Hello, everyone. On behalf of JM Financial, I would like to welcome you all to Vedant Fashions Q3 FY26 earnings conference call.

From the management today, we have with us Mr. Rahul Murarka, CFO, and Mr.

Neeraj Saraf, GM FP&A and Head Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sirs.

Good afternoon, namaskar, and a warm welcome to all participants. I am Rahul Murarka, the Chief Financial Officer of the company.

I am accompanied with Mr. Neeraj Saraf, GM FP&A and Investor Relations.

Thank you for joining us today to discuss Vedant Fashions Limited Q3 and nine-month FY26 results. I hope you got an opportunity to go through our financial results and investor presentations, which have been uploaded on the stock exchange as well as the company's website.

During the quarter, sale of our customers was around ₹692 crore, and during nine-month period, it was around ₹1,447 crore, with a growth of around 5.4%. Further, SSG during the nine-month of FY26 stood at 1.8%.

As highlighted in our earlier discussions, this year, our focus remained firmly on strengthening the quality of our retail business. This is reflected in the improvement across our retail KPIs during the quarter as well as nine months period.

Our continued strategic emphasis on enhancing customer experience, deepening design offerings, introducing attractive price points, strengthening retail training, leveraging data-led merchandising and replenishment, and maintaining disciplined KPI management have collectively supported in improvement of key retail KPIs and also improved inventory turns. In line with the calibrated approach, we pursued selective store expansion while rationalizing smaller formats and underperforming locations, resulting in net addition of approximately 5,500 square feet during the quarter.

Additionally, we launched another flagship Twamev exclusive brand outlet of 9,000 square feet in Mumbai, which further strengthens our footprint for premium retail presence. During the year, we executed an integrated marketing strategy across our brands and channels, leveraging a balanced mix of digital and traditional platforms to enhance brand visibility, sharpen brand positioning, and deepen consumer engagement.

Our initiatives included category-led campaigns, new wedding collection launches, festive and occasion-based promotions, store-level activations, and influencer collaborations. A key highlight during the quarter was the successful launch of The Manyavar Shaadi Show, a six-episode YouTube podcast hosted by famous celebrity Karan Johar.

The series explored interesting take on modern India wedding planning, blending humor, celebrity conversations, and expert insights. It featured well-known celebrity personalities, industry experts, celebrity couples like Kriti Kharbanda and Pulkit Samrat, covering themes across wedding fashion, styling trends, photography, bridal entries, and evolving customer expectations.

The series also explored topics such as real wedding stories, the evolution of wedding fashion, the growing influence of social media, and the importance of preserving wedding memories. The show has delivered strong viewership and very positive feedback, which further strengthen long-term brand equity through celebrity-led storytelling, reinforcing our connect with the modern Indian wedding customers.

Additionally, we continued to strengthen our brand portfolio through focused campaigns across levers. Mohey carried forward its Mohey Rango campaign, celebrating India's vibrant festive spirit.

Then, Twamev built further momentum around its Truly You proposition through new collection launches and influencer-led storytelling. Mevaz launched its new campaign, Celebration Begins with Mevaz, and Vivaham executed targeted digital and social media initiatives during key festive periods to expand reach and engagement across marketplaces.

Collectively, all these efforts have enhanced brand positioning and consumer appeal across platforms, with the positive impact expected to play out sustainably over the long term. Now, I would like to highlight the key financial performance metrics for the quarter and nine months period ended 31st December 2025.

Starting from Q3 FY26 performance update, revenue from operation during the period was around ₹492 crore. The company continues to report healthy gross margin of 65.7% and healthy EBITDA margin of 44.6%.

The company reported best-in-class PAT margin of around 27.4%, and a profit after tax stood at around ₹135 crore. Now, coming to nine months period, the company reported revenue from operation of ₹1,036 crore, with a growth of around 1.7%.

The company continued to report healthy gross margin of around 66%, along with healthy EBITDA margin of around 44%. The EBITDA during the period stood at around ₹453 crore.

The company also reported healthy PAT margin of 25.2%, and a profit after tax stood at around ₹261 crore. Moreover, during the trailing 12 period December '25, the company reported strong and healthy cash conversion ratio of approx 99%, which has been computed based upon operating cash flow to PAT excluding tax, etc.

