Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and a very warm welcome to you all.

On behalf of the company, I would like to thank you all for participating in the company's earnings call for the third quarter and nine months ended of financial year 2026. Before we begin, a short cautionary statement.

Some of the statements made in today's earnings call may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated.

Such statements are based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements in making any investment decisions.

The purpose of today's earnings call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and financial quarter under review. Let me now introduce you to the management participating with us in today's earnings call and hand it over to them for opening remarks.

We firstly have with us Mr. V.S.

Ganesh, Managing Director; Mr. Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr.

Karthik Yathindra, Chief Executive Officer. Without any further delay, I request Mr.

Ganesh to start with his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Anuj, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the earnings call for the third quarter of FY26.

As Anuj mentioned, I am pleased to have with me our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Deepanjan, and our Chief Executive Officer, Mr.

Karthik. Together, we shall be presenting the key highlights of the quarter.

To begin with, I will provide a brief overview of our performance during the quarter, touching upon the main achievements and developments. Following this, Mr.

Deepanjan will present a detailed update on our financial results. After our presentation, we would be happy to address any questions you may have regarding the quarter's performance.

During the quarter, while consumer demand remains selective across categories, our business demonstrated resilience. With stable input costs, tight controls over operating expenses, and a sustained focus on operational efficiencies, all these efforts enabled us to deliver healthy operating margins and protect profitability.

The recent notification of the direct labour codes is a positive step that is expected to benefit our employees while also simplifying compliance requirements. While the rule for their implementation is being formalised, we have made the necessary provisions for gratuity and earn leave provisions have also been made in the financial results of the quarter.

For the quarter, revenue grew by 5.6% while operating profit before tax increased by 5.9%. Profit after tax declined by 7.4%.

This is primarily due to the exceptional one-time provisions related to employee benefits arising from the direct wage codes. Excluding these provisions, our EBITDA growth and PAT growth remains broadly in line with Q3 of FY25 performance.

For the nine months ended December 2025, revenue growth was 4.1% and PAT increased by 3.5%. We have been maintaining our momentum on our distribution expansion.

Our network stood at 113,600 multi-brand outlets. We now have 1,556 exclusive brand stores and 1,778 large-format stores.

We continue to lead across e-commerce platforms, recording strong growth in that channel as well. We continue to scale our modern retail presence by elevating the consumer experience, expanding our footprint, and delivering strong growth across online channels.

Our refreshed and expanded product portfolio is resonating strongly with our younger consumers as well, and we are confident that these initiatives will accelerate customer acquisition and drive long-term growth. Our recent product launches under JKY Groove and the bonded technology have received an encouraging response from the market.

With several new line launches and strategic initiatives planned in the coming months, we remain very confident about accelerating growth ahead. I once again thank you for joining today's call, and I will now hand over to Mr.

Deepanjan to detail the financial results for the quarter. Thank you.

Thank you, VSG. Good afternoon, and welcome, everybody, to today's earnings call.

Let me share the results of quarter three of FY26. In quarter three, revenue was ₹13,868 million, which was a growth of around 5.6% year-on-year.

Sales volume in the quarter was for 58.6 million pieces, which has grown by 1.4% year-on-year. EBITDA for the quarter was ₹3,181 million, which is again a growth of 5.2% year-on-year.

EBITDA margin was 22.9%. With strategic raw material sourcing and focused operating expenses, EBITDA margin continued to remain strong.

Profit before tax before exceptional items was ₹2,913 million, which was a growth of 5.9%. The new labour codes were introduced in November 2025.

The amendment stipulated changes in definition of wages, including enhanced basic wages for calculation of retirement benefits. Accordingly, additional provision of ₹350 million for gratuity and earned leave has been made in the current quarter.

PAT for the quarter was ₹1,895 million, which was a decline of 7.4% year-on-year. Inventory days was 67 in the end of quarter three as against 64 days in the beginning of the year.

Net working capital was 52 days as against 54 days in the beginning of the year. For the nine months ended 31st December 2025, revenue was ₹39,942 million, which is 4.1% growth year-on-year.

Sales volume was 173.8 million pieces, which has grown by 1.9% year-on-year. EBITDA for the period was ₹8,923 million, which is a growth of 7.9% year-on-year.

