Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q4 FY23 Earnings Conference Call of Page Industries Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there is an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. If you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then 0 on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. V. S. Ganesh, Managing Director, Page Industries Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you so much, and good evening, everyone. Thank you all for joining us on the call this evening. We ended the year well, and we clocked a healthy growth, though we had a challenging Q4. As expected, the demand is subdued. Q4 performance was also covered by the impact of ARS implementation. As you would remember, we had passed ARS during the pandemic and reintroduce ARS during the second half of this year. Given the scale and complexity of 2,000 agents plus distributor accounts, we know this is going to take some more time to make this transformation shift from push-based to pull-based order transmission system. We believe this is the most important transformation which will pave the way for years to come.
While the OpEx may not optimal in Q4, we are taking aggressive measures to control costs as we move forward. We are very optimistic with the long-term view of the business, given the consumption, industry, and economic drivers. We continue to focus on intensifying general trade distribution, modern trade expansion, including expansion of Exclusive Brand Outlets, growing online business, improving our customer experience, strengthening our product portfolio, and in ensuring a very robust supply chain, which is robust and agile. Let me take you through some quick highlights before our CFO details financial performance for the quarter and for the full year. Our full-year revenue has grown by 33.2%, whereas volume has grown by 13.1%. Q4 revenues have been grown by 12.8% year-on-year and 20.8% quarter-on-quarter.
Whereas, volumes grew by 16.6 and 19.2 respectively. EBITDA margin regrowth can be attributed to higher product costs and under absorption of other overheads. As I told you before, we are taking measures to control all these things as we move forward. As we initiated normal advertising trends this year, a good share of that was invested during the Q4. As of March end, we are present in 150,000+ MBOs, 1,089 MBOs, and 3,000+ endeavors. Our channel expansion continues to be in line with our plans. We also have to inform you that our e-commerce business have grown by 1% in Q3 and 31% in Q4. I will now let our CFO, Mr. K. Chandrasekar, give you a detailed view on our financial performance.
After which, he would be happy to take your questions. As usual, on our panel today, we have our CFO. I'm also joined by Mr. Gagan Sehgal, our Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Rahul Shukla, President and Chief Retail Officer. They'll be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have on their respective domains. Thank you once again for joining us today. Over to Chandrasekar.
Thank you, Mr. Ganesh. Once again, welcome you to the Page Q4 2023 earnings call. FY23 results were good. We dropped INR 4,780 million compared with INR 5,850 million, as some of you would have noted. This is a growth of 20%. The volumes had a significant growth, grew nearly to 116 million pieces. EBITDA showed a growth of about 8% to INR 8,627 million. The margins are 18%, EBITDA margins are 18%, compared to 20.2% in the previous year, due to sales-related finance investment investments. The CapEx is INR 7.2 million, which is a 6.5% growth over the previous year. In fact, it completes 11.9 compared to 13.8.
The quarterly performance is not up to our expectations due to the external environment, that we don't achieve the revenues we were planning. We ended up at INR 9.91 million, which is a decrease of about 13%. Quarter-on-quarter, there's also a growth of about 21%. The EBITDA reported at around INR 1,335 million, compared with INR 71 million year-on-year, this is a degrowth of 60%. Quarter-on-quarter, there is a degrowth in EBITDA of 30%. Margins are at 13.9%.
Sorry, I maybe can't hear you.
You can hear me now?
Yes, sir.
Right. The EBITDA margins are at 13.9%, and it compares to 2.47% year-on-year and 16% quarter-on-quarter. As explained by MG in the opening remarks, we have been very impacted with volume degrowth , 13.6%, and 7.6 % effects. Because we could not achieve the revenues, the absorption has been. While we have not stopped investing in advertisement, the absorption of all the advertising is being forward. If we had achieved the kind of revenues like year-on-year, we would have been at about 70 EBITDA. If we add profit after tax, it is at INR 782 million. It's a degrowth of 69% year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, degrowth of 67%.
The tax margin therefore, are 3.1%, compares with year-over-year 17.1% and quarter-over-quarter 10.1%. Inventory is also been at an all-time high so far. We are close to almost INR 15,960 million. Quarter-over-quarter, it is about INR 15,963 million. Inventories are 120% of the previous year. Of course, due to the lower revenues and volume, the inventory is taking much longer. As you know, we had done advanced inventory. We planned for the anticipation of growth and patterns, therefore, the inventory will keep longer previously. The net working capital is at INR 7,710 million, compares with about INR 8,044 million quarter-over-quarter.
