Dabur India Limited (NSE: DABUR) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Jan. 30, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Isha Lamba — Head, Investor Relations & Mergers and Acquisitions
Mohit Malhotra — Chief Executive Officer
Ankush Jain — Chief Financial Officer & Joint Chief Risk Officer
Analysts:
Mihir P. Shah — Analyst
Abneesh Roy — Analyst
Percy Panthaki — Analyst
Avi Mehta — Analyst
Disha Giria — Analyst
Harit Kapoor — Analyst
Tejas Shah — Analyst
Aditya Soman — Analyst
Latika Chopra — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 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, Investor Relations & Mergers and Acquisitions
Good evening, 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 Q3 FY ’25. 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, General Manager, Finance. We will start with an overview of the company’s performance by Mr. Mohit Malothra, and this will be followed by a Q&A session.
I now hand over to Mr. Malhotra.
Mohit Malhotra — Chief Executive Officer
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 December, ’24.
The quarter presented a challenging operating environment, marked by unfavorable weather conditions and a slowdown in consumption. India experienced delayed and contracted winters with October and November being the warmest in many years. While urban demand showed signs of moderation, the rural market remained resilient. The rural has outperformed urban for the fourth consecutive quarter. Organized trade channels such as e-commerce, quick commerce and modern trades, continue to deliver robust growth for us.
Consolidated revenue for Dabur grew by 3.1% in INR terms and 5.6% in constant currency terms. India business, including Badshah, grew by 1.7%, underpinned by volume growth of around 1.5%. The international business exhibited strong growth of 18.9% in constant currency terms. Within the domestic business, HPC portfolio performed well with 5.7% growth. Oral Care portfolio recorded a growth of 9.1%, driven by strong [Technical Issues] franchise and Meswak. The Gels toothpaste portfolio has received a good response in the market, recording a 50% year-on-year growth in this quarter. Dabur Oral Care is now the number two brand in the modern trade pan India.
The Hair Oil portfolio grew by 3.1% year-on-year. Within hair oils, both coconut and perfumed oils grew ahead of the category, gaining market share of 125 and 236 bps respectively, taking our overall Hair Oil shares to around 18%, the highest ever. We remain focused on premiumization and portfolio expansion in this segment.
Home Care grew by 5% year-on-year. Odonil grew in double digits in volume terms with Aerosol and Gel pockets performing very well. In the air freshener category, we gained market shares of 101 basis points. Odonil Aerosol is number one brand in the liquid sub-segment of the category with market share gain of 630 bps.
Odomos portfolio was under pressure due to cyclones in South India and delayed winters, but performed better than the category and gained 574 bps market share. Sanifresh in Homecare continued its strong performance, achieving double-digit growth during the quarter.
The Skincare portfolio registered a growth of 5.6%, driven by strong performance in the Gulabari franchise which recorded 9% growth. This was led by robust demand for our flagship product, Gulabari Rose Water with new formats such as body washes, body lotions, creams, contributing more than 20% to the Gulabari portfolio.
Our Healthcare portfolio was flat, impacted by delayed and contracted winters. Health supplements, comprising of Chyawanprash and honey, reported soft performance because of unfavorable weather conditions. However, in Chyawanprash, we have grown ahead of the category and gained market share of 140 bps. Honey continues its leadership position with 54% exit market share.
Digestives grew by 4%, driven by Hajmola portfolio. Extension and variants of Hajmola now contribute more than 15% to Hajmola franchise. Within OTC and Ethicals, Honitus, Shilajit and Health juices reported a high double-digit growth.
The Foods business demonstrated strong performance with the Culinary and Badshah domestic portfolio growing at 30% and 15%, respectively. Juices and Nectar category was impacted in the quarter due to muted festive season demand and price-driven competitive intensity. However, we performed better than the category and gained market share by 320 bps. The Activ range of 100% juices and coconut water posted high single-digit volume growth. We are undertaking several initiatives internally in our Beverage portfolio to bring Real back to the growth path in the upcoming season. Emerging channels like e-commerce and modern trade posted a robust double-digit growth and now accounts for more than 20% of the India business.
Coming to our international business, we recorded a strong growth of 18.9% in constant currency terms. This was on back of double-digit growth in Middle East, North Africa, Egypt, UK, US and Bangladesh. We witnessed currency devaluations across emerging markets like Egypt, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and they were impacted — and this impacted the translated growth..
Talking about profitability, we faced inflationary pressure this quarter and took judicious price increases in our portfolio. Operating profit increased by 2.1% and PAT grew by 1.8% year-on-year. In light of the volatile geopolitical landscape and uncertain macroeconomic indicators, we have revised our strategic vision cycle from four years to three years. We have partnered with leading consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company, to refine and align our strategy for the next three years in line with evolving dynamics. This exercise has already begun and we plan to conclude the same by end of the fiscal year. This will enable us to capture opportunities and navigate the future with sharper and more focused vision.
We expect sequential improvement in demand over next few months on the back of increase of infrastructure investments, good harvest and government initiatives to spur growth in the upcoming budget. We are committed to driving profitable growth through strategic investments in brands, innovations and operating efficiencies, aimed at delivering sustainable value and strengthening our leadership in the FMCG sector.
With this, I’ll conclude my address and open the floor to any Q&A. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
[Operator Instructions] We have the first question from the line of Mihir P. Shah from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Mihir P. Shah
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question and congrats on a decent volume growth in BPC [Phonetic]. Sir, if I can ask on health supplements. Post the high sales during COVID, the segment seems to have stagnated over the past few years in absolute sales. I understand there is some impact this quarter due to delayed winter, but is there anything else that you can share which is ailing this category? And also, any update on the Ayurvedic doctor advocacy initiative and the expansion around the new category that was planned in healthcare overall?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. So, Mihir, what happens in healthcare, I think the answer can be divided into four subparts. We have four sub-parts of the business. The first sub-part of the business is the Ethical portfolio, which I call the backbone of the whole business. That is doing well for us. This time we faced a lot of inflation because of gold prices actually moving up. And because of that, while there was a price increase, the volume growth was little muted, but otherwise, that business grows at a high single digit for us, which is the Ethical and the branded Ethical business, and also supported by doctor advocacy. That is moving okay. We will continue on the trajectory of doctor advocacy, and that is one piece of the business which is roughly around INR500-odd crores for us.
