Dabur India Limited (NSE: DABUR) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Jul. 31, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Isha Lamba — Head of Investor Relations
Mohit Malhotra — Whole-Time Director & CEO
Unidentified Speaker
Analysts:
Mihir Shah — Analyst
Prakash Kapadia — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Tejash Shah — Analyst
Gaurang Kakkad — Analyst
Aalokita Ash — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q1 Results Investors Conference Call of Dabur India Limited. [Operator Instructions]
I now hand the conference over to Ms. Isha Lamba, Head, Investor Relations and M&A. Thank you, and over to you, Ms. Lamba.
Isha Lamba — Head of Investor Relations
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the management of Dabur India Limited, I welcome you to the earnings conference call pertaining to the results for Q1 FY ’26.
Present here with me are Mr. Mohit Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Ankush Jain, Chief Financial Officer; Mrs. Gagan Ahluwalia, VP, Corporate Affairs; and Mr. N. Krishnan, GM Finance.
We will start with an overview of the Company’s performance by Mr. Mohit Malhotra, and this will be followed by a Q&A session.
I now hand over to Mr. Mohit Malhotra.
Mohit Malhotra — Whole-Time Director & CEO
Thank you, Isha. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome you to Dabur India Limited’s conference call pertaining to the results for the quarter ended 31st July ’25. The quarter witnessed sequential improvement in domestic and international markets despite challenges posed by unseasonal rainfall and geopolitical headwinds. In India, the rural markets continue to outperform urban for the fifth consecutive quarter, sustaining its strong growth momentum. Even the urban markets witnessed sequential recovery vis-a-vis last quarter.
Our international business remained resilient, delivering a robust double-digit growth. During quarter one financial year ’26, our seasonal portfolio comprising of beverages and glucose was impacted due to unseasonal rain and a very short summer. Growth in consolidated sales was around 7%, excluding the seasonal portfolio, while the reported growth was 1.7%, impacted by the seasonal portfolio. India business revenue grew by 4.3%, excluding the seasonal portfolio. International business exhibited a strong growth of 13.7% in constant currency and 12.7% in INR terms. Within the domestic business, HPC portfolio performed well with 5% growth. The Toothpaste portfolio delivered a growth of 7.3%, led by strong growth in the Red franchise.
The Herb’l segment growth accelerated and outpaced the non-herbal segment by 440 bps, reinforcing the growing consumer preference for Ayurvedic, Herbal and Natural Oral Care offerings. In line with the above trend, we outperformed the Toothpaste category growth, leading to sustained market share gains. The Home Care portfolio delivered a strong growth of 10%, delivered by robust performance in both Odonil and Odomos franchises. Odonil has emerged as the number one brand in the air freshener category with 44% volume market share. The brand recorded 11% growth this quarter, supported by strong double-digit growth in gel pockets and aerosols. This translated into market share gain of 183 bps. Our mosquito repellent brand, Odomos recorded a double-digit growth, aided by early monsoons that positively impacted category demand, resulting in market share gain of 261 bps.
Skin Care portfolio registered a growth of 9% by Gulabari franchise and OxyLife. In Hair Oils, we performed — we outperformed the category growth and gained market share of 214 bps, taking our total Hair Oils volume market share to 19%. This is the ever highest market share that we’ve registered in Hair Oils. We remain focused on premiumization and expansion into new age offerings in both Hair Oils and Shampoos. In our Health Care portfolio, Health Supplements, excluding glucose that got impacted by unseasonal rains grew by 9%, backed by robust growth in Chyawanprash and Honey. Contextual monsoon campaign has worked for the Chyawanprash brand, which reported a growth of 28% with market share gains of 111 bps.
