Jyothy Laboratories Limited (NSE: JYOTHYLAB) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Jan. 31, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Moothedath Jyothy — Managing Director and Chairman of the Board
Pawan Agarwal — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Karan Bhuwania — Analyst
Abneesh Roy — Analyst
Vishal Gutka — Analyst
Sonal Minhas — Analyst
Prolin Nandu — Analyst
Amit Purohit — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Anurag Lodha — Analyst
Vishal Punmiya — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Labs Limited Q3 and FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by ICICI Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr Karan Govania from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you.
Karan Bhuwania — Analyst
Thank you,. Good evening, everyone. It’s a pleasure at ICICI Securities to host Q3 FY ’25 results conference call of Labs. From the management, we have Ms MR Joti, Chairperson and Managing Director; Mr Kumar Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer. I’ll hand over the call to Mr to the management for their opening remarks, post which we can open for Q&A. Thank You. Over to you.
Moothedath Jyothy — Managing Director and Chairman of the Board
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome to the Q3 earnings call of Labs Limited. The company — the complete financial results and investor presentation are available on both our company’s website and the stock exchange. I hope everyone had a chance to look at it. For the quarter-ending 31st December 2024, our consolidated revenues from operations reached INR704 crores, which represents a 4% year-on-year value growth and 8% volume growth. The difference between volume and value growth is driven by higher grammages and promotional price-offs in few categories. Ex-HI segment, Q3 grew by 6.1% year-on-year in value terms and volume grew by 10.3%. The overall demand environment continues to be subdued amid inflationary pressures and muted growth rates in urban India. However, good monsoon and growing rural wages saw decent rural demand during the quarter. Having said that, the demand recovery, especially in the rural areas is gradual and in our assessment cannot compensate for the stress in urban demand fully. With rising proportion of Indian consumer purchases getting unplanned and of low-to moderate order value, there has been an increase in-demand for instant fulfillment served by quick commerce platforms. The rapid rise of some of the Quick commerce platforms, promising 10 to 30 minute delivery service in urban markets seemed to be influencing the consumer habits in retail. While in our assessment, the material impact is felt more on food, groceries and other impulse buying categories. We are closely observing the evolving behavior of consumer purchases in the home and personal care categories. Our gross margin for the quarter stands at 49.8%, which was maintained at the same level on year-on-year basis. Our coverage of some of the key raw materials helped us protect the gross margin in Q3. We have taken select price increases in the body soap category in Q3, the impact of which should be visible in Q4 FY ’25. Depending upon the direction of input prices and market conditions, we’ll trigger price increase actions in Q4. Our focus on strengthening the brand remains undiluted despite some demand headwinds in the near-term. Our advertisement and sales promotion spend remain constant at 9% in Q3 FY 2025 as compared to the same-period last year. Our operating EBITDA margin for Q3 stands at 16.4% compared to 17.5% in the same-period last year. While gross margin was protected at 49.8%. The drop-in EBITDA margin by 110 bps is largely due to the fact that while volumes have grown by 88%, the value growth was 4% and operating expenses grew by 7% to 8% on year-on-year basis. Q3 saw fabric care category touching nearly double-digit year-on-year growth. The growth was contributed mainly by liquid returgent and duly supported by returgent powders. Our postworks category remained a key priority with Jujala Supreme maintaining its leadership position. This was bolstered by a new pan-India multimedia campaign featuring national Award winning actress Vidya, launched in October 2024. Ujala was supported by an impactful campaign featuring Lady and Tara, emphasizing the transformative role of polished attire in enhancing confidence. In Kerala, IDD Powder achieved a market-share of 24.5% in its segment during Q3 FY ’25, supported by a multimedia campaign led by Superstam. Within our liquid detergent portfolio, exclusive PAT for Henku were introduced to target key markets, complemented by active sampling programs. Sustained multimedia campaign continued featuring Fajal Agarwal, leveraging television and digital platforms in priority markets to enhance Henco brand visibility. More like liquid detergent continued to perform well and we successfully