Then the second part of the business is OTC business. Within the OTC business, most of our star brands are doing exceedingly well. Let’s take an example of cough and cold, Honitus. Honitus this quarter actually grew by 12%. Then we have health juices, which grew by around 44% broadly. Then there is Baby Care. There is a new range of Baby Care, and there is an old Lal Tail of Baby Care. The new range of baby care which we seeded, which is going to be exiting at around INR50 crores this year, has seen a growth of around 25%, 26%, which is also very healthy. Lal Tail, which is a seasonal product, due to winter has got impacted and that sales was really muted because of some self-inflicted issues — I think there was a rate disturbance. We had given a consumer offer on the last day which got ramped in the marketplace because of which there was a rate disturbances.
But I think coming forward in the quarter, I think that should get completely ironed out and we will be back on the growth path as far as Lal Tail is concerned. Our market share in the Baby Care segment remains flat and we have not lost any market shares, and we feel there is a lot of headroom to take shares from an LLP-driven market lead where we can take a lot of share. And in the upcoming season, we will be launching another variant which will take care of the issues which are faced in this thing [Phonetic].
Our Pudin Hara, during the summers, I think will continue to do well, and it’s not a season for that. And our Women Care business, which is about Ashokarishta, Dashmularishta and all women products, that has grown by around 8% in this quarter. Our Asava [Phonetic] business, which is also a women-centric business, that’s also doing well with around 5% growth. That gives you a flavor on the OTC bucket. This OTC bucket is in the range of, turnover-wise, around INR800 crores to INR900 crores business. So, I have covered INR800 crores, plus INR500 crores, around INR1,200 crores.
Now then comes the Health Supplement business for us, in which the key brands are Chyawanprash, Honey and Glucose. In Glucose, we had some issues which we faced in the marketplace on crystallization. That is completely behind us now and it’s back on market share gains. Our exit market shares in Honey are 54% market share, highest-ever. So, all the competitive intensity of competition launching Honey, etc., all that is already behind us. And I think the brand is on — exit-wise the sales growth is perfectly on track.
Now comes to Chyawanprash. That is the only brand — the turnover of Chyawanprash is around INR500 crores for us. In this 500 crore portfolio, which did so well during COVID, post COVID we had little headwind because Chyawanprash penetration really went up in the country. To settle that problem, which is a big problem for us as we see, so we are trying to come out with modern formats of Chyawanprash, like tablets, liquid, powder Chyawanprash, capsules of Chyawanprash, whole format extension. That is underway and that is doing well. Then we came out with target Ggroup expansion. So, Chyawanprash for women in terms of Khajurprash, handling iron deficiency, Chyawanprash for geriatric population which is Kesarprash and Ratnaprash. That’s also doing well. Total variants of Chyawanprash now, and Chyawanprash for sugar-free population, these all variants contribute around 20% of the overall Chyawanprash portfolio, which is high margin and high growth as compared to our mainstay Chyawanprash. So, unfortunately, the weather conditions marred the season. Otherwise, market share-wise, we are right there. The market declined by around 6% and Chyawanprash decline was around 3%, thereby we gained shares because there is a decline.
So, I think it’s a matter of time. Also, we are trying to position Chyawanprash as all-weather product. So, we are coming out with a monsoon campaign. We’ll come out with memory-enhancing campaign for Chyawanprash. So, all those actions are on way. We will also validate all these efforts with McKinsey when they are working with us on category-wise growth and make all efforts to bring back Chyawanprash back on track. So, that’s on the Healthcare portfolio on how we are trying to handle our Healthcare piece. All the new initiatives in Healthcare are doing very well, whether it is the chai initiative or it is health juices that I talked about, or it is food supplements that we introduced. So, all the new initiatives, which are 2.5% of the Healthcare portfolio are doing well for us. This is about Healthcare piece. Sorry for the long answer, but I think it was necessary.
Mihir P. Shah
No, no, thank you for the detailed answer for that. That was very helpful actually. Secondly, if I can check on the Oral Care category, there seems to be a divergent trend across players, with one growing in low single-digits, other in mid, while Dabur has grown in high single-digits. Is this divergent trend due to various exposure or different exposure across subcategories or is there something else that one should read into?
Mohit Malhotra
So, Oral Care category itself is doing very well, if I ask you. So, there are different vectors of growth in the Oral Care category. A, the category is doing well. And our Dabur Red is doing well on back of a lot of tailwind coming from the herbal category. Herbal category saliency, which is 30%, has improved to around almost 31.9% — around 32% now. The herbal category has grown by 7% as compared to the growth of 5% in overall Oral Care non-herbal category. There are gaps in our portfolio which we are in the process of plugging. Last year we plugged the gap of Gel, which is doing well for us as I alluded to. It should be around INR44 crore to INR50 crore brand exit this year. So, that’s growing by around 50% for our Gel portfolio.
There is another gap in terms of sensitive and bleeding gums and whitening that we have. We are in the process of plugging that also. And hopefully, in the next season, we shall plug that. We’ve gained market shares because we have grown ahead of the category in Nielsen terms, and we have gained roughly around 5 to 6 basis points market share. And in the country now, we are the number two player, and we feel there is a huge headroom which is available in terms of us taking shares from the market leader who is still in 40s in terms of market shares. So, therefore, there is huge potential. Even in modern trade, where the competitor is very strong with premium variants etc., there also we have become a number two brand now in modern trade. So, which is very encouraging for us.
So, besides Dabur Red, which is a flagship brand, our Dabur Lal Dant Manjan is also doing well. We are talking about a complementary usage of Dabur Red with toothpaste to give power to the White Through Red. That campaign is doing excellent for us. Meswak, which is a premium variant in the toothpaste category, has also grown by around 16%. We have engaged with a celebrity called Nagarjuna in South. On the back of that celebrity, we have got great tractions happening in South on Meswak also. We have got some work to be done on Babool yet. We have not been able to take up the performance of Babool. And Babool has declined in this quarter.