Honey saw broad-based growth across channels, growing by 11% year-on-year and strengthened its leadership position with 46 bps gain in market share. Premium variants like Sundarbans and Organic Honey witnessed good traction. Glucose was severely impacted by rain during the quarter and declined by around 30%. Despite this, we gained market share of 118 bps in the category. In the Digestives portfolio, Hajmola franchise reported a 9% growth with variants like Chatcola, LimCola and Mr. Aam now contributing around 50% to the overall brand franchise. Recently launched Hajmola Soft Chews received a good response from the consumers. Pudin Hara brand grew by 7%, driven by new campaigns and renewed focus. Within OTC & Ethicals, Honitus registered a growth of 46%, driven by a surge in demand during the monsoon season.
Health Juices continued on a strong trajectory and grew by 18%. We are focusing on new contemporary formats across our Health Care portfolio and some of these products will be introduced in the next few months. J&N category was impacted due to unseasonal rains and business disruption due to Operation Sindoor in key markets of North India such as Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal and Punjab. However, our focus on driving the premium portfolio is working well with Real Activ franchise witnessing a robust growth of 20%. We launched coconut water in aseptic pet format this season, which has witnessed exceptional growth with the brand cornering 25% of the fast-growing coconut water market. Even in the J&N segment, we continued to outperform the category, gaining 207 bps in market share in Nectars and 141 bps in 100% Juices.
Coming to international business. We registered robust growth of 13.7% in constant currency terms. This was on back of strong growth of 10% in Middle East North African region, 20% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 40% in U.K., EU, 30% in United States, 36% in Turkey, and 10.2% in Bangladesh.
Coming to profitability. In spite of high inflation and seasonal impact, our operating profit and PAT grew ahead of top line, led by price increase and saving initiatives. This is indicative of strength and resilience of our brands. Overall, consolidated growth of 7%, excluding the seasonal portfolio is quite encouraging with market share gains across 95% of our portfolio. Looking ahead, we are quite optimistic of a sequential recovery in demand on back of softening food inflation, favorable monsoon, sustained momentum in rural and some green shoots, which are visible in the urban demand. Our international business continues to be on a strong trajectory with currency depreciation now lapping over in most of our geographies.
With this, I want to conclude my address and open the floor for any Q&A that you may have. Thank you very much.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Mihir Shah from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Mihir Shah
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Firstly, I wanted to just highlight that the presentation that we are seeing this quarter versus the historical times, there has been a lot of change in disclosures. We have been tracking this Company for more than, I would say, 15 years, 17 years, a lot of us on the street, and we have never seen less disclosures from Dabur, and you’ve been one of the companies which has highlighted many disclosures across categories. Can we request you to revert back to the earlier disclosure standards so that we can gauge the progress of the Company in a much more better manner like we have done all these years?
So that’s point number one. As far as my question is concerned, Mohit, there is a favorable base that you are having in the second quarter. There’s a 5.5% decline that we had seen last year. With this ex of seasonal impact, 7% growth that you’re seeing, should one expect high teens growth to come back in the second — from second quarter? Is that will be that — will that be a fair understanding? So that’s one.
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah, Mihir, I want to answer the second question first. I think — am I audible?
Mihir Shah
Yeah, Mohit, you’re audible.
Mohit Malhotra
So, you’re absolutely right. Last year, we did some sort of a inventory correction in the same quarter last year. So there is a little bit of improvement there, but we have no intention of increasing the pipeline at all. So we are expecting, depending upon the season, how the season fairs, and how the juices trajectory remains, because the month of July has been quite wet, which has been unprecedented in the past. So we are closely observing the situation. But we will definitely expect double-digit growth as we are running towards a double-digit growth in the second quarter.
But there never will be a situation that we want to shove in more primary less than the secondary. So I think we are observing the situation. Beverage business will be low single-digit growth only in the coming quarter. Rest of the businesses should fire at double-digits to your point. Now on the first point of disclosures, I would want Isha to address it.
