V2 Retail Limited (NSE:V2RETAIL)
India flag India · Delayed Price · Currency is INR
200.49
-2.87 (-1.41%)
May 5, 2026, 3:30 PM IST
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Q1 24/25

Jul 31, 2024

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to V2 Retail Limited Q1 FY Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone.

Please note that this call is being recorded. Before we begin, a brief disclaimer: the presentation which V2 Retail Limited has uploaded on the stock exchange and their website, including the discussion during this call, contains or may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning V2 Retail Limited's business prospects and profitability, which are subject to several risks and uncertainties, and actual results could materially differ from those in such forward-looking statements. Ladies and gentlemen, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Akash Agarwal, Whole Time Director, V2 Retail. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Good afternoon, everyone. A very warm welcome to our Q1 Earnings Conference Call. Along with me, I have Mr. Manshu Tandon, our CEO, and Marathon Capital, our investor relations team. I hope everyone has had an opportunity to look at our results. The presentation and press release have been uploaded on the stock exchanges and our company's website. At V2 Retail, our mission is to democratize fashion by offering high-quality value-conscious customers across all tiers of sales. We achieve this through operational excellence, strategic expansion, competitive pricing, a customer-centric approach, and a strategic use of technology.

Our diverse product range, competitive pricing, and exceptional shopping experience ensure that we provide significant value to our customers. As we continue to grow and innovate, we remain committed to making fashion accessible to all, uplifting communities, and driving sustainable growth. Our business model has increasingly evolved to deliver desirable customer propositions.

The emphasis on our own designing and credible quality, nimble responsiveness to emerging consumer preferences, coupled with relative price stability, contributes to our distinction in the value retail apparel space. Let me start with some key updates. After a historic FY 2024, we are thrilled to start the current financial year with the highest-ever quarterly sales during Q1 and a 162% increase in year-on-year PAT. The company opened 10 new stores during the quarter, taking our total store count to 127 stores. Our store strategy is focused on underserved urban and rural markets and maintaining a strong presence in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities to reach a very diverse customer base. We aspire to add between 50-60 stores on a net basis through internal accruals in line with the commitment to sustainable growth driven by cash flows in FY 2025.

The strong acceptance of our different thinking of providing fresh variety, good quality, at best price. The growth across all our stores has been encouraging, translating into a robust same-store sales growth of 37% in Q1. We have been able to consistently deliver high double-digit SSG for the last few quarters. Volume growth was 55% in the corresponding quarter last year. Through efficient supply chain management, streamlined operations, and strategic inventory management, we have been able to maintain cost-effectiveness without compromising on quality. We believe a scalable business model will move forward. Now, I will hand over the conference to Mr. Manshu Tandon, our CEO, to give you an overview of our operational performance during the quarter.

Manshu Tandon
CEO, V2 Retail

Good afternoon, everyone. I'll give you a brief on the consolidated performance highlights for Q1 FY 25. Revenue from operations stood at INR 415, registering a growth of. For Q1 FY 25. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 55.5 crore as compared to INR 35.6 crore in Q1 FY 2024, registering a growth of 56% on YOY basis. EBITDA margin stood at 13.4% for Q1 FY 2024, registering a growth of 162% on YOY basis. As of June 30, 2024, the company operates 127 stores with a total retail area of 13.64 lakhs in Q1 FY 2025. So with this final.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Ankush Agrawal, Surge Capital. Please go ahead.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Yeah, hi, sir. Thank you for taking the question. Firstly, what kind of pre-Ind AS EBITDA and PAT margins are we looking for for FY 25 and for the coming years?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

If we talk about pre-Ind AS numbers, this year we are targeting an EBITDA of 7%-8%. Going forward, we want to target a pre-Ind AS EBITDA percentage of 8%-9%.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Okay. And how much would that translate to net margin on a PAT basis?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I think in FY 2024, our net margin was 5%. You can expect this year's PAT margin to be 4.5%, and going forward, it should be between 4.5%-5.5%.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Okay. Secondly, can you share the share of our own proprietary labels and own manufacturing for FY 2024, and how should we see that number going ahead?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

It's almost 80%. Going forward, the target is to make it a 100% private-label business. We are moving in that direction because one year back, that percentage used to be 60%. In one or two years, we want to be a 100% private-label business.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Just a clarification. Till FY 2023, based on the annual report, the revenue share from proprietary labels was 40% in FY 2023. This is as per the annual report. So when you say private label and proprietary label, is there a difference in that, or that number has moved from 40% to 80% in FY 2024?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

No, so for financial year, I was talking about calendar year. That is why there's that confusion. So this year, when I mean, I mean from January till July, the percentage, if you convert it to. And this financial year we closed at 80%. And in one or two years, we plan to take it to 100%.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Okay. Got it. The last question is on the gross margin. So over the last couple of quarters, we've seen a bit every quarter on one trying to pass more value to your customers. But on the other hand, what it also proves is the share of revenue from proprietary labels has increased. The share of sales at MRP has also consistently increased, which should add to gross margins. So from all this perspective, where do you expect this gross margins to settle eventually?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

As well as private labels to the customers. So we do. And we are selling more at full price. But now our input margin strategy is such that we are targeting a gross margin percentage ranging from 27%-29% because we want to give maximum value to the customer in the value fashion space.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Got it. Got it. That was very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Palash Agrawal from Nuvama Wealth. Please go ahead.

