Hi, thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Kalyan Jewellers India Limited's Q1 FY27 earnings conference call.

We have with us Mr. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director; Mr.

Sanjay Raghuraman, CEO; Mr. V.

Swaminathan, CFO; Mr. Sanjay Mehrotra, Head of Strategy and Corporate Affairs; and Mr.

Abraham George, Head of Investor Relations and Treasury. I hope everyone had a chance to view our financial results and investor presentation, which were recently posted on company's website and stock exchanges.

We will begin the call with opening remarks from management, followed by an open forum for question and answers. Before we begin, I would like to point out that some of the statements made during today's call may be forward-looking.

A disclaimer to that effect was included in the earnings presentation. I would now like to invite Mr.

Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director of Kalyan Jewellers India Limited, to give his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you. Good evening, and let me welcome everyone to the call.

Q1 performance has been very satisfactory, given the overall context. Demand remained robust during most part of the recently concluded quarter, except for one month of Adhik Maas, during which wedding-related demand slowed down in certain parts of the country.

While consolidated revenue growth ex-bullion and PAT growth have been 38% and 32% respectively, on a standalone basis, revenue growth ex-bullion and PAT growth have been 38% and 25% respectively. Sharp rise in international oil prices and the resultant pressure on forex led us to launch our Shine with India gold recirculation campaign.

The larger objective of the initiative was to increase the share of recycled gold, reducing the dependence on imported gold, and thereby make the business more resilient. The initiative was well received by our customers, helping us to increase the share of recycled gold as a percentage of revenue to over 46% during Q1 FY2027.

For the month of June, the share of recycled gold was in excess of 55%, and our efforts will be to maintain the share in the range of 55% to 60% going forward. I'm extremely happy to let you know that we have unveiled our first regional brand exclusively tailored for Tamil Nadu markets.

We have named it Akshaya Thanga Maaligai, and will also be known by its short name, ATM. Inventory at ATM shall be curated specifically for Tamil Nadu preferences, with designs, weights, and price points aligned to regional occasions and buying patterns.

This will position the brand to compete directly with established regional jewelry chains and unorganized players, rather than Kalyan's existing showroom network. The first showroom will be launched on 21st August in Chennai, and shall be followed by another four showrooms in the next coming months.

We have made considerable progress with respect to the sale of non-core real estate assets. We have signed the agreement with potential buyers for two separate parcels of land, with an aggregate consideration amount to around 102 crores.

We expect to conclude the sale process and receive consideration before the end of the ongoing quarter. Regarding the non-GML debt reduction, we are well on track to complete the repayment by end of September.

Post that, we will initiate steps for the release of the second tranche of real estate collaterals. Now talking about the ongoing quarter, the quarter has started off very well, despite the volatility in gold prices.

We are upbeat about the upcoming festive and wedding season, and are fully geared up with fresh collections and campaigns. Thank you, and I will hand over it to Sanjay.

He will read you through the numbers.

Thank you, Ramesh. Hello, everybody.

Good to be talking to you all again. In the numbers that I'm just going to be calling out now, I will be referring to revenue numbers, those numbers are net of bullion sales.

I'm just mentioning it upfront. The company reported consolidated revenue of 10,008 crores, a growth of 38% over the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Consolidated EBITDA came in at 633 crores versus 508 crores in the same quarter in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Consolidated profit after tax came in at 349 crores versus 264 crores.

Coming now to the break-up of the quarterly performance between India and the Middle East, the India business came in at 8,503 crores versus 6,142 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. India EBITDA came in at 500 crores versus 434 crores when compared with the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

India PAT came in at 321 crores compared to 256 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Moving on now to talk about the Middle East business, revenue in the Middle East for the quarter came in at approximately 1,320 crores versus 1,026 crores compared to the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

EBITDA in the Middle East came in at 90 crores versus 73 crores in Q1 of the previous year. The Middle East business posted a profit of 25 crores for the quarter compared to 22 crores for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Lastly, talking about Candere, our e-commerce business, it posted a revenue of 141 crores versus 66 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The quarter recorded a profit of 2.1 crores versus a loss of 10 crores in the corresponding quarter of the last year.

