Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Bajaj Consumer Care Ltd (NSE: BAJAJCORP) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 21, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Naveen Pandey — Managing Director
Analysts:
Ashutosh Jyotiraditya — Analyst
Abneesh Roy — Analyst
Amit Purohit — Analyst
Rehan Syed — Analyst
Nitik — Analyst
Deepak — Analyst
Percy Panthaki — Analyst
Abhijit Kundu — Analyst
Mihir Shah — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Harsh Shah — Analyst
Pallavi — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Bajaj Consumer Q3FY26 earnings conference call hosted by ICICI Securities Limited. 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 STAR and then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr.
Ashutosh Jyotiraditya from ICICI Securities Limited. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
Ashutosh Jyotiraditya — Analyst
Thank you. Sagar. Hello and good evening everyone present on the call. I, on behalf of ICICI securities welcome you on Bajaj Consumer Care’s 3Q FY26 earnings call. I would like to thank the management to give this opportunity of hosting the call. We have with us Mr. Naveen Pandey, Managing Director, Mr. Dilip Kumar Malu, CFO and Mr. Akash Gupta, Head Finance. I now hand the call over to Naveen for his opening remarks. Thank you.
Naveen Pandey — Managing Director
Thank you, Ashutosh. Good afternoon everyone. As we are aware at Bajaj Consumer Care we operate primarily most of our business in the coconut oil and hair oil category. And that’s close to a $2 billion revenue size. Multiple times people have asked this question as to how this category has been performing. And I would like to mention as mentioned in the second slide that this category has been growing over the past three years with a volume CAGR of close to 4.5% and the revenue CAGR of around 8.2%.
And this period was a tough period for the category. As you would see, the macroeconomic headwinds have turned into tailwinds and we are seeing good economic growth along with inflation at one of the historic lows. And this provides great tailwind and environment for the category and for our business as well. With that, I would like to welcome you for the call for the quarter. This quarter registered a strong growth for us across all segments demonstrating early results of the action initiated by us towards improving our revenue growth and margin.
When viewed sequentially, you would see the significant journey we’ve been able to cover over the past few months. On a standalone basis, the revenue of the company stood at 287crores registering a growth of 27% on a YoY basis. On a consolidated basis, the revenue stood at 306 crores with a growth of 32.7%. The gross margin on stand alone basis stood at 59.8% for the quarter registering a significant improvement of 800 basis points on a YOY basis. The improvement in gross margin as previously shared has come on back of a mix of actions around strategic pricing, revenue management and mix improvement.
Consequently, EBITDA on a standalone basis for Q3 grew by 99% to deliver an absolute EBITDA of 58.4 crores which translated into an EBITDA margin of 20.4%. This is an improvement of 740 basis points over the same period last year and in line with our last quarter. On a consolidated basis our EBITDA grew by 109% translating into a margin of 18.6% which was again a 600 basis point improvement over last year. The standalone pack for Q3 stood at 47.6 crores with a margin of 16.6% and the consolidated pack worth 46.4 crores with a margin of 15.1.
The quarter also saw strong recovery in our general trade channel which grew in line with the company. This performance came on back of volume led growth both in urban and rural segments. Both the key sub channels in urban, namely direct retail and wholesale have done well for us in this period. As you are aware the rural business where we were making significant changes in our coverage model had been muted in the first half of the year. However, as we went to quarter three we have seen a strong revival in this channel.
Having said that, this channel is relatively weaker as compared to our urban growth and we are working on to ensure that we get rural to its full potential. Organized trade continues to perform well by registering a strong double digit growth year on year in quarter three within the organized trade, Modern trade and E commerce have performed well whereas CSD and CPC channels were a bit muted on international business this quarter has continued to be challenged and this overall business of international has been weak over the last couple of quarters.
This quarter we declined mid single digit on a YOY basis. Within that. The markets I would want to mention which performed better were Nepal where we saw a revival in growth after geopolitical issues impacting revenue in the last quarter and in Bangladesh where we have taken a model correction saw us sequentially grow over Q2 and also achieve operational breakeven moving ahead at a brand level. I’m very very happy to share with you that almond drop hair oil has delivered a very very strong value growth on back of double digit volume growth we saw strong performance across PAC groups.
Our ASP spends of the quarter were up nearly 37% as against the same period last year. What this meant was that we ensured that adho continues to operate on a very very strong SOV SOM ratio. Our aggression in digital spends ensured that we reach the digital and the new age audience across all significant platforms at a very high frequency. On Front of Coconut Oil Bajaj Coconut witnessed a growth of mid single digits in quarter three. Over the past two quarters we have taken a correction in our pricing and discount index against the market leader and have got it to a level which is sustainable.
