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Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Jyothy Lab Limited Q4 FY '22 Earnings Conference Call hosted by ICICI Securities. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manoj Menon from ICICI Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Hi, everyone. Representing, I-Sec, a warm welcome to each one of you to the Jyothy Lab results conference call. Representing the company today, we have Mr. M.R. Jyothy, Managing Director; and Mr. Sanjay Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer. At I-Sec, we have had long-standing coverage of Jyothy Lab stock, and we continue to have a constructive view. Now over to Sanjay for the opening remarks now.
Thank you, Manoj, and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the conference call of Jyothy Lab. We'll be discussing our performance of the company for this quarter, which is March quarter and for the full year ended March 31, 2022, with all of you, and we'll follow it by the Q&A. So this year, we had a strong start with, I think, all the last 4 quarters reporting double-digit growth, and we have closed the full financial year at 15.1% top line growth.
In fact, it is the first time as net sales value, we have crossed INR 2,000 crores top line sales and it's at INR 2,196 crores. So very happy to report this milestone in the life of Jyothy Lab. This has been achieved on back of our growing market share across all categories. And if you look at a 2-year CAGR, we are at 13.3%.
So as we move along, our journey is to build further scale from here on, strengthen our distribution model and gain market share. Our business, as we speak, is getting much stronger with -- now with the direct reach of 1 million outlets, and it's growing further. So that's a very important development and which is helping us in building a business much stronger.
There has been a significant scale up on technology side in distribution. In manufacturing operation, this year, as you know, you may be watching a few of our TV commercials. We have added a few more celebrities on board to endorse our brands. We launched new products in certain adjacencies like liquid detergent in Ujala and Henko Matic both. So overall, our target is to maintain a healthy balance between higher volume growth, our aspirational market share and margins.
And I understand margins is something where everybody will get there. We are alerted. We all know the input prices are rising, and it's a matter of concern for us for the industry, for the consumer. Nobody is happy. Neither a producer is happy, neither a consumer is happy with higher prices, but that's the reality of life. So we have taken price increases. We have taken down grammage reductions. We have done as much as cost rationalization measures we can take, and we continue to track the rising input prices.
But in spite of all these challenges, we have been able to do this growth. And the key impact of higher input prices obviously leads into increased in retail prices of our products, which impacts the consumer purchasing power. So as we all say that the inflation is good but such high inflation impacts negatively the consumer demand also.
However, when we look at our portfolio, to some extent, we are insulated because our product portfolio is more essential products, which is the day-to-day household consumption. Hence, to some extent, we are insulated, and we are witnessing stable consumer demand across our portfolio on a pan-India basis.
If you look at the consumer sentiment, they are mixed because the economy is now -- has been normalized post the last 2 years of pandemic, which we had seen. However, one can feel the higher inflation, which is impacting the monthly household budgets of the consumer. If we look at the urban and the rural side, both are doing well.
There is a marginal decline in the rural growth what we had seen in the past. But as Jyothy Lab, we -- I mean, 40% of our sales come from rural, and we will continue to focus on rural growth. We have been adding rural stockists, very unique methods to reach out to the rural India through the help of van operations, mopeds, adding more sales team on the ground, which is giving us a lot of competitive advantage as we move along.
So overall, we see immense potential for our products, and we'll be focusing on increasing the distribution, increasing the brand investments in spite of being a challenging year, we have been able to increase our media spend by 30% on a year-on-year basis. So we'll continue to do that.
We want to reach out to a larger consumer base, gain market share and also strengthen our position in sales or geographies where we have a lot of potential to gain further market share. On the input prices, I'll just spend another minute on that. We do believe that government prices are at a peak. It's a matter of anybody's judgment, how the raw material prices will behave from here on.
So if the prices cool off as we'll have to take further price increases from here on. I'll share some more facts. As Jyothy, we have taken -- I mean the input prices, which have been rising, have impacted our overall products by 14%. Now we have mitigated, we have taken price increases over the last 1 year to the tune of 6% to 7%, and the balance has impacted our margins, which is what you see a 5%, 6% decline in our GMs and which has been flown down to our EBITDA margins.
