Navneet Education Limited (NSE: NAVNETEDUL) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Aug. 08, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala — Managing Director
Kalpesh Dedhia — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Dhvanit Shah — Analyst
Niraj Mansingka — Analyst
Madhur Rathi — Analyst
Viraj Kacharia — Analyst
Arihant Baid — Analyst
Himanshu Upadhyay — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Navneet Education Q1 FY26 earnings conference call hosted by PL Capital. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need any assistance during this conference. Touchstone Telephones. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Advanit Shah. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Dhvanit Shah — Analyst
Thank you. On behalf of PL Capital, I welcome you all to the Q1FY26 earnings call of Navneet Education Ltd. We have with us the management represented by Mr. Sunil Gala, MD, Mr. Kalpesh Dreydia, CFO and Mr. Roni Mistri, head is. I would now like to hand over the call to management for opening remarks. After which we can open the floor for Q and A. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala — Managing Director
Thank you. This is Gnanesh Gala. Sunil Gala from Navneet. So good afternoon and very very warm welcome to everyone present on the call. As mentioned, we are three of us on the call. Hope you all have received our investor presentation by now. For those who have not, they can view it on the respective stock exchanges or on our website. So I’m pleased to share with you our company’s performance for the For Q1.26, our revenue remains stable and stood at almost the same number as in Q1.25. I’m sure we will have it clarified during Q and A on these numbers.
I will start with the content business. Publication business. So the business remained flat due to only few minor changes in the lower grade curriculum. As you might all remember that. And as mentioned earlier, There was only one grade. Grade 1 to be changed in Maharashtra and couple of subjects in the state of Gujarat in the current year. So in Maharashtra particularly the textbooks of grade one arrived late. And finally we launch our books in Q2. So that effect did not come in Q1 and the revenue of which shall be in Q2. The curriculum change cycle has started and going forward we foresee that curriculum of higher grades will start to change gradually.
Giving the much anticipated momentum to our publication business. From next year onwards we shall see more curriculum changing in both the states. As NEP2020 has got acceptance across the states. As per our present information, there will be more than two grades changing in Maharashtra and similarly in Gujarat. So moving forward we still remain focused on expanding our reach, strengthening our content portfolio and leveraging digital platforms to enhance distribution and accessibility. This strategic initiative will enable us to build on our own success and drive sustainable growth in publication business. Just to tell you all, the publication business is not only a print business, but in most of the publications the digital components are also part of it and that gives us an advantage over the competition.
Now coming to stationary business, first I’ll talk about domestic IT. In fact degree by 14% in Q1 reasons are the same which I had mentioned in Q4. 25 the drop in paper prices resulted in reduction in product pricing and hence lower realization of around 9%. What I mean is that with the quantities that we sold the overall revenue degree by 9% just on account of lower end product prices, but simultaneously we had a volume drop of 5% also which I would attribute to competition from unorganized sector who would have procured paper with new reduced rates, whereas what we sold was out of inventory which was procured last year.
Now that paper prices have stabilized, the threat of such competition would reduce. With the start of an introduction of new innovative non paper stationary products and strengthening of our distribution network and exploring opportunities for the product innovation, we are sure to achieve sustainable growth in domestic stationary segment as well. I agree, while near term challenges persist, we remain very very optimistic about the long term growth prospects of this segment backed by our strong brand positioning, extensive market reach, new product ranges and commitment to delivering high quality products. With respect to exports, I know there would be lots of questions on that.
So the exports grew by around 7% compared to Q1.20. Even during the challenging period, we believe 7% growth was reasonable, not sufficient, but reasonable here. This was on account of new product introduction helped nominee to expand its top line. Even though new rates were negotiated with the clients after reduction in paper prices, the company is looking at the unpredictable developments closely for its future business strategy. I’m sure you all would have understood why I mentioned unpredictable developments. So this additional tariff that is imposed by the US has actually not come into effect and will be finalized by end August.
I am sure respective governments will have right negotiations which will help all the exporters from the country. Thankfully, our company has not faced any cancellation of orders till now. But going forward the trade is maintaining the wait and watch strategy till the final outcome of trade negotiations between the two countries. I want to assure you that the management is fully committed to navigating this period of uncertainty. Now as a company engaged in global trade, we remain vigilant and responsive to such developments. We are actively monitoring the situation and assessing any potential impact on our operations, supply chain and cost structures.