Palash Agrawal
Analyst, Nuvama Wealth

Sir, I hope I'm audible. Congratulations on a very good set of results, and thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my question is related to my category, which will be Zudio. So do you foresee your store metrics going? Yes. And if yes, then what are you planning to do to take it closer or yeah?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So there are two major metrics that we look at and we focus on. Just per square feet sales or per square feet cost or GP per square feet, we focus on EBITDA percentage, which is pre-Ind AS EBITDA percentage, and the ROCE and the ROE of the business. So going forward, our aim is to be at par or even be better than the best players in this space. So that is why I said going forward, we want to keep increasing our EBITDA margin further.

Palash Agrawal
Analyst, Nuvama Wealth

Sir, did I get you correctly that you are planning to add 50-60 net stores this year? 40-50. Sure. Okay. 40-50. Okay.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

We have already added 10 stores, and the plan is to add about 30-40 more.

Palash Agrawal
Analyst, Nuvama Wealth

Okay. Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you. And sir, my next question is, if everything goes right in the next two years, so what is that approximate in terms of store addition? What do you see that room for expansion in the next three to four years for V2 Retail?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So it completely depends on the performance and the execution and how the new stores that we are offering are doing. If we continue to see the kind of growth that we are seeing and the kind of product acceptance that the market is showing us, then after this 40-50 stores this year, we might open another 60-70 stores next year. So it all depends on how the business is performing because we don't want to chase just growth by compromising on profitability. So the first target is for the next 3-4 years to grow at least 30%-40% both in terms of revenue.

Palash Agrawal
Analyst, Nuvama Wealth

Got it. Got it. And sir, what was our footfall growth for the quarter?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I'll have to check the exact number, but we started tracking footfall from this year because old technologies were not accurate enough to be. So we will be able to give the comparison of footfall from next year onwards because we started collecting that, I think, about five months back.

Palash Agrawal
Analyst, Nuvama Wealth

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Jagvir Singh from Shade Capital. Please go ahead.

Jagvir Singh
Analyst, Shade Capital

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. So sir, what is the current debt position?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

The books are about INR 78 crores. What we have is it's a CC limit that we have from the bank, and we give a bill discounting feature to all our vendors where they can get an early payment of their bill. Mostly we use the limit for those purposes.

Jagvir Singh
Analyst, Shade Capital

Okay. And sir, second question related to the competition. So Zudio is, I think, in the upper level because they start from INR 450 or INR 500. So is this V2, sorry, Vishal Mega Mart or V2 V-Mart?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So there are different tiers of competition. So one would be the local mom-and-pop stores, which is the unorganized retail. One is the national-level retailer. So there is a certain level of Zudio starts selling their t-shirts for INR 199, but their ASP is almost 80% higher than ours. So there is competition from each space, I would say, whether it's Vishal, VMart, Zudio. But we try to focus on ourselves. And I think in India, the market is big enough to easily accommodate five, six big national players because the shift from unorganized to organized retail is accelerating. And that is how the organized retail is going to grow at a high CAGR for the next few years.

Jagvir Singh
Analyst, Shade Capital

Okay. Sir, second question related to the manufacturing. How much is owned manufacturing?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

About 16% of our sales are own manufacturing, but we don't plan to add any more. So as we are opening more stores and as our sales are growing, this contribution is going to come down.

Jagvir Singh
Analyst, Shade Capital

Okay. So sir, in the first innings in the Vishal Mega Mart, I think inventory issues has the problems. So what we have learned from them and so what is our strategy for this new innings?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So one of the learnings was not chasing growth blindly by compromising on profitability. We make a store-level EBITDA every month. We sit down, we take decisions on slow-moving, low-performing stores. I think in the history of V2, it's the first time that not even a single store is EBITDA negative on a YTD level with the corporate. We try to forecast cash flows, EBITDAs, and we try to keep certain business metrics in check before taking the next leg of expansion. If you talk about learnings, there have been 15, 20 learnings as the call will go on. We have learned from those mistakes and implemented a lot of checks and balances in order to not open stores. There's a lot of checks before finalizing a new store. There's a lot of checks on inventory control. Our old and aging inventory has come down drastically. So I think everything points towards a very positive outlook.

Jagvir Singh
Analyst, Shade Capital

Thank you very much, sir. This is from my side.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. To ask a question, please press one now. The next question is from the line of Abhishek from ABS Capital. Please go ahead.

