Kalyan Jewellers India Limited (NSE: KALYANKJIL) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 08, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Ramesh Kalyanaraman — Executive Director
Sanjay Raghuraman — Chief Executive Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Rahul Agarwal — Analyst
Manoj Menon — Analyst
Devanshu Bansal — Analyst
Deepak Poddar — Analyst
Videesha Sheth — Analyst
Bhavya Gandhi — Analyst
Pallavi Deshpande — Analyst
Parikshit Gupta — Analyst
Questions and Answers:
operator
This is the operator. We will begin shortly. Apologies about the delay. I request each of you to stay online. Thank you. Sam IT.
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Kalyan Jewellers India Limited Q4FY25 earnings call. 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. Rahul Agarwal. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Rahul Agarwal
Thank you. Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us on Kalyan Dwellers India Limited Q4 and FY25 earnings call. Today on the call we have with us Mr. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director, Mr. Sanjay Raghuraman, CEO Mr. V. Swaminathan, CFO, Mr. Sanjay Mehrotra, Head of Strategy and Corporate affairs and Mr. Abraham George, Head of Investor Relations and Treasury. I hope everyone had a chance to view our financial results and investor presentation which were recently posted on company’s website and stock exchanges. We will begin the call with opening remarks from management followed by an open forum for Q and A.
Before we begin, I’d like to point out that some of the statements made during today’s call may be forward looking. A disclaimer to that effect has been included in the earnings presentation. I would now like to invite Mr. Ramesh Kalyaniraman, Executive Director of Kalyan Dwellers India Limited to give his opening remarks. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Thank you. Good evening and let me welcome everyone to the call. Q4 has been fantastic. We ended the financial year on an excellent note. The Consolidated revenue and PAT growth for the quarter has been approximately 36%. Standalone business recorded revenue growth of 38 and PAT growth of around 41. For the full financial year we recorded a revenue in excess of 25,000 crore and a PAT of approximately 714 crore. At the beginning of the last financial year we had kept certain targets around showroom network expansion and debt reduction. We launched 76 Kalyan showrooms and 60 Candia showrooms in India and our first showroom in the US during the last financial year.
The year also saw a reduction in debt in India by around 250 crore. Even though our objective was to reduce non GML during the year, the reduction of debt has been done mostly in the GML. Due to the temporary disruption around GML in India over the last 34 months. With situation slowly returning to normalcy, we expect to swap position and reduce non GML levels over the near term. Total debt reduction over the last two years stands at around 520 crore. In line with our announced dividend policy, Board of Directors has recommended a dividend of approximately 150 crore payout in excess of 20% in the net profit generated during FY 2025.
As previously communicated, during the ongoing financial year we plan to open 170 showrooms across Kalyan and Candir formats and plan to reduce debt in India by another 350 to 400 crore. Let me spend some time on our omnichannel platform, Candir. As I indicated earlier, ever since we made Candir a wholly owned subsidiary, we have been infusing such talent at the senior management level and have been working on creating a totally refreshed merchandising strategy, brand identity and omnichannel rollout plan. Now, with 73 active Candia showrooms, we have finalized the launch plan for a nationwide campaign for Candir.
We have held back the official launch of the campaign given the recent Tahil Gam incident. We plan to launch 80 Candir showrooms in India during the current financial year through a mix of Foco and Coco showrooms. Bulk of the Showroom launches during Q1 and Q2 of the current financial year will be franchise ones. We expect Candian to be profitable at that level during the current financial year. And now talking about the ongoing quarter, we had an excellent start to the financial year. Despite continuing volatility in gold prices, we witnessed robust growth in our Aksaturabia sale this year.
And we continue to see encouraging momentum in consumer demand, especially around the wedding purchases during the current quarter. Thank you. And I’ll hand over it to Sanjay. He will read you through the numbers. Thank you.
Sanjay Raghuraman
Thank you, Ramesh. Good afternoon everybody. I’m really happy to be talking to you all after great financial year. I’ll start with the just concluded quarter. Our company reported consolidated revenue of 6,182 crores in the just concluded quarter. A growth of 36% over the corresponding quarter in the previous year. Consolidated EBITDA came in at 399 crores versus 296 crores in corresponding quarter of the previous year. And consolidated profit after tax came in at 188 crores versus 137 crores during the corresponding quarter of the previous year. I’ll now give you a breakup of the financial year performance between India and The Middle east starting with India.
