Dabur India Limited (DABUR) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4 Results Investors Conference Call of Dabur India Limited. 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 this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Saraugi, Head, Investor Relations and M&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the management of Daba India Limited, I welcome you to the earnings conference call pertaining to the results for the quarter and year-ended 31st March, 2026. Present here with me are Mr. Mohit Malhotra, Global Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Rankush Jain, Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Gagan Aluwalia, VP Corporate Affairs, and Mr. Harjit Balla, CEO, India Business, who has recently joined our family. We will start with an overview of the company's performance by Mr. Mohit Malhotra, and this will be followed by a Q&A session. I will now hand over to Mr. Mohit Malhotra. Thank you.

Thank you, Raoul. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome you all to Dawa India Limited's conference call pertaining to the results for the quarter ended 31st March 2026. Demand conditions in India remain steady, reflecting consumption resilience backed by fiscal measures of direct and indirect tax rationalization. Rural markets continue to outperform urban markets, although the gap between urban and rural has narrowed. Geopolitical headwinds in the Middle East is impacting input costs and supply chain across businesses, including India. In quarter four, our consolidated revenue grew by 7.3% year-on-year, with domestic FMCG business growing at 9.5%, backed by volume growth of 6%. Within the India business, HPC portfolio maintained its strong momentum, recording a double digit growth of 17% during the quarter. Our hair care business, including hair oils and shampoos, registered a strong double digit growth. Hair oil portfolio grew by 28% year on year with both perfumed and coconut oil growing in double digits. We outpaced the category growth and gained 154 bps in volume market shares. Shampoo portfolio posted a growth of 20% during the quarter. Our strategy continues to focus on premiumization along with expanding our presence in new age offerings across both hair oils and shampoos. The home care portfolio delivered a robust 24% growth driven by strong double-digit growth across O'Donnell, O'Donnell, and Fanny Fresh franchises. O'Donnell grew by 20% during the quarter, supported by sustained momentum in aerosols and gel pockets, resulting in a market share gain of 243 BPS. The O'Donnell brand reported a growth of 48%, translating into a market share gain of 88 BPS. Fanny Fresh continued its strong performance, registering a growth of over 20%. Skincare portfolio also registered a double-digit growth driven by Gulabari franchise and Oxylife. The toothpaste portfolio delivered a 7.2% growth during the quarter, supported by Dabar Red, Miswaak and Dabar Herbal. The herbal toothpaste segment grew at nearly twice the rate of non-herbal segment, reflecting a continued and deepening consumer preference for natural and herbal oral care solutions. This enabled Dabur to outperform the category growth and expand market shares. In the healthcare category, the digestive portfolio grew in mid-teens with a double-digit growth in both Hajmola and Esabgol. The Hasmola franchise boasted a 12.7% growth driven by strong performance both across tablets and candies, resulting in market share gains of 233 BPS. E-Sub-Gol also recorded a growth of over 50%. Within health supplements, the Honey portfolio recorded a strong growth of over 20% driven by volume expansion across channels, leading to market share gains of 150 BPS. Muco's portfolio was impacted by unseasonal rains during the month of March in core states. OTC and Ethical Portfolio delivered a high single-digit growth. Haritas recorded a strong growth of over 36% led by key variants such as cuffs, syrup, and hot sips. Ayurvedic health juices continued their growth momentum, registering a growth of 30%. Laltel also delivered a double-digit growth of 10%. Our beverage portfolio witnessed a sequential recovery during the quarter. Premium beverage portfolio continued to outperform the category, delivering a robust growth of 26% in real active juices and coconut water growing by 100% over last year. We gained 250 BPS market share in Nectar and 280 BPS in active portfolio. The culinary business registered a growth of 30% led by fats and oils and homemade portfolio. The international business reported a muted growth of 2.5% in INR terms. While the war in West Asia impacted the MENA region, Sub-Sahara Africa grew by 20%, UK and EU grew by 10%, Hobby by 16.5%, Bangladesh business grew by 22%, and Namaste US grew by 6.2%. In terms of consolidated profitability, the operating profit grew by 8.2%, while reported PAT grew by 15%. While geopolitical developments in the Middle East remain fluid, we are confident of sequential acceleration of growth in India business. Driven by stable consumption trends, GTM transformation exercise, focus on premiumization, and investments in brand building. With this, I conclude my address and now open the floor to Q&A. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Avnish Roy with Novama. Please go ahead.