Speaker 17

Hello. Am I audible?

Operator

Yes.

Speaker 17

Yes, sir.

Yes. Yeah. You said that ROE will increase going forward. Can you throw some light as to what ROE number you are targeting internally going forward?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

The ROE will be around 20%-22%.

Speaker 17

Going forward, how much same store sales growth do you target internally? Can you give some numbers?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I think 10% is a very good number. So going forward, even if we achieve a 10% SSG, I think that's very good for the business because it's a fixed-cost business where even if you grow your percent, your profitability grows multi-fold. So going forward with a higher base, I think even if we get 10%, a double-digit SSG is a good SSG.

Speaker 17

Just one clarification. In the long term, just now you told that revenue growth you are targeting internally is around 30%-40% year-on-year, right?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes.

Speaker 17

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Excellent set of numbers.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sanjgna Mittal, Ratnatraya Capital. Please go ahead.

Sanjana Mittal
Analyst, Ratnatraya Capital

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Congrats on a good set of numbers. I have three questions. One is on the employee cost. This quarter, the employee cost is a little bit on the new employee addition. Can you throw some light on that?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So most of it is because of the new store addition. So a lot of the hiring needs to be done at least a month or a couple of months prior to the opening of the store. So every quarter, we plan to open 15-20 stores. So if you look at the per square feet basis, there's not much change. But in the absolute numbers, as we keep growing the store base, this number will rise.

Sanjana Mittal
Analyst, Ratnatraya Capital

Understood. Understood. And one question on the same sales growth, how do we calculate that same sales growth? In the numerator, do we include stores which are greater than one year old as of date, or what is the answer for that?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah. We include all the stores that existed till 31st of March 2023.

Sanjana Mittal
Analyst, Ratnatraya Capital

31st of March 2023? That is for this year's same store sales growth?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

The stores should have been there for the whole quarter of 2024. That is the only criteria. So the stores that opened during the Q1 of FY 2024, we don't take that.

Sanjana Mittal
Analyst, Ratnatraya Capital

Understood.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Only the opening number of stores, yes.

Sanjana Mittal
Analyst, Ratnatraya Capital

Understood. Understood. Okay. Just one more question on the seasonality. Can you give some color? So I understand that Q3 is a bigger quarter for us, but Q2 also relative to Q1, it's a little bit on the slower side, even in terms of margin. So why is that? If you can just give some color and see why.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah. So Q1 and Q3 are the biggest quarters for us because Q1 is the main wedding season in the summer season, and Q3 is the festive in the winter season. And Q2 has July and monsoons, and even Q4 has January and February, which is end of season for winter and pre-winter. So that is the seasonality impact in retail. But I think going forward, all our quarters will be EBITDA positive.

Sanjana Mittal
Analyst, Ratnatraya Capital

Understood. Thank you. Thank you for taking the questions. All the best.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of [Inaudible]. Please go ahead.

Speaker 16

Good afternoon, sir. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. So my question is on gross margins. So I just want to understand the decline in the gross margins in this quarter. And how do you see this going ahead considering the fact that Q3 is one of the strongest quarters for us? So whether this quarter has some impact of mix or discounts, margins which will not be there in the next quarter? So just understanding from your end.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah. So in fact, there were lesser discounts, but still there's an opportunity. So if we reduce our gross margin by 10% and that increases our sales by 15-16%, so that is ultimately beneficial for the business. So it's a business strategy. And going forward, we are targeting a gross margin of 28-29%.

Speaker 16

Okay. Okay. And sir, I just wanted to understand how the demand environment is, how it was last year compared to that, how the demand environment is in some of the important states where stores are, and how the festive season will be for us where maybe quarter three because last year, quarter three was much, much stronger for us. So considering that, how do you expect this year's festive season?

Manshu Tandon
CEO, V2 Retail

So if you talk about the demand scenario, I think the 37% SSG, the number itself says a lot. We have seen this consistently over the last four, five seasons. Now it's very hard to differentiate. But we have seen an amazing demand. For quarter three, we hopefully want to continue the momentum. We are working hard towards that. I think this trend should continue because we are getting very good feedback from our customers, both about the price proposition as well as the product offering. So in the future quarters.

Speaker 16

Thanks. Thanks.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Because we had seen this in July also. In July, our same store sales growth is actually better than the Q1 numbers.

Speaker 16

Okay. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for that.

Operator

Thank you. The next question.

Speaker 16

Yeah. Good afternoon, Akash, and congrats for a good set of numbers. My first question is on your working capital. So what was the inventory and creditor levels at the end of June quarter?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So if you look at the standalone basis, the inventory days were 18 days.

Speaker 16

No. I need the absolute numbers at a consolidated level.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

You need the absolute. Okay. So the absolute consolidated level, inventory was INR 439 crore.

Speaker 16

439 crore. Okay.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

The payables.

Speaker 16

251.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes.

