Rupa & Company Limited (NSE: RUPA) Q2 2025 Earnings Call dated Nov. 11, 2024
Corporate Participants:
Ramesh Agarwal — Whole-Time Director
Sumit Khowala — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Sumeet Khaitan — Analyst
Saloni Shah — Analyst
Darshan Shah — Analyst
Sahil Vora — Analyst
Hitanshi Agrawal — Analyst
Rajesh Jain — Analyst
Rehan Laljee — Analyst
Ketan Athavale — Analyst
Shubhankar Ojha — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q2 and H1 FY ’25 earnings conference call of Rupa & Company Limited Hosted by Orient Capital. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference has been recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sumeet from Orient Capital. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Sumeet Khaitan — Analyst
Thank you, Nikita [Phonetic]. Good evening, everyone. I welcome you all to the earnings conference call to discuss Q2 and H1 FY results of Rupa & Company Limited. To discuss the result, we have from the management, Mr. Ramesh Agarwal, Whole-Time Director; Mr. Sumit Khowala, CFO; and Mr. Arihant Kumar Baid, Vice President, Finance. They will take you through the results and business performance, after which we will proceed for question-and-answer session.
Before we proceed with the call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in the today’s call may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risk and uncertainties. For more details, kindly refer to investor presentation and other filings that can be found on the company’s website.
With this, I now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Over to you, sir.
Ramesh Agarwal — Whole-Time Director
Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Rupa & Company, I would warmly welcome all of you to this call. We appreciate your time and interest in reviewing our company’s performance. I trust that everyone had a chance to look over the financial results and investor presentation that have been uploaded on the stock exchange.
The industry continues to witness aggressive pricing strategies and resistance for price increase post stabilization of yarn prices. Other factors like excessive rainfall in the month of August and September in certain parts and other regional disruptions impacted discretionary spending this quarter and therefore demand usually associated with Q2 has partially been shifted to Q3. However, despite these headwinds, we have managed to navigate and deliver stable performance in the first half of FY ’25.
An overview of our company’s performance is as follows. Revenue stood almost flat at INR297 crores and there was a small volume growth of 2%. EBITDA stood at INR39 crores and margin stood at 9.6% for the quarter. Our volumes in H1 FY ’25 grew by 5% backed by strong sales in economy segment, which grew by 12%. The athleisure segment also showed promising volume growth of 35% in the first half the fiscal year. This is a testament of our commitment to offering high-quality products that resonate with discerning consumers.
Revenues from modern trade also demonstrated robust growth of around 35% in H1 FY ’25, contributing 7% to the overall revenue. This underscores our strong presence on major online platforms. Additionally, we have also observed significant growth in X factors areas which stood at 25% in H1, underscoring our successful utilization of diverse revenue streams.
We have made proactive efforts to enhance our brand visibility through strategic marketing activities and have invested approximately around 7%, which comes to around INR33 crores in branding and advertising of our revenues of H1. On the EBO front, the EBO count have reached around 31 and we hopefully should reach around 50 EBOs this fiscal. We anticipate our revenue growth to be in the range of between 10% to 12% for H2 FY ’25. We are also on the guard to cover the deficit of H1 FY ’25. Our EBITDA guidance will be in the range of 10% to 11% for FY ’25.
Looking ahead, we aspire to achieve new business milestones and introduce innovative products across our diverse customer segments. Our commitments to our customer-first approach will reinforce our industry footprints and support our sustainable business model. We are excited about the future and dedicated to delivering long-term value to the stakeholders.
With that, I would now conclude my speech and would like to hand over the floor to our CFO, Mr. Sumit Khowala, to brief you about the financial performance. Over to you, Sumit ji. Thank you.
Sumit Khowala — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, sir, and hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our quarter two and H1 FY ’25 earnings call. I will be providing brief overview of our financial performance for the quarter. Coming to the quarterly performance, revenue from operations for quarter to FY ’25 stood at INR297 crores, grew by 1.6% year-on-year. The EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR29 crores as compared to INR32 crores same period last year, registering a degrowth of 12% year-on-year basis.
EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 9.6% for the quarter, down by 110 basis points year-on-year. The net profit for the quarter stood at INR18 crores against INR21 crores in Q2 FY ’24, which degrew by 10% year-on-year. PAT margin for the quarter stood at 6.2%, down by 60 basis points year-on-year.
