Thank you, Danish. Good evening, everyone.

On behalf of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, I welcome all the participants to the 3Q FY26 and 9M FY26 earnings call of Raymond Lifestyle Limited. Today, we have with us from the senior management: Mr.

S. L.

Pokharna, Non-Executive Director; Mr. Rakesh Tiwari, Group CFO; Mr.

Satyaki Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Amit Agarwal, President of Chairman's Office; Mr.

E. C.

Prasad, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Sunny Mehta, Head - Investor Relations.

Without taking further time, I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Rakesh Tiwari for his opening remarks.

Over to you, Rakesh, sir.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Raymond Lifestyle Limited Quarter 3 and 9 Months Financial Year 26 earnings call.

I would like to begin by wishing you all a very happy Republic Day. Republic Day stands for strong institutions, long-term thinking, and responsible leadership—values that are deeply embedded in the Raymond legacy.

I thank you for your continued trust and engagement with the company. I trust you have had the opportunity to review our financial results and investor presentation, both available on the stock exchanges and on our website.

Let me begin by briefly setting the macro and the industry context before moving to our performance. India's economic momentum strengthened meaningfully during Quarter 3 Financial Year 26, with GDP growth expectations revised upward to around 7.3%.

Domestic demand remained resilient, manufacturing activity was robust, and policy support through fiscal measures and income tax relief translated into higher discretionary spending. The festive and wedding seasons further accelerated consumption, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, which continue to be important growth engines for the lifestyle category.

From an industry standpoint, we are seeing clear structural shifts: premiumization of the demand, continued formalization post-GST, and strong price-inelastic consumption around weddings and occasions. These trends are highly aligned with the Raymond Lifestyle's brand strength and portfolio positioning.

Against this backdrop, Quarter 3 Financial Year 26 was a landmark quarter for the company. We delivered the highest quarterly revenue in our history, with total income of ₹1,883 crore—1,883 crore.

EBITDA stood at ₹273 crore, reflecting a 23% year-on-year growth, with margin expanding from 12.3% to 14.4%. For the nine—nine-month period, revenue grew 9% to ₹5,223 crore, with EBITDA increased to 18% to ₹652 crore, with margin improving from 11.6% to 12.5%.

This performance was driven by strong volume growth in our core textile and apparel business, margin expansion through premiumization and product mix improvement, and operating leverage from higher capacity utilization. Average selling price increases by about ₹26 per meter, reflecting the growing contribution of premium and technical fabrics.

Importantly, this was achieved while investing meaningfully in brand building and future capabilities. A key pillar of our growth continues to be product innovation.

During the quarter, we expanded our Techno series in fabrics, designed specifically to address modern consumer needs. These fabrics offer features such as stretch, wrinkle resistance, and stain resistance, catering to evolving workwear and lifestyle preferences.

Demand for such functional yet premium products continue to grow, and this range is gaining strong traction. Our centenary year also marked the launch of distinctive brands such as Spectra and Royal Soft, offering 100 shades in a single quality—a proposition that strengthens choice, recall, and differentiation at the retail level.

In the super-premium segment, we further strengthen our suiting portfolio through Regio Italia, Bello Italia, Super Lux, and Dress Code under the exotic wool collection. These offerings reinforces our leadership in luxury fabrics, supported by innovations such as wool-rich Luxzura and multidirectional stretch wool blends.

Ethnics continue to play an important strategic role in our portfolio. It is not a stand-alone business, but a natural extension that compliments our suiting and shirting franchises.

The expendable festival and wedding collections, along with a growing focus on smart ethnics and fusion apparel, allow us to participate meaningfully in occasion-led consumption while adapting to modern silhouettes and preferences. We also recognize that casualization of dress code is a structural trend.

Our response is not to retreat, but to adapt by focusing on premium casuals and fusion wear that blend comfort and craftsmanship and also brand appeal. Apparel performance during the period reflects ongoing investment in brand building and new stores, which we expect to mature and contribute more meaningfully over the time.

On the retail front, our expansion strategy remains calibrated and disciplined. We expanded selectively across formats and geographies, with a clear differentiation in store formats for Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.