During Q3 of FY26, our overall performance was significantly impacted due to December month on account of fewer wedding dates in December and no wedding dates in January, coupled with muted consumer sentiments. I'm

positive overall and SSSG growth in view of festivity and wedding during the period. Furthermore, our premium brand, Twamev, is doing really well, with an overall growth of 40% in Q3 and YTD, along with SSG growth of 12% in Q3 and around 16% in YTD.

Encouraged by the [robust?] traction and rising premiumization trend, we plan to further accelerate and scale this segment faster in future.

Going forward, we remain firmly focused on our core strengths, supported by various ongoing initiatives to drive sustainable long-term growth. We are optimistic that various government initiatives already undertaken will support a revival in consumer sentiment over the coming periods, and we are fully prepared to capitalize on the improving demand environment.

Now, we can move to the Q&A session.

Hi, Rahul. Thanks for the opportunity.

Rahulji,

we have seen compression in gross margin without commensurate acceleration in growth. If you can start by kind of sharing your thoughts on gross margin compression and how to think about this trade-off that let's say if gross margin goes down, can we expect some acceleration in growth, or both are not related, at least in the current market construct?

Thank you for your question, Tejas. In the earlier periods, Tejas, we have been able to achieve exceptional gross margins.

This time, in the current Q3, the gross margin got impacted majorly because of GST because as we have discussed earlier, in 90% of our products, GST rates have increased from 12% to 18%. However, following a balanced approach from a consumer lens and consumer prospect, we have not increased MRP of all the products.

Hence, we wanted to deliver products which are aspirational yet value for money. Accordingly, there is some level of one-time GST impact which has come on our revenue as well as margins and profitability, which we believe that will get normalized to a large extent in the upcoming period.

As far as growth is concerned, we are working on various different aspects. We are taking a lot of initiatives around designs, varieties, price points to be more competitive and how we can bring more fresh thought for the consumer, how we can improve that consumer experience.

We are also doing a lot of marketing initiatives, like we started The Manyavar Shaadi Show with Karan Johar. We have also started a new campaign with [unclear].

We are doing a lot of new initiatives which typically we feel is happening, brand building.

Okay. Sure.

Yeah.

Tejas, I think I don't know from where did you lose me during the conversation. On gross margin, I'll just start from the beginning to be more relevant.

On gross margin, in the earlier period, we have been able to achieve exceptional gross margins. During Q3 and this period, the gross margin got impacted because of GST.

As we are all aware that in our segment, GST had increased from 12% to 18% in 90% of our products. However, we have not increased MRP to that extent, considering the balanced consumer approach and to ensure that we deliver products which are aspirational yet value for money.

As a result, there has been one-time impact of GST in our revenue as well as profitability, which we feel will get normalized to a great extent in the upcoming periods. However, as a management, from a gross margin prospect, we are very confident that we will be able to achieve 65% plus of gross margin, as we have informed earlier as well.

Sure. Second question, we don't have a like-to-like peer set as such.

When we see names or numbers of Aditya Birla Fashion's ethnic portfolio or Sai Silks, at least from context of that peer set, it seems that we are losing market share. How would you frame your relative market position in this context?

Is this divergence more cyclical, regional, or execution-led? How would you kind of try to explain that?

Sure. On competition, what our take is that we have done a lot of market survey at the ground level and we have been closely monitoring competition at our end.

What we feel is that there has been overall multiple level of consolidation at an industry level. Because what we are seeing are the organized few players who have started very recently in one, two years, it's fine.

At an industry level, we have actually witnessed a lot of multiple consolidation. Even we have seen few players having 5, 10 stores at Pan-India level winding up their business.

We are very confident on our moat which we have, and we feel that as far as competition is concerned, it continues to go on, which is obvious. As far as few players which you mentioned on ethnic portfolio, it is very low for them.

As a result, at a low base with new stores opened in last one, two years, it is very obvious that the number will show very positive. From our prospect, if you ask me, also if you talk about Tasva, one of the brands you have been mentioning.

We talk about premiumization to a great extent. Look, currently, what we see when we talk about consumer sentiment, premiumization is actually in play.

Our brand Twamev also has been doing exceptionally well during Q3 as well as the YTD period, which is a premium segment. It is, of course, a base is low, as the other competitors also you mentioned.