EBITDA margin in the nine months was 22.3%. Profit after tax was ₹5,851 million, with growth of 3.1 3.5% year-on-year.

We can now take up your queries.

Yes, hi. Am I audible?

Yes,

Nihal. I

had two questions. The first was that this quarter, we see that our net realisation has seen an increase of 4% versus 1% in the last quarter.

Has there been a mix change towards athleisure or we've taken price hikes in certain categories? Just wanted to understand that first.

There has not been any price increase in the current quarter while we have been discussing that, but as there has not been any price increase. The increase in ASP is reflection of both category and within-category changes of product mix as well as shift in channel mix.

Understood. Deepanjan, the second thing is if I look at the employees that you disclose, there's obviously been a reduction of around 2.5 3,000 employees, and that sort of reflects in how the employee costs have also reduced in this quarter.

Just if you could give more clarity about what is the nature and the thought related to that.

We had a recruitment freeze for most part of the year. Given the fact that our efficiency has been improving and maintained over large part of the year, we didn't see any requirement of major recruitments this year.

Of course, there has been workforce addition in our new facility in Orissa, which was as per plan, but otherwise, our wage cost and staff cost has been well within our target ranges.

Nihal, just to add to what Mr. Deepanjan was saying, the reason for controlling the head count was because of the initiatives we have taken, especially in the back end, to substantially improve our productivity.

We have been taking quite a lot of lean initiatives, we have been automating, and we have been doing value stream mapping to remove all the non-value-added work. Therefore, we are now able to get more productivity and more output from less people.

This is actually enabling us to control the head counts. Make the productivity much better.

This is something which we have been doing for some quarters now, and you can see that we have been one of the key reasons despite a subdued retail environment, we have been able to maintain our profitability. There is much more to do.

I think for us, the journey has just started.

Understood. Just one final question.

Mr. Ganesh, you mentioned that obviously growth accelerating ahead.

Are we seeing a decent uptick as we go into Jan, Feb? Maybe when is it that we expect that we get back to a double-digit growth?

I'll stop there.

Karthik, you want to give a flavor about the market outlook?

Nihal. Thanks for the question.

Quarter three has largely seen, barring the impact of Diwali, which a portion of that was actually absorbed in quarter two this year because of the advancement, other than that, the market has relatively been better when compared to quarter two. We expect that to flow into quarter four as well.

Without giving away too much about January and February, let me just say that our better performance of quarter three is likely to flow into quarter four as well.

Sure, Karthik. Thank you.

I'll come back in the queue.

Hello, sir. Thanks for taking my question.

Sir, just taking it from the previous participant. There is an aspiration of double-digit growth.

You are still pondering on price hike. Unless consumption environment improves drastically from here on, how do we reach to that double-digit growth?

The headroom for double-digit growth is available. If you look at our market penetration today at a consumer level, it's still quite low when compared to what the opportunity offers.

This is against a very tightly defined target audience for our brand, considering the price point that we operate in. The headroom for growth in all of our categories are there.

Yes, the last few quarters have been tight, purely given how consumer sentiments have played out and how retail has played out for us. You would have noticed that in spite of that, our efforts in terms of expansion and building our moat in the marketplace has continued both in our existing traditional channels as well as the new channels that we've been in operation with over the last few years.

The intent is to concentrate and add value in the products that we are offering as well as go out and expand. There's also substantial investment that is going behind how we can activate consumer.

We are seeing signs of that paying off. With this, the confidence that double-digit growth for us should come by is very much there.

Karthik, just a follow-up here. Basically, you're saying that you're not now reliant on overall market and consumption environment improving.

You can deliver a double-digit growth based on your own initiatives. Would that be a correct assessment?

It's a combination, Sameer. I don't think one thing leads to growth alone.

It will be a combination of both. We will need to in a way depend on markets for like-to-like growth, for sure, but that's also being backed with considerable amount of expansion, which should bring in inorganic growth opportunities as well.

A combination of both is what would lead us to double-digit growth.

Got it. Second question, just a bookkeeping once.

At a consumer level, what is the blended price decrease after factoring in the cut in GST rates?