So as we move along, we are clear, we will consider further price increases if the higher input prices persist. We will focus -- we'll further focus on product mix and SKU rationalization, which can offset some more material pressure, cost pressure, which we may see in the future. So overall, we are optimistic on the future outlook which is backed by the work which we are doing to build our organization more agile, more resilient and a market-focused organization, and we are seeing the results in the last 1 year, in the last 2 years, for last 7 quarters have been on double-digit growth.
So we are happy with that performance. Moving on to the category-wise performance. As you all know, we are broadly into 4 categories: Fabric Care, Dishwash, Personal Care and HI. Fabric Care and Dishwash are each 1/3 of our business and Personal Care and HI contribute to another 1/3 of our business. So Fabric Care is doing well. This quarter, we grew by 18%. And for the full year, we have grown by 22%. Unique thing in Fabric Care, what we're witnessing is large packs across all channels are doing well, especially in the e-com and modern trade.
Our e-com business per se has been growing by good 30%, 35% every year. And also with the opening up of the institutions and workplaces. The past challenges where we had on the Post Wash products, which is Ujala Supreme and Crisp & Shine, they have also come back broadly to the pre-COVID levels.
And I'll just call out the brands like a Ujala IDD where our market share in Kerala has now increased to 21.9%. So overall, Fabric Care category continues to do quite good. In terms of the Dishwash category, we have 2 of our brands, Exo and Pril, both continue to do well, double-digit growth, what you've seen in this quarter and for the full year as well.
Now the growth in Dishwash, as you all know, for the last 2 years has been a lot of focus or emphasis on hygiene by the consumers. And we have taken very strong distribution drives across all channels for Dishwash because we're seeing a decent growth and the products have been liked by the consumer.
In Exo, if we specifically talk, we are seeing a double-digit growth, more on the back of the LUPs which is helping us to recruit new consumers. So that's where a lot of growth has come in. And if we look at both Exo and Pril, they have been -- we've been able to establish them as a clear brand of choice among consumers.
So Dishwash continues to do well. Also happy to inform that Exo Bar, in this financial year has crossed net sales value of INR 500 crores. This is only the Exo bar, Exo as a category was obviously -- is much higher. In the third category, HI, we have witnessed extreme weather conditions. And as we speak also this quarter, the weather conditions have been very, very extreme. So this has impacted the key season for HI, which is this March, April period.
And we are strong in North and East, where we have seen a much higher impact. So this quarter, we had a negative growth in Coils as an HI as a category, but negative growth in Coils, while Liquid Vaporizer continues to do well. So there is a decline. But if we look at it even on a 2-year basis, we have grown by 11%. So that's a category which needs to be watched out.
On the last category, Personal Care, which is a Margo franchise. A lot of ground activities are underway to celebrate 100 years of Margo, which basically advocates the natural benefits of neem. It's been doing well. For this quarter, we have grown by 11.7% in spite of taking frequent price increases. So these are about the large 4 categories in which we operate.
Some of our discussion that and the way forward for us, we will continue to focus on volume-led growth. We know margin challenges will be there. In spite of that, we would like to focus on higher brand-building activities, invest in technology, make a distribution or direct distribution much stronger. We'll continue to add manpower on the ground to further strengthen our rural expansion. Now we have -- I mean, we know that we will be facing inflationary input prices, but -- and this may impact the demand.
But as we speak, the expectations of good monsoon are there, government has been spending a lot of money on government welfare measures. And therefore, we believe that rural offtake should pick up, which will give the overall growth momentum for our business. So in net, in the last 7 quarters, the confidence what we have, our focus on execution, we believe that the next year, which is ahead of us, FY '22 to '23, we should deliver on the same growth trajectory of double digit.