While this correction has led to a temporary volume led impact for us, it has helped us achieve sustainable margins. We also believe that most of this impact is now settled and behind us and we should see revenues built up over time. Bajaj Gold Enriched Coconut Hair Oil which was launched by us previous quarter saw very good response both from trade as well as consumers. Banjara which was a brand acquired by us under Vishal Personal Care also registered a very strong 15% year on year growth for this quarter.
Operating margins of this business also remain stable in mid teens. Our integration plans are online with internal timelines and we have already integrated two states within Stout where we witnessed a very strong positive response to the integrated portfolio of Banjaras and Bajaj Personal Care being carried into the market. The integration for the rest of the southern states has already been initiated and would be complete over the next quarter. On the front of input prices we have seen LLP moving upwards over the last couple of quarters as against previous quarter.
This quarter the prices were up by 2%. However, in case of refined mustard we saw a sequential easing of inflation with prices declining by around 5% as against previous quarter. On Copra we’ve seen significant softening of prices as against quarter two and we expect that in the coming months COPRA should ease a bit further. The rest of the basket except of COPRA is likely to remain range bound. Thank you for your attention. Back to Sagar for the question please.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press STAR and then one on their touchstone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles again to register for a question please press Star and then one. Participants, you may press Star and then one to ask a question.
Our first question comes from the line of Abnish Roy from Nuama. Please go ahead.
Abneesh Roy
Yeah, thanks and congrats on extremely good set of numbers. So Naveen, 2/4 previous quarter you delivered 10 quarter high revenue growth and this time even more explosive. So specific question is what is the sustainable growth rate given Q3 there was a GST transition impact. Some companies saw pent up kind of a pipeline filling in Q3 also. So is that helping? So would you expect a slower growth rate say in Q4 and Q1? That is my first question and second margin last 2 quarters 18% very sticky kind of margins, EBITDA margins.
Where do you see the journey towards higher margin? That’s first question.
Naveen Pandey
So Abnesh thank you. First of all regarding your question regarding pent up demand from quarter two or deprived. See we had even in quarter two we had said that on quarter two base we had possibly estimated an impact of around 2 to 3% of growth which would mean on those numbers anywhere between around 5 to 7 crore kind of a number would have happened. Now if you carry it forward and look at it on quarter three numbers or going forward it is not a material impact and I don’t think so we should be too worried about it.
Having said that obviously when you are in the high growth trajectory you can’t really predict to the decimal point. But yes we are working towards and all our actions are designed to sustain a higher level of growth than what we witnessed in the past and that is what our endeavor would be. Moving on to margin question I think you know as we had shared earlier, you know a couple of quarters back there have a lot, there have been a lot of actions which have been taken in not just in the last three four months but over a period of the last seven, eight months, nine months which have kind of culminated into a set of margin improving in and there is a certain amount of improvement which has happened because of actions which I would say are lower lying fruits or which are, you know quicker delivery on margins and we have seen that we will see further improvement on margins gradually and slowly.
Our aspirations on margin profile is higher but the next set of movement will come in gradually rather than more.
Abneesh Roy
Sure Naveen one follow up on the demand side. So we are seeing the other obviously the big daddy of hair oil Marico report very strong bajo numbers last few quarters even Dabur is doing reasonably well and now you are also doing well. So is this an industry wide large company revival in hair oil or is it? Every company has its own reasons and second is your base was very soft last year so general trade was extremely challenging last year. So my question is in terms of strategic changes which you want to do or have done given last Five years for the company was very difficult and you had a lot of new ideas.
Given the Marico kind of background. If you could tell us from a strategic input change, what all has happened, which are the ones you are happy with, which are the ones you are not that happy. That is my next question.
Naveen Pandey
I think Avnish, I will start by saying that we have a fantastic team here at Bajaj. So it is not Mariko’s idea being copy pasted here. I think we are doing our own job and I am extremely proud of what the team has been doing. But you know, in terms of. The. Category, yes, there is a certain amount of buoyancy in the category which we see and that would translate into most of the brands which can get their act right benefiting from the same. So yes, there is a better consumption momentum which seems to be there in the environment and that is coming into play.
With regards to us, we have been very focused, I think we have been focused on our core brand, Adho. We’ve invested back a lot of margins in terms of higher advertising, which you see, you see us committed and focused on that. And I think that is something which is working for us and we intend to continue our endeavors on that same and see that, you know, take it forward.
Abneesh Roy
Sure. Last question, Copra from the peak. How much has the correction been? And both you and Marico do expect more corrections. What will be your view on how the crop is? How much can be the correction? And related question is you have been saying that you want to focus on the core, which is Adho, given overall company is doing well, Adho is doing well and Copra is correcting. Would you like to also now focus a bit more on coconut versus your initial plan? Given there is, there is a raw material cushion, there is an overall buoyancy in the market.