The working capital days and days are generally in line with the previous year. With this, I hand over for the question, please.
Thank you very much. We can now begin the question and answer session. If participants wish to ask a question, press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment for the question to be sent in. We have our first question from the line of Tejash Shah from Spark Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. First question pertains to the growth side. Despite Omicron case, I see YOY decrease looks loud in numbers. Just wanted to understand if you can give some more read on the slowdown that you are witnessing and how in your assessment, how early you see this demand sentiment turning around for us?
Okay. Thanks for asking this question, Tejash, and there are two parts to your question, because for us, this is part of it is market, and second part is because we also knew what we are getting into when we are implementing our product management system. you know, if we will set up two performance, yes, the market has been subdued, and we expected to possibly from the market segment point of view, much better than what we thought it would, what actually turned out to be. That did impact.
We also were bracing ourselves for some issues to track as far as the added is concerned, because, you know, during the pandemic, the distributor inventory became very restricted because they were buying based on what is available rather than what is required by the market. You know, the demand also, there was a huge demand shift which the market witnessed. Both of it didn't help. This is also one reason we thought we would rather take that decision and accelerate the innovation, because the faster we do, the better. This is very complex and very, the sheer size of this transformation is so big that we were expecting 2 quarters of tightness, but the market not being so buying also didn't help us.
You know, Tejash, we have 4,800 plus distributor comms, and we know that this is going to take time, and we need to go at a SKU basis, because what actually happens during the first 3 days is that those guys, you know.
... extra inventory, and that was coming down, but it was triggering a reorder. The other styles, which are potential winners for us, which were not actually purchased. This is also to do with the liquidity in the market and the last price. Now that we have gotten some help on these, we are able to push it further, but this is a very, very important transformational project for our company, which will help us for quarters to come. It is good. We tighten ourselves for one or two quarters more to become bridge, and we are taking all necessary action to protect our margins as we move forward and implement this flawlessly.
Sure. Sir, is the peak phase of this transition behind us, or you believe as you get two quarters more, so should we expect that peak will actually be in the coming quarter of this transition?
I think it's a good question, because it's very difficult to predict how much is because of the ARS transformation and how much is because of the market, which is not buying. If we think, you know, by give them half of Q1 of it, you know, in fact, by June, if you think everything will start moving around, we will definitely see huge improvements. In fact, we already see some improvements, but this is much better than what we are thinking. We are bracing ourselves when market improves, we will be the first guys to bounce back. We are all ready for it. Personally, if you ask me, I think we are in the bottom trough.
Perfect. If you can get some color on the current slowdown in terms of qualitatively, are you seeing it much higher in certain category or channel?
It is across channel or money, basically. If you see, we had a very healthy growth in the online channel, so we are trying to understand, you know, why this is happening. If you see across, it is across, and, you know, we think the consumers are mostly in the buying, and it's question of time, because at the end, the decision will take. We will be the first ones to recover. That's how we will get it.
Sure. Sir, last one, if I may. Would you be thinking of pricing intervention to revive demand instead of cutting off or offering some...?
Tejash, we are fairly priced. I think we are at value for money brand. We don't see any immediate need for a price intervention. If you see, we have performed. Despite all this, we have performed better than many other brands. You know, if price is not a barrier for us, we don't see an immediate need for intervention.
Thanks, sir. That's all from my side and all questions coming from...
Thank you. Thank you, Tejash.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Gaurav Jogani from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. My first question is, with regards to the high price inventory of cotton, is it now lower or higher in huge sales, we do see still, the high price inventory?
Gaurav, yes, since we were carrying a lot of inventory, the high price of cotton, we did have an impact in Q4. The benefit was started flowing in. I can say even as late as March of Q4, we are seeing the benefit. We have crossed that bridge.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you. My next question, I know, is with regards to the demand pattern only. I think, you know, we had seen some demand volatility over the past couple of years, with some sharp demand across the industry due to the COVID pent-up demand, and now, this demand seems to be normalizing, either by way of lower demand or reality implementation. On a quarter basis, do you see that would be the right metric to look at this demand, or do you think, you know, this impact is temporary and, we might see the old demand come back?
I, frankly, Gaurav, the market looks very subdued. I think it will take some more time for the old demand to come back. We are actually patiently watching and be ready to bounce back the moment the demand recovers. It is because generally, across way, the inventory is very high. Inventory levels are very high. There is a threat as far as the ticking is concerned. I think it will take some more time for recovery to be seen.
sure, sir. Thank you for talking.