For the just concluded quarter, revenues in India came in at 5350 crores versus 3867 crores compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year. India Q4 EBITDA came in at 343 crores versus 2, 255 crores when compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. And India profit after tax came in at 185 crores compared to 131 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Moving on now to talk about our Middle east business. Middle east revenue for the quarter came in at 784 crores versus 623 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
And EBITDA in The Middle east was 59 crores versus 44 crores for the same period of the previous year. And the Middle east business posted a profit of 12 crores for the quarter compared to 10 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Lastly, talking about our E commerce business and year, we posted revenues of 28 crores versus 36 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. And the quarter recorded a loss of 12 crores in Candir versus a loss of 70 lakhs for the corresponding quarter. Of the previous year.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
For the full year FY25. On a consolidated level, India revenue came in at 25,045 crores and consolidated profit after tax came in at 714 crores. With this, I’m done with the summary of the financials and we now open the floor for questions. Thank you.
operator
Thank you, sir. We will now begin with a question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on their Touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Manoj Menon from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Manoj Menon
Hi Ramesh.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Hi.
Manoj Menon
Nice evening. So I just seek your insights on consumer behavior on a few aspects to begin with. Now, given the material gold inflation which you have seen, I’m sure you would have seen similar templates playing out in your long experience as well. What’s the consumer telling you in terms of the consumer behavior? Let’s say given the 40% increase we have seen over the last six months, there are a lot of facets to it. Let’s say for example is the salience of non 22 carat increasing. Is there a consumer demand for it? Anything what you see on the consumer behavior and I got a few follow ups on this, thank you.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah. So as you rightly mentioned, we have seen the cycle over the past three decades now a couple of times. So whenever the gold price increases, the demand per se, what happens? People take a pause, People see where the gold is, the price is going and then they either postpone or prepond the purchase according to location. So demand per se, there is no issue. I told you Akshaya was also strong. Footfalls are strong, SSGs are strong even for Akshaya. But yes, the inventory composition etc. On 18 carat 22 karat again the heavyweight versus lightweight versus midweight products.
These kind of things we keep on changing when we have a 30% plus price increase for the commodity which is again a constant process. It’s not an overnight thing. The price say was X three years before Y now but there has been a. There has been a path wherein it came from X to Y. So constantly we work on the composition of inventory in terms of 18 carat, 22 carat lightweight jewelry amid which will re jewelry etc.
Manoj Menon
Understood? Understood. The, you know, the. The composition of the. Let’s say on the weight side of it. Understood that aspect. But on the 18, 14, 22, you know, is the consumer, or let me put it differently so it can a common consumer make out. You know, let’s say somebody is wearing an 18 carat or a 22 carat.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Nobody can make out because the product is the same. Okay, so it’s not about. It’s not about whether people know or not. It is about their personal satisfaction whether it is a 22 carat versus 18 carat or 14 carat. So as of now plain gold we don’t do in 14 carat diamond jewelry. It was earlier done in 18, now it is mostly done in 14. Plain gold jewelry was only 22 and 18 carat was only for certain stylized products wherein Gen Z products. But now 18 karat is there for even staple products. We have started keeping 18 carat in certain markets.
But certain markets like Tamil Nadu, it is still very tough to crack an 18 carat. People still buy 22 carat. 18 carat is only for Gen Z products. So it is upon market to market and we cannot just give you a blank and answer.
Manoj Menon
Understood? Loud and clear. I’ll take it separately now just on the making charges bit here. You know, does it make a difference to your profit pool or the Making charges when it comes to 22, 18, I’m talking about only plain gold, not standard.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
No, no, no, no. So we, we will actually, we are, you know that our profitability is on the cost price of the product which is made and then selling price is the making charge. Right. So our margin is only regarding the making charge. So we as a percentage we will not compromise on our, on our making charge at all. In fact, 18 carat will have a bit more profitability than the 22 carat.