While these uncertainties may create short term volatility, our long term vision remains strong. We are in fact committed to maintaining transparency with you and will keep you informed as the situation evolves. With this, I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for your kind, continuous trust and support as we reflect our journey so far. I am pleased to inform you that the future of the company is bright and full of promise. We have in fact laid a strong foundation over the years, as you all may know. And we are now entering a phase of sustained growth and innovation.
Once again, thank you for your continued support and trust in our company. Our strategies are focused on expanding our market presence, embracing new technologies and strengthening our core offerings. We are actively exploring new growth avenues while maintaining financial discipline and operational efficiency. So, thank you once again, all of you. And now I open the floor for Q and A session, please.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may enter STAR followed by one on the Touchstone telephones. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, you may enter STAR followed by 2. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Meeraj Mansingha from White Pine Investments. Please go ahead.
Niraj Mansingka
Thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to know, you said there’s a delay in the booking of revenues for Q2. Can you give some numbers on how much delay it can be? How much revenues was delayed in rupees, crore or percentage? That would be useful. Or you can also likewise like to like growth in this quarter on a Y over basis.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
I believe you are asking for publication business. Yes, yes. Yes. So it was. As you may recall, the growth normally would come from curriculum change. This year being first year of curriculum change in both the states and in the state of Maharashtra. State publications published by the state government came in late in the market. And therefore we as we prepared ourselves we could release the new publications in Q2, that is in the month of July. So as of now if we speak, there is no delay. We have already introduced and sold in the market. Now with respect to the volume, I can tell you that normally grade one contributes around 5 to 6% of our total publication business and around 50% comes from Maharashtra.
So the growth that you will see in Q2 will be marginally. It will be hardly 3,4% on account of just grade one curriculum change. But simultaneously, as we are seeing today, there are good repeats overall. So there will be some more growth beyond this. 3%, 4% in publication business in Q2 itself.
Niraj Mansingka
Right. So the reason I was asking you on specific to what in rupees. I’ll tell you why. Because see, when you’re on a sustainable basis, your revenue is 5 to 6%. But when there is a great change, the revenue contribution because people stop using the old books or the second hand books. So there’s a disproportionate increase in number of students buying the new syllabus curriculum books. So won’t that have almost 10%? Because what I mean is the average life of the book is between two to three years.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
No, Neeraj, Neeraj, one minute. First of all, as I said, total contribution from grade one is hardly 5,6% of our total publication business. So even if it grows by 100%, it means the overall business would grow by 6%. And now again this, I spoke about Maharashtra which contributes 50% of our publication revenue. So that comes down to 3%. Now if we remember our school days in grade one actually there are no guides where the second and book market exist. So these are only workbook category that are introduced fresh. The benefit the company would have is there would be no inventory in the market at all.
As well as being new product NEP introduction of NEP Schools are curious for its new curriculum with NEP guidelines and therefore we will achieve good growth. At least whatever growth that we were achieving that we will shortly see.
Niraj Mansingka
In Q2 would you see less returns coming in the publishing? Because now everybody should be cautious in putting inventory in the system. So just wanting your thoughts like.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
See, as far as our provisioning is concerned, we have already assumed proper return as earlier years and then only we have shown the revenue numbers. So at present I may not be able to confirm that returns would be lesser. But we have already provided for and if those returns do not come in, the revenue automatically will further increase.
Niraj Mansingka
Okay, last question. I think I’ll come back to the queue on the stationary side. If you are selling at say 100 rupees to the customer, how much would the shelf price be for the customer when you sell them and they sell to the customer? So just wanted to know how much is the price buildup that’s happening from YouTube.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yeah, so. So it is almost 50%. We have to add over 100 rupees because we provide around 35% discount to the trade and retailers put together exports actually. Yeah. So on exports, how much is the.
Niraj Mansingka
If 100 is a realization. If 100 is a relation for number eight and how much would be the selling price to the customer. Just wanted to see the how much price buildup is there to see the slack in the system.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So there are many incidental cost by the time it reaches to the country us. Yeah. And. Yeah. And thereafter their margins and their operational cost. So normally we have seen depending on the category, if we receive 100 rupees they would be charging between 200 and 250 rupees to the end consumer.
Niraj Mansingka
Which includes all the cost plus markups.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Niraj Mansingka
Okay, great. Thank you. I’ll come Back to the QR3 questions.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Sure, Neeraj.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Madhurati from Countercyclical Investments. Please go ahead.
