pressure that we are experiencing today, it's a call whether we should actually pass on all of that to the consumer and keep our margins intact. These two are going to play a role in terms of seeing how our margins go ahead. The comment I had made a couple of months back was largely to do with production efficiencies and that leading to better margins. I don't believe we've maxed out on production efficiencies as a manufacturing organization.
We still have potential to improve our efficiencies there. As you are aware, some of our plants are new, still going through the learning curve, and operating at suboptimal levels today. Once we hit maturity with Odisha, once we hit maturity with K.R. Pet, our overall production efficiency for the company will be much higher than what we are delivering today, which should bring in margin expansion opportunities.
Clear. Thanks a lot for the question.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jignesh Kamani from Nippon Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, team. Congratulations for good numbers. You highlighted in the earlier call that in economic segment, at the start of the year, we might cede some of the market share, and you took a corrective action by introducing new product, also changing the packaging and everything. What are the initiatives you have taken till now? What are the pipeline and some color on have we regained all the market share or how is the journey right now?
Well, I think product enhancement, packaging development is an ongoing process. I think in the last investor call, we had mentioned that there was a lot of newness coming into the market, a lot of upgrades coming into the market in the month of January and February. All of that have been very well accepted, and it's in a way contributed to our performance in quarter four. We continue to work on our product portfolio and making sure that we enhance it, upgrade it as we go forward, both the existing core line as well as the new lines that we will be bringing ahead. That's an ongoing process. I don't know whether that has really led to increased market share in the short term, but it's about ensuring that consumers come back for more, as far as Jockey is concerned. That's a role that product upgrades have played.
I think so far, everything that we put into the market between quarter three and quarter four have been very well accepted. We are also extremely excited about what's in store in terms of new products. It's already started hitting the market from the month of May, and that will continue till June and July, which is our summer line. Extremely excited about how they will perform. Of course, we are looking forward to consumer response for those products.
Sure. Can you highlight some? How is the rollout of JKY and Bonded Collection? I think you did a second phase rollout with larger MBO, everything. How is the performance?
Yes.
How is the?
JKY Groove, both the summer line as well as the winter line for last year, we've sold out. Sold out quicker than we anticipated to sell it. Hence, for Groove three , which has started hitting the market in the month of May, we are actually extending it to about 500 exclusive brand stores and select multi-brand stores and all of e-commerce. The response has been great so far, and we are anticipating equal or better response as we go into the summer this year as well. In terms of the Bonded line, I think a lot of our numbers in terms of ASP increase and premiumization is thanks to the Bonded Collection, both in menswear as well as bras. Very well accepted, all through quarter three and quarter four. In fact, as we speak, what is today? Today is 20th, right? 21st.
We've just gone live with an all-India outdoor campaign for our men's Bonded Collection starting yesterday. You will see hoardings across. Now that we are confident about the product, we're confident about consumer response. We've penetrated the product sufficiently. We are also investing heavily on marketing to build awareness around this range starting yesterday.
Understood. Sure. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lakshmin arayanan from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you. See, as a market leader, we are navigating a high base from previous years, while simultaneously we are seeing a surge of niche digital-first brands which capture the Gen Z mind share. My question is, are these newer players actively eating into our market share, or is our slower growth purely a reflection of a larger denominator? Subsequently, how is our product pipeline evolving to protect our core? That is one. The second is, how is the distribution dynamics now? There has been some friction in terms of the channel when the entire new inventory management system was rolled out. I just want to check whether that is behind and things have completely smoothened out. These are my two questions.
Thank you, Lakshmin arayanan. On the first question, I think very interesting topic of discussion. Yes, it's a lot more crowded a place than it used to be, let's say, five, seven years ago. There are no large players, so to speak. We're probably lonely there as a large player. There are several small, good, effective D2C brands that have come in over the last four, five years. Which has in a way helped us change our game as well. The way we organize ourselves today is we play a very different game in general trade, and we play a very different game in D2C or e-commerce. Today, if you look at it, the e-commerce side of our business has been growing handsomely for three to four years in a row.
Hence, we are not able to, in a way, allude to saying there is some loss of share because predominantly the D2C brands that we spoke about operate online, and that's where we've seen substantial amount of growth over the last three to four years. Also the information that we gain from, let's say, the platforms in which we operate, who don't give away market share, but they do give market ranking in terms of how each of these brands fare and where do we stand against them. Across all the top platforms that you can think of, Jockey is number one, both in menswear as well as womenswear. Unfortunately for outerwear or athleisure, the platforms don't categorize athleisure separately, and hence we are in the mix along with all the apparel brands, including formal, ethnic, denim, all of them, and hence, ranking does not make sense.
