Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Vaibhav Global Limited Q3 and 9M FY 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Today, we have with us Mr. Sunil Agrawal, Managing Director, Mr. Nitin Panwad, Group CFO, and Mr. Prashant Saraswat, Head of Investor Relations. We will begin the call with opening remarks by Mr. Sunil Agrawal on the business operations, key initiatives and a broad outlook, followed by discussion on the financial performance by Mr. Nitin Panwad. After which, the management will open the forum for question and answer session.
Before we get started, I would like to point out that some statements made or discussed on today's call may be forward-looking in nature and must be viewed in conjunction with the risks and uncertainties that we face. A detailed statement and explanation of these risks is included in the earnings presentation, which has been shared with you all earlier. The company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements publicly. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sunil Agrawal. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Ramit. Good evening, everyone. I welcome you all to Q3 FY 2024 earnings conference call of Vaibhav Global Limited. I trust you have reviewed our results and the presentation providing insights into our operational performance and market dynamics. Let us start with an overview of our operational highlights in Q3 FY 2024. At the group level, we achieved a record turnover of INR 888 crore, reflecting growth of 23% over the same quarter of the last financial year. The growth is partly attributable to the recently acquired businesses. Adjusted for them, the growth would be 14%, which is in line with our stated guidance. The five-year CAGR of Q3 is at 12%, showing the robustness of our business model amidst various economic cycles.
Our gross margins remain healthy at 62.4%, which is 185 basis points higher year-over-year. Being the only company in our peer group with in-house manufacturing capabilities and a global sourcing base, it enables us to maintain market-leading gross margins at 60%+. EBITDA margin in Q3 FY 2024 was 11.1% of revenue, which is INR 99 crores, showing a growth of 30% year-over-year. Better gross margins and operating leverage helped us expand the EBITDA margins last quarter. Let me now take you through each of our addressable retail markets. In the U.S., retail sales are witnessing a gradual recovery buoyed by positive consumer sentiments. In the U.K., with inflationary pressures and mortgage rates easing out from their erstwhile peaks, the slow but persistent movement of the economy towards positive territory is encouraging.
We are also tweaking our offerings best suited to changing consumer demands. Consequently, during this quarter, our volume went up by 16% year-over-year. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, our volume is up by 7% year-over-year. In constant currency terms and excluding acquisitions, our growth is 7% and 5% in U.S. and U.K., respectively. It is also to be noted that last year's base was marginally affected by delivery, delivery disruptions in the U.K. and cyber attacks in U.S. and U.K., which had approximately 3.6% impact on sales. In Germany, our growth momentum continues in Q3. Currently, we're clocking revenue of EUR 1.9 million per month, which is growth of 34% year-over-year.
Having invested considerably across major TV networks and digital platforms, we believe that we have desired building blocks in place to achieve breakeven in H2 of FY 2025. We remain committed to strengthening our performance based on the four Rs. That is widening reach, new registrations, customer retentions, and repeat purchases. In Q3 FY 2024, the reach of our TV networks was 139 million households. New registrations in Q3 on TTM basis is 3.5 lakhs, and customer retention stood at 37%. Customers bought an average of 23 pieces on TTM basis. Our recent acquisitions, Ideal World Limited and Mindful Souls, are progressing well. The integration of Ideal World with our U.K. operations was completed within a month of acquisition. During the first quarter, we achieved profitability in Ideal World on direct cost basis.
As we are leveraging common resources like warehouse, studio, and management team, we are confident of becoming profitable on full cost allocation basis in next 9 months. Our second acquisition, Mindful Souls, continues to perform profitably. Already a margin-accretive business, we are utilizing the digital capabilities of Mindful Souls to create synergies for our existing digital businesses. In parallel, plans are also in place to leverage our existing supply chain to improve the profitability of this business further. Sustainability is at the core of our business operations. We are delighted to share that this quarter we reached the milestone of 84 million meals donated to school children under our flagship Mid-Day Meal program, Your Purchase Feeds. Presently, we are serving approximately 66,000 meals every school day. This quarter, we generated 1 million kWh of energy through our solar power plants.