Sir, thanks and congrats on strong recovery in many parts of the portfolio. My first question is definitely that we are seeing around 20 to 36% growth in some parts of the portfolio. And you also mentioned that the sequential recovery will accelerate. So, do you mean to say that in Q1, either you expect in these portfolios similar growth or maybe even acceleration, any one-off in any of these very strong growth numbers?

Hi, Vinesh. Yes, so I think we think that in quarter one, the growth will sustain, and across HPC at least, we are seeing good traction in the month of April also. And healthcare portfolio, barring glucose, which is impacted by unseasonal rains here, we see rest parts of the portfolio doing well for us. Beverages, again, active and coconut water is doing exceedingly well. Nectar is impacted by rains. But because we are lapping over the low basis of last year where we were impacted by rains again, we expect the growth to be much better. We've already gotten into the flat trajectory as far as beverages are concerned. So we should be going into a mid to a high single digit, at least growth in beverages. And the culinary continues to fire at the base it is. And with the inflation picking up in India business, we expect a part value growth through price increases to come in along with the volume growth that we have penciled. So nutshell, I think the growth trajectory should continue and sequential recovery should continue. Partly volume, partly... For a while.

Understood. In terms of the El Nino impact, do you see glucose, juice, etc., giving super strong growth, even base is favorable, then the El Nino impact is there. So if you could give us some sense of beverage and glucose, so essentially El Nino portfolio, how do you see the Q1 growth? You spoke on the juice business, but on the glucose and any other part of the portfolio which caters to summer demand, do you see strong demand conditions? But on the supply side, in terms of say, aluminum cans, any market share gains can happen because in some of the other competitors, that could be a challenge. And pet bottle, how do you see the inflation on the supply side?

Right, so I'll take the second part of your question first, and then go to the first part of your question. The second part of the question was inflation. So when we were doing the budgets, we had budgeted a flat. We are lapping over our 6% inflation of last year. So we thought that most of the RMPM prices will remain benign in the marketplace. But that's not the case. With the war happening in the Middle East, we see a cascading impact happening across all countries and geographies. And therefore, the inflation is really picked up. And now we see an inflation of roughly around 10% hitting us in a lot of portfolios. Barring the portfolio of beverages and healthcare, HPC, all the subparts of the portfolio are reeling under pressure of inflation. And therefore, we've already announced a 4% price increases across different parts of the business to mitigate that inflationary impact that we are seeing. That's why I'm saying that part value growth will come in along with part volume growth. Plus, there's some benefit of GST also that we will be seeing in the first quarter for the low unit price points, etc. So, I think inflation will translate into price increases, and therefore the growth will be there. As far as the El Nino impact is concerned, we hear from MET and from you and from all the media people that this summer is going to be very severe, but we are not seeing that severity on ground as yet. But when we go outside, we only see thunderstorms here. I don't know how is Mumbai, Abneesh, at least Delhi and the North India, where we are very salient in beverages, we are seeing thunderstorms. And if that is anything to go by, I am a worried man. But if El Nino is what is to go by, then I will be a happy guy and I will see a double-digit growth in beverages and glucose. So I think we are all praying to the rain gods. To be kind to us, and not to rain, and praying to sun god to be more nicer to us. So that's what I can say. Because the basis are low, we should have expected a double-digit growth in these two portfolios, which are summer-centric portfolio, big time for us. So if the summer turns out to be acute, this will do very well. If not, because of the low basis, still we'll be better off than last year, in any case.

Sir, thanks. One last question. So, toothpaste, are you happy with the performance? I do understand 7% to 8% growth is not a bad number. And category growth, etc., yes, they can always give a picture, but ultimately, your historical performance in toothpaste has been on the higher side versus this 7% to 8% growth. In Q4, we saw Unilever also saw mutated growth, so you have done definitely better. So my question here is, are you happy with this performance, and are you seeing the number one player come back, because we are picking that up, that they are now coming back to a very respectable growth already in Q4, and maybe further acceleration obviously in Q1, So if you could talk about your satisfaction, and are you seeing the market leader come back?