Thank you. We have our next question from Ashish Kanodia from Citi. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. The first question is on inventory. You know, when we ended Q3, our inventory level was already very high, and given that, you know, demand scenario doesn't look very buoyant, what led to inventory build-up in quarter and quarter in Q4?
There are two reasons, Ashish. One is, of course, the demand was not as we anticipated. The second part is we, you know, we had a high level of raw material inventory. You know, this is because, as you saw, H1, the demand was so high and the market was so buoyant, and nobody predicted this kind of a fall. Therefore, the supply chain was gearing up for a high operating level and they purchased. During the pandemic also, as K. Chandrasekar said in his meeting in the past, during the pandemic also, we built inventory because the supply chain was so disrupted, we did build inventory. What we did was we converted the raw material to finished goods because we had to keep our operating cost at an optimum level. We need to utilize the capacity.
We made sure that the inventory mix was healthy, and we made sure that what we are producing are core size, so that we don't have this threat of slow-moving, non-moving inventory that takes all the time. It was a balancing act of utilizing our inventory to utilize the capacity we have built and thereby reduce the operating cost and also have a healthy inventory as finished goods. This, we are pretty optimistic, will normalize as we move forward, because we have tuned our supply chain in such a way that the supplies going forward are going to be lower than what we have done, so that we can bring the inventory levels down. You will see upfront quarter improvements as far as the inventory is concerned.
Sure, sir. The next question is on the demand for price. In, while I understand, you know, there is some impact coming from ARS and the channel inventory will be high. So I just want to understand from you, first, if you can give some sense on, you know, how the life to life sales for EBO has been, because that gives a much clearer picture in terms of, you know, real consumer demand. Secondly, if you can, you know, qualitatively, state, you know, between the categories, say, mentioned earlier, relatively, which category, you know, from an overall perspective, you know, suffered more decline and which is relatively better? Okay.
To answer your first question, Ashish Kanodia, the EBO demand was, sorry, growth was in line with our overall growth. That's, that's a true reflection of the demand. We did see some softening in the last couple of months, say, March and April, and that is actually true reflection of what is happening in the market. That is the best way we can sense it. That's where I told you before that, you know, it is not on the point. Coming to a category, of course, we can see this happening across categories, even though some of our premium products seem to be faring better, but it is across categories. There is also some shift in the consumption pattern as far as consumer is concerned.
It is moving more away from at-home care to the ath eisure. There is out-of-home care, so there is a shift, which we can see, and that has actually caused some disruption across the market. I'm not just talking about Page or Jockey. Across the market, we can see that. That's something which it took some time before it come like this, but there's definitely a demand shift or a consumption shift in the outerwear space.
Very interesting. Just last question, if I may ask, is margins current? I think, you know, the opening is on those from the, from that, there was a 0.6% on COG to 7.6% or more specific. You know, just elaborate on that and also, looking into FY24, would you still maintain the margin guidance of 20%-21% or any change in that? Thank you.
Shakti, you want to take that?
Yeah, I had achieved earlier. We went in a higher cost inventory, the previous periods are coming and giving today. These will have had impact on the margin. At the same time, on the opposite, while we haven't overspent in terms of the output, particularly in Q4, we had about spent more on the advertisement. Actually, from time to return, we spent more on advertisement from the revenue from the respective quarter year-on-year. Also, on selling overhead, we had spent about 2.6%, and this is largely due to the same engagement on the commission, which is being into the e-com marketplace. Since e-com delivered the growth, the marketplace commissions were more than last year. These are two of the significant aspects.
We also have higher raw material terms, I think, too high in Q4. We also had to spend more on the public on the staff salary. These are largely explaining the 7.6%. The other question as to guidance. In terms of, you know that while we did not, from your guidance, what I can tell you is that, if we had, you know, we did it INR 9,691.... Revenue for this quarter, it was INR 7,111, which is actually last year. Before we would have, definitely our aim is to get back into the different command. Also it's not because, you know, the inventory costs will be coming in lower in Q1 and more so in Q2.
That would be a better plan in terms of the price, as we would expect our approach would be to drive some more cars and improve the revenues. We will definitely be back to you. This is something we look at as an aberration as far as Q4.
Thank you. Thank you, if I can add on what she said. You know, we have made considerable budgets and have tuned the expenses to be in line with those budgets. We also done enough work in the supply chain so that we can actually take care of the upside as in the market bounces back. You know, we will have, as Chandrasekar said, you know, we are seeing a tremendous margin recovery as we move forward. There is no question about that.