With that, I'll finish my opening remarks. We are happy to answer any questions and clarifications you may have. Thank you.
[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Aniket Sethi from ICICI Securities.
Sanjay, sir, I guess the number which you said in terms of input inflation, which was 14% versus a price increase of 6% to 7%. I assume these numbers would be factoring in the inflation till fourth quarter. And 1Q has kind of seen an incremental inflation for most of the commodity.
So if kind of if you could help with the direction on that, say the price increases you have planned in the first quarter and vis-a-vis how much is the inflation you are seeing in the current quarter?
Yes. So see, as we speak, last 1.5 months, we're talking about April and May, things haven't cooled off, things haven't gone really bad from there on, barring some of the products like soda ash and all the prices have gone up sharply.
So if I look at it on an overall portfolio basis, we have whatever price increases incrementally what we have seen on the input prices, we have taken some minor price increases in the last 1 month also. And we will have to continuously track that and keep passing it on as much as we can in line with the competition actions. So as we speak, this is where we stand, and we'll have to keep speaking to all you guys as if the prices increase here on.
How much is the increase you have taken in this quarter?
It's a marginal number as of now on the whole portfolio because see, if you look at it, we have already taken 4 to 5 price increases in the last one financial year. And for a consumer to keep seeing that price of the product keeps going up, the speed with which now we can take price increases will always come down unless the price increases or the input price increases are to a very large extent. So going forward, we will increase the prices. But as of now in April, May, we have been just on a wait and watch.
Okay. And on the grammage reduction, basically, how much has that helped us? And do you think if that lever still exist for the next 6 months perspective?
See grammage reduction is only to the extent of those INR 5, INR 10 pack, which is hardly you can do because that's the last lever what one uses. So LUP is account for, say, 30%, 35% of our total portfolio. And price increase is a key lever for us than the grammage is.
And on the Exo side, Dishwash, while you are getting a lot of conversions in that front. But if I recollect, you have also launched a liquid under Exo sometime back to drive upgrades. So how is that performing? Or that's not a focus currently?
So yes, we had launched Exo Gel in the South market. Again, it's a launch and it's pretty much in the initial stages. The pouches are doing fairly well, while we are still tracking. Our main liquid is, I mean, the focus on liquid is in the -- under Pril.
Understood. And the 3-liter pack in Pril, that would be a modern rate offering, right?
Yes.
Okay. And lastly, the volume growth number, is it like the revenue growth minus the 7% price increase, that's the volume growth number for the quarter?
Yes. I'll just clarify. For the quarter, the volume growth is 3.6%. And the balance is, obviously, as you said, 7-odd percent is the price. And for the full year, the volume growth is 9% and the overall growth is 15.55.
The next question is from the line of Abhijeet Kundu from Antique Stockbroking.
My first question is on Fabric.
Mr. Kundu, we are not able to hear you clearly.
Yes. Can you hear me now?
[Operator Instructions]
Yes. So in fabric wash, for the year, you have recorded about 22% growth. How much of this is volume? How much is this prices? Because I just wanted to take a understanding of how much of it will be still lower impact of the next year? So there have been price hikes, but we believe that a good amount of those price hikes came in the second half. So just wanted to understanding on that firstly.
Yes. So Abhijeet, broadly 6% to 7% will be volume growth and -- sorry, 6% to 7% will be the price hike and the balance will be the volume growth.
In Fabric wash.
Yes.
And in terms of -- the other 2 questions are, primarily, we saw that in terms of the other expenditure as well on an absolute basis, when I look at the absolute figure as well as growth, it was very well controlled in the previous years. But this year, we saw some good amount of growth there. So what has gone into it? I mean what have been the key reasons for the increase in other expenditure?
Yes. So that's in line with the top line growth. There are -- in other expenses, there are certain expenses which are variable in nature, like you have the freight and the CFS charges. So which goes in percentage increase like the top line has grown by 15%. Those expenses also go in the similar order. But they are very much in control. I mean there is nothing which is an extraordinary out.