With this, I'm done with the summary of the financials, and we now open the floor for questions. Thank you.

Sir, I just want to know about any bonus issue from the company.

No bonus issue.

Hello, am I audible?

No bonus issue.

That's true, but what we expect that how we can take on 10x, you can say that share is rising very high, that is 4,000, and ours is up the very low. How we are competing

for

the shareholders?

No. We don't have any plans for bonus share issue as of now.

Okay.

Thank you. Ramesh, just a couple of questions from my side.

First, if you can, we have seen 1Q had some impact of old gold exchange, but if you look at because of Adhik Maas. When you look at July, how has been the demand trend?

Demand on ground is strong. It continues like Q1.

When you say Q1, would you exclude the Adhik Maas or you think very or is it very similar to the full quarter number?

I cannot give you a direct guidance like that, but on the ground, things are strong.

Sure. Second thing is when I look at the margins, and if I exclude the impact of the inventory gain, then the profit growth looks subdued because when we look at PBT growth excluding the one-off gain of 410 crore, at least on a standalone basis, it comes to only 14%, and this I think would be one of the lowest we have seen where the profit growth has been lower than the revenue growth.

I think on the old gold exchange, you've called out that this trend should continue where you want to maintain 55% to 60% of old gold exchange. On the PBT margin side, how should we look at that?

Secondly, this quarter was there anything else also which led to lower margins? No,

now you should take it in this way wherein you first of all negate the bullion, okay, then the PBT margins are around what, 5.1%, which was at around 5.5%, 5.6% before, okay. The one-time gain from the customs duty, basically, if you cut it into three, okay, one-time gain of what 30, 40 crore, that we had to give back to the consumers by way of offers, etc., for people to come and exchange their old gold instead of paying cash, okay.

That exchange itself is margin dilutive by around 0.2%, 0.3%, that also has to be taken care. Then you would have remembered you still will remember that we had some one-time gain of platinum, silver, etc., which was in the range of 0.2%.

All put together, this PBT margins are at 5.1%.

Got it. Then just, going forward, when we think of the margins at least on the PBT on a PBT level, we should expect this, 0.2%, 0.3% margin dilution to kind of continue because at least for the next two, three quarters, the old gold exchange levels will remain high.

You will not have the benefit of maybe there will be some benefit of the inventory gain in 2Q as well. For the next two, three quarters, this 0.2%, 0.3% margin dilution on the old gold exchange, will that continue?

No, here, Ashish, what we should do is don't look at the short term because short term, yes, our focus will still be on recirculating gold. Again, what we are doing on the recirculation gold is that we are not only promoting customers to exchange, but also we are promoting cash for gold.

The cash for gold is really catching up, and it should ideally negate the margin dilution which happens due to exchange. Of course, anyways, we have the one-time benefit from the customs duty, which we used in the previous quarter to negate the margin dilution.

Sure, Ramesh.

To answer your question, for the full year, I don't think there'll be an impact. Even on a conservative basis, I think we'll be able to maintain the PBT margins of the previous year.

Sure, Ramesh. Got it.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yes, sir. Just wanted to understand, because I've started tracking the company recently, what are the differentiator for our company versus competition, and how is the opportunity size and expected growth rate in the time to come?

How have been we've been to perform in the non-South market, which has been our core areas?

Non-South, that we have been growing in the non-South markets over the last two, three years. Our revenue share from the non-South markets are what, more than what 50%, 60% now.

Kalyan has its own USP. We are a very hyper-local brand.

We compete the local players, unorganized players, and also national players because we keep 30%, 40% of inventory which is local and 50%, 60% of inventory which is national. With the national inventory, we compete national players; with the local inventory we compete local players.

There is no new strategy for Kalyan which has to be done there. We only focus on execution because it is we are expanding 70, 80 showrooms a year.