Right, so not at all. I think we're not even at a threshold of satisfaction in terms of happiness index. So I think we are quite unhappy with this performance because the entire HPC portfolio has grown by 17%, with this being an outlier to outperformance for us is oral care only, where we've seen a muted performance of around 6-7% growth in oral care. So while we are respectable, if I talk to the category heads, they are very happy because the category is growing at 2.5% and we are growing by 7% and we are gaining market share. So they are very, very happy with this argument. But I think we've been growing at double digits here. And this is the most profitable growth. If you look at the full year number, our oral care growths are ahead of around 9-10%, so double digit growth. So, the least expected is a double-digit growth, and I think we should come back in quarter one with very strong double-digit growth here across Dabar Red, Miswar, Dabar Herbal. If I have to just tell you the numbers, our Miswar is continuing on a trajectory of a double-digit growth of around 11%. Our Herbal Toothpaste is growing by 30-40%. Our Dabar Red is growing at around 6-7%. Our Babool hasn't performed much. Babool growth is in the range of around 1-2%. So we've got a lot of work to be done on Babool and Lal Dant Banjan. I think we are ready with the arsenal. So ready to now go to the front line with LDM and LDM should fire. If you look at the category construct, category is growing by two and a half. We've grown by seven. So market share increases all the basics. Of market share, penetration, numbers, all that is by our side. But the whole tailwind of the herbal category is also with us as we speak. While the market leader may come back because of the low basis of last year and the spectacle growth will come back, but I think the tailwinds are favoring us. Because if you look at the herbal category, which I talked about in my speech also, the herbal category is growing by 2.8%. And sorry, the non-herbal is growing at 2.8% and the herbal is growing at 2x at around 6% growth rate. And we are the market leaders in the herbal category. So those tailwinds will only support our aspiration of growth that we have. So I think next quarter will be definitely better than the quarter four.

One last follow-up on your comments. So, do you see a disconnect between the, say, 2.5% oral category growth and your own 10 to 30% growth in many parts of the HPC portfolio? Other FMCG companies have also seen very strong numbers. So, it is not that only you are doing well, you are doing well. But the category growth of 2.5% that looks very low for the toothpaste business.

Yeah, I think it's just not toothpaste or niche. I think it's across the categories. What Nielsen data is showing, they are showing muted growth across FNCG. When we see and analyze our results and also the competitor results, we see everybody showing spectacular results this time. And we are not seeing any sort of granular signs of suppression on the marketplace. We are only seeing robust signs that growth is only recovering. That's why I'm talking about sequential recovery. But Nielsen data is the only, you know, dampener that I see, and they are showing that FNCG growths have got muted from 11% to 9%. That said, 9% is also very respectable growth out of which, you know, it's the volume, partially volume, partially value. But there's been a sequential decrease. I don't know if Nielsen is a lead indicator of things to come because inflation is picking up and because of inflation, volume will get suppressed and price will come in. So that's something which is a dichotomy, which I am not able to unfold.

So, thanks, sir. That's all from Israel.

Yeah, thanks. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Mihir Shah with Nomira. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. So just wanted to understand your comment on rural urban gap narrowing a bit better. Would it be fair to assume that urban growth is improving and rural growth is moderating down? And if so, you know, if you could highlight the key factors in your view that is driving both these changes. So that's question number one.

Yeah, so if you, I was just talking to Abneesh only that we see overall FMCG growth at around 9.2, out of which rural happens to be 11.4 and urban happens to be 8 percent. So, there are 300 basis points of difference between urban and rural, where rural is outfacing urban. And we see the same reflection of Nielsen gap in our business also. Our GT business is also grown by around 5%, in which also we see a 300 basis points difference between rural outspatting urban. So still rural tends to be doing well. But if I look at sequential numbers, the gap of 340 whips between urban and rural, which is there now, this gap used to be 500 basis point. So 500 has got narrowed down to around 340. That's why I'm saying and urban is sustaining, rural is coming down. Maybe it could be an impact of inflation a little bit. But this is not what we see in the markets right now. This is all Nielsen data. From our standpoint, both urban and rural are growing.

Understood. But because, you know, one was expecting post the GST changes, urban to do better, sorry, urban to do better, and so would rural also could have done better post the GST changes. So it is a bit surprising to understand why rural growth is moderating, especially if you think about the context of El Nino in FY27, which would pressure further rural growth. So, secondly, sir, if I could. Get your views on how should one think about FY27 from here on. You had indicated earlier that you expect high single-digit revenue growth and EBITDA growth to be a little bit better, but with the return of pricing growth and El Nino, which could pressure rural growth, how do you think that the entire math will work out both on revenue front and on margin front?

