Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the V-Mart Retail Limited Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need any assistance, please signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your touchtone telephones. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Vaishnavi Mandhaniya from Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers Limited. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Hi. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. On behalf of Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers, it's our pleasure to host the 4Q FY 2026 earnings conference call of V-Mart Retail Limited. From the management side today, we have Mr. Lalit Agarwal, Managing Director, and Mr. Anand Agarwal, CFO. I'll now hand over the call to the management for the opening remarks, followed by the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you, Vaishnavi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for being on the call. The story continues. The consumption in India for us looks quite healthy. We have seen a better quarter in the last quarter, definitely which is supported by the overall macro picture. The macro picture that I can see here is positive. We definitely have a controlled inflation. We definitely have a better per capita income that we are visualizing for the customers.
I think there are, there are definitely positive vibes coming except the last quarter we also had this war scenario, which was affecting, which definitely gave a little bit of I mean, it was, it was just there was no real life problem, but perceptionally there was a pressure that the consumer had. Perceptionally, they were in fear factor. People wanted to hold their expenses, largely in urban India we saw, not especially in Tier 2, Tier 3 towns. Those still look good. Our footfalls have been growing.
There was definitely a little bit of mixed weather times because the last quarter, early part of the quarter, we saw winter being very low and then suddenly winter came up and then it sinked in very fast. Winter was weak, but summer came up very early. Our organization prepared very well. We prepared very well for launching the summer well in advance in time, which there we took the benefits versus the market and those benefits actually accrued some results to us as well. Apart that we saw geopolitical challenges. We definitely saw some cities and some towns where we saw some crisis of oil.
There was one or two or three days of some crisis piece which we saw coming in and then maybe that created a concern. There is definitely a big piece on in terms of the whole crude oil price rise which is happening. There are directly we don't see fuel costs getting risen, but indirectly all the raw materials, all the products, all the services which are all getting affected because of the crude oil prices going up.
Largely our apparel business or non-apparel business, we see almost 70%, 60%-70% consumption of polyester yarn or poly-based product lines, which have or will get impacted because the earlier orders that we had given that we have was already being secured for April, May deliveries. For all those deliveries which are going to come in in June, July, August, we will see some impact there also. We have tried to block our orders well in advance, keeping in mind and then keeping the or taking the use of the existing inventories of yarn and fabric and then the apparels that the vendors have.
There's a lot of good work that we are trying to do with the vendors in terms of trying to nullify the impact of the rise in the yarn prices or rise in the polyester prices. Definitely there is a rise of almost 15%, 10-15% in the yarn prices, which effectively converts to almost 5%-7% in the apparel prices. With some negotiation, in certain products we have to pass on 1%-2% in the cost for the future deliveries. But in certain cases, we have also passed it on to the consumers, but very controlled way.
Overall, there is some disruption we are seeing in terms of both availability of raw material as well as the prices of raw material. That is one thing which is little difficult to consume. That certainly will impact the consumer sentiment or could impact the consumer sentiment as well because the inflation expected is has to come up because in the last quarter we did not see those things happening. Certainly in the end of the month, which is where in the quarter, which is the March month, we saw some prices going up of oil or some certain product lines where the consumer got impacted little bit, but not too many things.
I think, there's not too many change which has happened. We still see footfall, better footfall. We still see consumers coming out to buy in open because last month or this month also we saw some footfall coming in from the marriage season, when the marriage was there. We also saw summer coming because summer was little late because initially the summer got launched in January, February. Once again in the March month, we saw a little bit of winter chill happening, a little bit of rains coming in. That rains also disturbed the market a little bit in terms of the seasonal need. The seasonal need picked up in April only, that is continuing in May.
We have marriage seasons coming in. Yes, there will be one month of sale also which will happen because of Big Mart which comes in our Hindu calendar. Overall, I see good news coming in from agricultural side also. There could be some futuristic challenges which could come in. As of now, we see good agricultural output coming in. Consumers are actually coming out to spend that money. There were few instances of rains which actually created some havoc in certain farm area which is largely in the northern belt. We saw some impact. Otherwise, most of the areas we saw good things coming up.
Festivals and seasons, Eid and Holi were two big festivals in the last quarter. We saw a good traction, both Eid was very good. Even Holi was okay, but not great, but okay. Apart from that, post-Holi or post-Eid, we saw a good jump as well as because of the early launch of our product lines. Overall, I think, we have strengthened our business verticals. We have strengthened our Unlimited business. Our Unlimited South stores and the performance in the South store looks good. We have now got a good grip over it, so we are firing. We are trying to open up more new stores in that particular market. Our LimeRoad strategy also has been very fruitful.
We have been able to create lot of efficiency, lot of execution discipline, lot of technological changes, and utilization of AI, which really has given us lot of benefit in terms of the loss prevention, because we have almost cut down almost 70% of the losses in that business from the last year perspective. That we are very confident on that particular side of the business because almost half of the business coming from that area is mostly Omni, and Omni is a good piece that we are trying to focus on. Where the consumers who are buying both online and on offline, we are seeing very promising results from there.
