Thank you, ma'am. Hello, everyone.

On behalf of 361 Capital Market Private Limited, I welcome you all to Q2 FY27 earnings call of TTK Prestige Limited. We have with us today the senior management of the company, represented by Mr.

Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan, Managing Director and CEO, Mr. K.

Shankaran, Advisor to the Board, and Mr. R.

Saranyan, Whole-time Director and Chief Financial Officer. Now I can hand over the call to the management for initial remarks, post which we will open the floor for question-and-answer session.

Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

Thanks for joining today's earnings call. Before I hand over the proceedings to our Managing Director, Mr.

Venkatesh, I just want to remind the participants that the discussion today may contain certain statements which are futuristic in nature. Such statements represent the intentions of the management and the efforts being put in by them to realize certain goals.

The success in realizing these goals depends on various factors, both internal and external. Therefore, the investors are requested to make their own independent judgments by considering all relevant factors before taking any investment decisions.

Thank you. Over to you, Venkatesh.

Good evening. Let me start with a little bit of an overview on our overall economy and then with the industry per se, and then our specific performance for the quarter.

We remain very confident and comfortable with the way we look at the Indian economy today, both from a macro perspective, where with so much of uncertainty around the global scenario, we do believe that the Indian economy is far more stable and offers a lot more stable business opportunities as we move forward. The macroeconomics, as we see, the macro factors seem to be sort of stabilizing, and that seems to be a silver lining for us globally in comparison, also in terms of specifics to the industry as well.

The GDP projections remain quite robust, and that's our sense of comfort. What we do see, of course, is a lot more positive view around investment, particular to our industry as well, and I think that's a welcome sign that we see in times of such global uncertainty, and I think that augurs well as we move forward.

In terms of our specific categories, the last two quarters in particular, and this quarter in particular, has seen a sort of a significant drive in the industry, a lot of macro factors that are helping us, including the demand drive, including consumer demand, which has been substantially increased in the last few quarters, and a sustained way of looking at the business. The industry and the categories at large where we are present seem to be presenting a positive view for us after a period of a little bit of a dull lull period, and I think the last few quarters, we've seen that revival happen at the industry level as well, driven by consumer demand, driven by very specific trends, like we've mentioned in the past, in terms of urban premiumization, in terms of willingness of consumers to try out new products and new categories, in terms of scaled-up manufacturing capabilities, and also in terms of being able to bring to the table a lot more innovations.

In general, I think there's a lot of vibrancy around the category, and we do hope that augurs well as we move forward as well. Specific to our performance, I think it's been a great quarter for us, one of the quarters that we've seen good movement in terms of our top line as well as in terms of our profitability.

More than the business numbers, I think what we are quite comfortable and quite confident about is that a lot of initiatives that has been kicked in at a company level through the last few quarters, reinforcing our focus on quality of products, reinforcing our focus on distribution transformation, a lot of focus on bringing in new products and innovation, they've started to kick in at a larger scale, and I think that's helping us in terms of a good top Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to TTK Prestige Q2 FY27 earnings conference call hosted by 361 Capital Market. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.

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

I now hand the conference over to Mr. Archit Shah from 361 Capital Market.

Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you, ma'am. Hello, everyone.

On behalf of 361 Capital Market Private Limited, I welcome you all to Q2 FY27 earnings call of TTK Prestige Limited. We have with us today the senior management of the company, represented by Mr.

Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan, Managing Director and CEO, Mr. K.

Shankaran, Advisor to the Board, and Mr. R.

Saranyan, Whole-time Director and Chief Financial Officer. Now I Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to TTK Prestige Q2 FY27 earnings conference call hosted by 361 Capital Market.

As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing * then 0 on your touchtone phone.

Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr.

Archit Shah from 361 Capital Market. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you, ma'am. Hello, everyone.

On behalf of 361 Capital Market Private Limited, I welcome you all to Q2 FY27 earnings call of TTK Prestige Limited. We have with us today the senior management of the company, represented by Mr.

Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan, Managing Director and CEO, Mr. K.

Shankaran, Advisor to the Board, and Mr. R.

Saranyan, Whole-time Director and Chief Financial Officer. Now I can hand over the call to the management for initial remarks, post which we will open the floor for question-and-answer session.

Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

Thanks for joining today's earnings call. Before I hand over the proceedings to our Managing Director, Mr.

Venkatesh, I just want to remind the participants that the discussion today may contain certain statements which are futuristic in nature. Such statements represent the intentions of the management and the efforts being put in by them to realize certain goals.

The success in realizing these goals depends on various factors, both internal and external. Therefore, the investors are requested to make their own independent judgments by considering all relevant factors before taking any investment decisions.

Thank you. Over to you, Venkatesh.

Good evening. Let me start with a little bit of an overview on our overall economy and then with the industry per se, and then our specific performance for the quarter.

We remain very confident and comfortable with the way we look at the Indian economy today, both from a macro perspective, where with so much of uncertainty around the global scenario, we do believe that the Indian economy is far more stable and offers a lot more stable business opportunities as we move forward. The macroeconomics, as we see, the macro factors seem to be sort of stabilizing, and that seems to be a silver lining for us globally in comparison, also in terms of specifics to the industry as well.

The GDP projections remain quite robust, and that's our sense of comfort. What we do see, of course, is a lot more positive view around investment, particular to our industry as well, and I think that's a welcome sign that we see in times of such global uncertainty, and I think that augurs well as we move forward.

In terms of our specific categories, the last two quarters in particular, and this quarter in particular, has seen a sort of a significant drive in the industry, a lot of macro factors that are helping us, including the demand drive, including consumer demand, which has been substantially increased in the last few quarters, and a sustained way of looking at the business. The industry and the categories at large where we are present seem to be presenting a positive view for us after a period of a little bit of a dull lull period, and I think the last few quarters, we've seen that revival happen at the industry level as well, driven by consumer demand, driven by very specific trends, like we've mentioned in the past, in terms of urban premiumization, in terms of willingness of consumers to try out new products and new categories, in terms of scaled-up manufacturing capabilities, and also in terms of being able to bring to the table a lot more innovations.

In general, I think there's a lot of vibrancy around the category, and we do hope that augurs well as we move forward as well. Specific to our performance, I think it's been a great quarter for us, one of the quarters that we've seen good movement in terms of our top line as well as in terms of our profitability.

More than the business numbers, I think what we are quite comfortable and quite confident about is that a lot of initiatives that has been kicked in at a company level through the last few quarters, reinforcing our focus on quality of products, reinforcing our focus on distribution transformation, a lot of focus on bringing in new products and innovation, they've started to kick in at a larger scale, and I think that's helping us in terms of a good top-line growth, a very robust top-line growth, followed and backed up by a reasonably robust profitability as well. Having said that, there are a little bit of challenges that we face today as we speak.

The pressures on cost, the inflationary cost pressures, have been significantly high and continue to be of concern for us in the coming quarters as well. While at an industry level and we at a particular level have been sort of mitigating them with price increases, I think the cost increases are at a stage where it probably would affect demand, and therefore, I think we would want to look at it more from a perspective of a stable environment over a period of time.

Robust top-line growth backed by macro factor-driven demand, internal transformation agenda of the company is working well, and of course, a lot of cost initiatives helping us build the profit table stable. The concern continues to be on the rising cost inflationary pressures and how do we handle that as we move forward.

That's probably what I would say. I think it's been the last two quarters in particular, and this quarter has been sort of a substantial growth for us.

We're quite happy about that, and we do believe that over a period of time, we would be able to sort of leverage this as we move forward. From a numbers perspective, we did close to around 21.9% on total sales, with around 23.4% from the domestic market.

Exports have been a concern. They continue to be a concern because of uncertainty around the war scenario and a little bit of global scenario.

The domestic market has shown significant resilience in terms of demand, and we grew at around 23.4%. Our operating EBITDA is at around a 17 70.9% growth.

We continue to stay invested in terms of brand initiatives, in terms of go-to-market initiatives. A lot of initiatives that we have taken around process transformation is sort of reaching a stage where we can starting to see the benefits of that, and we continue to hope to see those benefits as we move forward.

We've also made some changes which I would let Mr. Saranyan speak about a little later on some of our investments and changes that have happened.

At an overall business level, a very good quarter, sustained, and we do believe that as the business moves forward, we would be in a much better position given the internal transformation that we've done. We do believe that we've been constantly beating the market and, in many of the categories, we've been sort of increasing our market share, which has been one of the key KPIs that we focus on.