Isha Lamba
So — hi, Mihir, thanks for your question. So we have streamlined certain disclosures in the investor presentation, but this has been based on benchmarking with industry peers. So this does help avoid some excessive details that would pose any kind of competitive sensitivity. And we also remain committed to transparency and consistency, and we’ll continue to share any meaningful insights via earnings calls and also maintain this format going forward.
Mihir Shah
See, it does also report volume growth, and we are not seeing those in the disclosures for the quarter.
Operator
Mihir, I’m sorry to interrupt you. Before you ask your further question, I would request you to mute yourself on webcast as there is an echo from your line. Please mute your webcast if you’re asking a question. Thank you so much. You may proceed with the question.
Mihir Shah
Yeah, Isha, volume growth for the quarter. And secondly, I wanted to just check on the margin front. Gross margins continue to be under pressure. We are seeing Amla continuing to be inflationary. Do you foresee any headwinds on the margins? Or should one expect some improvement on the gross margin side as well?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. So I think margins, as far as margins are concerned, we don’t see any pressure on the margins. There was an inflation of around 7% in the previous quarter. And all the inflation has been mitigated by price increases that we have taken that talks about resilience and strength of our brands. So we mitigated through saving initiatives and some price increases that we’ve taken. So we’ve taken a 4% or 3%, 4% price increases and the rest are saving initiatives, which has completely mitigated the impact of inflation that we had on our basket of commodities. That said, the projection of inflation going forward is also very high in the range of around 8%, but we are pretty optimistic of kind of mitigating it through price increases and saving initiatives.
There’s a string of initiatives which are lined up going forward in the future, which will mitigate the impact of price. We — our gross margins have not got diluted in the previous quarter because the IGAAP gross margins remain the same because of the competitive intensity, there was a higher netting of schemes. And because of competitive intensity from Colgate and in Hair Oils also, we had to give a lot of BTL, which got netted off from the top line. And therefore, you see a gross margin dilution in that number. But overall, operating margin has been maintained at the same level. And so we don’t see any gross margin pressure. For the full year, we want our operating margin to only inch up significantly as compared to last year to this year.
Mihir Shah
Understood, Mohit. On the operating margin front, lastly, I see that you’ve been able to maintain it, but that is on the back of sharp decline in ad spends, about 15% decline. But I also remember that your base had a higher ad spend. So is there any one-off sitting in the base that we are missing out or one-off sitting in this quarter’s for ad spends? And should one expect ad spend growth to continue to be upwards?
Mohit Malhotra
See, our overall advertising and promotion expenditure has actually moved up ahead of the top line. So that is in the range of around 5% up. But we have redirected the money from ATL into BTL. And I’ve been telling you earlier also that depending on the competitive intensity, the trade inputs are given, consumer schemes and trade schemes. So we invested more in consumer and trade, that’s why the netting is more and less on media. But going forward, ad investments will continue to be higher, and we want to increase our gross margins and invest that in advertising support. There is no one-off sitting in the base. I can just confirm that to you. So we will continuously make an endeavor to increasing the overall advertising and promotion expenditure going forward also and investing in brand and distribution.
Mihir Shah
Got it. Thank you very much, Mohit. Wishing you all the best. I have a few more follow-up questions, which I’ll circle back in the queue or probably check with the Investor Relations team later. Thanks, and wishing you all the best.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you, Mihir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Prakash Kapadia from Kapadia Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Prakash Kapadia
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Two questions, Mohit, slightly more longer term in nature. If I were to look at the Health Care piece, after the COVID base of around INR1,600 crores in ’21, despite all our efforts in smaller packs, newer formats, we’ve not been able to cross that broader range. So what are the challenges we are facing in Honey, Chyawanprash because this was our forte formulations, higher margins. So is the product lost relevance to the younger population? Or has the dynamic changed?Because you seem to be the leader, but beyond the point of time, the category growth would depend on the leader.
