Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Vedant Fashions Limited Q3 FY26 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Gaurav Jograni from JM Financial. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Hello, everyone. On behalf of JM Financial, I would like to welcome you all to Vedant Fashions Q3 FY26 earnings conference call. From the management today, we have with us Mr. Rahul Murarka, CFO, and Mr. Neeraj Saraf, GM, FP&A, and Head Investor Relations. Thank you, and over to you, sirs. Good afternoon, namaskar, and a warm welcome to all participants. I am Rahul Murarka, the Chief Financial Officer of the company. I'm accompanied with Mr. Neeraj Saraf, GM, FP&A, and Investor Relations. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Vedant Fashions Limited Q3 and nine-month FY 2026 results. I hope you had an opportunity to go through our financial results and investor presentations, which have been uploaded on the stock exchange, as well as the company's website. During the quarter, sale of our customer was around INR 692 crore, and during nine-month period, it was around INR 1,447 crore, with a growth of around 5.4%. Further, SSG during the nine months of FY 2026 stood at 1.8%. As highlighted in our earlier discussion, this year, our focus remains firmly on strengthening the quality of our retail business. This is reflected in the improvement across our retail KPI during the quarter, as well as nine months period. Our continued strategic emphasis on enhancing customer experience, deepening design offerings, introducing attractive price points, strengthening retail training, leveraging data, led merchandising and replenishment, and maintaining disciplined KPI management, have collectively supported an improvement of key retail KPIs and also improved inventory terms. In line with this calibrated approach, we pursued selective store expansion while rationalizing smaller format and underperforming locations, resulting in net addition of approximately 8,500 sq ft during the quarter. Additionally, we launched another flagship brand, a flagship home-made exclusive brand outlet of 9,000 sq ft in Mumbai, which further strengthen our primacy, a premium retail presence. During the year, we executed an integrated marketing strategy across our brands and channels, leveraging a balanced mix of digital and traditional platform to enhance brand visibility, sharpen brand positioning, and deepen consumer engagement. Our initiatives included category-led campaigns, new wedding collection launches, festive and occasion-based promotions, store-level activations, and influencer collaborations. A key highlight during the quarter was the successful launch of The Manyavar Shaadi Show, a six-episode YouTube podcast hosted by famous celebrity, Karan Johar. The series explores interesting take on modern Indian wedding planning, blending humor, celebrity conversations, and expert insights. It features well-known celebrity personalities, industry experts, celebrity couples like Kriti Kharbanda and Pulkit Samrat, covering themes across wedding fashion, styling trends, photography, bridal entries, and evolving customer expectations. The series also explore topics such as real wedding stories, the evolution of wedding fashion, the growing influence of social media, and the importance of preserving wedding memories. The show has delivered strong viewership and very positive feedback, which further strengthen long-term brand equity through celebrity-led storytelling, reinforcing our connect with the modern Indian wedding customers. Additionally, we continue to strengthen our brand portfolio through focused campaigns across levers. Mohey carried forward its Mohey Rang campaign, celebrating India's vibrant festive spirit, and for me, built further momentum around its truly, truly new proposition through new collection launches and influencer-led storytelling. Mebaz launched its new campaign, Celebration Begins with Mebaz, and they were executed targeted digital and social media initiatives during key festive periods to expand reach and engagement across marketplaces. Collectively, all these efforts have enhanced brand positioning and consumer appeal across platforms, with a positive impact expected to play out sustainably over the long term. Now, I would like to highlight the key financial performance metrics for the quarter and nine months period, December 31, 2025. Starting from Q3 FY26 performance update, revenue from operation during the period was around INR 292 crore. The company continues to report healthy gross margin of 65.7% and healthy EBITDA margin of 44.6%. The company reported best-in-class tax margin of around 27.4%, and a profit after tax stood at around INR 135 crore. Now, coming to nine months period, the company reported revenue from operation of INR 1,036 crore, with a growth of around 1.7%. The company continued to report healthy gross margin of around 66%, along with healthy EBITDA margin of around 44%. The EBITDA during the period stood at around INR 453 crore. The company also reported healthy PAT margin of 25.2%, and the profit after tax stood at around INR 261 crore. Moreover, during the trailing twelve period, December 2025, the company reported strong and healthy cash conversion ratio of about 95%, which has been computed based upon operating cash flow to PAT, including tax income. During Q3 of 2026, our order performance was significantly impacted due to December month. On account of shifting dates in December and no dates in January, countered with neutral consumer sentiment. Sorry to interrupt, sir. Sir, your voice is breaking. Positive overall and influence level in view of festivity and wedding during the period. Furthermore, our premium brand, Twamev is doing very well, with an overall growth of 40% in Q3 and YTD, along with SSG growth of 12% in Q3 and around 16% in YTD. Encouraged by the good traction and rising penetration and spending, we plan to further accelerate and scale this center faster in future. Going forward, we remain firmly focused on our core strength, supported by various ongoing initiatives to drive sustainable long-term growth. We are optimistic that various government initiatives already undertaken will support a revival in consumer sentiment over the coming period, and we are fully prepared to capitalize on the improving demand environment. Now we can move to the Q&A session. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use the handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Tejas Shah from Avendus Spark. Please proceed. Hi. Hi, Rahul. Thanks for the opportunity. Hi. Rajeev, we have seen compression in gross margin without commensurate acceleration in growth. So if you can start by kind of sharing your thoughts on gross margin compression and how to think about this trade-off that, let's say, if gross margin goes down, can we expect some acceleration in growth, or both are not related, at least in the current market construct? Thank you for your question, Tejas. So, in the earlier periods, Tejas, we have been able to achieve exceptional gross margin. This time in the current Q3, the gross margin got impacted majorly because of GST, because as we have discussed earlier, in 90% of our products, GST rates have increased from 12% to 18%. However, following a balanced approach from a consumer lens and consumer prospect, we have not increased MRP of all the products, and hence we wanted to deliver products which are aspirational, yet value for money. So accordingly, there is some level of one-time GST impact, which has come on our revenue as well as margins and profitability, which we believe that will get normalized to a large extent in the upcoming period. As far as growth is concerned, we are working on different, different aspects. We are taking lot of initiatives around designs, varieties, price points, to be more competitive and how we can bring more fresh products for the consumer, how we can improve the consumer experience. We are doing different things. We are also taking a lot of marketing initiatives, like we started on annual Shaadi Show with Sun Forever. We have also started a new campaign with Yusufain. We are taking a lot new initiatives which have not been historically. We feel we are sitting in the right position where- Sorry to interrupt, sir. I'll just disconnect your line and connect you again. Okay, sure. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management again. As what I was saying- Sir, you may proceed. Hello? Yes, sir. So Tejas, I think, I don't know from where did you lose me during the conversation. On gross margin, I will just start from the beginning, to be more relevant. So on gross margin, you know, in the earlier period, we have been able to achieve exceptional gross margins, and during Q3 and this period, the gross margin got impacted because of GST, as you are all aware that in our segment, GST has increased from 12% to 18% in 90% of our products. However, we have not increased MRP to that extent, considering the balanced consumer approach and to ensure that we deliver products which are aspirational, yet value for money. And as a result, there has been one time impact of GST in our revenue as well as profitability, which we feel will get normalized to great extent in the coming periods. However, the management from a gross margin prospect, we are very confident that we'll be able to achieve 65%+ of gross margin, as we have informed earlier as well. Sure. Sure. Sure. Second question on, so we don't have a like-to-like peer set as such, but when we see names or numbers of Aditya Birla Fashions ethnic portfolio or Sai Silk, we at least from context of that peer set, it seems that we are losing market share. So how would you frame your relative market position in this context? And is this divergence more cyclical, regional, or execution-led? How would you kind of try to explain that? Sure. So on competition, what our team is that we have done a lot of market surveys at the ground level, and we have been closely monitoring competition at our end. What we see is that there have been overall multiple level of consolidation at an industry level, because what we have seen are the organized few players who have started very recently, 1, 2 years in time. But at an industry level, we have actually witnessed a lot of multiple consolidation. Even we have seen few players, I think 5, 10 stores at time, they are liquidating of their business. So we are very confident on our moat, which we have, and we feel that as far as competition is concerned, it essentially should go on with the business. As for players which you mentioned or N12, it is very low for them, and as a result can go pace with, you know, new stores opened in last 1, 2 years. It is very, I mean, it is very obvious that the N12 growth or the performance will, the numbers will show very positive. But from our perspective, if you ask me, like, you know, also if I, if you talk about Tasva, you know, one of the brand you have been mentioning. So we talk about premiumization to a great extent. So look, currently what we see, when we talk about consumer sentiment, premiumization is actually in play. So our brand, Tommy, also has been doing exceptionally well during Q3 as well as the YTD period, which is a premium segment. It is, of course, a base is low as the other competitors also you mentioned. So when we talk about our, our brand, Twamev, which is a premium segment and doing pretty well, exceptionally well, I would say. In Q3, we report 12% SSG growth, in YTD, we reported 16% SSG growth, and overall, we reported 40% overall growth. And with the kind of, figure which we have, it is very encouraging, and we have plans to faster expand it in near future. So that is how we look at competition as of now. Got it. I'll get back to you for more questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sameer Gupta from India Infoline. Please proceed. Hi, good evening, sir, and thanks for taking