There's a lot of work happening in the entire product lines, product development piece, vendor development piece, the design departments, trying to bring in lot of analysis, bring in lot of design elements, integrate with or have partnerships with vendors, trying to work with mills, explore also the international markets. There's lot of work which has happened in the product areas, in rationalizing the product, in creating a better freshness in the product, in liquidating the entire old merchandise and all of those things. That has also given lot of benefits in the last quarter. Overall, our strategy remains very clear. We keep focusing on the similar area of market.
We keep focusing on giving better fashion, attracting newer generation consumers, definitely making the family look more younger, more sweeter and more cuter. That is our focus area. We will do it, all of these through definitely lot of intervention of AI. We are focusing as an organization a lot on all these large language models, the AI and agentic workflows and stuff. There's a lot of work, there is lot of discussion and lot of debates happening and lot of new introduction of certain smaller things are happening. Certainly, some of these will yield more results, make us more scalable, make us more efficient, and also make us more intelligent in terms of serving the consumers.
Those are the areas we are trying to work on, both impacting the front end as well as the back end. That, some of these things will certainly help us over the market. We look, we feel we can. We've got a good grip over the business. We've got good team now. We have recently moved into a new office in Gurgaon, the team has all come together. This makes us once again, more scalable and more better in terms of collaboration as well. A huge round of applause for our teams, our stakeholders who've been there, been working with us.
Certainly we have seen some upswing also in the competitive space. The competition has got good targets where they're trying to open up a lot of stores in the coming quarters and coming year as well. We will see good things coming in. Yes, we certainly have seen the impact of all these competitive activities are getting nullified. Now we are not seeing too much of impact coming in, even if the stores are opening, because already the market is occupied with many stores. One additional store or two additional stores now opening up doesn't give any more big impact on our existing store sales. I think that side is becoming more controllable. We are definitely able to counter a lot of these competition.
We are also able to yield the benefit of from the little bit of, I would say, improper execution or improper presentation of their product in the market from the earlier successful retail organization. Some of those benefits also we are trying to achieve because some of those competition when they opened up those stores in the first one or two years, they actually peaked up their sales. They actually attracted certain consumers. Now the customer base has become wider. The organized customer base has become wider. We are trying to attract more footfall of those customers who were earlier going out to those competition stores.
That is our strategy to try and bring in those consumers, even if the market looks a little poor or weaker in terms of the demand. What our strategy will be largely to increase our own market share from the earlier times. We'll take up the questions in next ahead. I hand it over to Anand. He will take you detailed into the numbers. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Lalit, and good morning, everybody. I'll quickly take you through the numbers and some commentary around them, then we can open the house for questions. Quarter four has been a great growth quarter for us, with actually our highest ever quarterly new store additions, as well as good like-to-like same-store sales growth, leading to a total sales growth of 24%. We opened 29 new stores and also delivered a LTL of 12% with V-Mart at 12% and Unlimited at 9%. Overall, this marks the 10th consecutive quarter of sustained Like-to-Like growth, reflecting the continued progress on planned merchandising and product upliftment, disciplined expansion, and automation-led systematic process improvements across the organization.
The new stores that we opened are delivering actually better than network throughput, which reinforces the confidence in both site selection discipline and brand relevance across Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. The South market under Unlimited format continued its momentum, delivering a 28% revenue growth and a 63% increase in EBITDA, supported by strong throughput of new stores added and continuous operational efficiencies. We remain confident in scaling in South markets, where results remain encouraging. The sales per store and the sales per square foot matrices continue to improve in line with SSG. We also saw apparel ASPs grow 5% this quarter, primarily due to the better festive mix, lower discounting, and improved full price sell-throughs. On the margin front, gross margins actually for the quarter decreased year-on-year by 1%.
This was on account of provision taken on inventory as per our consistent longstanding policy, and also a 12% decline in the LimeRoad commission income, which actually flows 100% into the gross margin line, but now forms a smaller share of the overall revenue. The important highlight actually was the improved inventory health that should result in better gross margins going forward, which will or should be driven by higher proportion of fresher merchandise on shelves, lower discounting intensity or requirement of lower discounting, and improved product mix. Overall, our days of inventory also improved by three days, which is on a five-quarter rolling average basis, along with per store inventory reduction of 13% year-on-year.
The inventory betterment should continue as we will further rationalize assortments, display densities, and gain benefits from improvements making from supply chain efficiencies on replenishment cycles and warehouse dispatch optimizations. Coming to operating expenses. The total expenses increased by 8%, largely led by a planned significant drop in expenses in the LimeRoad vertical, drop in ESOP expense year-on-year , and lower offline marketing spends as we continue to drive loyalty-based traffic to stores through more digital interventions. As a result of these sustained operational efficiencies, EBITDA grew by 56% year-on-year to INR 106 crores, with margins expanding by 220 basis points to 10.9%, reflecting better cost absorption and productivity gains. The EBITDA growth translated into significant growth in adjusted PAT to INR 10 crores.