It's FOCO model. The return on capital, the growth is very high now because that we were in late teens, now we are at what, approximately 20%.

Way forward, ROCEs will further improve because we focus on capital-light expansion.

Any highlights about the differentiator of our company, because this is a very crowded sector even though the demand is quite high for it, but how do we differentiate ourselves in this highly competing world of jewelry sector?

I told you, no, there are two types of players: one is regional players, one is a national player. We have positioned ourselves in between both of them, and we are the only brand or very few brands like a Kalyan positioning where acceptance of the brand across the country has been very strong.

That is why you see the expansion, that is why you see the SSGs have been very strong over the last two, three years, and it will still continue. If you look at the CAGR growth also, if you look at the last what, three years, the CAGR is what, more than what, 33%.

Last two years, the CAGR is more than what 30 8%. Revenue growth has been strong, expansion also has been strong.

Sir, what about our plans of becoming a zero-debt company, sir, by when can we achieve it?

No, I didn't get you there.

Zero-debt company, sir, we were planning to some we have gone in for

In a couple of months, no, because I told you September we will be debt-free, non-GML.

Okay. There were some issues in the past regarding, sir, corporate governance with RPTs, etc., also.

Moneylife magazine had highlighted it, and that some Motilal Oswal and some other mutual funds, some issues were there. If you'd like to say something on that front also, because that overhang might be there on our company, sir.

You can clarify it, it will be good, sir.

How can I comment on all these kind of questions? I'm very sorry.

Sir. No, it's all laid to rest, nothing substantial was there, no, in that?

Yeah. Sir.

Thank you. Yeah.

Hi, sir. Sir, you still maintain your target to open 84 Kalyan showrooms in India?

Because I see in the current quarter, it has been you have opened 12 FOCO stores, right? For the full year, you maintain your guidance for Kalyan and for Candere also, you had guided for 50 stores.

Those targets remain? No change in target.

Last year also has been like this only. No change in target.

Usually H2 is heavier than H1 in terms of store expansion, and there is no change in target of number of showrooms in Kalyan and Candere.

Okay. Sir, broadly speaking, if you can just share if someone today takes up the franchise of Kalyan, what are the return, ROIs for the franchisee partner?

Broadly just if you can share.

Our franchise is FOCO, where franchisee invests in capex and inventory, and we run the store for them. It's a margin share, and their ROCEs will be in the range of what, 14%.

14%?

Yeah.

Okay. That's it.

Thank you.

Hi, team. Few questions from my end.

Just on the margin bit, right, could you help us understand why the margins on the exchange side of things would be lower in part? When it comes to capital or ROC, it would be different, right, I understand.

Could you just help us understand while margins are lower, will the return on capital take care of it?

Exchange we do with the gold rate the board rate at the jewelry store, right? The board rate usually has a usually if we buy it for cash, we have a premium which we will get for the board rate itself.

When we do a cash sale, with the cash if we buy bullion, we get what, 0.5%, 0.75% markup on the spot rate in which we sell gold at the store, which does not happen when you do an exchange. That is a margin dilution.

Okay. The capital employed part will pretty much take care of the margin dilution and you would be largely neutral on the ROC side of both the segment?

Capital deployment is there's no major change because anyway next day we would have bought bullion only. Instead of that, day one we buy, that's it.

As I mentioned, that we are pushing the cash for gold also so that this margin dilution which is there on exchange, we would like to that to be negated by the cash for gold. Cash for gold is a new product which is really catching up now, and we think that and that is actually margin accretive also, because we buy at the what we buy at a discount to the spot price.

What is this cash for gold? Could you No,

if a consumer wants to sell his or her gold for cash at a Kalyan store, now it is open. It was not open earlier.

We used to promote only exchange. For the June quarter, gold for cash portion was in single digit.

Now it is moving to double digit. Okay.

Okay.

Which is actually margin accretive when compared to exchange.

Got it.

We want that to get negated with the exchange.