Madhur Rathi
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, if I look at our publishing business since 2019, sir, our revenue has been flat. So we understand that there has been no curriculum changes. But sir, our profitability has declined on the standalone basis from what we used to do 35% or EBIT margins to 25%. So. So why is that? And have the terms of trade or business dynamics change because of the. And this reduced for this reduced margins?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yeah. So I agree that the numbers have remained flat. And you can understand analytically that if numbers remain the same on top line, there is always inflationary cost built up in any operations of the company. So that reduce the margin to some extent. But the major reason, if you go back and see console numbers where our digital activities were carried out from a subsidiary company versus now the digital activities are carried out in the standalone company only. So those losses that we still have on digital, of course internally now we don’t consider that as loss because to give the books away or print books away, the digital component has become mandatory or necessary.
So it is part of additional expense that we are incurring to keep our print books business alive. So on that count the percentage has come down. But if you compare it with console numbers of 23, 24, then the numbers would not be that far away.
Madhur Rathi
So since when have we taken this digital losses into our standalone entity? Because I’m comparing it with 2019 numbers so I understand that there would be some pressure.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yeah, so sorry. Yeah, yeah. So when last year was the first year when we considered that those numbers in standalone basis earlier, it uses to be only always in the subsidiary and therefore you have to see console number as far as publication is concerned.
Madhur Rathi
So we have done so much investments on the digital side, but there hasn’t been any revenue growth in terms of volume or average selling price increasing. So when do we Think that from an IRR or a payback perspective that these digital investments are making sense or not? Because even after just based on the premium product that we are providing, there hasn’t been any growth on revenue. So on that front difficult to help us understand.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
There are various reasons for this. First of all, let me clarify here that without the digital component in a print book it will be very difficult to sell individual book without a digital and therefore it has become one of the additional process to provide a good physical book. So these expense will always continue. I agree to you. Agree with you that the volumes have not increased even though with this premiumness in the product. Now there are a couple of reasons to that. One is the curriculum change which has not happened for long now during pandemic period.
I think the as you could see in most of the FMCG companies, the middle class and lower middle class who are normally our customers, they have really not been able to come back to their original levels. That is impacting our business as well. Secondly, many of the parents who have been able to grow post pandemic are shifting their children to CBSE schools. And that is another reason the volumes are shifting to CBSE school. It means they do not use state level curriculum. So these are the two reasons, main two reasons for which we are not able to grow in publication segment.
But now we are very very confident. And of course everyone has waited for long, but next year you will see the results.
Madhur Rathi
Got it. So there’s a final question from mine, sir, on the publication business. If I look at FY26 and FY27, sir, what kind of revenue growth and what is the margin that you can expect from this business for this year and the next year?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So I can tell you at a yearly basis, I will never give any remark on quarterly basis. So as far as the revenue growth is concerned, we are confident of at least 15% in publication business next year because there are more than two standards changing in both the states. But of course it would be still primary standards. But two standards are changing at a time. So that itself gives us the confidence. And as far as margins are concerned, with this additional revenue coming in and every year the loss that we are incurring on digital is reducing and that reduction is on account of more and more usage of these products by these schools.
And therefore overall your margin improvement should see at least 2% if we see yearly basis on a publication segment.
Madhur Rathi
So we should see this 25% EBIT margin growing to 27%. Is that understanding correct?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
That’s Right. That’s right.
Madhur Rathi
And sir, what will it take for us to reach the previous 35% margins?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
35% I’m not able to foresee for next couple of years because the expenses that we are making for our digital product and the operational expenses which have already gone up for so every year there would be inflationary cost pressure of around 6, 7%. And to match that we’ll have to really grow very fast which is practically not possible in publication business. And therefore very confident that we will reach 30 31% in two to three years.
Madhur Rathi
So basically sir, what is the reason for the standalone publication revenue to be flat since upper 29 FY19 which is like 6 years.
And moreover sir, this NEP thing is a one off but every year without any p. Also sir, histor we were. Growing but something has changed in the. Past six years since FY19 that the revenue has stopped growing in the publication division.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So I did tell you the two reasons and for the sake of repetition I can. I don’t mind that I did tell you that the our customer base which is middle class and lower middle class have not been able to buy more products and which we are seeing in various FMCG product companies. Similar impact has come on our product. And second reason I gave you was that shift of state level going children’s to CBSE curriculum and therefore the state level curriculum business got impacted majorly for these two counts.