Speaker 16

Okay. And also, as you said, that the aging of your inventory has reduced a lot. So just for my understanding, what would be the share of inventory which is more than one year old and what it was, say, a couple of years back, just to see what kind of improvement is there?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So that more than one year inventory was almost 23%.

Speaker 16

Okay.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Now that number is down to 7%.

Speaker 16

7%.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes.

Speaker 16

Okay. Okay. Okay. And.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Our idea is to take this number down to zero by end of next year.

Speaker 16

Great. Great. Great. Okay. And what are your plans for the upcoming festive season? I mean, expectations.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

We don't share our internal expectations because we are very bullish because every month, the growth and the demand and the customer acceptance is surprising us positively. But like I said, we always give a forecast of 30%-40% revenue and EBITDA growth is the same.

Speaker 16

Okay. Okay. Just a clarification on your sales promotion expenses. Now, just wanted to understand for the accounting treatment, do you reduce it from the revenue or show it as a part of your other expenses?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So it depends on the kind of marketing expense. So if we are doing, for example, a newspaper ad or we are spending on ATL and BTL, those are a part of expenses. But most of our marketing spend is in terms of gifts given to customers or special discounts on some items. So that is all part of the cost of goods sold. So that is already a part of the gross margin.

Speaker 16

No, no. But you show it by reducing it from the revenue. How do you account it?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

It's added to revenue sold also.

Speaker 16

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Last question is, you mentioned that you want to increase the share of private label to almost 100% in the next two years. How is it going to benefit you? In what terms? I mean, either on the profitability or on the churning of the product, or how is it going to help you?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

It's just that the customer starts identifying with the brand. You know, have a turnover of almost INR 200-300 to 500 crores. So it becomes a brand in itself, and then the customers have size standardization, and they have that trust so that whatever product they're buying of that brand will be of a certain quality or a certain standard. Only benefit that we get.

Speaker 16

Great. Great. Great. Thank you and all the best.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Naveen Baid from Nuvama Asset Management. Please go ahead.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted some sense on what is going to be the marketing spend except the gifts that clubbed with the COGS and revenue? What is going to be the marketing spend except that as a percentage of the top line?

Naveen Baid
Fund Manager, Nuvama Asset Management

Your voice is not clear. I just understood what's the marketing spend. I didn't understand anything else.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Correct. Correct. That's correct. Yeah. So it's less than 1% of total sales. Okay. Is it going to be around the similar? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Because we have understood that the product is the best brand ambassador, and there's a lot of word-of-mouth marketing that's happening because all this growth is actually we have reduced our marketing spend from previous years. So that is why the main focus is on improving the product offering and giving it at the best price possible.

Operator

Of Himanshu Shah from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.

Himanshu Shah
Director of Research, Dolat Capital

Hello.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes, sir. Hello.

Himanshu Shah
Director of Research, Dolat Capital

Yeah. Hi, Akash. Heartiest congratulations on a very strong set of numbers and last 18 months performance. A couple of questions. One, the store additions that we are targeting for, will it be in the existing areas of operations, or it would be coming from newer geographies? We are trying to tap newer states.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So this 40-50 stores that we are opening this year, most of it is in the similar clusters or the same states that we are already present in. But maybe in the next leg of growth, we will have to enter new markets. But currently, it's all the same states and the same clusters that we are already present in.

Himanshu Shah
Director of Research, Dolat Capital

Okay. And secondly, how much more juice has been left from a revenue per sq ft? Can you give an idea what top 20% of the stores, what kind of throughput they must be doing on an annualized basis?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I would not want to share those numbers, but I would tell you that we have a lot of stores that are doing about INR 1,400-INR 1,500 per sq ft monthly sales also. So there is no potential. It all depends on the kind of execution and the kind of product assortment that you have in the stores. Because in terms of capacity, it's huge, and it all depends what percentage of the target market that you're present in are you actually catering to. So if you have a very strong brand and you've been able to stay in touch with the latest trend, because with our markdowns and the markups, nobody can beat us in price. So it's all about product assortment. I think that problem is not a problem till we reach maybe 2x or 3x of where we are right now in terms of per sq ft of sales.

Himanshu Shah
Director of Research, Dolat Capital

2-3x, you're saying. But right now, some of the stores would be at around 1,400, 1,500, is where you are highlighting the top-performing stores.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes. And even they are growing at almost the same growth as the numbers that we are posting. That is the beauty.

Himanshu Shah
Director of Research, Dolat Capital

Okay. So on a per sq ft basis, we are seeing that at optimal level, the number can even double from here on. Over the longer term.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

If we do everything right.

Himanshu Shah
Director of Research, Dolat Capital

Of course. Okay. On rent part, how are the rent costs and what kind of escalations we are seeing over there? Is our model more of a variable, or it's on a fixed rental basis with our landlords?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

It's completely fixed rental basis, and our rental costs are INR 54 per sq ft. And I think it should be at this level, just accounting for inflation, obviously, but it should remain at similar levels. We're not seeing a big change.