my question. So firstly, I understand there has been a peculiarity due to wedding dates this quarter, but even when the quarter started, you would not have expected a decline in sales. So there would be some more additional factors that have come in this quarter. Would it, it would be helpful if you could highlight some of those as to what, what exactly has happened, apart from, of course, the wedding dates, mismatch? Sure. So I'll give the entire conversation on the Q3, why Q3 got impacted, and which will cover the other factors also, Sameer. Thank you for your question. So basically, our Q3 performance got impacted because of January month, because this year there were no weddings in January at all, no single date of weddings. Because in last year, there were 11 wedding dates in January. Furthermore, in December also, this year there were only 3 dates till 6th of December, wherein last year it was pretty scattered till 14th of December, and there were 6 wedding dates. So of course, there has been a major impact of December month, because, overall, when we look at our October plus November performance, it has been, we have done decent business and our business performance was positive. Furthermore, what has happened is that this time festivities have started very early. So like Navratri last time started in October, this time Navratri started at the end of September only. So as a result, some part of revenue also got booked in September. So if you look at our business performance from September to November, again, we were able to do very decent good business and positive, both LTL and overall growth. However, it is the month of December which got so significantly impacted that the overall Q3 performance got impacted. But the good part is that with all these happening, we are all retail KPIs, ABS, ABV, everything has been doing very well because of the hard work which we have done at the ground level. So that is a very positive sign from business fundamental aspect. Now, one more important factor which is playing, as you mentioned, Samir, that what we were not knowing is that the impact of consumer sentiment. Like, this was one thing, which again, we felt that, you know, with all the initiatives the government has taken on the GST and various other things, we were also very optimistic that the consumer sentiment would drastically go up, or will significantly go up, I would say. However, we did not see any major shift in that consumer sentiment, especially in the middle class segment, because, you know, Manyavar is catering to the middle class segment. So we have seen that the value and premium are still doing very well, but middle class is a segment which is getting affected, where Manyavar is getting affected. So if you look at our brand, like Tommy, which is a premium segment brand, so that has done exceptionally well... because premiumization is in play. So, you know, these are the various aspects which have impacted, but the point where you look, as a management, we have been doing a lot of hard work at a ground level. We have taken a lot of initiatives for price point, designs, marketing initiatives, and we feel that once the macro level environment gets better in upcoming periods, whatever hard work we have done as a management, as a company, should show that positive result going forward. Great, Rahul, that's very helpful. Second question, so I mean, this is the third consecutive year of subpar performance. Now, I'm not asking particularly for this quarter, but if you analyze data over the past three years, you would have identified some pain points. So just wanted to understand, like, what are those pain points that you have identified? You mentioned the middle class is seeing a challenge. Is that kind of being validated in your data, that, you know, it is the mid-end where the growth has been slower? Or is it entry price points? Is it non-wedding merchandise, smaller stores, stores where there is competition that has come up nearby? Is it certain geographies that are lagging behind? Any kind of analysis on this will be helpful. Sure, sure. So look, on the, in last 50 years, last one year, at least, what we have witnessed is that, as, as we discussed, that the middle class consumer sentiment has actually been muted, and it has affected all the consumer companies, and we are also one of them, and because we also are wedding-based discretionary. So while... You know, when wedding happens, of course, the bride and the groom will wear. But what happens is that the other attendees and the family members, that is where the impact starts coming, and which is affecting us also. That is on the consumer sentiment, which has been affecting us for last, at least one year, I would say. On the competition, you know, as I explained, that, you know, of course, after we did the IPO, lot of stores have opened. More than organized, I would say, unorganized. Lot of players have opened, but we have seen a lot of consolidation, multiple level of consolidation also at the ground level. This we have already seen, and even the new players, even the organized players who started opening 2, 3 years back stores, even they have closed their stores. But major consolidation has already been started happening at the ground level for the unorganized player and overall consumer-industry level. So of course, you know, competition would have some impact, but when we monitor performance of our store, where competition is there and where competition is not there, we don't see any major delta. In fact, I mean, the data which we come across of a store where just nearby competition has come up, we see a slightly positive data also, which also surprises us in a way. So that is where we understand that, you know, there's something else which is there apart from the competition. And as far as, of course, so that is why, you know, consumer sentiment is something which we felt. And as far as price point is concerned, look, as I mentioned, that we have