Page Industries Ltd (NSE: PAGEIND) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 05, 2026
Corporate Participants:
V S Ganesh — Managing Director
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Anuj Sonpal — Analyst
Nihal Jham — Analyst
Sameer Gupta — Analyst
Prerna Jhunjhunwala — Analyst
Avi Mehta — Analyst
Gaurav Jogani — Analyst
Devanshu Bansal — Analyst
Ashish Kanodia — Analyst
Rahul Agarwal — Analyst
Anuj Sehgal — Analyst
Sheela Rathi — Analyst
Presentation:
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Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly.
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Foreign.
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Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and.
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9Mfy 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly.
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Foreign.
operator
Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference, please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call.
Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please take a next Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call.
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Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call.
Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected. Your conference will begin shortly. Welcome to Page Industries Limited Q3 and 9MFY 26 earnings conference call. Please stay connected.
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operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3 and 9M FY26 conference call of Page Industries Limited. As a reminder, all participants line 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star followed by zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded at this time. I would like to hand over the conference to Mr. Anuj Sonpal from Mallaram Advisors. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Anuj Sonpal — Analyst
Thank you. Good afternoon everyone and a very warm welcome to you all on behalf of the company. I would like to thank you all for participating in the company’s earnings call for the third quarter and nine months ended of financial year 2026. Before we begin a short cautionary statement. Some of the statements made in today’s earnings call may be forward looking in nature. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Such statements are based on management’s beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management.
Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward looking statements in making any investment decisions. The purpose of today’s earnings call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company’s fundamental business and financial quarter under review. Let me now introduce you to the management participating with us in today’s earnings call and hand it over to them for opening remarks. First, we have with us Mr. V S Ganesh, Managing Director, Mr. Deepanjan Bandottipai, Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Karthik Yatindra, Chief Executive Officer. Without any further delay, I request Mr. Ganesh to start with his opening remarks.
Thank you. And over to you, sir.
V S Ganesh — Managing Director
Thank you Anuj and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Learning earnings call for the third quarter of FY26. As Anuj mentioned, I am pleased to have with me our Chief Financial Officer Mr. Deepanchan and our Chief Executive Officer Mr. Karthi. Together we shall be presenting the key highlights of the quarter. To begin with, I will provide a brief overview of our performance during the quarter touching upon the main achievements and developments. Following this, Mr. Deepanjan will present a detailed update on our financial results. After a presentation, we would be happy to address any questions you may have regarding the quarter’s performance during the quarter.
While consumer demand remains selective across categories, our business demonstrated resilience with stable input costs, tight controls over operating expenses and a sustained focus on operational efficiencies. All these efforts enabled us to deliver healthy operating margins and protect profitability. The recent notification of the Direct Labor Codes is a positive step that is expected to benefit our employees while also simplifying compliance requirements. While the rule for the implementation is being formalized, we have made the necessary provisions for gradually and earned leave provisions have also been made in the financial results of the quarter. For the quarter, revenue growth by 5.6% while operating profit before tax increased by 5.9%.
Profit after tax declined by 7.4%. This is primarily due to the exemptional one time provisions related to employee benefits arising from the direct wage courts. Excluding these provisions, EBITDA growth and part growth remains broadly in line with Q3 of FY25 performance. For the nine months ended December 2025, revenue growth was 4.1% and PAT increased by 3.5%. We have been maintaining our momentum on our distribution expansion. Our Network stood at 113,600 multi brand outlets. We now have 1556 exclusive brand stores and 1778 large format stores. We continue to lead across E Commerce platform recording strong growth in that channel as well.
We continue to scale our modern retail presence by elevating the consumer experience, expanding our footprint and delivering strong growth across online channels. Our refreshed and expanded product portfolio is resonating strongly with our younger consumers as well and we are confident that these initiatives will accelerate customer acquisition and drive long term growth. Our recent product launches under JKY Groove and the Bonded Technology have received an encouraging response from the market. With several new launches and strategic initiatives planned in the coming months, we remain very confident about accelerating growth ahead. I once again thank you for joining today’s Call and I will now hand over to Mr.
Deepanjan to detail the financial results for the quarter.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, thank you VSG Good afternoon and welcome everybody to the Today’s Earnings Call. Let me share the results of quarter three of FY26. In quarter three revenue was rupees 13,868 million which was a growth of around 5.6% year on year. Sales volume in the quarter was for 58.6 million pieces which has grown by 1.4% year on year. EBITDA for the quarter was Rupees 3181 million which is again a growth of 5.2% year on year. EBITda margin was 22.9%. With strategic raw material sourcing and focused operating expenses, EBITDA margin continued to remain strong. Profit before tax before exceptional items was rupees 2,913 million which was a growth of 5.9%.