Oh, so that's been quite small for us because at a brand level, the cut in GST rates has been only for products above 1,000. That is a very small portion of our business in terms of what we operate.

All of our innerwear more or less fall under the 1,000 bracket, which did not see a change in GST. It remains at 5%.

It's only a few styles, a few products in our athleisure and outerwear category that actually saw a gain from 12 to 5%. In terms of overall impact at a brand level, it is quite negligible.

Got it, sir. I'll come back in the queue for follow-ups.

Thanks.

Hi. My question is the challenges that you are facing in reaching this double-digit growth.

You've answered to some extent the previous participants' answers, but would like to understand what is the challenge in various categories that you are facing that double-digit growth is getting difficult.

At the [cost of being repetitive?] , I think, like I've said, the consumer demand has been weak right through quarter one and quarter two.

We've seen some level of uptick in quarter three, and we hope that flows into quarter four. That has certainly played out its part in us not being able to deliver on double-digit growths in the three quarters that we've come by this year.

In addition to that, there have been also disruptions in the marketplace, which has been outside of regular course of business. This has largely affected quarter one, quarter two, and we've spoken about that in terms of geopolitical activities in terms of how floods in parts of the country have kept retail out.

These have impacted us to some extent. The mix also is a change in terms of channels in which we operate.

We have seen consumer behaviour from offline to online, and that in a way plays out in a market where a huge portion of our business is dependent on offline. It will take time before the mix actually settles for us to reach a new base and then continue to grow from there.

These are some of the pieces that have made it challenging for us to hit those double-digit growths. Whatever growths we have delivered have been on the back of actual serving consumer because we haven't touched prices as such.

Our volume growths and associated value growths have been purely in terms of better consumption, either from a like-to-like point of view, which has been fairly muted, or from expanding and reaching more consumers.

Thank you for this. Just a follow-up on the same.

Could you just brief on the category-wise challenges or opportunities as well, because you had mentioned last time about entry-level products facing some heightened competitive intensity. Some colour on that would help.

Absolutely. I think between between the categories that we operate in, men's innerwear as a category has relatively been tougher.

It also happens to be the largest base for us in terms of business. Our growths in women's innerwear as well as outerwear have been relatively better in terms of both volume and value growths.

Within price points itself, I've I I don't think we'll attribute that for competition at this point. Yes, the more premium offering seems to have had better acceptance.

Also, bulk of our new product, innovative products that we've introduced over the years over the over the quarters in this year has been at the premium levels, which have been accepted well and has obviously contributed to the growth. Yes, within price points, the mid-premium and premium offering has performed better when compared to the entry-level offering.

Okay. Thank you.

One more question from athleisure point of view. Could you help us understand what is the reach now for JKY Groove, and how do you plan to scale it up?

We had the second launch of JKY in quarter three. After having done the summer version in quarter one, we followed that up with winter in quarter three.

The first launch in quarter one, we had reached about 50 EBOs and of course on jockey.in and it was selectively available on Myntra. In quarter three, that has expanded to 150 EBOs.

The next version is expected to be launched in the month of April, which is again the summer '26 version. That's expected to expand to about 500 EBOs.

Okay. When do we plan to reach the channels of your MBOs, LFS, and the entire 1,700-plus EBOs?

We intend to take this in phases. I think quarter after quarter, we will be expanding the reach.

What we're also doing is products that have performed well within this have been extended to general trade as well in selective markets, in metro markets where we believe there is a need for this product and outlets that are capable of retailing and doing justice to this particular range. That has been extended selectively already.

Quarter after quarter, you'll see expansion in terms of reach for this particular collection.

Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you, Prerna.

Hi. Thanks a lot for this opportunity.

I just wanted to check this. The weakness in the entry-level price points in innerwear, is continuing or has that changed?

I couldn't kind of grasp it from the last.

In relative terms, Avi, it is slower than the mid-premium and premium segments. We are seeing better growth rates in the higher-priced products when compared to the entry-level products.

Got it. In that kind of backdrop, I wanted to kind of just check again with you.

By when do you expect us to be able to clock a double-digit level of growth? Something that we were hoping we would get by the end of the fiscal.

Is it something that kind of moves into the next year? Any thoughts on that would be helpful.

