Welspun Living Limited

Welspun Living Limited

209.75
INR
-3.95
(-1.85%)
2.96EPS
55.29P/E
151.84BMarket Cap
Nov 04Next Earn

Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 12, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Welspun Living Q3 FY26 earnings conference call hosted by JM Financial. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.

Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing '*' and then '0' on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ashutosh Somani from JM Financial.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Ashutosh Somani

Thanks, operator, and welcome everyone to the call. I will first thank Welspun Living for giving JM Financial the opportunity to host today's call.

Without much ado, I'll hand over the call to Ms. Bharti Agarwal, Lead Investor Relations, Welspun Living, to introduce the management.

Over to you, Bharti.

Bharti Agarwal

Thank you, Ashutosh, and good evening, everyone. On behalf of Welspun Living Limited, I would like to welcome you all to the company's third quarter FY2026 earnings conference call.

Joining me on the call today are Ms. Dipali Goenka, Managing Director and CEO, and Mr.

Manish Bansal, Chief Financial Officer. We hope you have had the opportunity to review the earnings presentation, which has been filed with the stock exchanges today and is also available on our website.

During the course of today's discussion, we may make references from this presentation. As usual, we will begin with opening remarks from the management, following which we will open the floor for a Q&A session.

Should you have any additional questions after the call, please feel free to reach out to us. With that, I would now like to hand over the call to Ms.

Dipali Goenka. Over to you, ma'am.

Dipali Goenka

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Welspun Living's Q3 FY26 earnings call. Q3 FY26 unfolded in an operating environment that remained challenging and largely unchanged: persistent US tariff headwinds, muted discretionary demand, and cautious retailer buying continued to weigh on demand visibility and volumes across export markets.

However, as we closed the quarter, the global trade landscape for India has shifted decisively, and this marks a structural inflection for Indian manufacturing and exports. Over the last few months, India has concluded a series of landmark trade agreements, including the India-US trade agreement, the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, and the India-UK FTA, alongside earlier agreements with markets such as Japan and Australia.

Together, these FTAs significantly expand India's market access across the world's largest consumption pools, materially improve tariff competitiveness, and reinforce India's position as a preferred long-term sourcing destination for global retailers. This shift is not about an immediate demand rebound over the next quarter or two; rather, it meaningfully improves visibility, competitiveness, and confidence for global customers planning their sourcing strategies over the next several years.

The India-US trade agreement removes a key overhang. The rollback of punitive tariffs, including the removal of the Russian oil-linked levy, and a favorable reciprocal tariff framework, potentially around 18%, restores India's competitiveness versus the peer sourcing nations.

Europe, in particular, represents a major structural opportunity. The EU is the world's second-largest economy and a $260 billion annual importer of textiles and apparel, while India's current exports are only $7 billion, highlighting significant headroom.

For Welspun Living, this is not a new market. We already have established relationships and an operating presence.

The India-EU FTA materially improves our competitiveness, strengthens market access, and enhances long-term demand visibility in a large, high-value, sustainability-focused region, creating a multi-year growth runway across home textiles, flooring, and advanced textiles. From a portfolio perspective, the combination of India-US, India-EU, and India-UK agreements reduces concentration risk and supports a more balanced growth profile.

With nearly 40% of our business already outside the US, we are well positioned to participate in this next phase of global sourcing normalization. As we move ahead, our strategy remains unchanged: stay close to customers, exercise cost discipline, invest in innovation and sustainability, and emerge stronger.

Turning to performance highlights for the quarter: against this backdrop, consolidated revenue declined 9.9% year-on-year, while EBITDA margin improved sequentially to 7.7%, expanded 80 bps quarter-on-quarter, driven by sustained cost actions despite elevated tariff pressures and adverse mix. Our core home textile exports declined 8.9% Y-o-Y, reflecting the residual impact of tariff-related disruptions, cautious retail behavior, and muted discretionary demand in the US, our largest market.

While recent data indicates a modest, broad-based improvement in US consumer sentiments in store holiday season sales for home products, it declined 3%, and overall confidence remains 20% lower than last year's levels. That said, with India's tariff competitiveness now improving across product categories, we believe the foundation is firmly in place for a gradual recovery in volumes, with India and scale partners like Welspun well positioned to gain share as sourcing normalizes.

We continue to expand our presence in higher-value categories such as utility bedding, fashion, and pillows, underpinned by strong innovation capabilities. Our Jacquard facility further reinforces our leadership in premium terry towels globally.

Our onshore Ohio pillow facility is ramping up well, with revenues already 2x Y-o-Y, and we remain on track to double pillow business this fiscal year, alongside preparations for the Nevada expansion. Christy, our luxury heritage brand, sustained strong momentum in Q3 with 31% Y-o-Y revenue growth, driven by continued UK strength, ongoing Middle East market entry, and strengthening US performance.