Yeah, so I'm not saying that we are seeing the depression in rural. I'm talking about Nielsen data. So for us, 9.2% growth is very healthy growth, and that's the syndicated data growth that we're talking about. And our business in India has also grown by 9.5%, and I'm talking about sequential improvement, both in urban as also rural, as far as we are concerned. So, earlier we had given a guidance of a high single. Now, we are wanting to revise it. We are seeing the high single to a low double because you've got some pricing coming in because of inflation. So, it will be a couple of pricing and volume. So, we'll see 50% growth may be coming from volume and 50% may be coming from price also. And over a period of time, volume could become lower and value could become higher, depending upon how the war situation and availability of raw material and packaging material, etc. is. So that we'll have to see. But I think the sequential recovery is only accelerating from here because of the value piece coming in.

That is clear on the revenue front. On the margin front, would you expect certain pressure on margins, at least in the near term, because of this and till the time the price increases land the market?

Yeah, so there is an inflation pressure. As I was saying, there's a 10% inflation is what we see. We've already mitigated our inflation for the quarter one, at least by way of price increases. There will be a second round of price increase also we'll have to take depending again on the war. The information trail on the war is changing situation every day. Today, rent has become softer. Yesterday, it was more expensive. So one really doesn't know where the thing will go. But as far as we are concerned, we want to increase the margins from last year to current year and mitigate all the inflation through price increases. Improve the margins going forward from here by way of either product mix, either pricing or the saving initiatives that we are planning and premiumization initiatives which are already planned as per our revision strategy.

Got it. Thank you very much. That is very clear. I'm wishing you all the very best. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the queue, you are requested to please restrict yourselves to two questions only. You may rejoin the queue if you have any further questions.

Our next question is from the line of Aditya Soman from CLSA.

Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity and good evening. So, two questions. Firstly, in the healthcare business, I'm assuming that your own brush business also declined just given the overall decline in the healthcare business. So, could you just throw some light on what happened and how do we sort of turn this business around, which has been relatively weak for a few quarters? That's one. And then a second question on, I heard you say that I think the price increases should mitigate margin impact. Does that mean that margin should be sort of or top-line growth and margin growth should be similar for 1Q?

Sorry, could you repeat the second part of the question, please?

Yeah, so you indicated that the margin impact in 1Q should be mitigated by the price increases that we've taken. So effectively, we are saying that top line growth should remain similar with more pricing but would profit growth also be similar to what we saw in 4Q and 1Q?

All right. So, Aditya, second part of the question first. I think the margins will sequentially improve. If you look at our operating margins also, our operating margins are the lowest in the fourth quarter, which happens to be a beverage quarter and a summer-centric quarter. So, the margins are lower. If you enter the first quarter, in any case, sequentially, the margins will improve. But not just sequentially, we want to improve the margins year on year on back of premiumization and on back of pricing and other initiatives that the people are taking. That's on the margins. On the healthcare portfolio, our healthcare portfolio is not doing bad. Optically, it seems that it's not really firing as compared to HPC portfolio, which is obviously, you know, a big glimmer of strength for us. But the healthcare portfolio, if you just look at the glucose, which declined by around 24-25% for us in the last quarter, rest the entire portfolio, ex-glucose, has grown by around plus 12.5% for us. So that's a very healthy growth in healthcare, which is also margin-eccretive to the overall business. So, I think the only in Chavan Praj, it happens to be a low season for Chavan Praj. It's completely inconsequential. Our honey business, which is a part of health supplement, has grown by 25%. Our hajmola has grown by 12.7%. Candies have grown by 9%. And we've gained market shares of 233 basis points. Our pudinara is high single-digit growth. Our ESAP goal has grown by 53%. I told you about honey, which is actually grown for us. Our honey test is grown by 36%. Our health juices have grown by 29%. Laltel, 10%. Shilajit, again, declined in the business. So I think 90% of the portfolio, barring due cost, is all grown in terms of market shares also, and in terms of revenue as well. So, I don't think there's any problem. Chavanplash becomes salient in the winter timing only, and that's when it's consequential.