One good news I want to share with you guys is Dabur Red toothpaste is the first Ayurvedic toothpaste to have been accredited by IDA, which is Indian Dental Association, which only used to have accredited fluoride-based toothpaste. For the first time, they have given accreditation to a non-fluoride-based toothpaste. So, now we can get into dentist endorsements also. And as we continue the efforts of doctor advocacy, this will also get leveraged, and we will reach out to more number of dentists and try to spread this across.
So, I think overall, Oral Care, we are in a good space. So, you will see in next — coming fiscal year, we are in the process of revamping the entire face of Dabur Red also. The packaging revamp is going to happen to make it more modernized and make it more modern trade-centric for our Oral
Care. So, Dabur Herbal toothpaste, which was a new entrant which we introduced last year, has also grown by — around very high double-digits. So, that was the gap in the marketplace. Ingredient-based toothpaste also is doing well for us.
So, overall, we are very excited with the Oral Care category. In terms of manning also, we have done some changes in our manpower in Oral Care category, and we have given it to our best performer, and we have been increasing our share of Oils also, which has been lower as compared to our market share. So, that also will be heightened going forward in next year. So, extremely excited about the Oral Care opportunity. Thank you.
Mihir P. Shah
Got it. Thank you for that. A sub-part to that question is, will this category or any other category see any one-off benefits in the coming quarter due to Mahakumbh activations or anything?
Mohit Malhotra
In Mahakumbh, we are doing very exciting –if one of you is travelling to Mahakumbh, [Indecipherable] activation which we should dial up with social media which we are planning to. There is something called a Dant Snan that we are introducing. Before anybody goes to the Triveni Sangam which after the accident may not be possible. But if at all somebody is taking a bath, so we put up around 10 to 15 stall, counters basically, wherein we are dispensing toothpaste from water taps and giving toothbrushes. So consumer will take toothbrushes, take the toothpaste from the tap, dispense it, do the Dant Snan before he goes for the Triveni Snan, Ganga Snan. So, those kind of activations what we are trying to do. So, that’s active. If you go and if you see, please send us pictures of that.
So, a lot of activations in haats, melas and all that. Besides that, in Kumbh we are doing LED screens, around 38 of them. We have branded all police barricades, police booths. We had 13 billboards. We are branding all changing rooms. Ladies changing rooms have been branded by Dabur and these Dant Snan stations. So, all that is happening. So, rural India, which is highly salient for Dabur, we will continue to do a lot of activations here.
Mihir P. Shah
Got it. Thank you very much. I have one on beverages, but I’ll come back in the queue for that. Thank you very much and wishing you all the best.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you very much.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Abneesh Roy from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Abneesh Roy
Yeah, thanks. My first question is on McKinsey. So, if you could tell us if this is across categories, across brands, or some specific categories have been given? Second is, your payout to McKinsey, will it be linked to targets being achieved? Third is, in some of your issues, for example, last two years, many quarters, you have faced a lot of challenges. Some are still going to continue. For example, Campa Cola will continue to remain a challenge for the entire beverage industry and now they will ramp up. So, that issue continues to remain. And Chyawanprash, you did discuss that post-COVID, there is a challenge. So, how does McKinsey help you meet these challenges in which you may or may not be able to do much, because those are either competition or they are basically category-linked? So if you could discuss this entire thing?
Mohit Malhotra
Right. So, Abneesh, what we do in Dabur is, we have four-year vision plans and as we speak, we are in the seventh vision cycle of all the vision exercises. Earlier we used to have a four-year vision cycle. So, we feel that in this volatile and heavy headwind macro-economic environment and FMCG not doing so well as a sector, I think we require validation of our strategies through external consultants. That is why we kind of got external consultant on board like McKinsey, and we are truncating a vision period from four years to three years, so that we are able to tape up, fine-tune, align and quickly recalibrate our strategies. Four years becomes a longish period and therefore we have truncated to three years, and it’s also in line with the best practice in the industry which is also around three years. That we have done.
So, we have tied up with McKinsey at the moment for this vision exercise to do all the numbers, to do the category reviews and validate all our strategies which we have been following, and which includes Chyawanprash, which will include beverages, etc., with a special double-down on the beverage and the DCPPs [Phonetic] because that is where the shoe is pinching on the business. So, they will focus on that, along with defining the numbers in the milestones for the next three years, and this vision exercise will dovetail into the next year budgeting cycle also for us.
At the moment, we have not linked them to our target achievement. But that is something that we will contemplate after this exercise is over. So, there will be a truncated approach. First approach for they having a big picture view on the business and defining the vision exercise for next three years. And from the vision exercise, there will be a lot of offshoots that will emerge in terms of category, GTM, pain points in the business besides big ones like beverage or this thing. And then we will get into long-term specific arrangements with them, if at all. That we will review once the exercise is over. We have already begun the exercise. So, this is supposed to be ending by the end of this fiscal year or March end. At that time, we will see whether to extend or not to extend, or to do specific projects as we deem fit.
Abneesh Roy
Sir, my second and last question is on two specific categories. So, in toothpaste, you have done well. In fruit juice, you have seen a big dip in terms of sales. So, in these two segments, if you could discuss it in FY26, from a pricing perspective, would you expect some pricing growth in each of these segments, because clearly in toothpaste, market leader is delaying price hike, is happy to sacrifice gross and EBITDA margins and operate at a slightly lower band. And that does mean that pricing growth in toothpaste in the near term, medium term looks difficult if category leader is not taking. And the trade incentives — the trade intensity is also high in toothpaste.
And similarly in the fruit juice business, clearly Campa Cola is operating at a very high trade margin and INR10 pricing is also there. So, there if you could discuss, would you need to increase the trade spend here to match up with Campa Cola because they are operating at a much, much higher level. In spite of, say, INR10 pricing parity, their trade incentives are much higher. So, would you need to match up? And how do you see FY ’26 in terms of pricing and trade incentives for the fruit juice businesses?
Mohit Malhotra
I get you. So overall, I think the inflation is picking up in the country. Last full year, the inflation was 3%. We passed on the entire inflation to the consumer. Because the inflation was too high, we had to give trade and consumer inputs to buffer it up. And I think going gorward, the inflation is inching up across buckets of business. We expect a 5% inflation to actually hit us. So whether it’s [Indecipherable] oral care, so inflation will — it does include concentrates also that we are purchasing because Indian currency will depreciate, some of the imported fruit concentrates will also become expensive for us. So, A, price increases will happen in toothpaste also and in juices also, but we’ll have to take very calibrated price increases, observing the competitive intensity in the marketplace, so that not to become uncompetitive in the market.