Manoj Menon
Understood. And if I may just quickly or second and then I’ll come back in the queue. So historically my understanding, I just want to stress this, the hypothetical understanding from the past that whenever gold has seen material inflation, you know, the, the ability of the salesperson to actually upsell a studded is far better. Is what conceptually what I have been told in the past, you know that when a consumer says look for, for buying a 10 grams, I let’s say shell out 10000 rupees. Right. I’m a kind of. And wherein that upgrading helps you capture far better gross margin.
Is that is the hypothesis correct? And is it happening on the ground?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah, yeah. So studded, studded conversion becomes easier when the gold price is very high. Very simple reason because customer comes with one lakh rupees. Okay. For example, if it is plain gold, he will, he or she will end up buying 10 grams, right? Approximately I’m telling you. So earlier they could have bought 1314 gram which is now they are able to buy only 10 grams with the same budget. So customer might not get the same product which was there in his mind because volume wise they would have cut by 30, 35%. But when it comes to standard at least 40, 50% the second year by the stone.
So only the gold, rest of the gold where this volume issue is coming. So for standard product, the perception of the customer for what he should he or she should buy versus what reality is will be more closer than the plain bolt. So it makes us easier to convert to standard when the prices go up.
Manoj Menon
Understood. And one last question for now is as I understand that the retail prices of let’s say diamonds are largely flattish versus material inflation in gold. Now can this have an impact incrementally on the consumers? Let’s say propensity or willingness to actually buy a diamond. Because let’s say if I’m a consumer who bought two or three years back and suddenly I’m finding that when I come to a store for an exchange that my diamond price has not inflated, whereas gold has inflated. Is there any such consumer behavior which we should watch out for?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Again, everybody does not buy in an angle of just getting a price or what you call elevation for a product which they a commodity which they have bought. Right. So even when you buy a diamond jewelry there is gold quotient in it. And diamond also it is not that price has been stable. Stable for the past 10 years it has been moving up. Right. So 65% in a standard product is also gold. No. So customer first the customer happiness comes for satisfaction of wearing the product. Everything comes behind it. So they have to be satisfied in wearing that product which is more in a standard when compared to plain gold.
When because the price went up 30, 35% in a very short time.
Manoj Menon
Very clear. Thank you. And all the best for the medium term.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press Star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Devanshu Bansal from MK Global Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Devanshu Bansal
Sir.
Devanshu Bansal
Hi, thanks for the opportunity and congratulations for great set of numbers. Sir, just wanted to check on the robust demand trends in the current year. Right. So you mentioned that Akshaya sales were pretty robust. So I just want you to check is it like specific day that you are talking about or is it like whatever 35, 40 days that have been in the quarter. So throughout the quarter the demand trends have remained robust.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So the demand has been robust right from the beginning of the quarter. What I told you is about the day and usually what happens all the offers or the pre book redemptions etc happens 10 days in the taxidermia zone meaning minus 10 days both angles. When you see the SSDs have been strong and there has been good momentum at the store level.
Devanshu Bansal
Understood, Understood. And sir, in your initial commentary you mentioned that the gold metal loan was sort of reduced in FY25 in another way. This is a hedging instrument also. So have we changed our way of hedging recently? What’s the outlook there? And secondly, as we understand there was about 200bps of increase in interest rate on gold metal loan and you indicated that there is some relief that has been there. So what is the exact quantum of increase that may be there for the current FY26 year?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah, so gold loan interest rate has been increased in the range of 2.2.5%. It has started coming down from the peak which was at around 5% audits. So now it’s slowly settling down and once it gets settled down we will swap the gold loan to meaning it will be. The gold loan will go up and the CC will come down. So it is still not back to the normal levels. Understood.
Manoj Menon
Any quantum sir, as in earlier it was two, two and a half percent. As of now where does it stand?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
It was in the range of 3, 3 and a half. Now it is in the range of 55 meaning 5, 5 and 5. Okay.
Manoj Menon
Understand answer. This year we’ve incurred about 350 crore of capex. Right? So now the understanding was also that that you will be changing the model.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Right.