No, I understand very clear. So, it is just glucose that has led to this mid-synchronous decline in the overall business. Correct. Correct.

That's right.

And so, what would the, just for my, what would the salience of glucose be in a normal quarter in 4Q?

In 4Q, it's around 20-25% of the business is glucose. So, look at now, a 25% business declining by 20% and balanced portfolio with a 12% growth. You can look at the kind of growth, which is 20% plus growth on balance of the portfolio, which is a trajectory that we are having as we speak. And, you know, another tailwind for us in healthcare is now the branded business. And the classical business has all become 5% GST. So, that's a tailwind that we people are facing. Earlier, it used to be 12%. 12% went down to around 5%. That's a tailwind on entire Ayurveda and healthcare for us. That is also going to help us take healthcare to the new levels.

That's right, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Siddhesh Deshmukh from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. This is Percy Pantaki here. Just wanted to understand the growth, I mean, very good growth in HPC at mid to high teens kind of numbers. Uh, what is really driving this? I understand there is a low base effect to some extent. And therefore, on a two-year giga, the numbers are a little more sort of reasonable. But how do we look at this going forward? Do we look at this mid-teens, high-teens kind of growth in that part of the business to be able to continue on a YOY basis even in the current quarters due to some initiatives? And if so, can you enumerate what those initiatives are? Because we were struggling to give a high single-digit growth also in some parts of our portfolio, which are now growing at sort of close to 20%, and some of the other parts which are growing at sort of mid to high single digits were probably declining also. So what really has happened apart from the boost effect becoming normal, because the initiatives, even every quarter on the call, we have several sort of initiatives to boost the business, but it seems suddenly only this quarter they have worked very well.

I get you. So, now on the hair oils, what has driven this growth in HPC? I'll come to that. Hair oil business has actually grown by 28%, and it is just not value or the pricing growth, it's the inflation of coconut oil that you've seen as a competitor. But for us, it is a growth which is driven by more value-added oils of what we call perfumed oils. So there's only a price increase of 9%. Rest is around 14% volume growth. And the coconut portfolio is grown by 48%. And all the brands, whether it's Dabur Amla, growing by 26, Amand, growing at 57%. And now, one in every two households, you know, Dabur hair oils are being used in the Hindi-speaking belt completely. And our penetrations have moved up. Our market shares have moved up by 154 basis points. So it is not just a base effect. It is actually penetration, which is actually moving up. It is market shares, which are moving up. And what's happening on ground is that coconut prices went up. Due to the coconut oil prices going up, the index between perfume oil and coconut oil actually narrowed, because of which narrowed and therefore the consumer shift is being seen from coconut to perfume. And that has, to a certain extent, helped us most of the growth of the value-added hair oils. And our majority of the portfolio is value-added hair oils, which is what is the organic reason of growth. Now, what we are doing, initiatives we are taking in hair oils is we are proposing new launches. To fill up our aspiration of premiumization. So, therefore, you will see premium offerings coming in quarter one and quarter two in the hair oils portfolio, and which are post-bath application product for hair oils and hair nourishment. Our shampoo business is grown by 20%. And in this, there has been an attempt, a conscious attempt, to shift the sachet saliency towards the bottle saliency. The sachet is more value, bottle is more value-equative to the overall portfolio and also profit-equative. So, therefore, our profits have improved in shampoos, and so is our value going up in shampoos. There's been a conscious attempt. On the emerging channels like e-com, we are introducing premium offerings of shampoos, and our motor saliency, as we speak, in the quarter is up to around 22%, and we expect the saliency to even move up further. As far as oral care is concerned, the third bucket of the HPC, that has grown by around 6-7%, and as I was saying, we are not very happy with that kind of a growth. I think because post-GST, there was a little higher stocking up, which happened in the trade, and this time it got evened out. But I think coming quarter, oral care will see a real bump up in the business. So I expect oral care to continue on its trajectory of double digits, which is what we registered in the full year. Home care portfolio, home care is grown by 24% and we expect it to sustain that growth with O'Donnell growth at 20% and jail pockets is a tailwind on the whole category. Category itself is growing at high single digit and we are gaining market shares. We've gained around 243 whips in market shares and we've got a lot of new initiatives also planned in O'Donnell brand, including car fresheners, etc., which is being planned. In skincare, we've got a growth of around 12.5%. Gulabari continues to do well, and we are planning to extend Gulabari into larger categories of body baths, etc., and wanting to democratize them across channels, which is not the case as of now. Then, so that's big picture HPC. The whole year HPC has seen a double-digit growth, and we expect next year also HPC to grow at double-digit, if not high teens. At least a double-digit is a bare minimum that we expect HPC to grow.