Again, it'd be difficult for me to put a timeline to this because, like I said, there are too many variables at play for us to get to that goal. We've seen consistent improvement even within this financial year, and that kind of a number is what we'll be gunning for even for quarter four.

To put a number in terms of timeline to say exact by this time we would be able to get to double-digit growth is difficult. What I can, of course, mention is that the intent and target that we are taking and everything we're putting behind the business is keeping that goal in mind.

Right. If I may push a bit, just kind of clarifying a bit.

If I want to kind of understand, maybe not an exact timeline, your initiatives clearly are kind of reflecting in the pick-up in growth rate versus the first half. Is it fair to say that a demand pick-up is what is needed for double-digit or how should I pass this, not looking for an exact timeline, but just the levers for reaching that number?

It's a combination. Like I said, our investments in terms of product betterment in terms of newness and freshness for example, this season, this summer, should be hitting the market between January and February.

We'll wait and watch how the acceptance for that is from the market, but we're counting on it considering what we've put behind it. We're very confident about the products that we're putting out there.

Our marketing plans are in place in terms of what we want to do with the brand, what we want to communicate. Expansion is a year-long thing, especially with exclusive brand stores.

We continue to expand. That is something that we will see in quarter four as well.

Typically, quarter four is also a timeline where many of our stores go under renovation to give it the new retail identity and brand-new look, which typically gives us an uplift in the retail sense. In terms of timeline of initiatives, that's what we're looking forward to: better product, more aggressive marketing, better brand presentation at the point of sale.

All of this is going to hit us starting quarter four itself.

Got it. Just the second bit is on the margins front.

Now, we've traditionally shared a 19 to 21% kind of margin range. This quarter has obviously significantly breached that.

Is there a revisit to that range, especially for, say, FY26 and '27? Any clarity on that, please?

We continue to maintain the guidance between 19 to 21%. We have seen some gains in the form of EBITDA this particular quarter, but of course, that's not translated to PAT because of the one-time exception.

In terms of a long-term range, even for the coming year, we're maintaining a similar range of 19 to 21% as the EBITDA that we look to deliver. We would also be looking at investing further in the brand, and hence the current EBITDA rates may not be indicative of what we are targeting as we go forward.

The range remains intact. It will be as sound as it has been.

Got it. If I may, with your permission, just clarifying you have not taken any price hikes nor has that kind of flowed through into the market.

Have you done any pricing changes?

Not yet. As of Jan till date?

Okay. No

price increase that has hit the market as yet. It's something that we're considering, keeping how the market is playing out.

As of now, no price increase has hit the market.

Perfect. That's all from my side.

Thank you very much for this clarity.

Thank you for taking my question. Sir, my first question is with regards to the data on the insourced manufacturing that is.

Last quarter, if I remember, it was around 70%, and this time it's reflecting around 64% or so. Does this have to do anything with the employee cost also coming down, on the outsourcing more and hence the employee cost is also coming down because of that?

Sorry, can you repeat the question? It was not very clear.

The manufacturing capacity in terms of the insourcing capability that you have put out in the presentation, it shows around 64% versus 70% last quarter. Does that have any linkage with the employee thing that we have?

Because now we are outsourcing and hence don't require that much of employees.

Yes, there has been some increase in our outsourcing procurement. In the current quarter, outsourcing is around 36%.

There has been some increase, which is well in line with our plan. There can be quarterly variations in outsourcing depending on the kind of product and the demand.

Yes, current quarter, we have seen increase in outsourcing, and the overall year, higher outsourcing has given us some cost benefits as far as the product cost is concerned.

Sure. Sir, my second question is with regards to the gross margins.

The gross margins have been quite stable, and the premiumness is also reflecting in the expanded gross margin, which are at lifetime highs. How should we look at the gross margin going ahead, given again you are guiding that the EBITDA margins to be within that 19 to 21% range?

Is there any further juice left for expansion here, or we are nearing the peak levels in terms of gross margins?

Juice is always there. That's what Karthik was telling.

We always have many efforts in hand. One big lever is definitely increasing productivity, and that's a continuous effort.

That will reflect over time for sure. As of now, the gross margin that we have got, that will largely remain stable even going forward.