Manoj Menon
So for FY26 what. What is the Capex expectation from showroom.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Additions in India even in this financial year? If you remember we initially initially the first half was the old model where Capex was put by Kalyan and franchisee was investing in the inventory. Okay. So around 30 showrooms in the financial year it was our Capex winning. Kalyan jewelers was investing for Capex and only the investment on inventory was coming from them. So predominantly the first half CapEx amount was that and second half there there has been what you call the renovations which will happen etc. Which will be in the range of what usually 150 crore.
So next year if you ask Capex should be in the range of 150 because only the maintenance Capex will be there. Because next year plan is to open all stores through the new model. Plus of course Candir stores will be there which is owned for which Capex will be put by Candir. Yeah.
Manoj Menon
Okay.
Manoj Menon
So sir, if we have to break this 350crore and 150cr has gone into maintenance. So new store Capex has been about 200 crore in FY25, right?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah. 30 show rooms which we we would have done Catrex 30, 14 to 4 maybe 120 crore. Again 150 will be maintenance capex and there has been one or two showrooms like Chennai we completely revamped which is of high cost. It is not. It is not in the range of 23 crore. It will be much bigger than that. So that is about the Capex which has been spent for this year.
Manoj Menon
The last question from Mayan I was seeing your payable days so that is slightly higher and between 30 to 35 days versus 10 to 20 days for other jewelry retailers. So do you anticipate this to reduce going ahead or remain stable at current levels?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah. So that Capex. One more thing which I missed out is south are franchisee model. If you remember south is that even now in the financial Year we open nine stores in the south. Capex will be put by Kalyan and only inventory will be done by franchisees. So south franchisee model even now is Capex by Kalyan. So that will also be in the range of what 40, 50 crore in the last financial year. Okay. And now coming to payable. So payable depends upon the inventory which you keep. Okay. For, for, for if you look at from far it will be only gold or a diamond.
But when you go further into it in gold itself there are premium products in gold which has a better margin and better credit days which is not kept by all brands. So there are brands predominantly keeping only staple products for which the number of payable days cannot be like what we enjoy. There are certain brands who don’t keep as much as Cheddar as Kalyan. So if you look at our payable days it has been only reducing or it has been stable. So if you ask whether we will improve the number of working days. Yes of course we can.
Because the revenue is growing and if in case we are not adding inventory then the payable days should come down. Thanks for taking my question sir. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, please press star N1 to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Deepak Podar from Sapphire Capital. Please go ahead.
Deepak Poddar
Hello. Yeah. Yeah.
Deepak Poddar
Okay.
Deepak Poddar
Thank you very much for this opportunity. So just wanted to understand first upon the margin front, I mean this year as a whole our PBT margins were down to 3.8% which is largely driven also by I think 120, 30 crores of impact on inventory. So how do we see the PBT margins for this year? FY26.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So if you. First of all, as you rightly said, if you negate the 120, 130 crore the PBT margins would have been in the range of five. Right. Approximately 5% for even the last financial year. So the running finance area it should be slightly higher than that because interest saving can also come because we are reduced our debt. So it should be about 5%.
Deepak Poddar
No. So, so if I adjust 130 crores your PBT margin increases from 3.8% to 4.3%.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Right? Yeah. So and Q4 you can see. Yeah, 4.1. So I think we should, we should target for a PVT margins of in excess of 5%.
Deepak Poddar
In excess of 5% for FY26.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Deepak Poddar
Okay. Okay, understood. And in terms of debt you mentioned we are looking to reduce debt by about 300 to 400 crores this year. FY26.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yes, that is the target. We have to be our target for the financial year. Debt reduction will be in the range of 300 to 404.
Deepak Poddar
Okay, okay. And how do we see the growth for this year FY26 as a whole?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
You know that we are opening 90 Kalyan showrooms out of which what 80 plus will be in India. And we have opened 76, 77 showrooms in the last financial year. That revenue we are not. It’s not a full revenue which has been absorbed in the last financial year. That revenue should also come SSGs. Of course in this, the last financial year SSGs were extremely strong. Even if you, for a budget sake, if you reduce SSG a bit than last year overall revenue growth should be what it should be. Good. I’m sure that you will be able to assess the overall revenue growth.
Deepak Poddar
Understood. And. And we, we are looking to open around 150. 150 stores.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Right.
Deepak Poddar
Out of which 90 would be Kalyan and remaining would be Candid.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah, 90 plus 18.