When we talk about our brand Twamev, which is a premium segment and doing exceptionally well, I would say. In Q3, we report 12% SSG growth.

In YTD, we reported 16% SSG growth, and overall, we reported 40% overall growth. With the kind of figures which we have, it is very encouraging, and we have plans to faster expand it in near future.

That is how we look at competition as of now.

Got it. I'll get back in queue for more questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening, sir, and thanks for taking my question.

Firstly, I understand there has been a peculiarity due to wedding dates this quarter. Even when the quarter started, you would not have expected a decline in sales.

There would be some more additional factors that have come in this quarter. It would be helpful if you could highlight some of those as to what exactly has happened apart from, of course, the wedding dates mismatch.

Sure. I'll give the entire conversation on the Q3, why Q3 got impacted, and which will cover the other factors also, Sameer.

Thank you for your question. Basically, our Q3 performance got impacted because of January month because this year, there were no weddings in January at all, no single date in for weddings.

Vis-a-vis last year, there were 11 wedding dates in January. Furthermore, in December also, this year, there were only three dates till 6th of December, wherein last year, it was pretty scattered till 14th of December, and there were six wedding dates.

Of course, there has been a major impact of December month. Because overall, when we look at our October plus November performance, We have done decent business, and our business performance was positive.

Furthermore, what has happened is that this time, festivities have started very early. Like Navratri last time started in October.

This time, Navratri started at the end of September only. As a result, some part of revenue also got booked in September.

If you look at our business performance from September to November, again, we were able to do very decent good business, positive both L2L and overall growth. However, it is the month of December which got so significantly impacted that the overall Q3 performance got impacted.

The good part is that with all this happening, our all retail KPIs, ABS, ABV, everything has been doing very well. Because of the hard work which we have done at the ground level, so that is a very positive sign from business fundamental aspect.

Now what more important factor which is playing, as you mentioned, Sameer, that what we were not knowing is that the impact of consumer sentiment. This was one thing which again we felt that, with all the initiatives the government has taken on the GST and various other things, we were also very optimistic that the consumer sentiment would significantly go up, I would say.

However, we did not see any major shift in that consumer sentiment, specially in the middle-class segment. Because Manyavar is catering to the middle-class segment.

We have seen that the value and premium are still doing very well, but middle class is a segment which is getting impacted where Manyavar is getting affected. If you look at our brand like Twamev, which is a premium segment brand, so that has done exceptionally well because premiumization is in play.

These are the various aspects which have impacted. The point there is, look, as a management, we have been doing a lot of hard work at our ground level.

We have taken a lot of initiatives for price point, designs, marketing initiatives, and we feel that once the macro-level environment get better in upcoming periods, whatever hard work we have done as a management, as a company, should show very positive results going forward.

Great, Rahul. That's very helpful.

A second question, this is a third consecutive year of subpar performance. Now I'm not asking particularly for this quarter, but if you analyze data over the past three years, you would have identified some pain points.

Just wanted to understand what are those pain points that you have identified? You mentioned the middle class is seeing a challenge.

Is that kind of being validated in your data that it's the mid-end where the growth has been slower, or is it entry price points, is it non-wedding merchandise, smaller stores, stores where there is competition that has come up nearby, is it certain geographies that are lagging behind? Any kind of analysis on this would be helpful.

Sure. Look, in last two, three years, last one year at least, what we have witnessed is that as we discussed, that the middle-class consumer sentiment has actually been muted, and it has affected all the consumer companies.

We are also one of them. Because we also are wedding-based discretionary, while, when wedding happens, of course, the bride and the groom will wear, but what happens is that the other attendees and the family members, that is where the impact starts coming, and which is affecting us also.

That is on the consumer sentiment, which has been affecting us for last at least one year, I would say. On the competition, as I explained, that, of course, after we did the IPO, lots of stores have opened.

More than organized, I would say, unorganized, lot of players have opened. We have seen a lot of consolidation, multiple level of consolidation also at the ground level, which we are already seeing.

Even the new players, even the organized players who started opening two, three years back stores, even they have closed the stores. Major consolidation has already been started happening at the ground level for the unorganized players and overall concept industry level.

Of course, competition would have some impact. When we monitor performance of our stores where competition is there and where competition is not there, we don't see any major delta.