I'm delighted to share that to date, we have generated 14.5 million kWh of energy. This is equivalent to planting 200,000 trees. In addition to utilizing renewable energy, there are many other ESG initiatives in place at VGL. We have set 2031 as target year to become carbon neutral in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gases emissions, and we are confident to achieve this target within the stipulated time. We continue to reward our shareholders and keeping in mind our dividend policy, the board has declared a third interim dividend of this fiscal year, amounting to INR 1.5 per equity share. Over the years, we have demonstrated agility and resilience in our performance.
I would like to reiterate our positive outlook for the business and confidence to achieve our stated guidance of 13%-15% revenue growth of FY 2024 and the high teens range in FY 2025 with decent operating leverage. In conclusion, I would say that the outlook is promising and compelling, and we are well-placed to leverage the opportunity that lies ahead of us. With this, I now hand over the call to Nitin to discuss financial performance. Over to you, Nitin.
Thank you, Sunil. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Vaibhav Global's Q3 FY24 earnings call. As Sunil mentioned earlier, the macro challenges in our addressable markets are slowly easing out. We are constantly, constantly refreshing our product range to match customer demand, which is well supported by our in-house manufacturing capabilities and globally expanded sourcing base. Overall, in Q3, our revenue increased to INR 888 crore, which is 23% higher year-over-year. Excluding the acquisitions, the year-over-year growth is 14% in Q3 FY24. Now let us discuss the revenue breakdown. In local currency terms, excluding acquisitions, revenue in Shop LC US and TJC UK were up by 7% and 5%, respectively. In Germany, our growth momentum continues, with our revenue increasing by an impressive 34% year-over-year growth.
On an overall basis, the constant currency revenue growth is 18% year-over-year, and excluding the acquisitions, constant currency growth is 10% year-over-year. In Germany, achieving 95% household penetration-
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Sorry, sir. Please proceed, sir.
Apologies for the inconvenience. I'll start where I left. So in local currency terms, excluding acquisitions, revenues in Shop LC US and TJC UK were up by 7% and 5%, respectively. In Germany, our growth momentum continues, with revenue increasing by an impressive 34% year-over-year. On an overall basis, the constant currency revenue growth is 18% year-over-year, and excluding the acquisitions, constant currency revenue growth is 10% year-over-year. In Germany, achieving 95% household penetration within 2 years is a significant achievement, and we are on our path to achieving breakeven by next half of FY 2025 at operating level. During the quarter, our TV revenues grew by 17% year-over-year, reaching INR 518 crores. Digital revenue continues its momentum and has increased by 27% year-over-year to INR 340 crores.
The digital platform's contribution to our total revenue is 39%. Also, with the new acquisition of Mindful Souls, we expect this to be benefit our digital business in long term. We are anticipating that our digital business share will increase to 50% by FY 2027, with the help of recent investment in digital space. With an omni-channel presence, our focus remains to encourage customers to transact both TV as well as digital platforms. Omni-channel presence provides customer with a unique shopping experience while enabling us to track significantly higher spending per customer and customer lifetime value. Overall, product mix revenue contributes from non-jewelry products increased to 29% in first nine months of FY 2024. Non-jewelry categories include home decor, beauty, fashion accessories, and other lifestyle products.
This marks a substantial increase from single-digit level a few years back, highlighting our ability to diversify our product mix successfully. By FY 2028, we are looking at increasing the contribution from non-jewelry products to be 50% of total sales. Our unique offering in form of budget sales, gives customer the option of buying products on an EMI basis. For 9 months, on this FY 2024, budget sale contribution to overall digital revenue stood at 38%. Gross margin included FY 2024 remains robust at 62.4%, indicating better realization. EBITDA margin for the quarter is INR 99 crore, which is 11.1% of revenue and 30% higher year-over-year. Better gross margins and operating leverage contributed to EBITDA margin improvement. Profit before tax for the quarter is INR 72 crore, which is higher by 32% year-over-year.