Himanshu Shah
Director of Research, Dolat Capital

Okay. That's it from my side. And heartiest congratulations and all the best for the upcoming quarters and years to come.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infol ine. Please go ahead.

Sameer Gupta
Equity Research Associate, India Infoline

Hi, sir, and thanks for taking my question. Pardon me for my ignorance. I have not been part of previous calls for the company. Just wanted to understand this same store sales growth a little bit in detail. So you've done 31% in FY24. This quarter is 37%, and you said July is also being strong. So firstly, when I look at other companies, especially since FY24, it has been a very tepid consumption environment, and especially in the lower-income segment. Plus, competition has also intensified in the value fashion segment across the board. So I mean, this 37% growth has continued for you. So what are the drivers here?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So I would say the commentary about the whole market situation depends on who you're talking to because I know a few retailers myself who are showing good numbers and showing good growth. So like I said, it's all about the kind of execution that we have done, and it's the hard work of the last 3-4 years because we were in a consolidation phase. As you can see, we didn't open a lot of stores. We shut down a lot of loss-making stores. We completely changed the approach to business where it was not a product-first approach. So now we have been focusing on product, and I would say the growth has been driven primarily by product development where until two years back, only about 5% of the goods in our stores were designed in-house, whereas now that number has almost reached 30%-35%.

Going forward, we are going to be targeting this number to reach 80%. In this 30%-35%, we are seeing at least a 20% higher throughput or per square foot sale, you can say, than the designs that we get from the vendors. If I start listing down the things, it will be a long list, but I would say it's completely the main driver behind this has been product, the focus on product.

Sameer Gupta
Equity Research Associate, India Infoline

Got it, sir. That's very detailed. Just a follow-up here. So you're also saying that sales per square foot potential itself is 2-3x from current levels, but your SSS growth guidance that you mentioned is 10%. Now, that again raises the question that from a 37%, why will it go down to 10% if the SPSF juice itself is there to be exploited?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So when we closed last year at, I think, 29% or 31% SSG, even this year we had targeted a 15% SSG because we thought it's a higher base now. Even if we go at 15%, that's why I said we are positively surprised. For this year, we are still targeting a higher SSG, but when I said 10%, that was from next year onwards. So even if we close this year at 950-1,000, even if we are growing 10%, then we are growing INR 100 per sq ft next year. So we can easily double in, I think, five years.

Sameer Gupta
Equity Research Associate, India Infoline

Given the way the Q1 has gone by, would you want to revise that guidance?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Again, I would not want to revise the guidance for next year. We have already revised the guidance for this year, the rest of the nine months. But if you talk about next year onwards, we are happy. We want a minimum SSG of 10%. Any double-digit SSG is good enough for us.

Sameer Gupta
Equity Research Associate, India Infoline

The next nine months, you're saying 15%?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes, 15%-20%.

Sameer Gupta
Equity Research Associate, India Infoline

Got it, sir. That's all from me. Thanks.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mr. Manoj from Kiva. Please go ahead.

Speaker 18

Hi, sir. Thank you for the call and opportunity. First, I wanted to ask, sir, will we do the call now every quarter? Also, I wanted to congratulate you for a great performance.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes. Now we are going to do the call every quarter.

Speaker 18

Right. Sir, and if I'm not wrong, we had implemented SAP HANA way back in 2017?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

No, we had implemented SAP, but we have implemented HANA, I think, in 2023, right? 2022.

Speaker 18

Okay. Can you share, has that been very helpful, one of the things? Are we looking to improve the metrics there with the number one player? Are we putting more work there? Is that helping? Is that one of the secret sources for you in the last few quarters?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

No, first, can you repeat your question? You spoke about SAP HANA and then your voice broke.

Speaker 18

Has that been one of the secret sources for us? And are we looking to benchmark? So I know the largest player, Trent, they use SAP HANA very effectively. Are we trying to benchmark with them?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

We are not benchmarking with anyone. So we are directly in touch with SAP, and we are benchmarking with the industry best practices. And we are spening constantly. And I mentioned in my opening statement also that technology is a big part where we want to innovate and create some sort of differentiation. So there's a lot of development that's happening. So we have an SRM. We have a store app. So there are many projects that are happening and that are being implemented across. So I think we will see the benefit of that going forward. But if you talk about SAP HANA, it's just a database change, but the data has been moved from Oracle to a HANA database. So obviously, the reporting is faster. The extraction of data is faster. So we have better MIS and more efficient DC operation. But only that cannot be the secret source behind this growth.

Speaker 18

Of course. Then can you explain the, you said 30%-35% is the in-house design products and private label is 80%. So what is the difference between the two?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So the rest are the designs that are shown. They are developed by our vendors. So they give us a presentation, and then we order it in our private label, in our brand.