launched liquid detergent in strategic markets in October 2024, garnering a positive initial response. Wash segment grew by 3.6% on the backdrop of growth in Prill liquid, Exo and Struggles. Exo achieved a market-share of 14.1% in Q3 FY ’25. The ongoing campaign featuring was sustained with higher frequency reinforcing brand salience. TV and digital multimedia campaigns on Prill Liquid continued nationwide in Q3, featuring actors and Ritesh to highlight its superior waste cutting performance and time saving benefits. Prill continues to perform well in modern trade, retail stores and e-commerce platforms. Personal care declined 3.7% year-on-year in Q3 due to slowdown in consumption. Our national multimedia campaign featuring Pandna continues to effectively communicate the brand’s core proposition of promoting good habits. We leverage digital platforms and targeted consumer engagement to maximize the impact of our campaigns, while also broadening our portfolio with new variants to address evolving consumer differences. To tap growth opportunities in the massed toilet soap category, we have just launched Jovia Beauty soap crafted with the goodness of vitamin E and natural ingredients. Jovia comes in two variants, lemon and aloe vera and sandalon turmeric for clear and glowing skin. Foam insecticide segment was severely impacted due to shift — continuous shift in consumer preference towards stakes and also favorable weather conditions. Liquid vaporizer had a tough quarter, but for the nine months period ended December 2024, it has grown at a healthy double-digit compared to the same-period previous year. To counter some of the challenges in HI segment, we have intensified the multimedia campaign featuring focusing on high-priority retails. Over the past few years slowly but consistently, we have successfully reduced our dependence on HI segment with the growth of various other business segments for the company. With the launch of natural racket, an anti-mosquito racket, which has a long battery life, there is one more addition to our household insecticide portfolio. For the nine months period ended December 2024, the company has delivered a 4% value growth and a 7.2% volume growth. Except for HI, all other segments have delivered growth during this period. HI witnessed a degrowth of 7.3% for the nine months period ended December ’24. On the gross margin front as well, there is an improvement of 150 bps, that is 50.4% compared to 48.9% of last year. EBITDA in absolute terms improved from INR371.4 crores in the last year to INR387.7 crore in this year and the EBITDA margin saw an improvement of 10 bps from 17.7 to 17.8. Profit-after-tax to improve from INR291.2 crores to INR294.1 crores. Despite recent inflationary trend noticed in a few key inputs, we are committed to delivering on our long-term profitability and sustainable growth objective. As mentioned in the past, we are focused on launching innovative products, leveraging our competitive advantage such as strong manufacturing capabilities spread across the country, cost optimization, excellent vendor partnerships, deep distribution network, and we remain optimistic about the long-term growth potential of the company, wading through somewhat volatile near-term demand scenarios. Growth for us has been driven by our ability to deliver quality products which are manufactured in-house, hit market relevant price points and back sizes for urban and rural consumers, nicely supported by our strong brands, efficiencies in operation and distribution of our products across geographies through various channels. Protecting margins amidst the sluggish demand scenario and commodity inflation will be the key focus area for us in Q4. We remain committed to strengthening our market presence across categories by investing in strategic brand-building initiatives, driving innovation and enhancing consumer engagement. Last but not the least, I would like to thank you for your continued trust and support as we work towards delivering sustained growth and value-creation. With this, I conclude my opening remarks and we’ll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much, ma’am. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wish to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles we have our first question from the line of Abneesh Kumar Roy from Nuvama Wealth and Investments. Please go-ahead.
Abneesh Roy
Yeah, thanks. My first question is on HI. So a market-leader has come out with a new technology, which is more efficacious, so which currently other players don’t have. And when I see numbers, clearly, they seem to have done much better than you, although they have also seen decline, your decline is much sharper in-spite of being much smaller. So could you comment on whether you’d need much more effective technology to compete with market-leader? And are you also seeing downtrading, so that could potentially benefit your coils business?
