Thank you, Darwin. Hello everyone.

Good evening, and welcome to United Spirits Limited Q4 and full year FY26 earnings call. Before proceeding with today's presentation, I would like to remind the listeners that during the call, there may be some forward-looking statements.

These statements are based on our views and assumptions at this point of time. However, this is not a guarantee of our future performance, and results may materially differ from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements.

I request all of you to refer to our financial and press release posted yesterday, and presentation posted today. Both are available on stock exchange and company's website under the investor section.

Today on the call, we have with us Mr. Praveen Someshwar, our MD and CEO, who is joined by Mr.

Pradeep Jain, Executive Director and CFO. Praveen and Pradeep will take you through the business performance for the fiscal year 2026, followed by the Q&A session.

With this, I hand over the call to Praveen for his opening remarks.

Thank you, Shweta. Good evening everyone.

Thank you for joining in on the call. It's been a little more than a year that I've spent with Diageo.

What a year it's been. In balance, excited about where we are.

We're going to talk you through the business update and a full year 26 update and our reflections going ahead with the financial highlights. Now, this, in summary, is a reflection on the year gone by, my first in a business that has seen a reasonable, good last four, five years, and would want to say to all of you that the best is yet to come.

I've always maintained in our interactions over the last few quarters that we need to continue what is working well, and need to change what can be better, and the combination of two will unlock our true potential. In that sense, I would want to call out several things that have been already working well.

Whether it's Signature that has continued to perform competitively in the upper prestige segment, or Black & White in the primary Scotch segment, a global trademark for which India is the number one market in Diageo. We continued our excellent work on Johnnie Walker, which posted strong growth during the year.

Our format innovation, especially pocket pack, what I know PJ refers to as the triple benefit interventions, are contributing meaningfully to segment-beating growth in the mid-prestige segment and value chain productivity. Now coming to the areas of the portfolio where we have done changes over the last year.

First and foremost, opening the world's largest vodka brand, Smirnoff, to local flavor innovation, and how it has responded and started to contribute meaningfully for our overall growth scenario. In this fiscal year, we've crossed the volume of 1 million cases on the trademark.

Last quarter itself, it has done over 400,000 cases. Second, accelerating the tequila category creation.

Again, it's our fastest ₹100-plus crore trademark, and has long legs for sustained growth in future. It's already captured 1/3 of the tequila market, and is expanding the category.

It's growing share, expanding category, and considering the price points we operate at, our value share will be significantly higher. Third, I've spoken about the on-premise opportunity multiple times across these forums, and the importance of the same to build our brands.

We are ramping up our investments in this critical channel that makes our brands come alive for consumers, allowing us to highlight their rich legacy and purpose. We are convinced that in this category, that is alcobev, how our brands show up in on-premise is an extremely critical enabler for long-term top-of-mind and equity recall.

We have already seen green shoots on the same. As we move into the new fiscal year, we are feeling good on the policy front, driven by the progressive intervention in Karnataka that will provide the much-needed shot in the arm for continued premiumization of the category in the state.

With the India-UK FTA likely to come in play in the near future, Scotch, which is our core strength, will become more accessible and improve penetration. Last, but not the least, we are extremely happy with the sustained productivity agenda that we have driven, and that we are being able to extract from the business value chain year-on-year.

We will share more details on the same as we progress in this session. Now, all of this is stuff which has worked for us.

Coming to the headwinds in the year gone by. All of you are aware of Maharashtra.

We're doing what we can through the industry association and the legal route. Keeping that aside, I believe the worst impact has now been absorbed in the quarter gone by, and sequentially, it should not deteriorate from here onwards, while we'll still have a couple of quarters to cycle on prior-year comparatives.

Then the softness in our anchor trademark, McDowell's, which across rest of India, excluding AP and Maharashtra, which are states which are impacted, has also been flat. We've now been working on the transformation of McDowell's for the last year, and a completely transformed bundle of McDowell's is getting launched in its very first market as we speak, that is Uttar Pradesh, today actually over the last couple of days.

I'll spend more time on the McDowell's transformation in the next few minutes when we come to the portfolio. That was my summary, if I may say, of the year gone by.

Let us move on as we see what the numbers say. The numbers on this slide clearly indicate that if we take out the states impacted by policy change, headwinds, and tailwinds, that is AP and Maharashtra, the rest of India, which is roughly 80% of our national portfolio, has grown double digit in both P&A and total portfolio, and has seen a sequential pickup in momentum over the prior year.

Within this, if we further see mid-prestige, and that's not on the chart, but if you see mid-prestige, it's there in small font, if I may say so, mid-prestige and above segment, the same has grown in high teens. Mid-prestige and above nationally, including Maharashtra and AP, has also grown in mid-teens over prior year.

Allow me to unpack this further on the next slide. Let me walk you through the segment-wise performance of the business in a slightly different manner.

As mentioned on the previous chart, P&A in rest of India, excluding Maharashtra and AP, which are the impacted states, has grown at a solid 11.3% for the year versus prior. Within that, mid-prestige and above has grown at high teens at 17%, 17.1%.

All segments from mid-prestige onwards are posting healthy growth rates in the year, and all have momentum as we enter into the new fiscal year. While we always continue to see our business as P&A, including lower prestige, what we have observed increasingly are the varying definitions of P&A floating in the industry.

The mid-prestige and above growth rate will ensure fair and like-to-like comparisons on an annual basis with some of these players. My second key message that I have already spoken of in summary is that the opportunity on lower prestige and McDowell's.

I'll come to it very soon, and you can see it's more flattish as we've seen over the last year. Last, but not the least, coming to the two excluded states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

It is clearly visible that both of those states have impacted growth, one positively and another negatively. Both combined, we have lost about 120 basis points of growth this year.

Clearly, the rest of India business is delivering double-digit growth, and our exciting plans ahead give us the confidence that in the coming year, even with Maharashtra and AP included on P&A, we should be able to deliver our double-digit growth guidance. Let's take a step back and start with the bigger picture.

India is fast emerging as the consumer market of the next decade, backed by strong economic growth with GDP expected to reach $7 trillion by 2030, and more importantly, very high-quality growth. A young population, median age roughly 28, combined with a rapidly expanding middle and affluent class, is reshaping consumption.

Over the next 5 years, India will add around 100 million legal drinking age consumers, nearly 1/4 of the global additions, making this a globally significant growth story. This is further enabled by a vibrant democracy and a digital-first economy that is expanding access and driving aspirational consumption.

Bringing that to our category, India is already the number one whisky market by volume, number two by value, and the second-largest spirits market globally. It contributes roughly 39% of the growth in global total beverage alcohol, and remains the fastest-growing large market.

Importantly, we are still early in the growth curve, with spirits penetration at 40% and per capita consumption at 2.6 L. It leaves significant headroom for growth.