We have actually normalized the PAT numbers for exceptional gains to reflect the real operating profits for better comparison and reflection of year-on-year sustainable business improvements. For the quarter, we have reassessed and reduced the one-time exceptional charge of INR 2.1 crores provided for in the last quarter by almost INR 1 crore in this quarter. Thereby, the full year impact for the labor code-led impact is limited now only to INR 1.2 crores, which is related to the estimated provision on account of these labor code implementations. LimeRoad loss, marketplace loss, reduced significantly year-on-year, continuing the sustained improvement in the operating matrix for the online marketplace business.
The marketplace business remains profitable at CM3 levels in high single digits and has now begun to contribute meaningfully by increasing the customer loyalty, higher bill sizes, and much higher repeat rates for the growing Omni customer base, reflecting validation of the original investment thesis in LimeRoad. As a culmination of all the improvements and efforts on a full year basis, PAT has grown by 6x to INR 124 crores, reflecting consistency rather than quarter specific effects. This is our highest ever PAT, and the PAT percentage at 3.3% is also now almost reaching the similar levels of PAT of around 4%, 4.5% that we used to enjoy pre-COVID. You know, moving on to CapEx and cash flows.
CapEx for the quarter stood at INR 37 crores, INR 159 crores for the full year, primarily towards new store additions, old store refurbishments, and technology-led investments. For the next year, the CapEx is estimated at roughly around INR 170 crores-INR 180 crores. On a YTD basis, the business generated positive cash flows of INR 33 crores versus a negative cash, free cash flow of INR 33 crores in the last year. There is no long-term debt on the books, and we remain comfortable on the cash front with ample working capital limits available to leverage future growth, which will be financed through internal accruals. Coming to store expansions, we opened 29 stores this quarter and 92 in the full year with 12 closures.
The guidance for the next year remains the same at 13%-15% area addition every year, net of 1%-2% mistakes that may need closures, you know, year-on-year. With a healthy store pipeline, improving throughput across both mature and new stores and disciplined inventory and cost management, we believe the business is well-positioned now to maintain momentum into the coming quarters while sustaining profitability and cash generation. That is all from my side, and I now request Farah to open the house for questions.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may enter star and one on their touchtone telephones. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may enter star and two. Participants are requested to please use only handsets while asking a question. Participants are also requested to please limit your questions to two questions per participant. We will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infoline. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good morning, and congrats on a good set of numbers, and thanks for taking my question. Firstly, you did mention in the commentary, a little bit more clarity on this aspect. There is a inflationary pressure across the board, and it is not particularly in the petrochem-based raw materials, but, yeah, yarn and cotton also have gone up. Just trying to understand the impact on V-Mart. If you could give any idea as to how much RM inflation currently we are facing or any kind of sensitivity where, you know, linked to crude, if crude goes up, like, let's say 10%, our RM basket goes up by how much? Any sense on that would be great, really helpful.
Yeah. Sameer, I've already narrated mostly. Definitely, there is a direct correlation with the crude prices. The proportion of fabric or the proportion of yarn or the cost of yarn that gets into the apparel making varies from 33%- 50%. A lower priced product would have a higher percentage of yarn, or a higher priced product would have a lower percentage of yarn. Then it is just not only yarn.
When you say yarn, you mean polyester?
When I say yarn, I'm saying polyester or cotton or whatever the yarn it is. Whether it is a viscose or it is a polyester or it is a poly cotton. Ultimately, there are yarns which are mixed in nature. There are single yarn in nature. In a higher priced product, you would have cotton more and lesser polyester. In a lower priced product, you would have more polyester and lesser cotton. When you look at the lesser priced product, the impact becomes a little more higher. The yarn, if the yarn or the crude increases by around 10%, it gets translated to around 5% of increase in the yarn cost. In the apparel cost, it goes down to maybe 1.5%- 2%.
That's how the matrix flows. What is the level of, because if the overall crude prices that we see has grown by almost 30%-35%, it has translated to almost a cost of 10%, 8% or 9% in yarn cost, and which has resulted into 3%-4% of apparel or garment cost. That is 100% yarn-based or polyester yarn-based product. If it is a mixed product, it comes down a little more percent.
What we are trying to do is how do we accommodate this 3%-4% either with certain innovation in fabric or trying to use certain different kind of fabrics which could actually nullify maybe a little more lightweight fabric which could nullify a little more negotiation in terms of the overall make and the cut make finish of the garment. How we are trying to manage those costs, but still we are seeing 1% or 1.5% of increase in the overall price, the overall price or the cost of the product that we are sourcing, which certain part of it we are trying to pass it on to the consumer.
Certain part of it we are also trying to retain, which could increase the inward margin a little bit. I think effectively we will want to bring in more efficiency so that the delivered margins and the outward margins do not get affected through this.
Got it, sir.
I hope it is clear.
Yeah. Very clear, sir. Thank you so much. If you could also allude to roughly our fabric mix in terms of polyester and cotton, that would complete this puzzle.