In the core categories that we operate, we tend to be number one, even in the online platforms. Our approach to this part of our business is very different to how we approach other parts of the business. In fact, it's almost as good as running a company within the company with the e-commerce business because the competencies, the infrastructure, the team outlook, approach to marketing, approach to content development is very different, very young when compared to some of the traditional channels in which we operate. I think we've come a very long way in terms of building infrastructure, building competence, building capability to actually, with pride, call ourselves a D2C brand ourselves. If I look at only the e-commerce part of the business, we would probably be right up there in terms of all of these parameters to compete in the D2C space.
That's my response to your first question. With regards to the second one, it's been a while now, Mr. Lakshminarayanan, since we embarked on the journey of auto replenishment, almost close to three years, 2.5 y ears in now. I think we've settled in very smoothly. All of our distributors appreciate this because it's helped them bring down their inventory levels, it's helped them become a lot more lean and efficient in their working capital management. At the same time, made available more relevant inventory at their warehouses to serve their markets. All the feedbacks that we have obtained, both qualitative and quantitative from the distributor community, has been very positive in favor of auto replenishment system that we put in place.
In fact, with all of that in place now, and we've kind of gone that journey, we are going to be undertaking the implementation of a new distribution management system, which is the next level of change management which we will need to bring about within distribution. That's what we've embarked on as I speak. This will be another journey over the next one year where we upgrade our distribution management across all of our distributors, and that'll bring in its own gains as far as running an efficient business.
Can I just on that first part, is the moderation of growth is a reflection of a larger denominator that we are operating because we have become significantly large and is that reason also important?
No, I think the potential out there and the headroom is still quite large. Yes, we are the largest player in this space, agreed. If I look at what kind of penetration we've achieved against our TAM, a lot is left to be desired. Hence, I don't think our scale should be slowing us down. If at all, it should be aiding us to be a lot more aggressive in the market to grow more fast. When I say grow more fast, I'm saying in terms of absolute value and volume that we add to our top lines year- after- year. That is certainly going to be in our favor given the scale at which we operate.
Just one last question. Among the three segments.
Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt. Could you please return to the queue? No, I'm sorry, Sir. Please return to the queue. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Agarwal from Ikigai Asset. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, team. Good evening. Thank you so much for the opportunity, and congratulations for a good performance. Just two questions. One, to clarify, earlier you mentioned 2% price hike. Does that take care of the entire RM inflation so far? If I understand it correctly, you also mentioned some price hikes could happen in 1Q. It's largely also related to RM inflation, is what I understand, because the priority is not for growth, but it's more for covering cost. Just need to clarify that. Secondly, what explains the reduction in the LFS store count? If you just explain how should we look at that number, and what's the path ahead? Thank you so much.
Thanks, Rahul, for the question. Let me just repeat myself. The first price increase that we took in January was not to cover inflationary costs. It was to cover product enhancements that were done in specific products. Just to give an example, just for clarity, let's say a lot of our fabrics in our core products, we've increased the weight of the fabric for better drape on the body, better fit on the body, which comes with increase in cost. That has been passed on to the consumer because the product has gotten better. Another example could be, let's say, a track pant which had regular pockets in the past now is being offered with zipper pockets. Which means it'll command a higher price point because we now have zippers in the pockets.
Any kind of enhancement we did to the product portfolio, that was translated to an increase in MRP, which turned out to be a weighted average of 2%. It was not a 2% increase across all our products. It was product specifically were made, only there we took a price increase. Hence, the price increase that we will be taking now in quarter one, that will be in order to cover inflationary costs. So far what has already hit the market in terms of price increase was not to cover inflationary costs. That's on the first question. Coming to large format stores, I think we spoke about it in the last investor call. There was one key large format store where we've exited because of commercial negotiations which led to Jockey having to exit a large format store in terms of presence.
For us, it is important to ensure parity across. We are a large omni-channel player operating across multiple channels, both online and offline. Very important for us to maintain channel harmony and margin parity. Keeping that in mind, we've had to exit one of the players in large format store, and that's what is reflecting in the reduction in the store count.
Right. Just to follow up on the first part you answered. Basically it means that 2% weighted hike happened because of product enhancement. Another round you're considering to cover RM inflation.
That's correct.
Another 2%- 3% which happens every year because of premiumization. We're talking about 5%-7% of higher pricing next year over and above the double digit volume. Is that understandable?
No, sir. Premiumization is not because of price increase. Premiumization is because of change in mix within categories that we deliver. Let's say when a higher priced product sells in place of a lower priced product within the same category, or let's say across categories, let's say if outerwear share goes up, our ASPs as a brand go up. That is what we denote as premiumization. Premiumization is not a result of a price increase. The price increase that we'll be taking in quarter one is purely for covering input costs. Now, to what extent we will pass on the input costs, to what extent would be that price increase is something we've still not got our head around. It's still a decision we need to take in terms of how much we would like to absorb and how much we would like to pass on to the consumer.