Speaker 18

Okay. Got it. Then if you can just share your thought on a bridge, like you said, 1,400 sq ft monthly sales versus, I think, 1,081 is the average company. So if you can just share the bridge, as you said, in five years, we should go to two times that. So can you just share some broad thinking if you've not already shared?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So first target as a company for us is to reach INR 1,000 per sq ft of sales annually, yearly. So that is the target for this year. Then the next target will be 1,200. Then the next target will be 1,500. So the timeline, again, will depend how good we are and how good are we to actually execute our vision because the vision is there. Now it's all about execution.

Speaker 18

Got it. The new stores are starting in the same few months as in mature. How long they take and what sales per sq ft do they start at?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

New stores typically start at a 20% lower PSF than old stores. It takes about 12-24 months for any new store to mature.

Speaker 18

Right. So thank you so much. All the very best.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you very much. Just a reminder, participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question and avoid any background noise and disturbances. The next question is from the line of Ankush Agrawal from Surge Capital. Please go ahead.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. So the question is related to similar to what the last participant was asking. So you said the new stores start at 20% lower sales per sq ft, and then they mature over 12 to 24 months, right?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Once that happens, typically, what kind of growth is there? Historically, what has been the growth? Because my understanding of the value retailing as a format is that in each and 1-2 years of growth is there, then there's a lot of, say, a sign of saturation that reaches a particular store versus, say, some of the other retailing categories where the store starts very low and then scales up over, say, a couple of years.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I'm sorry, I did not understand the question because the 37% SSG that we have shown, it has all the old stores as well as the new stores till the stores that are open till March of 2023.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Yeah, obviously. I mean, currently, the kind of traction that you're creating is incredible. Generally, at a value retailing at an industry level, I'm trying to understand the journey of a store. What you said makes sense that initially, I think in one and a half years, you are typically reaching at a steady state mature level. But beyond that one and a half years, what's the growth path for a typical store? Is it like do you still get 10% SSG or it's like 5%?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So if you look at the consolidated number, yes, it will be around 10%. That is what we are targeting. But if you take out samples, then of course, there are some stores that do 25%. There are some stores only do 2%-3%. So those outliers are always there, but I think there is no, I would say, directional change or there's no change in the trend of a new store versus a new old store in terms of growth because once the store matures, it acts pretty much like an old store.

Ankush Agrawal
Analyst, Surge Capital

Got it. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Madhav Agarwal from SG Investments. Please go ahead.

Madhav Agarwal
Senior Manager, SG Investments

Hello. Hope I'm audible.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes, sir.

Madhav Agarwal
Senior Manager, SG Investments

Hi. Could you give a break-up of sales in physical stores versus e-commerce? And what do you see that?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah. We currently do not have any e-commerce. 100% of the sales are from offline stores.

Madhav Agarwal
Senior Manager, SG Investments

Okay. And do we plan to enter into e-commerce online?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes. We are evaluating the omnichannel model where we'll use the store inventory and we'll use all the stores as a warehouse and deliver to the same city because that saves a lot on the return and the logistic cost. So we are evaluating that and we are working on it. So we will comment on it, I think, in the next quarter.

Madhav Agarwal
Senior Manager, SG Investments

Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. That's all from my side.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhishek from ABS Capital. Please go ahead.

Speaker 17

Hello. Am I audible?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes, Abhishek.

Speaker 17

Yeah. Yeah. Just two questions I wanted to ask. One, you are telling that from our health stores we will go more towards contract manufacturing. So that will reduce costs, right? Is that the reason why you are doing it?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

No. We have our own manufacturing units where we save about 10%-15% on cost, but we are passing that on to the consumer because all the other goods are done in contract manufacturing only.

Speaker 17

No. You told me health stores will increase the contract manufacturing and reduce your own manufacturing. So will it help in markets? That's the question.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

No, it will be a very similar cost. There will be no change in cost because our manufacturing capacity is constant and now we are increasing sales. So the contribution of manufacturing will keep going down as we are growing. That's what I said.

Speaker 17

Okay. Yes, 100%. Your growth is very nice. So just wanted to know how you are competing with the online competition. Are your customers different from the ones who are doing online shopping if you are supplying to those people who are one strata below? Is it that? Is my understanding correct?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So you need to understand the economics of online retailing. In online, if you're selling at the ASPs that we want to sell at, that we are selling at, that is around INR 250-INR 260, then you need a markup of more than 150%. So suppose you have a product for INR 150, you have to sell online for more than INR 350 to actually make any money on it because of additional logistic cost, return cost, COD cost, RTO cost. So there are a lot of costs associated with online retailing that doesn't allow people to sell of such low ASP products.

That is why internationally also Primark doesn't sell online. And a lot of value retailers don't sell online because it's not economically feasible. So I wouldn't say that we are in direct competition with any of the online retailers because most of the products that you're getting at this price is usually two or three seasons old for brands or it's a much, much lower value product than what we sell in our stores.