The new labor codes were introduced in November 2025. The amendment stipulated changes in definition of wages, including enhanced basic wages for calculation of retirement benefits. Accordingly, additional provision of 350 million rupees for gratuit and earned leave has been made in the current quarter. PAT for the quarter was rupees 1895 million which was a decline of 7.4% year on year. Inventory days was 67 in the end of quarter three as against 64 days in the beginning of the year. Net Working capital was 52 days as against 54 days in the beginning of the year. For the nine months ended 31st December 2025.
Revenue was rupees 39,942 million which is 4.1% growth year on year. Sales volume was 173.8 million pieces which has grown by 1.9% year on year. EBITDA for the period was rupees 8,923 million which is a growth of 7.9% year on year. EBITDA margin in the nine months was 22.3%. Profit after tax was rupees 5,851 million with growth of 3.5% year on year we can now take up your queries.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad and wait for your turn to ask the question. If you would like to withdraw your request, you may do so by pressing star and one again. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any question please press star and 1. Let us wait for a while until the question queue assembles. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions please press star and one on a telephone keypad. The first question comes from Mr.
Nihal jam from hsbc. Please go ahead sir. Mr. Nihal, please go ahead with a question. Sir, yes.
Nihal Jham
Am I audible?
operator
Yes sir.
Nihal Jham
Yes, yes. There are two questions. The first was that this quarter we see that our net realization has seen an increase of 4%, just close to 1% in the last quarter. So has there been a mix change towards athletes or. We’ve taken price hikes in certain categories. Just wanted to understand that first.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
So there has not been any price increase in the current quarter while we have been discussing that. But as there has not been any price increase and increase in ASP is reflection of both category and within category changes of product mix as well as shift in channel mix.
Nihal Jham
Understood. And Japan. The second thing is if I look at the employees that you. There has obviously been a reduction of around two and a half 3,000 employees and that sort of reflects on how the employee costs have also reduced in this quarter. Just if you could give more clarity about what is the nature and the thought related to that.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
We had a recruitment freeze for most part of the year and given the fact that our efficiency has been improving and maintained over a large part of the year, we didn’t see any requirement of major recruitments this year. Of course there has been workforce addition in our new facility in Orissa which was as per plan but otherwise our wages cost and staff cost has been well within our target ranges.
V S Ganesh
So Neha, just to add to what Mr. Deep Panchan was studying, you know we. The reason for controlling the headcount was because of the initiatives we have taken especially in the back end to substantially improve our productivity. We have been taking quite a lot of lean initiatives. We have been automating and we have been doing value stream mapping to remove all the non value added work and therefore we are now able to get more productivity and more output from less people. And this is actually enabling us to control the headcounts and make the productivity much better.
And this is something which we have been doing for some quarters now. And you can see that one of the key reasons, despite a subdued retail environment, we have been able to maintain our profitability and there is much more to do. I think for us the journey has just started.
Nihal Jham
Understood. Just one final question, Mr. Ganesh. You mentioned that of obviously growth accelerating ahead. So are we seeing a decent uptick as we go into Jan, Feb and maybe when is it that we expect that we can get back to a double digit growth? Kartik, you want to give a flavor about the market outlook?
V S Ganesh
Yeah.
Nihal, thanks for the question. Quarter three has largely seen barring the impact of Diwali, which a portion of that was actually absorbed in quarter two this year because of the advancement. Other than that the market relatively been better when compared to quarter two. We expect that to flow into quarter four as well. So without giving away too much about January and February, let me just say that better performance of quarter three is likely to flow into quarter four as well. Sure Karthik, thank you. I’ll come back.
operator
Thank you sir. The next question comes from the line of Mrs. Sameer Gupta from IIFL. Please go ahead sir.
Sameer Gupta
Hello sir.
Sameer Gupta
Thanks for taking my question. And sir, just taking it from the previous participant. So there is an aspiration of double digit growth and you are still about pondering on price hikes. So unless consumption environment improves drastically from here on, how do we reach to that double digit growth?
V S Ganesh
Well, the double digits growth is available. If you look at our market penetration today at a consumer level, it’s still quite low when compared to what the opportunity offers. This is against a very tightly defined target audience for our brand considering the price point that we operate in.
Sameer Gupta
So the headroom for growth in all of our categories are there?
V S Ganesh
Yes. The last few quarters have been tight purely given how consumer sentiments have played out and how retail has played out for us. But you would have noticed that in spite of that, our efforts in terms of expansion and building our moat in the marketplace has continued both in our existing traditional channels as well as the new channels that we’ve begun operation with over the last few years. So the intent is to concentrate and add value in the products that we are offering as well as go out and expand.
There’s also substantial investment that is going behind how we can activate consumer with this and we are seeing signs of that paying off. So with this, the confidence that double digit growth for us should come by is very much there.
Sameer Gupta
So Karthik, just a follow up here. Basically you’re saying that you’re not now.