Got it, got it. And what is your expectation for food and beverages for the full year?

I told you food and beverages, we penciled a target for us for a double-digit growth because of the low base, say, and on an assumption that season will play out in our favor. But if the season does not play out and if monsoons are disrupting the business, then the whole category will get impacted. And not just us. That said, we are gaining market shares in our respective category, whether it's coconut water or it's 100% juices or it's nectar or drinks. We are gaining market shares. So, we pencil the double-digit growth. The food part of the F&B with the culinary is growing at 30% for us, and we are not even scratching the market surface with fats and oils, which is very small for us. So, we are wanting to grow food and beverage. Our Baatsha business, which is also part of our food portfolio, is growing at 12%, and we want to continue on that trajectory.

And last question, if I might quickly squeeze in on margins. If I see your history over the long term, in any year where there is a sharp crude inflation, the EBITDA margin always drops. I don't think, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'll also probably relook at my data. I don't think there is a single year in which there has been a sharp spike in crude, and the margins have even stayed flat. So, how is it that you are targeting margin expansion this year on a full year basis over FY26? What specific levers do we have apart? From pricing, which you think can drive this?

Hi, let me take this and then Mr. Mohit. So, you know, in at least what clear visibility we have till Q1, our attempt is that we would be able to maintain our margins at least in our India business for sure. And then, you know, we are taking very good price increases or, you know, reducing damage or millage, you know, stepping up our saving initiatives, etc. Plus, also optimizing our some of the trade and CP spends. So, quarter one, we have clear bit of visibility in this. We are also preparing, as we think, we are very volatile, you know, we are also preparing for Q2. And we are watchful about the international business. And we'll have greater visibility. Maybe, you know, towards the next few weeks about international business as well. But, yeah, we are working towards that.

As a party to Ankush's point, I think domestic business, we are very clear that most of the inflationary benefits of whether LLP or crude, etc., we'll pass on to the consumer. That's what we'll do. Even if we have to take a little bit cut in terms of shares, we are okay with it. And if a competitor doesn't take it, we have to take it. We will bite that bullet, but we will protect our margins. So that is one. International business, we are not too sure of, because if the war continues unabated, then there could be a pressure on terms of margins from international. But as of now, we are wanting to mitigate that. So, India business, I don't think there should be so much of pressure.

Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Prakash Kapadia from Kapadia Financial Services. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity. What active was, you know, smaller part of the juices portfolio? Is there always helping us? Is it new variants, newer channels? And what is, you know, happening on the larger part, real juice and coconut water? What is, you know, working well for us? Because, you know, it's a pretty competitive category. A lot of players there, right from Paperboard to Storia to Fresho to Preso, Tata's, Coco Mama only. So, is that a segment tailwind or consumer preferences are changing? So, that insight would help. And lastly, you know. Raw material cost, I think packaging was always one third of our RM basket. So, you know, given the inflationary pressure and the input cost, we are seeing is the focus now on bridge packs, larger packs, what is LUP contribution currently and what, you know, are we planning in terms of growth to offset some of these costs? Those are my three questions. Thank you.