So are you doing anything to do some cost acceleration? Or is it already there? I mean, next year -- I mean, in the next 2 years, are we going to see some amount of cost rationalization measures which will have a benefit on the other expenditure part?
Definitely, see, there is never a no to these type of exercises. The deeper the problem we all face, a better creative thinking goes around. So yes, we are continuously evaluating that. There will be some element of depot rationalization, how the servicing of goods can happen directly to large distributors instead of going through the depots. So a bunch of things to save even small amount of money will always be on the track.
And you said that expenses have increased quite a bit, went up by 30% during the year. And you said that going ahead as well, you will continue to spend. But would the incremental ad spend be on the same line? I mean, in a year where you have -- you are seeing quite a bit of volatility in raw material prices on the -- with the upward bias. Would there be some amount of control when we look at it on a year-on-year basis in terms of ad spends?
Yes. So see, if you see this quarter, we had broadly kept it on a flattish mode. So as we move along, it will all depend on how we are looking at the input prices. And we will take a call as much as what is required. As I said earlier, also, we'll have to take a call between our top line growth, margins and the market share. So we'll not sacrifice one for the other. But yes, media spend, as we speak, we are optimistic, and we think that the normal prices and all should -- on a yearly basis, if they normalize, then we will continue to spend what our current budgets are.
My last question. Sorry, if I could squeeze it. On a year-on-year basis, when we look at the gross margins during FY '23, so you have taken price hikes in the latter part of the year multiple times. The benefit of which should be seen on the gross margins. Year-on-year, still, there would be pressure on gross margin. But at least in Q1 and Q2, you would be relatively better off.
So when we look at the overall scenario, ideally, there should be some amount of support on the gross margin part. I mean gross margin ideally should not deteriorate from here, should see some amount of marginal upside, right? I mean, if -- even if it's -- assuming that raw material prices remain at similar levels as of now -- the way they are.
No, so you are right. Definitely, that should help us. But just for sake of clarity, 2/3 of our portfolio is detergents and Dishwash, where key raw material is naptha and soda ash. And as our presentation also gives the numbers, and you also would be tracking. These input prices have gone up very sharply. So as what you said, yes, it should support, but we should see some moderation in the prices of these key raw materials, which are -- which is 2/3 of our product portfolio.
The next question is from the line of Kaustubh Pawaskar from Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.
Congrats on the good set of numbers in tough times. Sir, my question is on the direct reach. So in the initial comment, you mentioned that now we have almost reached to 1 million outlets. So what is your target for FY '23 and '24?
We have reached the first time 1 million outlets directly. And the target we have set ourselves like we as in -- we want -- there are benchmarks, industry benchmarks that are there, and that's what we are aiming at in the next 2, 3 years' time. That's where I would want to...
Okay. My second question is on the Fabric Care category. So if I -- further there is bigger category like -- for this quarter, detergents -- for the full year, the growth in detergents would be higher than what it was in the Post Wash category because price increases would be higher in this category compared to what it was in -- because Post Wash, even the category was on the recovery mode. So price increases would not be that significant in that category compared to what it would be in detergents.
Yes, broadly, yes.
Okay. Okay. And in terms of margins, if raw material prices stabilize over the period of time, so should we expect operating margins to come back to around 15%? Or will it take time to reach to that level?
So it will definitely take some time while we all think, yes, it should happen soon. But we may -- we can't give a time line to this whole when it will come back, or when the prices will cool off and will be back to the normal scenario.
The next question is from the line of Aviral Jain from Siguler Guff.
And if you could just tell us....
Sorry to interrupt there's a lot of disturbance of your line, sir.
is it better now?
The disturbance is still there.
Why don't you start? We will try...
If you can help us understand some of the initiatives you're working on in terms of expanding IDD to the rest of the markets? And also there was some initiatives around taking Ujala Crisp & Shine to other markets. How is that panning out? Is it as per your expectations behind plan, ahead of plan?