Sameer Gupta
Reliant on overall market and consumption environment.
Sameer Gupta
Improving, you can deliver a double digit growth based on your own initiatives. Would that be a correct assessment? It’s a combination.
V S Ganesh
Sameer. I don’t think one thing leads to growth alone. It will be a combination of both. We will need to in a way depend on markets for like to like growth for sure. But that’s also being packed with considerable amount of expansion which should bring in inorganic growth opportunities as well. And a combination of both is what would lead us to double digit growth. Got it.
Sameer Gupta
Second question, just a bookkeeping one.
Sameer Gupta
So at a consumer level, what is the blended price decreased after factoring in the cut in GST rates.
V S Ganesh
Oh, so that’s been quite small for us because at a brand level the cut in GST rate has been only for products above thousand. That is a very small portion of our business in terms of what we operate. All of our innerwear more or less fall under the thousand bracket which did not see a change in GST. It remains at 5%. It’s only a few styles, a few products in our athleisure and outerwear categories that actually saw a gain from 12 to 5%.
In terms of overall impact. At a brand level, that is quite negligible.
Sameer Gupta
Got it sir. I’ll come back in the queue for follow ups. Thanks.
operator
Thank you sir. The next question comes from Prerna Junjunwala from Alara Capital. Please go ahead.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
Hi. My question is the challenges that you are facing in reaching this double digit growth. You’ve answered to some extent the previous participants answers but would like to understand what is the challenge in various categories that you’re facing that double digit growth is getting difficult?
V S Ganesh
Well, at the cost of being repetitive, I think like I said, the consumer demand has been weak right through quarter one and quarter two. We’ve seen some level of uplift in quarter three and we hope that close into quarter four. So that has certainly played out. It’s part in us not being able to deliver on double digit growths in the three quarters that we’ve come by this year. In addition to that there have been also disruptions in the marketplace which has been outside of regular course of business and this has largely affected quarter one, quarter two and we’ve spoken about that in terms of geopolitical activities, in terms of how floods in parts of the area, parts of the country have kept retail out.
So these have impacted us to some extent. The mix also is a change in terms of channels in which we operate. We have seen consumer behavior from offline to online and that in a way plays out in a market where a huge portion of our business is dependent on offline. So it will take time before the mix actually settles for us to reach a new base and then continue to grow from there. So these are some of the pieces that have made it challenging for us to hit those double digit growths. But whatever growths we have delivered have been on the back of actual serving consumer because we haven’t touched prices as such.
So our volume growth and associated value growth have been purely in terms of better consumption, either from a like to like point of view, which has been fairly muted, or from expanding and reaching more consumers.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
Thank you for this. Just to follow up on the same, could you just brief on the category.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
Wise.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
Challenges or opportunities as well? Because you had mentioned last time about entry level products facing some heightened competitive intensity. So that would help.
V S Ganesh
Absolutely. So I think between, between the categories that we operate in it, men’s innovator as a category has relatively been tougher. It also happens to be the largest base for us in terms of business. Our growth in women’s innerwear as well as outerwear have been relatively better in terms of both volume and value growths within price points itself. I don’t think we’ll attribute that to competition at this point. But yes, the more premium offering seems to have had better acceptance. Also bulk of our new products, innovative products that we introduced over the years, over the quarters in this year has been at the premium level which have been accepted well and has obviously contributed to the growth.
So yes, within price points the mid premium and premium offering has performed better when compared to the entry level offering.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
Okay, thank you. And one more question from athleisure point of view. Could you help us understand where has been till? What is the reach now for JKY Groove and how do you plan to scale it up?
V S Ganesh
So we had the second launch of JKY in quarter three. After having done the summer version in quarter one. We followed that up with winter and quarter three. The first launch in quarter one we had reached about fifty EPOS and of course on jockey.in and it was selectively available on Myntra. In quarter three that is expanded to one hundred and fifty EBOs. The next version is expected to be launched in the month of April which is again the Summer 26 version but expected to expand to about 500 EBOs.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
Okay, understood.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
And when do we plan to reach.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
The entire channels of your MBOs, LFS and entire 1700 plus EBOs?
V S Ganesh
We intend to take this in phases. So I think Quarter after quarter we will be expanding the reach. What we are also doing is products that have performed well within this have been extended to general trade as well in selective markets in metro markets where we believe there is a need for this product and outlets that are capable of retailing and making just doing justice to this particular range that has been extended selectively already. But quarter after quarter you will see expansion in terms of reach for this particular collection.
Prerna Jhunjhunwala
Thank you and all the best.
V S Ganesh
Thank you Premier.
V S Ganesh
Thank you ma’.
V S Ganesh
Am.
operator
The next question comes from the line of ABHI Mehta from macquare. Please go ahead.