Any change in the plan for coconut, where you want to be now a more rational player rather and focus more on the core of Adho. So any change there?
Naveen Pandey
So first of all, Avnish, I think market is expecting a sequential correction over, you know, this quarter and then the subsequent. How much of it will come in, you know, this quarter, how much will come next quarter, I think is speculation. Possibly, you know, I’m not best suited to answer that. But yes, the crop seems to be good and we are going to expect a price correction. That is what is seeming to be most likely. What we have done is that we were operating at a certain indexation to the market leader by offering a certain higher benefit to the consumer and trade.
We have got ourselves aligned to what we believe is sustainable which will allow us to operate profitably in this category and invest behind our brand. I think we’ve by and large tweaked ourselves to get to that position with this. Yes, we will have aspirations to do well, but our aspirations would be not by cutting prices and doing more, but would be to build the brand the right way and to gain a fair share in the market. So we will. Yes, we will. While we focus on Adho, we will also focus on Coconut.
But it will not be a price led route. It would be more a brand led route which we will take to build the business up.
Abneesh Roy
So thanks, that’s all from my side. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rehan Syed from Trina Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Amit Purohit
Am I
Rehan Syed
Audible right?
Operator
Yes. Are you audible?
Rehan Syed
Yeah. So this was my first question around. I wanted this understanding regarding the productivity of your Arohan space. So you have seen a 25 to 40% increase in outlet coverage in the given this massive expansion physical trees. So why is the as a non HDH portfolio only growing at a mid single digit the new distribution currently to focus on the flagship brand and what is the specific timeline for this new orders to start contributing to the rest of the.
Operator
Sorry to interrupt. Rehan sir, your audio was slightly muffled. If you’re using a speakerphone, may we request to use the handset and management? If you can please confirm if you were able to hear the participant.
Naveen Pandey
Yeah, I think I’ve heard Rihan. Let me try and answer Rihan’s question.
Operator
So
Naveen Pandey
Rihan, first question is, you know the way we measure Rohan is. Rohan is nothing but you know our attempt in terms of building a solid, you know, direct distribution system and we’ve been, you know doing that, you know, both by looking at adding new outlets in Nurban as well as changing our go to market in rural and getting going more direct there. So that exercise we’ve seen in the states where we operate we’ve already seen anywhere between 25 to 40% addition of outlets in terms of those states and at an overall level we’ve added more than 10% outlets to our direct reach.
Coming to your question on why is it helping Adho more than the other portfolio? I think that’s the question on what we are focusing on as a portfolio and it has not focused, it has not benefited as much on coconut because we’ve also taken a strategy of correction and we have changed our market inputs behind that brand over a period of time. Direct distribution will help us not only benefit the sales of the top brand but will also help build the overall portfolio range in an outlet and that is something which would be a long term benefit you will see accruing to us.
I hope I’ve been able to answer your question.
Rehan Syed
Yeah, yeah. And my second last question is around the international business that you facing structural challenges. So do has this been a recurring theme of unstable go to market issues particularly in GCC and Africa where revenues fell 6%. Given that the distributed transition in KSA is only now behind you, what structural changes are being made to ensure that these regions don’t continue to act and attract on a consolidated growth? So are these issues purely operational or are we facing a fundamental brand relevance in this specific geography?
Naveen Pandey
I don’t think so. The issue is brand relevance or brand. I think the issue is more partner choice go to market people on the ground and the those are some of the fundamental corrections. See in a direct market like India where you are operating with your own teams, it’s far easier and far quicker to sometimes influence and make changes around this. In markets where you’re working with country distributors, some of these changes have to be done more gradually and you have to work with partners to get the changes done.
So that’s where it is. It is going to take a bit more time but we are confident of what we are doing and we hope we will get there in the next subsequent couple of quarters.
Rehan Syed
Yeah, thank you.
Naveen Pandey
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Amit Purohit from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Amit Purohit
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity sir and congrats just on the growth in the standalone business was trying to understand last quarter we saw much of the growth was price led and volume was broadly flattish if I’m not wrong on the adho and this quarter we are talking about a good double digit growth. What would be the price increase we would have taken in adho what would be the price growth in this.
Naveen Pandey
So overall as you would remember we talked about that last year time the difference was close to a double digit kind of a number. And that is a result of not just price increase but also price and mix change and revenue management activities which we’ve done which is the spread between what you will see as the revenue growth and the volume growth. We would not want to further bifurcate into how much comes from which activity because I think that will be too sensitive.
Amit Purohit
Okay. But is that when I look at the other segments like I mean coconut or even for that matter International business. So is it, I mean you talked about double digit but would adho be like high teens kind of a growth rate in volumes for, for us to achieve this kind of number or would it be mid teens? If you can just that.