All right. I got two parts of your question. I think third part, I'll come back to you. So, first of all, on the juices portfolio, active portfolio, you're absolutely right. Active portfolio is a small part of our business. The larger part of the business is nectar. Active is growing at around 26%, and we are wanting to scale it up. All the advertising and above-the-line communication, we are wanting to pivot towards active because active is the one that drives the consumer franchise towards the real. And there is also a consumer preference very clearly, which is going from drinks and nectars to juices. So it's also a beneficiary of the tailwind, which is there in the category. So that's where there is no artificial sugar added and it's only natural fruit sugar. So that is what is driving the whole category. As far as coconut water is also concerned, it is supposed to be a non-sin drink, sort of, and it's taking business from. Carbonated beverages. So, the whole market is growing. As far as competitive intensity is concerned, it's not... In the category Astoria, who was the number one who created the category, and there's number two, which is us. We delayed our entry into this whole market of coconut water because we didn't have infrastructure to produce it. We've already put an APET line now and we've got surplus capacity. So we are bursting from seams in terms of capacity and we are augmenting capacity as we go on and we'll be producing this and whatever we are producing is what we are selling. So there's a 100% growth happening in our coconut water portfolio. So although it is also small in significance as compared to overall, but this is what we are trying to build. And because growing by 100%, so it will become huge in scale. The nectar part of the portfolio, which is the larger piece, there we are introducing newer variants. We've introduced pet waters there. We're introducing new price points on 50 rupee, 100 rupee also to bolster that. And that is where the... And that's what we are trying to do. So, new variants will come in. We are wanting to reduce the sugar over there also. And that's how we'll add new price points to plug the gaps in the marketplace on the nectar. So, that's the part on beverages. And on back of all this, we expected a double-digit growth if the weather supports us. Now, the second part of your question is packaging. Packaging one-third of the RMB and basket, yes. Because the crude prices have gone up, packaging costs have moved up, and to mitigate that inflationary... Precious. We are doing price increases as I've been telling you multiple times. Other initiatives that we are taking is shrink relation. So all the 10 rupee, 20 rupee bags, we are reducing grammage. Because we can't breach those price points, and we want to maintain those price points, so that we are reducing grommage, which we had increased during GST. So we are revising all that, so there's a headroom available there, from the pre-GST time to the post-GST time, so that comes in handy, it's an easier call for us to take, we already have the molds, the gestation period is low, so we'll be able to pass on the price increase. We've almost contributed around 30% of our overall business, and that will grow as we increase our rural business, because that is more LUP business.

I think that was it. And on coconut water, we should look at 100 crore ARR currently. Are we there?

No, no. We are already 100 crores. We are looking at 150-200 crores ARR. Okay, 100 crore ARR.

Okay. We are looking at around 150 crore. 150 crore, okay.

Exit rate.

Yeah, etc. And on honey, what has been the growth for the whole year, if you have that handy value terms?

Honey in the quarter growth is around 24%. Full year growth, I will tell you. Honey growth is around 18% for us. 18% and honey is growing because, honey is growing because even arvind and the number of honey is really picking up. And honey as a category is growing and we are growing ahead of the category and therefore gaining shares in modern trade. So there we have gained 150 bps. There is a little bit of pressure that we are facing from unorganized players in the rural markets, which we are planning to correct to the right price points in honey. Plus our new variants on honey like Sundarban honey and organic honey are doing well and they are value accretive and profit accretive to the base brand, although it's only 2-3% of the total brand. But I think that's what we want to scale going forward, value-added honey. Yeah.

Understood. That's helpful. Thank you. All the best. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Shithij Jadav with Wealth Culture. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hello. So my question was that we have delivered margin expansion despite having a higher advertising spend this quarter. So now with the inflationary pressure now, if it sustains at the current level, so do you believe there will be further margin expansion in FY27? Or will it be some challenges? And will it be more advertising friends or will it be limited to advertising friends?

Right. So we are committed to increasing our margins going forward, as I mentioned earlier also. So advertising will depend upon how much money we have available. Because, you know, in a situation where the inflation is very high, there's invariably consolidation which happens in the market. Smaller players get marginalized and larger players become bigger. And when the market construct is shrinking, it's not very prudent to advertise and splurge with advertising so much. Better to retain your consumers by giving better value to them. So we will prioritize our margin to our media going forward. While we are committed to doing more media and doing more demand, but when the inflation is very high, it's better to protect the base business. So I think margins will not be compromised. And we have an endeavor of doing more advertising. But if the saving initiatives kind of give us more cost savings, then that will be deployed into advertising. But margins will definitely be given a priority.

And my second question was, I wanted a detail on, I mean, after increasing your input cost, and how are you balancing your pricing versus protecting our market share and consumption growth?

Sorry, I didn't quite get your question.

I was talking about that now we are going to be increasing our input costs. So, input costs are going to be increasing. So, how are we balancing pricing actions and consumption growth?

Yeah, so input costs are increasing. To offset that input cost increase, we will be doing price increases, like I mentioned to you, on the larger packs. In the smaller packs, where we can't do price increases at 10 to be 20 to be there, we'll be doing shrinkflation. We'll be shrinking our packs. So that's a surrogate sort of a price increases. And that's how we'll be protecting our margins.