And even if I were to take the OTC & Ethicals segment, that has also been broadly INR800 crores despite all the efforts of the new business head, focus on medical channel, doctor efficacy. So is there a competitive landscape which has changed? Because if we have the aspiration and the base to do well, this segment has to grow. So what really is the game plan in this segment? Thoughts will be very helpful.
Mohit Malhotra
Prakash, I don’t think there’s any issue of the category here because as I told you, season played a spoilsport for us. Glucose, which is a significant contributor in the first quarter because of the season declined by some 40%. So rest, the entire portfolio has done very well. Just to give you an example, Chyawanprash has grown by around 30% for us. Our monsoon campaign has worked well for us. New formats are already contributing to more than around 20% of the business, which are margin accretive to us. We have gained 111 bps of market share in Chyawanprash. Honey last year, there was some headwind in terms of honey issues and there were return coming from the market. Now that’s all behind us.
The Honey has grown by around 11%. Premium variants are doing very well. There is a 46 bps gain in the market for us agnostically across segments. Glucose, which is the issue, which got impacted by unfavorable weather conditions. And not just for us, even for Zydus, that’s been the case. So that’s taken out the steam from the growth. If I exclude glucose, then the business has grown by around 4.4%. We have taken a price increase of around 6% in the overall Health Care portfolio. Our margins are remaining the same, but season, nobody can predict.
As far as Digestives portfolio is concerned, Hajmola has grown by 9%, variants contributing 50%. We launched Soft Chews and we are modernizing the portfolio to your point that we are modernizing and 50% of the portfolio is now variants. It is just not regular and Aam-variant, it’s all LimCola, Chatcola, which are all modern, quite urban-centric portfolio, which is resonating with the new consumer, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Soft Chews are doing well for us. Pudin Hara, 7% growth with Lemon Fizz, which is a newer powder format is growing by something like around 60%.
The new communication of acidity relief is again adding to the growth momentum of Pudin Hara. In OTC & Ethicals, there is Honitus, which is a brand. It’s grown by around 46% because of the cough and cold season and virus. Hot Sip, newer format of Honitus, saw 95% growth. Our new initiative of Health Juices has gone up by 18%. Lal Tail as a brand got impacted in UP and Bihar with a small player called AD Oil, and he took away our market share. So suddenly, a new player has come in, and we will correct that situation, which is a very localized problem, which has been identified and we’ve corrected it. So there has been market share loss in our Lal Tail business, which we will correct going forward.
Shilajit, in secondary terms is growing by 10%, but because of competitive intensity, we had a new scheme. So you don’t see so much of growth here. We have also exited Diapers and Tea and one more — and Vita. These three brands, which contributed to around INR8 crores of business, this we discontinued as part of our vision exercise. So that has led to a little bit pushback on the growth — absolute growth in Health Care, which we did as a part of our cutting the tail and providing focus on the core brands. So I don’t think there’s any problem. And glucose was also cycling a very high base of 31% and now declined by 40% because of rain and very centric. So that is the only outlier here. Otherwise, I think Health Care is on a very strong trajectory of growth. So I don’t think there is any concern on this end.
Prakash Kapadia
But Mohit, from that base of post-COVID, I was looking at a slightly longer-term trend. And the question was more towards is the communication relevant to the newer or younger population? Is there a habit change? Because at the end of the day, we all understand post-COVID, there was a high base, but it’s been now three years or four years, the category is more or less stagnant is what I was looking for, not necessarily this specific quarter from a number perspective.
So directionally, how will the growth come back because this is where our margins are higher. This is where our moat is. This is where our leadership is. And beyond a point of time, if the core engine doesn’t fire, the overall growth could be muted despite the base is what I was trying to understand.
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. So long term also, we are operating — see, you have to understand where are we operating. We are operating in segment of cough and cold. Cough and cold market is huge. Our market share is very low, and we compete against allopathic brands and Ayurvedic is gaining traction. So therefore, Honitus is very, very well poised to grow to the next level and taking share from Ayurvedic as consumers are moving back to nature and natural. Now the second segment, which we are present in digestion. In digestion, we have two brands called Hajmola and Pudin Hara. Again, they are growing very well. And one is the appetizer, which ignites hunger and other is the stomach ailment and handles acidity. So Eno is a big brand. Again, market share gains are consistently happening. The third is Health Juices that we introduced.