Our operating cash flow and free cash flow remain healthy at INR 221 crore and INR 190 crore respectively. This is possible because of our asset-light business model and ability to generate healthier return ratio. Our ROCE and ROE stand at 18% and 11% respectively. These metrics have marginally improved, and we expect them to improve further. Our recent acquisitions, Ideal World and Mindful Souls, are progressing well. By September end, Ideal World resumed its operation after a pause of three months. During the first quarter, we became profitable in Ideal World on direct purchases, as we are now leveraging common resources, such as warehouse, studio, workforce. After accounting all the allocated costs, we are confident to become profitable on fully allocated cost basis in next nine months. Our second acquisition, Mindful Souls, continues to perform profitably.
Already a margin-accretive business, we are utilizing the digital capabilities of Mindful Souls to create synergies for our existing digital businesses. Currently, Mindful Souls is clocking monthly revenue of $1.6 million. Going forward, we intended to leverage our existing supply chain to further improve the profitability of businesses. We are pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has approved a third interim dividend for the fiscal year, amounting to INR 1.5 per equity share. This underscores our commitment to providing consistent payout to our shareholders. In conclusion, despite our addressable market being a bit softer, our overall performance has been as per our expectations, with some market share gain. We are optimistic about our prospects, driven by our robust business model and the assimilation of recent acquired businesses.
We reiterate our guidance of 13%-15% top line growth in full year FY 2024 and the high teen range in FY 2025. We continue to generate healthy cash flow, top-decile return, and value for our stakeholders. Thank you for your attention. I will now pass on the call back to the moderator for Q&A.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Lalit Kumar, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Hello, Mr. Lalit? Hello, Mr. Lalit? As there is no response, I would like to take the next question.... The next question is from the line of Kunal Sharma from Care Health. Please go ahead. Hello, Mr. Kunal?
Hello?
Yeah. Am I audible?
Yes, Mr. Kunal, you can go ahead.
Yeah. So I wanted to understand about the demand scenario over there in U.S. and U.K., right. So what we are seeing, and, if you can just elaborate the entire thing in, in terms of retail demand and all of those things. And, yeah, that was our first question.
Yeah. So retail demand today are competing pressures. So inflation still is there around 4 to 5.4% or so, and interest rate is 5%-5.5%. So those have put some pressure. The job market is pretty robust in the U.S., especially. U.K. is not as strong as U.S., but still there. We have macro factors and available for everybody to see. But what we are seeing is our continued modified offering to customers based on the current economic or demand environment. We are able to, we were able to generate positive momentum both here at U.S. all at U.S., U.K., Germany, as well as our newer acquisitions. And we expect that to be the case in coming quarters and years.
Okay. Okay, that's good. And the last question was on the repeat purchase, that we are seeing that gradually, like year-over-year, it's declining. So is that just because of the... well, we are focusing on the non-jewelry side or those kind of things. So is that the reason there or is there something else?
It's more of a consumer behavior at this time.
Uh.
As I've mentioned many quarters earlier, that when consumer went out quite a bit, we had less eyeballs on TV or online to buy products from us. And secondly, there were a lot of inflationary fears, so people bought more higher-end product, like gold or investable products. So our U.S. average selling price went up. Because of average selling price going up, the volumes were lower. So because of lower eyeballs and high price point, volume was lower. But going forward, we expect the price points to remain around where they are now or even slightly moderate. So volume would go up in guidance to the revenue increase.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay, thanks.
Yeah.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants that you may press Star and One to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Sandeep Raj from Aquilus Capital Growth Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, Sandeep, sir.
Hi. So my question was regarding the land acquisition, which happened in the U.S. almost two years ago. So can you give any update on that?