See, what we are looking forward is the festive period and the winter period. In that festive and the winter period, what we see the poly mix goes up to almost 80%, 75%-80%. You know, during summer it is the cotton mix comes up to be almost around 50%. You know, when we are moving towards the forward season and the winterish season, the polyester mix goes up. That is why your polyester mix would be around 70%, 75% of the total sourcing that we are doing in the forward period.
Got it, sir. This is very clear. Second question, let's just exclude the war and crude impact when we are answering this. This year, excluding LimeRoad, the company has clocked a 6.6% pre-Ind AS EBITDA margin, which is up 120 basis points YoY. Again, in the base, I'm excluding LimeRoad. This is at a 5% LFL, and this is despite a relatively higher area growth this year. If a mid-single digit LFL were to repeat, all else equal, and when I say all else equal, let's just assume there is no crude or inflation impact, then logically a 120 basis points margin expansion at least should happen in FY 2027. What are the constraining factors here? Is there any competitive threat that you're looking at?
Again, we don't know what is going to happen on the war and stuff on inflation. If you could just, you know, highlight the thought process here, if it is correct or, you know, there are any issues in there.
Sameer, please talk to Anand and come and help my FP&A team so that they can actually project such kind of good numbers. I'm pretty happy about what you're saying. Yes, certainly efficiencies bring in benefits. It is just not the same sales growth, but, you know, how efficiently are you able to sell through your buy or your sell through your inventory. That is also one of the biggest factor which gives you margins. I think it is more about efficiency generation. It is definitely also about mid-digit or little higher than mid-digit same-store sales growth. I don't see lot of constraints.
I see there are constraints in terms of the overall inflation, overall labor cost also going up because the what happened recently in Haryana or Noida and all of these certainly has led to a little bit rise in the labor cost. That again could be detrimental. Otherwise, I don't see any challenge. Whatever that you are thinking, whatever that you are projecting, we also believe that similar things could be derived if we are able to achieve 6%-7% of Like-for-Like growth.
Superb, sir. That's all from me. I'll come back in the queue, any follows, unless Anand wants to add to this.
No, Sameer, I think I'm good with what Lalit is suggesting. I think all things remaining equal, we remain optimistic and buoyant for, you know, a similar kind of growth. As Lalit suggested, I think all things currently do not look equal, so let's wait and see how well we can leverage and optimize this.
Sure, Anand and Lalit, sir, all the best.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Tejas Shah from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Hi, Lalit ji, Anand. Thanks for opportunity and congrats on good set of numbers. Lalit ji, you spoke in detail, just wanted to double-click on it on demand scenario. A lot of and not only your results, if I see consumption results in general, I would say that after a long time, there is some broad-based recovery which is visible. Just wanted to know, there's one disruption which has come from external environment, which is the whole crude-related inflation.
Looking at your own data and then your field on the ground, do you believe that we can pass on the inflation to customer without hurting this momentum which we have seen for last, let's say, four, five months or for us it was actually much more longer, which can actually continue and even if we have to pass on inflation, whatever the proportion you just spoke about, it won't disrupt the demand momentum?
Tejas, it is just not our inflation, it is just not our price increase or whatever it is we are passing on. It is the basket inflation that the consumer spends their earning to. Almost what we see, almost 60% of consumer's basket is need-based. 60%-65% is need-based, and out of that, almost 70%-75% of their basket could get affected. If I look at the entire piece, even the agriculture prices, the whole fertilizer, the whole pesticides or even the logistic cost or their day-to-day power cost or electricity cost. What we see, the impact could go to all these extent and could actually get affected.
The consumer may find it difficult to manage their inflation, and that could be a reality, and that is what we are caring about. That all of our consumers who are largely need-based consumers whose income. One respite we are able to see is the increase in minimum wages or the overall earning capabilities that is going to increase by the government. I think some of these things can actually give some benefit. Otherwise, if this continue, I mean, it may throw a little bit of challenge in terms of the consumer sentiment. Overall, from our side, we are being very sure on this. We do not want to pass it on blindly. We do not want to pass it on like we did it in 2022, 2023.
We don't want to do that same mistakes again. We may absorb some margin, we may change certain product lines, but some of these where we feel the consumer can actually pay and where the design factor is much more larger and the consumer will be easier for them to pay, that is where we will try to take it up. I don't think we will see a lot of challenge in terms of the demand. Yes, overall, the demand could get impacted a little bit. As I said earlier also, the organized market is also become bigger.
For us, it is more a challenge where we could pull in, how could we pull in more sales from our peers, from our competitors, so that we are actually able to grab and grab that opportunity in spite of a weaker market, if at all happens.
Perfect. Very clear. Second, on market, you know, competitive landscape. Usually, you called out that there is not only pricing issue of raw material, but availability issue also. Does it mean that the smaller players kind of get shafted or cornered in securing raw material, raw material at right prices versus, let's say, an established player like us, and hence it can be a very good opportunity for us to get market share in this environment?
I just don't want to raise my hopes because as of now we are also struggling. Our team is also trying to grab onto all of these, secure the production. It is just not securing the order, but also securing the actual inventory for the vendor. The vendor should also have that raw material well in his house before he is able to deliver. I think there's a, I mean, it's just, it's not over. The things are going to be for us also a tough period because the all the vendors and the entire supply chain, there is so much of difficulty which is getting interrupted because even the whole gas issue also has impacted the production lines of certain vendors in certain processes. There are challenges.