Speaker 17

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tushar Sarda from Athena Investments. Please go ahead.

Tushar Sarda
Analyst, Athena Investments

Yes. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on super setup number. I have two questions. One is I wanted to know your seasonal distribution of sales. Second, you mentioned that some stores are doing much higher sales. So if you can provide some idea on what are your highest selling stores and how many percentage of your total number of stores, what would that be?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Okay. Can you repeat your first question, please?

Tushar Sarda
Analyst, Athena Investments

Seasonal distribution of sales. How much PB and Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Because of the Hindu calendar, the festivals keep on changing. The dates keep on changing. It's very variable. If Durga Puja happens later, then the percentage of sales in quarter three increases. There's a lot of disturbance from your line.

Tushar Sarda
Analyst, Athena Investments

Yeah. I'll put myself on mute.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah. So talking about the contribution, it varies according to the Hindu calendar festivals. But the highest sales are in quarter three. Then second is quarter two. Sorry, then quarter one. Then the lowest sales are usually in quarter four. So that is how the seasonality is impacted. And what was your second question?

Tushar Sarda
Analyst, Athena Investments

I wanted to know your first question sales. You mentioned that some stores do very high sales. So what is the highest that you do in terms of for a full year, for a full last year? What is the highest Q1 sales achieved? And how many stores would cross the benchmark of INR 1,500?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I'll have to check the exact number, and we don't share the exact number, but we do have a few stores that do annually more than INR 1,500 per sq ft of sales.

Tushar Sarda
Analyst, Athena Investments

Okay. Thank you.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Khadija Mantri, Capri Global. Please go ahead.

Khadija Mantri
Analyst, Capri Global

Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. My question is on the competitive intensity. So Reliance has also launched this affordable clothing brand. So do we compete with them or is the average selling price much higher in those types of stores?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I haven't personally visited. I think it's called Yousta. But I think it's in the similar price range of Zudio, which is higher than us. But like I said, the market is big enough to actually accommodate multiple retailers. So this is not a cause of concern because more and more people will enter this because this is such an attractive space. So we are focusing on making ourselves strong enough that we don't have to worry about competition.

Khadija Mantri
Analyst, Capri Global

Okay. But Reliance is known to be a little aggressive when it comes to pricing or capturing the market share. So what are your thoughts on that?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I would say even Zudio opened 200 stores last year, and they have opened a lot of stores in the same area where we are present, but we haven't seen any sort of impact in sales. Even if Reliance is being aggressive, I think our growth expansion strategy is also pretty aggressive. If we focus on doing the things that we've been doing right, then again, we're focusing on ourselves.

Khadija Mantri
Analyst, Capri Global

Okay. Sure. Thank you so much.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may please press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Prathamesh Dhiwar from Tiger Assets. Please go ahead.

Prathamesh Dhiwar
Analyst, Tiger Assets

Yeah. So just if I missed it earlier, a couple of questions. As you plan to open 50-60 stores, so how much investment is going to be there to open these 50-60 stores? And my second question is, if we open a store, let's say today, so how much time it will take to reach the revenue per sq ft of INR 1,000?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Okay. So answering your first question, we plan to open 40-50 stores, and the investment required for that is around INR 110 crore, which we will be completely financed through internal approvals. And second question, when a new store opens, how much time it takes for it to reach 1,000? So again, it completely depends on the company base. If you spoke to me last year, I would have said the store will take 2-3 years. If you talk to me this year, I will tell you that it's 1-2 years. And maybe next year, if we continue this growth, then the new stores from the first month itself are doing 1,000 INR per sq ft. So it depends on the company base because it's like 15%-20% lower than the company average.

Prathamesh Dhiwar
Analyst, Tiger Assets

Okay. Just a last question. I think you said we are expecting 30%-40% revenue growth and around 4.5% PAT margins for FY25. If I'm not wrong.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes.

Prathamesh Dhiwar
Analyst, Tiger Assets

Okay. Thank you, sir. All the best.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prana Amana from PNARS Partnership. Please go ahead.

Prana Amana
Analyst, PNARS Partnership

Yeah. Hi, sir. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. I have two questions. So first of all, when it comes to manufacturing, what percentage are you getting manufactured in-house, and how much are you giving it to a third-party manufacturer?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

16% of our sales are manufactured in-house, and 84% is outsourced.

Prana Amana
Analyst, PNARS Partnership

Yeah. And this will reduce as your scale of operations increase, right?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes.

Prana Amana
Analyst, PNARS Partnership

Yeah. And the last one is, I think in your beginning comment, you told that 80% right now of your sales is through your proprietary brand. So are you telling me that the rest 20%, that is where you're selling other people's brand in your stores?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes.

Prana Amana
Analyst, PNARS Partnership

Yeah. Okay. That's it. Thank you so much.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Virendra Bajaj, individual investor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 16

Hello. Hi, sir. Congratulations on a strong result. I just had a few questions. What sort of inventory turnover in times are you looking at for this year and the next year?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

The target inventory number is 90-100 days that we're looking at. Going forward, we would like to reduce it to 80-90 days.