Yeah. We acquired the land at a prime location in Austin, Texas, with the plan of constructing our own headquarters. And then, after buying that, we saw the inflation going up quite rapidly, interest costs also going up, and then the restructured cost of constructing our own building came a bit too high. So we put construction plans on hold, and we may be moving into--we may be either staying where we are or moving to bigger rented premises. So the plan to construct the our headquarters has been put on hold.
This is a $20 million CapEx, which was planned, so that never happened?
Yeah, that never happened, and we don't expect this to happen for another 8-10 years. Unless we have extraordinary growth and we see it and also the inflation coming down and cost of construction coming down.
Okay. So any plans for the land right now?
We're putting it, we're keeping in balance sheet right now, and it has already increased, much increased in value. So as an investment, we are fine with that, and we look at business growth in next couple of years and see where the business goes. Because the what premises we take is for 10-year lease, either existing or new place. And then if we really need more space beyond our expected growth, then we may construct it at the time. But right now, no plans.
Okay, understood. That's it from my side, sir. Thank you.
Thanks, Sandeep.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Yash Bajaj from Lucky Investment. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good evening, management. Thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
My first question is on Ideal World. What kind of operating margins are we looking at once this business scales up, suppose in the next 18-24 months?
Yeah. We believe that our gross margin allows a pretty robust operating margins. The gross margin is 60% plus already for the business. We are using lot of existing infrastructure in U.K. Once it scales, we believe the gross margins or the operating delivery- operating margin will be similar higher to our business within next eighteen, 12-24 months.
Okay. So it'll be similar to our existing business, right? More or less.
Yes. Yes.
Okay. I think, so in the previous presentation, you had mentioned that Ideal, we, our goal is to surpass the pre-acquisition revenue profitability in the next, within three to five years. So, what is this revenue number which Ideal World used to do?
I don't believe we gave a guidance that we will exceed our pre-acquisition revenue numbers, because we changed the structure of the business. This business used to do, I believe, GBP 80 million. I think, I feel you can correct me.
Yeah. So, before stopping this channel, the channel did GBP 60 million. And, initially we estimated that we will achieve this turnover in next 3-5 years timeframe. But as, as we strategically, that business earlier were operating with a lower gross margins, and we are moving with the 60% in our gross margins. So we see and review that, how long it will take to achieve that turnover, but our priority is to achieve this business profitability.
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Sorry for the inconvenience. Please go ahead, sir.
Yeah, apologies, yash, for this hold. Yeah, so what we were mentioning about that the before in trailing twelve months, that business was having GBP 60 million turnover in trailing 12 months. And strategically, that business earlier was operating with a lower gross margin of 30%. Now we are moving our business model to 60% gross margin with the help of our supply chain and the product categories what we operate. We our first focus is to make this business profitable and with the similar kind of margin, as Sunil has mentioned, in next 12-14 months, what we are operating right now. So earlier guidance that we had given to achieve that revenue in 3-5 years, and we'll continuously review it and we guide accordingly in upcoming quarters.
Okay. That's all from my side. Thank you and all the best.
Okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nakul from DS Group. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good, good evening, everyone. Am I audible?
Yes.
Yes. My question is, in the view of probable India-UK FTA, if it goes through, how much impact will it have on the top and the bottom line?
Yeah. So our jewelry or non-jewelry product from India affects not very high duty. It's about 5% only, and we do not know whether the jewelry will be right away impacted or not. It's too early. So but if it does, then we'll have the cost benefit of 5% just in the U.S. on the purchase of jewelry. And remember that we have very high gross margins, so the cost of goods is relatively low. So even if it's 5% on the jewelry component from India, it won't have a lot of meaningful impact, maybe 50 basis points or something like that.
Okay. All right. Clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks.
The next question is from the line of Shreyas from Svan Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello, can you hear me, sir?
Yes, Mr. Shreyas.
Yes.
So numbers, the expenses X of content and broadcasting costs. So those costs have also gone up by about 22%. So I'm just trying to understand what caused them and creating some kind of leverage benefit kicking, but those expenses also have gone up in line commensurate to sales growth. So just trying to understand that bit.