The whole election pieces which happened in Bengal and Tamil Nadu, there also the labor workforce has got reduced. There has been a challenge in terms of the availability of the labor. Some challenges have been erupted, but I hope those challenges will be met. Certainly, I mean, see, obviously people who are a little inefficient, people who have a little lesser brand image or even the payment terms or even the capability to secure the product line will face challenges. We know it is an immediate situation. We are dealing it as an emergency situation, and we are not leaving anything undone. We are trying to get deeper into it. Wherever we feel there is a challenge here, we are also exploring of, you know, bringing things from China or some other places.
Some of these things we are trying to do so that we can integrate our supply chain very well.
Very clear. Last one. Anand, you kindled our hope by saying that we are kind of moving towards that pre-COVID PAT margin, direction. With whatever, ceteris paribus, where are we today? Do you think that with the hope or with the goal that we have of 5%, 7% SSSG, can we achieve that number at PAT margin level this year?
Tejas, I think the direction is right. Our efforts are very genuine and sustained, and we are seeing results emanating out of these sustained efforts. Now, to set a timeline whether this will happen in the next year or the year after that, I can't, you know, see that, or I cannot predict that. Definitely our intentions are obviously towards securing that kind of margins in the medium term. It may happen next year, I don't know. There are so many different factors which will influence that, but definitely our intention is obviously to get to that level very fast.
Clear. All the best for that. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants, as a re-request, please limit your questions to only two questions. The next question is from the line of Rehan Saiyyed from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning to the team, thanks for taking my question. Sir, I have just only two questions. First on, just wanting an understanding regarding your apparel ASP remains broadly flat while footwear increases sharply. Just, are customers currently preferring lower-ticket products or is this more because of higher mixed contribution from entry price categories? This is my first question.
Rehan, can you just repeat the last piece? You said that are customers preferring what?
Like, I'm just want to be understand if customers currently preferring lower-ticket products or this is more because of higher mixed contribution from entry price categories?
What is happening is gradually the, I mean, our, not only our, but the availability in the market through all the organized player, value organized player, is becoming larger and larger. Certainly the average spend per piece by the consumers which they used to pay earlier, they definitely want more efficiency, more value here. It is not the fact that they are trying to pay or go for a lower ASP or lower price product. We are expecting a little bit of mix change as well as focusing on little bit more on the better product because the consumers are certainly asking for a better quality product, asking for better product in general.
Yes, as if we see inflation coming in, there could be some impact that the consumer would face. Here both the things would happen. The higher consumer, which is the brand buyer and then the consumer which buy premium product, would move down and could buy a little better product from our offering. There could be certain lower line customer base where they will struggle, could either not buy or want to buy a little more entry price kind of product. I think largely we see these products, the ASP coming out in the balancing mode. We are not seeing very high growth in the entry price point product as such. We are seeing that similar and even good products coming out on the category.
The good products are also coming out as good.
Okay. Okay, thanks for clarification. My second and last question is around your geographic mix that we have seen about the Southern markets. Sir, you have seen Uttar Pradesh and Bihar together now contribute a very large portion of the store network. How does the management view the long-term growth opportunity in South India, especially after seeing traction in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka?
I think we have been focusing very highly on that particular market. Our philosophy is also to build a sustainable return on capital or the ROC business from the business. We just don't want to go and open up the stores. The property prices in those markets are also little higher, so we have to be a little more conscious in terms of our expansion. We just want to open stores which will remain profitable for a longer term. That is how we are trying to do. We have created our team there in South India has been strengthened. They are trying to acquire. For us-Every market there is a large opportunity.
Markets like Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, where we are almost there in all the districts, we still see a 50%-70% growth rate which could come in from these markets in terms of our number of stores getting expanded in the next five years. I think there is a, there's a long opportunity which is available in all of these markets. The population rate in the upper India or our core markets are still very, very high. I think there is an opportunity in entire India, and that is how we have divided our organization structure, so that every zone or every state is being given a sufficient time and sufficient energy so that we are able to expand.
Okay. Okay, thanks for the detailed answer. Sir, just last one more question, if you just could allow me. Sir, what is the medium-term sustainable ROC target once the current expansion phase matures?
I think, see, we've been always working towards acquiring around 15%-18% of ROC revenue. This year, the right now we are around 14.5% year-on-year.
Yeah. Right. Cool.
We would want to go to 18% and then maybe 20%, above 20%. I think our investment that we had done in the last few years was largely in the warehouses or in the acquiring LimeRoad and Unlimited or even feeding to the losses of LimeRoad. Actually to cover our ROC, ultimately, we would want to over anything above 20%-22%.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, and good luck for upcoming quarter.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Agarwal from Ikigai Asset. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Lalit ji and Anand ji. Sir, three questions. Firstly, on the macro side, you know, when I look at this value fashion segment, right, when we look at growth, we analyze, you know, detailed numbers for each company in the listed space at least. Clearly fourth quarter, V-Mart has been an outlier in terms of how SSG has come through. Your new store additions have also been in sync. Very good performance. Incrementally when you look at, you know, full year fiscal 2026 or even last three years cumulative, you know, we're looking at, you know, very high discipline on V-Mart in terms of how balance sheet cost is getting managed, which is again, very good.