Performance was further supported by UK repeat customer growth of 64% Y-o-Y, strong US marketplace performance, and rising demand across core and premium bedding. Our domestic consumer business recorded ₹185 crores; it grew 4.7% Y-o-Y.

Our B2C home textile segment delivered 6.4% growth this quarter on the back of strong performance in general trade and modern trade over a festive base last year. Our Welspun and Spaces brand is well positioned to capture India's next phase of consumption-led growth.

In addition, India's expanding religious tourism and pilgrimage infrastructure is creating incremental demand for institutional home textiles, adding a steady growth avenue. Our domestic flooring business continues to perform well.

It grew 14% Y-o-Y, driven by housing, hospitality, and institutional demand. Our global flooring business declined 29.2% Y-o-Y amid tariff headwinds.

However, we see significant potential in soft flooring. Our area rugs delivered a strong double-digit growth this quarter, and upcoming FTAs are expected to further enhance our competitiveness in global markets across product categories.

Our advanced textile business declined 20.9% Y-o-Y to ₹104 crores, impacted by softer global demand. With upcoming FTAs, the medium-term outlook for this business remains highly promising across all geographies.

At Welspun Living, innovation and sustainability are deeply integrated into how we design products, run operations, and build long-term competitiveness. Backed by an IP portfolio of over 48 patents, our innovation-led offerings enable premium positioning and agility, with innovation accounting for 20% of revenues.

Proprietary platforms like HygroCotton, GX Pillow, and Wel-Track continue to drive value across categories, reinforcing our leadership in innovation-led growth. This quarter, our sustainability moat received strong external validation.

Welspun Living ranks number one globally in textile, apparel, and luxury goods category with a score of 90 in 2025 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment. Together, our innovation depth and sustainability leadership create a powerful, defensible moat, strengthening customer trust, enabling premiumization, and positioning us to emerge stronger as markets normalize.

As we look ahead, India's expanding FTA network and global sourcing realignments open up a significant multi-year growth opportunity. Our focused efforts on cost optimization, faster time-to-market, and operational excellence continues with unwavering rigor, placing us in a stronger position with each step.

We are ready not just to meet this moment, but to rise with it. With that, I will now hand over to Manish to take you through the financial performance for the quarter.

Over to you, Manish.

Manish Bansal

Thank you, Dipali, and good evening, everyone. I will briefly walk you through our financial performance for Q3 FY26.

During the quarter, we reported consolidated revenue of ₹2,277 crore, down 9.9% year-on-year, reflecting continued pressure on volumes amid a challenging external environment. That said, the most important financial takeaway this quarter is resilience of our operating model.

Despite elevated tariffs, mix pressure, and muted demand, EBITDA margin expanded sequentially by 80 bps point to 7.7%, demonstrating the tangible impact of sustainable cost actions, operating discipline across the business. While margins are lower on a year-on-year basis, it is important to note that this sequential improvement has been achieved in one of the most challenging operating environments, underscoring the structural work done on overhead rationalization, sourcing optimization, and plant productivity.

These actions are helping offset tariff-led pressure and adverse mix, even as we continue to benefit from favorable forex realization. Profit after tax before exceptional item for the quarter is at ₹21.5 crore.

That said, this quarter demonstrate our ability to generate cash even in a downcycle through working capital discipline. Our free cash flow improved meaningfully to ₹395 crore compared to ₹112 crore in FY25.

This reflect tighter working capital discipline across business. As a result, cash conversion cycle improved to 88 days versus last fiscal, demonstrating stronger operating control despite the volatile demand environment.

Our net debt stood at ₹1,332 crore in December '25 versus ₹1,570 crore as on 30th September 2025, lower by ₹238 crore. We are progressing on cost rationalization, procurement optimization, and plant productivity improvements, supported by automation and digitalization initiatives.

These actions are helping us improve resilience and predict profitability even as external pressures persist. Capital allocation remained disciplined.

Our capex continued to be directed towards productivity enhancement, sustainability initiatives, and selective growth opportunities, aligned with our long-term competitiveness rather than volume-led expansion. Capex during this quarter was ₹139 crores, primarily towards efficiency enhancement and our ongoing transmission line project.

Going forward, our focus remain on driving cost efficiencies, improving mix, strengthening cash flows, and accelerating diversification across market and categories. With this, I will now leave the floor open for the question-and-answers.

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session.

Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press '*' and then '1' on their touchtone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press '*' and '2'.

Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

Again, to register for a question, please press '*' and then '1'. Our first question comes from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from Elara Securities.

Please go ahead.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on numbers in this difficult time. My first question is to understand the global tariff scenario now, the US tariff scenario.

What is the current scenario, and is the thing about cotton, US cotton being used so tariffs will be 0% materialized, or how do we see it coming in?