Moothedath Jyothy
Thanks,. While the market conditions have been bad, we trust our formulation very well and it’s a — what do you say? It’s a very solid formulation and now only we are in this space and I have lot of confidence in our formulation. It’s the coil segment that has degrown for us. If you see year-on-year, we are at good double-digit growth in the liquid segment. Now the best is that this segment overall is contributing in the lower-single digits. For us, our focus is on growing all other categories and not particularly HI. HI will be there and will have a good enough growth for the coming year. We’ll have few launches, which you will also see.
Abneesh Roy
No, I understand it is small portion of your business that is well-understood. My specific question was in terms of your comment that you are the only company in this subcategory, if you could comment a bit more. And our sense is the higher active molecule in terms of the, those seem to be doing well for the market-leader also. So if you could comment on that part of the segment, more effective.
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah, we good luck to the market-leader, I would say here and we’ll see some more action in that space later.
Abneesh Roy
Okay. My last question will be on dishwash. Here market-leader again has seen high single-digit growth while you have seen 3%. So if you could comment here what’s happening in terms of the liquids versus the basic dishwash in both how the growth is because overall growth is 3%. So if you could comment both brands-wise also and the liquid and the overall — the mass end?
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah. For us, the liquid has grown in double-digits while the bar segment has grown decently and we also have scrubbers here, so it is a mix of all of these categories.
Abneesh Roy
So scrubbers would have underperformed because if liquids is double-digit and overall growth is 3%, something would have seen a decline also, right?
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah. See, if you see the major volume growth is what we have achieved in the segment. It’s the — we have given more grammages. So if you see the overall volume growth for the company has been driven by voice for us.
Abneesh Roy
Okay. Understood. That’s all from my side. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, if you wish to ask any question, you may press star and one on your touchstone telephone. We have our next question from the line of Vishal from HDFC Securities. Please go-ahead.
Vishal Gutka
Yeah. Hi team. Three, four questions from my side. First is on Jovia. So what is the right to win out over here? What is the differentiating point that you launch? Or are we planning to build the brand more lightweight, which within the way give excellent quality to customers and give high-margin to trade. And if it works, then I think a later point of time we can start advertising the product. So that’s the first question. And second related questions on Margo. So we have launched the sandalwood variant out over here for a NIM based soap. And there also we face decent competition from Santur and recently also venture into big into the standalone variant. So first, if we can answer these two questions and then we’ll take the other two questions. Thank you.
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah. So Jovia, we have launched in the mass segment, Vishal and there it is the bundle pack that goes, right, and we have differentiated with vitamin E and the pricing is very competitive. And this is obviously you’re seeing downtrading across categories that is happening and we want to also explore that segment. We want to not lose that opportunity — opportunity as well. So that is one. And we have launched the variant, but it’s again a variant play there just to enhance the overall extension bit. So yeah,
Vishal Gutka
Got it. And Jovia launching on the board, the selected geographies have been launched?
Moothedath Jyothy
Initially selected geography, but it is intended to have a pan-India launch.
Vishal Gutka
Got it. Got it. Other two questions on new launches on the racket part that you introduced for the mosquito. So it is more trading model or what is the differential again your offering because the pricing of local and regional players will be far, far lower. So I understand that in the presentation has extended — extended battery life, I think for six months that you have stated, that could be one of the differentiating point in the pricing and if you can highlight a bit. And second thing on the dishwashing side, has launched a new product for — in the Value for money liquid segment under the brand-name. Do you have any plans to introduce liquids in the value-for-money segment, dishwashing liquids? Thank you.
Moothedath Jyothy
Thank you. Yeah, the racket introduction is basically, Vishal to have a complete portfolio rather. It’s a very small market as such market category as in HI. So — but our presence is needed. There is, you know, all other competition also present in there. We have to be present there and hence that is that’s a good addition to the category. That’s all that is there to the racket. Racket and then liquid in dishwash while our is doing well you’ll see if there are more launches right now I wouldn’t want to comment anything.