We have been delivering higher market shares with profitable growth, and that would be the way forward as we speak, driven by premiumization, innovation, and a lot more focus on new product development and deliverable to the market as well. That's an overall scenario, and we remain confident and we remain excited about the growth opportunities that would crop forward.

In the short term, we would, of course, like I said, have pressures on cost, which we do believe will need to be managed slightly differently from the past, and we would probably come back on that a little later. That's my summary from a quarter perspective, and I'll probably leave it to Saranyan to just brief you on the other agenda, and then get on to the questions.

I just want to give two updates for this quarter. I think it's already announced to the stock exchange as well earlier.

One, we have divested our investments in our subsidiary, 51% subsidiary, Ultrafresh Modular Solutions, primarily because, based on the exercise what we are going through in the last one year, we decided that we have a lot more to do in our core category and the core market. We didn't want to divert our attention to any other categories, we decided to divest that investment.

That loss, whatever we have incurred as part of this transaction, is already been recorded in this quarter's results as an exceptional item. We also invested in one of the start-up company engaged in the rural distribution a couple of years back through the compulsory convertible debentures.

That also unfortunately, due to the microfinancial institution the industry going through the tough weather, this company was in a similar customer base, they were not able to grow up as they had initially envisaged, they had to shut it down, we have taken a hit on the CCD as well, and then that ₹2 crores loss is also considered in this quarter's financials as an exceptional item. This is the two exceptional items that has come in in this quarter.

Over for any questions.

Thank you. I just want to understand the cost escalation which you talked about.

Is it in aluminum, or is it in steel, or is it in plastic? Can you just elaborate?

How the industry is taking price increases? Because I understand that in some of the small appliances, price increases companies are taking.

With respect to us, how is the price increase are taking place? The industry in general is taking price increases, or somebody is waiting for some others to take the price increase?

That's my first question. Second is, in terms of the soft expenses you said it will continue to incur, can you just give an outlook of how much of the soft expenses would actually happen in this year, and how much has already had took place in the first half?

On the cost impact, I think the cost impact has been across commodities. It also includes packaging materials.

It also includes all input materials that have gone into handles and other rubber-related, chemical-related costs as well. Commodity pricing in general has gone up significantly, or I would say 95% of the input line items have got impacted in terms of cost.

That's one. In terms of the cost increases being sort of mitigated through price increase, I think it has been a very staggered one.

We have taken a step jump. We've been followed by other players, but they've been in a staggered manner.

In our view, the industry is not fully absorbed the cost yet, and I think it will sort of continue to flow through into the next few quarters as well. That's from a cost perspective.

We would believe that there is some more cost increase mitigation that needs to be done in the coming quarters as well. In terms of our own internal investments, the first part of the investments we've done around building capability, building capacity.

The current investments would go into brand, and the current investments will go into strengthening our brand position across some of our core categories. The spends would continue to be there, but it would sort of get realigned with our brand objectives at this point of time.

Saranyan.

Just to give you the number, I think last year, we have incurred close to around ₹100 crores, close at around ₹85 and then the previous year around ₹120 crores. In the first half, we have incurred around ₹13 crores.

It's all disclosed in the financial statements as well.

Okay. For the year, how much you are budgeting?

See, we have an outlay of around ₹200 to ₹250 crores is what we have outlay for a period of three years. That's what we will be spending.

This is we are in the second year now, one more year to go.

Got it. Got it.

The third question is that how are you seeing buoyancy in the channel? Because we had the festival being pushed to the third quarter.

I think second quarter has also been good. Is the festival sales had already come in the second quarter, or you think, or it will actually come in the third quarter?

There would be a little bit of flow-through into the third quarter given the festive season currently. That will continue to be there for the in the third quarter.

A little bit of flow-through would happen.

We had indicated that also in the investor presentation that October has been good.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. How the saliency in e-commerce has been for us?

Is it because we had these sales last month or maybe I don't know whether it happened in the second quarter, third quarter. In general, what has been the saliency in e-commerce?

No, we, one of the things that we continue to maintain, we are an omnichannel, growth-driven company. At large, our e-commerce stroke quick commerce together would contribute around 20% of our sales.