Understood. I'm just trying to understand whether most of our peers in the organized market have this scheme or we are the first one to do it, and does it in any which way affect our core business or dilute our brand in any which way?

No, it is not like our own custom. It does not mean that if a consumer sells gold they are poor, right?

Even a person who has gold or who used to go to an unorganized segment to sell gold because organized players only buy their own gold, okay, now that is also getting organized. Now almost all the organized players are also catching it up, and other players are also started.

That is growing as a segment. It does not dilute the brand in any way.

Okay. You're saying peers also are doing this, right?

Now almost everyone has started.

Okay. Understood.

Lastly, what you're saying is that the exchange margin dilution will be taken care by cash for gold, increasing cash for gold. Rest of the things should be as it is, right, of last year, and hence the PBT margin should be similar to what you did in FY26.

Is that Did I get that correct?

Yes, for the full year, we are even on a conservative basis, we hold to the PBT margin of the last financial year. That is also on a conservative basis, because we are really seeing this cash for gold quotient coming up, and the promotional offers for the exchange campaign has also been tapered down a bit, and our focus is also therefore cash for gold.

I think the margin PBT margin should catch up to the previous year on even a conservative basis.

Okay. That's it.

Thank you so much. I'll join back in the queue if I have more

questions. Thank you.

Hi. Good evening to the team.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir,

Hello? Hello?

I'm not able to hear. Mr.

Bansal, are you there? [foreign language]

Hello?

Hello? Hello, are you able to hear me?

Hello?

Now I am able to hear. Can you repeat the question?

Yes, sir. Hi, good evening.

Sir, I was checking there has been a dip in gold price of about 20-odd percent over last two, three months. I wanted to check typically such movements lead to consumers sitting on the sidelines, and once the gold price stabilizes, then there is a very high pick-up in volume side.

Have you started to see that upsurge in volumes to compensate for the dip in gold price is what I was trying to understand.

No, it is always that customer does not come asking for a volume of gold. They come with a budget, and when the gold prices are lower, volume will automatically be higher.

Nobody comes and asks, except for the coins, nobody asks a 10 gram of chain or 15 gram of chain, they ask for a 2 lakh worth chain or 1 lakh worth bangle kind of.

That's fair, sir. Typically when it is going downward, because of the volatility as per your earlier comments only, that sort of restricts consumers to visit the stores.

They remain in wait-and-watch mode, right? I was checking that are now consumers believing that gold prices have stabilized and now we should come and shop?

What's your sense on that was what I was checking.

Things on ground, I told you, it is strong. Pause of revenue, pause of momentum is a usual scenario in the industry wherein if the gold price is very volatile, even if it goes very high, low, some volatility, the consumer takes a pause to see the direction where it is going.

Wedding demand cannot take a pause of more than what, two, three weeks because wedding has to happen. The discretionary demand, they can wait maybe a month or one and a half months where whatever occasion they are trying to buy for.

I agree with you, some pauses do happen, but again, people start coming back when they think that the prices are stabilized to the point which they want. We do not see anything as of now because July has been good.

Okay. Sir, such significant moves may also require some modification in terms of grammage for articles, right?

Earlier because over last two years, we were light-weighting our products, have we started to work on that perspective also, or do you see this gold price correction as a short-term thing which should start reversing in the coming quarters?

We don't want to comment on the gold price, but yes, that becomes a challenge, okay, more during the period when gold price is on the rise. We have meaning the price correction has been only 15%, 20%, and for which we do not overreact for these kind of things.

It's a task for procurement team, and they always keep products on the sweet spot where consumers come maximum for that so-called sweet spot. That is a usual procedure.

You would have seen over the last two, three years also, price does not stay at a point, no, it goes up, it comes down, we play around it.

Understood. Sir, one bookkeeping thing, this customs duty increase related gain would flow for in 2Q and some part of 3Q as well, right?

Assuming that it is a six-month cycle, so that should come in next couple of quarters also some bit?