So I’m not talking about now curriculum change. But because of this unfortunately all the publication business or the publishers in the country are facing the same issue. So it’s not only Navneet which is got impacted.
Madhur Rathi
Sure sir. And sir, regarding the margin contraction publication standalone. Sir, just a clarification sir. Our Navneet future tech and new age digital investment everything is in the subsidiary or in the standalone business. Also there is something.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Everything is in standalone now.
Madhur Rathi
Okay. Okay. Right sir, thank you very much.
operator
Thank you. Participants with questions may enter star followed by one on the touchdown telephones. The next question is from the line of Viraj from Simple. Please go ahead.
Viraj Kacharia
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions. First is on the export. I think few quarters back we had also face anti dumping duty in one of the larger products. And one of the strategy we are employed was shifting the manufacturing to one of the Asian countries in terms of supply to remain competitive. Given by the have 50% tariff structure. Do you think it’s possible for us to keep supplying to our larger key large customers through such routes?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So I’ll answer your first question. With respect to anti dumping on certain products, frankly it has become a past for us with the introduction of newer category of products we could revive those numbers on its own without even focusing more on products which had anti dumping duty. So we are really not much worried. And that component was around 4050 crore which I agree is a good number. But now we are not much focusing on that. I think the problem to or the concern to all the exporters including Navneet is the new tariffs that’s introduced now here.
I do not know even President knows about it or Prime Minister knows about it. But unfortunately we are totally clueless as of now with respect to future of business in the US So we have to still wait and watch have to be in continuous dialogue with our customers. They will also evaluate the differences between respective exporting countries and accordingly they will come up with something. So I believe by end August when I think final clarity will come then only we will be able to. We will rather start talking to our customers and we’ll be able to have some more clarity on future of exports to the US.
Viraj Kacharia
Now my question was one of the post that anti dumping duty we had moved production for that particular category to another country in order to sustain the business. So if parents were to sustain do we have levers where we can move production of some of the products or categories to other competing countries and still be able to.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So this being little unpredictable so the country where we shifted our production, outsourced our production even that country is subject to now higher anti dumping duty. So that possibility also went away. And as I said our for us the problem is we are rather focusing just the larger problem than to just focus on products which had anti dumping duty.
Viraj Kacharia
Okay, second question is if I were to compare other competing countries for the categories we are in for exports how would we compare on the cost base? So we are 100 then you know any color you can give.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So as far as the stationary products are concerned, believe me the cost difference will not be beyond 5, 7% in any country because the raw material prices are international prices which has to be considered while exporting to any other country country. So that is not a big difference. The difference and this difference also is mainly on account of labor cost. So there would be hardly difference of costs between the countries for each of the category.
Viraj Kacharia
Just few more questions on the domestic station business. I think few quarters back we were talking about quite big plans with respect to quite an aggressive play in the non paper stationary space. And at that time we talked about setting up a dedicated unit and focusing aggressively in terms of new product introductions and backed by design and development. So any color you can give. Where are we with respect to that? Because if you see other companies in the space, we have seen a very healthy growth trend even continuing. But for us, for some reason we’re not able to either enter or scale up in a meaningful way outside of the paper category in domestication.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So we have been talking about non paper stationery for last two quarters now. Having decided and informing all of you in advance, we did put up the manufacturing facilities. Now it always takes some time to finally conceptualize a product and bring that to the market which has happened and now every month or two we are introducing new and newer products. So I agree the market is there. The competing companies are also growing fast. But I think we will need some breathing period for us to bring various products and then aggressively build our brand there. As far as non paper stationery is concerned, we are committed to bringing in more and more products in in non paper stationery which will be seen by everyone every quarter you will see something different with respect to paper stationary.
Yes, we have had challenges and these challenges to overcome really may not be able to bring us higher growth just in paper stationery. So better growth will be seen in future only on account of non paper station.
Viraj Kacharia
Can you give some more color of what categories we are looking at in non paper? How large is the design team now supporting this? But design and marketing team.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So at present we have already already introduced couple of basic writing instrument products, the geometry boxes as we understand then couple of examination paper boards or likewise every frankly every month we are introducing one one additional item in each category. So I think larger category is writing instrument which we will introduce very very regularly newer ranges. So there are various products but which we will see going forward that the revenue on account of non paper stationery is increasing.