Vishal Gutka
Got it, got it. Great. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Before we move on to the next question, a reminder to all participants, you may press star and want to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Sonal from President Cap investment. Please go-ahead.
Sonal Minhas
Hi, business hi, this is Sonal. Am I audible? Yes, Sonal,. Please go-ahead with the question. Yes, sure. Yeah. So I have two questions with regard to the Personal Care segment. I wanted to get a bit of a subjective commentary on how do you see your personal care category compared to competition and you’ve launched, which is on the economy segment, what is your take on product which are a little more premium or a little more higher up in the value chain? That’s one. And secondly, as we see the market being a little sluggish, are people downsizing in terms of volume or is it — but that should show-up in your margins. Just wanted to understand like what is the customer behavior as we speak right now on personal care given the store demand?
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah. So see for us, I would — I wouldn’t want to comment on others, so nan. For us, the Personal Care segment is quite small right now. And you saw the — with introduction of Jovia, we are only adding to the personal care so that we can increase this 10%, 12% to a larger percentage in the future. So you will see some more additions coming in the personal care category over a period of time. Now, and that is like I said previously, the consumers are downtrading and we don’t want to lose any opportunity either in the economy segment or a premium segment. So we — so that’s where we are. We want to be there in most segments as much as possible. Now coming to-market sluggishness, yes, that people are down-trading there are issues with volume so that will remain for quite for some more time is what the guess is.
Sonal Minhas
Just to follow-up on this, so is it better to like look for alternative linked categories to let’s say soap which are adjacencies, which have more adjancies than actually go down the value chain and say we want to launch an economy range of soap because that’s a fairly cluttered market. I’m just trying to basically just get your sense on that. So rather than soap, let’s say a soaping a bathing gel is a, but what’s your take on that?
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah, yeah. So the gel, you are saying the body wash category, right? The body wash category is there. It is not growing. I mean, it’s — you’re seeing Growth there, but not as much as your liquid detergents are growing. For us, the soap segment, we had to have this segment of as a good addition for us right now. While these — we are not ignoring the segment, we will be having a presence later.
Sonal Minhas
Okay. So that’s not on cards immediately is what got it. That’s it from my side. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Nandu from Edelweiss Public Alternatives. Please go-ahead.
Prolin Nandu
Yeah. Hi, thank you for taking my question. A few questions from my side. So Jodi ma’am, I mean, if we look at the gap between volume and value growth, it’s on a very higher side versus our long-term average, right? So from Q4 onwards, do we think that we will revert back to whatever this gap was of the — on the basis of our long-term average. And also if I think about FY ’26, will you be reiterating that you will be — are you confident on achieving our long-term or our objective of double-digit volume-led growth.
Moothedath Jyothy
See Nangdu right yes. Prolin. Okay, the thing is our ambition is still there to grow in double-digit volume growth. But we are little cautious here. We’ll try our best to be in the double-digit, but I don’t want to guide you there. Right now, we are facing and the market is challenging, but we’ll do our best what we can. That’s all what I can say.
Prolin Nandu
Sure, sure. And if I look at your — your long-term, I mean your guidance on margin as well, right? We have given this band of 16% to 18% and we want to invest in brands, right? So when I look at your presentation, right, and even in the slide deck, let’s say, if you look at Slide number 25, the number of celebrities that we have or doing our ad campaigns for each of the product is probably one of the highest for the revenue that we generate. So when we want to invest in some of the brands, is there a case to rationalize some of our existing brands and some of the investment in new brand can be recouped from our existing A&P spends as well.