As far as Oral Care is concerned, there is still a headroom of taking a price increase growth in Oral Care, especially in the avenues of premium Oral Care where there is a huge delta which is available between what the market leader is having and between what we are having. So, there is a huge delta margin available. So, I don’t think in Oral Care taking price increase will ever be an issue for us while growing volume. So, there will be a part volume and part price increase in Oral Care that will be easy for us to handle there in Oral Care. And also we are coming out with premium variants. So, in terms of mix, that premiumization should take care of the inflation which might hit us and we expect the best growth to come in from Oral Care only going forward next year.
As far as juice portfolio is concerned, yes, there are headwinds in juices which is basically price-driven. To reduce the relative price differential between the Colas and us, what we are doing is we’ve already planned it for the next season, we are planning to give consumer value. Now, again, the beverage business is not very simple. It has to be divided into again three, four parts for us versus Activ juices. Activ is pure 100% juice. There is no problem in terms of business growth. We are having a 110% growth on the business, but this business contributes to around 10% of the overall beverage portfolio. So, there we have resilience of taking price increases and we will continue to take pricing increases. And, we will be introducing health-based juices also here, which will have the — we have the ability to take the price increases here.
The second part of the portfolio is drinks. Drinks has done well on the back of distribution expansion — We are very small players — on the back of distribution expansion, we are continuously taking inflationary price increases, whatever it warrants, the inflation. And on the back of distribution, we will be growing that portfolio also. As far as coconut water is concerned under Activ, there also we’ve invested in an aseptic PET line. And coming out in a PET bottle besides tetra pack which will give us huge growth in the beverage.
Now the big part is the Nectar business. Nectar business, yes, there is a pressure in terms of RPI. So, there we are proposing, or we have already designed to do a consumer offer to reduce the prices from INR130 to around INR100, but this will happen by way of consumer offer, not by reducing prices. Also, we are coming out with a range which will be a relatively economical range with a relative price index of around 2 to the Colas, and that will also hit the marketplace in the season very soon. So, that is our game plan for the juice business and to fight the Colas etc.
Abneesh Roy
Mohit, one last follow-up and I’ll end there. So essentially on toothpaste, you said you expect that to be fastest growth. Now rural is recovering for every company and every category. For — toothpaste for you, how much is rural? So if rural does well, is that a benefit for you? And second, the market-leader is doing all these AI programs, wherein they’re connecting customer to the dentist. Would you also need to look at this or it doesn’t really matter too much?
Mohit Malhotra
See, as far as we are concerned, AI — rural contribution to us in Oral Care is in line with the overall company contribution, will be around in the range of 45% to 50% for us also, will come from rural for the overall Oral Care franchise, that is. As far as the AI intervention in the business is concerned, it’s a great thing for us to do. And if there is the best practice in the industry, we will absolutely follow the best practice the way we have done advocacy now on Oral Care. So, we will do that, but I don’t think it will make any material difference to the business volume of AI-based connectivity to the dentists. I told you that we’ve just got an endorsement of IDA, the Indian Dental Association. I think that introduction and doctor endorsement for us will go a long way in building our overall Oral Care business. Yes.
Abneesh Roy
Sure, I’m done. Thanks a lot.
Mohit Malhotra
Thanks, Abneesh.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Percy Panthaki from IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.
Percy Panthaki
Hi. Again, a question on beverages. So just wanted to understand why we are getting affected so much by the cola wars. I mean our product is very, very different in terms of its proposition, taste, composition, etc. And, in fact, if I look at the second-largest player in this business, which is a listed company and their report, in fact, despite having an exact like-for-like product versus Campa, they are not getting affected much. So why is this happening?
Mohit Malhotra
Yes. So, Percy, couple of issues. I am not attributing this exact performance on the price index or the Cola war. There are a couple of more reasons. I think the first reason is the season. Last summer did not favor us. In the peak of summer, there were unseasonal rains and because of unseasonal rains and we doing a little bit of season loading, I think that impacted. And [Indecipherable] the festive season has also not been very conducive to, I think, all the categories because of urban contraction.
The third is, it’s a very urban-centric consumption of juices and urban India has been reeling under pressure and the growth rates are actually muted. That is the third reason. First is season, second is urban not performing and third is this a little bit of RPI getting worse. We used to operate at a relative price index of around 2. If Coke and Pepsi 1 liter is 50 bucks, we guys are 130 bucks for a liter. So, that RPI has actually gone worse from 2 to around 2.7. So, that is impacting. And in the out-of-home consumption which is good, around 30%, 40% of the business, it’s more impulse purchase. So, anything which is cold, whether it’s fruit juice or it’s refreshment drink, that gets taken. And there has been a slew of new brands also which has actually made an entry, whether energy drinks or these Cola. So, that has impacted the business.
So, I think, it’s again a three-pronged attack that we are doing. First is communication revamp. We are wanting to educate the consumers that Colas which are nothing but sugared, flavored waters, are not great and they are more thin [Phonetic] products compared to juices which, Activ especially, which doesn’t have any added sugar content in it. It’s only natural sugar content. That’s one. Second is offering value for money to the consumers by reducing the price of 130 to around 100, introducing a new range thereof, and also offering a little bit of extra margin to the distributor, so that distributor ROI improves when they have to distribute a beverage where the case value is lower as compared to our HPC case value. So, all these three efforts are ongoing for us to capture the season better. So, those are the attempts to revive the beverage business for us.
Percy Panthaki
Got it, got it. So just a question — since you mentioned out-of-home is a major component, would it be right to assume that your 200 to 300 ml packs are like 30% to 40% of your total beverage sales?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. Broadly around 40% of the total business will be tetra pack, 200 ml, which is a out-of-home consumption pack. And to your point, that is the most impacted. And one liter is not as [Technical Issues] home, it’s out-of-home which is most impacted.