Viraj Kacharia
And how large is the d esign, you know, development team. Similarly in terms of marketing for this initiative.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So development team, of course it is just right now eight to nine people. We have yet not fully set up our marketing team because unless we have right full category and right range in each category, it will not be worthwhile to spend aggressively on marketing. So at present we are in the phase of building the category as far as the design and manufacturing is concerned. So going forward in next one year you will start seeing aggressive marketing by from us also.
Viraj Kacharia
Okay, come back. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arihant from Bowhead. Please go ahead.
Arihant Baid
Hi sir. Thanks for taking my question. Sure. I just wanted to know like do we expect you know price growth in domestic stationery in coming quarter as well? Assuming that paper price doesn’t change much from the current level.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
No. So paper prices as of now have been stable for last three or four months. So I do not foresee any reduction in end product prices going forward. Additionally now that this season right from October, the buying pattern for the paper also will start. So I do not foresee any reduction in paper prices. Now this was unprecedented 50% almost hike in one year and then gradually reduction which was never seen by the company. But now I do not foresee reduction. I just. We may have 2, 3, 4% revision upward revision in paper prices going forward.
Arihant Baid
So have we fully utilized our higher price inventory which we had for papers? Is it completely used?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yes please. So more or less we are now exhausted with the inventory. But it will be mix for next one quarter still it will be mix of high cost inventory and present price cost inventory. So by by second quarter end we should be okay means we we would have exhausted our last inventory.
Arihant Baid
And sir wanted to know like how was the response for the new launched products in domestic stationery like Geometry Works etc which we launched I think fourth year 25. And can you give some color how much percentage they might be of our overall 1Q26 domestic stationary sales? Were they very small?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
It is. It is very small. Till now it is only 1 1/2% of our total domestic paper stationery sales. But with respect to acceptance or acceptance of the product, I would say it is very very well accepted because of the very innovative designs, the packaging. Because of that it is quite well accepted in the market. Yeah. So it is quite well accepted in the market.
Arihant Baid
When will you say that you are expecting in Gujarat to curriculum to change for too great for next year. So like current year they change only subject few subjects only. So next year will it be will they shift to like changing the curriculum grade wise or it will be subject.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Wise only it will be grade wise. Now it will be grade wise in both the states so including Gujarat it will be grade wise from next year. And both states have announced. Yeah, both states have announced more than two grades changing. So now announcements we know preparations are already on. So they will be on time this time.
Arihant Baid
So sir, Gujarat also has released the overall. You know the phase like the Maharashtra is done for flat 1 to 12. Like which tier they can also given that timeline or they have just provided timeline for the next year.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So unfortunately none of the state government announces in advance for next Four years. What all curriculum will they change? They always announce around a year ago. One minute please. So for next year only they have announced. They have not announced for the subsequent years.
Arihant Baid
And one last question there. Can you provide what was Indianica revenue and you know launch in one Q20.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this. Say this.
Kalpesh Dedhia
Can you repeat the question please? Indianica revenue.
Arihant Baid
Revenue and pad or you know in 26.
Kalpesh Dedhia
Q1 right?
Arihant Baid
Yeah, Q1.
Kalpesh Dedhia
So its revenue is about 3 crore and pet is about 7 cr.
Arihant Baid
That would be. It would be loss right on Q1 or it is loss loss of 7 crores.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yeah. So just to clarify for India Nika Q4 is always the right quarter to see. So in the the rest of the three quarters will always see very negligible revenue.
Arihant Baid
Just one last can you please tell from start of the year since January 25th how much paper prices would have fallen.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
From January till now? I would say 6, 6% or so it would have fallen not 6 even 5%. It would have fallen up to March. Thereafter there are no fall in the prices.
Arihant Baid
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Neeraj Mangsinkha from White Pine Investments. Please go ahead.
Niraj Mansingka
Thank you for the opportunity again. Suneep, I just wanted to color on you from you on the CBSE attempt that you are trying to get into the curriculum. Earlier you said that you had approached eight and a half thousand schools and expected a very high conversion. Can you give some thoughts on what is the status and when can we see a reasonable revenue starting from CBSE side.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Now I know I’ve been talking about this for last two years and we are making our efforts to reach now we are reaching almost 10,000 schools, CBSE schools. The acceptance of all the ranges of product in the school is still we are not able to see that and that is the reason the revenue per school is not really coming in as we were expecting. No doubt there are established players from the north who are almost 50, 60, 70 year old operators or publishers and we are really fighting with them for the order. The only advantage that we believe we have is the digital offering with the all the textbooks and it is quite extensive and that should make schools accept our products faster than the competition.