Avi Mehta
Yeah, hi. Thanks a lot for this opportunity. If you could just, you know, just clarify. I’m sorry, I just want to check this. The weakness in the entry level demand weakness in the entry level price points in Navarro is continuing or has that changed?
V S Ganesh
I couldn’t kind of grasp it for the last in relative terms it is slower than the mid premium and premium segments. We are seeing better growth rates in the higher priced products when compared to the entry level products.
Avi Mehta
Got it, got it. So in that kind of backdrop I want to kind of just, you know, check again with you by when do you expect us to be able to clock a double digit, you know, level of growth? You know, something that we were hoping you would get by the end of the fiscal.
Would that some would. Is it something that kind of moves into the next year? Any thoughts on that would be helpful.
V S Ganesh
Again, so it’d be difficult for me to put a timeline to this because like I said, there are too many variables at play for us to get to that goal. We’ve seen consistent improvement even within this financial year and that kind of a number is what we’ll be gunning for even for quarter four. But to put a number in terms of timeline say exactly by this time we would be able to get to double digit scores is difficult.
What I can of course mention is that the intent and target that we are taking and everything we are putting behind the business is keeping that goal in mind. If I may push a bit. I’m just clarifying a bit. Would it if I want to kind of understand maybe not an exact timeline. How would you, you know, your initiatives clearly are kind of reflecting in the pickup in growth rate versus the first half. Is it fair to say that a demand pickup is what is needed for double digit or how should I pass this? Not looking for an exact timeline but just the levers for reaching that number.
So it’s a combination. So like I said, our investments in terms of product Betterment in terms of newness and freshness. For example, this season, this summer should be hitting the market between January and February. We wait and watch how the acceptance for that is from the market. But the accounting on it, considering what we put behind it, we’re very confident about the product that we are putting out there. Our marketing plans are in place in terms of what we want to do with the brand, what we want to communicate. Expansion is a year long thing, especially with exclusive brand stores.
We continue to expand and that is something that we will see in quarter four as well. Typically, quarter four is also a timeline where many of the stores go on the renovation to give it the new retail identity and brand new look, which typically gives us an uplift in the retail sense. So in terms of timeline of initiatives, that’s what we are looking forward to. Better product, more aggressive marketing, better brand presentation at the point of sale. All of this is going to hit us starting quarter four itself.
Avi Mehta
Got it, Got it. Just the second bit is on the margin front.
Now you know we’ve traditionally shared a 19 to 21% kind of margin range. This quarter has obviously significantly breached that. Is there a revisit to that range especially for say FY 26 and 27 and any clarity on that, please?
V S Ganesh
We continue to maintain the same pattern between 19 to 21%. We have seen some gains in the form of EBITDA this particular quarter, but of course that’s not translated to pat because of the one time exception. But in terms of a long term range, even for the coming year, we’re maintaining a similar range of 19 to 21% as the EBITDA that we look to deliver.
We would also be looking at investing further in the brand and hence the current EBITDA rates may not be indicative of what we are targeting as we go forward, but the range remains intact. It will be as sound as it has been. Got it, got it. And if I may, with your permission, just a bookkeeping, just clarifying, you have not taken any price hikes as of nor has that kind of flowed through into the market. Have you done any pricing changes? Not yet. Price increase that has hit the market as yet. It’s something that we are considering keeping how how the market is playing out.
But as of now, no price increase has hit the market.
Avi Mehta
Okay, perfect. That’s all from my side. Thank you very much for this.
operator
Thank you sir. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Jogani from JM Financial. Please go ahead with the question, sir.
Gaurav Jogani
Thank you for taking My question is with regards to the data on the inserting insurance manufacturing. That is last quarter, if I remember it was 70 and this time it’s reflecting around 64 cost. So does this have to do anything with the cost also coming down? Are we outsourcing more and hands.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
Sorry, can you repeat the question? It was not very clear.
Gaurav Jogani
The manufacturing capacity in terms of the increasing capability that you have put out in the presentation, it shows now 64% versus 70% last quarter. So does that have any linkage with the employee range that you incur? Because now it’s outsourcing and don’t require that much.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
Yes, there has been some increase in our outsourcing procurement. So currently or in the. In the current quarter outsourcing is around 36%. So there has been some increase which is well in line with our plan. There can be quarterly variations in outsourcing depending on the kind of product and the demand. So yes, current quarter we have seen increase in outsourcing and overall, if you look at it the overall year higher outsourcing has given us some cost benefits as far as the product cost is concerned.
Gaurav Jogani
Sure. So the second question is with regards to, you know, the gross margins. The gross margins have been quite stable and the premiumness is also reflecting in the the expanded gross margin between its lifetime. How should we look at the gross margins being ahead given that, you know, you are guiding that the EBITDA margins to be hitting that 19 to 21%. Is there any further juice left for expansion here or. We are in the margin juice is always there.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
That’s what Karthik was telling. We always have many efforts in hand. So one big lever is definitely increasing productivity and that’s a continuous effort. So that will reflect over time for sure. But as of now the gross margin that we have got that will largely remain stable even going forward.