Percy Panthaki
Understood. Understood. And within — so you have, of course, the 100% juice which is not impacted, but you have the nectars and you have the fruit drinks. So between the nectars and the fruit drinks, which is the more impacted one?
Mohit Malhotra
It is the nectars which is the most impacted. Fruit drinks are not impacted. Food drinks is giving me double-digit growth. Even my coconut water is giving me double-digit growth. Activ is giving me double-digit growth. It’s only the Nectar portfolio, wherein our market leader with 70% market share is where I am getting most impacted, and that too in a 200 ml pack and that too in metro cities, which is where the major impact is coming to us. As far as the market leader is concerned, you talked about the second-largest player. In the category of Nectar, J&N, which we call as juices and nectars category, the category has declined by around 16% and our decline is around 8% to 9% in the Nielsen terms.
We have gained market shares of around 320 basis points in juices and nectar category. All other players, the players that you named it and like-to-like product like ours, has declined by 400 bps there. And they have declined. So we have consolidated our position. There 80%, 90% of the portfolio is colas. So, therefore, they are not impacted. Plus, they are not impacted because of geography growth that they’re getting, which is more inorganic and not really organic. If my guess is right, you would know better.
Percy Panthaki
Understood. Understood. Also wanted to understand on the rest of the consumer care or rather the consumer care portfolio, if I leave the foods and beverages aside. There also the growth has been a little lackluster. So what is really needed for the growth to improve? Is it just consumer sentiment or is it something else that can be influenced at your end even if the consumer sentiment remains poor?
Mohit Malhotra
So I think we have to bifurcate the portfolio and see. I just talked about the healthcare business. Healthcare business was impacted by only the winters being contracted and Chyawanprash only suffering. The rest of the business verticals, we are completely on track and we feel the growth will come in. Our CAGR for past five years in this business is around 7% — 6% to 7%. So I don’t think the issue there, except for this time winter was a very short and delayed winter. So Chyawanprash got impacted. There also we are having plans of making Chyawanprash all-season, etc. Rest of the product categories, we are really not concerned.
If you look at HPC, HPC has grown by 5.7%. Then category after category, whether it’s hair oils or it’s shampoo or it’s oral care, health-care, everywhere we’ve gained market share. And we’ve gained market share by a mile. In oral care, we’ve gained market. In hair oils, for example, overall hair oils we’ve gained 150 basis points. In coconut oils, we’ve gained 120 basis points. In perfumed oil, we’ve gained 236 basis points. Home Care, we’ve gained 110 basis points. In all subcategories — in air fresheners, we are now the number one brand in the country, 600 basis points is where we’ve gained. In Gels, which is a new entry for us, there also we have grown by 88% in that new format.
So, I think format after format — Gulabari has done very well for us. Bleaches, we have gained market shares by around 55 basis points. So, I think everywhere we are doing well. So, I don’t think there is any problem as far as the home and personal care is concerned. And Healthcare, this quarter was impacted by the season. I think that should get corrected. Beverages, I talked about to you.
Percy Panthaki
So, then would it be fair for us to assume that, I mean, if no one-off events, then Q4 at a overall company level or at least excluding beverages, your growth should be in the region of about 6% to 7% if basically the Healthcare is the only thing pulling it down and that was seasonal, and if, let’s say, that normalizes in Q4? Do you see any other moving part where something which did well in 3Q could sort of come down in Q4 because of any specific reason that you can foresee as of now?
Mohit Malhotra
No, I don’t think so there is any specific issue that I want to highlight or anything that comes to my mind. Not really. I think overall, you are right, the growth will be in line with that. So, we expect a mid-single kind of growth coming up, except for inflation is picking up now. So, I think that’s a little concern, but I think that inflation should be mitigated by pricing increases and cost-saving initiatives that we are embarking on. So, we expect a mid-single, if not, high growth to come in and there will be a sequential improvement. Definitely the business will be much better than quarter three for what we have done.
Percy Panthaki
Got it, got it. Thanks a lot, Mohit. That’s all from me. All the best.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you, Percy. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Avi Mehta from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Avi Mehta
Yeah. Hi, team. Hi, Mohit. Thanks a lot for this. Mohit, I just wanted to kind of pick up from the last participant. You did allude to a pickup in the sales growth trajectory that appreciated. But would it also be fair that the margin profile also should logically be relatively buoyant and the flattish expectation that we were hoping to achieve in second half is something that we can still gun for?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. So I told you that inflation is actually picking up. We had an inflation of around 3% in YTD and we mitigated through price increases etc. And going forward, the inflation will be in the range of around 5%-odd. So inflation mitigation should happen by way of price increases. That’s what the attempt of the business will be. And we should be in a position to maintain margins going forward. Whatever margins that we have, we will maintain our margins. And next year going forward margin should only improve from here by way of price increases and cost saving. That identification is an ongoing process as we are making the budgets and working with McKinsey, how to improve our operating margin going forward next year.
Avi Mehta
And Mohit, just the last bit, which is the next part on — when you look at FY ’26, you have historically been able to achieve 20%, 21% margin levels. Given that you are focusing on providing value, reducing RPIs in beverages, what are the potential offsetting factors that could help us achieve that in FY ’26, or is that really something that you would target more beyond that? How should I look at the margin profile for the business from a more medium-term-ish perspective?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. So I think our attempt will be to go to around [Indecipherable]. That’s what we were aiming at. I think the levers to achieve that would be changing the mix of the product portfolio that we sell. So, I think selling a premium mix is what we want to target, and that’s how we will be incentivizing the teams moving forward. Oral Care is one initiative in the mix that we will try to double down on and invest the money to gain market shares and therefore, volume tonnage on Oral Care, which is quite profitable for us. Besides hair oils, other areas which are more margin-accretive, Healthcare is what we will target. So, mix is one definite area is what we look at.
The second space will be premiumization across different categories, wherein we would want to innovate. Like I was telling you in Hair Care, we always focused on stabilizing our Amla because the competitor has taken away all the market share from us, and I think it’s taken us four, five, six years to consolidate all that and now we have got an all-time high market share of around 18%. So, now we will embark on premiumization as far as this is concerned. And so, premiumization, mix and some cost-saving initiatives is what we will take in Samriddhi. That’s third initiative. And price increases. Wherever we have a price increase, I think these four levers should help us inch up our gross margins in the current year. And what happened in the current year, we have also taken a correction of INR200 crores in quarter two, as you are aware of. So, a lot of percentage gross margin went down because of that. That deleverage happened from scale. Hopefully, that will not happen in the next year and margins will inch up because of that also.