In fact, the data which we come across of a store where just nearby competition has come up, we see a slightly positive delta also, which also surprises in a way. That is where we understand that there's something else which is there apart from the competition.

That is why consumer sentiment is something which we felt. As far as price point is concerned, look, as I mentioned that we have taken a lot of initiatives on ensuring that we have entry price points also.

We have done a lot of work. I'll give you an example, like for kurta set and jacket, there's one price point called 2624.

We have strengthened a lot in this price point to ensure that our products are very competitive at a very attractive price point. After GST, it was good for us also and made more helpful for the consumer.

We have done a lot of market surveys on the price points and how we can improve ourselves from a price point wise and from a designing prospect also, and have done a lot of groundwork at the ground level. That, whenever things improve, we will be in a position to leverage that positivity.

Just a follow-up here. Competition is consolidating, your efforts are in place, but recovery on growth still is contingent on overall macro pick up.

Is that a fair understanding?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Or you feel there is confidence now that next year, you will probably add retail area which has been missing this year?

That is another thing. You have rightly highlighted that, Sameer, because this year, strategically, we were focusing on improving the quality of our retail footprint to improve the overall quality of our business from a long-term sustainability prospect.

We feel that our store expansion should start normalizing from next two, three quarters. Of course, from the upcoming financial year, we expect that the store opening should also start normalizing.

That will be another lever of growth for us, which currently because strategically we were not focusing on that, it was not there. That will also help a lot in future.

Got it, Rahul. That's very, very helpful.

I'll come back in the queue for any follow-ups.

Thank you.

Hi. Thanks a lot for taking my question.

I would once again like you to talk about the growth aspect. I just want to ask if we look at our performance over a year, like over a trailing 12 months or something, I think within that period, the number of weddings would be normalized, right?

That should be our assumption. I think if we are still not able to grow, is it because the category per se is losing relevance, and things that we used to mention that we are moving to more traditional wear during weddings, etc., and that trend has stalled?

Secondly, in this GST environment, are the unorganized players at an advantage given that whether they would not be paying properly or something like that, because of which, and they would be discounting more. Are these factors also playing out?

Thanks.

Thank you for your question. As far as the trend of traditional wear is concerned, we have been the lead player encouraging people to wear Indian wear over the years.

That has really played a lot positively across. That is where we can see a lot of competition also coming up.

If you also look at recent high-profile weddings, then we have seen that even foreigners are wearing Indian wear and attending the weddings. And 99% plus attendees are wearing Indian wear.

From an industry prospect, Indian wear is actually into play, and it is doing really well, not only in weddings, but also across festivities and celebrations. Thankfully, we have been able to have those campaigns which have helped overall improvement in sentiments and overall motivating everyone to wear Indian wear over the years.

From an industry prospect, and that is where so many players we see, both organized and unorganized, coming and opening the store in this industry. From an industry prospect, it is a very growing industry, and there is no challenge at all.

Now as far as unorganized players is concerned, look, our 80% basis what we did earlier, 80% of our market We got a survey done a few years before, basis 80% of our market is unorganized players. Of course, in last three, four years, a lot of stores have opened in the unorganized segment.

We acknowledge that there would be some impact of competition in our business. Having said that, the major reason of the business performance which we see in last one year or so is because of the consumer sentiment and macro aspect, which have played a more important role and a major role in our business performance rather than competition.

As far as competition status is concerned, look, while many unorganized players have opened the stores in last three years, but we have seen a lot of consolidation also at the ground level and at the industry level. As I mentioned, there are also a few players which were having 5 to 10 stores at Pan-India level.

They have also winded up all the stores. Our industry is a very challenging industry.

There are various moats which are required. We are very confident on our moats, what we have been able to develop in last two decades.

Because understanding customer taste and preference across Pan-India, working on the supply chain, and also look retail and apparel works on discounting mode. Earlier, there was only one, two months in a year where discounting used to happen, EOSS.

Now you would see a normal retail player is having discounting, EOSS, across the year. Now in our segment, EOSS is something which generally doesn't give more benefit to any other retail player because if you put sherwani in 50% discount, nobody is going to buy unless there's a wedding.

There are a lot of challenges in our industry which is not possible for any unorganized player to cope up with. They are having very small working capital.