The band of contribution remains in the same level. We're growing equally aggressive across all channels today.

It's not very completely skewed towards e-commerce. We have uniform growths across all channels today.

Right. In terms of new product introduction, either new either additional SKUs or completely new areas, how the progress has been in the first half, and is it in line with the company's target?

It's been in line with the company's plan. New product development and SKU range is something that we've completely built.

A large part of that also was done in the last quarter as well. From a half-year perspective, you look at, we've significantly ramped up the number of SKUs that have gone into the market.

Whatever gap that we had earlier in terms of a portfolio, that's all complete, and we now sort of lead the industry in terms of new product development and SKU introduction into the market at this point of time. New SKUs and NPDs are a substantial part of our growth lever today.

Got it. In terms of tri-ply growth, there has been a strong growth for the sector in general.

If you index to 100, what has been the tri-ply growth for us over the first half? Whether the cost escalation there is also very high, or is it demand is slightly inelastic there?

No, you're right. We would be ahead of the market in terms of tri-ply growth.

We are gaining shares in tri-ply. The cost impact is there in tri-ply as well, because tri-ply is a combination of stainless steel and aluminum.

That cost escalation that we are getting on stainless steel and aluminum is impacting the tri-ply category. From a growth perspective, tri-ply remains the most aggressive growth segment, both in cookers and cookware.

What kind of growth you see in that sector? How much more than the overall growth you have got?

Overall growth is 22%, 20% to 22%, but how much is that tri-ply is actually growing there?

It'll be around 1.5 times. From an average industry growth, tri-ply would be around 1.5 times.

Okay. Thank you so much.

I will come back in queue.

Yeah.

Thank you for giving the opportunity. Sir, we have seen that our other expense have come down, say, YoY and sequential basis.

What has lead to that?

See, as we had mentioned as part of one of the notes in the financial as well, last year, we had incurred some strategic expenses of close to ₹36 crores. In the second quarter, around ₹18 crores, which is not there in this quarter.

That's one of the reason why that has come down, in addition to some initiatives what we have been working on in the last one year to optimize some of our costs. That benefit is also flowing through now.

Going forward this

Sorry. Go ahead.

Sorry. Please go ahead.

Yeah.

Sorry, can you repeat the last part?

No, sir. Going forward, sir, this strategic investments will be going on or it's done for the

No, this will go on for some more time. As I was mentioning for the previous participant as well, we had planned ₹200-250 crores of soft expenses in three-year period.

We are just in the second year, one more year to go. There will be some more spends that's coming in in the coming quarters.

This is all for the long-term benefit of the organization.

Okay. Thanks a lot for this.

Thank you for the opportunity, and good set of numbers and congratulations. Questions on top line, I would say.

Even last year was a 19% 10% 9% growth, and we grew at 22% on that. How much of that would be attributed to volumes and value from that?

How much of the pricing is still left to pass on there?

See, the volume growth is expected something around out of that 22 crores 22% is around 8 9% will be the volume growth. The rest will be the value.

The product mix, if you look at, I think what we have seen is the premium products are doing better. As Mr.

Venkatesh was mentioning before, the tri-ply has been growing better than the other cooker or the cookware. Similarly, I think we have seen the premiumization is happening.

Overall, if you look at, I think the information is also given in the investor presentation, the cooker is around 32 30% 32%, the cookware around 15% to 18%, the appliances another 50 close to 50%.

Okay. If 8% is volume and rest is value, are there any further price hike left to be passed on, or we have taken most of it?

It is across similar.

Like I mentioned, there would be a little more of the cost that needs to be passed on to consumers. That's a call that we would take as we move forward.

Okay. Okay.

Sure, sir. Secondly, you said that strategic opex last year ₹18 crores, which is not there right now.

Is this related to the ₹200-₹250 crores that you have planned or was it any other opex that you did not incur in this quarter?

See, our strategy expenses, like I mentioned, are in three phases. The first phase was around internal capability building, taking external help to make sure the organization is ready for the scale-up.

I think that part of it, we are reasonably comfortable. The second phase of the investments would flow into product development and into new product development and into brand.

From a directional perspective, we continue to be invested upon, and we will be spending on strategic investments as we move forward. The nature of the spend would probably move into brand significantly and into investing behind innovation.