Avi Mehta
Okay, perfect. And the domestic also should be moving out [Technical Issues]
Operator
Sorry to interrupt, Avi, but you are not clear right now.
Avi Mehta
Sorry. I just wanted to just understand the Namaste a bit. I am sorry, I thought that was also a headwind. And if you could quantify how much that would be, that’s all for my side.
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah, I think I’ve got you. So, therefore, Namaste, you rightly said, last year we spent roughly around INR100 crores on the litigation costs in Namaste, given to advocates and attorneys. As we speak, we have changed our agencies in Namaste and therefore, the cost has come down by 25 percentage point. So, INR100 crores to INR75 crores in the current year. Going forward also — and there is some bit which we have got back from insurance agencies. So, there will be a definite leverage on cost which will happen in international business, and we expect the profitability to be better.
So, in international business one lever is obviously legal cost going down for us which is overlapped. The second will be the dollar-denominated currencies are doing better for us. Namaste business is doing better. Middle East, North Africa is doing — all the pegged currencies are performing well, and we expect them to perform well. And depreciating currencies will also overlap the currency depreciation next year. So, as we speak, we have INR81 crore of translation loss which I think will go down going forward. So, that should be another lever which will add to our international business profitability.
Avi Mehta
Perfect, Mohit. That’s all from my side and look forward to hearing back from you on how you look at the strategic vision going forward. Thank you very much.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you. Yeah.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Disha Giria [Phonetic] from Ashika Institutional Desk. Please go-ahead.
Disha Giria
Hi, team. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I just wanted to understand that in your presentation that you have mentioned that the rural has outperformed urban by 140 basis points, but you mentioned in your opening commentaries, as well as over the discussions that the urban has kind of slowed down. So if you could give some number to be able to better understand the rural and urban bifurcation, because in hindsight, the rural outperformance looks like the gap might have increased because of the urban slowdown as well.
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah. So let me give you more detail on the data — syndicated data. Syndicated data, overall, FMCG market is growing at the rate of around 7%. That’s what they indicate, in which rural is trending at 10% and urban is at around 5%. There is almost a difference. So, urban has corrected by 40% going forward. Used to be 10% and now it is in the range of around 5%-odd. And rural has actually doubled in terms of what the Nielsen growth rate was, which was the rate of 5% and now become 10%. The difference between urban and rural in terms of retail itself is around 490 bps. So, that’s the retail — what retail [Indecipherable]. And Dabur is growing ahead of the category for urban and rural. If Nielsen is talking about 7% FMGC, Dabur is trending up and that’s why the gain in market share is happening across our categories for us.
So, that’s as far as the retail audit [Phonetic] is concerned. So, there is a trend in the market that the retail is moving ahead of urban — sorry, rural is moving ahead of urban by around 490 bps. The same thing is getting reflected in our business also, but albeit with a lower 140 bps. So, the overall India business has grown by 1.7%, urban business has grown by 0.6% and rural business has grown by 2%. So, the difference between the two is 140 bps for us. And that’s why the rural’s performance is better than urban performance. Going forward, we think this will also inch up as the rural’s saliency really picks up and this thing. So, it will only go up from here. And this is happening on back of real wage growth which is higher in rural India. This is growing. Real wage growth in rural is moving up by 5%. As far as urban, it is coming down by minus 7%. So, there is more money today in the hands of the consumers in rural as compared to urban. But this thing might change because food inflation is very high. It’s at around 8%. So, if rural also starts prioritizing food as compared to discretionary, this thing could change. But the situation is pretty dynamic in the marketplace, and we need to watch that out as we go on.
Disha Giria
Thank you. That was a very nice answer. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec. Please go ahead.
Harit Kapoor
Yeah, good evening. Just on the advertising expense, Mohit, just wanted to get your sense on how do you see that trend moving, because you have mentioned in the past that that’s something that you want to ramp up year-over-year to get in line with the double-digit levels at some point. Last two quarters, you have seen it come off. This quarter, the India or the standalone piece looks like a sharper decline YoY? So, is it that in the current
Context of the market below the line is a higher share for you right now? If you could just — can you break that up and give an outlook on how you are thinking about it?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah, absolutely, Harit. I think — again, I’ll say [Indecipherable] different time, different strategies. One strategy doesn’t become the same through the year. So, I think as the consumption story is not great at the time, I think there is pressure on the category growth rate. At this time, the pie is not expanding. I think it’s a futile effort to spend so much money on advertising. It’s important to consolidate your position. When the pie remains the same, the growth is hard to get. That’s what one is trying to do. We are trying to prioritize more BTL spends to increase our market shares and to get more trial generation and getting more consumers in the room. When market growth happens, that’s when we double down on advertising and doing. So advertising has come down. Our overall advertising and promotion expenditure has increased by around 10%, but advertising expenditure has gone down.
That said, that is still more than 7% of the overall consumer care business that we have in India, which I think is the optimal level given our diversified portfolio and too many pockets of spend. But the endeavor is always whenever luxury is available in terms of margins, at that time you want to invest money behind advertising to grow your brand. But when luxury or spend is not there, then you have to have a balanced approach between margins, because top line is not coming, your overheads are growing by mid-single digit, top line is growing by low single-digit. So you have to conserve money to maintain your margins. So, that is the mindset that one has, and that’s how we are calibrating. So, yes.
Ankush Jain
And sir, you have to also see your India business because some of the businesses like — smaller businesses like Fem, Guar, exports etc., they don’t have any business spend. So, if I were to — or even some of the Ethicals, if I were to gross it up, then it would be around 7.5% to 8%, which currently is reflected around 6% — 6.7%-odd. So, it gets jacked up by 10 percentage points.
Mohit Malhotra
There are lots of pockets of businesses which don’t have advertising for us. For example, advocacy marketing doesn’t have advertising, to Ankush’s point. Export doesn’t have advertising. Guar business doesn’t have advertising. So, a lot of commodity businesses — so if you apportion advertising on your core consumer business which has advertising, that is in the range of around 7%, 8%. But that said, I think we have to prioritize advertising expense. There is no shying away from that fact.