Now looking ahead as of today, in spite of the West Asia troubles, the combination of macro tailwinds, a young and expanding consumer base, rising incomes, and increasing premiumization with significant category headroom creates a compelling opportunity that we are well positioned to capture. Our strategy clearly is leveraging this India moment.

Let me touch on how we are positioning ourselves. India's alcobev market is clearly shifting.

Growth today is being driven by premiumization and closer alignment with evolving consumer aspirations. In response, we've reshaped our portfolio strategy around three clear priorities: winning consumer occasions, which will drive penetration up, accelerating premiumization, and investing in future-backed innovation.

At the same time, we are building a future-ready organization focused on unlocking critical talent gaps and embedding a strong learning culture to stay agile and competitive. Finally, all of this is anchored in our broader responsibility through our Society 2030 agenda and our commitment to contributing to the vision of Viksit Bharat.

Let me talk about our portfolio strategy, which is anchored in a deep consumer-first lens. We think of India as three Indias.

India 1, which is approximately 49% of the population and happens to be 49% in terms of value salience, is highly aspirational, but income-constrained. Therefore, seeking affordable access to aspirational brands.

This is what is driving penetration for India. India 2, which is roughly 28% of the population and 19% in terms of value salience, is the core middle class, driving consumption with a focus on value for money and is seen constantly premiumizing.

India 3, which is roughly 8% of the population and 7% of the value, is affluent and new wealth, seeking premium experiences, identity, self-expression, and repertoire usage. We have consciously chosen not to play in the bottom 20%, if I may say so, given the limited affordability, a shrinking base, and societal considerations.

We are constantly seeing that the lower base is premiumizing very, very rapidly. Importantly, our portfolio and the category are structured around these three Indias and premiumization, ensuring sharp alignment to consumer needs.

Finally, our strengths lie in brand building, with 5 of the top 10 equity brands including Signature, RC, McDowell's, Black Dog, and Johnnie Walker playing in these spaces. Now, if you see, each of these three Indias are driven by very distinct realities.

While incomes are rising across segments, surplus is growing in India 2 and 3, while declining in India 1, and therefore shaping very different consumer behaviors. From a category perspective, alcohol consumption is growing across all segments: India 1, 2, and 3.

However, India 1 and 2 are driven by higher penetration and frequency. India 3 is led by affluent growth with some moderation in frequency due to the experiences.

However, what we are seeing that there is constant premiumization even in India 3, which is driving the growth. Our four clear trends cut across all segments.

Recruitment, which is primarily in India 1, continues in India 2, which is about expanding the consumer base through the LDA, women, and beyond Scotch categories. Premiumization, a clear shift which we're seeing across India 1 and 2 and 3 to better quality.

Repertoire, it's more in India 2 and 3, but prominent in India 3, which is about more experimentation and experiences. The India confidence, the growing pride in its own culture and the rising aspiration-driven consumption across India 1 and 2.

Now, our playbook is very simple. We drive differentiated strategies across the three Indias because one size clearly does not fit it all.

Anchored in a full portfolio approach with clear competitive choices, now with a very different set of competitors playing out in India 1 and 2 and 3. Execution is sharply tailored.

For India 1, it's about enabling drinking better at scale through pack, price, and format innovation, with a strong focus on accessibility and recruitment. For India 2 and 3, the focus shifts to upgrading the experience with innovation around occasions, culture, and flavors, and a clear push towards premiumization.

In essence, everything we do, our metrics, innovation, and propositions, is tightly aligned to the distinct needs of each of India. Let me start with the India 1 consumer and our brands playing around there.

Royal Challenge continues to perform strongly on recruitment, driving share gains across both mid-prestige and now, as we call it, new prestige. Growth is clearly being led by the 180 ml segment, the pocket pack, which has become central to our expansion.

We're also stepping up media to build sharper brand distinction. Our latest campaign, Naye Choice ki Nayi Chamak, is designed to create excitement and keep RC top of mind with new-age consumers, featuring contemporary icons like Smriti Mandhana, Rannvijay Singha, rapper Srushti, and gamer Naman Mathur, popularly known as Mortal.

Clearly, all of them coming together. We're building very deep engagement through esports integration, leveraging a high-passion platform for our audience with purchase-linked activations to drive trials, excitement, and conversion.

Let me play the video of Naye Choice ki Nayi Chamak. As we go ahead, we are transforming McDowell's No.1 to re-energize the consumer.

We have upgraded the liquid with 30% more Scotch to deliver a smoother, richer taste, while retaining what consumers love, all at the same price, driving aspiration with affordability. This is complemented by a completely new, modern, Scotch-inspired design, and a more aspirational, convenient 180 ml PET format.

After rigorous testing over the last several months, we are absolutely confident that we have a winning bundle rolling out from May, this month. As we speak the last few days, it's just got rolled out in UP, and we are excited what we've heard from our consumers and partners.

In essence, this is a full reset of the world's largest whisky brand by volume, built to reignite growth and win back its consumers. Let me play the video.

We believe this is going to reinvigorate and recharge this massive category back to growth. Now coming to India 2, and Black & White is a significant part of that opportunity.

Our Scotch portfolio continues to deliver very, very strong momentum in this space. Black & White is now the largest Scotch brand in the country by volume, strengthened by a refreshed design and cultural platforms like Table for Everyone, along with the high-impact partnerships such as Premier League and Lollapalooza.

Black Dog is also back to gaining traction with a renovated range rollout, and the Savor the Pause campaign with Emilia Clarke, it is driving strong engagement. At the portfolio level, we lead in Scotch with Johnnie Walker, where entry-level Scotch acts as a key gateway to premiumization, especially for our India 2 consumers.

With FTA and evolving market opportunities, this creates a significant runway for recruitment and upgradation, which we are very, very well positioned to capture. At the upper prestige space, we have Signature, which continues to lead with its distinctive positioning around conscious living.

This has helped drive strong equity ahead of the category growth and share gains. We have brought this to life through our mangroves regeneration campaign in Odisha, amplified by our One with Nature communication.

At the same time, we're building cultural relevance through partnerships like [Teele?] and Ziro Festival, reinforcing the brand's connection with sustainability, music, and purpose.

Overall, Signature is winning by combining strong equity with a clear purpose-led narrative. What a year it's been for Smirnoff.

We are starting to see this brand build back nationally. We crossed 1 million cases, and we entered one of the top five global markets, underscoring both scale and strategic importance.

As I mentioned earlier, we exited fourth-quarter volumes north of 400,000 cases. We're now at ₹350 crore NSV, growing at a triple digit as we exit the year, and with a clear trajectory to get to ₹1,000 crores over the next 18 months.

This will help close gap in this massively growth space. Growth is strongly flavor-led, with the portfolio entering the ₹100-crore club and innovations like Minty Jamun delivering record monthly volumes.

At the same time, we're building strong brand love with Gen Z. From large-scale experiences like the Afrojack tour across three cities to high-impact cultural platforms like Lollapalooza and Holi activations, we are strengthening relevance across touchpoints.