Deepak Poddar
So around 170 is what we are targeting.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yes. Yes. Okay.
Deepak Poddar
Okay. And you mentioned the capex amount. I missed that amount. So what would be the capex amount for this? For this. So I mean it would be for.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
The next financial year. No, for the running financial year.
Deepak Poddar
Yeah, yeah.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So the maintenance capex will be in the range of 150 and south stores. If we open what seven or eight showrooms that also can come to around 50 crore because South Capex is done by us and Candir, whatever comes will come. We’re being our own store candor will be done by us completely inventory plus capex.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So somewhat higher than 150. I mean some somewhere around. That is what we might.
Deepak Poddar
No, 200 for sure because 200 plus for sure because 200 will be for Kalyan itself. So 200 plus Candir will be the right way to look at it.
Deepak Poddar
And how much would be candy or 80 stores.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
What, what can be the potential candir predominantly will be. It’s a mix of franchisee and cocoa. So it depends upon how many coco. How many Coco. Even if you, if you on a. If you look at what 50, 50 then 40 showrooms will be done by the company. Okay. So into say one and a half, two crores. It’s 80 crore.
Deepak Poddar
That’s very clear, sir. I think that’s very helpful. That would be from my side. Thank you so much.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of vidisha. Seth from Ambit Capital, please go ahead.
Videesha Sheth
Hi, I hope I’m audible.
Videesha Sheth
Thank you for taking my question.
Videesha Sheth
I just have one query on the.
Videesha Sheth
Study mix in continuation to what you.
Videesha Sheth
Responded to the earlier participants question. Just wanted to know what incremental initiatives are you as a brand undertaking to drive this mix and studied one. Definitely you did talk about that conversion becomes easier. But any other initiatives that you’d like.
Videesha Sheth
To highlight which is leading to this increase in mix?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yes. So standard mix for Kalyan, the major driver for the past say eight to ten quarters was because the mix of non south revenue is the major driver because non south revenue comes with better student ratio than south. That was a major driver. And of course on a chore level also we try to improve the standard ratio. We give incentives to staff, we do campaigns around standard, we do promotions around standard. So that is how our standard ratio is improving. Okay. Right. Thanks.
operator
Thank you. Participants, please press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Bhavya Gandhi from Dalal and Brocha Stocking stockbroking. Please go ahead.
Bhavya Gandhi
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Hope I’m audible. Hello.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yes, please go ahead.
Bhavya Gandhi
Yeah, so just wanted to understand how. How is the renewals of franchise taking place because I believe we started somewhere in June 22nd and the three years are our franchisee agreement gets over.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Right.
Videesha Sheth
So if you can throw some light on your asset.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
The lock in for four years.
Videesha Sheth
Okay, lock in is for four years. Any early renewals are we seeing at the moment or how is it?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
No, they don’t have to renew. No four years may there’s no renewal.
Videesha Sheth
Once the franchisee agreement ends at the end of fourth year.
Videesha Sheth
How is it? The agreement is for nine years. So four years is a compulsory locking.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Okay. Four years is the compulsory lock in. Okay.
Videesha Sheth
So they don’t have to do anything after four years. Okay, got it, got it.
Videesha Sheth
Fair enough. Just wanted to also ask you on the gold price impact. So I mean because you’ve been there for last three decades. So what typically happens to the absolute revenue and EBITDA when there is a gold price falling scenario? Let’s take an example of 1 lakh becoming 90,000. So in that case, I mean demand will not start picking up immediately.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Right.
Videesha Sheth
So if you can just help us explain how does the numbers look like when there’s a downward gold price scenario?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
No customer you should look at through the customer point of view. Customer comes not with the volume in mind. They come with a budget in mind. So the customer, the first question which our sales team will ask a customer of course after welcoming and stuff will be the budget of the product which they want to buy. So if they say 5 lakhs the sales team will start showing product from 6 lakhs or 7 lakhs or something. So that then they can upsell a bit. So. But customer comes with a budget in mind. So when the gold price comes down automatically volume goes up because they want to.
They can buy only for the amount which they have in their hand.
Videesha Sheth
Got it? And in that case does the student ratio get impacted?