Yes. So IDD, for us in Kerala, where it was strong, it continues to be stronger and we have gained market share. And we have extended it to Tamil Nadu and very recently, also in Western World market. These are the 3 markets that you would find IDD, while Tamil Nadu is responding well, West Bengal, it's very initial stages because it's just about 2 or 3 months that we have kind of launched it.
We are seeing -- since Ujala is a very good or a recognized name in that market, we have good market shares on Ujala Supreme as well, which is the Post Wash We are hoping that we would get a similar sort of welcome that the consumers would give for a brand there.
And speaking about Crisp & Shine, yes, we have extended to AP and Telangana as well. And we are, again, doing fairly well, especially after the pandemic, which had hit these categories hard. Since the opening up and people have started moving and the schools and offices have started. We are seeing good sales happening in that segment as well.
And my next question was on pricing, I think you would have some benchmark brands for each of the SKUs or each of the internal brand, benchmarks and something of competition. Same with the for Henko Matic for Ujala IDD. So how do you see from a pricing benchmarking perspective, each of these brands? Are they still in line with competition or they are underpriced now given we have not taken price hikes so aggressively and which is what has led to gross margin pressure. So just wanted to understand where do we stand on each of these brands versus competition now? Or whatever is the benchmark for that company internally looks at?
Yes. So for Crisp & Shine, there is no benchmark because it's a completely new category, and we are a category driver in that segment. And while speaking on detergents, yes, we do have benchmarks. Just for example, for IDD, though I don't want to take the benchmark competition name, but we are premium to the benchmark there in that state of Kerala While rest of the places, we are priced at par with competition.
And look again, just to belabor on that point, has it changed significantly in the last 1 or 2 years -- the last 3 quarters given so much of raw material price inflation has happened, which is -- which has led to so many price hikes. So are we moving in lockstep with competition, lower, higher?
We are at par with competition.
The next question is from the line of Sameer Gupta from IIFL.
Sir, just wanted to understand the margin point. So we are seeing a 14% cost inflation you mentioned and a price hike of 7% taken. So what is the plan here? Let's say prices don't cool off, let's say, in the next 6 months, so do we gradually take price hikes of the remaining 7%. It depends on competition? Or are we okay to keep margins at like 10%, 11% in the near term? Or are we going to cutting down ad spends? What exactly is the plan here? Just wanted to understand that.
So definitely, we want to come back to the same trajectory what we had earlier on the margins. It will be a matter of time that we will be able to bring -- so there'll be 2 things which will happen, either the prices will cool off or we will have to take that much of price increases to come back to the earlier margin. Also, there is an impact of the mix. We will -- we may take all measures, whatever it takes to get back to the earlier margin, but it may take some time depending on how the overall environment behaves.
And when we say it'll takes some time, is there a time line to this? Like 6 months, 9 months or like -- because see, the raw material prices are not in our hands, right? So just a scenario where, let's say, it is where it is right now. So how much -- any sense on the time line?
So the time line is if we have already taken 4, 5 price increases. Now it is easier to say that we'll take another 3, 5 -- 2 to 3 price increases, which will add up to the 5%, 7%. So we'll have to do multiple things, which could mean moderating our ad spend if that is what is needed. It may mean that taking some price increases and hopefully, some prices may cool off by then. So a bunch of activities maybe should happen in next 2 to 3 quarters as we speak, and we should be back to the earlier margin range.
Great, sir. Just another question, if I may squeeze in. Any comments on the demand scenario? So we know that there is pressure on the demand. But on the other side, there is also agri inflation and any green shoots we are seeing on that regard?
So demand for us has been fairly okay. Yes, there are some, I would say, some softening a bit in that aspect. But broadly, if you see our LUPs have been doing well. There are certain SKUs which have been doing well. So if we see those things -- I mean, those SKUs doing well and all that, the demand still for us that way seems fine.