Shorter format stores, an asset-light franchisee-led model, and capital partnering enable us to grow efficiently while protecting returns. At the same time, we continue to rationalize the network by exiting low-performing stores, ensuring that footprint expansion is aligned with the productivity and profitability.

Backend capabilities are another area of our focus. We are strengthening analytics and supply chain system to stay ahead of the demand curve.

Store-level inventory planning, auto-replenishment system, and real-time demand tracking are improving responsiveness and efficiency. Inventory build during the quarter reflects festive demand and the new store expansion rather than structural inefficiency.

That is an investment which you're doing for building the modern capabilities. Turning to exports, global headwinds, particularly the US tariff uncertainty, impacted the garmenting performance during the quarter.

Our response has been proactive and strategic. Over time, we have reduced our dependency on the US market from about 50% to 35%.

We are increasingly focusing on UK, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions, supported by recently signed FTAs. We are also shifting from fabric exports to higher value-added finished and semi-finished apparel, upgrading product mix so that tariff impact can be absorbed through margins rather than volumes.

Supply chain diversification, including Ethiopia, and cost structure optimizations are further strengthening export resilience. In this context, the India-EU Free Trade Agreement is structurally positive for Raymond Lifestyle.

Reduced tariff on textiles and apparel improve competitiveness in premium European markets and align well with our focus on high-value fabrics and finished garments. This agreement strengthens India's position as a global sourcing hub, and we believe Raymond is well-placed to benefit as the agreement move towards full implementation.

Despite input cost volatility, including a nearly 25% increase in wool prices, our margins have remained resilient, driven by product mix, pricing discipline, and cost control. Industry growth remains mid-single-digits, while the trade channel, in fact, the Raymond Lifestyle trade channel, is growing in double digits, reinforcing the shift towards organized branded player.

From the balance sheet perspective, the company remains on strong footing. Net debt is effectively zero at ₹15 crore.

Operating cash and talk about the cash is close to ₹155 crore, and working capital investment reflects the growth initiatives, which is including the new stores, your inventory, and deposits rather than stress. Capital allocation remains focused on debottlenecking, automation, and the selective expansion.

As we look forward, Financial Year 26 represents a pivotal year in our journey. While global uncertainties persist, India's consumption story, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, continue to provide a strong runway.

Our priorities are clear: drive volume growth in textiles and apparel, expand margin through premiumization and scale leverage, invest in future capabilities, and compound value with discipline. Raymond Lifestyle today is not just participating in India's consumption growth, we are shaping it, and strong brands, premium products, and disciplined execution, and a clear path to long-term value creation.

Before I close, I would like also to briefly touch upon ESG, which remains integral to how we run the business. From a governance standpoint, all our entities operate at 100% independent directors, ensuring a strong oversight, transparency, and accountability.

Even though from LODR point of view, we are not required to have 100% independent directors, but in order to have a clear-cut governance mechanism, we have taken a step ahead in this direction. On the people front, we continue to maintain single-digit employee attrition, reflecting a stable engaged workforce, with women comprising approximately 40% of our employee base, underscoring our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

On the environmental side, we have laid out clear, measurable targets: a 15% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, 25% renewable energy mix by 2030, and a commitment to zero waste to landfill and zero liquid discharge by 2030. These are not aspirational statements, mind it, but it's an operational commitments that are embedded into our capital planning and execution road map.

As we look ahead, our priorities remain clear: strengthen our leadership in branded textiles, scale apparel with discipline, deepen our presence in high-potential markets, and continue investing in the product innovation and supply chain excellence. With a near-zero net debt balance sheet, strong cash generation, a brand that resonates with evolving consumer preferences, Raymond Lifestyle is well positioned to convert India's consumption growth into consistent and long-term value creation.

Thank you all for your continued support. We will now be happy to take your questions.

Good evening to the team. I have a following question for Mr.

Ghosh. As consumer demand in lifestyle and apparel remains selective, with a visible tilt towards more exclusive products, how is Raymond Lifestyle sharpening its brand portfolio, product innovation, and channel tactics to drive sustainable growth?