Perfect, Karthik. Very clear. Thank you so much, and wish you all good luck for the next year. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Hi, Karthik, I just wanted to check on the volume elasticity. We will be taking some price hikes in [FY 2027 or main FY 2027]. Can you throw some light as in when sort of volumes get affected by these price hikes? How are you sort of getting confidence on sustainable volume?
Yeah. Good question, Devanshu. I think we are very conscious about this. I think we read volume elasticity for the brand pretty well. Our intention would be to touch prices to the extent that it does not affect our volume performance. Hence our volume aspirations for the given year will remain intact in spite of taking a price increase to cover or partially cover input costs. If it comes to a stage where we will need to touch prices to the extent that it's going to affect volumes we would rather refrain from doing that given the healthy margins that we operate with and absorb that in the margins temporarily.
Understood. Karthik, this volume thing is also this confidence, is this coming also from a reduced competitive intensity? If you could throw some color on the intensity across categories. You have mentioned in times of inflationary, but I'm just checking on the current competition.
Yeah. Our reading has been that there has been consolidation of number of players for sure. This is relative, right? Competition intensity when compared to, let's say, one year ago or 1.5 years ago is definitely a lot lower now than how it used to be about a 1.5 year Behind. Yeah, this is both in the men's as well as in the women's categories. Competition intensity is much better, or rather lower than what it used to be in the past. The way we are seeing it, there is possibility of further consolidation in the market, which only makes available more room and space for us to operate as a brand.
Understood. Sir, just last thing. Wanted to confirm this. Next year value volume gap can be at least higher than maybe 5%- 6%, right? In that ballpark range.
Yeah. Our intent and target would be that, certainly to deliver a better volume and value performance when compared to 2025/2026, for sure.
Understood, Sir. Thanks. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on good set of results. Just wanted to understand on the factors that led to improvement in consumer uptake. If you could help us understand whether this is sustainable going forward or it is still transitory. Second question, you just mentioned about reduced competitive intensity. Could you highlight some of the instances which help us understand whether this is also sustainable or not? Thank you.
Sure. Thank you, Prerna, for the question. In terms of what's led to a better consumer sentiment, very difficult to pinpoint exactly what led to that. I think partly it's to do with macro sentiment itself, and partly to do with what we've done in terms of activating consumer. Our level of activating consumer has largely been in terms of investing in marketing campaigns. We've also, in a way, shifted our contribution more towards performance-led marketing in the last few months, and that has helped us directly activate consumer and result in revenues. I also would believe that a large portion of this would be macro-led as well. We cannot rule that out completely. That's with regards to consumer sentiment. Your second question was, could you repeat that, please? Sorry.
Yeah. The second question was on competitive intensity.
On the competition intent. Yes.
How that has reduced?
Got it. I think this is something that we witness on the ground. Without taking names, there have been many players who operated in the offline space, who were traditionally D2C players, moved in and operated in the offline space, who in a way wound up operations offline, exited general trade, consolidated their presence, either exited completely or consolidated distribution to operate in lesser number of geographies, or shrunk their distribution to operate with lesser number of stores, et cetera. That is something we witnessed both in men's and women's. Intensity in terms of spends have definitely come down. I would imagine there is pressure on the bottom line across, and hence, the amount of money that's going into marketing, the amount of money that's going into schemes and incentives.
These brands also tend to discount, the amount of money that is going into discounting for the consumer has also come down significantly. This is in a way, something that we are able to clearly see that A, presence itself has come down, number of brands itself has come down, and even the brands that continue to operate their intensities with which they are activating consumer, either through discounts or through marketing or through schemes, has also come down.
A follow-up on this, if I may. Can you also help us understand on the online space whether this had an impact, and what would be our share of online sales today versus last year?
We've gained a couple of percentage points when compared to last year, and that is quite a lot in the base at which we operate. As we stand today, 15% of our top line is contributed by the e-commerce business. Has the reduction in intensity helped us? Definitely, because the lesser money is going into brands in terms of activating consumer, the more stable brands or market leading brands tend to gain. That's where I think we've gained. Like I also mentioned, we've also shifted our focus towards performance-led marketing, which has also helped us gain significant traction in the online side of the business.
Okay. How much would be your marketing expenditure as a percentage of sales for the entire year?
For the bygone year, it's about little over 4%. We target to take that up to close to 5% the next year.
Wow. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you, Prerna.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I now hand the floor over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you all for joining us today and for your continuous support. We sincerely appreciate your time, interest, and trust in the company. With that, we conclude today's earnings call. Thank you. Have a good day.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Page Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.