On this end, Chandrasekar was also thinking about advertisement. That is something which we are going to stick to because we are very bullish on the long term. We are not going to cut those costs, because these are necessary, because we have a very rich product portfolio. The consumer will be expected to discover them. We need to facilitate it. We are going to go all out on those aspects because our long-term outlook is very bullish. What we are going to do is to control all the other expenses which may not be customer-centric. We can make to have a long-term growth of the company, which we will do completely different. We'll go aggressively in pursuing those options.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to answer queries from all participants, please restrict your questions to 2 at a time. We will join back with you for follow-up questions. We have our next question from the line of Avi Mehta from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. I just wanted to, you know.
Mr. Mehta, we cannot hear you.
Sorry, am I now audible?
Yes.
Hello?
Yes, please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, sir. I just wanted to understand this demand environment a bit. I mean, without, you know, necessarily JAI, you are not able to give a precise insight. In your understanding, the demand trend would have weakened further from third quarter level to this quarter. Is there a reason for the recovery as a sense of start changing as you go into the first quarter? That would be the first question.
You are right, Mr. Mehta, according to our read, the demand has slackened further in Q4. In fact, even in Q3, we never expected a further slack, that is what gave us a surprise. Now we have braced ourselves to the reality and taken the necessary action. You are right, the Q4 demand seems to have slackened further.
When I see the numbers across retail, it is further clear for us that demand seems to be getting across more time to Q4. Has that changed in terms of business? As of now. We are seeing some improvements. Definitely we have seen some improvements. You know, again, it may not be comparable to our last year Q1, because that was a record year for us. You know, H1 was so good last year, so it may not be comparable. If I compare to Q4, I can definitely see some green shoots emerging.
Okay. So the ARS inflation is going to be there to more quarters, right? That's what you also said.
Yes, it is going to be. You know, we are prepared for it.
We are facing this very, very carefully. From an overall numbers point of view, I think we have seen the bottom of it. The ARS, we have 2 more quarters. It is going to be traditionally heavier as we read it. It can be shortened if the range clears and inventory starts going out of the system, it can be hastened. I'm talking from the worst case scenario.
Okay, sir. Sir, sorry, if you can give us a sense on the pricing, because we understand from the channel there is some price increase you have done, which is around height. I'm just understanding and, you know, just clarify that part.
We did a price hike last year, 3.6%, and nothing beyond that, and we don't see an immediate need for any intervention.
Okay, sir. Perfect.
Also my third congratulations to you on the new appointment. Thank you so much for all your clarifications.
Thank you. Thank you, Mehta, for telling that, and I take this occasion to, on behalf of the board and the senior management team and all the associates of Page. We thank Mr. Chandrashekar for the tremendous job which he has done, and wish him a very happy retirement.
This has been very helpful. Thank you very much, sir. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Nihal Mahesh Jham from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you so much, and good evening to the management. One clarification on the ARS discussion. Given the possibility that the sense of the impact by looking at the secondary to tertiary sales side, that in a way would give us a sense of how the market demand has been. Since a lower replenishment would in a way give us the sense of ARS, would that be the right way to look at it?
Absolutely. It would be the right way to look at it. You know, our visibility, as regards tertiary, it gets louder because we can't get a real-time and then exact visibility on that. Secondly, we get a very clear visibility. That is, as you rightly said, one way of looking at it. The third thing is, since we get good end-to-end visibility on our EDO side, that is data. That's where I said, you know, if you look at last two months, there seems to be a enhanced procurement.
Got it. You have given an indication how the secondary sales are you have to get looking. This is a point of how that compares to people.
Well, our secondaries, you know, when you enter the AR, the secondaries are going to be a bit more higher than primaries because you are actually crushing away the inventory, and that is different, which is happening. That's why we said, you know, it being behavior, because the secondaries must outweigh the primaries in the media and till the distributor inventory comes normalizes, and from there we will see great return. Across the year, if you look at it, the secondaries and primaries are matched up. Your secondaries are in line with primaries.
Just to add, you know, from an secondaries in Q4, they're actually marginally higher compared to last year. If you clear it, in fact, with the distribution, then we are getting correction, and the market will be replenished with the distribution under relevant level.
Got that. That is helpful, to generation. I have another question on the athleisure segment. Last time you did highlight that was a category which has been growing pretty well, and even said, as a lot of other committees are saying, that it has been used to disappear, right? You know, athleisure consumption somewhere is not okay. From our side going forward, what are the initiatives that we are looking to see to it, that this category continues its long-term growth and maybe athleisure category actually out of three over the last few years? Highlight some of it?