Putting it all together, we're not just scaling volume, we're building momentum through the right mix of flavor innovation, culture, and consumer experiences. NAOW Spirits, the trademarks have now successfully integrated and are starting to stabilize within our portfolio, on track to fully extract the potential of the business around Greater Than, Hapusa, and Pipa.

All three really trailblazers in their own categories. Now we'll come to India 3, the top of the pyramid.

Johnnie Walker continues to build strong cultural relevance and premium credentials. Our latest Keep Walking campaign with Virat Kohli is reconnecting the brand with young affluents.

We're driving desirability through on-trade experiences like whisky experiments, and scaling cultural impact via platforms like AP Dhillon and Sunburn. Importantly, we are leveraging the full portfolio across three Indias, from accessible formats driving recruitment to premium offerings strengthening our luxury credentials.

India is now a very important market. It's the number three globally by volume and number four by value for Johnnie Walker.

Godawan is truly a crown jewel in our portfolio. It's a purpose-led brand, deeply anchored in conservation, supporting the revival of the Great Indian Bustard known as Godawan, making it much more than just a whisky.

At the same time, it delivers world-class distinctive liquids with growing presence in India and global markets. This is reflected in the strong recognition with 100-plus global awards, including recent wins that reinforce its potential to become a leading global whisky.

It was humbling and encouraging to see this work recognized at a national level, and with the honorable Prime Minister highlighting it in Mann Ki Baat that sustained scientific and on-ground efforts are making a real difference in protecting the Great Indian Bustard known as Godawan. This re-energizes the team and only deepens our resolve to keep moving forward.

Overall, Godawan brings together purpose, craftsmanship, and innovation, creating a uniquely Indian brand we are incredibly proud of, and growing triple digit through the year. Don Julio has been a standout success.

It's the fastest-growing brand in our portfolio to reach ₹100 crore top line, underscoring strong premium momentum. Positioned it as a tequila of choice for luxury occasions, bringing Mexicana culture to life through campaigns like Day of the Dead and Cinco de Mayo, alongside experiential activations such as Paloma Time in key on-trade platform.

With tequila as a category growing strongly, Don Julio continues to outpace the market, delivering high double-digit growth and continuously gaining share. If you look at this slide and the scale of innovation and renovation delivered over the last year, it clearly demonstrates that we have left no stone unturned in strengthening this agenda.

In fact, I would say this is a distinct competitive advantage for us, right from deep consumer in-sighting to delivering the right product proposition in the market. What is equally important is the breadth of innovation across the portfolio.

The initiatives span liquid innovation, renovation, evolving flavor profiles, pack and format changes, as well as premium limited editions, whether purpose-led offerings such as Godawan 173 or culturally resonant activations like Johnnie Walker Blue Label Diwali edition. Innovation continues to be our key enabler of our growth ambition, helping us drive premiumization, recruitment, and strong brand salience across occasions.

I'm sure all of you are very familiar with this slide. This effectively demonstrates the success of our sustained efforts to build and strengthen our trademarks.

The results speak for themselves, a complementary portfolio that is delivering both on volume and value, with a balance where we play to the India 1, 2, and 3 opportunity, and therefore creating scale and premiumization. Now, we have four trademarks which are greater than INR 1,000 crores NSV, as Signature just enters the ₹1,000-crore club.

We move from three to four trademarks this year in our ₹1,000-crore club. There are two which are ₹500 crore-plus, and I'm confident that it's just a matter of time before Smirnoff comes into that club.

Now there are five which are ₹100 crore-plus, as Don Julio joins the club in the ₹100 crore-plus club. We have eight 1 million case trademarks in our portfolio.

Again, as I mentioned, Smirnoff is now a million case brand. McDowell's is the largest selling whisky in the world, with roughly 30 million cases-plus cases.

Now, as we get to put Diageo in society, it's particularly something which is very, very important for us. While we are accustomed to evaluating business performance from an internal, albeit holistic lens, this study takes a step back.

We work with Pehla India Foundation, the name that translates to India First. It highlights the broader economic and social impact of Diageo India, extending well beyond the immediate boundaries of our business operations.

Our total economic contribution to the country, as indicated in the report, direct and indirect combined, stands at approximately ₹49,000 crores. We support 650,000 jobs through direct and indirect contribution, and our contribution to exchequer stands at roughly ₹20,400 crores.

Our CSR spends are roughly ₹22 crores, and have 226,000 beneficiaries. Now, this independent assessment performed by a leading Indian think tank reassures all of us at Diageo USL to see our meaningful contribution to the Viksit Bharat vision.

It is encouraging to see our ESG journey progressing in the right direction also, as reflected in improving scores and industry-leading recognitions. Sustainalytics has assessed us at a medium risk rating with a score of 21.

Focused interventions are underway to further strengthen our ESG profile and progress towards a low risk rating. On Dow Jones Sustainability Index, we continue to see steady year-on-year improvement reaching 61 on 100, positioning us amongst the leading alcobev companies in India and global.

On the NSE ESG rating, we are rated for the first time and achieved a strong score of 73 on 100, placing us amongst the top CPG companies in India. We've also received multiple accolades for our manufacturing and ESG practices from prestigious industry bodies.

Now, at Diageo, we continue to make focused investments to further strengthen the core of our organization. Our people priorities are focused on building future-ready capabilities that strengthen business performance both today and for the future.

Innovation commercialization is where we have invested heavily over the last few years. The organization structure in the last fiscal year with focused teams and sharp KPIs to support the growing innovation pipeline aligned with evolving consumer trends.

As we have always maintained, we would want the share of innovation contribution to our growth increase year-on-year. Now, if you don't include pocket pack, roughly around 25% of our growth comes from innovation.

If we would include pocket pack, it's north of 70%. Clearly, it just tells us the power of our investment.

Our second pillar is on-trade. As spoken about this earlier as well, and it continues to be a clearly identified area requiring focused interventions, sustained effort, and ongoing investment.

We've refreshed our on-trade organization and strengthened capabilities to align with our sharpened strategy, recognizing the critical role of on-premise channels in discovery, recruitment, and accelerating premiumization. Our focus remains on building strong luxury capabilities through the right talent, the right structure, and a culture of continuous learning.

A very key enabler which is to drive digital penetration across our organization. We make quite a few interventions on scaling capability across our sales commercial function, expanding AI and data analytics skills across Diageo, and driving operational excellence within supply.

We want our associates to have a born-digital mindset over a period of time. Our internal employee feedback survey achieved an exceptional 94% response rate, reflecting strong employee engagement and trust.

Our employee engagement index remains strong at 90%, significantly higher versus external benchmarks, alongside an I&D score of 88%, while our employer NPS of 56 and product NPS of 84 reinforce the trust we continue to build with both our people and consumers. Our commitment to building a thriving organization and inclusive culture has been recognized across multiple platforms, reflecting our continued efforts to make Diageo a great place to work.