Pawan Agarwal
This is Agrawal. So I think brand investment strategy will continue because this is what is going to fuel the future growth. While your suggestion of rationalizing some of these celebrities and putting money on some of the new brands, which probably would emerge in future. Again, it’s a complex matter which cannot be — a call cannot be taken at this stage. Right now, we are on a stage where we are investing in our existing brands and these brands are delivering good growth for us. And as and when future — in future, when we add new brands and we enter into new product categories, et-cetera, we’ll continue to promote those brands as well. So I think in the near to mid-term, the A&P spend broadly would remain range-bound.
Prolin Nandu
Sure, sure. All right. And last question from my side would again be pertaining to your launch in launch of Jovia, right? Now in a way we are — you mentioned that we are you seeing lot of downtrading and we want to be present in this market. But at the other end, we also want to focus on, let’s say, liquid detergent in our other part of our portfolio, right? So is it not right to probably take one approach and probably focus on premiumization and because these are more opportunistic kind of a move. Where I’m coming from,, is that how do we manage so many launches, so many products, right? We have also launched a racket, right? So a lot of management bandwidth, promotion and all would be going-in some of these launches. So how do we manage the portfolio? And do you have a thought on probably cutting back on some of these products which are not performing maybe the coil segment in HI could be a case in point, right? Do you have any thoughts on exiting some of these products?
Moothedath Jyothy
See, see, Projan, I believe in-building for the future and that’s where the launches play, right? Today, we need to have certain play in these categories and hence we are launching and this will be the future growth. So we are just seeding in with all these new launches that will be coming. And it’s only the HI segment and within HI, it’s only the coil, which is which is not doing well for us right now. And if you see the Personal Care segment again, it’s a very temporary thing is what I believe. So most of our segments are on a growth path and with HI and within HI, it’s the coil, which is not doing well. And that what we have done is by doing all of this, we are trying to grow all the other categories, which is — which is doing well for us and it has been our strength to grow so-far and we’ll be investing behind growing these categories. We are bringing down the importance of HI in the overall thing. So earlier it used to be 15% of the company. Now it has reduced to 4%, 5% and I think we have been successful in that. The — if you take — if you remove HI, our volume growth for the rest of the category is at 10.10 plus growth, which is very good is, I believe in today’s scenario.
Pawan Agarwal
And also just to add to what said, the kind of distribution network that we have created over the past three, four years, the amount of products that can be placed in this channel across the country, I think is just the beginning. So we have great opportunity and runway available before us.
Prolin Nandu
Sure, that’s it from my side ma’am. All the best and thanks a lot for taking my questions.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Amit Purohit from Elara Capital. Please go-ahead.
Amit Purohit
Yeah, hi. Thank you for the opportunity, one. Just on this volume value pricing gap, our growth gaps because in this quarter it’s almost 4%, last quarter was 2.8% and so what — where are the actions that we have taken because we would have taken some pricing increase in soaps you indicated and then some price of higher grammages in exo. Any price changes we would have done in detergent as well?
Pawan Agarwal
No, actually the higher grammages in dishwash and in fabric care, the detergent liquid, which we have kind of — which is doing really good for us. So there the realizations are still lower. So this basically and promos, of course. So these factors put together has led to this gap between volume and value growth that you see.
Amit Purohit
And what is the price increase taken in soap then?
Pawan Agarwal
So we have taken towards the end of December is a low-single digit increase that we have taken, but we are planning to take further pricing action in-quarter four in personal care category.
Amit Purohit
Okay. And then if that’s fair, so going-forward also, do you think this gap because one, the detergent portfolio and as well as the dishwash portfolio that should continue, right, because the liquid will continue to do well and that will continue to have a negative effect and it’s the soap portfolio probably will help us to negate this, right? Is that the right way to think
Pawan Agarwal
Will be a combination of various factors. So the gap between value and volume would not necessarily be as high as you see right now. It will revert to the mean level. So 3% 2%, 3% gap over a fairly long period of time is what we can consider. So that is how it is going to look like.
Amit Purohit
So I mean, for FY ’26 also, there would be some gap of say 2% or so is a fair assumption to
Pawan Agarwal
2% to 3% should be the gap.