Sir, in that context, shouldn't the EBITDA margins be better from here on rather than stagnation in that range or around 20% or so? Why should it correct if you have further room on the

There are costs below gross margin, which is largely investments in business, whether through marketing, whether through several automation initiatives that we are taking. Even normal increases like increments and recruitments, those things keep happening.

While gross margin will remain stable, the other input costs and overheads since they increase, there will be inflationary pressures as well. We do expect that we will be maintaining our EBITDA margin of 19 to 21%.

The current elevated EBITDA margin that we see around 22% or so, that's unlikely to be maintained going forward, but yes, will be there within our 19-21% range.

Just to clarify on what Deepanjan and Karthik were saying, we are comfortable with 19 to 21 because we are not chasing a percentage increase in EBITDA. We want to actually improve the absolute EBITDA margin by giving value for money for our consumers and get better top line, and we don't want to outprice ourselves.

We, as a brand, we always believed in promising less and delivering more and giving value for the money spent by the consumers. We believe that's the right way to do and expand in a sustainable manner.

We do agree there is leverage or there is scope for us to increase, but we wanted to respect the sentiments of the consumers. As Karthik rightly said, and as Deepanjan said, with the inflationary pressures and some of the cost pressures which may come since we have not touched prices for 3, 4 years, we may look at some corrections, and only time can say because there are so many things happening.

We are keeping a close watch on the cotton prices also with FTAs and all that. There can be pressures on the input costs.

It is very volatile out there. Our pricing strategy will be based on those developments in the market.

From EBITDA point of view, 19 to 21 is a comfort zone for us.

Got it. That's really big help.

Just one last question from my end is in terms of the market share. One of the competitors who have recently reported their results, they've alluded to a strong double-digit growth rates this quarter, even the last quarter has been increasingly strong.

Just by fair inference, have we lost some market share? If yes, is that in particular segments?

Because we are also seeing multiple players now entering the athleisure space. Some other players has also alluded to this.

How are we looking at

it? Gaurav, it's hard to tell because there is actually no syndicated study of market share in this particular industry.

From physical evidence and our understanding of the market and what's happening on the ground, we don't believe there is any erosion in market share. If at all, I would suspect there would be some amount of gain at a consumer level when it comes to market share in both the categories that we operate in, which is innerwear as well as athleisure.

Thanks for answering my questions, and good luck.

Yes. Hi.

Thanks for taking my question. Karthik, you did mention that there is growth divergence across price points, right?

I wanted to check, when the problem has been identified that the entry-level price points are not doing better, what are we exactly doing in terms of new product launches for this particular price segment, maybe the allied marketing that is required, because in my opinion, this should be a key growth driver from a consumer perspective as well, right? Any thoughts there if you could share.

Absolutely. I think thanks for the question, Devanshu.

Firstly, I think given how it's panned out, we've held on to our prices to make sure that the attractiveness of that range purely for the value-seeking consumer is still intact. Now having done that, there's also efforts gone in in terms of improving the product in that particular range on two fronts.

One is the fabrics that we operate itself to see how we can add more value to the fabric so that the durability as well as the comfort on skin improves. Secondly, in terms of freshness, I think the entire portfolio has been looked at to see how we can bring back something to that range, albeit be at that price point, to make sure that it is not less than any other brand or any other price point product offered by Jockey in terms of appeal and appeal.

That's something that has gone in. Also from a marketing standpoint, strong BTL initiatives have been taken during quarter three, especially in our general trade channel, which happens to be a large contributor as far as this part of the portfolio is concerned.

That push has happened. There is some level of traction that this portfolio enjoys in, let's say, quick commerce as a channel or e-commerce as a channel.

A large part of disposition is happening in this area between channels, which is why we believe what we're facing in the market is to this extent, whereas the more premium products continue to operate and grow through more organised channels like EBOs, large-format stores, etc., whereas the entry-level or the economy-level portfolio tends to be also suitable for quick commerce and e-commerce, and hence we're seeing that shift.

Understood. These product changes as well as marketing, etc., is this already in the market in full way or we have only just started and

The marketing piece was put in place through quarter three. However, the improved product version should be hitting the market between January and February, which is what I'd mentioned earlier, which is for the season of S1 '26, season one of '26.