We were recognized by the India Workplace Equality Index as a gold employer for the third successive year, and we were also awarded winner in women representation in senior management by FICCI. In addition, Diageo India received the Great Place to Work certification, reflecting our continued focus on building a diverse, inclusive, and high-performing organization.

With this, I hand it over to PJ to take us through how we are doing on financials.

Thanks, Praveen. A very good afternoon to all who have joined.

As always, great to interact with this cohort, especially on the annual call where we dig a little deeper into our full-year performance. Praveen has already done a teardown of the revenue growth in his section, I will not repeat that here.

We'll get to that in the next few minutes. As you will observe, we have delivered a leveraged performance on the P&L in the full fiscal year.

Our EBITDA growth stands at 11.6% against an NSV growth of 7.6%, which translates roughly in a 1.5x growth multiplier. Gross margin is at 46.4%, up 172 basis points on a reported basis, 11.7% gross profit growth.

Our EBITDA margin reached 18.4%, about 66 basis points better than last year. This is very much in line with our guidance of mid to high teens EBITDA margin.

Reemphasizing the free cash flow generation capability of this business, it has turned in ₹1,375 crores on that front during the year. I am also pleased to share that the board has approved a final dividend of ₹11 per share, subject to shareholders' approval, including the interim dividend of ₹6 per share declared in Jan '26.

The total dividend distribution for the fiscal year will amount to ₹17 per share. That translates to a PAT payout ratio of 67%, having increased from the 50% payout ratio 2 years ago when we resumed dividend distribution after a decade.

Return on capital employed stands at a healthy 28% versus 26% last year. This is a familiar chart for all of you, but we would want to keep reminding all of you of this year-on-year.

It is something that epitomizes our growth philosophy, that is the virtuous cycle of growth critical to building and sustaining a healthy business. Our continuous focus will be on driving this flywheel to keep strengthening our portfolio while accelerating top-line growth.

Productivity and revenue growth management will need to collectively offset inflation while enabling a careful balance between marketing efficiency, investment sufficiency, and long-term brand building. Together, these actions should support sustained profitable growth.

Okay. This is a particularly important chart, and I will spend a minute on the same.

First, I want to reiterate that fiscal 2025-26 includes 6 months' base benefit from the reopening of Andhra Pradesh, following recommencement of business in September '24 after a gap of 5 years. Additionally, the fiscal also reflects the impact of Maharashtra excise policy revision, again 6 to 7 months impact, adverse impact broadly.

While both Andhra and Maharashtra are extremely critical markets for our business, the impact of developments in these two markets were distorting the underlying organic growth trajectory of the business reflected in the reported numbers that you see on the left-hand side of the chart. It seems to suggest that our portfolio has performed in the same vein as the prior year.

Now, if I draw your focus on the chart on the right-hand side, our rest of India business, excluding the impacts of Andhra and Maharashtra, which will roughly be 75% to 80% of our national P&A portfolio, is delivering a healthy growth of 11.3% in prestige and above and 10.9% on a total portfolio basis. These growth levels have significantly accelerated versus the prior fiscal year, approximately 500 basis points acceleration.

This is what gives us confidence as we enter fiscal year 2026-27. We move to the next slide, right?

Okay. Now this is a slightly different cut of what Praveen has already flashed in his section.

He referred to percentage growths, while here, we are giving you a sense of the absolute rupee growths, what added to the growth and what was soft. As you will see, we have roughly added about ₹900 crores to our top line, to be precise, ₹875 crores, right?

If you look at the leftmost and the rightmost bars of the chart, the premiumization ladder remains firmly intact. The salience of the mid-prestige and above segments increased from 56% in the prior fiscal to 60% in fiscal 25-26, a tad higher than what would have happened had our LP segment also contributed to growth.

If you look at the middle bars, which represent the sources of growth, it further reinforces this trend. We can see that in rest of India, excluding Andhra and Maharashtra, mid-prestige and above segments grew by 17% over last year, adding close to ₹960 crores to our top line.

Popular added another ₹70 crores, lower prestige was flat, and Praveen has already taken all of you in detail on what we are doing to revive growth in that segment. Overall, rest of India business delivered a net addition of approximately ₹1,020 crores, growing at 10.9% over last year.

Then on the extreme right-hand side, the two impacted geographies of AP and Maharashtra, one a positive, the other a negative. I'll move to the next slide.

This is a status update, as we have always done over the last 3 years on our multiyear supply agility program. We are now approximately 3 to 3.5 years into the program with considerable progress achieved against all key objectives.

ENA colocation initiatives are now 100% complete, while footprint optimization is approximately 83% complete. Importantly, the program continues to be executed with strong cost discipline, with both cash and noncash costs tracking in line with budget.

From a benefits perspective, actions for cost optimization that are already completed and will reflect in the P&L by the end of fiscal '27 will be close to 90% on an annualized basis. Again, part of our virtuous cycle, let me take these one by one.

Productivity, if you see the left-hand chart, right, the left-hand side of the chart, while the chart shows a decline in productivity, I would like to remind and reiterate a point highlighted earlier: the ₹514 crores productivity delivered in fiscal '24 included a one-time benefit of ₹160 to ₹170 crores from the monocarton removal, with underlying productivity of ₹340 to ₹350 crores. Against this, base productivity increased to ₹388 crores in fiscal '25 and further to ₹415 crores in fiscal '26.

That represents a healthy year-on-year improvement and reflects the strong productivity capability embedded within the organization, which continues to help us mitigate more than 80% inflation year-on-year and deliver sustained benefits. Pricing and revenue growth management, top right-hand side, if you look at pricing and revenue growth management, ₹182 crores impact of fiscal '26 comprises the carryforward pricing of the prior year and the flowthrough received in the current year.

Together, these delivered a healthy ₹182 crores, equivalent to roughly 1.6% of last year's net sales. If you remember, we had called out last year that after 3 years of consistent and healthy headline price increases, we do expect the same to moderate in fiscal '26, especially in view of the stable commodity environment.

Net working capital on the bottom right-hand side, our year-end operating working capital intensity has remained broadly in line with last year. This includes the higher levels of Telangana receivables, which have broadly stayed at the same level since last year-end.

Building on the previous chart, healthy headline pricing along with a strong productivity trajectory over the last couple of years has enabled us to step up A&P investment behind our brands. As mentioned earlier, sustained A&P investment in our trademarks is a critical component of our virtuous growth cycle, which in turn supports portfolio premiumization and drives higher NSV realization per case.

This year was no different, and we are glad we could step up the brand investments to support the growth and innovation agenda of the portfolio. To conclude my section, would want to finish with a chart that does not require any explanation, and the numbers can do all the talking.

Our EPS and ROCEs have consistently improved year-on-year, demonstrating the strength and resilience of our operating model and the continued support of all our stakeholders. With this, I would want to turn it back to Praveen for his concluding remarks before we open it up for Q&A.

Over to you, Praveen.