Coming to our half-yearly performance. Revenue from operations for H1 FY ’25 stood at INR507 crores, grew by 2% year-on-year. The EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR47 crores as compared to INR44 crores same period last year, registering a growth of 6% year-on-year. EBITDA margin for the half year stood at 9.2% and up by 40 basis points year-on-year. The net profit margin stood at — the net profit for the half year stood at INR29 crores against INR25 crores in H1 FY ’24 [Phonetic], grew by 17% year-on-year. PAT margin for the quarter stood at 5.7%, up by 70 basis points. Our net debt stands on H1 FY ’25 is INR20 crores. Our working capital as on H1 FY ’25 stands at INR790 crores. Working capital days for H1 FY ’25 is 228 days.
With this, I now conclude my speech and [Technical Issues]
Operator
Hello, sir.
Sumit Khowala — Chief Financial Officer
Yeah.
Operator
Yes, sir, please go ahead. Sir, we are not able to hear you.
Sumit Khowala — Chief Financial Officer
Open the floor for question-and-answer session. Thank you, everyone.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Saloni Shah [Phonetic from SK Investments. Please go ahead.
Saloni Shah
Hello, sir. Good afternoon. Thanks for giving me this opportunity. Sir, what is our capex guidance for FY ’25?
Sumit Khowala
There is no major capex plan as such for FY ’25. There will be a routine capex of around INR15 crores, INR20 crores.
Saloni Shah
Okay, sir. Sir, and do we have any plans to do capex across our manufacturing facilities maybe in the renewable space?
Sumit Khowala
Yeah, in renewable space, the company is in process of installing solar plant in its Domjur unit. And the capacity of the plant is around 1.8 megawatt. And the same is likely to be commissioned in January ’25.
Saloni Shah
Okay, sir. All right. Thank you.
Sumit Khowala
And the same is on the opex model, not in the capex model.
Saloni Shah
Okay, sir. Okay. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Darshan Shah from EBC [Phonetic] Capital. Please go ahead.
Darshan Shah
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I just have a couple of questions. Firstly, what is our current thermal order book? And how did this segment perform in the current quarter, Q2?
Ramesh Agarwal
Q2 thermal performance was not so good because the season has shifted. So we expect this quarter to be better than as compared to last year because Q2 was not so encouraging. So we hopefully this quarter will be — will make up for the loss in sales in Q2.
Darshan Shah
Okay. Thank you so much, sir. Another question would be on that same segment as well, thermal. As you said, the quarter three would be better. What are we expecting a post Q3? Will this segment perform in the same manner, or what will — how will the segment contribute?
Ramesh Agarwal
As I said that we hopefully would cover the loss in sales for Q2. So hopefully, we will show some growth in Q3, means overall, between the last three quarters of the last year and three quarters of this year, we’ll show a growth in thermal, hopefully. We expect that.
Darshan Shah
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sahil Vora from M&S Associates. Please go ahead.
Sahil Vora
Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity. I just had one question. Sir, can you provide us with the details of performance of our subsidiary company this quarter? Has the recent disruptions in Bangladesh affected our business there?
Ramesh Agarwal
We have opened a subsidy in Bangladesh. It’s been running for last four years. But there is no business in that company. We had incorporated and hopefully under the hope that we would be able to do something. But till now, we are not doing any business in that company.
Sumit Khowala
Regarding performance, we have five subsidiaries, out of which three subsidiaries having EBITDA-positive and to have negligible ebitda.
Sahil Vora
Okay, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hitanshi Agrawal [Phonetic] from ABS Associates [Phonetic]. Please go ahead.
Hitanshi Agrawal
Hello, Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, you’re audible.
Ramesh Agarwal
Go ahead, ma’am, please go ahead.
Hitanshi Agrawal
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my question is, can you provide us with the volume-wise segment growth for the quarter as well as for the half year?
Sumit Khowala
The volume growth for the quarter two in economic segment is around 6%; for mid-premium, it’s degrew by 2%; and for premium segment, it’s degrew by 10%. And for H1, the volume growth for the economy segment is around 12%, for mid-premium, it’s degrew by 2%; and for premium, it’s degrew by 3%.
Hitanshi Agrawal
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Rajesh Jain [Phonetic] from LB Capital. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Jain
Hi, sir. Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Ramesh Agarwal
Yes, yes, you are audible.
Rajesh Jain
Sir, I just wanted to understand like in last quarter, you have guided to do revenues in the range of like 18% to 20%. But like now you have revised the same. So can we know the reasons behind this [Indecipherable]?
Ramesh Agarwal
See, the primary reason for this revision is we expected the yarn prices to go up. But yarn prices, even today also, it is not stable. It is — the mood is like very, very towards a downtrend, but it’s not going down, it’s not going up. So the overall trend in the yarn prices does not look very encouraging. So we were forced to revise the estimates.
Rajesh Jain
Understood, sir. Like, and what will be our growth target in like two to three years down the line?