Harit Kapoor
Got it. Got it. And the second question was on pricing. So, you have mentioned a few times on the inflation inching up. When do we see this start to kind of go into the market? Could there be a little bit of lag effect because market competitive intensity is high in some of the categories? So — because this — if you look at quarter three, the difference between volume growth and revenue growth is 50 basis points. So, I just wanted to get your sense of when do we start to see incremental pricing kind of going into the market from here on?
Ankush Jain
That’s right. While there is an incremental pricing, but there is also — to your point, there is some time lag effect. But our procurement strategy is also to take certain long positions when we anticipate certain inflationary trends. And that helps us hedge a bit of inflation and then we can plan our pricing accordingly. So, while you see over the last five, six quarters, our trends have been that by and large our pricing has been in sync with the inflation and the guardrail is very clearly that at least either at a Healthcare level or at an HPC level or beverages level we try to compensate. Even, if in one of the subcategories, there we have some time lag, then the other category helps mitigate that. That is by and large our endeavor, the procurement strategy combined with market intelligence and taking those calibrated price increases.
Harit Kapoor
Okay. Got it. Thanks. That’s all from me. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tejas Shah from Avendus Spark Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Tejas Shah
Hi, Mohit. Thanks for the opportunity. Mohit, just on the consultant part. So over the past five to six years, especially after COVID, we have seen FMCG companies have repeatedly turned to consultants for growth solutions. Yet we have seen no sustained or standout success. So what drives the reliance on this external validation despite no, I would say, big success or results that we have seen from that approach?
Mohit Malhotra
No, I think you got the answer in your question only. So, I think, because what happens is, despite our strategy, the best attempt, hard work, if the results do not reflect our ambition and aspiration, then you start sometimes questioning your strategy. Are you on the right path or not? That is where you require — to do that introspection, you require some validation from outside expert. And these consultants have got varied experience of working in many FMCG companies and got best-in-class practices exposure, which we may not have, because we have got one company, two company exposures etc. So, while what we think is right for business is what we do, and sometimes this validation really helps, and it’s a global benchmark. They don’t operate only in India. They operate in America, Europe, across continents. So, sometimes some practice of overseas market can be very relevant for an India market.
And every market has a different level of maturity. What happens in China might come to India very soon. What happens in US comes to India. I have worked in overseas market and a lot of formulas for international business have been very successful in India from my point of view, like winning in many Indias [Phonetic]. It is basically an international concept that we saw working very well in India because there are smaller countries with populations of 1 crore, 2 crore. Here you got states which are 20 crores etc. So, therefore, those things work.
So, these best-in-class benchmarks help and that’s why you do a dipstick with a consultant and not really ask them to run the business. You ask them to validate your strategy once in three, four years, and that at least gives you that confidence that yes, you are on the right path and this validation works. And sometimes its for stakeholders also. So, one is for ourselves that we do the strategy. Sometimes the stakeholders also get a better validation that as a management who is making the strategy is a maker and not a checker. Checker is somebody else, so that’s the making and checking validation actually happens from the stakeholders who are looking at the company management to deliver the results also. So, it’s outside external management or also internal validation is where the consultants really help.
Tejas Shah
Sure. So is it more of a process validation or is it more of a, like, solving the growth problem and delivering on numbers there?
Mohit Malhotra
No, it is not process. Process already entrenched and processes don’t change, except if there is some gross error happening in the process. It’s more strategy. It’s more strategy and — which they will validate in execution. Because the market is so dynamic, so you have to tailor-make your strategy to the dynamically — environment which is perpetually in flux. So, as the flux happens, you have to keep tailor-making your strategy, and these guys come and help you to customize your strategy through the environment which is changing. Beverages was fantastic. Suddenly there is a Cola war happening and the Reliance is disrupted. So, a validation of our beverage strategy by a guy like McKinsey who got exposure, who has worked on food with Coke and Pepsi and everybody globally, will only help us to fine-tune the strategy.
Tejas Shah
Okay. Second, Mohit, for last two, three years, we have seen that FMCG companies, including us also, are pivoting towards science and efficacy-based innovations to tap urban consumers. Our IDA recognition of toothpaste is also kind of validation of that. So, last time, you spoke about in detail that how we are also going in the direction where the focus will be on efficacy and science-based launches. So, any update on that and any, let’s say, clinically trial or clinically tested product that you would have launched?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah, I will give an example of Khajurprash. I will just give you — there are many examples, but I will only talk about Khajurprash, Shilajit, that we guys have rolled out, Honitus variants that have come in. Khajurprash, we have commissioned a clinical trial, which is promising 30% RDA of iron which is required by a woman, 30%. If you have two tablespoons of Khajurprash every day, 30% of the RDA is fulfilled by Khajurprash. So, that’s a clinical trial that we have done. We have done another clinical trial for Pudin Hara and Honitus. It says that Honitus starts acting in 15 minutes. In Pudin Hara Fizz also, it starts acting in 30 seconds once you are able to consume it.
We have very recently rolled out a range called Siens only for e-commerce, only exclusively for Amazon, which is all science-backed in which you got the collagen powders, and you got the foods of multivitamins for women, multivitamins for men, collagen powder and Gummies. So, these range of four products we rolled out. It’s called the Siens. I think the samples will be sent out to you very soon, but it’s available on Amazon as we speak. So, that’s all backed by scientific claims and scientific claims are not analytical but more clinical.
Tejas Shah
Okay. So, this is OZiva wellbeing nutrition kind of portfolio that we are developing?
Mohit Malhotra
Not as vast as that. We just got four SKUs. We are doing a proof of concept check on ecommerce and we will scale it up a little bit later. Yes.
Tejas Shah
Yeah. Very clear. Thanks and all the best for coming quarters.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Soman from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Aditya Soman
Hi, good evening. Just one question from me. So this work that you’re doing with McKinsey, will it involve any sort of strategic decisions on any category or sector, or it’s more of sort of a tactical review on how to — as you mentioned before, where you’re shortening the review period and just thinkings on strategies?