In this context, how do you balance investments in brand building and retail expansion while ensuring agility in responding to the ever-changing fashion cycles and consumer demand? Thank you.

Yeah. Hello?

Hello.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Satyaki Ghosh here. Thank you for the question, very relevant one.

Just to come transparently to you, I have joined the organization last Monday on 19th January, and I may not be best placed at this point in time to answer all the questions because it's a very deep question. I would request Mr.

Pokharna to take it on my behalf. I will come back to you next quarter in a much better prepared manner.

I have just done four days of office here.

Yeah. Thank you, Satyaki.

As you rightly said, question is very deep and a big one, but we'll try to answer it. One is that Raymond stands for very trustworthy brand, and we have a big customer portfolio with us.

Now, as you rightly said, dynamics are changing continuously, and in the opening statement of Mr. Tiwari mentioned, we are continuously working on innovation, also working on our strength of promoting worsted suiting fabric, which we've successfully done it.

Then as you have said, per capita income of this country is going up, and we are expanding our footprints in Tier 2, Tier 3 in a big way to regain the market share and meet the customer aspirations of the Tier 2, 3 Tier 3 customers also. On branding side, we are continuously innovating the product and communicating to the consumer in a big way through social media and through our electronic media communication.

Also, keeping in mind the pricing strategy that which market needs which kind of price, we are working on that and meeting the aspirations of the customers. Further, as Prime Minister has a vision of promoting desi, Swadeshi.

We are working on that, and we are creating products to compete with the requirement of domestic customers in a big way. We are completely aligned with Prime Minister's vision of Swadeshi, promotion of Swadeshi, and that is helping us.

In this year, when we are closing Quarter 3, we had the best result, we had better growth than industry average, and also expanded our market share in worsted suiting and also expanded our market share in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns in a big way. Since this question is long, I think strategically, these are the inputs and to meet the customer expectations, and give the authenticity to the customers that these are authentic products available from Raymond, we are expanding our retail network also in the Tier 2, Tier 3 towns, and we are getting the result out of it.

The strategy is very clear: expand market share, meet the customer expectations, communicate rightly to the consumer, and also expand our footprints in Tier 2, Tier 3 towns in a big way, which is emerging and consumer expectations are being met. Also, we are taking note of per capita income going up in the country.

These are so many factors which are putting us together, giving us confidence to grow at a faster rate. Thank you.

Thank you. Just a extension to that question.

You just mentioned that you are promoting I think Make in India or type of apparel. Just want to understand these particular set of style apparel would be targeted to your regular customers or you would be targeting them to some specific customers that you have in your mind?

We have customers also in the mind who are currently not our customers. Maybe because of product strategy and because of pricing.

We are studying it and research being commissioned to identify the needs of the customer who are not presently coming into us, maybe because of their perception of the Raymond that it's a costly brand and we can't afford it. All those communication strategies are being worked out and being communicated to the consumer.

We are seeing the results are flowing through and say international brands are available in metro towns and second-level towns and semi-metro towns, while in Tier 3 and Tier 4, Raymond still stands a very big brand for them. If we offer them product of their affordability range and all, they are with us.

We are working on that.

Thank you, and best of luck for the next quarter.

Pardon? Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thanks a lot.

Hi, sir. Good evening.

My question is on the working capital. We can see the working capital increase both on a quarter-on-quarter and Y-o-Y basis.

The store expansion is also only 1% of the stores have got added during this quarter. Where is this working capital?

Is there any lag between the primary and secondary sales?

Amit, you would like to answer it?

Yeah. I will answer.

Basically, if you see the working capital primarily, what has happened is because of the change in the trend the way US sales are happening, your inventory, which used to be in the form of receivables and the cycle would be shorter, we have now to keep a larger inventory in order to ship out the goods to the US. That is one very large reason for increase in the working capital's days.

Second is just the volume. We have increased shares more in the apparel segment, and in the apparel segment as well as in the domestic market, you will have a longer cycle vis-a-vis the garmenting cycle.