Got it. Secondly, this gap between

I have only one question if you could allow me my second question.

Yeah. This 4% difference between volume and value that we've seen, wanted to check if the winter also has a part to play in this, and was there any additional incentive income due to start of our Orissa manufacturing plant?

This is the ASP question, right, Devanshu, the difference between volume and value growths that you're talking about? Yes.

Yeah. A portion of it is attributable to winter because of the higher-priced athleisure products that see traction at this point in time.

I'm talking about sweatshirts and hoodies and jackets and products like this where we've seen a lot of traction during this period. We've also seen a considerable uplift because of change in mix within categories.

You'll recall that sometime during the month of September and October, we introduced a top-of-the-line innovative range called the bonded collection, both in men's innerwear as well as bras. Both these collections have been received extremely well with the consumer, and they also happen to be our highest-priced products yet.

With volumes coming our way in these two collections, that's helped the ASPs go up.

Nothing from incentive perspective, right, from Orissa manufacturing plant as well?

No. Nothing.

It doesn't reflect in the ASP changes.

Sure. Got it.

Thank you. My first question was on the GST rate cuts.

While I understand the rate cut was only for a small portion of the product portfolio, but have you passed that on to the end consumer in terms of price cut? Related question was on the gross margin also that what led to sequential decline in gross margin despite much better ASP?

Okay. Two parts.

On the GST rates, obviously, most of our products were at 5% and continued to be at 5%. Wherever there has been a reduction in rates from the earlier 12% to 5%, we have done the necessary changes.

If the selling price itself was higher due to 12% GST, then this had been reduced. Wherever the selling price was still attracting 5%, that has remained the same.

Just to reiterate, GST is applicable on selling price, not necessarily the MRP. The reduction in the gross margin sequentially largely attributed to the slightly higher marketing expense that we have done in the current quarter and a bit of increase in employee cost.

Sir, my question was on gross margin, not on EBITDA margin. Sequentially, your gross margin has declined from say 60% to around 58% while your realisation, of course, has gone up.

What led to that? Not on EBITDA margin.

There are slight variation in the product cost, which is sequentially and which is normal. That's what reflects in the gross margin overall.

Got it. My second question is on on the entire discussion around, double-digit growth.

One, can you clarify, are you looking at volume growth, double-digit volume growth or double-digit value growth? Second related question on the demand side is see while look at the entire discussions during the call, one when I look at this category, it's a very sticky category.

This is category where the demand is not lost, right? Whether it was a geopolitical event, monsoons, etc., if someone needed to buy a product, they will push it by a month because of geopolitical event or or of that sort, right?

Secondly, if you also look at the target consumers, this are not lower-middle-class target consumer. This is, the target consumers are can afford that a Jockey product, and specially given that in the last four, five years, you have not taken any price hike.

In that context, when I look at, 2% volume growth this this financial year nine-month financial year, it just looks underwhelming given the fact that, as Karthik was mentioning, right, that the market opportunity is very large even if you restrict it to the target consumer. How should we think about it?

What's happening here? At least, when we look at this data, it seems at least on the mass end or the lower price end, there must be some sort of a market share loss because the industry is growing at least basis, what others are reporting, industry definitely seems to be growing faster.

Two parts. One, end, double-digit aspiration, is it volume or value?

Second, how do you read this 2% volume growth nine-month, despite much lower market share, at customers being very sticky, right? It's very difficult for customers to downtrade.

A valid point, Ashish. I think, firstly, on the first question, the intent would be to hit a double-digit volume growth.

That's what we used to be delivering. That's what we've seen the kind of growths we've experienced over the last decade or so.

That's what we'll be gunning towards, and all plans and intent is to deliver on that. Coming to your second question, again, there were two parts in that.

I agree some level of market disruption and closure does have an impact. At the end of the day, if retail is shut, avenues to purchase is closed down in whatever parts of the market for whatever reason, that does have an impact at a consumer level.

For a business like ours where D2C portion of our business is relatively small and large portion of our business actually comes through the value chain, through distributors, through retailers, or partners in key accounts, the impact only in a way expands when points of sales get disrupted. On your larger point, and that's probably the most relevant point, you're right.