Naveen Pandey
I’m sorry, it’s not high teens for sure. But yeah, beyond that let me just restrict myself.
Amit Purohit
Sure, sure. And just from the margin side like this quarter itself, we’ve done pretty well one on the growth side as well as basically the leverage has helped us to improve our margins. But then the outlook when you look at say beyond FY26 and how do you think this new strategy of GTM would probably when do you think that this will can get completed? Maybe in full of FY27. It would it be of first half of FY27. What is the timeline of this?
Naveen Pandey
Your question is on Rohan? Yeah,
Amit Purohit
Yeah.
Naveen Pandey
There would be, there would be some parts of the exercise which will get concluded. For example, we’ve concluded it for a few stages this year. We will pick up the balance states and do that in next year. But then some of part of the exercise like direct distribution expansion is something which is ongoing. So it’s, it’s not that it will get over in a year but we will keep on sequentially working and improving on from where we are to the next level, you know, of maturity and next level of depth in the outlet.
So that will be an ongoing work.
Amit Purohit
Sure. And so last part of this growth would 1 you indicated some consumer uptake and also because our focus on Rohan and GTM operation that is working well for us across channel.
Naveen Pandey
Yes, that’s, that’s fair to say. That’s fair to say.
Amit Purohit
Okay, thanks. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of NATIC from NV Alpha Fund. Please go ahead.
Nitik
Hi. Thanks for taking a question and conversations are a very good set of numbers. So my first question is if you could highlight what is the number of direct outlets that we have as on date?
Naveen Pandey
We broadly, we broadly do around 6 lakh outlets basically urban plus rural put together, you know, as a direct coverage.
Nitik
And any ballpark number that we are looking at adding next year to this.
Naveen Pandey
See nitik. Our stated point of view has been that we want to expand around 10% coverage every year and you know, do it year on year for the next four years to five years. I think that’s, that’s what, that’s what our committed strategy is. Now obviously it might not be spread equally across every year. We might do a bit more in one year. And a bit less in next year.
Nitik
And so my second question is, you know, apart from this program where we have increased our distribution and some buoyancy in the, you know, demand center, like is there anything else or any action that you would like to highlight which has helped us sort of get the strong goal.
Naveen Pandey
Sorry, I was not able to hear you. Can you please repeat?
Nitik
So from what I’ve understood, two key reasons for this growth is one, our efforts on our own program increasing the data creek. Second is buenc in the gender sentiment. So apart from this, anything else that you would like to highlight which is likely first angle.
Naveen Pandey
See our growth which have been there. If you’re wanting to understand why we have grown, very simply we put in, we focus on our brand, we put in efforts behind distribution, we’ve invested behind the brand in terms of advertising, keeping the media spreads up and our overall strategy execution has helped us get there. I think that’s the way I would state it.
Nitik
My last question is if I, if I were to understand no year over year organic growth wouldn’t be fair TO I think 20, 22%. So the base quarter would not have standalone. Standalone,
Naveen Pandey
Basically Vishal is not there. If you were to remove Vishal’s roughly around 15 crores of revenue from the consolidated number and recalculate, you will get the number which comes.
Nitik
Thank you so
Operator
Much. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Deepak from Unified Capital. Please go ahead.
Deepak
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. So first question, if you can provide the mix am audible.
Operator
Yes sir, you’re audible. Please go ahead.
Deepak
Yeah, yeah. So firstly I would want to understand the product mix between adho and non adho Currently since we are focusing more on the adho category, how is the product split today versus what it was earlier? That is the first question. And the second question relating to adho is that we already hold a high market share in, in that category. So what are those strategic levers left for us to tap on so that we can grow higher than the industry growth rate?
Naveen Pandey
Thank you Deepak. Broadly what I can share with you is that our adho non adho mix, if you want to look at the other portfolio and adho portfolio you can use the thumb rule of 80 20. Beyond that we don’t give very specific numbers. But 80 20, if you were to use will buy and that hold for you. Second coming in, in terms of. Sorry I missed the question. Your point was on category and growth. Yeah, my question
Deepak
Was that we are already the leader in the category. So how much what are the levers left for us to grow beyond the category growth rate?
Naveen Pandey
Thanks. Thanks for reiterating. The way we look at it is that we are playing in the larger hair oil plus coconut oil space which is being used by the consumer for their needs. We don’t see ourselves necessarily as a player only within light hair oil and hence we have significant headroom of growth and acquiring consumers in this larger space. So you know, we have a lot of headroom to win new consumers and that is what our endeavor is going to be. We don’t necessarily see ourselves only as a player in light hair oil.