We are steering it to around INR100 crores, again, long-term trend and growing exceedingly well. Baby Care, Lal Tail, again, very well positioned. Shilajit, a men’s care brand. As you know, Kapiva is the new startup, which is really taking the category to a new level and growing now for gym care — sorry, gym goer population also, that’s doing well. Glucose targets the energy giving population. As you know, Unilever also launched IV liquid, which is catering to this. And most of the brand, electrolytes are again targeting this market, so is where Glucose is. So again, no concern on that. Honey is doing well. We have got 50% share, another 50% share is there and Honey penetration in the country are low.
We are continuously driving Honey on positioning of weight management that is low sugar and nonsucrose and more fructose and energy giving, that’s doing well. On DCP, again, new formats are the ones which are driving that growth. So I don’t think there is a long term any concern. Yeah, the new generation is using newer formats. And when you see new generation, new generation is 10% of the population on e-commerce and quick commerce that you see, which is 10% of the industry. That 10% should not make perception in you that 90% of the market is following 10% and these categories are not doing well. There is sometime winter or sometimes summer, I think poses a little obstacle to growth, but that should not be seen as a long-term trend in my view. So that’s the take which I have. Yeah.
Prakash Kapadia
Sure. Thanks. I’ll join back if I have more questions. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, I would request the members of the management to come closer and speak please so that we have optimum audio quality in the conference. Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Aditya Vikram [Phonetic] from Digital Securities Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi, Mohit. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, sir. Please proceed.
Unidentified Participant
Hi. So congrats on a good set. It seems like at least sequentially, we are doing well. And it seems like people are still not happy. So I can’t really comment on that front. But I missed when you were initially giving the guidance, considering the festive season, rain should go away in a month or two months and rural — rural segment firing. What was the guidance? You said we will grow in double-digit the first one. Can you clarify that again, please?
Mohit Malhotra
Aditya, we could not hear you. Yeah, there’s a lot of disturbance in your line. Could you please repeat the question?
Unidentified Participant
Sure. Am I audible now? Is this better?
Operator
Yes.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Yeah. So Mohit, congrats on a good — hello?
Mohit Malhotra
Is it possible to reduce — too many layers [Phonetic] in the voice. We can’t hear.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, let me…
Operator
Please give me a moment. Let me also check.
Unidentified Participant
Is it better? Any better?
Operator
You may proceed now. You may try now.
Unidentified Participant
So is it better now? Okay. Okay. I’ll try to be as loud as possible. Apologies if it is still not clear. So what I was saying is that congrats on a good set. Sequentially, it looks like a good performance, but still people are not happy, so I can’t do much about that. I missed your answer on the first question, which was asked by one of the analysts that you — what would be the growth guidance from here? I heard that you said beverages might not do great, but what about the other segments?
Mohit Malhotra
So we are expecting — I think you’re talking about the guidance going forward for the full year. Full year, we are looking at a guidance of high single-digit kind of a growth for the full year. For the coming quarter because the base was low, we should be looking at a double-digit growth. Beverage seems to be under pressure, and that may have a low single digit, but other parts of the vertical should be growing at double-digit owing to a lower base and also urban rural both doing well for us and we’re gaining market shares across the board. So I have no doubt that other two verticals should have a double-digit growth. But the month of July has been very wet and the beverage part of the business hasn’t done too well in the month of July. So that’s the only remark. Yeah.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. Thanks. And in terms of the — so I’ll ask my first question. In terms of this quarter performance, right, could you please give a breakup of volume versus price differentials?