Speaker 16

Okay. You said that you have increased your private label sales quite a bit. What sort of extra margin are you getting in private label sales versus the third-party brand sales?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

We do not get any extra margin because that is our strategy. Whatever benefit and cost we get, we pass it on to our consumers.

Speaker 16

Okay. If I can just understand what sort of revenue per sq ft are we getting from new stores that you opened in the current year and within less than one year?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

We don't share those exact numbers.

Speaker 16

Okay. All right. Also, another question I had is that I was looking at your pre-Ind AS consolidated numbers. You have reduced your average purchase by almost 3% of revenue. So just to understand how that was achieved by the company?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

What have we reduced?

Speaker 16

The other expenses. Other expenses in the pre-Ind AS consolidated number for this quarter.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah.

Speaker 16

Your other expenses have gone down to almost 3% of sales.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

So that's because the sales have gone up. Like I said, it's a fixed cost business. The rent is always going to be INR 54 per sq ft, even on INR 800 per sq ft of sale, and even on INR 1,054 per sq ft of sale. So if you look at it, the per sq ft of sales have risen almost 33%. So of course, cost as a percentage will come down.

Speaker 16

Okay. While we expand more so in the current geography, are we planning to open more in cities or more in the smaller towns?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

The kind of customers that we cater to, they are present across Tier. We have around 3 stores in Delhi also, and they are also doing reasonably well. We are targeting Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, wherever we get a good enough site where we think we can achieve those sales at our cost.

Speaker 16

Okay. And so just one last question. What is the sort of payback period that we have for our new stores that we are opening now?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

It should be around, I think, 3 years.

Speaker 16

Payback period?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes.

Speaker 16

Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Naveen Baid from Nuvama Asset Management. Please go ahead.

Naveen Baid
Fund Manager, Nuvama Asset Management

Thank you for the opportunity again. If I look at your numbers, historically, your depreciation used to be about 1%-1.5% of your top line. Now, if you strip off the depreciation on ROU assets, is the depreciation going to be around similar lines? This is 1%-1.5%.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yes. Yes. It's going to continue to be that in pre-Ind AS numbers.

Naveen Baid
Fund Manager, Nuvama Asset Management

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, the next question will be the last question. The next question is from the line of Manoj from Kiva. Please go ahead.

Speaker 18

Yes, sir. Thanks again. If you can share some details on Zudio, as you said, Zudio has opened a store near you. If you can share how near and in case of any research that why has that impact not happened? I think you said the ASP is much higher than ours, but as you said, the T-shirts start at a lower price. If you can just share more colors so we will not be as so if you can address that concern that it's a totally different market, if you can share that. And also, the INR 54 would have an escalation clause of 5% a year. And the average is 5%.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Yeah. There are some Zudios within 1 km radius. There are some within 5 km radius. We do some sort of benchmarking in terms of competitors for all our stores. But what we have found out is our Kidzwear contributes almost 26% of sales. So we have a lot of family customers coming into the stores, whereas Zudio Kidzwear is almost non-existent. So I think one big reason is that. And the second reason is, like I said, it's a completely different target customer with very little overlap. That is why I think we haven't seen much impact on our sales in those particular stores.

Speaker 18

That low overlap is because of the product fashion trend or the price point or both?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

I would say price point because even in our stores, usually when we study the parking space, it's usually two-wheelers, and we don't have a lot of four-wheeler owners as customers. Whereas I would say when we visited Zudio, it has a lot of four-wheeler owners also. There's a change in the target customer.

Speaker 18

Got it.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

If we look at just feeding the numbers you're sharing, kind of the ROE is coming much higher than 20%-22%. It's probably inching to in the 30s. Also, the payback period is not looking like three years if you just look at what we have. Is that okay? Where am I going wrong there? We like to under-promise and over-deliver. So we are happy with a 20% ROE also. If we get more than that, then good enough. But the guidance that we give going forward, even if you're getting an ROE of 20%-22%, we are happy with those numbers.

Speaker 18

Right. And can you share something? INR 110 crore for stock CapEx. What was that number, something?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

That INR 110 crore is total investment. Out of that, the CapEx would be about INR 40 crore-INR 50 crore, and the rest would be for inventory, working capital.

Speaker 18

So this INR 110 will be spent over the next three years?

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Over the next nine months.

Speaker 18

Nice. All right, sir. Thank you so much.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you.

Speaker 18

All the best.

Operator

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Akash Agarwal for closing comments.

Akash Agarwal
Whole Time Director, V2 Retail

Thank you, everyone, for joining on the call. We hope we have been able to answer your queries. For any further information, we request you to get in touch with Marathon Capital, our investor relations advisors. Thank you and have a nice day.

Operator

On behalf of V2 Retail Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.

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