Deepak
Okay, got it. And so second thing that I wanted to check in the non adho portfolio which is 20%, the bulk of it will be coconut oil. Is there any new product that you’re thinking of introducing or existing products which can scale up in a big way under the Bajaj brand? Should we hear from you on the new categories anytime soon? And if so, then how big can those categories be?
Naveen Pandey
So you know, Deepak Coconut is the next sizable, but it is not all of 20%. First of all, we have brands within this portfolio which have the potential of growing much bigger. We’ve also acquired Vishal Personal Care which brings in the Banjara brand into our portfolio which I believe has a significant scale up opportunity. And we will also launch some products which unfortunately I can’t talk to you about till they are launched. So you will see innovation from us but you will see calibrated innovation and spaced out innovation which will come in quarter, you know, at a time wherein we believe we have opportunity to scale up that innovation and make it big.
So you will see action from us on that front but gradually.
Deepak
Okay. So lastly if you can touch upon the channel mix of our company between general trade, modern trade and also the geography split, urban, rural. What I want to understand here is firstly the mix between channel and geography and also the actions that we’ve, that you have taken to correct to correct the channel level and geography level, you know, wrongdoings that had been in the past. The actions that you’ve taken channel wise and geography wise both. Thanks.
Naveen Pandey
So see we’ve in general trade we started our work on, you know. Making. Certain corrections quite a while back and we’ve also suffered pain for it. People who’ve been tracking our company for a while would know that we started doing certain corrections in wholesale, you know, three quarters back. We started our work on our own close to around a year back. What you’re seeing is the culmination of all of those works coming in together and kind of working for us at this stage with regards to the question around what is the mix of business broadly what you can use at 70, 30 for general trade, organized trade and if you were to take a split within general trade, you can take a 50, 50 split between rural and urban.
Those thumb rules would by and large be oddly okay for you.
Deepak
Understood. And sir, given the, you know, the disturbance the company used to face due to the wholesale, wholesale channel and also the REIT and also the rural geography, has all of those issues been solved or should we expect any furthermore corrections to happen in the subsequent quarters?
Naveen Pandey
I find that very difficult to answer. You know, certain amount of issues are like a person’s health, you know. You know you have to continuously work on keeping yourself healthy. That is the same way as for a distribution organization. It’s not a static thing we have to continuously work on. But yes, what I would want to give you confidence on is that a lot of work has happened over the past few quarters and we feel very happy and confident where we are today.
Deepak
Understood? No, what I, what I wanted to. Why was asking the question is my assumption that. My assumption was that it could be a structural issue. But by the way, you’re saying it seems to be like a cyclical thing and hope it recovers soon.
Naveen Pandey
So we’ve done a lot of work already on rural. I don’t think so. There is, there is something which is there. I think a larger part is where I think the qualification comes in more. Let me clarify more than anything else. I think in absolute our rural numbers, our urban numbers, our direct numbers, our wholesale numbers, all in absolute are very good. But when you look at it and compare to the market commentary, most of the companies are indicating that rural performance is better than urban. And I think that is not there in our case.
I think that is the only call out being given to you. Beyond that there is no problem which is being highlighted or nothing else which is being indicated.
Deepak
Thanks. Thanks Naveen. All the best.
Naveen Pandey
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, if you wish to register for a question you may press star and then one. Our next question comes from the line of Parsi. From iifl. Please go ahead.
Percy Panthaki
Hi Naveen and
Rehan Syed
Team. Couple of questions from Maya.
Percy Panthaki
Firstly on the growth that you have shown. Congratulations on that very good growth this quarter but just wanted to understand how much of it is like new outlets that you have reached for the first time and you place the merchandise and how much of growth is coming from that and how much do you think is coming from actual consumer demand? Of course, exact numbers on this are not going to be available. But whatever sense you have from the market, understanding that would help on that. That’s my first question, Naveen.
Naveen Pandey
Always a large amount would be consumer demand. Because if you will recollect, we have a reach availability to four and a half million outlets. So even when we are going direct and we are reaching the outlet, what is happening is that we are existing, executing the range better. It’s not that we are making our product available for the first time. So you know, it’ll be very, very difficult to determine, you know, that in the outlets which we are directly reaching for the first time, what was the earlier business they had from wholesale and hence what is the net contribution?
I think would be very difficult. Yes, there would be some improvement which would be coming of that. And
Percy Panthaki
Because the reason I’m
Naveen Pandey
Asking
Percy Panthaki
Is. That, I mean we’ve had a certain trajectory of growth, not only Q2, but even before that. I’m not going back too far away where the performance was really bad. But the recent couple of quarters we had a certain growth trajectory and now it has really accelerated very materially from that this quarter. Just trying to understand what is the reason? Like have we put in some new ad communication which has been a real big hit or I mean we have taken prices up. So that cannot be a reason for the volume growth acceleration, if at all.