Obviously, in one, two years, it looks exciting. Once the overall liquidity gets stuck because the inventory is not moving, because EOSS discount doesn't play a role, that is where the consolidation starts.

Good part about us is that, look, overall, all our KPIs have been increasing across, year on year. Every year, we are seeing every quarter while, of course, the revenue-wise overall, we have not been able to grow to a great extent.

As far as retail KPI is concerned, which is the main fundamental and basics of running retail, that is growing every quarter and every year, which is the most important thing. We have been able to fundamentally maintain our margins also at a pretty good level.

That is where we feel that as soon as the macro environment improves, we would be the first person, and we would be in a very advantageous situation basis whatever initiatives we have taken in last one year at the ground.

All right. Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

I'll come back.

Yeah. Hi.

Good evening, Rahul. Good evening, Neeraj.

Just couple of questions, and I'll get back in the queue. Firstly, you mentioned about store consolidation still going on, and then next year should look better.

Could you elaborate a bit? Could you give more color?

Where are we on this journey? What have we seen in this nine months?

We've seen some more shutdowns in third quarter. Just a bit of elaboration on what is the thought process right now, and how do we see next two years evolving on a top-down basis?

That will really help. That's the first question.

Thank you, Rahul, for your question. Strategically, as a management, we focused on improving the quality of our retail footprints, which will result in improving the quality of our business.

That would be helpful for a long-term sustainability of the business from a long-term prospect. That is where we were focusing on our retail footprint which existing we have.

There were some store closures which we have done last year and current year also because of various reasons, starting from smaller stores. Because if you will see, our majority store expansion are having in the flagship segment.

We are opening more larger stores. In order to improve the overall brand identity and customer experience, we have been closing smaller stores of 1,000 square feet and less, including the SIS stores.

That is one reason. Secondly, generally, because Indian environment is dynamic, many cities in India are also dynamic, new markets are evolving, old markets are getting old.

There are a lot of market shifts are also which are happening within a city. That is another reason what we are doing is that we are closing the store in market which are very old and now where the market is not doing so well because it has shifted to another location.

That is another reason. Third is, of course, there are certain stores which are not very very much performing as per our KPIs.

That is why we are consolidating on those things. What we feel and are very confident as a management is that once this exercise is over in next two, three quarters So to answer your question, Rahul, we feel that this exercise should get over in next two, three quarters.

From there on, we feel that the quality of business and the overall productivity should be very good. As far as store expansion is concerned, this is where store expansion also we have not seen much store expansion this year strategically.

We feel that the store expansion should start normalizing from next two, three quarters.

Right. If I look at the store count, right?

June '23, we had similar stores, 664-odd. Basis going into next three quarters, are we going to see an absolute decline here, or we're going to see Though we're not going to see net additions, I understand, because it's going to be gross plus some closures, but we'll maintain this count going forward?

Is that understanding correct?

To be very frank, how we judge and how we monitor square feet store expansion is based on square feet area. Why you see a decline in count is that, because as I mentioned, we have been opening larger stores, and the closures which are happening are smaller stores which are there.

Because 1,000 square feet and less are smaller stores are closing, so that is why count-wise, it is going down. I think the kind of store opening which we do, it varies from 2,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet.

That is why the right way of monitoring, which we also do, is based on square feet area rather than count to see how we are progressing on the expansion.

Got it, Rahul. Understand that.

The last question on balance sheet, given the slowdown and moving of demand between quarters, I think wedding days for Feb '26 is a very strong month, and I would imagine almost double-digit wedding days. Some flow-through we've seen in January, some comments on that.

On inventory, is there anything to worry about?

Sure. On the inventory side, we have built a lot of efficiency around there.

As a result of efficiency in supply management and inventory management and demand planning, as a result, we have seen improvement in inventory turns as well, which is actually something amazing to have from a business prospect. Because we are able to do much more business with lesser inventory turns.

Basically, from that prospect, inventory levels have really improved at our warehouse as well as at the store. As far as January is concerned, as we discussed, there were no wedding dates at all in January.

Considering that aspect, we have been able to do decent business in the month of January.

Got it, Rahul. Thank you so much for answering.