Also, just to mention, while we have not spoken on these brands, which we used to put it in -- we used to highlight more of the other detergent brands, there are certain brands which we have, which were at regional levels, but which operates at the mark and the mid-price level, those brands have been doing well, and we are seeing a lot of demand in those segment, and we have been registering good growth there as well. So when I say demand, we have seen that across happening on LUPs and mass -- the brands that are at the mass segment levels, yes.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Selvamuthukumar, an Individual Investor.
My first question Maya Agarbathi, what kind of strategy to improve the market share because our competitors are old age kind of brands. So what kind of strategy you are planning to improve? Can you share some details?
See, Maya is not a focal brand for us. Yes, it's selling well and we will be selling in those markets where there is good acceptance. Our main focal brands, sir, are more in the Dishwash, Fabric Care, HI and the personal care segments, not very much on Maya.
Okay. So second question regarding Jyothy Fabric Care presently available in 6 cities. Do you have any plan to introduce in Tier 2 cities like Coimbatore or Mysore or Madurai like that?
So sir, as of now, we are not expanding. We are there in wherever -- whichever cities we are there, we just continue to operate.
The next question is from the line of Senthil Manikandan from ithought Financial.
So my question is more on the broader strategic in nature. So over the next 3 to 5 years across categories, so where do you see bulk of the growth coming from? Or how do you see the company moving ahead? Like you can give a broader 3 to 5 years things.
So we'll be operating in the current segments. We don't have any plans to enter into any food segment or anything like that. We'll be operating in the current segment which is Fabric Care, the Personal Care and the Dishwash segments Our concentration -- our focus would be rather to expand these brands into much more geography.
We have a lot of ground to cover in that sense. We have first time touched 1 million outlets. And there's a lot of scope to grow if we benchmark the competition and the rest of the place where the industry is. And that will be our focus. We have plenty of room to grow in all of these brands for the next 3 to 5 years.
Great. Just one more add-on question. On the capital allocation front, also if you can give an overview because in the last 2 years, we have strengthened the balance sheet, now you are net debt free. So going ahead, if you could give some overview on the capital allocation point of view?
See, I think you asked, we will be looking at any opportunities which come through our way on the M&A side of it in the categories in which we are present. So I think that will be our first priority. And we'll see when we can find a nice one to add to our existing portfolio.
The next question is from the line of Pathanjali Srinivasan from Mirabilis.
Yes. I believe that you mentioned that the higher value packs are selling more, which means the customer is more value conscious. But also for us, I think the margins will go down if we sell more of it. Can we come up with a bridge pack kind of a format, is that something you've been considering?
Yes, we are working on it. While -- I mean, seeing the current situation, that is the inflation and all that, consumers tend to pick up those packs, which makes much more sense to them. And we -- we are happy that these packs are growing. It blocks the consumers for the next 3 to 4 months' time, which is actually good. They get to experience our brand.
while -- but having said that, we are also working on a few other initiatives.
And what is the cost of freight for us as a percentage of revenue in the current year?
It will be in the range of around 3% to 4%.
3% to 4%, as in freight and handling together.
No not only handling, it's from right from the factories to depots to the distributor, the primary and the secondary.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Karan Bhuwania from ICICI Securities.
Just wanted to ask, I saw in the presentation that you have lost market share on Pril. Even though we are performing very well on Dishwash, we are still losing market share there. Can you please help us to who we are losing the market share? And what are we doing to protect our market share?
Yes. We have gained market share in Exo, so it's not that across in Dishwash we have lost, we have -- we have gained on Exo. Yes, Pril, there is a small loss there. But while the internal sales have been growing in double digits. So really difficult to say why is it reflecting that way there. Our internal sales have registered double-digit growth.
ladies and gentlemen, that is the last question. I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments.
Thank you very much. It's been nice to hear all your views on our results, and we will continue to engage with all of you. If there are any further questions, please reach out to us and look forward to interacting in future again with all of you. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of ICICI Securities, that concludes this conference call. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.