Yes, Shreyas, actually, so your voice is breaking, but if I understood your question correctly, you are asking me the higher content and broadcasting cost?
It is a
Mr. Shreyas, your voice is breaking minus.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, now I hear, sir.
Sir, I think other than content and broadcasting, rest of that, your other expenses have grown in line with your sales. So I'm just trying to understand which other line item in costs has gone up, because we were expecting some kind of leverage benefits to you in terms of sourcing and all of that. So just trying to understand that.
... Yes, actually, we have a leverage benefit we are getting in our employee benefit expenses. That is improved compared to the top line growth we have reported of 23%. Apart from that, the additional cost is pertaining to the new acquisitions of Mindful Souls, which is major expenses related in digital. So that is coming in our operating expenses side, which was not in last year. And also we have seen a growth in our volume. Volume growth was pretty much stable in last some quarters, but last quarter we have seen a growth of 16% in our volume. That is resulting to higher our dispatch and shipping cost.
Okay. So my second question is, we've done about 6% odd growth in U.K in constant currency terms. So if I were to remove Ideal World from this number, what would be the CC growth for our base business?
It is, this 6% growth is for the base business only. If you include the Mindful Souls, it will be 17%. Sorry, Ideal World.
In constant currency?
Yeah, in constant currency.
Okay. Okay. Okay. So you are saying we did about GBP 21 million versus GBP 19.8 million. So this, you're saying, is ex of Ideal World, that we give them a presentation.
Yes, yes, it is ex of Ideal World, and I think it is written in the note below, so it is ex of Ideal World.
Okay. And so my last question is, I think somewhere you mentioned in the call that Germany we've grown about 35%, excluding Mindful Souls. And now I think, last two quarters, we've been adding a lot of premium customers, is what we understand, you know, in terms of cable addition that we have done. So how do you look at this number of 35%? Because we were as well growing 70%-80% every quarter. So just trying to understand this, this part, how do you look at this number, sir?
Yeah. So, yes, this number is continuously improving, and we expect that it is continuously improve. And we are clocking around EUR 1.9 million revenue, which was in previous quarter is around EUR 1.8 million. And we anticipating we are more focusing now on reducing the returns, which overall help to improve the net revenue to grow. So focusing on the categories and the offering the products to the customer on a low price points, which help to reduce overall returns, and in terms of net revenue, it will improve, in terms of, total revenue side.
Okay. Okay. So from this INR 1.9 million, so when do we expect INR 2-2.5 million revenue?
The guidance that we have given to break even by second half of the next year, which requires 3 million odd numbers. So we are on, we are on track, that number. I think by second half of next year, we'll achieve that number.
Okay. Okay. I'll come back in the queue. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Nigam from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, sir, for taking my question. Nitin sir, one first question was on the unique customers. Can you provide what is the TTM unique customers in Germany and Mindful Souls?
Mindful Souls unique customer, TTM, which is, I think the numbers what we have reported is not there, but what number we have reported for the last quarter, it is 50,000 customers from Mindful Souls.
In the number that we have given out, total TTM unique customer, does that include Mindful Souls or not, sir? 540,000 that we have reported.
50,000 customers, that includes Mindful Souls, yeah.
Okay. What about Germany, sir? TTM.
Yeah, Germany is around 60,000 customers on TTM basis.
Okay. Understood. And sir, in Germany, how should we look at this business? Should we look at it on a YoY basis or a QoQ? Because on a QoQ basis, it seems to have delivered the same. So just wanted to understand how you are viewing it internally.
Yeah. We are viewing internally in many different metrics, number of customers, volume, revenues. So many different metrics we followed, but we follow based on the, if our repeat rate is going up, retention is going up, or overall revenue is going. So, there are many different metrics we follow, but we see that all the territories are improving in trend, and we anticipate that it will continue to improve.
QoQ decline, is that any concern, sir, or is this?