Mostly in Q2. Q3, it does not flow through Q3.

Approximately 40 crore was in Q1, and rest was in Q2. This running quarter mainly it will come, the rest.

Okay.

Lastly, if you could spend some time on this new format ATM, right? This was in the news today.

If you could just throw some light as in how you're planning to ramp this up in Tamil Nadu, that would be my last question. Thank you so much.

What are the key differences in this format versus the current format, and what is the ramp-up plan for this?

That's it it is a very regional-specific brand which we have launched in Tamil Nadu. The first showroom will be opening on August 21st in Chennai, and we will be opening four more showrooms the next few months.

That is the plan for the new brand. Then it is a it is a regional-specific brand.

It unlike Kalyan, Kalyan is a hyper-local brand, but we don't we we keep only 30% 30% inventory which is completely local, rest is national inventory. This brand is an authentic Tamil brand where we compete the regional and the local players than the national players.

Got it. These four stores will only be in Chennai or you plan to go in other cities as well?

There will be in other cities also. The first was in Chennai.

Okay. Overall, sir, as in from an opportunity perspective, what is the number of stores that you anticipate maybe two, three years down the lane for ATM?

For ATM, you mean?

For ATM, how many stores do you foresee if we see two, three years down the lane?

The expansion of ATM will also predominantly be FOCO asset-light, and it's a huge opportunity. Tamil Nadu, if you look at the regional and local competitors, the Tamil Nadu market is very huge and huge opportunity.

For the future scale-up and things, let us finish these four showrooms, and then we'll come back to you with the plan for ATM.

Got it, sir. Thank you for taking my questions.

Yeah.

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

I just wanted to understand our policy whenever these custom duty changes happen. Now that I have seen that we have passed it on to customers, but in general, in the long term, what is our policy and also what happens when this reverses?

Let's say if there's a cut in the duty.

It is all dependent on market dynamics, no? There's no fixed policy around these kind of things.

This quarter or the last quarter, because of the promotion for exchange, we used that also for promoting our old gold exchange.

Okay. That's all from my side.

Thanks.

Hello, sir. Good evening.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I would like to know what is the outlook for Candere for current year and for the next financial year?

How is it setting up? How is the profitability of Candere how do we look at Candere being profitable for current year and next year?

Candere has been PAT positive for the first quarter, and should continue for the financial year. We told you that Candere, we will be opening around 50 showrooms in the financial year.

The focus for Candere more will be to add inventory in the existing stores

so

that we get more throughput in the existing showrooms.

Okay. Is it going as per our plan or how are we looking at the profitability?

Is it going to be means the profitability will increase from here on or we are looking to as you said, we're looking to add more inventory, which will compress our margins or how will that part be?

No, adding more inventory will not compress margins. Candere has been PAT positive from second half of the last financial year, and it continues to stay positive.

Our focus is to increase the throughput in the existing showrooms. That will be the first priority, and again, to add what, 50 showrooms in Candere.

That is the plan for the financial year.

Okay. Sir.

Thank you, sir.

Sir, just wanted to know this dip in the margin, is it temporary blip, and by when can we expect margins to increase back, sir?

I told you it's a short term wherein exchange had to be promoted because the larger objective is to help recirculation of gold and to reduce import of gold. That is the larger objective, and it's very short term because we also told you that while we are promoting exchange of gold for ornaments, we also are promoting cash for gold, which is margin accretive, and exchange is margin dilutive.

It should negate, and we also have that we had some one-time gain, which also was given to the customers for promoting exchange. It's very short term.

We still told you that on a even a conservative basis, we believe that the PBT margins should stay at least in the range of last year. Again, you would have also noticed that there has been a employee cost increase because we employees are one of our key strengths, and we have taken we always take steps to nurture and retain talent, and that's also there around 0.2%, 0.3% in Q1.

Okay. The overall story remains intact.

Opportunity size is quite large, and the movement from unorganized to organized market in India all over the it remains quite strong, and we are the clear beneficiary of it along with the other major players in the sector, sir.