Dipali Goenka

Hi Prerna.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Hi, ma'am.

Dipali Goenka

As about our US tariffs, we saw the 25% punitive tariff go. 18% should be done in the near future.

When you even talk about, now looking at India, with the 18%, it will become the most competitive. I know there are conversations about Bangladesh that are coming into fore, and let me put that on the table and address that as well.

Here, the conversations are the same that are going to be applicable for India as well, which are right now happening, and it's a little ambiguous, but we'll hear in the next near term. Definitely for us with US, where we are at 18%, we will also be as competitive as their peers.

When you talk about US cotton, the interesting thing is it's not 0%, because when you talk about towels, 50% is your cotton content, right? When you talk about sheets, it's around 30% to 35%.

It is according to that that you look at the kind of the cotton that is grown in USA getting that benefit and an upside. However, as we go forward, more and more clarity will come in the reciprocal tariff of United States of America.

As we speak, we already know that UK FTA is done last year, and we will see that coming in the next two quarters, and the Europe FTA being done, which earlier, actually, the FTAs in these kind of were cost arbitrage, but now we're talking about growth as an kind of opportunity, and we'll see that coming in the next year.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Understood, ma'am. Ma'am, at 18%, even if we assume that cotton thing is not happening, at 18%, how will be the sharing of tariffs be between the customers and us going forward?

Can we assume a return to normal margins from Q1, because Q4 is almost half done? From Q1, can we assume a return to near-normal margins for you?

Dipali Goenka

I'll tell you one thing, Prerna. One thing, let me be clear.

When we talk about these FTAs and 18% and the others, there is a partnership that you have with the retailers, right? Even in these toughest times, we actually worked on sharing a little burden, right?

There'll be that opportunity that'll come in. Quarter four, anyway, I've already spoken about.

See, February is already gone by.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

There's

Dipali Goenka

still a lot of uncertainties that are happening. The year will go by.

Quarter four still will be in that kind of a thing. As we go forward in quarter one, we will see a continuous upside coming in.

I just want to make it very clear, when these kind of implications happen, there's a lot of conversations that'll happen between the customers, because these partnerships are more than over two decades. We are the most competitive, this will be same applicable to all the countries as well.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Okay.

Dipali Goenka

Yeah.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Understood. It will still take some time for normal margins to kick in even in FY27 is how we should look at it?

Dipali Goenka

It will gradually pan out in quarter one and as we go forward, Prerna. It takes time, because the orders come in.

How this whole pans out, see, we're already sitting in February. Quarter four is nearly over, and the quarter one just pans out, right?

It'll take time, but, yes, it will happen as a gradual upside quarter-on-quarter.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Okay. Understood, ma'am.

Ma'am, on domestic business, how is the demand scenario now, and what kind of uptick we are seeing in the domestic market?

Dipali Goenka

With the GST reforms, we see a huge opportunity here. For the next year, that the next the financial year, we'll definitely see kind of a growth that we're targeting that over 20%, 25%.

That is something that we are absolutely geared up for our brand Spaces and Welspun in India.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Understood. Understood.

I'll come back to the question queue, ma'am, for further questions. Thank you, and all the best.

Dipali Goenka

Thank you, Prerna. Thank you.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Shraddha Agarwal from Asian Market Securities. Please go ahead.

Shraddha Agarwal

Hi. Congratulations to the team on a good quarter.

Dipali, two questions. First is now that tariff is 18% plus you've signed FTAs with UK and EU, how should we look at our capex plans going ahead, which we had stalled for the time being given there was so much uncertainty?

Dipali Goenka

Hi Shraddha. The thing is that we already have invested in towels, if you know about our Jacquard facility, and we already working on a fashion bedding and also the pillows.

I think some is completely geared up in the terms of capacity utilization. The focus this time is going to be to sweat our assets, because the opportunity is humongous, because not only with just 18% on India on the tariff in US, with the UK, Europe, now Japan, Australia, the ROW, Japan, the other opportunities that we see here are going to open up more doors for all our categories that we do, that is our bath, bedding, flooring, and advanced textile as well.

Shraddha Agarwal

That's right, but I was more talking about the ₹700 crore capex that we had outlined earlier, the phase two which was to be split between '26 and '27 in terms of capacity into spinning and bath and bed, all coming through. I'm talking about that capex plan.

Where do we stand on that now?

Manish Bansal

Hi Shraddha, Manish here. Yes, we are on track on our capex, whatever which was agreed, but we are not planning any additional capacity for taking care of any future business.

That whatever planned capacity or capex we have done, it will be enough to take care of future demand. Maybe after 2 years, we will review how it looks like.

Dipali Goenka

With the kind of capacity that we have for Jacquards and we have become the one of the largest capacities in the world now for towels.