There is no concern on it. It is mainly related to higher provisions of the returns. Returns policies is based on the past trailing 12 months, but the efforts that we have done in changing categories and moving to the low price points, that resulting the provisional amount is higher, but we are seeing this already a lower return rate, so that will reflect in a coming quarter.
Understood, sir. Sir, one more question was on the spend per customers, which we have disclosed this quarter, which is INR 701. I think it has declined from INR 718 from the last quarter. Just wanted to understand, is there, because just because of acquisition something has changed or is this a like for like comparison?
... Yeah. So, I have to check that number. I'm not sure, but I think Prashant will come back to you on it.
Okay. And so just a last question. This slide 24, just before the acquisition, where you have given the breakup of U.S., U.K. and Germany, is that with acquisition or without acquisition? Just wanted to confirm.
24.
Just before the acquisition, an update on recent acquisition. There's a slide, slide number 24.
It is including the acquisition.
Okay, understood. This is really helpful. I'll check with Prashant later on the open question, but thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shreyas from Svan Investments. Please go ahead.
So thank you for the follow-up. Sir, I'm just looking at Germany numbers. So Q3s are typically the festive, right? Festive season. So just try to understand why this is number flagged. So I understood the returns to it, but still, don't you think this is, this is slightly more sluggish than, to our liking?
One of the reasons, Shreyas, is that on Q2, we had done a big clearance that for the August month was a full clearance on that month. So we have seen a pretty good momentum and response from the customers for the clearance we have done in August. So August number were pretty high due to the clearance. Also, on the quarter three, we have focused more on the categories which are having a lower returns and the price point accordingly. But provisions were based on the trailing twelve months, so we anticipate that the lower returns in Q3 and Q2 revenue was higher due to the one-off big clearance event we have done in August.
Okay. Okay. The second is just on the ASP for both TV and digital. In the last three quarters, we've seen some kind of slowdown, like from 51 to 29, and from 43 to 37. So are you anticipating that customers are buying cheaper or what is the volume growth? But ASP is slightly downwards last three quarters.
Yeah, I'll address that. So Shreyas, we modify our offering based on the consumer demand and consumer pull. So earlier few quarters, we were seeing lot of higher end gold and diamonds pulling because of inflation fears. And now inflation fears have subsided, so people now are reverting to the little bit of the regular life, regular products, and we're seeing the traction of lower price points. And we ideally want to go lower price point because that helps in reducing the returns and acquiring more customers. And those customers then we can take on to the different higher price points. So our long-term goal is to bring the price point even slightly little more lower, if we can, if the economy will permit us.
Okay. Okay, that answers my question. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Narendra Mahajan, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
First of all, congratulations to the numbers. I have two small questions. First is on the outlook that Q4 2024, and second, on the exceptional item that we had cyberattack in Q3. So can you throw, throw, you know, some light on it? It will be helpful.
Okay.
Yeah. So I'll address your second question first on the exceptional cyberattack. Last year we had an impact of 3% in our revenue due to cyberattack. But even if you exclude that impact, we have a growth in our revenue of 19%.
Okay. So is there any breach of, you know, customer data or anything like that?
There is no breach in that, and we have received a claim also for insurance side of the revenue losses, and we also. So, partly claim is still pending for the recovery of the investment of expenses related to cyber attack.
Okay, fair enough. And, on the first part of the question, please?
Sorry, can you repeat your question?
Yeah, yeah. So I was looking into the outlook in the quarter four of FY24. So what growth we are expecting, if you can highlight on that please?
So for the next quarter, we are anticipating similar kind of performance, what we are seeing right now. And, that we have been given the guidance to achieve full year growth of 13%-15%. We are anticipating similar numbers to achieve in full financial year. So remaining it is equivalent to 18%-19% growth in quarter four.
Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pritesh Chheda from Lucky Investment. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir, my question is on the unique customer number. They are about 540 today. So in that, the mobile phone is about 40, so I'm reducing that. And Germany you mentioned is about 60. So the base business, which is U.K. and U.S., the number is about 440. Can you help us with the base business number of this customer identification for last year?