We do believe that the headroom for growth is there. Unfortunately, it has not come by in this year, in the first three quarters that we've looked at.

Like I said, quarter-on-quarter, the performance has been better. We've seen that level of recovery that has happened, and it shows signs of that recovery.

Again, see, like I said, these are conversations we can have whether there has been a loss in market share. I'll be the first one to admit if there is and there is sufficient evidence to say that we've lost share to somebody.

It only makes us that much more hungry to win it back if at all that's happened. My only submission is that we don't have evidence of that.

In fact, we have evidence to the contrary when we see shelf share, when we see spaces in the market, and also in certain parts of our business where market share is actually reported. Let's say, partner business, e-commerce business, large-format store business, there is numerical reporting of gain in market share, and that's what I had expressed earlier during the call.

To summarise this, Ashish, yes, the growths have not come by as we had anticipated in the first three quarters, but the recovery has been steady, and we're confident that going forward, we should still be targeting that double-digit growth. In terms of what we want to put behind this to get there, all of that is in order and if not, it will only get even better in terms of our intent to get there.

Sure, Karthik. That's helpful.

Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you, Ashish.

Hi. Good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity. Just two questions.

Firstly, on the ASP bit on the volume-value gap, you explained the product mix change. You also mentioned there is a channel mix change.

We just wanted to know what has actually changed in the quarter and directionally where are we moving in terms of more channel growth? Related question was on MBO versus EBO.

I think historically we've been speaking about MBO being weaker and EBO and quick commerce, e-commerce actually doing much better growth. Has that been solved?

I think most of this double-digit growth questions are also revolving around solving that. I think if the MBO bit gets solved out, most of the growth should come back.

How can we improve on this and if you could guide for another next two years, what do you think about growth from MBO? These are my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rahul. In terms of the first question of ASP, like I said, during the quarter, we've seen gains because of change in product mix.

We've seen relatively better performance in categories like bras, categories like outerwear or athleisure, which are higher-priced products when compared to categories like innerwear and women's innerwear categories. That's what has led to the ASP growth.

In terms of channel mix, considering we realise MRP as revenue in through jockey.in and as well as marketplace in e-commerce, any gains or shifts in revenue from offline to online tends to give better value growth because we realise MRP as revenue. These are the two areas that has impacted the difference between volume and value just because of better realisation.

On your second question of performance between channels, while we don't give away exact performance between channels, but yes, the general trade business has been tougher when compared to the EBS business as well as the e-com business. Also, when there is a consumer movement from A, offline to online, and B, unorganised to organised retail, it's natural for the general trade business to come under some level of stress.

I also believe that there is some level of shift happening within the general trade business in terms of stockholding, considering how retailers are dealing with the softer demand at a consumer level. That I anticipate would have led to some level of stock corrections at the store.

This is at the retailer level, which would have impacted in the growth rates that we have reported. I think you're right.

For us to get to the double-digit growth, if not double digits, general trade should go up to late single-digit kind of growth so that overall as a brand, we're able to deliver double digits.

In terms of the price hike, right, you've been saying that we're discussing that internally and thinking about it. Have you seen any cost inflation which is driving this decision or discussion or is there anything else?

Nothing yet, but it is expected, considering the recent news about exports, specifically how it impacts textiles, garments. It's quite volatile, there could be an increase in input costs, there may not be, but we don't know.

We are waiting and watching, keeping a very, very close eye on how the input costs are moving. That's the reason we're saying that if there is a substantial increase in the input costs more than what we can absorbed, we might have to consider touching our prices.

Got it. Thanks.

Thanks so much, and best wishes for the rest of the quarters. Thank you.

Hi. Thank you.

If I look at the distribution channel, the MBOs, the large-format stores, and your EBOs, the network for MBOs is up 3%, large-format stores, the number is up 8%, and the EBOs are up 5% from last year. In that context, given you said that the salience of online has actually gone up, is it fair to say that on a like-for-like basis, given your overall volume was up 2%, on a like-for-like basis in the MBO, LFS, and EBO channel, volume would have actually been down in mid single digits?

In the general trade channel, yes, while we don't have tertiary data, but yes, I would expect that the throughput per store would have softened when compared to last year. In the other channels, we do have that data at a consumer level.