Shraddha Agarwal

Right. We are on track to do that spinning capacity expansion of 40 tons per day as well as 3,600 tons per annum capacity on the terry side?

Dipali Goenka

That's already on track. That's already on track and already started, yeah.

Shraddha Agarwal

Okay. Secondly, on the flooring business, ma'am, we have been facing some pressure on that portfolio for some time now.

In between, there was a decision that we might look to rationalize our hard flooring subsegment. Any decision that has been taken, or how should we look at the flooring portfolio going ahead?

Dipali Goenka

Shraddha, let me tell you, I haven't been more positive about this business than ever. I can tell you that really very categorically.

With the kind of opportunity that we are seeing now with Europe, UK, and rest of the world, our soft flooring business has a massive uptick, and we will see that gradually pan out. With a year or two here or there, our top line will also come through, and our margins will also turn around.

This is something which we are seeing coming in the very near future as well.

Shraddha Agarwal

Right. We continue with both the sections in flooring, both the subsegments, hard flooring and soft flooring?

Dipali Goenka

Basically the thrust will be more on the soft flooring, and hard flooring will pan out gradually, yeah.

Shraddha Agarwal

Right. Sure, this was helpful.

Thank you.

Dipali Goenka

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Bhavin Chheda from ENAM Holdings.

Please go ahead.

Bhavin Chheda

Congrats to the entire team. Really good results in the environment we are in.

Just to carry on the question of the floorings first, if you can update, because after the tariff, US business got impacted in flooring. What was the tariff for India on floorings versus competition, where we lost market share?

After the current trade deal, what is the tariff scenario of flooring? Ma'am, you spoke about the opportunity in Europe also for flooring, how does the competitive positioning in the flooring space change post-recent tariff announcement, if you can update more on that?

Dipali Goenka

Yes. Sure.

Now when you talk about flooring, we are competing with China, we're competing with Vietnam, we're competing with Turkey, right, and Egypt. If you're talking about these countries, they were very, very competitive.

Now with this opportunity that we have, we definitely have an upside. That actually gives us an opportunity not only in US, but in UK and EU also there's an opportunity.

The other interesting thing, and you must be knowing it absolutely, that GCC again is on track for having the FTA there too. That is very interesting.

Australia, we already have an opportunity, Australia and New Zealand. These are other countries that we will see an upside coming in.

The focus is we'll see a massive upside on soft flooring, which is the bigger part of the flooring portfolio.

Bhavin Chheda

Sure. Secondly, on the advanced textile, the utilization has seen a fall as compared to even quarter two.

Any specific reason where the demand slowdown happened?

Dipali Goenka

The demand slowdown definitely happened. See, now with this kind of a tariff implication that we had, we had become completely unviable for countries like United States of America, even for Europe and other countries as well.

Having said that, now we see an opportunity opening up again. These opportunities will not only come in for spunlace, which is just commodity, but needle-punch where we created innovative products, and also in wet wipes and the other dry wipes and the other categories that we're working on.

There again is an opportunity to grow this category by 20% and with a strong double-digit margin as well, nearing 20%.

Bhavin Chheda

Sure. The last one on how much was the US cotton in your overall cotton mix in the quarter and 9 months?

Dipali Goenka

This actually started post the third in the second quarter onwards. We started seeing US cotton in the second quarter, and it actually depends on the programs and the program mix that we do, honestly.

Specifically basically in a bath category, we have seen that coming in as an upswing, and mainly also in the second and then the third quarter.

Bhavin Chheda

If you can share the percentage number, how much maybe 20%,

Dipali Goenka

30%? I just cannot share that actually.

Yeah.

Bhavin Chheda

No problem. Thanks a lot.

Dipali Goenka

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Sunny Visha from Axis Securities.

Please go ahead.

Sunny Visha

Thanks for taking my question. I just want to understand depending on the last call that we had and the guidance that you had given, we were expecting the trend or rather the decline to be similar to earlier quarter.

As a matter of fact, it has been not that bad. I just want to understand what went better than expectation, because I think we were expecting a double-digit declining in revenues.

What went well or better than expected, and does that mean that we may do even better in Q4? The positive impact of tariff is not there.

Still we were able to recoup some growth. I just want to understand what changed this quarter.

Manish Bansal

Hi, Sunny, Manish here. Thank you for your question.

Yes, the results are better than expectation. There are couple of reasons for this.

As during last call, we have mentioned very categorically that we are going to work on various fields in terms of managing our cost optimization, improve our plant efficiencies, etc. That has actually given us some results in terms of performance results.

We are able to absorb the cost or hit of the tariff in this activities. There are some forex gain also there, and that has actually helped us to mitigate some of other tariff impact.

That's the reason we actually able to deliver better numbers.

Sunny Visha

Okay. Even on the revenue growth terms, I think we are doing better than expected, especially I think domestic business has started showing signs of good sustainable growth.