Thank you, PJ. Just want to conclude with my thoughts as we look forward over the next year and a couple of years.

A still focus on the great India consumer opportunity. We have favorable demographics, growing affluence, and the India confidence and pride on our side.

Overlaying that with key industry drivers, including the largest pool of new LDA consumers entering the category, penetration headroom, enabling treaties such as India-UK FTA, I see a huge premiumizing opportunity at the confluence of all these factors. Now, I do understand in the short term, West Asia conflict could take a quarter or two away, but I do not think that will change anything of the medium term.

How we capture this opportunity is critical. We have a clear line of sight on both opportunities and risks, backed by consumer foresight, strong innovation capability, differentiated liquid access, a national footprint, and most importantly, organizational agility.

Our teams are well positioned to capture value, execute effectively, and convert these opportunities into sustained growth. Our actions are visible through sharper innovation, starting from McDowell's now, bringing it back to life, new category creation, we could talk about tequila, localized portfolios of powerful global brands like Smirnoff, and stronger productivity muscle.

The India-UK FTA will further amplify this. Our growth playbook positions us well to unlock new white spaces and accelerate consumer-led growth.

Our on-premise investments made in '25-'26 have started moving the needle and start showing results. As we enter F'27, we do so with rigor and confidence in delivering our ambition of strong double-digit growth for the P&A portfolio.

Thank you. Happy to take questions.

Thanks for the very detailed and insightful presentation. I've got two questions.

First one is, could you please elaborate on your optimism regarding Karnataka following the recent policy changes? It would be helpful if you can share some data points around current salience of P&A and mid-P&A and above segments in that market, and where do you believe this could trend in the next 1 or 2 years?

Second question is for Pradeep. What would be the impact of inflation on business in the first half of this year or maybe full year, and would you be able to fully offset it through operational efficiencies and cost optimization measures?

Thanks, Jay. Thanks for your question.

I agree with you, optimism of Karnataka, okay. It's truly a progressive and welcoming one.

It's cut tiers across. It's brought tiers down from 16 to 8 on excise slabs, and has allowed flexibility for pricing, and therefore building very high-quality laddering across different segments.

It's not only mid-prestige and above, it's also lower prestige and popular to lower prestige to mid-prestige and above. That is what is exciting.

As we've seen, as we have rolled it out to the market over the last week, across portfolio, we've seen reduction of pricing, depending on which part of the portfolio it is, anywhere between 15% to 35%, which is significant. Now what we believe, and we also have to say that popular, which is the lowest end, it's going to see significant pricing increase, roughly around 17%, 18%, and it's going to break out from a magic price point of 100.

All of these factors give us the confidence. We've seen very robust growth over the last 1 year in Karnataka, because part of the changes were also rolled out last year.

All of this gives us absolute confidence that you'll see very high double-digit growth unlocked in Karnataka.

Roughly to your other question, Jay, Karnataka is roughly about 7% of our national P&A salience, 6.5% to 7%. Okay.

I'll take the second question, Jay.

Where do you think it should be now that the pricing structure has improved? What's the ideal sort of representation Karnataka should have in your P&A?

Yeah. Jay, look, we don't want to kind of make assumptions around that.

I think what Praveen has said is that that should go significantly higher than the national portfolio average, right? That we are very, very confident.

Karnataka was already growing very well in fiscal '26, right? That should ramp up, and it should go significantly higher than the national portfolio average.

After that, what range it reaches, salience of 8, 9, 10, we don't know.

Only a thing I'd add to what PJ said, Jay, is that we are overindexed versus India share in Karnataka.

That's other thing.

We will be the largest beneficiary of this unlock also. Yeah.

Okay.

Sorry, PJ.

Perfect. Okay.

Jay, second question, look, here is a broad headline, right? I don't want to take a guess on the full-year numbers, but here is what I'm seeing already, and on the first half I can provide some headline.

Look, a large impact is on the packaging material cost, right? Packaging material costs are broadly 1/3 of my overall COGS, right?

What we are seeing is, in fact, in the April-June quarter itself, packaging material costs will inflate by about 4% to 5% higher than the normal run rate, right? We do expect an overall gross margin of impact anything between 1.25% to 1.5% on a total portfolio, right?

That's roughly about anything between ₹35 to ₹40 crores impact, right? That's on the April-May-June quarter, right?

Now, if the crisis continues for an extended period of time, right, this amount could well probably become 2 to 2.5 times for the next quarter, right? We just want to remain focused on the first half, and then as things evolve, we will see how we have to respond, right?

You mentioned the other bit around operational efficiencies. Absolutely, right?

We can only do things that are in our control, and we will definitely be exploring every opportunity on how we can ramp up the additional productivity in our value chain.

At this point of time, you don't see a reason to call out any big material margin impact, right? There are headwinds, but you may have some

There will be an impact in the quarter. There will be an impact in the quarter, and you know it from past experience, Jay, that, we will our pricing comes with a lag, right?

Again, as the year progresses, we will keep you updated on that.

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you.

Thanks. My question is to Praveen.

You spoke on the local flavors in Smirnoff vodka. I wanted to understand if you've started gaining market share, because a local player has almost 60% market share.

Are you trying more of the premium end or overall market share in vodka also you have a big focus there? Second related question is you are overindexed in terms of Maharashtra, if anyone just compares Q4 numbers of yours and the unlisted large MNC, I think we will get a wrong picture.

My specific question is ex of Maharashtra if you can talk about market share on an overall portfolio, and specific question was on Smirnoff vodka also.

Okay. Look, on the Smirnoff part and the flavor unlock, as we say, it was a massive unlock.

What it's done as local flavor, it's once in a decade kind of innovation unlock, and we're going to continue to build on it as we go forward. It's brought the mojo back to the Smirnoff brand, and we've seen it grow.

As I said, sequentially quarter-on-quarter, you've seen significant growth. In the third quarter, as I said, it's 400,000 cases-plus versus a 1 million case business.

That tells you it's grown triple digit, and it's obviously beating every other player whichever category space it is. We don't intend playing around with where Smirnoff plays.

We will continue to play there. We believe we are in great momentum, and as we go on, we will unlock the right levers to continue to build on this massive opportunity.

We are certainly growing handsome share. When you're growing as strongly as this, you are growing handsome share.

Include with or without Maharashtra is really not relevant when we talk about Smirnoff, because across the country, in each state, we are growing handsome share. Does that answer your question, Abneesh?

Yes, it does. Thank you for that.

One

follow-up on your Maharashtra comment. Yes.

No, Abneesh. I was just saying, just remind us of your second question.

We missed that while we were answering the first.

It was the same thing. It was all

that vodka. That's fine.

My second question was essentially on pricing. Last year, you rightfully said the inflation is low, pricing for you also will be low.

This year, obviously, things are different. Apart from Telangana, any advance discussions are happening?

How much will be the price expectation given with lag generally you do get? If you could speak on some of these states where I think there's higher probability of price hike.