Deepak Poddar
Ratio? When. When the gold price comes down you mean?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
You should understand that the gold price were okay. What is now this 30% upwards over the last one year. Right before that also it is nothing related to. It becomes easier when the gold price is very high for conversion. That’s it. But organically itself all of us know that there is an inclination to standard for the young generation. They see porky diamond and precious uncut etc and organically there it’s it. There’s a driving force to standard and sales team. They will push for cheddar because they have been incentivized that way. But when the gold price is very high, conversion becomes much easier than when it is low.
Because the customer when they have a perception in mind that for 1 lakh they will get a product that products in size and size will not be too much different if they buy a student because student takes care of 40% of the product.
Videesha Sheth
Got it? Fair enough. And what is the average invoice value for candle? If you can just throw some light.
Videesha Sheth
On that as well it will be 20. What?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
2530 K. 2530 K. Okay, fair enough. Thank you so much.
Videesha Sheth
Really helpful.
operator
Thank you. Participants please press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Pallavi Deshpande from Samiksha Capital. Please go ahead.
Pallavi Deshpande
Yes sir. Thank you for taking my question. Just one here on the borrowings, you know we’re not seeing a decline and we’re seeing a high cash balance. If you can just explain that.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Can you repeat the question once more.
Videesha Sheth
It’s the borrowings, you know, they’re not declining as guided and the cash has increased. I just wanted to understand, you know.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So you. So two things. One is that in India if you look at the debt level have come down by 250crores console you might not see a huge difference because Middle east the debt would have increased. So predominantly what happens is when gold price move up GML level tend to increase as bank revalue the loans at the end of the period on the prevailing gold price. So actually given the sharp rise in gold price during the second half of the last financial year GML should have ideally seen a noticeable increase. But since we reduced our GML loans by around 250 crore the total GML is seen as 250.
So GML loans we have reduced by a much higher proportion. But you see only 250 because the banks have revalued the GML with the current gold price. So in the Middle east we have not done any reduction in GML from our side. And hence you see the increase in level of GML driven by the increase in underlying gold price.
Videesha Sheth
So the other part would be that you know we were planning to increase decrease the non GML actually. Right. Because that was cheaper for us.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
That was because of the uncertainty around gml. No, I told you last two, three months GML had a huge turbulence because of. Because of other reasons. Right. So there was gml. The uncertainty around gml especially over the last one or two months. That is why we the GML limits was not reduced. Okay. And once the situation is back to normalcy we can immediately swap it.
Videesha Sheth
Now what would be the guidance for and why is the cash balance so high?
Videesha Sheth
Cash balance? What it says. Okay, I’ll check the cash balance. But what I saw was it’s Only a difference of 60 crore increase in middle East. That is predominantly because the cash is going and sitting in the gold loan. Right. Because we like to pay money. Am I to clear now?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yes, thank you so much.
Videesha Sheth
I’m going to ask questions.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Hello. Hello. Yeah, I’m able to guest. Yeah, sure. So my question is on the candidates since we plan to open around 80 stores next year. Correct. So which one market? So far we have seen success for this model. And considering we are doubling the store count to next year. Any target market where you think that the rollouts will be faster and typically what kind of a gross margin or unit economy you can expect that once you see the mature stores will reach what kind of unit economy you can expect from the candir. So candir on an ideal situation, on a matured store or maybe closer to maturity store the stock turn should be in the range of 2% margins you know that it is in the range of 30, 35%.
Okay. That is the store which is. Which is almost matured. That is the store economics. Okay. Margins will be what 30, 35% and Stockton should be in the range of 2. Now about expansion, our Primary focus will be Metro Tire 1 and Tire 2 locations. We are not, we are not pinning down any particular Metro to focus more. We will be, we will be expanding across the country. And right from, you know, when Candir is a wholly owned subsidiary, we have been constantly increasing talent across the senior management and the other areas where like marketing and stuff.
And again merchandising strategies also completely revamped. Now we are very clear on how the brand identity should be. Strategy is also laid. We were almost about to launch the campaign wherein once we launch the campaign only we can expect footfalls and things will come to where we want. But because of the recent incident we actually pushed the campaign. But our target for the financial year is to make Candir profitable at that level.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Does that answer your question?