Unidentified Speaker
Yeah. So basically, volume is low single digits around minus 1% and price increase is 3%, but most of it got negated because of heightened competitive intensity. And we had to — therefore, the net realization was minus 1.8% in India.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And what would be — so we are not — you mentioned earlier that you’re not seeing inflationary pressure, right? Do we expect some sort of more price hikes in terms of competition and everything else?
Operator
Sorry, Aditya, your voice is breaking right now. Can you repeat your question, please?
Unidentified Participant
Sure. So what I was trying to ask is that are you satisfied where these levels are right now? Or you see price hikes in the coming quarter?
Unidentified Speaker
Yeah. So what we are seeing is more inflationary pressure, especially in the edible oils category. And consequently, we have either taken price increases, fresh price increases apart from the rollover price increases or heightened our saving initiatives program going forward as well. So we expect that at least before netting, we would be able to protect our margins despite 7% to 8% inflation, but before netting.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. Okay. Understood. So thank you very much and congrats on a good set, and I hope you do all the best in the coming quarters with festive season and everything coming along.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you, Prakash. Thank you. Aditya, sorry.
Operator
Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Tejash Shah from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Tejash Shah
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Mohit, I just have one broader question. So when you step back and look at the portfolio more broadly and not related to monsoon or summer seasonality, which comes and goes. Is there a strategic stencil or framework you are now using to shape the, let’s say, next two years, three years of growth? And how are you thinking about where to double down, where to dial back from here? Or which category — because when you said high single digit, I’m assuming some of the categories have to deliver double-digit growth also. So which those categories would be in which will be kind of under-indexed on that number?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. So as you know, we conducted a vision exercise recently, and there are seven big moves that I communicated also. The first one is to double down on our core brands, which contribute around 60%, 70% of the business, which are INR700 crores plus, which will contribute to our growth. And we are spending 70 bps higher in the first quarter also investment, which is Oral Care, which is Dabur Red, and we are planning to flag Dabur Red to other benefit gaps, which are there in the segment. The second is Dabur Amla, of course, is doing well. We invested on Dabur Amla to gain market share.
Now we want to contemporize and premiumize the brand going forward. And that’s the second pillar. The second — the third is also Home Care, which is already market is growing at around double-digits. So we’ve introduced LVP and SVPs are doing well. So that’s what one we’re doing. Skin Care is also — so HPC broadly and also Health Care, we’ve identified four brands I talked about it, which is where we’ll be doubling down on. And those four brands are Pudin Hara, Health Juices, Hajmola and Shilajit, and we want to scale them up to around INR100 crores and Hajmola moving up to around INR550 crores. We are also conducting a GTM exercise for us to improve the ROI of the GT distributors and the price equilibrium and increasing span of control, etc.
All the same, I think whatever gaps in the portfolio are that we want to plug through M&A, and we are continuously scouting for targets for M&A, which are maybe new age, which will fortify our portfolio, existing portfolio with some new age brands in Health Care, HPC and food or beverage areas in all the three verticals which we are planning. So that’s a very big picture broad brush on our portfolio where we’ll be wanting to scale up the business. But I think the low-hanging fruit for us is definitely Oral Care, Home, Skin Care and also Hair Care innovations going forward. Yeah.
Tejash Shah
Perfect. Thanks for this detailed answer. Just one follow-up on that. On M&A, like what we have seen with some of the peers that they have created 20%, 25% of their portfolio of D2C brands and that segment is kind of growing at 20%, 25% to cover up the 5%, 6% of overall growth. So when you talk about M&A, will we be going in some of the new categories, which is largely on wellness side? Or will it be large — more premiumization in the existing portfolio that we have?
Mohit Malhotra
So we are basically looking at wellness. Wellness foods, wellness health, that kind of M&A is what we are intending to look at, but M&A is very chance-based depending upon what is available, but definitely premium, which is margin accretive to our base business so that it improves our margins going forward. We understand for a couple of years, there may be investment, but there should be a path to profitability, which should be accretive to our base profits.