I'll get back in the queue. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes. Sir, just wanted to understand because we've stalled on opening new stores, and I would assume that we are still long way to go in terms of penetrating the markets that are available in India for our sort of products.

It sounds like the ROIs on those investments may not come immediately, or maybe might be lower than what your company ROIs would be or paybacks would be, but does it make sense to just stall the entire process because you're thinking that the markets are not supportive enough? Because maybe the ROIs are not like maybe 30%, 40%, and maybe it's like 20%.

As a businessman, how one should or one would approach this?

Sure. Thank you for your question.

Two things are there. Look, last year, if you look at FY25, on a net basis, we did open 85,000 square feet.

That too is on also on a net basis because there are closures also. At a gross level in last year, we did decent openings, and we did pause on store opening acceleration.

This year also, we have opened store at a gross level, but we have closed also because of reasons we have discussed. As a result, on a net basis, it looks like we are just 2,000, 3,000 square feet area expansion, but we have been expanding also.

The reason we have been doing is, first of all, to improve the quality of our retail footprint so that the quality of business improves. Secondly, one year back, when we discussed, there was a lot of inflation in the lease rentals, because of which also we had paused the acceleration of store expansion because whenever we enter into lease rental, it is for a very long period.

It is for 10 to 15 years. If we enter into a commitment with a very highly lease rental, then it is a long-term impact on our profitability.

That is why because of these reasons, we did pause the manner in which we were accelerating the growth of retail opening. Having said that, the fact is that we have been still opening even last year, and currently also, we have had some gross opening.

We feel that this exercise of consolidation will get over in next around two quarters. From there on, we feel that the store expansion will get normalized as it was happening earlier.

Follow-up on that would be, would you say that the paybacks on the new stores has elongated versus what used to see in the past?

Not really. Actually, to avoid that, we have done this.

Because, as I mentioned, that to avoid a scenario wherein we get into a commitment of very highly rental, we didn't want to get into that situation. That is where, because we are into franchise business, we are very cautious, and we have a very proper approach on store opening so that we ensure that wherever we open store, we ensure that not only we make money, but the franchisee also makes money.

We open the store only with the contact where both of us are able to make good amount of money. The point is not that we were seeing that the ROI will not be good, but because of if you look at our store expansion, in last two, three years, we have opened at least around, net on a net basis, around 7 lakh sq ft in the store area, which is a huge store expansion.

We also wanted to review those once which we have already opened. The question was not on the ROI.

The question was how we can improve the existing fleet which we already have, and how we can wait for the right moment to come when we can accelerate our store expansion. Store expansion is already in our hand because we have all the mappings of the market, the cities where we need to expand.

It is just about the right moment we are waiting. That is where we will accelerate that in next few quarters, as I mentioned.

Okay. Actually, is it likely to be a problem with the festive wear category itself?

Because there are different retail businesses having different directions because in certain mass retail, we are seeing that the SSGs and everything is growing very well. Would you comment on that?

Is it specific to category, or generally the market is not great? Because numbers speak something different for other people.

Look, overall, this industry has been really doing very well, as we discussed. Overall, the industry has been doing very well, and that is where we see so many players coming up as well as consolidating.

The point is that this industry itself is very difficult to work upon. It is not a very easy industry to work upon because consumer tastes and preferences are very different.

Every region, every city, India is a complex country, look, with different tastes and preferences across markets, cities, and states. It is very difficult industry to work and survive and grow from here on.

That is the reason we see some consolidation already happening. From an overall industry prospect, it has been doing very well.

When we compare with any mass or a value retail or a premium retail, as I mentioned, in India, middle-class segment is something which has actually got impacted in last one year when it comes to consumer sentiment. If we talk about value or when we talk about premiumization, those are the areas which have actually not got impacted.

That is where we see, as I mentioned, that our premium brand Twamev is doing exceptionally well, while Manyavar being in the middle-class mid-premium segment has been impacted because of the current macro environment.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you for taking my question.

Most of my questions were already answered. Just one question on we took some initiative on our COCO stores in last quarters, and we invested around ₹11 crore as a capex as well.

Just can you please share the initial performance insights, how are these stores performing in terms of revenue per square feet, store-level EBITDA, and payback period compared to FOFO stores? Based on the pilot result, do we see a larger rollout of COCO stores ahead?