Do you think that we can expect further traction in domestic, and overall revenue growth where do you expect to end for the full year now?

Manish Bansal

Yes, you're right. We are expecting growth in domestic business, and that is a continuous focus area for us, and we will continue to do that.

Probably, we will be able to share the updates in sometime.

Sunny Visha

Great. I'll wait for that, and congratulations on good results.

Thank you.

Manish Bansal

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ashutosh Somani. Please go ahead.

Ashutosh Somani

Thanks for taking my question. Dipali, while you have stated that a lot of clarity is yet to emerge on how the US cotton benefits will flow through for Bangladesh, just want to understand two parts of this equation.

One is, what does the US cotton usage do to the unit economics of our product? Okay.

Secondly, how high can the usage be in percentage terms in a product category? What is the highest number you can think of?

The context of this question is that the number doing the rounds for Bangladesh is 70%. So, 70% usage of cotton is US cotton in a product makes them eligible for 0% tariff.

In that context, just wanted to understand two things from you. One is, is it even viable to have unit economics in your favor after using 70% US cotton sitting in Bangladesh or India?

The second is, can we actually go as high as 70% in any of the product categories?

Dipali Goenka

Go ahead, Ashutosh. Sorry, ask, please.

Ashutosh Somani

No, thanks. I think you can continue.

Thanks.

Dipali Goenka

Yeah. Let me tell you, for our towels, we know that it can't go beyond 50%.

In sheets, it can't go beyond 30% to 35%. Similarly, it's applicable to all the categories.

Maybe apparel could be maybe 10% here and there more. That is the unit economics that we can talk about.

However, even in the elements that you know about Bangladesh deal, let me also clarify, there's going to be a quota about the goods that are going to be exported out of this cotton, because Bangladesh doesn't grow any cotton. They anyway import cotton, right?

They'll be importing more US cotton, but that is going to be again having a quota. Then the rest of it will have that 19%.

Similar deal is what the government has been talking here for India as well. I just want to table.

People can say 70% to 80%. As I know very well, right now for my products, this is where the cotton consumption remains.

Ashutosh Somani

Sure. Dipali, this is very helpful.

The other question is, from the outside, it looks like it's a great time to be in textiles with the addressable market size increasing manyfold from a 3-5-year perspective. UK FTA will be ratified at some point in time, EU FTA maybe after 6-8 months of UK, and then you have these issues with US has been resolved, and new markets, Oceania, Middle East.

Are we now comfortable from a 5-year perspective to report high-double-digit revenue growth sitting here in India?

Dipali Goenka

While this all looks very good, and we are actually geared up to do what it takes to achieve the numbers of growth and, even margins. Ashutosh, it'll all now be, see, like if I look at it, US will happen in next year, next year only.

UK will happen the next couple of quarters. We will definitely see that upside happening.

There would be other elements that we should be even looking at in the terms of this dynamic environment. Ashutosh, just to give you a perspective, we we are feeling very positive about the kind of upswing we'll have in this business.

Ashutosh Somani

Very helpful, Dipali. Thank you.

Yeah.

Dipali Goenka

Thank you, Ashutosh. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Aradhana Jain from BNK Securities.

Please go ahead.

Aradhana Jain

Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand, given that now the US market seems more favorable to us, from EU perspective, what are the growth drivers that we feel that EU can bring to us?

Because the reason I'm asking is that if I consider the FTA, before that, the rate was around 9%, 10%, right? The incremental benefit that we get, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is from the aspect of that 9%, 10% going away.

My understanding is that from home textile perspective, US is much larger market, and for us, that remains. From EU perspective, what exactly now changes beside the rate changing?

Is the market more favorable for home textiles? From a macro perspective, wanted to get your thoughts on the home textile space in the EU market, and how are we going to tackle it?

Is there going to be a different strategy for the EU market, and what kind of growth can we expect from that market, not maybe in the near term, but over a period of time? That's my

Dipali Goenka

Thank you. Thank you.

That's a very interesting question and very very valid as well. As I spoke in my, opening remarks, that EU is the world's second-largest economy, and there it is at around USD it imports around $260-plus billion of textile and apparel, and India's only current export is $7 billion.

The important aspect is that the other countries, like you can imagine Pakistan, Bangladesh, have kind of an upside on this. While as Welspun, we already are present in 27 countries, but and across all the categories, this will give us a mega mega boost in the terms of being competitive with the countries like this.

The important thing you spoke about being the largest market, US, of course, is the largest market. Europe being the second-largest, it is a fragmented market, but having said that, the opportunities are definitely huge.

For us, the certain retailers we've seen that who are doing very well, and these are all mass retailers who have a span of around 2,000 stores, and they're opening a store everyday. The opportunity here, even with our Disney presence that we have, we have not only penetrated in the West Europe, but also in the East Europe.