It can only suppress. So just trying to understand what can I hold sort of accountable for this huge acceleration that we have seen this quarter?
Naveen Pandey
A lot of work which has happened over the past few quarters on both brand and distribution.
Percy Panthaki
Okay, okay. Because it’s just that it’s come very suddenly. It’s not been a gradual ramp up. That is why I was asking because if it has been over a few quarters, then we should have seen partial impact of that in Q2 also, which we did not. I mean, even adjusting for the GST issues.
Naveen Pandey
Sorry for surprising you, Percy, but you. Know, I don’t know, it’s a pleasant surprise. So that’s okay. I don’t think so we can micromanage outcomes to this level. The team has been working the best they can and I think it’s been a happy quarter for us as well.
Percy Panthaki
But the confidence of double digit growth going ahead is there, right?
Naveen Pandey
Yes.
Percy Panthaki
Okay, Second question is on portfolio. So when we had last met, you had basically said that you would make the portfolio more focused. Of course, adho and coconut would be the two things. But out of the remaining seven, eight different things you have, you might choose only one or two
Nitik
And
Percy Panthaki
Defocus the rest. So one is, can you give a clearer idea of
Nitik
How
Percy Panthaki
You plan to play the portfolio? And second is that we already have so many products in our portfolio. Actually it’s a problem of plenty with many of the small, small products sort of contributing to a very small tail, but large in number of SKUs. So in context of that, I was a little surprised when a few minutes ago you said that there are some more product launches in the pipeline. So can you just comment on these two things, please?
Naveen Pandey
So, per se, I think by and large, from a strategy perspective, I think we are very happy where we are on Adho and Coconut. I think by and large going forward from here you will only see tweaks of strategy around this and bulk of the heavy lifting on what needed to happen on these two portfolios has happened on the rest of the portfolio. I think we have to do our work and as and when we are ready and we have actioned that work, only then will I be able to come back and tell you of what choices we’ve made and how we are looking at going forward.
The products which you might see us additionally which might come in would also be thought through and they will come in in specific opportunity areas where we believe we can optimize. Let me take an example from hindsight. While we are focusing and getting our price indexation on coconut right, as we have seen the opportunity, we’ve also come up with an enriched coconut oil which we were not doing before. So we found that opportunity and we’ve launched that product and we feel good about it. So I think there would be opportunities which will come across and we have some of them in mind, wherein we will introduce new products while we continue to optimize our strategy on the current portfolio.
Percy Panthaki
Sure. And any timeline as to when clarity can emerge on the rest of the portfolio as to what you plan to do with it, whether you will select. Any of them to be a focus. Or whether you will sort of phase them out. When do we expect that clarity
Naveen Pandey
Over. The next 2, 3/4, we will start seeing most of it happening per se. As and when we do the changes, we will obviously talk about it. So you know, when the changes are happening, we will talk about it once they’ve happened. But you should see more clarity emerging on the balanced portfolio over the next two to three quarters.
Percy Panthaki
Okay, sir, thank you very much. That’s all for me. All the best.
Naveen Pandey
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, you may press star and one to Ask a question. Our next question comes from the line of Abhijit Kundu from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Abhijit Kundu
Yeah. Hi Naveen. Great set of numbers and very strong outperformance. One question was that, you know, the decline in post the GST revision, the decline in duties, there would have been some correction you must have taken in Adho, right? I mean sequentially there must have been some correction or you know, grammage increase, something of that sort. Right. That must have also helped, I mean
Operator
To
Abhijit Kundu
Drive overall demand.
Naveen Pandey
So some packs, yes, you know, Abhijit, for example, like the 1 rupee sachet, we couldn’t have made it whatever 89 paise. So obviously there has been a grammage increase, an MLH increase in that pack and that does support a little bit in terms of extra volume. So yes, to that extent. On packs where there have been grammage additions because pricing interventions were not feasible or possible, there is a positive volume tailwind because of that action as well.
Abhijit Kundu
And on the big packs also there would have been some correction in prices. I mean sequentially, because you had taken earlier, there were price hikes. So that would have also played out, right? I mean that is the reason why overall volume growth has also been pretty strong.
Naveen Pandey
Yes, that plays out more in terms of. So there are packs where in like 1 rupee, 10 rupee, where volume would have been a plus and there are packs where revenue would have been actually neutral. Because in those packs you would have passed on a reduction in consumer pricing to the extent of the duty reduction and hence the net revenue impact would be nullified, you know, on those packs. But no, I’m just saying that
Abhijit Kundu
That would aid demand, right? Consumer demand. I mean, because of the lower prices, some amount of consumer demand must have been activated.
Naveen Pandey
I think if you look at it, you know, there has been a positive impact because affordability and the net value to the consumer gets enhanced. And that obviously helps the consumption sentiment. That’s the question. Yes.