Garmenting we have a lower working capital cycle, which is an export business. Therefore, these are the two changes, and we are continuously at it, and by March, you would see the working capital further reducing.

Okay. Can you throw some light on how the channels are working, primary and secondary?

Is there any differences in the gap between the growth rates across these two channels?

Actually, if you see the domestic markets, and as you all know that the tax benefit, direct tax benefit by putting money in the hands of the consumers to the tune of ₹1 lakh crore, as well as the GST benefit, which is primarily seen for the car and the white goods, people have more money to spend. We have clearly seen this Diwali or the wedding season has done very, very well in the tertiary segments.

We get reports directly from all this across the society, across the market, and we have seen a very healthy movement. Accordingly, we have managed the primary.

There is actually, if you see, at the secondary level, the inventory levels have come off compared to going up, which was the case in the last year. Therefore, we are seeing clearly a improvement in the consumption cycle in the third quarter, and that is reflected very well in our numbers also.

Amit ji, I add a little bit here again. Also, moving forward, we are seeing very strong wedding seasons.

Wedding dates are very high and spends are going up. That will also help us in getting a better traction of the sales in secondary markets.

Thank you.

Okay. Okay.

Got it. Since you've spoken regarding the weddings, how's ethnic segment performing?

In the first half, we've seen that ethnics the growth rate is somewhere in the range of 20%, 12%. How is the growth rate there?

Point number two is regarding the store expansion. If you look at it on an annualized basis, this year we have net closed somewhere around 10 to 15 stores.

When this would number be turning positive, and how it will be the outlook for FY27 and '28?

Yeah. Let me go one by one.

If you talk about the ethnics, ethnics has been, if you see the first few months, there has been a lackluster across the industry. We have seen in the ethnics market there has been a weaker growth compared to the other apparel segment and such things.

Based on our base, I think we have seen still a high single-digit growth on the ethnic side. We continue to stabilize this business by providing the right kind of product, advertisement, communication to the market.

As we had said not today, long back, that it is a journey of, let's say, 4 years or so, I think we are in that journey. We have just completed 1.5, almost 2 years in this journey.

It would take another 2 years to really see a decent growth in this ethnics business. As far as the store expansion is concerned, we did expand a lot of stores, and considering the slowness, the weakness in the economic demand, we have started to see some rationalization, which was also known that we would do some rationalization of stores.

I think over the next 18 months or so, you would see a bigger expansion on the stores because we want to be very careful, as the store opening, today the mall rentals and everything is going up. We want to make sure that consciously, the stores become profitable over the 36 to 42 months, and accordingly, we would open the stores.

Right now, you said rightly that we have shut many of the stores which were not profitable or which we had envisaged that they would not get profitable.

Okay. Is the rationalization done with, or are we going to see it flowing into the FY27 as well?

We will have some more rationalization to go.

Rationalization includes expansion of network also. We will be coming out with new stores for locations which are ideal for us.

Also, we are working on it. Say wedding was our strength at Raymond.

We say we will be working on it that who knows better of wedding needs than Raymond. Accordingly, we'll be designing our strategies to capture the wedding customers for ethnics.

Got it, sir. That's it from my side.

I'll join the queue. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

Congratulations for good sets of number. Yeah.

I have just few questions. The company recorded a substantial loss of ₹57 crore due to implementation of new labor code.

Is this a final one-time impact, or do you foresee further revising in this?

No, this is the final impact because we got it done from the actuarial valuation. Primarily, it is a non-cash.

It is on account of the gratuity as well as on the leave because this being a 100-year-old business, you will have quite a number of employees who were structured on their basic salary differently. Therefore, this impact has come.

I think there would not be any significant impact. Few small could be, but otherwise it will not be significant impact going forward.

Okay. Sir,

what is your current revenue for sleepwear and innerwear, and what is incremental EBITDA do you expect from this segment?

As we talked about, both the innerwear and sleepwear are very small businesses, and this business was started as our main motto being the complete man. When you take the complete man journey, it is not just only with the suits, shirts, and trousers, the formalwears.