Amit Purohit
Yeah and then just wanted to understand more on this margin — segmental margin. I understand we look at overall, but still just to understand, we — our gross margins remained stable on a Y-o-Y. Our dishwash performance despite giving good grammage, our EBIT margins remain same. Maybe we would have spent less on advertisement. But Fabric wash gross margins — EBIT margins declined, household declined, personal care also declined. So — and still — and personal care, I can understand that because this would have a gross margin impact. And fabric care, if you are doing liquid more, maybe like you said, there is a pricing impact and Hence your gross margins may not be as good as the powder margin is because of promotions or advertisement and all. So I’m not able to understand how the gross margin is still stable in that sense.
Pawan Agarwal
Yeah. Thanks. That’s a great question. Actually, though it’s a combination of multiple factors, some of things you have already articulated. One missing piece that you did not mention is the media and advertisement spend. So that varies considerably from quarter-to-quarter across categories. So — and also the raw-material coverage, input coverage that we have had in various segments, that also helped us maintain the gross margin Y-o-Y. But ad spends w
Amit Purohit
Ere actually on a Y-o-Y basis, you haven’t reduced your ad spend if I look at a percentage.
Pawan Agarwal
No, but within the categories there will be reshuffling. So the ad spend would be not uniform across all categories.
Amit Purohit
And the other expenditure increase, is this just because last Q2, we would have not spend and this is the quarter when we spent because last quarter was no significant growth was seen and it’s just shift of spend. Is that the way to look at it or is there any something because that has gone up by 9.5%.
Pawan Agarwal
You are talking about quarter-on-quarter or year-on-year
Amit Purohit
Y-o-Y basis, I’m saying 9.5% is up the ads — the other expenditure.
Pawan Agarwal
Yeah. So one important point is you would have noticed that our volumes have gone up by 8% Y-o-Y. So freight and transportation and logistic cost has actually increased. So that’s the only increase. Other than that, most of the expenses are in-line with previous year.
Amit Purohit
Sure. And what is the — lastly, lastly, on the outlook on the margins, how do one assess? I mean you’ve been indicating 16% 17%, but what is the guidance probably in the near-term and FY ’26?
Pawan Agarwal
So the margin scenario is very, very — the market scenario is very, very competitive and the external environment is not very conducive. As of now, we are holding on to our, 16% 17%, but we are closely observing the external trend and our effort and our business plans are geared to deliver 16%, but we will let you know as we progress, as we get into the next financial year.
Amit Purohit
But would you say that this margin of Q3 would be the bottom-end of the thing or you think that there would be some more pressure coming in. That’s the last one.
Pawan Agarwal
Difficult to say because the way input prices are fluctuating, crude prices are fluctuating is highly volatile scenario right now. So while our — in the immediate near-term, we have to first protect our quarter-four margin, this is what we are working on. And you know, for the next year till now, we are still believing that we will — we should be able to deliver between 16% to 17%, but we’ll come back to you in the next earning call probably what would be the guidance for the next year?
Amit Purohit
Sure. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you.
Operator
We have our next question from the line of Tanay Gandhi, shareholder. Please go-ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hi. I just wanted to understand the split you all have between urban and rural. And if you could just paint a better picture on their growth, how each of them are going?
Moothedath Jyothy
So the ratio is 60-40, 60 urban, 40 rural. And rural has been decent, while urban continues to have issues.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, that was just my question. If you could just paint a bit of light on decent, what do you mean by that?
Moothedath Jyothy
See the — if you see last year, rural was struggling. So I think on the basis of good monsoon and relatively rural is doing has come out of it. It is not — you know, the growth is not great, but it is coming back is what I believe. But for us, it contributes only 40%. So whatever good growth if at all-in future you get-in rural, it will not compensate for the issues that are there in the urban.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and want to ask a question. We have our next question from the line of Vishal Gutka from HDFC Securities. Please go-ahead.