Gaurav Jogani
In that.
Gaurav Jogani
Context, shouldn’t be the EBITDA margins be better from year on rather than, you know, subcon in that range around 22% odd. So why should it correct then if you have further room for.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
There are. There are costs below gross margin which. Which is largely investments in business, whether through marketing, whether through several automation initiatives that we are taking even normal increases like increments and recruitment. So those things keep happening. So while gross margin will remain stable, the other input cost and overheads since they increase, there will be inflationary pressures as well. So we do expect that we will maintaining our EBITDA margin of 19 to 21%. The current elevated EBITDA margin that we see around 22% or so. So that’s unlikely to be maintained going forward. But yes, we’ll be there within our 19, 21% range.
V S Ganesh
Just to clarify on what deep Panchan and Karthik were studying, you know we are comfortable with the 19 to 21 because we are not chasing a percentage increase in EBITDA. We want to actually improve the absolute EBITDA margin by giving value for money for our consumers and get better top line. And we don’t want to out price ourselves. And as a brand we always believed in promising less and delivering more and giving value for the money spent by the consumers. So we, we believe that is the right way to do and expand in a sustainable manner.
We do agree there is leverage or there is scope for us to increase. But we wanted to respect the sentiments of the consumers. And as Karthik rightly said and as Deepanjan said, with the inflationary pressures and some of the cost pressures which may come since we are not touched prices for three, four years, we may look at some corrections and that is only time can say because there are so many things happening. We are keeping a close watch on the cotton prices also with FTAs and all that. They can be pressures on the input cost.
So it is very volatile out there. So our pricing strategy will be based on those developments in the market. But from EBITDA point of view, 19 to 21 is a comfort zone for us. Absolutely makes sense. One last question from my end is in terms of the market share, so you know, one of the competitors have recently reported their results. They believed it to strong double digit growth rates this quarter, even the last quarter. So just by sheer inference do I have, we lost some market share. And if you’re in political segments because we are also seeing, you know, multiple players now entering the LPJF space.
Some footcare players have also alluded to this. So. It’s hard to tell because there is actually no syndicated static of yet market share in this particular industry. But from physical evidence and our understanding of the market and what’s happening on the ground, we don’t believe there is any erosion in market share, if at all. I would suspect there would be some amount of gain at a consumer level when it comes to market share in both the categories that we operate in, which is innerwear as well as at leisure.
Gaurav Jogani
Thanks for answering the question.
operator
Thank you sir. The next question comes from Mr. Devanshu Bansal from MK Global. Please go ahead with the question, sir.
Devanshu Bansal
Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking a question. Karthik. You did mention that there is broad divergence across price points. Right. So I wanted to check when the problem has been identified that the entry level price points are not doing better. What are we exactly doing in terms of new product launches for this particular price segment? Maybe the allied marketing that is required because in my opinion this should be a key recruitment driver from a consumer perspective as well. So any thoughts there which you could share?
V S Ganesh
Absolutely. So I think. Thanks for the question, Devanshu. Firstly, I think given, given how it’s panned out, we’ve held on to our prices to make sure that the attractiveness of that range purely for the value seeking consumer is still intact.
Now having done that, there’s also efforts gone in in terms of improving the product in that particular range on two fronts. One is the fabrics that we operate itself to see how we can add more value to the fabric so that, you know, the durability as well as the comfort on skin improves. And secondly, in terms of freshness, I think the entire portfolio has been looked at to see how we can bring back something to that range as we would be at that price point to make sure that it is not less than any other brand or any other price point product offered by Jockey in terms of appeal and appeal.
So that’s something that has gone in. Also from a marketing standpoint, strong BTL initiatives have been taken during quarter three, especially in our general trade channel, which happens to be a large contributor. As far as this part of the portfolio is concerned, that push has happened. There is some level of traction that this portfolio enjoys in, let’s say quick commerce as a channel or E commerce as a channel. A large part of disposition is happening in this area between channels, which is why we believe what we’re facing in the market is to this extent, whereas the more premium products continue to operate and grow through more organized channels like EBOs, large format stores, etc.
Whereas the the entry level or the economy level portfolio tends to be also suitable for quick commerce and E commerce and hence we’re seeing that shift. These product changes as well as marketing, etc. Is this already in the market in full way or we have only started and the marketing piece was put in place through quarter three. However, the improved product version should be hitting the market between January and February, which is what I had mentioned earlier, which is for the season of S1 26. Season one of 26. Got it. And secondly, this gap between Devash is.
Sorry to interrupt you.
operator
I request you to join the queue for more questions.