These are two areas that we would probably call out for the next few quarters, and substantial investments will go behind them.

Okay. How much of this you have already incurred, any number that you can give out of ₹200 to ₹250 crores?

We have spent close to around ₹100 crores in the last six quarters, six six, eight quarters.

Okay. Still around ₹150 crores still yet to be spent.

Okay. On the margins you mentioned, after the investment, you want 13%.

That remains or maybe we get current margin 13%? [unclear]

See, at this point of time, we don't want to sort of give any further guidance on that given the volatility of the cost pricing at this point of time. On a steady state, we do believe that the business potential is around 13% to 14% EBITDA.

We maintain that stand. Currently, given the volatility what's happening around in terms of the costing, we would want to be a little more cautious on any guidance at this point of time.

One question on Horwood, sir. What about Horwood, sir?

In terms of economy in London and in UK and is that saliency, is it looking better? Is demand looking better over there and on the margins?

Horwood.

Okay. Horwood, I think they have on the top line, I think they have done well, but because of the the geopolitical issues and the economy in UK and Europe, I think the cost has substantially gone up.

That's that's the reason I think their bottom line has been almost at the close to the breakeven level. We expect the top line to grow steady, but we have to wait and see how things happening in the Euro UK market.

Okay. Okay.

Sure, sir. Just one last question on this [unclear]

Hello? Can

Hello? Not yet.

Not yet. It's still breaking.

Okay. Okay.

I'll just get back in the line, sir. I will just get [unclear]

Yeah.

Thanks again. Sir, I just was looking at the cash flows.

I understand that there has been an increase in the inventories. When compared to last year, we have grown pretty well across, however, the inventories have also increased.

Therefore, it is straining the cash flows. Can you just explain that, whether it is more because of the festive season that there has been an increase in the inventories, or is it any other reason?

No, this is purely on the basis of our anticipation of demand and a lot of internal work that we're doing around improving our manufacturing systems. The inventory that we've built up is in anticipation of one demand, and we do believe that that will sort of, over a period of time, get negated.

Also, in the last two quarters, we've been significantly able to cater to the substantial growth that has happened only because of the inventory build-up that we've done in the past. I think the current inventory build-up needs to be seen from a perspective of sales opportunity.

As and when we see that that probably needs to get corrected, we will sort of slow it down. That comfort is there with us today.

Actually, number of days inventory is not increased.

Number of days inventory is not increased. Absolute value is increased given the current context of the growth that has happened.

Got it. Okay.

Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon, everyone. This is Sameer from IIFL.

I joined a little late, please pardon me if the questions have already been asked and answered. Just a more theoretical question.

We're seeing good numbers in terms of growth being reported by most of the consumer durable players this quarter. Part of it is also driven by pricing, but even the volume growth trends have been healthy.

Now in a situation where there is a macro pressure of inflation, how suddenly is the category seeing tailwinds? Is there a theory that inflation actually helps the organized players more versus unorganized who get disrupted, and there is a theory that organized players tend to gain market share, is this playing out predominantly?

Your thoughts will be greatly helpful.

I think there are two levers that probably is helping the demand at this point of time. One, like you had mentioned, there is a significant movement from unorganized players to organized players, partially because of the cost pressures that the smaller players probably are not able to sort of withstand.

The second, I think at an overall level, the trend of growth that we've seen over the last few quarters very clearly is that there is a move towards branded players, not because of just the cost, but also in terms of the modernization of kitchens that's happening today. A large macro factor that probably is helping is the modernization of kitchens today, and that is helping the category.

Short-term cost pressures are definitely sort of putting more pressure on the unorganized segment, and given the gap that comes between branded players and unbranded players, the branded growth would definitely be high. I think that's one trend that we do believe is playing out in the market at this point of time.

The second opportunity that consistently continues to be played is the premiumization of kitchens and therefore associated categories, and some of our categories seem to be falling in that space at this point of time. They seem to have a relevant share of our wallet as well, and that's helping us during this festive season as well.

These are two macro factors that I would say which is helping the growth, and they probably would also be the reason why the growth can be reasonably sustained. While it may not be as dramatic at what it is at this point of time, I think it is reasonable to believe that there would be a sustainable level of growth for the industry.