Ramesh Agarwal
The market is quite competitive, but at the same time there is enough opportunity in this market. For a company like us, we always aspire to grow with a 12% to 15% CAGR growth. For this, we have put in all the efforts to grow at this rate. Some of the key drivers for this growth will be modern trades — modern trade, womenwear, athleisure wear, and international trade.
Rajesh Jain
All right, sir. And one more thing that I wanted to ask is our EBO count has increased this quarter. So like…
Ramesh Agarwal
Your voice is breaking, please.
Rajesh Jain
Is it fine now?
Ramesh Agarwal
No, it’s — we are not getting you, sir.
Operator
Sorry for interrupting you, sir. Your voice is not clear.
Rajesh Jain
Is it fine now?
Ramesh Agarwal
Yeah.
Sumit Khowala
Yeah, it is now, yeah.
Rajesh Jain
Yeah. Sir, just wanted to understand, our EBO count has increased this this quarter. And how many stores are you expecting to be opened in FY ’25?
Ramesh Agarwal
Around 50 stores. We are at 31 now. So we hopefully should be closing at 50.
Rajesh Jain
Okay. So like — and also can you throw some color on the impact of this EBOs in our revenues that is — that we are…
Ramesh Agarwal
EBOs, there are only one or two company-owned EBOs. Rest all are franchisee-owned and without any MG. So the impact on revenue as such would not be very much, but the impact of brand awareness would be high.
Rajesh Jain
All right, sir. Thank you. Thank you, and all the very best. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rehan from Equatree Capital. Please go ahead.
Rehan Laljee
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Ramesh Agarwal
Yeah.
Rehan Laljee
Hi. So I had a question on the gross margins. In Q1, we reported about, I think, 35%, 36% gross margins, and in Q2, we reported about 28%, 29% gross margins. So even if I assume that you mentioned the volume growth of about 2%, so that means our value degrew by about 3%, 3.5%. So you’re — so basically are we seeing almost a 5% fluctuation in the raw material side, or what has impacted our margins so drastically?
Ramesh Agarwal
This gross margin is all a play of the product mix. So as you would see that our economic segment grew higher than the company’s volume growth. That’s why the gross margins were low. So — but this will even out in the next quarter, I think. So that gross margin volume would again go up with the mix of sales going up also.
Rehan Laljee
So another question in this [Speech Overlap]
Sumit Khowala
So thermal does not contributed well. So we expect that thermal — thermals will contribute better in quarter three and gross margin will improve.
Rehan Laljee
Understood. On this, I wanted to understand further. Sir, are we shifting towards this economy segment? Like where do we see our strong suit? Is it in the economic segment? Is it in the mid-premium? Where do we find Rupa’s stronger portfolio?
Ramesh Agarwal
That’s a seasonal thing. So the — this whatever loss in premium segment we have seen in volume, I — hopefully, we’ll cover it up in this quarter only. So there’s no shift in the company’s brand equity. It is still going strong, of our premium products also.
Rehan Laljee
Okay. On the demand side, I wanted to understand what active measures other than you mentioned about the EBOs and modern trade has done really well for us, what active steps are we doing to penetrate further toward the customers?
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, the line for chairperson seems to have disconnected. Please hold while we reconnect. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for patiently holding. We now have the line for the management reconnected. Please go ahead, sir. Sir, your line has been unmuted.
Rehan Laljee
Thank you so much. So I wanted to understand what steps are we taking actively to penetrate towards the customers and towards our audience other than the EBOs and few other things that you mentioned?
Ramesh Agarwal
We are — we have like three superstars in our company. Like we have Ranveer Singh, we have Ranbir Kapoor, and we have Karthik Aryan. And we are aggressively promoting our brand locally through wall paints, dealer boards. And we are taking out attractive schemes also from time to time and give a good incentive to the dealer to promote the brand.
Rehan Laljee
Okay. To understand one more thing, what is the delta towards the dealers between the other competition that we have? Like for example, what in terms of margins, what do they earn better from us? Why will they pick Rupa versus the other competitors?
Ramesh Agarwal
See, it’s all about demand and supply. Whether you give them higher margins also if their product is not selling, they will not take your goods. So our endeavor is to create demand and rather push sales. So we do both. We create the demand also and we push sales also. So it’s a mix of both. You cannot say that if you give more discounts, your product will sell more. You have to create that demand also.
Rehan Laljee
Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Ketan from RoboCapital. Please go ahead.
Ketan Athavale
Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, we are saying we’ll grow at around 12% per annum roughly. So wanted to know how much of this will come from price versus volume.
Ramesh Agarwal
Now whatever sales, we are seeing the opposite now. We are seeing a growth in volume versus value. But going forward, I think yarn prices should stabilize. So the ratio between volume and value should be equal.