Yeah. Abneesh, look, like we've always said, we always make efforts to get some headline pricing, and we continue to make those efforts a little more intensely now in view of what's happening in West Asia.

It's very difficult to call out how much headline pricing we'll get. We've shown you the last 4-year run rates, right?

Whatever we will get, we'll get, right? Maybe with a little bit of lag or maybe immediately, right?

As it happens, we will. Typically, on a slightly longer time frame, we've always said that we would want to neutralize 50% of inflation through headline pricing and balance 50% through productivity.

I don't know, Praveen, you want to add something?

Just want to add also, as PJ rightly said, that there's going to be a lag. As we see it right now, as policy changes are happening, Karnataka is going to give us some pricing back into our splay.

Rajasthan's given us some flexibility, and we are going to do. Telangana, as you rightly said, is looking at and exploring it.

We know MP there is some cleanup and correction. All of these are going to give us some small spillovers before we get really the big increases over a period of time.

Overall pricing is going to be consistent in a medium-term basis. Sir,

two small follow-ups, and that is my last question. Praveen, you mentioned that two more quarters of tough business environment in Maharashtra, but will it not be 2.5 because Q3 did not see much of an impact of MML?

Q3, you will see that impact. If you could clarify on that.

Second small question is UK FTA. Another liquor company said Q2 the industry may start seeing the benefit.

What will be your take? I know everyone will have a take, but what's your take on UK FTA benefit kicking in?

Look, India FTA, I think, it's all in play. I think it's at the corridors of power, I'm not going to speculate when and exactly.

I think it hopefully will be sooner than later, and we're hoping that it will come into play. That's how I would really put it.

Sorry, your first question was?

Maharashtra impact.

Maharashtra impact, as I say two quarters, it's quarter four quarter one and quarter two effectively. I don't think it's going to sequentially deteriorate, because we have taken the worst behind us, okay?

From here, what gives us confidence is we've seen over the last 3, 4 months how the category has played out, and where are they settling. We've seen it consistently now settle.

Therefore, it's not going to accentuate, but we are going to see previous year comparatives impacting us.

Understood. Thank you.

That's all from my side.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, team. Just a question on the lower prestige part, the PPT slide, the waterfall chart that you have, where the lower prestige is basically almost flat kind of growth.

Just wanted to understand, is that a function of the industry itself growing at that rate, or is it that within that segment, we have lost some amount of market share?

Percy, thanks for the question. Look, very clearly, if you look at the overall ladder, lower prestige is obviously softer than middle prestige and upper prestige.

Middle and upper prestige and upper end are clearly growing faster. There's no doubt about it, and this is for the industry.

There is no doubt about it. Within lower prestige, yes, we have not performed well.

We have seen sequential share gaps over the last six to seven quarters, and clearly, that's an area of opportunity. That's why this whole work around transformation to build back McDowell's No.1 play.

Clearly, we have seen softness, and the work is now with the renovation to build back growth in lower prestige and gain share within that space.

Do we have a problem analysis of actually what went wrong for us to lose that market share? Is it that our packaging was not attractive enough?

Is it that the flavor was not good enough, or the pricing was not the right one? What exactly is the analysis of the cause of the problem?

Percy, it's a sum total of many of these factors. Obviously, we were not winning with the consumer, and that was the concern.

It's one of our biggest brands, and we wouldn't want to do anything in a short-term manner. Therefore, we've worked on an absolute clear transformation agenda over the last 1 year.

We've relooked at the liquid, we've relooked at the packaging, we've relooked at the format, we've relooked at the overall bundle. We've researched it now in roughly eight markets with 10,000 consumers to make sure that we are winning significantly versus any other competitor, and therefore we feel excited as we have come back into the market.

Got it, sir. My second question is on margins.

Assuming glass prices at where they are today, I think they have inflated 15%, 20% versus prewar levels, if they remain at this level for the rest of the year, and there are pluses and minuses from UK FTA, etc., but assuming that glass prices do not come down, do you think that you would be able to maintain this 18.9% margin that you have delivered for this year for the next year as well?

Percy, I responded to Jay's question earlier, right, I am not looking at 12 months hence right now, right? What we are very clear is that there is already an impact, which is roughly that 1.25% to 1.5% on gross margin for the April-June quarter.

If the crisis continues, right, that impact could probably roughly double in the July to September quarter, right? That's what we would broadly want to look at, and you're broadly right, right?

The ranges that you mentioned are broadly right. It's not just glass that is getting impacted, because crude being up, even PET and our raw materials relating to PET are also going up, right?

It's an overall combination that is impacting the packaging material. Percy, all of this, as will get moderated through our productivity agenda.

We will obviously ramp it up, as we've already ramped it up. Therefore, it's going to play out.

What you have to look at is, over a period of time, this doesn't change anything. We seem to be reasonably comfortable.

In the short term, there could be small ups and downs.

Sir. That's all from me.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi.

Thanks for the presentation. My first question was actually, if I look at the fourth-quarter result, there seems to be a moderation in your ex-AP, Maharashtra growth also.

Just wanted to understand if there were any factors specific to the quarter, like state elections or before the McDowell's relaunch, which played a role at all, or do you think this was some kind of a slowdown, which you're still seeing in the market as we speak?

Yeah. There's lots of issues around the fourth quarter.

It's moderated marginally, not significantly, first thing I'd say. Second, yeah, lots of issues.

Early January, there were a set of very different issues to late March as West Asia triggered. Obviously, a whole lot of issues around our own global portfolio came into play.

We just needed to balance it to just make sure that we are able to in a sustainably way resolve it. That's impacted us a little bit.

It's also a little bit of where we were last year same time. There are many reasons for it, but nothing significant as I would see, Arnab, in the moderation.

I don't believe that's anything on a longer period over a year or 9 to 12 months. I don't see any slowing down as which has happened.

Got it. Just one add-on question to this: is there any reason to look at numbers ex-AP anymore given that AP is now in the base,

or

was there some slightly higher than normal sales as the channel was refilling?

No, Arnab, not at all, right? In fact, in terms of quarter-alone performance, we don't look at AP, right?

Because we were doing a 12-month review with you, being the annual call, because AP was there for the first 6 months, etc. You're absolutely right.

There is absolutely no need to look at ex-AP.

As we go forward, we will certainly not look at ex-AP. Ex-AP.

Ex-Maharashtra will continue for the next couple of quarters probably, right?

Got it. My second question was really good to see you focus back on McDowell's No.1.

My one question was in the past, I've had a feeling that your focus was a lot more on mid and upper prestige. Lower prestige, does it still have the economics and do you still have the cost structure to operate in that segment because there are a lot of local smaller players who have now entered that segment?

Just wanted to understand in the medium term, is this still a good economics business to grow? Of course, you still have to be there.

It gives you scale and things like that, but in terms of trying to grow this business.