Got it, sir. One more question, if I may squeeze in.

Basically, just wanted to understand the RM cost pressure right now. You would have already covered in the past quarter, but commodities have still inflated.

What is the kind of inflation we are looking at right now, and do we still plan to take more pricing interventions in the near future, just on that? If 2Q typically is all high-priced inventory coming into the P&L, or we were still having some benefit of older, lower-priced inventory?

See, the pressure is continue to be there. Even today, the price are much higher than what it used to be in the Q4 of last year or the Q1 of this year.

We still have that pressure. We'll continue to be there, the way in which looks like it continued to be there.

As I was mentioning in the beginning, it'll be very difficult for us to recover this to the cost price increase from the market. We have to wait and see.

We have already taken all the benefits of the old inventories. I think from now on, I think the stress will start coming into the gross margin.

This is helpful, sir. Thanks a lot, and wish you all a very Happy Diwali.

Thank you. Wish you all the same.

Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, you mentioned that we have some very strong traction in the tri-ply segment. Sir, the tri-ply circles, do we make them in-house, or we source them domestically, or we import them, sir?

Tri-ply circles is imported.

From China?

There is no domestic production of tri-ply circles at this point of time.

Do we do it from China, sir?

China is one of the sources, yes. China is one of the dominant sources.

All right. Sir, you mentioned, sir, that there is a lot of traction also in the premium range that we are experiencing.

Sir, some few quarters ago, we also had plans to launch a new premium brand. What is the update on that, sir?

Have we done anything, or that is in the back burner?

No, not at this point of time. I don't think we mentioned about a premium brand per se.

We have two brands with us, which is Judge and Prestige. We continue to stay focused on both of them, and both brands continue to have a robust growth at this point of time.

The premium space opportunity is an opportunity that we will evaluate as in the right time.

Okay. Sir, Judge brand is growing disproportionately, sir.

What percentage of that growth, sir, is coming from cannibalization of our lower-end mass-premium products?

Judge and Prestige, by way of portfolio and by way of the market that we have done, the cannibalization is minimal. We've consciously kept the two separate, and places where believe that there might be cannibalization, we've not played Judge.

Judge growth is purely on the basis of Judge addressing a different target segment that Prestige as a brand does not address at this point of time. It is on the lower end of the mass market, while Prestige continues to keep get upgraded towards the upper end of the market.

I think the two brands don't cannibalize each other at this point of time.

Sir, margins would be similar even in the Judge brand, as much as we get in our Prestige?

No, structurally, Judge would be slightly lower than Prestige. That's the nature of the portfolio, and also the type of target segments that we address.

I think from a structural perspective, we are clear that Judge and Prestige at this point of time, Judge would have a slightly lower margin profile.

Sir, would you be able to quantify, like 10%, 20%, 30% lower margins vis-à-vis our core?

Not in this call, probably.

Can't be a public disclosure.

That probably wouldn't want to do it at this point of time.

Fair enough. Thank you, sir, and all the best.

Thank you.

Thanks again. Sir, you mentioned that there are some SKUs you actually introduced, and there are some pictures of some SKUs are in the presentation.

Is it the same one, or which are the ones you have introduced?

The one what we have shown in the investor presentation is what got launched during this quarter. Say, normally when I say new launch or new SKUs from which we are getting the sales, it's almost we will say the last one year what we had launched.

That's where we track as a new SKU the growth. We continue to introduce SKUs as we move forward as well.

That's our regular routine process.

Okay. Okay.

In terms of product design, what have you done after this transformation exercise? How you have improved the design initiation process, or the team, or how you have done?

Can you just elaborate if possible?

Please await the new launches. They are going into the next phase of launches.

When they come out in the market, you will see them.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. What is the mix of outsourcing we do on the appliances?

Also what has been the saliency of induction cooktops in the first half?

Outsourcing, our appliance business is outsourced, but with very exclusive partners. In-house manufacturing, almost 90 90% of our kitchenware business is in-house.

As a business construct, our appliance business is outsourced, and that continues to be what it has been in the past as well. That's from the outsourcing versus insourcing perspective.

Induction continues to proper demand.

Induction continues to be robust demand. The growth of induction has been as aggressive as it's been in the last few quarters.