You are also participating in the life of a individual, of a man, whether it is in the beginning of the day or at the end of the day when he's sleeping. Therefore, these products have been put into the system or into our bouquet in order to ensure that the man buys and sleeps with and does take all the Raymond products, and that was the journey.

Therefore, you would not see a very significant revenue coming out of these things, but it was to complete the portfolio of the complete man.

Okay. Sir, in the garmenting segment, we have witnessed degrowth and margin decline.

Beyond UK-India FTA, what specific strategy you are implementing to mitigate customer concentration risk and stabilize the international order book for remainder FY26 and beyond?

Yeah. Look, garmenting, as you all know that for everyone in India, the largest export in terms of textile happens to the US markets.

US, all of us are aware that we are sitting with a 50% tariff, and there are countries who are also in the garmenting exports, which are currently at 20%, 25% also. Therefore, very clear distinct advantage people have in the US to buy from such countries.

We don't have that advantage. We are hoping from today to tomorrow every day that when this punitive 25% goes away.

On the other hand, this business of garmenting is for white label for third party customers, where the businesses are being booked on a season-to-season basis. It is an autumn-winter or summer-spring.

Every time when you change the customer or go to a newer customers, you will take at least 12, 18, 24 months. If we talk about the UK FTA, actually so far, only the sentiment has become positive.

There has not been even a conversation completed in the UK Parliament to clear this proposal. Therefore, these FTA announcements are done good for the sentiment immediate basis, however, to convert into the volume, it takes little longer.

Though we have diversified into many of the European countries, and, unfortunately, the quantum of orders which you get from the European customers are much smaller vis-a-vis what you get for the US orders. A complete substitution to say from the US to the European markets or to the Japanese markets will not be possible.

We have started that journey, and we have started not the journey now. We have been trying to do this journey for the last 3 to 4 years.

Therefore, our share from the European market is to the tune of 35%, 40%. I think our endeavor would be that hopefully the tariff would go away.

If not, it would take at least another 18 months or so when you're in a position to really say that we have been successfully substitute the US market demand.

Amit ji, you'd like to add cost rationalization we have done it in the garmenting industry. Hello?

Yes, sir.

Amit ji.

Yeah. Yeah.

I think you have said it. It is true that in spite of the challenging situations, we are working hard on the cost rationalization.

The kind of gross margin which you get because we have our own top quality wool fabrics, worsted fabrics, which gets converted into high-quality stitched garment for the US customers. That gives a much stronger gross margin, but your ability to control the cost is quite limited.

Therefore, you will not be able to earn that kind of a margin, and that is why it is reflected in the margins in this quarter vis-a-vis last year, where the duty and the tariff was not existent. Sir,

what is the US contribution in revenue?

As I said, US is close to 45%, 46% is US contribution.

Okay. Sir, how do same-store sales growth trends differ from EBO, MBO, LFS, and online, and which channel is seeing the fastest recovery?

In India, I think our EBOs have done very well. We have seen a good mid-double-digit mid-teens growth in the like-to-like stores.

That is very, very attractive. Even the LFS are seeing good 11%, 12% growth like-to-like basis.

Plus, we still have a lot of room to go with the MBOs. We have been expanding with the multi-brand outlets, and that is helping the sales.

That is clearly reflected if you see in our apparel sales that it has grown very well.

Okay. One last question.

Can you please share the medium-term revenue growth and margin guidance for the segment as it's capacity utilization improves in branded textiles?

In branded textiles, we're utilizing our facility to the full, and that is why, which Mr. Pokharna also mentioned about the cost rationalization, that has helped clearly in terms of delivering superior margin and delivering over 21% in this quarter.

We're utilizing the facility in full. I think the journey going forward is clearly optimizing the right product mix, and we are not going to give the guidance right now.

I think what we are working on is consistent growth in the domestic market and capitalizing on it. If you look at the domestic growth, it is more than 12% overall in the business, which is very, very healthy compared to many of the peer groups.

Yes. Sir.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Okay.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on a healthy set of numbers. My first question is on our exclusive brand outlets.