Abhijit Kundu
Yeah, that’s the question. That’s the question.
Percy Panthaki
And
Abhijit Kundu
In your, you know, presentation you have given about the activations that you have done in Maharashtra. So it takes some time. It doesn’t, you know, happen. But there is a good amount of. So do you see good amount of potential in Maharashtra to really, you know, scale up Adho? Because Adho has been more of a East Central India phenomena. So here also you see that kind of, you know, potential to scale up. Right.
Naveen Pandey
So Maharashtra is an extremely large market in terms of hair oil plus coconut oil and is obviously of interest to us. But what is even more salient is that around Diwali which is a local celebration in Maharashtra banks which is the auspicious bath before Diwali Adho has historically been part of the ritual and that is an occasion which gives us great consumer traction and affinity. And we have been very focused on building on that consumer affinity to raja build an overall stronger portfolio and presence in Maharashtra.
And we are committed towards building that gradually.
Abhijit Kundu
Understood. Great. Thanks.
Naveen Pandey
Thank you. That’s all
Abhijit Kundu
From isa.
Operator
Thank you. A reminder to everyone, you may press Star and then one to ask a question. Our next question comes from the line of Natic from NV Alpha Fund. Please go ahead.
Nitik
Hi sir, thanks for the follow up opportunity. So my question is you mentioned that we have improved our branding, advertising and branding efforts. So just wanted to understand are we spending or have we increased the percentage spend, percentage spend of sales or has been more effective or what exactly has it changed?
Naveen Pandey
The answer is both. We’ve given you the detail of you know, increase in terms of the advertising ratio. If you’ll see there is broadly close to a hundred basis point increase in RO or advertising advertising spends on an increased base and hence if you were to look at it from a growth perspective it’s close to around 37% increase in the ASP spends. Besides that we’ve also been very focused on which brands to communicate and hence on the brands and the places where we want to communicate the impact would be even more amplified.
So yes, it’s a combination of both more focused spending and higher amount of absolute spending.
Nitik
Got it sir. That’s awesome. Thank you.
Naveen Pandey
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, if you wish to register for a question please press Star and then one. Our next question comes from the line of Mihir Shah from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Mihir Shah
Hi. In the mean team, congrats on a great set of numbers. Very happy to see the growth and the margins coming back after a long time. Naveen, I just still quite positively surprised with the numbers. If you can just help us dissect them a little more clearly. If you can share the pricing and the volume growth overall for the quarter, that’s point one. Point two is what is the distribution increase that you have taken which is driving this kind of growth. And point three in your slide 10 where you highlighted that coconut hair oil portfolio grew in high single digits value non adho grew in mid single digits.
So which means that give or take the, you know the adho portfolio would have probably, I mean grown in closer to like 30 odd percent to come to the 27% growth. So with that understanding, me correct. And then I have a few follow ups.
Naveen Pandey
So thank you for your question. What I can tell you is yes, Etho has grown in 20s. What we have already disclosed is that the volume growth is double digit. The rest you can try and dissect. We said we will not give more details than that. The second part of your question around what has helped and driven that. Again we’ve said that it’s been a culmination of both focus spending on advertising and a higher level of advertising behind the brand as well as our effort on distribution which has helped us achieve that.
On distribution of your question specifically, we’ve already told that we aspire to add 10% direct coverage. You know, our base every year. We have already achieved this target for this financial year. We’ve already done that and I think that is the best level of info I can share with you.
Mihir Shah
Okay. I heard the 10% future. Future. But I thought probably it would have been a significantly higher distribution increase. We’ve
Naveen Pandey
Already crossed that number is all I can say.
Mihir Shah
Understood.
Naveen Pandey
Within nine months.
Mihir Shah
Specifically to coconut, a high single digit growth. Because if you see the coconut hair oil prices and the pass on that you would have ideally done. And even with the volume impact we are seeing the other larger players seeing significantly different growth of closer to like 60% or so. So where is the disconnect in my understanding with that brand versus you know, this one?
Naveen Pandey
I am sorry, I’m not clear. What is that you’re specifically asking me, Are you saying. Are you asking me a question whether our coconut has declined volume? Are you asking the question of what is exactly are you asking? I’m not very clear on that.
Mihir Shah
So there seems to be significantly stark difference in the growth profiles of Bajaj coconut portfolio versus the market leaders growth that we are seeing.
Naveen Pandey
They are
Mihir Shah
Growing at closer to 60%. Yes, there is a significant gap in the profile.
Naveen Pandey
We have taken corrections in terms of our pricing. We were operating at a certain discount to the market leader. By offering better value to both consumer and trade, we have reduced that difference of pricing between us and the market leader. And that has resulted in our revenue growth being much lower. And that’s a conscious correction which we have taken. We’ve called that out in our commentary.