Is it grown much ahead of the entire company growth, any number? Because somehow I didn't see it in the presentation.

We don't share that number for specific one, but yes, it has grown higher than the company growth.

Above average.

Okay. Do you see that buoyancy is still there, or is it most is behind?

From an induction category perspective, the way I look at it is I think the induction category has got a fillip that probably would sustain this growth. I think the category has got a substantial intervention by way of some of the consumer initiatives that we have done, and also the macroeconomic change that's happened right now.

The category, which was probably in low-teen growths, would probably continue to be in high-teen growths in our view, in a stabilized state. It may not be at a 100% growth or 150% growth as would have been reported in the past, but it definitely is going to be a high-teen sort of numbers that I would look at from a growth perspective in the coming quarters as well.

Induction will continue to be a growth category for us.

Got it. Couple of quarters back, we talked about heightened competitive intensity.

Of course, it'll always be there, but just want to understand how the scenario is now. Has it been benign, or is it even in the last six months it has become even worse?

Can you throw a light on competition? Where do you see, if at all?

Is it more intense in certain regions, or certain tier cities, or certain SKUs? How are you seeing it?

No, the competition, I think primarily is coming in from the advantages that e-commerce probably is giving to new players. Competitive construct, I would say, is largely intensive in cookware, and it is being driven by e-commerce-based or digital-based brands.

We do not see the impact of that from our growth construct perspective at this point of time given the omnichannel presence that we have, and the distribution expansion that we have in our physical distribution as well. I would see it in both ways.

If good money is coming into the category, it only proves that the category is attractive enough to be driven, and I think we believe the category is attractive enough from a growth perspective. The new players are bringing in new ideas, which I think is good for the industry.

From an overall perspective, I would say that the impact of the new players is yet to be seen. That I would say, and it's largely being driven by the e-com, digital platforms.

I would say it that way.

If you just look at various channels, which channels are actually grown ahead of company growth, and which channels have actually grown below the company growth?

At large, I would say it's been a growth evenly distributed across all channels. I don't want to get into very specific channel data at this point of time in this call.

From a directional perspective, we have grown substantial across all the channels. There's no one channel that sort of got left out, and that, I think, is one thing that I would probably believe that is due to our internal efforts that we've run in the last few years, and being able to substantially grow across all the channels.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you for the follow-up, sir. Sir, enamel-range cookware has really exploded as a category.

Sir, do we have any plans of entering this segment? Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan ( Managing Director and CEO): We have, and we've launched a few SKUs.

We are in the process of expanding that product category as well. We would lead in cookware, we would lead most of the category innovations as we see it today.

Wherever we do see relevant ideas that need to be sort of expanded and distributed well, we do that. Enamel is something that we picked up, and we've already launched a few range, and we continue to launch that product category as well.

How big a market size do you believe, sir, this enamel could be in India?

See, these are very early times. Our belief is that customer finally makes the choice.

I think whatever options are there, we present to the customer, and a few options like tri-ply have seen really substantial growth. Some of the other categories like ceramic, enamel, they're all at an early stage of adoption.

We will continue to stay invested in them, and as we see pick-up, our expansions will also happen. I would tend to believe that in cookware in particular, it is time to experiment with a lot more of material-based innovations and design-based innovations, leave it to the consumer to choose and at scale.

In a country like India, I think the scale is large enough to make a dent in terms of category size. We would believe that all categories in cookware need to be looked at and probably experimented with.

Enamel is one of them. Ceramic is definitely one of them.

Sir, what would be the contribution of sales that is coming in from products launched five years ago? Is this a metric we track, or we have data on?

We do have data, and we do track that. Like we said, a larger focus is on the new product and therefore the growth.

Having said that, in an industry like this, there are anchor products that need to be sold as well. From our perspective, it's an equal mix of both anchor products and new product.

Specific numbers I wouldn't want to call out at this point of time.

Sir, a ballpark range, is it more than teens, or that much you can tell?

No, I think this call would not be the appropriate place to sort of divulge such data.

Fair enough, sir. Thank you.

Thank you all for a very engaged conversation, and a good interaction that we've had. We continue to place our confidence in terms of the overall category attractiveness, and also our company performance as well, and we hope to sustain this as we move forward.

Very happy festive season ahead, and Happy Diwali to everybody.