For the base business, what we see, we are seeing the growth in U.S. business as well as in U.K. I don't have the number with me at the moment, but we are seeing growth of 2%-3% in unique customer TDM basis, what we have reported in September quarter and this quarter.
Okay. Is it fair to assume that your pre-COVID number was 360,000, and then there was this whole COVID-related jump? Is now this 440 number can be looked at versus the 360 number of FY 2020, is this a correct correct assessment or there is some other number that we have to look at?
Yeah.
If you mentioned, because if you mentioned 540 today, then in that 40 is Mindful Souls, 60 is Germany, which were not a part of the number in FY 2020, right?
Right.
It is basically. Hmm.
Yeah. There is also one more, the Ideal World, which was included. Thirty-
How much is it?
It's exclusive.
It is 410,000 versus 360,000.
Yeah. So if I give you the correct number, so including Mindful Souls, Ideal World, and Germany, it is around 410,000 is our base business.
Base business. Okay. So now we are about 410 divided by 36. So we are basically in 4 years, we are from 360 to 410. What efforts are we doing to increase our unique customer count?
Yeah. So, so Pritesh, there are multiple efforts to increase that. First is to household expansion. In U.S., we are, we currently having 70 million household and the potential to increase to 100 million household, which 30 million, which we don't have at the moment. So household expansion is one of the factor. OTT, which is a huge space, we are very small or very unexplored area for us. OTT is a, is a huge opportunity, opportunity to expand the household. Also, the lower price positioning in, in U.S. and U.K. for, for the, the established airtime or broadcasters, these are major opportunity to expand the household in previous business. Apart from that, we are investing on the digital space to make... to, to bring the customer profitably.
In COVID time or after, even after COVID, we spent the customer of money on the customer side in digital marketing, but we acquired customers, which we are not making any money. So we are now focusing on first, such as profitability of digital customers, that we generate the profit also and acquire the customers in digital space.
So all the efforts which you mentioned are, were always present, right? If you're gonna incrementally also do these efforts, will they come at a cost? So when you're increasing the stable connectivity, so will we see another round of cost increase or we will see operating leverage staying out in the business?
Yeah, there will be operating leverage because what we normally monitor, we have created a cadence. If the airtime comes within the cadence, then we continue that airtime, and if the airtime doesn't come with the cadence, we exit that airtime. And that cadence, it gives us a operating leverage, which is the cost increase is lower than the revenue growth.
Okay, so you're mentioning that incremental growth will bring leverage, and you will not have significant costs associated with the cable count reach?
Yes.
Okay. And in the U.S. and the U.K. geographies, what kind of growth are you looking at, next year and, let's say, for next 6-8 quarters or next 2 years?
Yeah. So we will continue to grow. However, it is, it's difficult to anticipate at the moment. In the current scenario, we will grow in existing territories with the low double digit or higher single digit rate.
Existing means U.S. and U.K.?
Yes.
Pritesh, yeah, Pritesh, this is Sunil. Yeah, so for U.S. and U.K., excluding Ideal World, we expect the growth to be high single digit. The new acquisitions, that is Ideal World as well as Mindful Souls, that will give us additional growth. Total guidance that we are giving is a mid-teens.
Okay. And the high single digit is the dollar growth, right?
Yes, dollar growth, yes.
Of growth?
Low, low double, low double digit growth.
Basically, India traction will be double digits.
Yes. We hope so. We can't predict for currency.
Yeah. Yeah.
High single or low double digit.
Okay. Okay. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aniket Redkar, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Hello?
Yes, Aniket, go ahead, go ahead, Aniket.
Yeah, yeah. Sir, I have few questions.
... Sir, I just want to understand the subscriber base growth apart from the effect of this acquisition, so to better understand the organic growth trend.
Thank you.
Hello?
Yeah, Nitin, may you take the number? I think Nitin's call got disconnected. Yeah. So Aniket, you're asking subscriber base growth in current geographies outside the acquisition?