Our EBO number, if we see, has somewhat remained a bit stagnant over the year. How should we look at say brand-wise EBO expansion going ahead?

Or is there any specific brand where we expect to see say higher number of store additions?

Okay. If you look at all the four brands which we have in terms of the apparel and then the ethnics, I think all are broadly in that 100 numbers of each brand.

As I mentioned in response to an earlier question that we are working clearly on an optimization strategies for these figures because we have so to speak, a captive TRS channel. TRS is almost 1,000 stores plus, which is also available for the distribution of our product and exclusively for our products.

Therefore, we look at it overall comparable number is we are talking 1,500, 1,600 stores which we have across the country to service our customers. Now what has happened is that we did open more than 400 stores in the last 3 years, and you would never see that all the stores which you open will do well.

That rationalization was required. We have done some bit of rationalization, and further some more rationalization has to be done going forward.

I think in the next 6 months or so, we will be done with the rationalization part of the story, and then we will work out very, very carefully in terms of store expansion. The whole philosophy is that the customers will have the product availability is reach very well across the country.

We have today got more than 1,700 MBOs across the country who are taking care of our products. We have got more than 1,600 odd LFS doors which are taking care.

To that extent, and many, many small retail outlets. To that extent, I don't think so we have a challenge in terms of a distribution reach, and it is the methodology whether you sell through your TRS EBO route or you sell through the MBO route, it is one and the same.

The product should be reach to the last-mile customer. Online has also quite well.

We have been working hard, and if I look at this year, I think we should be achieving over 10% of our revenues on the online side as well.

Sir, actually, if you look at it, as Amit ji rightly mentioned, there are EBOs and there are Raymond Shops, and there are MBOs, and there are smaller MBOs which are being fed through our distribution network through wholesale channel. While we put up new MBOs or new MBO or new Raymond Shop or anything, we need to take into account that cannibalization doesn't happen and we just land up into cost escalation and no gain in the consumer.

There is a very proper system to study the catchment area and then put up a outlet on that side. We are doing that way.

Right, sir. Got it.

Sir, lastly, can you put some light on where are we in terms of say distribution and presence in our sleepwear and innerwear segments?

Yeah. Actually, as we mentioned, both innerwear and sleepwear are clearly available in our TRSs, EBOs.

Because the product is such that we have identified some of the MBOs, and we have appointed dealers and distributors all across the country, which are primarily in let's say top 50 to 60 cities in the country where we have put the product because we want to ensure that the product is rightfully placed, the supply chain is getting stabilized, and therefore, we wanted to focus on the 50 to 60 city where we have put our products right now through the dealer and distributor network.

Got it, sir. Got it.

Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Hi, sir.

Thanks for the opportunity. My question is again related to the apparel segment.

You yourself mentioned during the opening remarks that casualization is a structural trend and I guess most of our portfolio and kind of positioned for that. What is our turnaround strategy, and what is our long-term organic growth expectation from our apparel segment?

Yeah. Very clearly, and I think this is very clearly evident if I take the era pre-COVID and post-COVID, and Raymond is known very well to catch the trend.

I'm a 100-year-old company, I know exactly how the trend changes and shifts and adapt to that. Pre-COVID, we were sub-5% in terms of casualization.

Now we have reached close to 15% to 17% in terms of casualization. Plus, in terms of the fits, and I would really encourage all of you to visit the ColorPlus stores, which was a very, very different product range.

Now we have brought a product range which is much more trendier, fitter, and for slim fit and such things, which was not available in the past, which was only for regular or a contemporary fit. The journey of casualization is on, and there is a brand ethos under which we need to work, and we are going to continuously improve the percentage of casualization, but very carefully that don't dilute the brand where people have a pride in wearing a Raymond Ready-to-Wear shirt to the office or a Park Avenue shirt or a suit to the office.

We need to keep a right balance because there are some very dedicated, loyal customers for us who keep buying for their office wear as well.

Yeah. Please carry on.

It is an added product bouquet which we have considered in the casual line.