Mihir Shah
Understood. Okay. Okay. And that would have supported the margins. But the significant expansion on margins also given the exposure to the brand is quite less. So how should one understand the expansion on the margin front?
Naveen Pandey
Our margins are by and large same as last quarter.
Mihir Shah
Yeah, but before that there was sequential. Yeah,
Naveen Pandey
Sequentially so there is no major massive incremental action which has happened on the margin this quarter against last quarter on margin front. We were working on these margins. We have sustained those margins in this quarter as well. In fact, if you were to look at it with the kind of revenue growth we have invested back at a higher level of advertising and still sustained margins.
Mihir Shah
Got it. And the new launches that you spoke about, given the margin profile for Adho has been significantly higher historically, would you say that the new launches will also be at a similar margin profile or will they be anyway dilutive? But it will give you better growth. So that should take care of. So how should one think about new launches margin profiles going forward
Naveen Pandey
On a. Medium to long term basis? We would still aspire to improve our margins from the level where we are. And I think that is something which we’ve outlined. And hence as and when we launch products, we would be cognizant of that as to how the overall mix plays.
Mihir Shah
Got it. Great. Thank you for answering these questions. I’ll circle back individually to take this up further. Thanks and wishing you all the very best.
Naveen Pandey
Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, you may press star and then one to ask a question. Your next question comes from the line of Harsh Shah from Bandhan emc. Please go ahead. So you’re sounding a bit muffled if you’re using a speakerphone. May we request to use the handset please?
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Yeah. Hi.
Operator
This is slightly better, sir. Yes, sir, please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Sorry
Operator
To interrupt. Harsh, we are not able to hear you. There’s a lot of background noise coming from your line.
Harsh Shah
Am I. And
Operator
This is. This is much better, sir. Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Harsh Shah
Sure, sure, sure. Thanks. So Naveen, my first question was could you explain if there is any difference between the primaries and secondaries for us this quarter?
Naveen Pandey
No. No difference.
Harsh Shah
No. Okay. Okay. And secondly, in terms of mix between the packs, right. However you define small packs and big packs, has the salience changed meaningfully, let’s say compared to last year?
Naveen Pandey
Marginally? I would not say very, very substantially. But yes, there are marginal changes.
Harsh Shah
I mean directionally. How much? I mean as a sales of large pack on a.
Naveen Pandey
I see. I think it’s too specific a question for me to answer. But I would say by and large we have a certain mix. That mix has changed, you know, a little bit. But there’s not a heaven and earth change in the mix.
Harsh Shah
Okay, but directionally you would want to go more towards the large pack. Is that understanding correct?
Naveen Pandey
Let me say our endeavor would always be to ensure that the more profitable packs grow a bit faster.
Nitik
Okay.
Naveen Pandey
Okay.
Harsh Shah
Got
Nitik
It. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Pallavi from Samik Shah. Please go ahead.
Pallavi
Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Just wanted to understand is it the. I mean the third quarter, the category of light oils, has that basically kept. Was that in line with our growth for the category as a whole or was that the kind of growth the category saw? And my second question would be on the ad spend. If you could share a bifurcation between Adho and non adho or your ad spender.
Naveen Pandey
Pallavi. Apologies. I can’t share you more granular detail than that. But yes, all I can say is that Adho. The overall spends on Adho is higher than our ad spend increase. So Adho has seen a higher allocation as compared to previous quarters. I think that is something I can share. Beyond that I can’t give you granular detail. Rest your question on how we have done against the category. You would again see that we have noted that we have gained volume market share. And we continue to be on an upward trajectory.
Which means that our volume growth is ahead of the industry. And I think that is the sense which we have.
Pallavi
So this market share. So as the category as a whole has also gained share. Is what I was trying to understand over in the overall oil mix.
Naveen Pandey
I’m saying market share. I’m talking about market share in the overall air oiling category. Not within light oil. We have gained higher share within the overall air oil category.
Pallavi
Right? No. So I was trying to understand only the light oils category versus the total oils for the category as a whole. Not for Bajaj consumer. Has that category gained share over the total oils category?
Naveen Pandey
Sorry, it’s not top of mind for me, you know.
Pallavi
Right. Thank you, sir.
Operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Naveen Pandey
Thank you so much everybody for your questions and for listening to me. I would like to reiterate that at Bajaj Consumer Care we remain focused on strengthening our brands through enhanced advertising and digital spends. And through our strategy of continued distribution expansion. We would also launch meaningful innovation over a period of time and build our capabilities to drive. Drive the next level of growth. Thank you for attending the call. Have a great evening.
Operator
Thank you. On behalf of ICICI securities limited that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.