Vishal Gutka
Yeah. Just wanted to check on the current — how the current HI season is ongoing because Jan, I think almost month has passed by and your guidance for losses for this business, I think we are making approximately INR30 crore INR40 crore losses in this business. Shall we expect down to breakeven in F ’26 as the contribution to liquids further increases?
Pawan Agarwal
See, HI a lot depends on the season. February and March, everybody — like everybody, we are also waiting for season to pan-out in our favor with weighted breadth. Having said that, if you look at nine months performance despite the decline in HI, the losses have come down from INR27 crore to INR20 crore nine months period. So — and even in the — in the quarter also, even though there has been a significant decline in the top-line HI segment, the losses are restricted to INR10 crore as opposed to INR9 crore same-period last year. So — and this is largely a lot of fixed-cost is sitting there. Now everything depends on volume and going by how season pans out, I think the profit and loss figure would also dramatically shift.
Vishal Gutka
Got it. So the F-26, what is — I understand that it will depend upon the seasonality. But definitely what are the plans to bring down further losses? Losses shall further drift down.
Pawan Agarwal
And we are working on a lot of things. You saw this racket launch and there are few other things which are happening, we are examining our strategy, raising our strategy state-by-state and we will be taking the necessary action wherever necessary
Vishal Gutka
Got it. And on the innovation front, I think Jot priorly highlighted that if your calendar year ’25 is a year of innovation. So a couple of innovations you have done, I think more innovation will follow-through. So I think in the past, you highlighted a lot more innovation than planning personal care segment. So we can broadly highlight with any — which segments, any new segment you are planning to within the existing segments, we are trying to make renovations.
Moothedath Jyothy
So Vishal, that I would like to not comment anything right now. You will see as and when we launch, you will get to know that.
Vishal Gutka
Got it. Got it. Got it. And last question on quick commerce. So just wanted to check whether you are — whether you are available with all the leading three apps are available because we generally seen some challenging — challenges in that the challenger brand been placed on the network. So if you can just broadly give your thoughts on quick commerce, are we there in all the apps and most of the cities are we there or not?
Moothedath Jyothy
Yes, yes, we are there. We are there.
Vishal Gutka
Okay. No major challenge in what do you call the placing the product to the commerce platform, right?
Moothedath Jyothy
Sorry, can you repeat that please?
Vishal Gutka
Yeah. No major challenge in placing the products at the quick commerce platform, right? Because we have challenged the brands in most of the categories, that is reason I’m asking. Generally, they tend to keep the high-velocity brands. Just wanted your thoughts on that.
Moothedath Jyothy
No, no, no. So we are present across and for us that channel also has been growing.
Vishal Gutka
Okay, okay. Thank. Thank you and wishing you all the best for 4Q and FY ’26.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and want to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Sunal Minhas from Present Cap Investment. Please go-ahead.
Sonal Minhas
Hi, this is Sonal. Thanks for taking my questions again. My question was linked to kind of what the earlier gentleman was asking around commerce. Wanted to understand roughly ballpark how — what percentage of your sale is quick commerce? And any — typically we’ve seen that whenever a new distribution channel gets made, there is a new set of brands which basically have — they take the whole position in a new distribution and there are new brands which get formed. So what is your observation from that channel? Are there some products, some SKUs which you specifically made from a grammish perspective or from just a position perspective for that particular channel? Just wanted to hear your side.
Moothedath Jyothy
So yes, for us, quick commerce has been growing fairly well and I wouldn’t want to mention which one is doing for us. All the categories are fairly present there and we are growing handsomely in that channel is what I would like to say, so now
Sonal Minhas
And what percentage of your sale ballpark would it be like less than 5%, 5% to 10%?
Moothedath Jyothy
We wouldn’t want to comment on that.
Sonal Minhas
Sure. Okay. That’s it from my side. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and want to ask questions. The next question is from the line of Anurag Roda from Axis Capital. Please go-ahead.