Thank you for your question. Look, as a model, we will continue with the franchise model which we have.

From future prospect also, largely our expansion would come from franchisee store only. As we mentioned in our earlier call, we had converted some franchisee store to COCO store to do some experimentation and to try new things to see what is the outcome of that.

From a future prospect, the expansion would be largely from franchise only and not COCO model. As far as performance of these stores are concerned, it has been doing decently well.

Apart from general the December reason and whatever is there, but overall, when we compare to the other stores in the same region, it has done decently well. They are done in parity what other stores have done.

Okay. How are you tracking the let's say average selling price of your across your different brands?

Let's talk about the Manyavar or the Twamev or Mohey, Mevaz. Is there any data which you are tracking across your new product launch in a particular brand, or I just want to know the blended realization across the brand compared to your peers.

Look, brand-wise, we are having a complete track of ASP brand-wise. Typically, because we have access to all the POS sales which is happening at the franchise store.

Our ERP is fully integrated for us, wherein we have full visibility of at what price what products are being sold to which customers. That is not a problem.

Look, blended ASP for us is around 5,000, if you look at current YTD. Of course, the ASP of Manyavar would be below that.

Twamev would be higher. It would be in the range of 15,000 ASP, 15,000 to 16,000.

Mohey would be in the range of 7,000, 6,000. That would be the breakup of ASP.

Okay. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Is this now clear?

It is better.

Thanks. Sir, your gross GST rate, as I understand, is about 17%.

Could you help us with the net GST rate?

Sir, can you please raise your voice because it's coming very low for us? Not able to hear properly.

Yeah. Sir, your gross GST rate is about 17%.

Could you help us with the net GST rate?

Our GST rate on all products above 2,500 is 18%.

Yeah. Blended, I calculated about 90 above.

Ha. Basically, 90% of our products are in that bracket only, and only 10% of products would be in a bracket where the GST rates are 5%.

Overall, if you ask me, maybe it would be in the range of 16% type.

Okay. Could you sort of give us some sense of the net GST rate after considering the benefit of input tax credits?

Look, input tax credit, in our case, the fabrics which we purchase are generally at 5%, whereas our output is at 18% for the manufacturing which we do. Basically, at a net level, if you reduce 5%, you will get the net GST rate for that.

You have other credits as well, right, on rent, etc., we would have credit [unclear] input tax.

Rent? No, we don't take anything on rent actually.

We don't have any rental model. There are other input credits on services, if you're coming to that, like lease cost and other things.

Those inputs are there. Broadly, at a net level, I would tell you that it would be net of everything, it would be in the range of high single digit, I would say at least.

Got it, sir. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hello. Is my voice audible?

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity.

Just an analogy. You mentioned in your earlier comments that the middle-class sentiment has not turned up as the company would like to be.

As an analogy, gold prices have gone up exponentially, but still, jewelry companies have reported fantastic numbers. The quantity may have come down, but the realization, the design, almost all of them have reported a fantastic numbers.

My point is, pardon me if I'm very blunt, has there been some sort of slip-up in reading the consumer sentiment which has impacted our quarterly sales, or is it that the consumer is not finding a value, which is why he is looking for alternatives, and that is impacting our sales? That is my first question.

Sure. Thank you for your question, sir.

Look, we're not an expert on jewelry companies, but the basic thing what our understanding is that considering the price of jewelry which has gone up significantly in last one year, that would be one important aspect to consider from a growth prospect for them. Secondly is that, in India, jewelry is not a discretionary, it is an investment.

It is for both. Even in the large companies who are dealing with jewelry, less than 50% is based on wedding for them, and more than that is other than wedding.

In India, people look for jewelry from a investment prospect also and not for an expectation.

Sure.

Yeah. I think I was able to explain the rush which is there on silver and gold, which may be driving the overall growth for the jewelry players.

Jewelry as a segment is not an expense, but also considered an investment from an Indian culture prospect. Not very comparable, to be very frank, with our segment.

From our reading, sir, the actual reason is because we have been closely monitoring our products performance, all retail KPIs. We have been doing market surveys at the ground level.

We have been discussing with various people at the market. We have been discussing with various players also.