Also, we have a brand, Parx, which is much on the affordable range side, and we are purely a casual brand, which has also doing well now. We are working on the product line, which is requirement of current generation and current trends.

In terms of your geographical presence in Tier 1, Tier 2, if you can give any color on your strategy, what is the current mix and do you want to change that?

We are clearly present in the Tier 1 to Tier 6 cities. You would find our product, and I'm sure if you travel across the country, the Raymond board, the sign of the neon Raymond board, you would find even a small taluka, small town, district.

I think that is the beauty of this that it is practically impossible to replicate the Raymond distribution strength. That is what we have a big advantage, and we enjoy the customer relationship, the trade relationship for more than 60, 70 years.

In terms of reach, we are already there. Obviously, as things continue to expand, India gets more economically moving forward, you will see much more towns and kasbas are getting much more affluent, and there you have the possibility to keep expanding their own stores, either TRSs, EBOs, or the MBOs keep coming up.

We will be there to place the product. We have a very unique system of a wholesaler and a distributor model.

Places where we cannot reach directly, our wholesalers and distributors are there in order to provide such product to a smaller customer in a very small town. Our suitings are practically available in more than 15,000, 18,000 point of sale across the country, you can imagine how wide is the distribution.

We call them tag dealers. We identify small dealers who are located in smaller towns or within even big city, the location is such that the catering can be done only by smaller dealers.

We tag them to our wholesaler and we recognize them as a tag dealer and give support of distribution. That's the mechanism.

Almost about 20,000 distribution networks we are working on small or big put together.

Sir. My third question is related to the ethnics brand and the outlet and their growth.

Last quarter you mentioned that usually autumn, winter, all these occasions and marriages and all that can add to your growth. This quarter seems to be a little on the low side.

You mentioned, I think, high-single-digit growth this quarter. What is your outlook on the ethnics growth in Q4 and beyond?

Do you see that picking up? Also there is a slight margin uptick in your overall apparel segment.

Was it due to some seasonality mix, or was it due to your full price throughput? If you can comment on that.

Look, very clearly, October-December quarter is characterized by two things: one, you have the Dussehra, Diwali, which is the festival which keeps buying in a good manner, healthier manner, followed by weddings. We have seen, as Mr.

Pokharna rightly pointed out, that the weddings, number of weddings were very, very high. Over the next 6 months, 5 months, we should say, is also going to be very, very strong.

I think that clearly helps us to improve the product. In a wedding scenario, what happens always that people tend to upgrade themselves, and that is one reason why you will see a healthier quarter in the third quarter for Raymond and for most of the such peers, which we have seen in this quarter.

Now as far as going forward, very clearly, we have driven, and as we mentioned in the opening remark, that we have been aggressively spending on the advertisement. You can make a great product, but if you do not communicate to the customer, your product won't sell.

I think that is where which we have taken an effort in terms of investing behind the brands and putting right money on the advertisement, sales promotion, and which is actually working. That is one of the other reasons why your margin continues to be a little lower, and we are considering this as a strategic move and not for 6 months.

We are not into the business of 6 months or a quarter or two, three quarters. We are on a long-term sustainable business to grow, whereby we are investing behind these brands, apparel brands, in order to make it much more stronger.

That is one on the apparel side. Second thing, if I look at the ethnics, ethnics is into a nascent stage.

It is not in the business that right now it has become a matured business. We will take, as I said, another four three to four years in order to build this business strongly, and then you will see it bearing the fruit.

Otherwise, right now to say, oh, this is the margin or this is the growth, I think it will take its own time because this is something which is a little expensive buy for a customer. Therefore, he wants to assure himself that it is the right thing which I should go and pick up.

It is a brand building exercise. The quality of the product is already established because anything which comes out of Raymond is a quality product, that I don't think so there is any question mark.

It is also the design and everything which people need to get more accustomed to, and over a period, you would see a growth in this product as well.

Understood, sir. Thank you, sir.

All the best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Am I audible?

Okay. I have one question.

This employee benefit expenses will come every quarter till in FY27 till the base fan out, or it will be in one quarter just this?