There's a clear very good shift from the unorganized to organized. It still continues.

We see traction even as we speak, and we are well positioned to take revenue from the unorganized segment, and expansion is also on track. Very positive in the overall.

The second thing which we have done quite nicely is in the our FOCO partnership, wherein now we are the many of our FOCO model, many of the erstwhile mom-and-pop stores are opting to become our franchisee, and it's a win-win situation for both of us, sir. Is my understanding correct?

No, actually, we don't see a lot of though our franchisee partners, our franchisee model are basically taken up by partners who are in franchisee business already, and or automobile industry or something, and they are only partners. They are only financial partners.

They don't play any active role. We don't see any merit of existing jeweler becoming a Kalyan franchisee, and actually we don't have any of them as we speak as a Kalyan franchisee.

It's all together new franchisee only, not into jewelry business initially for the first time inside

jewelry? They are only financers, no, wherein they don't play a role in the management, right?

We

Yeah.

Okay. Keep up the good work, sir.

Thank you.

Just on on the employee cost side, I I see there's almost 54% increase in the standalone employee cost. Just is it that there was some one-time bonus payout, etc., which happened this quarter or this is more like a, increase in wages, and so this, the growth will continue over the next few quarters?

It is not a one-time, over and above our usual annual increment, once in a few years, we give a better increment to make the employees stay, make the employees motivated, and it should be there in the future quarters also. Operating leverage takes meaning, will negate all these kind of things.

Sure, Ramesh. Second, I think you called out that while old gold exchange is margin dilutive, cash for gold gives you some margin benefit.

I just wanted to understand what is the benefit we are getting from cash for gold? Secondly, I think when you're paying the customer cash, if someone is bringing in old gold and if you're paying in cash, it will not form part of your revenue, at least that's what my understanding is.

From a margin point of view, how does it benefit?

We buy at a discount to the spot rate. Exchange means we have to buy at the board rate.

That is the margin advantage which we get when the Did you get me, Ashish?

Sorry, your line broke. I heard that you buy at a discount to spot.

When we buy gold from a customer for cash, we buy at a discount to the spot. Exchange, we actually buy at the board rate itself.

Once gold for cash gains momentum, okay, that should negate the dilution of margin which happens because of exchange, which is why I mentioned that margin going forward will not be impacted.

Sure, Ramesh. When you say, when you if you look at from a full-year perspective, say FY27 versus FY26 for PBT margins, let's assume that, this it remains flat, when you say it will not be impacted, if we assume flat, this includes the benefit which will get from customs duty increase.

Is that right? No,

short term, I am not talking about the customs duty because running quarter also, because last Q1, we have actually given most of the portion of the customs duty to consumers for exchange, okay? Even as we speak, we are not diluting in what we are giving to the consumers for exchange.

Of course, we have reduced the kind of the offers which we give for exchange, but we still are not looking on a short term. Cash for gold has picked up now, there can be some customs duty advantage also in the running quarter.

Conservatively, the customs duty buffer can be shared with the consumers.

Got it. Lastly, when you look at the inventory, because of this increased old gold exchange and also because of cash for gold, do you think that in the medium term, maybe the overall does it impact your inventory levels, inventory planning, etc.?

No, because it's also inventory only, no, for us, wherein the even if we buy cash gold for cash, okay, and only to the bullion extent meaning, we'll have to sell bullion if the old gold is more because we have to maintain the gold loan. We have most of the vendors, especially in the studded category, are on invoice basis, right, for which they we'll have to pay cash only.

To have cash into the system, if the exchange quotient is more, we will have to do bullion. That's why you see bullion sale in Q1 also.

Got it. Just lastly, is it possible to share what kind of a customs duty benefit we can expect in 2Q?

Like this quarter was 41 crores, will it be broadly similar number in 2Q as well?

It's in the range of 60 crore for Q2.

Got it, Ramesh. Sure.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, everyone, and see you in the next quarter. Thank you.