Our understanding seems to be that the overall consumer sentiment at the middle-class level are actually impacted, which is majorly affecting our business, apart from the wedding dates play, which did play a very important role. Because if you look at overall our revenue also, as we mentioned, if we exclude December month, then, in the festivities and celebration, we have been able to decent business.

Of course, with more positive consumer sentiment, we could have done better as well. Overall, when we talk about Q3 performance, it is majorly because of December and January wedding dates along with the muted consumer sentiment, of course.

We'll have to go with that. Jewelry was one example.

Otherwise, if you say wedding venues, airlines, hotels, wedding coordinators, all of them seem to be doing a roaring business. If you say so, fair enough.

My second question was, in one of your earlier calls, you had mentioned that lease rental inflation, you consider at 4% per year. A growth below 4% would be a degrowth.

Is my understanding correct?

Thank you for your question. I actually don't recall that we did gave any commentary.

What we mentioned is that we have generally lease term of 10 to 15 years, and every three years, generally three to four years, there's an escalation clause which is there for around, say 5% or plus of escalation in the lease rental. That is here how we are, and because we enter into lease rental for long-term basis, say for 10 to 15 years.

If we commit on an environment where the lease rental at a high rate, then it becomes a long-term commitment for us.

In light of the recent, what you just said

Madam, this is an add-on to that only. This is the last one.

Is the company thinking of renegotiating any of the lease rentals in view of the recent business trends?

Yeah. Absolutely.

Look, we do renegotiate lease rentals wherever we feel that there's an opportunity considering the overall market situation. We always do that as a normal process.

Okay. That's all.

Wish you all the best.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand the mix of cities, how the demand has been panning out, whether there is pain in some segment of cities like tier-2, tier-3, because you are the widest available brand in the organized space.

Is there any opportunity or challenge that you see in tier-1, tier-2, tier-3 that has been affecting you in some way or is now available for an opportunity? In both ways, I would like to understand the geography of our brand visibility.

Thank you, Prerna, for your question. At a widely level, we don't see any gap geographically, to be very frank.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, there are various reasons why different geographies do behave differently. Like in case of South too, we saw that overall at a YTD level, it has done good positive business.

When you look at Q3, it was more impacted than other regions because they have their own inauspicious period, which started earlier, called Mudham, which started earlier this time in November end, which generally started in December mid. Apart from that, we have not seen much major difference geographically at a Pan-India level.

A follow-up to this is that we seeing difficult time across geographies given that our SSGs have been declining. Is that a right understanding not even for this quarter, but from a nine-month perspective as well?

To be honest, if we exclude the December month, which has been exceptional December month, which we have not seen at least in last five years, wherein there have been no weddings in January. If we look at the core wedding and festivity period, we've actually done decently positive business.

It is just because of this December month that our overall performance has got impacted in Q3, and of course, as a result, YTD levels have also got impacted. As I mentioned, if you look at September to November or October to November, then we have done decent positive business, both overall as well as L2L.

The December month was so drastically impacted that it actually impacted the entire quarter. To be very frank, when it comes to festivity and wedding, there was another question that others are also doing well, we have also grown only during that period.

It's just because of the wedding calendar, because of the December month, it got so much affected in quarter three.

Okay. My second question is on brand-wise performance.

Given that your premium portfolio continues to do better, could you just help us understand how the brand mix has changed over the last three to four years, and how do you foresee it going forward, and whether Manyavar as a brand, what kind of investments would you see if that percentage is declining meaningfully?

Sure. With the growing brands, of course, the pie of new brands, percentage of mix, have been improving.

Of course, we expect that to further improve along with Manyavar. Because Manyavar also, we are very confident that it will grow along with other brand also.

Yes, of course, there has been some percentage slight, which has also overall other brands if we see, that has improved over Manyavar. From a future prospect, we are very confident that all our brands along with our flagship brand will have a very strong growth potential.

Difficult to comment on how the mix would change going forward. Yes, we see a healthy growth in all our brands from a future prospect.

The current mix would help if you could share.

Actually, I'm so sorry, but we are not currently sharing the mix percentage. Yes, in future, at some point of time, we will definitely do that.

Sure. Thank you so much, and all the best.

Thank you.

Namaskar, and thank you, everyone. It was a great pleasure interacting with all the analysts.

Thank you very much for joining. Looking forward to interact again in the next quarter.

Thank you.