Arnab, it is a very big part of our business, number one, okay? Number two, India 1, as we segmented it, is a very big part of, and it's seeing very, very healthy growth, growth in penetration and frequency, huge opportunity.

This, over a period of time, will ladder to our premium portfolio. We believe this is an absolutely important catchment, okay?

We have seen it slowing down over the last couple of years. It is not to say we have not focused on that.

We've seen it slowing down. We were going slow to go fast.

We were fixing at the back end, and we've spent time as we have gone through this renovation and transformation. We feel, therefore, as it gets back to the market, it'll turbocharge growth at the lower prestige.

Now coming to the economics, and PJ can add to it. Actually, PJ, why don't you add to the economics part?

Arnab, economics are not an issue, right? Look, as the enterprise productivity has scaled up, right, over the last 3, 4 years, let's understand, being such a salient part of our portfolio, the maximum benefit also comes onto McDowell's, right?

From our perspective, right, the margin structure of the category is absolutely a laddered structure, and we don't see any concern in the margin structures of McDowell's. No economic concerns at all, all guns blazing.

Productivity have the maximum impact on McDowell's, and we don't see any concerns on that.

Thanks, that's all from my side. All the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi.

Good evening. Just had a question on McDowell's again.

If you could just take us through how this process will work now in terms of putting the product into the market, change on the new blend and packaging, and how long would it take you to kind of get feedback on how the customer is kind of accepting it? Just some sense on that.

Would you be able to get sufficient feedback sense in the first 6 months or in H1, sitting in H1? Would that be the right kind of timeline to look at it?

Yeah. It's just starting to go into market.

In fact, earlier this week, it got launched in UP. Now, obviously, all markets typically have 15- to 20-day stocks.

As it goes through, it'll take at least another month to see it in full bloom in the market it's gone, and then you drive the whole agenda. As I see, every market in the third month is when you will see how it's getting executed, what is the consumer response.

We can get early reads around it, but the early read is as we roll out to a market through our core customers and a set of consumers, you see how they respond to it. UP, we've just launched.

It has been huge excitement around it, and that gives us the confidence. How long will it take across the country?

I think it starts now and goes right up to end August. It's in a very sequential form as we have looked at it market by market, and therefore by end of August, we'll be pretty much across markets in India.

Yes, you'll start seeing how it performs somewhere mid-July onwards, and start getting the lift around that part of the business to our overall portfolio.

Probably in the October call, Harit, we'll have a better sense. The pre-sales before the festive season, etc., would also be a reasonably good indicator.

October would be a good time to kind of give you guys a sense.

Great, great. The second and last question was on the playbook bit.

There's innovation mentioned there, there's category creation, participation in portfolio white spaces. I just wanted to get your thought on, when you're looking into the portfolio now, any spaces which you feel where there is still scope either to use the global portfolio might or innovate domestically, which can drive growth even more from here, maybe premium vodka or whatever you think there are opportunities.

Anything there you could just comment on in terms of how you're thinking about it, that's it from me.

Great question, Harit. When I say category creation, we are building category in tequila right now as we speak.

We are unlocking the true potential of vodka through Smirnoff. We already play brandy.

We are significantly enhancing our play around brandy. We've got to look at that very differently.

There's certainly global brands which are waiting to come to India. We are evaluating each one of them, and timing will be versus the consumer opportunity and when we can bring it to market.

Certainly looking at it. Over the next 12 to 18 months, you will see some exciting new spaces open up.

I wouldn't want to talk about it because that's future looking, and it's a little speculative, but certainly absolutely an opportunity and something we will evaluate very, very closely as we go through.

Great, great. Wish the team all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Hi.

My questions are regarding a couple of other commodities. From what we gather, ENA costs were fairly stable for the fourth quarter.

Could you just give an indication as to what has been the trend on that particular front recently?

ENA cost is reasonably stable. You've got it absolutely bang on, right?

That's why, as I've responded to the cost issues, it's largely centering around packaging material.

Okay. Pradeep, last quarter, you also indicated that while you are insulated from the rupee depreciation impact on bulk Scotch because of your agreement with Diageo, there was some inflation that you had indicated.

Anything to call out on the bulk Scotch inflation ex-rupee depreciation?

That's ongoing. That's ongoing, right?

On the bulk Scotch also, the IMFL bulk Scotch, right, we don't have a month-on-month depreciation, but there is an annual price reset in which the forex also comes and impacts us, right? Obviously, it cannot be, right?

Because the source inflation happens at source, and the forex gets reset once in 12 months when the price is being reset. That also does come and impact us.

If last year was at, let's say, 85, and today the dollar is at 93, yes, that will come and impact. That's part of our ongoing business as usual inflation, Samba, we shouldn't worry too much about that.

Okay. Lastly, given the dividend that you declared this year, any revision, A, on your dividend payout policy, and B, intentions if and when the proceeds of the RCB stake sale comes through?

Okay. I'll comment on the first one, right, which is on the dividend part, right?

We've already made an amended policy about 3 months ago. When we declared the January interim dividend, we had restated our dividend payout ratio intent.

Earlier, I think it was 50% to 70%. We've already moved it to a range of 60% to 85%, right?

That is pretty much synchronous with the payout ratios as we have increased over the last 3 years, right? Second one is something, right now we're just focused on closing the transaction.

Once we close the transaction, then we will worry about what will happen with the proceeds. I would recommend that will be something that will be a subject matter of USL board's review and decision.

Let's kind of park that for a while.

Understood. Thanks, Pradeep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Latika.

Hi, everyone. Most of my questions were answered.

Just few clarifications.

One was on Latika, you're not very clear, Latika. Latika, yeah.

We can't understand what you're saying.

Is it better?

Slightly better. Just speak a little louder.

Please, yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

My first question was on advertising spend. This year, you landed at 10.4%.

Are we maintaining the band of 9% to 10%? Is that a fair range for you to operate at?

Yeah. Latika, I think I had clarified that, maybe not on the last call, right?

We do see our A&P spends more in the 10.5% range, right, and we'll probably sustain at those levels.

Understood. The second was if you could give us some flavor on how the on-trade and off-trade salience for your business looks like.

How are these trending, and any specific initiatives you want to talk about? Separately, I was also very curious to know the feedback on this 200 ml launch that you've done for Johnnie Walker Blonde.

Johnnie Walker Blonde

200.

Okay. Look, Latika, on the on-trade, off-trade, more than the salience, I think the important thing to look at on-trade is that's where our brands are built, okay?

Once you understand that, then you realize the impact it has on consumers and how it builds occasions and how it builds frequency over a period of time. I don't look at it in terms of salience of business.

I look at it in terms of how we invest there and be there, and the best of us need to be there so that it endears our consumers to drive penetration and frequency. That's how I would look at it in a big way.

There's a second question she asked.

Johnnie Walker Blonde 200.

Johnnie Walker 200, Look, pocket pack 180 ml has done magic, okay? Why do we do a 180 ml or a 200 ml?