Purely from a market share perspective, and given what is happening on value fashion, because there is too much growth in hinterland of India, a lot of expansion happening by competitors, does market share actually mean anything in this industry? For you internally, do you guys discuss how are we doing in terms of our own revenue market share, three-year, five-year, one-year analysis, 10-year views? That's the first question, sir.
Right, Rahul. You're absolutely bang on. See, definitely market share is something that we keep watching on, but it doesn't, because the largeness of the Indian consumption is massive. We actually could bring in more consumption, and the consumption is bound to increase.
In spite of all of these new additions in value retail, it has been always evening out. There's so much of consumption left out. Still more than 60% of the business is going to the mom-and-pop or the unorganized traditional retail store. There is still a lot of opportunity left. We really believe there is certainly a shift which will happen, and there will be always some part of the retailers which will have some inefficiencies in the business. How do you grab onto those opportunities? That is what we all try to do.
We try to talk about it, that how do we actually create a strength within the organization which could bring in or give more value to the customer, create more better perception towards the customer, give the customer the best experience. That is what will bring in the market share or some share from our peers, if at all they are acquiring or they are able to acquire the last few, one or two years with some store openings. That is how we try to play about it. You're absolutely right. With so many number of players coming in and so many number of players available, the market share piece is not valid and should not be a big point in our area.
That this is not a product-led business where one or two companies could acquire a very high market share. This is not those kind of businesses where such things can happen.
Got it, Lalit ji. You know, there's two more things, one for you and one for Anand ji to cover. On, you know, when we talk to your vendors, right, on the fabric manufacturing side, there is, you know we've also worked on product freshness in our stores, which actually has resulted into shorter cycle sourcing for you, is what we understand. Please correct me if I'm wrong. We're sourcing much more fresh products, and hence the sourcing cycles are quicker, the inventory turns are faster.
Unfortunately, current environment, because of that, maybe when we enter the festive season and then the winter, maybe 2Q, 3Q of, you know, the next year, which is FY 2027, how are you looking at the advance booking? Because as you already explained, that there is some inflation, something will get absorbed, something will get passed through. What we hear is, the advance booking from V-Mart versus, you know, every, some other value fashion retailers, two to three of them have they've been better off. Will there be a margin hiccup when we get into our seasonally strong season? That's one. Secondly, just on the CapEx side, if Anand can clarify. My sense is refurbishment in new stores, INR 130 crores-INR 140 crores should be enough.
When we look at this INR 175 crores-INR 180 crores number, what is that additional spend? If you could just break that down. Thank you so much.
No, I think, see, as I told earlier also, We definitely have two verticals. One is the vertical which closes the final design, and the other is the vertical which tries to close the fabric pieces. We work in a longer-term mindset to close our fabric needs and fabric requirement and give the perspective so that the time taken for the fabric development also is taken into account. There is certainly good work that the team has done. They have almost blocked 50%-60% of our need or our total demand till December.
There is already a blocking which has happened for the forthcoming six, seven months, a part of which is going on, part of which has been closed. There's a lot of work. I don't see a jump in margin there, but I would see not a negation in the margin. I would see a maybe availability of the product. I would see a better value being provided to the consumers if they compare it with other part of the market. I still feel that the consumer and our consumers are very much town-to-work consumers who can buy only two or three times of in a year. Their earning capabilities are very low.
Their average earning is around INR 30,000 crores a month. I think for them, creating an impact at this point of time from our side shouldn't happen, and that is what we are trying to prevent because they should not That they already are in pain because of inflation. V-Mart also offers or helps or doesn't help them to sustain that pain, or if it doesn't help them to give the product at the similar prices actually makes the consumer move away from the brand. I think that is where we want to bring in that loyalty, and our loyalty is very important for us because for us almost 72% of our sales comes from our repeat customers and the customers who are already shopping with us. That is the core priority.
We definitely want to offer them a longer term view and being with them is more important in these difficult times. Anand, if you wanna answer on the CapEx piece.
Yeah. On the CapEx side, Rahul, we spent INR 159 crores this year, and my estimate is, you know, because we also do apart from the, you know, the new store expansion as well as the old store refurbishments, we are slightly going heavy on the tech side with a lot of, you know, AI-led interventions. The budget that I have put together for next year is probably around INR 170+ crores. The differential for whatever you mentioned in the numbers is more to go towards the tech side.