With us, the base is set. Along with this, not just the retail presence, we also have a hospitality presence now in UK and Europe, and this is going to continue to grow for us at Welspun, too.

Aradhana Jain

In terms of growth, how much growth do we expect the EU market to bring to us maybe in the next 2 to 3 years' time?

Dipali Goenka

Let me tell you. In our portfolio right now, America used to be around 70%.

Now it is around 65%. Our portfolio will grow as a pie where we are right now at 40% with Europe and rest of the world.

This will again increase another 10% of the pie. We want to continue to grow this market.

This is what I can say as of now today.

Aradhana Jain

Understood. Second question is on the FTA with Bangladesh.

Now there are a lot of apprehensions, talks around whether the reduction in the rate that has happened in Bangladesh from 20% to 19%, while it is obviously favorable for them, but the additional clause that they might be also eligible for 0% for selective cases, from your perspective, do you really think that's going to be a value add for them, given that there are talks that if you import from US, your logistic cost and a lot of other working capital requirement increases? From that perspective, how do you look at this deal that has come through from a 0% tariff?

Because you also said that we could also be eligible for that, right? If tomorrow we are eligible, will it really help us to get to that 0% and from cost perspective?

Is it viable or not, is what I wanted to

Dipali Goenka

Let me clarify one thing on this deal that is happening with Bangladesh, and it's still going on as a conversation, where the quotas are there. There'll be a certain quota that will be on on the country, and the rest will be on 19%.

Similar thing has been worked worked out for India. That is continuing there's a conversation happening there, too.

We will have to see how this pan pans out. For Bangladesh, getting in US cotton to make, see, US Bangladesh doesn't grow any cotton.

Anyway, it was importing from India. Now they'll import it from United States of America.

Anyway, that was one thing that they were already doing. That was the cost they were anyway incurring.

This it is also the quota that is going to be a very interesting opportunity where they're looking at, but the rest would be at 19% only. Now, if you look at Bangladesh, it is better upside for apparel, and their their inflations have also caught on with them as a country.

We'll see how this pans out going forward. Let me be very, and I think we should be confident as a country where with this 18%, we are far more competitive, not only in the terms of the tariff, but in the terms of being a stable democracy, with cotton having that next doors, with a strong infrastructure and a back end with MSMEs as well.

I think as a country, India, we should be very confident about, this opportunity that we have.

Aradhana Jain

In terms of raw materials, how much percentage of our raw materials would be cotton and the rest of say MMF fiber for us?

Dipali Goenka

See, mostly for our home textiles, it is 100% cotton, and for our flooring, that's where we have the man-made fibers, so that it just is that much. Along with advanced textile, where you have others like viscose as well.

That actually makes around in a portfolio around 10% to 15% of inputs of MSME

Aradhana Jain

and

Dipali Goenka

these man-made fibers.

Aradhana Jain

Is it fair to assume that most of the cotton we are procuring from India itself? So,

Dipali Goenka

70% of our cotton comes in from India, and the rest comes in from the different parts of the world, yeah.

Aradhana Jain

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

Dipali Goenka

Thank you, Aradhna. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Your next follow-up question comes from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from Elara Securities.

Please go ahead.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Hi, thank you for the opportunity again. For UK, since the FTA is nearby, have we started conversations with our UK clients for enhancing orders?

How are things moving on the UK side?

Dipali Goenka

Prerna, if I may say here that we have already been present in all these countries and with all the major retailers. Now the opportunity is to scale that up.

Our presence is there, our offices are there, we also have our warehousing in UK, our teams are sitting there actually seeding the market on a regular basis. Now it is only going to scale up.

The opportunities here is like how we have in United States of America, there's an opportunity to do business plans together, look at kind of an opportunity growth here, Prerna, so that's going to be another next level where we're going to take it. Hi,

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

okay. Still what is the kind of market in the UK in terms of the price points that we're seeing and the order sizes that we're seeing?

It's going to be materially different than what is US right now, right? Just trying to get some understanding on how we can see the scale-up in UK as Europe is still far.

Dipali Goenka

I'll tell you one thing. UK will have an opportunity in the terms of quality more than quantity.

The certain retailers like John Lewis and the others where you have far more premium luxury products, and the others will be the opportunity in the terms of, yes, value. There also it is pretty substantial in the terms of our towel category.

The other opportunity that we'll have is in the terms of bedding and sheets, where because we couldn't compete with these countries like Pakistan, now that will also open a door for us, because we'll be competitive there, too, Prerna.

Prerna Jhunjhunwala

Okay. Understood, ma'am.

Thank you and all the best.

Dipali Goenka

Thank you, Prerna.

Operator

Thank you. A reminder to all participants: if you wish to register for a question, please press '*' and then '1'.