Sumit Khowala
It would be largely driven by volumes only.
Ketan Athavale
Largely driven by volumes? Okay. And can you throw a bit more color on the sub-segments which you mentioned, namely modern trade, athleisure are womenwear, so what — roughly what is the market size there? How are we penetrating? Can you — how much market share we have? Can you throw some light on that?
Ramesh Agarwal
See, the market size is not still defined, but there’s an immense opportunity which is coming up. We are doing both. We are supplying our brand under the modern trade and also we are undertaking private white label manufacturing. So we will see a good growth there. We are already seeing a good growth there and we hopefully will double that growth.
Ketan Athavale
Sorry, can you come again? You hope to double the growth?
Ramesh Agarwal
Didn’t get you. Your voice is not audible.
Ketan Athavale
Sorry, just — am I audible now?
Ramesh Agarwal
The voice is not clear.
Ketan Athavale
Hello?
Operator
Sorry for interrupting you, sir. Mr. Ketan, your voice is not clear.
Ketan Athavale
Hello. Am I audible? Is it better now?
Ramesh Agarwal
Yeah, it is better now. Tell me.
Ketan Athavale
Yeah. So sir, I did not get the last line which you said. So you’re planning to double the growth. That I did not clearly catch that.
Ramesh Agarwal
Yeah, double the growth in the sense, suppose we grew at 20%, 30%, that growth would be at 50%, maybe 50%, 55%. We hopefully you should grow in that segment, in the modern trade segment.
Ketan Athavale
Okay. Got it. And besides that, the traditional business which we have, so what is — roughly, how are we initiating growth rate in that segment?
Ramesh Agarwal
Growth which will come will come from a mix of the traditional business and the emerging business which we call modern trade. So we have to have a mix of everything to be in the market and to grow evenly.
Ketan Athavale
Okay. And sir, just one last question. So, say, after two to three years, how much of our revenue will be contributed by the newer segments? Can you highlight that?
Sumit Khowala
We expect that the modern trade to continues to contribute around 12% to 15%. And apart from modern trade, we expect export to be contributed at least 6% to 7%.
Ketan Athavale
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Shubhankar Ojha from SKS Capital & Research. Please go ahead.
Shubhankar Ojha
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Just quickly, so your opening remarks, you talked about H2 revenue growth guidance of 12% or was it a FY ’25 revenue growth guidance of 12%?
Sumit Khowala
For H2. We expect that H2 will be better than H1.
Shubhankar Ojha
Okay. Great. So which means basically, you had a 2% growth in H1 and a 12% growth in H2? So basically, for the year, you may end up with about 5% to 6% growth. Is that correct? Hello?
Sumit Khowala
It comes to around 7%, 8%.
Shubhankar Ojha
7% to 8%? So earlier we had a 12%, 15% sort of our growth guidance. Okay. So that’s one. Secondly, can you talk a bit about the progress on your Pragati scheme which, I think, last time you talked about it was operational in two states. Is there any further progress or any other states that you have added in that scheme?
Operator
Sorry for interrupting you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, the line for chairperson seems to have disconnected. Please hold while we reconnect. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for patiently holding. We now have the line for the management connected.
Shubhankar Ojha
All right. So the question was with respect to the Pragati scheme. So last quarter end, you talked about it was operational in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Is there any further progress, any other states that you have added in that scheme?
Ramesh Agarwal
No, no. The last time we must have said Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and some part of UP. So Rajasthan, there is a good response. In some cities, we have started like in Jaipur and few other cities, the response has been very good. And hopefully, we should cover the whole of Rajasthan step by step. And going forward, Chhattisgarh is still getting stable. And the next state would be Haryana. It’s already under incubation in Haryana. And then next would be Punjab. So whichever states are willing, we are first going there. And then maybe a rub-off will come in the other states also. So others will also follow.
Shubhankar Ojha
Okay. All right. And finally, so your total ad spend for H1 was how much?
Sumit Khowala
It’s around 6.5%.
Shubhankar Ojha
6.5%? And that will be for the entire year also in the same range?
Sumit Khowala
Yearly guidance will be in the range of around 7% to 7.5%.
Shubhankar Ojha
Okay. All right, sir. Thank you. And best of luck.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions]
As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sumeet Khaitan for closing comments. Please go ahead, sir.
Sumeet Khaitan
Hello? Yeah. Thank you for joining us on the call today. I would also like to thank the management for sparing the time and answering all the queries today. We are Orient Capital, Investor Relations Advisors, to Rupa & Company Limited. For any queries, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you, everyone, and have a great day.
Ramesh Agarwal
Thank you. Thank you, Sumeet. Thank you, everyone.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]