Pallavi Deshpande
Sure. And typically what is the student mix of for Candir at a store level? It is 70% studied.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
70%.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Yeah. And. And typically what is our store size and is like. Are you thinking to use Ecom Channel also for. For this platform going ahead? Yeah. It’s an omnichannel. So now the Candier showroom size will be in the range of,500 square feet. And of course it’s an omnichannel wherein it is not only dependent on store but we need online platform also to help drive footfalls to the store. Sure.
Pallavi Deshpande
Thank you so much.
Pallavi Deshpande
That’s all for my time.
operator
Yeah, thank you. The next question comes from the line of Parikshit Gupta from Fair Value Capital. Please go ahead.
Pallavi Deshpande
Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on a great result. I just have one question and I joined a little late so I’m sorry if I’m repeating it. With the India UK fta. There is a lot of news going around about a boost in gems and jewelry exports from India. Can you throw a little light on it about how it might be beneficial for us or is it a little too early to talk about any positive signs from it?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So as you know, we don’t export for others wherein we don’t have export business. We have plans to open our showrooms in UK this year for which we can export from India. Otherwise then we don’t have a direct benefit because of this.
Pallavi Deshpande
Understood. So the Middle east business only caters to the GCC area.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So Middle east actually looks at looks after our Middle east operation. And also as we speak there are products from Middle east which is sent to you, the US operations also.
Pallavi Deshpande
Okay. And can you please spend a minute on how the FTA would be a positive push for the industry, overall.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Industry. It’s tough for me to guide. But what I hear is that exporters have a merit on it.
Pallavi Deshpande
Okay. And obviously the realization levels, I’m sorry, I’m not a little very comfortable with this segment. But in terms of the overall realization levels, is it widely different in terms of domestic versus export?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
I didn’t get you there. Can you repeat me?
Pallavi Deshpande
So I guess I’m sorry for not wording my question correctly. From what I understand in terms of jewelry you obviously have the, you know, whatever metal, gold, silver is used and then the making charges. However, in terms of export I would assume that the, you know, gold prices would still be the same but the making charges and then on top of that there will be freight and you know, different components to it. So I just, I am asking if exporting gold, exporting jewelry is more profitable as compared with selling it domestically or is it not much of a difference?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So exporting majorly happens only for selling it to retailers now. Otherwise they will not be able to sell to an end consumer. So as my understanding the margin for a retailer will be much higher than a margin for a wholesaler exporters. But of course I don’t know about it because I am not an exporter. But as far as I understand about the segment and my experience, I can talk only about our experience so far. So retail margins are much higher than any wholesaler or an exporter. Right. Because USR margin. Yeah, it’s 25% plus R margin.
The US at the store level.
Pallavi Deshpande
Understood, understood. This was helpful.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Thank you.
Pallavi Deshpande
Thank you for your time.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Pallavi Deshpandi from Samiksha Capital. Please go ahead.
Pallavi Deshpande
Yes sir. Thank you for taking my question. Just wanted to understand what is the interest rate now for this, the gold metal loan that we upon how much higher this is.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So it was in the range of three, three and half. Now it’s in the range of 45 and a half. So just in the level of five now at three weeks coming in the level of.
Pallavi Deshpande
And now what would be in terms of the same store volume growth? Any guidance that you. And it’s the beginning part of the.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
So yeah, so we actually we don’t look at only volume because we look at value because we ourselves push for student rather than gold. Right. So gold volume will surely come down even if the gold price is flat and even if there is ssd. The volume would not have grown as much as SSD because we ourselves would have pushed for standard. Okay, so our SSDs were in the range of 21%. Yeah.
Pallavi Deshpande
And what would be the target for the studded ratio for next year?
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Now I think it should be in the range, in the same range in the. In the 30, 31, 32 range. Because the expansion now for the next running financial year is predominantly entire 2 tier 3 markets outside South India where it will be the standard ratio will be lesser than what we enjoy in a Metro or a tire one. So now don’t expect any sharp increase from the current levels.
Pallavi Deshpande
Right? Right. Thank you.
operator
A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ramesh Kalyana Raman to give his closing remarks.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman
Thank you very much and a good day.
operator
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Kalyan Jewellers India, that concludes this conference, you may now disconnect your lines.