Mohit Malhotra
So, I think the strategy exercise or the long-term exercise, three-year vision is being planned. So, they will debate and question all businesses which are non-performing or even performing which have got a right to win for Dabur. Anything which doesn’t have a right to win, they will be questioning and there will be a debate happening between management and them to retain or to size down or to reduce investments or what to do. So, it will be a very strategic exercise that we are doing. It is not very tactical exercise at all. For tactical exercise, we had done a similar exercise with McKinsey on RGM, which is Revenue Growth Management of Oral Care and Hair Care. That is done and dusted, which was around six months back. But now this is more of a strategic exercise and questioning various businesses, prioritizing ROI and investments in different buckets of the business, what we should double down and what we should not focus on.
Since COVID, we have done a lot of initiatives. Like, you remember, we’ve done sanitizers. We hived it off. We had done home care range and we hived it off, but there are a lot of portfolios which we had launched at the time which are still there in the business. Tulsi Drops has fallen off, but health juices is doing well, which is growing by 44%, has become a very big bucket. So, they will question. And from a right to win standpoint, from — is it a sizable category, is it a profitable category, is it where we have a capability and a competency to exist? So, they have multiple models and different prongs on which they evaluate the business.
Ankush Jain
And maybe just to add on, there’ll be a tactical — yeah, while it’s a very strategic exercise, but what might happen is that at the end of the exercise, some offshoots will come on, which will probably be — some of them will be tactical.
Aditya Soman
Understand. Very clear. So, if there is the outcome of this that, let’s say, one of the categories does not fit in with the overall strategy, then you would even go down to the extent that if it doesn’t work out and that you will get rid of a category or even that can be an outcome however — whatever the probability [Phonetic] of that one.
Mohit Malhotra
Yes, absolutely. So, M&A could be one of an outcome of it — of a strategic category where Dabur is not present. There could be a divestment, there could be not investment. So, all those kind of decisions which will happen, and this will be at the top level.
Aditya Soman
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Latika Chopra from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Latika Chopra
Hi, thank you. Hi, Mohit.
Mohit Malhotra
Hi, Latika.
Latika Chopra
A couple of clarifications. First was domestic volume growth in the quarter was 1.2%. Just wanted to check, this did not carry any impact — any kind of channel restructuring, inventory restructuring [Technical Issues] previous quarter. Are there any recurring effects which have depressed this number?
And just trying to also check with you, in an earlier question you talked about mid-single digit growth in the coming quarter. Were you referring to volume growth expectations or were you referring to value growth? Then second question, most of the companies [Technical Issues] urban consumption. Rural has been improving which is good, but [Technical Issues] also probably not as much as [Technical Issues]. So in that context, consuming [Technical Issues]
Mohit Malhotra
Latika, we are not able to hear you clearly.
Latika Chopra
Is this better now? Let me back separately then. I’ll come back separately later.
Ankush Jain
It’s clear now. It’s slightly clearer.
Mohit Malhotra
It is clear. You can try again.
Latika Chopra
Yeah, can you hear me now?
Mohit Malhotra
Yes, we can. Yes.
Latika Chopra
So, my first question was on the domestic volume growth of 1.2%. Did it have any negative impact or follow-on impact of the channel correction that we did in the prior quarter, or this was the underlying proper volume growth that you saw in the market?
Mohit Malhotra
Yeah, this was — no, there was no one-off impact of any stock coming back, etc., no. That wasn’t the case in this. This was the growth that we’ve seen in the marketplace, yes. So that’s one. There was some element of honey stock which we cleaned up. I think there’s a minor return sales was there. Barring that I think nothing major, nothing consequential. The pipelines have been maintained. We reduced the pipeline to 21 and 21 is the pipeline now also. So that was not the case at all.
Latika Chopra
And the second bit was on your volume growth expectations going ahead. Assuming macro remains where it is, because most companies are sounding cautious in urban, there is a rural recovery which is there. So, do you think this is going to go to mid-single digit volume levels or what you were earlier alluding was mid-single digit value levels?
Mohit Malhotra
No, we were alluding the mid-single-digit value level. It will be a part price and a part volume, because what happened, in the current quarter also while we had taken a price increase of 3% or so, that got nullified by giving extra scheme — trade scheme, which got netted from gross and therefore, net remained where it was. So, while the price increase was there but that did not accrue in terms of the net sales because of netting out of the consumer promotion, which he had to give because the consumer demand was low and you have to fight the competitive intensity in the marketplace.
So, I will give you an example in home care which I was just analyzing. My volume growth of home care comes out to be around 15%, 16% and my value growth of home care comes out to be around 2%, so — 5%, sorry — I would say 5%. So, between 5% and 15%, there is a 10% delta which got consumed in fighting competitive intensity with our market leader. So, when the pie is not growing, I think it’s a fight and competitive intensity moves up. Except for Oral Care, in the hair oils also, we saw the same thing. Hair oil secondaries grew by around 6% for us, and what we realized is only around 3% kind of growth rate in hair oils also. So, therefore, going forward, I am alluding to around a value growth of around mid-singles, looking at where the market is, for Q4.
Latika Chopra
Understood. No, this is clear. And the last one was probably I missed hearing your — did you give any guidance on margins? Did I hear 20%-plus, FY ’26? There was a question, but I couldn’t hear you clearly. If you could just clarify, how are you thinking about margins for the consolidated business in FY ’26? Any range that you would like to share? Thank you.
Ankush Jain
Before I get into full year next year, at least for quarter four, our intent is at a mid-single digit top line growth, we will try to maintain our margins for quarter four. For next year, we are still in the process of making our annual budgets. However, having said that, we see a bit of inflation. We will try to mitigate those. Intent is again to maintain it, but we will take appropriate price increases, cost saving initiatives. Some leverage will also come. So, the intent is to maintain but slightly improve. And if there is a significant improvement, then we will also try to reinvest it back into advertisement and all.
Latika Chopra
Very clear. Thank you so much.
Mohit Malhotra
Thank you, Latika.
Operator
Thank you. We have no further questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Isha Lamba for closing comments. Over to you, ma’am.
Isha Lamba
Thank you, everyone, for joining today’s call. Thank you and have a good evening ahead.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]