Well, athleisure, the line was of, I think you were asking about athleisure, right?
Yes. My question was on athleisure, that the market is subdued at this point in time. What are the initiatives from our side we are looking to see to it that the growth sustained even post the COVID bump that we've seen over the last two months?
Okay. Okay. If I look at it from a long-term perspective, as a country, this is 1 category which is going to grow tremendously because there is the lifestyle change, there is a high treatment awareness, and therefore, this is 1 category which if you see any commentary, everybody, in any commentary, that is 1 of the emerging categories which is going to see accelerated growth. What we are seeing is a temporary bump, which is also because if you look at item by, you know, during the pandemic, the consumption was high. In fact, many brands, including us, what would I take in 3 years we to grow, we achieved in 1 year. When you compare against that, you obviously very much get bumped, and there is a correction.
Our long-term view is very bullish, and therefore we are leaving no stone unturned as far as product innovation is concerned. On the new products, we are going to go all out and getting all the necessary attention to this category. We are having more exciting products in the pipeline, and we are looking at upgrading our existing product portfolio so that there is much more value for money for our consumers, and our consumers deserve that. We are also going to come with more exciting products, which will be catered to the cross-section of our consumers. You know, in the lower end to the premium, right? We are looking at the cross-section of it and going to launch more products, which are going to be more friendly for all the category of people.
Got that, Mr. Ganesh. Thank you so much, and I wish you all the best. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Manish Poddar from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Only 3 questions. 1 is, any sense of market share do you have, which is in the segment or market share?
Well, Manish, as you know, there is no syndicated study on the market share. As far as the market share official numbers are concerned. What we do is, I can say we can talk about the penetration looking at the PG, and if you look at it that way, we are seeing, say, around 17%-18% market share on the men's innerwear, and that's where we keep saying there's so much room for us to grow. As far as other categories are concerned, even though we are the most dominant players in most of the categories, we are still building it.
Okay. Yeah, well, another question is, have you been marketing by your, you know, you'll be doing a, you know, just to see that channel and stuff like that. I'm just trying to understand, you know, any sense of where your market share is of the men's category largely?
That's where I told you, as far as men's innerwear is concerned, we are at around 17%-18%.
Has that improved?
Pardon.
Has that improved in volume terms, sir, from you?
No, we are in that zone. If you're asking whether compared to last year, it has improved, I can say we have held ground. We are more or less in the same zone.
Okay. Okay, just the second part, how much is the inventory you create? If you can just help me understand that, the number of days. You said you are at 75 days.
Can you repeat, sir?
Yeah, thanks for the question. You're asking the entry level at the level or at the clinic level, if I'm good?
It was 72 days last quarter. In the earlier comments, you mentioned, you know, to optimize the capacity, you could turn inventory in the trade. It has relatively higher. I'm just trying to understand what is relatively means.
We typically operate around the 50, 65 day inventory at the trade level.
What is that number right now?
Currently also, we maintain, as per our information right now, we are maintaining at around 40 to 50 delivery trade inventory.
Would you say that inventory is at normal level?
Yes.
It's not that the demand is uplifted.
Yeah. In terms of trade level, in terms of distribution for products, we are building there. In fact, for all our product lines, there is no way that the inventory has come down. We are still maintaining inventory. It is a function of treasury in terms of the management, by the distributor.
Okay. Just one last one. For the year 23, any sort of broad, you know, sales cut by category, just broad effect, and let it come to 30%. Any sales cut across categories? Thank you.
More or less, the growth that we have mentioned for the year, it has been in all the categories almost in at the same level. It is not significant.
Okay, can I ask you one more?
Yes.
Just an initial comment, then, is the channel entry is in round three? Why mentioning that the year implementation, which is some more time?
Actually, what happened is that at the trade level, the inventory is at the right place. It's the MBOs. Whatever the MBOs want, they are supplied, right? When there was a supply issue at that point in time, the distributors got lot of inventory, maybe that was not relevant at that point in time. That has not gone to the trade, that remained with the distributor. The distributor inventory level went up. With the implementation of ARS, right, the distribution inventory is getting corrected as per the market demand, because then you will only keep the retailer once, rather than the inventory level of the distributor going up. This is the reason that the distributor inventory levels have come down. There is a correction, right? He's only, through ARS, he's only getting what actually the market really needs.
It is not at the distributor, right?
Sorry, just this number is 50, 55 days. What is the same number at distributor level last year versus this year? Let's say or let's say, what is the optimum number versus now?