Okay, that's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Manoj Menon with ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, Mohit and team. I have only one question on the QCommerce channel. What's the salience currently? Point number two, how the, let's say, the growth rate would have been over the last one year? And point number three, if I have to pick the top three categories for you specifically, you should have, you know, had tailwinds from the QCommerce channel. Thank you.

Right. So, the salience of quick commerce in e-commerce is almost like 70-75% Manoj for us. So, that's drastically gone up. It used to be 50%, but 50% from quarter 3 to 75% in quarter 4. So, I think it's really growing. And salience is 75%. Growth rate is 50%. And most salient categories here are beverages, there is food, then there is also personal care, home care is pretty big for us there, and other HPC categories like shampoos and hair oils will drain, but healthcare will be the last of all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Kunal Vora from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks. I wanted to understand to what extent has GST rate cut helped in driving the growth revival? So if you try to split your portfolio into categories in which you've seen GST rate cut and those which you've not, has the growth rate in categories in which you've seen GST rate cut significantly higher compared to where you've not?

Yeah, so GST has really helped us, Kunal. So, wherever HPC, 70% of our portfolio, we were on a higher GST, where the GST rates have got moderated. And there, the growths are stupendous. All the growth that you're seeing in hair oils for us, in shampoos for us, in oral care for us, barring home and skincare, where the GST did not impact. In all these three categories are the ones who've driven the growth. So, GST has kind of really helped us. Helped us in the terms of... Prices, which is optical, immediate term, and also long-term in terms of demand building. So I think both ways.

And even in healthcare portfolio, even in healthcare, OTC, digestives, other portfolios, GST has come down, has come down. It is helping drive consumption care. Because the MRPs have come down, and also the gap between unorganized players and dended players has actually narrowed down.

Understood. Some of these benefits are more structural, that, like, you become more competitive, and that benefit continues.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Right. Second is, on international business, especially in the Middle East, what's happening now? I mean, how do you see that playing out? Are you able to export now? What kind of impact you could see in the impacted markets in the coming quarter?

Yeah, so our Middle East business is a good substantial, 30-35% of our overall international business, so that is impacted. And supply chain disruptions are the ones which are really creating havoc for us, besides inflation, which is there. And number three is demand, which is going down because expats leaving the Middle Eastern, where there are huge Indian expats and Asian expats who are there. So threefold impact. So first impact is supply chain, second impact. First is inflation. The third impact is demand. So first impact on supply chain disruptions, we're opening up newer routes from India and from Egypt or from Turkey, etc. And getting into the other markets. So we were unduly impacted because our supply chains were geared from Russell Kema, which is Middle East. And that's what we're doing. Alternative supply locations will be coming at a higher cost and therefore margin erosion. But therefore price increases will come and help us there. The second victory is inflation. So we are already announcing price increases there to offset to whatever extent we can mitigate that inflation through price increases. And third, demand. So, because we hope the situation should normalize and the expats should come back to the market. And the way the war has kind of ebbed for the time being, we think the situation is only short-lived and we will expect a correction there. Yeah.

So what's the initial assessment for the international business? Where do you see the growth rates as well as what kind of margin rate you might be taking there?

See, our international business growth rate traditionally has been double-digit business. We expect international business to grow in double digits, although volume will go down, price increase will go down, but dollar is appreciated as compared to rupee. So, I think that upside, Indian rupee depreciating by 6% is a delta on translation gain that we will get as far as top line is concerned, and cost saving, etc., that we will do for the bottom line.

Understood. And lastly, what will be the rough raw material cost split? I mean, what kind of linkage do you have with crude, like besides packing material?

No, sorry, I didn't get your question.

Yeah, I mean, like, the key raw materials which you use, I mean, raw materials split for you, packing material and raw material, like, especially the ones which have crude linkage, how much do they contribute?

So, crude linkage in overall global business? 25%? 25%. So, crude link business will be 25% from a raw material perspective. If you look packaging material, it could be a little higher. Understood. I know that's what I'm saying.

Okay, okay. That's it for me. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have no further questions. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Sarawgi for closing comments. Over to you, sir.

Thank you all for joining us today on our earnings call. The webcast recording and transcript will be available on our website. Thank you and I have a great evening.

Thank you. On behalf of Dhamar India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.