Got it. Got it, Anand. Thank you so much. Wish you all the best for the next year.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aliasgar Shakir from Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks a lot for the opportunity. Hi, Lalit ji and Anand. Congratulations on very good set of numbers. Just two questions. You already have spoken on them. One on the raw material already you have, you know, elaborated a lot. I just wanted to, you know, quickly understand if you can quantify. I mean, if the crude prices remain where they are, then what kind of price increase would you need to mitigate? In the past, you know, probably, during COVID or post-COVID, you know, when these price increases were taken, we saw some, you know, impact in terms of demand. What are your thoughts on that?
I think we have already narrated, Anand. We would not want to increase the same product price too much. On an average, if you look at the similar Like-for-Like product lines, the price increase may go up to 1.5%. There could be certain price increase in the ASP that you could see from the mix change. Like, you know, earlier times we used to sell large amount of kurtas in women, but now we want to sell more kurta sets in women.
When you sell kurta sets as a mix, the ASP goes up, and that is what we are trying to do, so that how do we bring in combination which is more in fashion, and how do you bring up the consumer lifetime value, or how do you bring up their annual spend value at our place. That is how we are trying to position ourselves, but you would not see too much of price raise coming in from this perspective.
Got it. This is very useful. Second question on growth. You did elaborate a lot, but I just have two, you know, I mean, questions on the growth part. One is SSG, while now we have seen, you know, very strong SSG, you know, performance for almost back to back, maybe 10 quarters, right? Typically we have seen, you know, the sector go through a cycle, and after maybe two, three years of good SSG, you see some softening happening. Now, also, you know, after such strong numbers and store addition from the competition is also happening. Maybe there would be some probably, you know, competitive factors also. Plus, you are adding a lot of store, 80, 90 stores, is there also a risk of overlap?
Just if you can share some thoughts on, you know, on the SSG trends, while you have said that you would want to do and continue to do 5%, 7%. Do you see the risk of on SSG because of cyclicality, competition, plus overlapping of your own stores?
I think, Ali, the worst is over behind us. We have seen enough of that, right? As of now, all of the work that V-Mart has done in the past three, four years in trying to, you know, strengthen the organization, strengthen the technology parameters, strengthen the organizational strength, bring in the whole, integrate the whole partnership with vendors, have that, you know, designing maybe capability and all of that, I think for us, we are very confident that we would, we should be continuing, and we should be growing more. This is the time for where we need to come back, and we need to keep continuing on that annual, on that growth rate. The risks are always there. The risk will always continue. There will be market disruptions. There will be certain internal disruptions which could happen.
There could be some competitive-led challenges which could get thrown away in particular markets or in particular geography or in particular towns. Overall, we believe we, and we are very confident that we should be able to crack and continue the SSG growth rate which is going on. We're very, very cautious, and we are also very, very optimistic on this.
Got it, sir. Thank you so much, and very happy to see that confidence in your growth capability. Thanks. Thanks a lot, and wish you all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lokesh Manik from Vallum Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning, Lalit ji and Anand and team. Am I audible?
Yes. Go ahead.
Very much.
Yes.
Great. Great. Sir, two questions from my side. One is on the CapEx per store, which pre-COVID used to be about INR 1 crore- INR 1.3 crores. Then introduction of LimeRoad, it shot up to INR 2.3 crores. This year is at INR 2 crores. In the medium term, where do you see this settling down? Maybe Anand would have a better idea on that, if he can just guide us.
Lokesh, our CapEx per store still remains around INR 1.3 crores- INR 1.4 crores.
For certain areas wherever, very isolated cases where we have to be slightly more a market, there can be exceptions, but otherwise at a overall basis our CapEx per store still remains at INR 1.3 crores- INR 1.4 crores. I think the number that you're getting is an average of total CapEx divided by the new store additions.
There is also a lot of store refurbishments,
Right.
-that we do, that takes up a significant, a good amount of CapEx. That happens after every four to six years, depending on the condition of the store and the, you know, the market intensity or the competitive intensity. That is a very large project that we have undertaken in the last two years. A good part of our CapEx spend goes towards store refurbishments.
And when is that?
Also some amount of technology.
When is that tapering off?
Yeah.
When do you expect that to taper off?
No, I don't see that tapering off because this is a continuous eval, you know, evolution. We will continue to keep bettering our stores. Typically every store will go through a refurb cycle between four to six years. Now, some may go a bit early at four years, some may go by six years, but that is the typical range in which we like to operate. That is the way we have, you know, constructed our business model so that the internal accruals and the store EBITDA itself and the cash flow generation is itself able to very well take care of that refurb.
Right. Great. Great. Yeah.
There will be some pressure on the CapEx line as well because of the increase in the raw material prices or the crude prices or the market vulnerabilities. There could be certain pressure which could come here as well. As of now, we haven't taken too much of pressure. We have actually reduced our CapEx from last year. We've negotiated more. We've actually, the sourcing team has done a great job here as well. We are trying to work on that as well. Largely, if you look at the entire, the gross addition has been 90 stores. It is not the 75-78 stores. The gross addition has been larger. There has been little larger stores also which gets created.
Overall, if you look at the number is per square feet as well as the other, because you need to invest more in the back end as well. As you grow in the front end, the back end investment also has to be in line with that.