Normally, at the distributor level, it depends, category-wise, but overall, we maintain a 45- to 50-day inventory at the distributor level.
What is it now?
The distributor level has got corrected by almost 20-25 days, what it used to be earlier.
So it's still 65 days or it is 45 days?
It has now come down to the 45, 50 days, which is the optimum level, and that is the inventory correction that has happened, where the distributors are keeping the extra inventory, which was, which was not as per the market. Most of the correction has already happened, and there's 20, 25 days of inventory correction that happened from distributor point. Currently, the distributors are maintaining 45 to 50-day inventory. Let me also clarify this, even from the terms of days that have come down, the inventory is outside, and this is where we are working on the ARS, wherein at a SKU level, there will be a curated subscription as to what has to be bought and that will be system-driven.
That, that 48 days is healthy inventory, you know, because today the distributor goes by and he keeps buying based on historic data. He doesn't see potential future winners, and he doesn't invest on it, and this is where the SKU comes. This is where we are trying, this is why we said, you know, this is one of the most important initiatives for us, especially with the kind of volatility we are seeing in the market. Unless you have a pool system and we keep pushing and then the demand volatility that we have seen in the last two years, this is going to have so much supply chain safety for us, and the best way to do it is to have a pool system. Let's agree base is there, but we still have work to do on this front.
That's because actually, if you take the entry base, when you do mixture INR 10 crores, you are with a 200%-250% loss. The only basically, just as a comment is, I fail to understand EBO was growing in the last quarter, now when you're saying EBO is growing in line with the company, you know, EBO sales have also declined materially. That's the only, you know, background. Nonetheless, thank you so much for your answer.
You are really right, and that's actually on the EBO side, that it is a huge growth for us .
Well, yeah. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Devanshu Bansal from Emkay Global Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Sir, hi, thanks for the opportunity. Before, we saw the launch of the new category in EBO. Just wanted to understand the process behind this and the current distribution for this product.
Rahul, you want to take this?
Sorry, I didn't get the question. Could you please repeat the question, sir?
Yes, sir. The question was on launch of gaming category in EBO. Wanted to understand the processes behind this launch as well as the current distribution of this product.
Oh, launch of gaming category?
No, no, games. Rahul, I got you something. The question was the launch of gaming category.
Okay. Mr. Bansal, see, this was more of a test which we did. We actually wanted to see the pulse of the market, and we are continuing with it. You know, as well as the work feature is concerned, we need to be cautiously aggressive, and we are embarking on this journey. We announced this product to see how the consumer expectations and how it is evolving. We, you know, this is actually to take the category further forward.
How has been the learnings there, and what is the plan for distribution expansion for this product?
The learnings. It's what you see, right? In play, the market is very excited. In fact, the very fact that you are asking this question itself shows that, you know, this is possible and positive feedback we have seen from the market. This actually is a great sense of direction to our product and development team, as to say, how to take this category forward.
Got it, sir. The second question was, if you could provide the competitive gross margin that we used to report in the PCP, in this time around, we have not reported.
The volume was not clear. I didn't get you.
The comparative gross margins that we used to report in the PCP, and this quarter we have just reported around, 30%.
We have about 31%, PCP. Can you hear me?
Yes, sir, yes. 31% before.
Yeah. last year, and this year we are at 38.2.
38.2%. Just, even if you could indicate, how has the movement of this gross margin seen during this year? We indicated that, because I saw recently, the views earlier in channel, then in markets, others started to see the benefit of that. If you could just shed some light on that.
We are definitely encouragement to 30% range and process for an exception. Last year was an exception on the higher side. 30% is largely maintained.
Actually, going forward, if the inventory costs are going to go lower, but then we would get a grasp. Got it, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Ankit Kedia from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Just two questions from my side. The old products which the distributor would have bought, you know, in the good time, which is said, "I bought." Has this product been taken back by the company, or you have liquidated that in the channel, you know, in last two, three years?
Sorry, we usually don't take it back. It gets in the due course of the business in the channel.
When you see the inventory days at the distributor level has come down, the fast-moving inventory would have only got liquidated, right? Even the slow-moving inventory would still partially be at the distributor level and create an issue in the ARS stores.
Yes. That obviously will not occur in new order. You know, there will be no top-up happening for those projects because it usually works on a mini back, so it must be in order. This is where I said, you know, as we implement this, these kind of situations won't happen as we move forward, because we will be replenishing at right price. With all the work which we have done in supply chain on fixed grounds, I can quickly replenish. They need to be really smart, and we need to create the distributor inventory to the best possible level and have a good presence across the SKUs.