And the new books that have come up is basis NEP 2020 and that really our products are standing out compared to competition. So we believe we should be winning quite fast now. But I would not like to give comment on this as for last two years I’ve been talking about the same but we are making our efforts very very hard to get the more and more books recommended in the school.
Niraj Mansingka
But some color would be useful like that. You just. You see, maybe next two years you can get in because this is a very large market and.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Voice is cracking. Neeraj.
Niraj Mansingka
Sorry. Is it okay now.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Some disturbance. So the color. You are asking the color on the outcome in future, right?
Niraj Mansingka
Yeah, because that if it would explain us how more comfort on how we are moving ahead.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
That’s all. So color, not color. But the reality is that we should be at least growing by 15, 20% every year which we. We are not able to show that. But now basis our current year’s performance, I think lots of restructuring has gone in our sales team, our marketing team and accordingly we will try push. So next year I would like to be conservative because I’ve not been able to deliver as high said earlier. But next year 12 to 15% growth in the CBSE textbook business should be definitely achievable.
operator
Neeraj, does that answer your question?
Niraj Mansingka
Yeah, it does.
operator
Okay, thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil from Simple. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hi, good evening. Am I audible?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yes, please.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. My question was on exports. See sir, you mentioned that we like. Between countries in one of the questions that between countries it’s only the labor cost where we had an advantage. Now for the time being if we say India does not set up like stabilize at 50% but if we stabilize at 25% and some of the Southeast Asian countries are between 20 to 15, would our exports still be like competitive or we would be at par. Where would we stand?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
I would say we will be at par. The advantage that Nomneet has with the present customer that in most with most of the customers we are now tagged as preferred vendor. And therefore apart from the pricing, the other aspects of the business which includes delivery, quality, consistency in quality on that we will always have a better edge. And therefore even if we will be at par, I think we will have better advantage over the other countries. Okay. These basic discussions have already happened with the buyers and they are giving full confidence that of course we are always preferred vendor.
But now with respect to substantial change in tariffs, they are not sure how well how will they react to that.
Unidentified Participant
Sure, I understand that. I am just trying to understand it up to what place we are competitive. That was the question. Secondly sir, on the domestic stationary part now we’ve talked about it that we would be launching and we would be increasing our presence. I’m just trying to understand what is preventing us from like entering the market aggressively on the non paper stationery. Like is it the theme or is it like the. Like what differentiation on products.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yeah, let me, let me clarify. So actually we are not in trading business wherein we acquire or we buy various products and couple of categories and introduce in the market. We are not doing that. We are conceptualizing ourselves. We are trying to put up our own plans for its long term sustainability and that is taking little time. And unless we have full category, rather couple of categories with full range, it would not be advisable to spend heavily on sales and marketing and therefore we are not able to see better number in a short term.
We have just started launching from Q4 25 so I think we will need at least couple of quarters to compile our range for the category that we have introduced. And then you will definitely see good awareness of our product category across all channels.
Unidentified Participant
And our pricing versus these existing players. So would we be pricing it at a premium or would it be like yet equivalent pricing? Considering the Navneet’s brand positioning and brand being legacy brand and our reach being so strong with the retailers, how are you thinking on the pricing?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
No, we will remain competitive only and will not launch any premium products to start with. Whatever we may say, we are known brand in paper color category and not in non paper category where other brands are already quite well entrenched for a couple of years. So we will not introduce premium products but we will be competitive to them.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, and one last question. Conceptually as you said, we are strong brand in the paper category and the retailer knows Navneet as a brand. When we move to non paper category up, why does the same legacy cannot shift? Like why won’t the retailer like the product? Because he has the comfort on the paper category with us. He has the relationship. So why can’t that brand be moved on the north?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
See, we won. Every company has to have an entry strategy. So our present strategy is to introduce at a competitive price and just try to increase volumes. And then we will definitely plan to bring in premium products with premium pricing. Okay.