Tejash Shah
Got it. That’s all from my side. Thanks.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurang Kakkad from Centrum Broking. Please go ahead.
Gaurang Kakkad
Yeah, hi, thanks for the opportunity. So Mohit, firstly, on the volume part, you mentioned the volume on a reported basis is 1% degrowth, right? And if we have to look at it ex of seasonal business, the 7% growth, what will be the volume growth in that portfolio?
Mohit Malhotra
So volume growth is 3%. 3% to 3.5% is our volume growth if you look at the 7% ex seasonal portfolio.
Gaurang Kakkad
Okay. Got it. Secondly, you mentioned and obviously, we all know that last year was an inventory correction year for us at the GT level. Now is that largely exercise done and FY ’26, whatever secondary growth we get will largely be reflected in terms of primary growth?
Mohit Malhotra
Yes, Gaurang. Yes. We don’t intend to do any more inventory correction going forward. So it’s already been done. We are sitting at around 21 days to 22 days depending on product category inventory. And we think with our diversified portfolio and the seasonality that we have, this is the optimal level of inventory that we have and the stockists are making good ROI. And so while we are conducting a GTM exercise, which will be all about consolidation, increasing span of control, etc., but the inventory levels pretty much very similar.
Gaurang Kakkad
Okay. Thanks for that. And just finally, one thing on the guidance front. So you’ve given largely the top line guidance and broken it up into the beverages and the non-beverage portfolio. In terms of margins, you mentioned that at the gross margin level, we see some improvement on a full year basis. So at the EBITDA front, largely, are we expecting improvement or most of it will be reinvested in A&P and EBITDA on a full year basis would largely be flattish?
Mohit Malhotra
No, we are working towards significant improvement of operating margin as compared to last year. So we are — if you look at the first quarter, despite high inflation, our margins, our operating margins have been maintained. As we embark on premiumization and a better mix and contemporization of portfolio, I think these margins will only improve going forward. And this year-end, we expect operating margins to move up significantly from last year to this year. That’s the intent and that’s the target that we have taken.
Gaurang Kakkad
Perfect. Yeah, that’s it from my end. Thanks a lot.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Aalokita Ash from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Aalokita Ash
Yeah. Hi. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, ma’am. Please proceed.
Aalokita Ash
So just a question on the Oral Care. So I understand you said that there have been gross margin pressures due to Colgate being super competitive and you having to give distributors — I mean, you have to increase promotional spend. So how has the toothpaste growth been much stronger than the market leader, which is Colgate? Have there been any other initiatives which is driving this outperformance? And do you expect this to continue?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. So we expect Oral Care category growth is around 4%. We are much substantially higher than the category growth as far as Nielsen data is concerned, plus there is a tailwind on the category, herbal natural category, which is growing at two times the non-herbal category. Non-herbal category growing at 4.4%. We guys — the herbal category is growing at 8.8%, and we are by far the market leader in the Herbal, Natural and Ayurvedic categories. So we continue to grow. Our Red franchise has grown at around 9% secondary and 8% IGAAP sales.
Meswak is growing by around 5%. Dabur Herbal Toothpaste is a new franchise is growing at 30%. So we expect Oral Care to keep firing at the same momentum as it has been in the first quarter. And that is a category which we are double downing on. We have taken, as you know, Amitabh Bachchan, is one, plus we’ve embarked on antichloride campaign, which is also working very well for us across different regions. And on back of which we are gaining market share. We gained around 14 bps market share in the current quarter, which takes our market share up to around 16.6%. So we are very confident on improving trajectory in Oral Care going forward.
Aalokita Ash
Thank you. That’s it.
Operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Isha Lamba for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, ma’am.
Isha Lamba
I would like to thank all the participants for joining today’s call. The webcast recording and transcript will be available on our website. Thank you, and have a great evening ahead.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]