Sure. sir, probably the new launches were not part of the ARS. now, are the new launches part of ARS, for the distributors?
It, going forward, it will be, and it has to be, so that the new products get some opportunity for the market to decide on this, how to receive it, you know? It gets a fair play in the market, so it has to be in there.
Sir, last question. Sir, Q1 is a bulky, best quarter for you historically. Now with demand environment being low and the ARS issues partly getting settled, you know, in Q1, do you see your DMP trends continuing to be highest for the full year, or you will curtail your spend, your efforts to maintain your margins?
Which spend you are talking about, Mr. Ankit?
Sir, advertising spend. Because seeing Q4, despite the low demand, we continue to spend on advertising and promotion.
Yeah. See, Ankit, when you look at it, you have to look at it, the % of revenue also, because if you just look at quarter to quarter, what happens during the pandemic, we were media dark and we didn't spend much. It may look very, high spend, you know. If you look at it as a % of revenue, we are going back to the old normal approach we used to do for spend. That is absolutely essential because, see, these one or two quarters, we see this is a temporary change. If we are to sustain our growth and do justice to all the products which we offer to our consumers, we can't continue to be media dark, and we need to make the necessary spend.
What we are trying to do is to cut other costs, which can be passed or can be avoided, but we don't want to kind of subdue any expenses where it matters. Where we want to go all out, we are very, very confident as far as long term is concerned. We have a very bullish outlook, so we are not going to cut on our necessary spend for the concern.
Sure. Sir, last question I wantm to ask. From first of April, you set up a new division for accessories with separate sales structure. Can you just highlight what is the growth opportunities you are seeing in accessories category, and how should we look at that apart from, you know, the inner and outer category?
Accessories, we created this division because, you know, we started doing this few years back with the introduction of towels. Then we had hand accessories, socks came in, and then we had caps. All this were showing very good traction and was getting well received. We reached a particular point, and then when we saw that sensibility of these products in the category, we decided that we need to create a division for this. The potential is there, and we can further take the business forward. We have done this because we can see the huge potential in front of us, especially in socks.
Would this division be approximately double-digit revenue contribution townhouse today?
We usually don't give those specific numbers out. It's in your interest and our interest, but we don't say that because it will be free for the competition, so we don't give those splits actually.
No worries, sir. No worries. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Akhil Parekh from Centrum Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is, in terms of the demand scenario, right, I mean, you have already mentioned that Jockey has done great fiscal in 19. You know, there's a demand kind of started to maintain from growth of 19 to longer full product of 20. How similar or different demand situation is today versus the history showed up that we have seen during the back end of 19 and 20?
I think we would have to generally look at the state of the inflation and the economy and what is happening in the retail space. That is what we are going through, so I don't think we are an exception to it. Otherwise, I think as far as spending growth is concerned, we don't see any problems. If you see our retail expansion, it has increased so much and we will be able to well successfully move forward, you know, we are going to continue to expand. As I told you in my starting comments, we see EBOs or MBOs, we will have continued growth. Compared to 18, 19, we have much more exciting products for our consumers, and we are in a sweet spot.
This is a temporary phase through which we are going through. If you look at it long term, there's nothing easy can stop us.
Okay. Would it be fair assessment to say that where we are right now at, is largely driven by the macro situation and to some extent because of the ARS penetration, and there is absolutely no increase in potential intensity from any of the regional players across the country?
Absolutely. Absolutely. See, with the kind of market penetration that spoke about, there is room for competition and for us, it's, that's not, you know, saturated, wherein we have 60%, and the other part of the market has 40%. There is so much headroom, and it's also growing category. If you see, men's underwear is supposed to grow compound at 10.5%. Women's underwear is slated to grow at 13%. We need to accelerate and grow faster than that if we have to gain market share. That's the kind of potential which is ahead of us.
Okay.
If you look at it that way, you should say our competition is ourselves.
Last question on the margin front, like in the past, historically, we have been confident of maintaining the 21%-22% EBITDA margin, and by and large, we were able to achieve over the last many years. Would you be able to give any kind of color or guidance on what kind of EBITDA margin we should look at in the future?
Ma'am, as Mr. Administrator said, as a company, as a policy, we don't give guidances. All that I can tell you is that, you know, this is because, you know, when you take cost control measures, the juice doesn't flow over overnight it takes time . All that action which we have taken, like, they started materializing. There's tremendous margin recovery which we can foresee . We will be in a zone as per our budget, where we are comfortable. Historically, as you rightly said, we always look at 19%-21% levels. We ensure we can get close to it, and with the market recovery in the second half of the year, we will be very comfortable this year.
thanks a lot, and appreciate for coming.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Varun Singh from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Varun Singh, your line is unmuted.