Unidentified Participant
And our plants are already in place like for the manufacturing and all or.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yeah, for one of the category it is in place. For other category we are at present outsourcing. We will see the volumes. The infrastructure is already in place except the machinery. So once we achieve certain volumes we will invest in machineries also.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, fine. Thanks a lot.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Himanshu Upade from Buggle Rock pms. Please go ahead.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Yeah, hi, good afternoon. Bookkeeping question out of last year 664 crores of stationary exports. How much was to US only?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So you can consider around 75% of the exports are to the US. It v aries a bit to 3% every year. But around 75% one can consider for any mathematical calculations.
Himanshu Upadhyay
And what are the opportunity and are there any large market the 25% where a single market contributes 5, 10% or it is spread.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
It is spread. It is spread across Europe, Africa and very little to the Middle East.
Himanshu Upadhyay
One more thing, just a question. See, when we look at Britannica, the Indianica, the business is majorly Q4 driven. Okay. Or Q3 Q4 and the other business is Q1 and Q2 driven. Okay. Is there any possibility of merging that company and the same person able to do more with two separate universe, separate boards?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yeah. As far as merging is concerned, we are seriously considering that in near future. But with respect to usage of same team members will not be possible on two counts. The quality of sales representative required in CBSE school and in SSC school are quite different. Secondly, as far as CBSE business is concerned, it is not restricted to Maharashtra Gujarat but it is across India and therefore in the other than Maharashtra Gujarat. In any case we have to have additional members. So we may not be able to really leverage the strength that we have for our state level curriculum business.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arihant from Bowhead. Please go ahead.
Arihant Baid
Just wanted to know the Capex. What would be our capex for this year and next year?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So this year overall capex would be around 90 crore and subsequent year. I’ll be very frank depending on the outcome of exports opportunity we will decide. Finally our decision was to invest around 150 crore crore. But now that we will decide basis the outcome of the present situation we may not then end up investing that much. But otherwise if things are in favor of for India and Navneet we would end up investing around 150 crore.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Himanshu Padhe from Brother Rock pms. Please go ahead.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Yeah, a small question on the digital when you stated that this is compulsory as a book. Okay. And initially we were targeting various other segments also for the tuition, teachers and classes. If we can cater to Are we right now only are those products continuing or we have just consolidated into two products only. One for school and one for with book.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So you can. Yeah. Broadly say that we have consolidated in two areas only which is one for school, few of them are for students as well. And other is together with the textbook or other together with our book physical book. So basically two areas only now we are focusing, we are not focusing classrooms with which we then realized it was during pandemic we were very hopeful of spreading digital. But then everyone realized the acceptability of digital solutions and then we. As you know we reduced our various expenses on every front Digital compared to FY21 and 22.
So now we have only two areas there where we sell our digital products.
Himanshu Upadhyay
And the sales team for the digital is the same as the publishing fee with the books. Only the person who is going to school is selling both digital and publishing.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Himanshu Upadhyay
And on the product development side on the digital, what type of capex we need to do every year? Or let’s say as just let us think it is as a cost center. So what type of cost are recurring cost in that?
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So with this change, with this change in curriculum every time even the content will have to be created afresh. So it would be around 8 to 9 crore of cost that we’ll have to incur on creating new content. And I think beyond that there will not be any recurring cost apart from the salaries that we pay to the staff who converts this. So when I said 8 to 9 crore it is majorly content creation and specific content required that cost. But. But otherwise there are so many other activities that we do which I just mentioned about having lots of digital component together with the books.
So that team cost will also continue to be spent on. So altogether you can say around 50 not crore will be the cost till the curriculum cycle stops. So 15 to 17 crore we would be spending on digital.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Okay. Yeah. Thanks from my side. And on CBSE are we thinking till 10 now or reaching for those? Because earlier we were fixated till more on eighth standard.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Yeah, yeah. So this year we have already introduced reference material means couple of digests and workbooks for only one standard to start with. Because curriculum change is happening, we don’t want to really rush with the old curriculum. But first standard we have already introduced in the current year. So now to your question. We will be there up to 10th, particularly 9th and 10th for the supplementary books.
Himanshu Upadhyay
You are saying for CBSE also only.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
CBSE I just spoke about.
Himanshu Upadhyay
Yeah. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I now hand the floor over to the management for closing comments.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
So once again I take this opportunity to thank everyone for joining the call. I hope we have been able to address the queries that were raised. For any further information you can get in touch with our investor relations department. That is Rumi Mistry. And thank you, Prabhu Dhas Ladhar. Once again.
operator
Thank you very much. On behalf of PL Capital t hat concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.
Gnanesh Dungarshi Gala
Thank you everyone.