Devanshu Bansal
Sir, I asked only One question, if you would allow me my second question.
operator
Please go ahead, sir.
Devanshu Bansal
Yeah, so this 4% difference between volume and value that we’ve seen wanted to check if the winter also has a part to play in this and was there any additional incentive income due to start of our ORISA manufacturing plan. So we know the broad team gains. This is the ASP question, right? The ones who the difference between volume and value growth that you’re talking about?
V S Ganesh
Yes, this is. This is. Yeah. A portion of it is attributable to winter because of the higher priced athleisure products that see traction at this point in time. I’m talking about sweatshirts and hoodies and jackets and products like this where we’ve seen a lot of traction during this period.
We’ve also seen considerable uplift because of change in mix within categories. You recall that sometime during the month of September and October we introduced a top of the line innovative range called the Bonded Collection. Both in men’s innerwear as well as bras. Both these collections have been received extremely well with the consumer and they also happen to be our highest priced products yet. And with volumes coming our way in these two collections, that’s helped the ASP go up. Nothing from incentive perspective, right? From infection plant?
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
No, nothing. And it doesn’t reflect in the ASP changes.
Devanshu Bansal
Sure.
operator
Thank you sir. In the interest of time, I will request the participants to restrict with two questions in the initial round and get back to the queue for more questions. The next question follows from Mr. Ashish Kanodia from City. Please go ahead sir.
Ashish Kanodia
Thank you. My first question was on the GST rate cut. So while I understand, you know, the rate cut was only for us small portion of the product portfolio. But have you passed that on to the end consumer in terms of price cut and related question was on the gross margin also that what led to sequential decline in gross margin despite much better asp.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
Okay, two parts on the GST rates. Obviously most of our products were at 5% and continue to be at 5%. Wherever there has been a reduction in rate from the earlier 12% to 5%, we have done the necessary changes. So if the selling price itself was higher due to 12% GST, then that has been had been reduced. And wherever the selling price was still attracting 5% that will remain the same. I mean just to reiterate, GST is applicable in selling price, not necessarily the mrp. And the reduction in the gross margin sequentially largely attributed to the slightly higher marketing spends that we have done in the current quarter and A bit of increase in employee costs.
Ashish Kanodia
Sir, my question was on gross margin, not on EBITDA margin. Sequentially your gross margin has declined from say 60% to around 58% while your realization of course has gone up. So I mean what led to that? Not on EBITDA margin.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
Yeah so there also gross margin, there is slight variation in the product cost which is sequentially and which is normal. So that’s what reflects in the gross margin overall.
Ashish Kanodia
My second question is on, on the entire discussion around you know Double digit growth 1 Can you clarify are you looking at volume growth, double digit volume growth or double digit value growth? And second related questions on the demand side is see if I look at the entire discussions during the call, you know one, when I look at this category it’s a very sticky category. This is category where the demand is not lost, right. Whether it was a geopolitical event, monsoons, etc. If someone needed to buy a product they will push it by a month because of geopolitical event or of that sort.
V S Ganesh
Right.
Ashish Kanodia
Secondly, if you also look at the target consumers this and this is, you know the target consumers are can afford the jockey product and especially given that in the last four, five years you have not taken any price hike. And in that context when I look at you know, 2% volume growth this, this financial year, nine month financial year, it just looks underwhelming given the fact that you know as Karthik was mentioning, right that the market opportunity is very large even if you restrict it to the target consumer. So I mean how should we think about it? What’s happening here? I mean at least you know when we look at this data it seems at least on the mass end or the lower pricing there must be some sort of a market share loss because the industry is growing at least basis, you know what others are reporting industry definitely seems to be growing faster.
So two parts, 1, 10, you know, double digit aspiration is at volume or value. And second, you know how do you lead this 2% volume growth 9 month, you know despite much lower market share, you know, customers being very sticky. Right. It’s very difficult for customers to down trade.
V S Ganesh
Valid point Ashish. I think firstly on the first question we are, I mean the intent would be to hit a double digit volume growth. That’s what we used to be delivering. That’s what we’ve seen the kind of growth we’ve experienced experienced over the last decade or so. So that’s what we’ll be gunning towards. And all plans and intent is to deliver on that coming to your second question, again, there were two parts in that I agree some level of market disruption and closure does have an impact. At the end of the day, if retail is shut, avenues to purchase is closed down in whatever parts of the market for whatever reason, that does have an impact at a consumer level.
And for a business like ours where D2C portion of our business is relatively small and large portion of our business actually comes through the value chain, through distributors, through retailers or partners in key accounts, the impact only in a way expands when you know, points of sales get disrupted. But, but on your larger point, and that’s probably the most relevant point, you’re right, we do believe that the headroom for growth is there. Unfortunately it does not come by in this, in this year, in the first three quarters that we’ve looked at. But like I said, quarter on quarter the performance has been better.