Yeah.
Please go ahead.
Am I audible?
Yes.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on the macro system in the category. If you can just help us understand, I mean, given that, you know, there is an essential category and 7%-8% penetration category that we called out. like, what should be the basic reasoning for such a steep decline in our revenue, I mean, minus the possible implementation issue? How should we read it? Because, I mean, typically, if there is an inflation, there should be a downgrade even on volume, which is kind of impact. I mean, what are the other possible reasons could you ascribe to our current growth result?
Do you think competition over here has a larger role to play, or you think, you know, and you have the trend observation, there is a brand fatigue, given, Jockey now may be 5 year old brand? I mean, if you can give some more color that why in an essential category, which is so less penetrated, there is a steep decline in our top line growth?
Thanks for asking this, Varun, and particularly, I don't think it's a competition, because if you see, they are not exemption to what we are going through. Everybody is going through the same patch. Exactly, it is not a competition intensity. It is because, you know, if you see the distributors or even the suppliers, though, they are all trying to get local stock, basically, over-inventorize, and now they are trying to liquidate. There is also a liquidity issue in the market, liquidity taking its toll . That's where, we are going through that patch, this is what exactly happened in the US also, if you see a similar trend. We are no exemption to that, I won't attribute this to competition intensity. With coming to demand fatigue, definitely not.
In fact, if you see our design s and styling, we all cater to the young consumers, and the way it is received by your consumers shows that there is no fatigue. This is backed up by the brand studies which we have done, and we have got very, very positive feedback, wherein we are way ahead of all the other brands, you know? The difference between us and the others is so high that we are very confident that we are going the right direction. This is true as well as men and women, both categories. You know, in both cases, the Brand Equity Study shows that we are way ahead.
Understood. Understood. My second question is, now that, you know, it's been more than five years since you launched, Jockey Women, and still, kind of, we are not calling out, the segment contribution correctly, and this is fine. But given the smaller base, I also recently grown at a similar rate during the quarter. Ideally, we should be seeing a higher growth rate from women and footwear. Like, I was kind of doing some bottom-up research and I not many companies are there which operate in both men and women wear with the same brand name. But still, like, how should we read our, you know, acceleration between the women and footwear category?
I mean, I understand that during the last conference, we should highlight that we have become very successful in this category, and we'll be more than happy to see the category growing at a much faster rate. The current growth rate, which is similar to other category, which, like, as an analyst, I would be looking to grow at a higher rate. How should we read this week and then our potential objective accelerations in both the segments?
Very, very good question, Varun. Actually, you are right. You know, actually, what you are asking is, since we have a lower base on women, we should be growing faster there, and we have grown equally across the board. This is true, and this is where we are taking all the necessary action to have accelerated growth of women. In fact, if you see the figure here, we did this year was an exception, but we are now making all the right interventions to have a accelerated growth on the women footwear. Juniors actually has grown, and I will say that is also because of the low base which we had. As far as juniors is concerned, we have our own trajectory. We are not trying to counter and dominate the market.
We are present there. We are approaching to a plan because that is a very, very different category when it comes to design, styling, go-to-market. Even margin structures, we study the competition. We are in a sweet spot. We have achieved what we want to achieve there. In fact, this is a category which will help us to recruit new consumers. We are achieving the objective. We are achieving a healthy growth on juniors. It actually is on track. Women's, you are right. We are taking all the necessary action to have accelerated growth. As you watch the market, you'll see a lot of actions from our side in this front.
That is good for last year. On payable, what the reason for decline in the payable days?
Varun, I don't get you.
Our overall net rate payable is so that there is out there. Is there anything to call out over there or nothing like this?
Okay. PC, you want to take that on the payable base?
Sir, it's not very significant decline on the base. It's just that we have been buying less or purchases have been less. It is more a matter of timing of relevant suppliers.
Okay. I believe it should be.
Yeah. It's about 77 and the previous quarter was 29. It is not very different.
Okay. That is a considerable change. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I would now like to have the conference over to Mr. K. Chandrashekar , CFO, for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thanks to all of you who have been, who have dialed in and who have been listening patiently to us. As always, I appreciate your support for the management of Page Industries and keeping faith in all that we do. Wish you all the best. Thank you, Ganesh.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Page Industries Limited, I conclude this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may disconnect your lines.