It will be in this quarter only because this is the entire catch-up which has been done for the past years because of the change in the labor code.

Sir. Another question is, this branded apparel segment is very old, we have reputed brands, ColorPlus, Park Avenue.

Why this is struggling for growth because this is not something new, I want to understand that.

Yeah. No, absolutely.

I think you have a very fair comment. These are brands which have been in existence for a very, very long period of time.

I think what has happened is that you need to make adequate investments behind the brand. Since these brands were having not the adequate sales, and in this business you keep getting end of season sale.

We have taken a conscious call in the last few years that we will go ahead and put money behind the advertisement and innovation in the product, and we are taking a little bit hit on the margin right now. As I said, this is more like an investment.

When you put up a plant or a manufacturing facility, you show it as a CapEx, but in an operating business, you put it into advertisement, sales, which is an OpEx line item. I think that is the journey which we are on.

Therefore, you would see for some period of time the margin to be slightly weaker, but it is an investment which will turn out to be a very good investment with a very high return going forward when you see a much higher growth in terms of the branded apparel revenue growth, as well as the profitability growth.

Okay. Sir, other question is, let's assume that US-India trade deal don't go through for next two, three quarters also.

Do you think more pressure in the garmenting division, or you expect this to remain as it's going through right now?

No, I think one, obviously, none of us wants that to continue for two, three quarters because it has a significant impact. Textile is the largest employer in the country, and it is the whole supply chain right from the cotton production and conversion, garment, yarn, everything.

It's a massive impact in terms of employment. On the other hand, for us as a narrow basis, what we have started to do is get out to more domestic customers.

Some of the domestic customers we have started to make, as well as we have started to go to even smaller customers who give orders to the tune of 5,000, 10,000 pieces, which we were not prepared to take earlier, where we were getting from the US more like a 40,000, 50,000 pieces order. I think that is a journey which we are on.

It will be little bit more what you call difficult task to comply with smaller orders, but if that being the case, be it, we have to go out and do such orders.

We are successful in getting domestic orders, that's the point. Capacity utilization is full and better going to be in near future.

Thank you for the opportunity. Amit, can you just explain what kind of benefits are we seeing from currency depreciation?

Because over the past year there has been very significant currency depreciation, even euro or pound or even the dollar. Also given that we import wool from Australia, how is that differential playing out because we also have imports of wool?

Can you please explain this?

Yeah. It's a real mixed bag and it's a good one because what has happened is if I take the raw material side, I'm sure you are aware that Australian wool in terms of the commodity has increased the price by almost 30% over the last 4 months.

As well as Australian currency vis-a-vis rupee has been consistently appreciating, there is a huge negative impact on account of that. As far as the rupee and US dollar and euro is concerned, clearly we have got the benefit.

Our exports, as I said, had it been the full normal business without the US tariff, I think it would have given a substantial gain in our garmenting business, and we would have seen the benefits flowing through. It got really majorly offsetted because of the lack of volume and lack of gross margin.

That is unfortunately the reason for this year's garmenting business, though it is an export-driven business, not doing well.

Okay. Yes, that helps.

What kind of peak revenues can we generate using the current garmenting capacity that we have, both in India and Ethiopia? If you can just give a ballpark number.

Can you repeat the question? I couldn't follow your question.

What kind of peak revenues can we generate in the garmenting division given the capacity that we have both in India and Ethiopia?

I think comfortably, you see we have expanded the capacity in Hindupur, which you recall we have been speaking about. We have invested decently on that facility.

We have added 10 lines there. I think overall, from a current context, at least 30% more revenue can be garnered from the same capacity which is available today.

Thank you. Thanks, and all the best.

Thank you. Operator.

Hello. Satyaki Ghosh here.

Thank you for all your participation and interest in our organization. The first question had come to me, but Amit ji and Pokharna ji have really tried and given very good answers.

Next quarter, I'll try to come back to you with my thoughts and try to answer your questions. Thank you very much for participation from all of our side at Reliance Lifestyle Limited.

Thank you. Raymond.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much.