We are seeing that level of, you know, recovery that has happened and it shows signs of that recovery. But again, like I said, these are conversations we can have. Whether there has been a loss in market share, I’ll be the first one to admit. If there is and there is sufficient evidence to say that, you know, we’ve lost share to somebody, it only makes us that much more hungry to win it back if at all that’s happened. But my only submission is that we don’t have evidence of that. In fact we have evidence to the contrary.
When we see shelf share, when we see spaces in the market and also in certain parts of our business where market share is actually reported, let’s say partner business, e commerce business, large format, store business, there is numerical reporting of gain in market share. And that’s what I had expressed earlier during the call. But yeah, to summarize this Ashish, yes, the growth have not come by as we had anticipated in the first three quarters. But the recovery has been steady and we are confident that going forward we should still be targeting that double digit growth.
And in terms of what we want to put behind this to get there, all of that is in order. And if not, it will only get even better in terms of our intent to get there.
Ashish Kanodia
Sure, Karthik, that’s helpful. Thank you. And all the best.
V S Ganesh
Thank you.
operator
Thank you sir. The next question comes from the line of Mr. Rahul Agarwal from Ikega Asset. Please go ahead sir.
Rahul Agarwal
Yeah. Hi, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. Just took two questions. Firstly on the ASP bit on the volume value gap, you explained the product mix change. You also mentioned that there is a channel mix Change. We just wanted to know, you know what has actually changed in the quarter and directionally where are we moving in terms of more channel growth and related question was on MBO versus ebo. I think historically we’ve been speaking about MBO being weaker and EBO in quick commerce, E commerce actually doing much better growth. Has that been solved? And I think most of this double digit growth questions are also revolving around solving that.
I think if the MBO gets sold out, most of the growth would come back. So how can we improve on this and guide for another next two years? What do you think about growth from mbo? These are my questions. Thank you.
V S Ganesh
Thank you. Rahul. In terms of the first question of asp, like I said, during the quarter we’ve seen gains because of change in product mix. We’ve seen relatively better performance in categories like bras, categories like outerwear or at leisure which are higher priced products when compared to categories like innerwear and women’s innerwear categories. And that’s what has led to the ASP growth in terms of channel mix.
Considering we realize MRT as revenue through jockey.in and as well as marketplace and E commerce, any gains or shift in revenue from offline to online tends to give better value growth growth because we realize MRPA’s revenue. These are the two areas that has impacted the difference between volume and value just because of better realization. On your second question of performance between channels, why we don’t give away exact performance between channels. But yes, the general trade business has been tougher when compared to the EBS business as well as the E Comm business. Also, when there is a consumer movement from A offline to online and b unorganized to organized retail, it’s natural for the general trade business to come under some level of stress.
I also believe that there is some level of shift happening within the general trade business in terms of stockholding considering how retailers are dealing with the softer demand at a consumer level that I anticipate would have led to some level of stock corrections at the store. This is at the retailer level which would have impacted in the growth rates that we have reported. But I think you’re right for us to get to the double digit growth, if not double digit general trade should go up to late single digits kind of growth so that overall as a bank we’re able to deliver double digits and you know, in terms of the price hike.
Right, You’ve been saying that you’re discussing that internally and you know, thinking about it, have you seen any cost inflation which is driving this decision or discussion or is there anything else? Nothing yet, but there is, it is, it is expected. Considering the recent news about exports, specifically how it impacts textile garments, it’s quite volatile. So there could be an increase in input costs then? That may not be, but we don’t know. So we are waiting and watching, keeping a very, very close eye on how the input costs are moving. And that’s the reason we are saying that if there is, you know, substantial increase in the input cost, more than what we can observe, absorb, we might have to consider touching our prices.
Rahul Agarwal
Got it. Thanks. Thanks so much. And best wishes for the rest of the quarters. Thank you.
operator
Thank you, sir. The next question comes from the line of Mr. Anuj from Manas Capitals. Please go ahead, sir.
Anuj Sehgal
Yeah, hi. Thank you. If I look at the distribution channel, the MBO, the large format stores and your EBOs, the network for MBOs is up 3%. Large commerce stores, the number is up 8% and the EBOs are up 5% from last year. In that context, given you said that the salience of online has actually gone up, is it fair to say that on a like for like basis, given your Overall volume was up 2% on a like for like basis in the MBO, LSS and video channel, volume would have actually been down in mid single digits.
In the general trade channel, yes, while we don’t have tertiary data, but yes, I would expect that the throughput per second store would have softened when compared to last year. But in the other channels we do have that data at a consumer level, we’ve not degrown like to like, but it’s been a lot softer than what we targeted. So what you’re saying is that MBOs could have been down the mid single digit, but LSS and EBOs would have been sort of flattish?