Our next question comes from the line of Ritesh Gandhi from Discover Capital. Please go ahead.

Ritesh Gandhi

Hi, ma'am. Just had a question with regards to again on this EU FTA.

Just wanted to understand how large is the EU market compared to the US market for the sort of the bedsheets and towels? What is our market share in the EU, and effectively speaking, is the primary reason why our existing market share is low because of the duties were being higher, and so is that the actual opportunity?

Just want to understand the scale of it?

Dipali Goenka

No, as I said earlier, that US, like if I talk about Europe, which is the, we have, I said it in the opening remarks, Ritesh, that $260 billion, they import of textile and apparel, and now that becomes India's opportunity, because India was just doing $7 billion of worth business with Europe and EU. This again is a huge opportunity, the delta is huge,

Ritesh Gandhi

and yeah.

Dipali Goenka

That actually helps us to compete and sets that platform for us to the stage is now set to scale that up.

Ritesh Gandhi

Got it. The other question I had for you was with regards to, you indicated that it would take a few quarters.

I understand that obviously the Q4 is almost over, but with regards to, wouldn't it be almost instant where Q1 onwards a part which we would have been providing for the 25% on oil tariffs would go away and therefore the growth, revenues, margin should again be on with a previous actually trajectory?

Dipali Goenka

See, I'll tell you one thing. The thing is it takes time to scale up now, right?

Because with the 50% tariff, there's a lot of supply chain the whole system, right? There's a lot of and that's what it'll take for us to scale up for the retailers as well.

Now from quarter four, that's the reason I said it's going to be a scale-up from here,

Ritesh Gandhi

and

Dipali Goenka

it is definitely a gradual process, because the supply chain in textiles is a longer one comparatively.

Ritesh Gandhi

Right. Just to understand, are the inventory levels at the retailer level at the moment reasonably at low, given I would assume that ordering would have been slower given with the tariffs which are there and hope of a resolution, or that's not the case?

Dipali Goenka

I'll tell you one thing. A lot of it has been taken care, because December has been quarter three of ours is their end of year, right, financial year.

Already they have been paired, and their books are closed. Now January onwards starts their new year.

That's where they have all their reconciliations done, and they move forward.

Ritesh Gandhi

No, but I'm asking, are the overall inventory levels at the retailer end reasonably low and thin, and therefore there'd be some amount of restocking opportunity as well, or that's not the

Dipali Goenka

That actually needs to be seen, because retailers like who are clubs and mass retailers, their inventories would have got over, because they already have passed the Black Friday and the sales have happened, though it was relatively lower. I think they would have been there in the terms of reducing the inventories by 60% to 70%.

The rest is in there, which is on the roll anyway, Ritesh.

Ritesh Gandhi

Right, understood.

Operator

Sorry to interrupt, Ritesh,

Ritesh Gandhi

but

Operator

may we request Thank you so much. Our next question comes from the line of Vishal Mehta from IIFL Capital.

Please go ahead.

Vishal Mehta

Thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on a resilient performance, I would say. My first question is, I just wanted to understand the tariff-related impact in this quarter.

While it's difficult to probably quantify on the volume loss, but if you could quantify a discount-related impact that you've had in this quarter, and does it impact both revenues, or you just probably take that hit in the cost, and it's seen only in margin? Just a clarification there would be helpful.

Dipali Goenka

See, you cannot quantify this, first of all. Let me just put that to you.

The important thing is revenue and margins are related, because imagine most of the retailers increase the retail prices, right? As a result, you would see a kind of inflation setting in, you will see that kind of an impact in the terms of buying.

That actually becomes kind of a setback that you would have seen. Yes, the impact has been there, but quantifying it is a little difficult, because everything is in your pipeline, and it's on the roll in the terms of your goods in transit to the kind of dispatches and to the other things as well.

Yes, it has been a massive impact as well. I just want to say that.

Vishal Mehta

No, ma'am, just the discounting-related impact, even that is difficult to quantify, as in the discounts that you've given to customers?

Dipali Goenka

See, it is 25% plus 25%, right? We were definitely most uncompetitive compared to all the countries, right?

Because of our strategic partnerships, we could see how we could work together through these challenging times. In the terms of the oil tariffs, how could we take that burden, and that reciprocal, they could work through.

That's the way we moved that forward.

Vishal Mehta

Fair. The next question probably was on your home textile branded piece.

I see in your presentation that the business has broadly stayed flat or a minor decline. In your comments, you mentioned that Christy grew well, 30-odd

Dipali Goenka

percent-plus

Vishal Mehta

growth that you've seen in Christy brand. Does this imply your other brands kind of declined, and what led to that, and what's the outlook on your other brands, if you could probably give some sense around?

Dipali Goenka

Absolutely, Vishal. Now let me give you a perspective here.