Anurag Lodha
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. So I just wanted to understand the competitive scenario in the dishwash segment and like when do you expect it to stabilize? And I also wanted to understand about the pricing, the grammage that you’ve Taken here. So I mean, majority of the grammage that has come in on the company. Has it come from this segment? Like what is the split blend like? Yeah, that is my question.
Moothedath Jyothy
So yes, FMCG is competitive across categories, Anurag, and this was no — you know it is very competitive there as well. Yes, we have passed on these rammage benefits to the consumer-like any other player in the industry and it has been doing well for us.
Anurag Lodha
Understood, ma’am. But I mean, what is your anticipation with regards to how this competition is shaping up and like when you anticipate it to stabilize? So any sense over there?
Moothedath Jyothy
See, stabilize, see in a scenario where everybody wants volume growth and when consumer is not willing to come, there will be this competitive aspect that will continue for quite some time. So — but we are ready with our strategy and that will continue. In a scenario like this, we have — I believe that we have done well and that we will be competitive in the future as well. Stabilizing, I don’t see that in this — in the coming this thing. It will continue this way till — till quite some time, I guess.
Anurag Lodha
Understood, ma’am. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and want to ask a question. We have our next question from the line of Vishal Punmeya from ES Securities. Please go-ahead.
Vishal Punmiya
Yeah. Hi, thank you for the opportunity. First, a couple of questions on Juvia. So firstly, just wanted to check what is the price point for this brand? Is it in the range of INR20 INR25 for a 75 grams of single pack, which you obviously will sell-in is that the same range?
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah, yeah, it will be around 25 26, correctly?
Vishal Punmiya
Okay, okay. And what would be the profitability in terms of maybe you can highlight the gross margin, is it similar to the company’s average or would it be currently lower for us at so it’s a small-scale, obviously, we will start with a very small-scale. It will be a reasonable margin.
Pawan Agarwal
It will not be too attractive a margin as you know it’s going to be competing in the mark segment. So it will be reasonable, competitive enough.
Vishal Punmiya
So it would be a dilutive for us on gross margin levels in the near-term, at least for the next couple of years?
Pawan Agarwal
Yes, at least initially, yes.
Vishal Punmiya
Okay. Okay. And do you expect the launch in the mass segment to help us with Margo scalability? Do you think that in non-South markets where Margo is currently not present, can a mass product help you to tap those markets
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah the intent is to be there everywhere Vishal this will be a pan-India later
Vishal Punmiya
So I get your comment on Juvia being there pan-India but can it help Margo to areas where it is currently not present?
Moothedath Jyothy
So Juvia and Margo are totally unrelated. Margo, while we have a decent presence in the South except Kerala, Marco is quite strong in Tamil and AP Karnataka. So Margo is doing well there as well. So and it is also present in the rest of the country. So with this, it is a different segment altogether. Margo is a different segment altogether and it is in a way a niche segment where people believe in the ingredient NIM very strongly. That is that segment, while Jovia is a beauty segment?
Vishal Punmiya
Okay, understood. And any guidance in terms of near-term volumes would you — are you kind of seeing a better trajectory or in volume terms over the next couple of quarters? I know things are quite volatile even in terms of demand, but internally, are you seeing the benefits on More light as well as Mr White launches as well as the latest introduction of segment. So would it help aid volume growth to be better from current levels?
Pawan Agarwal
No, it looks challenging. The initial signs in-quarter four are not very encouraging. So I don’t think quarter-four is going to be a meaningfully different or superior. So it’s going to be tough.
Vishal Punmiya
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. And I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Moothedath Jyothy
Yeah. We sincerely thank you for taking interest in Labs. While we have tried to answer most of your questions, if there are any questions left or further clarifications needed, feel free-to get back to us. Thanks once again, and I have a pleasant evening ahead.
Pawan Agarwal
Thank you.
Moothedath Jyothy
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.