Yes. Yes, sir. Yes.
Okay. Let me have a look at the numbers. So you're asking me for the future growth, number, numbers or-
No, the current one.
Let me get the numbers back from Prashant. Prashant, can you share the numbers with me, please? Prashant and Nitin, the call got disconnected. They're coming back in.
Okay.
Can we take another question in the meantime?
Yeah, yeah. So,
Sorry, apologies.
Yeah, so they are here. Okay, we can answer Aniket's question. Nitin, if you can answer Aniket's question about, total customer, numbers outside of acquisition in last quarter and their growth year-over-year.
Yeah. So year-over-year, I don't have it with me, but outside the acquisitions, quarter-over-quarter from September to December, we have a total 3%... 2%-3% growth in unique customer base.
Okay. Okay, and sir, are we diversifying which appeal to a broader demographic and the age group?
Yeah. So we constantly scan the competitive environment and the trend-setting websites and trend-setter newspaper blogs, and we bring in about 100 new products every day. So the new introduction is our huge strength, and whatever works well, then we go deeper into it, and we have a rigorous exit mechanism of exiting non-performing products or tails. So, I cannot answer that specifically what product we will bring, but we are scanning constantly. So any product that will give us our Gross Margin of 60%+, that will also be profitable in logistics costs and that will acquire sufficient new customer to get our metrics productivity ratio of the production. The metrics productivity target is combining of the margin per unit we make, new customers we acquire, the return rate it will have, and the shipping cost we incur.
Based on that, we take a decision on the product. It's a pretty rigorous process that we have across the group.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. And, sir, one last question. Do we have any plans for the geographical expansion to the new country?
Not in the near future. No. I don't believe it will be at least another three years.
Okay. Okay, got it, sir. Thank you, sir. This is from my side.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harsh Mulchandani from Kriis PMS. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Wanted to understand with the operating leverage kicking in as we move forward, can we expect, EBITDA margins to inch up, near the historical highs or better, so we or we might end up seeing lower double digits, margin going forward?
Yeah. So we expect the operating leverage to continue for foreseeable future, for next, 3-5 years, at least, if not more. And we do expect us to get to our historical high margins of about 15%, 16%, 17%, 16% are the highest. We expect to reach there, and even beyond with our business model as we leverage the business.
Got it. So we could see incrementally, say, 100 basis points every year improvement or faster, just on a ballpark basis?
I can't give specific guidance on that, because business is so dynamic. But, I'm fairly confident of reaching and going beyond our historical high EBITDA margins in coming few years.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. That's okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Nigam from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So just, one question I forgot to ask. Sir, what is our current NPS in the U.S. and U.K. geographies? I believe we track it, right?
Yes, we do. Nitin, can you share?
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah. So in U.S., 53 is our NPS, and U.K., 57 is our current NPS.
So means that if I remember correctly, it used to be higher earlier, right? It has... Both of them have declined. Is there something to read into it or you think it's transitional?
Yeah. So, I think the macro environment also creates some pressures on NPS. So any NPS above 50 is considered pretty good because as you know, the NPS measurement criteria is pretty strict. On a scale of 1 to 10, the promoters are only 9 and 10, and then Passives are a 7, 6, and from 1 to 5 are detractor. So of the 1,000 response you get, so if you have eight hundred promoters of environment and score out of ten, then the 1 to 5 are reduced from that. So given that strict measurement or pretty rigorous management measurement criteria, anything above 50 is good. Now, I suspect it is macro environment more than anything else, and as the macro environment subsides, we will get back to our 60s or even 70s in coming quarter, five years.
Understood, sir. This is really helpful. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Gaurav.
Thank you. That was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to management from Vaibhav Global Limited for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Anant. I want to thank all the participants for your time and great questions. If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to Prashant Saraswat with the year or Amit Sharma at Adfactors PR India, and we'll be happy to answer your questions. Thank you once again.
On behalf of Vaibhav Global Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.