When you saw your brand sales there, you see even our licensed brand sales, right? That's where you saw kind of a decline.

When I see about our own brands, that is Christy, Spaces, and Welspun, we have seen an uptick. Christy has had a massive uptick of around 30%, 31%.

Even our domestic businesses and Spaces and Welspun has seen an upside, which will continue to grow, yeah.

Vishal Mehta

Okay. Fair.

Lastly, on advanced textiles, ma'am, last question. In advanced textile, we have another peer in the industry, who's probably growing his advanced textile business well, and has not seen kind of a tariff pressure.

We've continued to see a pressure in this segment. Going forward, more so, are we looking to add more products in this segment?

How are we seeing this particular segment of ours going forward?

Dipali Goenka

Let me first clarify a few things. When you talk about advanced textile, there's building materials that come in, which will not get impacted.

For us, there are materials that we are doing our spunlace, which is commodity, the others are your wet wipes, needle-punch where we are making far more innovative products. We were not competitive compared to the countries where it was imported from, whether it was Europe, UK, and primarily United States of America, I would say.

Now with the opening up of all the FTAs, this becomes a huge opportunity for us, even in USA in the terms of wet wipes with the major retailers that we're talking to, or even in UK and Europe in the terms of innovative products that we're working with, or rest of the world as well. Let me just put that in.

It's a huge opportunity for us in the advanced textiles, where we will see that growth of double-digit and also very strong margins as well.

Vishal Mehta

Sure. Thank you.

Thanks, and all the best.

Dipali Goenka

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Rohit Ohri from Progressive Shares.

Please go ahead.

Rohit Ohri

Hi, Dipali. Two questions from my side.

First one being, when you mentioned that our procurement for cotton has a split of a 70:30, my question is that, what percentage is imported from US, maybe Supima, Pima, or maybe Egyptian cotton? What is the percentage that we take from US?

Dipali Goenka

See, Egyptian comes in from Egypt. Pima, Supima, and the upland cotton or cotton grown in USA comes in from United States of America.

As I said, that 60% to 70 that 70% comes in from India, because India is the primary grower of cotton. 30% is the cotton which will have that strong mix of US cotton

Rohit Ohri

and

Dipali Goenka

also the Egyptian cotton and other cottons as well, and organic and Australian, too.

Rohit Ohri

Okay. My second question.

In terms of the traditional sales mix which we had, which was 60%

Dipali Goenka

maybe

Rohit Ohri

America, 40% UK, and if you split it further, it becomes 20% UK and then Europe as having 7 13%, sorry, and the rest of the world also has. With the focus coming on ANZ and Japan, do you think that the mix or the pie will shift?

Because in one of the interviews also at Davos, you also did mention about artificial intelligence, which could be applied for fetching better productivity gains or maybe reducing the inventory levels or improving the workforce. Do you think that the pie will shift, or it will remain more or less the same?

Dipali Goenka

I'll tell you one thing, pie will grow. Rohit, the pie is definitely going to grow.

Right now we will see that opportunity upswing coming in, the pie is definitely going to grow in the terms of share of the countries. Earlier it was primarily, see, we had a disadvantage of the UK, Europe impact in the terms of our duty-free element, but now that has opened up.

Other FTAs are opening up. Now the Chile is coming in, the Peru coming in,

Rohit Ohri

the

Dipali Goenka

Canada coming in, GCC opening up, Australia, New Zealand has already happened, Japan is again a very interesting country where we'll see again an upside. This pie will grow.

You can automatically see that across all the categories that we do is where you will see an opportunity. When you talk about AI and the workforce, see, you already know that textiles is a very labor-intensive industry, right?

To get efficiency, to get productivity, AI will be a very interesting element that we are actually exploring and continue to implement in smaller way, and continue to grow that, because it's going to be a very big element going forward to keep us competitive here.

Rohit Ohri

Any number you'd like to put in terms of the spends that you'll make probably towards the Industry 4.0 and AI going forward?

Dipali Goenka

See, the investments will happen as we go forward, and these actually become a part of the opex cost. We'll continue to grow here, and we have to get competitive, guys.

I'm very clear about it. This is something throughput, our cost, everything will have to get competitive going forward.

Rohit Ohri

Makes sense. Dipali, thank you for answering my question.

Thanks a lot.

Dipali Goenka

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question for today.

I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Dipali Goenka

Thank you. As we close quarter three FY26, the external environment is beginning to turn more constructive.

The recent trade agreements meaningfully enhance our export competitiveness in our core and emerging product portfolio across all global markets. At the same time, India becomes a very important opportunity for our domestic brands, supported by improving affordability and steady consumer demand.

The investments we have made over the past few years in capacity, capabilities, and brands position us well to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Thank you for your continued trust and support.

We look forward to engaging with you again next quarter.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of JM Financial, that concludes this conference.

Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.