Very, very importantly, it softens your pocket spend, okay, and allows for people to premiumize constantly, and therefore sample our product. That's what it's done, and it's doing very, very well not only for Blonde, but we are starting to look at across our portfolio, the 20 cl play.

The 200 ml play, what it does therefore is constantly samples our product for consumers to therefore, over a period of time, become loyalists.

It's the core penetration SKU, Latika, right? In a country like India, right, it's the highest salience across categories, right?

We're just trying to play to that insight.

Understood. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Latika.

Hi, good evening. First question on the drinking pattern and behavior of Gen Z.

Obviously, there's a lot of talk about them drinking less, drinking better, but drinking less. A, is there any way to track that in India?

How are you guys monitoring that situation? How are you looking at the whole thing in India?

Look, that's more as I've spoken about this consistently outside of this forum also. Look, Gen Zs, first, I don't think are drinking less significantly, but they are drinking better very, very differently.

Therefore, we're starting to see penetration used to be driven around our primary Scotches even for our India 3 consumers. That is looking very different today.

They start consuming single malts, they start consuming whites at the premium space. They're looking at repertoire drinkage very, very aggressively.

What we notice also is that in the past, there was consistency of drinkage. What we are starting to notice today is there's a lot more binging.

They tend to drink the same amount, but they tend to drink in a fewer occasions at times. There are different things which are playing out.

It's playing out differently between Scotch and whites. Cocktails are on a roll as we speak with Gen Zs.

Overall, I don't see significantly lower drinkage, but I see significantly premium consumption.

Okay. Very clear, thanks.

Is there any challenge to bottle availability also, or is it only cost inflation headwind?

As of now, given that we also are looking at PET, and PET is a significant part of our overall portfolio now in terms of volumes, we are not seeing any significant concerns on bottle availability. In the short term, if we are not planful enough, we've had stock outrages, but nothing serious, nothing really of concern.

All

right. Thank you for answering the questions.

Have a good weekend.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Most of my questions were answered. Just on the staff cost, in last 3 to 4 years, your staff cost has not seen material increase.

FY25, it was 11%, but '26, it was a 3% increase. How should one look at your staff cost going into FY27, '28?

That's the first question. Second bookkeeping question, was there any dividend income from RCB in F '26?

Okay. Let me take the second one, which I remember offhand easily, right?

Yes, I think in Q3, there was roughly a ₹100 crore, dividend income from RCB to USL. That was there.

Look, on the first one, we, have said this earlier also, we do keep driving, an ongoing continuous org effectiveness productivity interventions, right, on an ongoing basis. That's part of our, overall value chain productivity, right?

That's the only reason that, some of the, that the typical increases are not translating into, into into the into the inflation numbers the way you are seeing it, right? That's the only reason.

If you look at our staff cost, it's pretty much been range-bound over the last 3, 4 3, 4 years in that ₹150 to ₹160 crores per quarter kind of a range, right? My only request is, as I've always maintained, don't look at a quarter number, right?

Always look at our staff cost on a rolling four-quarter basis. That'll give you a reasonably good sense of of the numbers.

Got it. That's helpful.

Lastly, just two clarification. One, is the Karnataka policy actually gone into implementation, or is it still being awaited for replies or consideration from all these stakeholders?

Second is when you say this 1.25% and 1.5% kind of gross margin impact, are you implementing from the 4Q gross margins or from the full-year FY26 margins?

The second one is clearly sequential basis, right, from the fourth quarter. Now, obviously, there are many other business changes that keep happening, right, but by and large, I have given you a sequential impact from Jan-March to April-June quarter, right?

Your first question, Karnataka policy is pretty much kind of implemented and rolled out, right, and about 2 weeks ago, it's operational in the market.

Got it. That's all from my side.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi,

sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

The feedback that we got from markets about McDowell's, muted growth was essentially there were too many variants within McDowell's in that segment in the entry segment. Was this right?

My first question was that. Was there a problem with the too many variants being there?

I don't think we've understood

Too many variants? I don't think it has too many variants.

It's largely similar. There are a couple of states where we have one different variant,

but

it is one core McDowell's in every state. I don't think there are too many variants.

Nothing at variance with the industry. By and large, it's the same number of variants, right?

Any concern, right, I'm not getting the concern there, right? That is not an issue, right?

That is not an issue at all.

The concern was because what we were told was that, from the consumer side, say, there is just McDowell's No.1,

okay,

a single product, whereas there is a McDowell's No.1 Diet, likewise,

Pradeep Jain (Executive Director & CFO): We haven't picked up anything like this

from the consumer.

Abhijeet, yeah, we haven't picked up anything like this from the consumer, right? No, there's something else, right.

Nothing. Nothing at all.

Understood. On Antiquity, we didn't speak much about Antiquity, and it was getting very close to the 1 million cases mark.

You spoke about Signature, and Signature has been doing really well. Where do you see Antiquity in your overall promotions?

Look, it's a portfolio of brands we play both in upper prestige and in BII. Very, very clearly, Antiquity is core part of the portfolio, and we will continue to drive and drive growth.

However, the lead brand is what we spoke about. Therefore, when I spoke about Signature or Black & White in the BII, it was just to say these are the lead brands where we're in.

Yes, absolutely, it's important, and we will continue to invest and drive growth across our portfolio.

Just to add to what Praveen has said, Signature is the national brand, therefore we've spoken of that. Antiquity is a geography-specific brand, right, and it continues to do very well in those geographies.

Understood. The MML impact, has it receded in the recent times, and is settling down, the number of volume?

How do you see it?

Haven't seen this. It did.

I'm starting to see it average out and start settle down. That's why I said sequentially, there's not going to be no further impact.

We've seen the worst of it.

Understood. As 1.26% impact on gross margins sequentially, are you in a position right now to absorb that through higher productivity and

We'll have to see that, right? Productivity is an ongoing treadmill, right?

We will have to see how our initiatives will keep coming and keep getting executed, right? Right now, I don't want to comment on that, right?

Obviously, our effort would be to try and neutralize, right? It's very difficult to kind of jacket that up in the shorter term.

Understood. Thanks.

That's it from my side.

Hello, Praveen, Pradeep, and Shweta. Thanks for taking my question.

One question was already answered, I'll just keep one from me. Could you just give some additional color on what will happen to Scotch pricing after the UK-India FTA deal is implemented?

Your global CFO, Nick, suggested high single-digit consumer price decrease. Is there any update to that or any modification you would answer, and how will it differ across your salience of BII and BIO portfolios?

Thank you. Pretty much the same range.

Very much the same range. Exactly, right?

BIO, roughly, we are looking at a high single-digit reduction. Our desire will be to pass that on completely to the consumer.

BII will be in the range of 4% to 5%. Exactly the same ranges, no change at all.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you everyone. Thanks for joining the call.

Appreciate your time.

Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. If there are any questions, please reach out to me directly.

Thank you. Have a good evening.