We've not degrown like-to-like, but it's been a lot softer than what we targeted.

What you're saying is that MBOs could have been down let's say mid single digit, but LFS and EBOs would have been sort of flattish.

That's right.

Okay. Given the channel mix that you also mentioned offline to online, and previous discussion, and, of course, the consumer sentiment being whatever it is, what can be done to sort of grow in the offline channel or is it just that this shift will continue to accelerate and, therefore, the business will continue to remain challenged, especially at the MBO level, let's say as you go forward, because seems like the consumer is moving to the online channel?

My view on this, Anuj, is that while there is the shift between offline to online, there is a certain audience that necessarily shops in the neighborhood store or in the offline store and what we call the hosiery store when it comes to all their hosiery needs. I would imagine that from a sentiment point of view or propensity to spend point of view, this audience might have been the most affected.

That is not to say that this would not come back, and hence I strongly believe that this consumer coming back as far as the general trade and hosiery kind of outlets to shop will happen, and we'll have to just wait for the overall sentiment to pick up as far as that is concerned. That's purely for like-to-like at a consumer level consumption to improve.

Beyond that, there is opportunity for us to penetrate deeper within the existing stores in terms of the kind of products that they carry today. Today, the general trade stores in terms of what they carry of our portfolio is a lot smaller than what the EBOs carry, and that's not by design.

It's purely basis what they've chosen to carry and our efforts in terms of placing products with them. There itself there is headroom in terms of increasing our penetration per store in terms of the number of styles and the options that they carry.

That is, beyond the consumer, just making sure that more of our stores carry more of the brand would help us gain shelf share, would help us gain business at a secondary level. These are two pieces that I believe should impact growth in general trade.

Got it. Just to clarify, on that EBO and LFS

Thanks.

Yes, please.

Thanks for taking my question. Two quick questions.

First is, with JKY Groove doing well for us, do we see a need to launch more brands in 2026? Are there any plans here?

Not more brands. Again, Groove is not a brand on its own.

We see it as a collection at this point in time. It does show the promise of maybe being a sub-brand someday, but it's very early days.

It still has the status of a collection within the product architecture. The success of Groove has been quite heartening this year, but again, I still maintain that it's early days, and it's a new territory for us in terms of the model in which we are operating.

We're learning with every launch. We want to build this so that it lasts and becomes a considerable part of our portfolio with a sound business model, we just want to give it time.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of other pieces that we are toying with. There's not much I can give away at this point in time, but yeah, at least one out of those two I see coming live in some form in the coming financial year.

Understood. The second one is, thanks for the guidance on where we see our revenues by FY29 at ₹8,000 crores.

Just want to understand, is this trajectory of revenue be largely organic or do we see an opportunity to make some inorganic or acquisitions at some point if there is something interesting that comes along?

The projection that has been given is for overall. It'll be all the opportunities that comes our way and that we see meaning in investing in.

We see inorganic opportunities within the existing business itself. These could be new channels that are coming up, quick commerce, the way it is going and how much we can bring back to the business is a very inorganic avenue for us.

International is another inorganic avenue, which we're taking very seriously in the coming year. A lot of groundwork has happened in this area, and we believe that should contribute to inorganic growths.

New product spaces, which I just spoke about, are again inorganic avenues that come our way. Will this mean acquisitions?

Will there be new brands, new licenses? At this point, we don't have visibility to that.

As an organisation, we're always open, and we evaluate everything that comes our way, give it its due to understand whether it adds to the organisation, it makes sense to add to our portfolio, and then we take a call accordingly.

Just one quick follow-up. Which are the international markets are we focusing on right now?

We've always been in the Middle East, but only in select markets of UAE, Oman, and Qatar. We now have the license for Saudi.

We have the license for Kuwait and Bahrain, the whole of GCC now is licensed for Page for Jockey, which we see as a large market, much larger than our current presence in UAE, Oman, and Qatar. That should be of interest to us to make a meaningful presence for the brand felt there.

A lot of groundwork has happened in understanding that market over the last one year, and we expect to be launching there soon.

Understood. Thank you very much, Karthik.

Thank you, Sheela.

Thank you, everyone, for joining. It was an interesting discussion today.

We'll look forward to more such discussions.