Great. Great. Lalit ji, my second question was on rent expense. As a percentage of sales, you know, we were at 4.5% again earlier, and we peaked out at 10%. We're at 8% today. Medium term, what is your target and where do you see this settling down?
See, I think in today's scenario, as you understand, the earlier times were virgin period where we used to walk into the virgin territories. People were not so much aware.
Correct.
Good retailers to come in. As of now, there is definitely a lot of competition and lot of requirement of those kind of a thing. The construction cost has gone up. Land costs have significantly gone up. The real estate prices have gone up. The cost has really gone up. I think we should be hovering and we should be comfortable with around, say, 7%-7.5%. 7% is the ballpark figure which we want to come up to. 7% is something that we are trying to chase, and we will be there. Because most of our new store are being planned at that particular price also, maybe less than 7%.
Great. My last question, Lalit ji, was that, over a period of time, our ASP of apparel, you know, has been more or less constant at V-Mart level, and at overall level as well. Now do you see that, you know, with the inflation coming in, and if you're able to crack your product mix strategy, incrementally you will see a lot of people coming to your store versus, you know, outside who will not be able to manage inflation and who will have to take a price increase. Do you see that benefit going forward?
The market, we can only work towards it. We will definitely want to attract them more, convert them more, make them more happier, make them more aspirational. We would definitely want to do it. Ultimately, at the end of the day, the amount of work that we are doing, I don't feel that my competitors are not doing. The entire market is getting more intelligent. The entire market is trying to work on it. I give credit to the entire market because most of the value retailers are really working very hard to provide similar kind of experience to the customer, similar kind of value delivery to the customer. I don't think there is a large piece. Yes, certainly we have done some extraordinary work.
We will want to do more because I always feel there is lot of room more left. We could actually deliver more benefit to the consumer. We will actually be able to yield more better efficiency from our operations as well.
Great. That's it from my side, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Jayant, Jayant from 3PIM. Please go ahead.
Hi, Lalit ji. Hi, Anand ji. Thank you for taking my questions. Couple of questions. One is on Unlimited. I know, since acquisition, we've divested a lot of stores, we've rationalized a lot of stores. Just from a sales throughput per square feet, over the, let's say, a medium term, do you think, as new stores get added and as you've mentioned that new stores are operating at V-Mart level efficiency, we see that number going up closer to the V-Mart levels over the next two or three years? Would that be an aspiration for us?
I don't think, see, there is a delta. The delta will remain.
We are, I mean, there is an incremental same-store sales growth, we are getting better from there. Still-
The delta will be there, delta is right now there. It is going to be, because there is a delta as of now of approximately INR 140, INR 135. We could come a little closer on the delta, still that delta will not go away because V-Mart has also lines of FMCG, which we do. The Kirana business also contributes to around 10%-12% or 13% V-Mart's business. There, the sales per square foot is also a little higher. V-Mart also does a little more of, you know, value products and then those products, Unlimited does a little more of a little both brand and premiums as also. [Non-English content] that difference is there. We are covering that. The Like-for-Like growth should be higher in Unlimited.
That is what we are trying to perceive, and that is what we are trying to work towards.
Sure. Thank you, sir. Just one more question on this. You've alluded to this before. Is for FY 2027, specifically given the exact challenges on the gross margin side, are we trying to manage that more via mix and premiumize the customer or loyalty, loyal customers who are like 72% of our customers to a, let's say, a higher price product, or a higher margin product? Is that how we want to protect our margins for FY 2027, given the whole impact on raw material pricing?
No, no. I think we've never worked towards that. Certainly, it is more about what product are we able to create. Yes, there is a finding. We do want to bring in more aspirational customer also in our floor. There is new set of customer entries that we are trying to also do because we also want to acquire better customers. Customers who were shopping in brand because now the brands are no longer relevant for them. They don't want to show off their brand. They want to really show off the product.
If they want to really use a good product, a fashionable product, we are not leaving any stone unturned for providing them those type of products, even if the price has to go up. The whole mix of the, of the range could get impacted. We would want to attract more higher product, or better product mix. That doesn't mean that we'll manage our margins through that. We will certainly want to manage our margins largely from our internal efficiency generation through our vendors or in our, in our innovation pieces or in our, in our cost savings that we can do over the, over increasing the quantum of production because our production rate is also going up. Our average order per color, which used to be around 3,000 pieces, then moved to 5,000 pieces.
It is going up to 7,000-8,000 pieces and could go up to 10,000 pieces. How do we actually bring efficiency in their production lines and in the production, fabric production lines or garment production line? That is what we are all trying to work, where that could be transferred to the to our consumers.
Thank you. Thank you, Lalit ji. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I now hand the floor back to the management for closing comments.
Thank you so much for being there. We had really had a good session. We are very confident at V-Mart. Our team is super excited. We give a lot of credits to all our stakeholders or our teams who've really done a great job in the last quarter. We will continue doing all of that. We will also keep innovating and creating newer ideas and newer thought process and adopting the newer set of digitalization which is coming into the market. That is what we all are here for. Thank you so much and happy. Have a good day.
Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you. Bye.
On behalf of Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.