V S Ganesh
Yeah, that’s right. Okay. And given this channel mix that you also mentioned offline to online and the previous discussion, and of course the consumer sentiment being whatever it is, what can be done to sort of grow in the offline channel? Or is it just that this shift will continue to accelerate and therefore the business will continue to remain challenged, especially at the MBO level, you know, let’s say as we go forward, because seems like the consumer is moving to the online channel.
So my view on this anuj is that while there is a shift between offline to online, there is a certain audience that necessarily shops in the neighborhood store or in the offline store on what we call the hosiery store. When it comes to all their hosiery needs. I would imagine that from a sentiment point of view or propensity to spend point of view, this audience might have been the most affected. But that is not to say that this would not come back and hence I strongly believe that this consumer coming back as far as the general tails and hosiery kind of outlets to shop will happen and we’ll have to just wait for the overall sentiment to pick up as far as that is concerned.
So that’s purely for you know, like to like at a consumer level consumption to improve. But beyond that there is opportunity for us to penetrate deeper within the existing stores in terms of the kind of products that they carry today. Today the general trade stores in terms of what they carry of our portfolio is a lot smaller than what the EBOs carry. And that’s not by design. It’s purely based on what they’ve chosen to carry and our efforts in terms of placing products with them there itself. There is headroom in terms of increasing our penetration per store in terms of the number of styles and the options that they carry.
So that is beyond the consumer. Just making sure that more of our stores carry more of the brand would help us gain self share would help us gain business at a secondary level. So these are two pieces that I believe should impact growth in general trade.
Anuj Sehgal
Got it. And just to clarify on the EBO.
operator
And lfs, I’m sorry for interrupting you. Request you to join the for the next more questions, sir.
Anuj Sehgal
Thanks.
operator
The next question comes from Seth from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead sir. Vidisha State from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead with the question sir. It seems the line is not active. Shall we take the next question, sir?
V S Ganesh
Yes please.
operator
The next question is from Sheila Rathi from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Sheela Rathi
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Two quick questions. First is, you know, with JKY Group doing well for us, do we see a need to launch more brands in 2026? Are there any plans here?
V S Ganesh
Not more brands. Again, Groove is not a brand on its own. We see it as a collection at this, at this point in time. It does show the promise of maybe being the sub brand someday. But it’s very early days. It still has the status of a collection within the product architecture. The success of Groove has been quite heartening this year. But again I still maintain that it’s early days and it’s a new territory for us in terms of the model in which we are operating. We’re learning with every launch. We want to build this so that it lasts and becomes a considerable part of our portfolio with a sound business model.
So we just want to give it time. Meanwhile, there are a couple of other pieces that we are toying with. There’s not much I can give away at this point in time. But yeah, at least one out of those two I see coming twice in some form in the coming financial year.
Sheela Rathi
Understood. And the second one is, you know, thanks for the guidance on, you know, where we see our revenues and then, you know, by F29 at 8,000 crores. I just want to understand is this, you know, tragedy of revenue be largely organic or do we see an opportunity to, you know, make some inorganic or acquisitions at some point if there is something interesting that comes along?
V S Ganesh
Well, the projection that has been given is for overall it will be all the opportunities that comes our way and that we see meaning in investing in. We see inorganic opportunities within the existing business itself. These could be new channels that are coming up. Quick commerce. The way it is going and how much you can bring back to the business is a very inorganic avenue for us. International is another inorganic avenue which we’re taking very seriously in the coming year. A lot of groundwork has happened in this area and we believe that should contribute to inorganic growth.
New product spaces which I just spoke about. Or again, inorganic avenues that come our way. But will this mean acquisitions? Will there be new brands, new licenses? At this point we don’t have visibility to that. But you know, as an organization we are always open and we, you know, evaluate everything that comes our way, give it its view to understand whether it adds to the organization and makes sense to add to our portfolio and then we take a call accordingly.
Sheela Rathi
Just one quick follow up. Which are the international markets are we focusing on right now?
V S Ganesh
So we’ve gained the license for. We’ve always been in the Middle east but only in select markets of uae, Oman and Qatar. We now have the license for Saudi, we have the license for Kuwait and Bahrain. So the whole of GCC now is the license for Page for Jockey, which we see as a large market, much larger than our current presence in uae, Uman and Qatar. That should be of interest to us to make, you know, a meaningful presence for the brand. And a lot of groundwork has happened in understanding that market over the last one year and we expect to be launching there soon.
Sheela Rathi
Understood. Thank you very much, Karthi.
V S Ganesh
Thank you Sheila.
operator
Thank you sir. In the interest of time, that will be the last question for the day. I now hand over the conference over to the management for the closing comments.
Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay
Thank you, everyone, for joining. It was an interesting discussion today. We look forward to more such discussions.
operator
Thank you, sir. I know. On behalf of Page Industries Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your line.