taken a lot of initiatives on ensuring that we have entry price point also, we have done a lot of work. Like, I'll give you an example, like for kurta set and jacket, there's one price point called INR 2,624. We have strengthened a lot in this price point to ensure that, you know, our products are very competitive at a very attractive price point. So after GST, it was good for us also, and we are more helpful for the consumers. So we have taken a lot of these... We have done a lot of market surveys on the price points and how we can improve ourselves from a price point wise, wise, and from a designing perspective also, and have done a lot of groundwork at the ground level, so that, you know, whenever things improve, we will be in a position to leverage that positivity. So, just to follow up here, competition is consolidating, your efforts are in place, but recovery on growth still is contingent on overall macro pick up. Is that a fair understanding? Absolutely. Absolutely. Or you feel there is, like, confidence now that, you know, next year you will probably add retail area, which has been missing this year? Oh, yeah, that is another thing. You have rightly, yeah, you have rightly highlighted that, I mean, because this year, you know, strategically we were focusing on improving the quality of our retail footprint to improve the overall quality of our business from a long-term sustainability prospect. But, we feel that our store expansion should start normalizing from next two, three quarters. So of course, from the upcoming financial year, we are, we expect that the store openings should also start normalizing. So that will be another lever of growth for us, which currently, because strategically we were not focusing on that, it was not there. So that will also help a lot in future. Got it, Rahul. That's, that's very, very helpful. Come back in the queue for any follow-ups. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the management line has been disconnected. Please stay connected. We have Rahul connected with us. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management on the line with us. The next question is from the line of Priyadarshi from FIL. Please proceed. Hi, thanks a lot for taking my question. So, I would once again, you know, like you to talk about the growth aspect. So, I mean, I just want to ask, you know, if we look at our performance over a year, like over 12, 12 months or something, I think within that period, the number of trading days would be normalized, right? I mean, that is, that should be our assumption. So I think if we are still not able to grow, is it because the category itself is losing relevance and, you know, trends that we used to mention that, you know, we are moving to more traditional wear during weddings, et cetera, and that sort of trend has stalled. Secondly, in this USP environment, are the organized players at an advantage, given that, you know, they, I don't know, I mean, whether they would be competing properly or something like that, because of which they would be discounting more. So are these factors also playing out? Thanks. Thank you for your question. So, you know, as far as the trend of traditional wear is concerned, you know, we have been the lead players motivating people for encouraging people to wear Indian wear over the years, and that has really played a lot positively across, and that is where we can see a lot of competition also coming up. So if we also look at recent, you know, high-profile weddings, then we have seen that, you know, even foreigners are wearing Indian wear and attending the weddings, and 99% plus people, attendees, are wearing Indian wears. So from an industry perspective, Indian wear is actually into play, and it is doing really well, not only in weddings, but also across festivities and celebration. Thankfully, we have been able to have that, those campaigns, which have helped overall improvement in sentiments and overall motivating everyone to wear Indian wears over the years. So from an industry perspective, and that is where, you know, so many players we see, both organized and unorganized, coming and opening their store in this industry. So from an industry perspective, it is a very growing industry, and there is no challenge at all. Now, as far as unorganized player is concerned, look, our 80% basis, what we did earlier, 80% of our market, we got a survey done a few years before. Basis, 80% of market is unorganized player. And of course, in last 3-4 years, a lot of stores have opened in the unorganized segment, and we acknowledge that there will be some impact of competition in our business. But having said that, the major reason of the business performance, which we see in last one year or so, is because of the consumer sentiment and macro aspects, which have played a more important role and a major role in our business performance rather than competition. As far as competition theater is concerned, look, while many unorganized players have opened the stores in last three years, but we have seen a lot of consolidation also at the ground level and at the industry level. As I mentioned, there are also a few players which were having five to 10 stores at Pan India level. They have also wind up all the stores. So and our industry is a very challenging industry. You know, there are various modes which are required, and we are very confident on our modes, what we have been able to develop in last two decades, because understanding customer tastes and preferences across Pan India, working on the supply chain and also to retail. Generally, retail and apparel works on discounting mode. Earlier, there was only one, two months in a year where discounting used to happen, EOSS. But now you would say a normal apparel player, retail player is having discounting EOSS across the year. Now, in our segment, EOSS is something which generally doesn't play, give more benefit to any other retail player, because, you know, if you put sherwani in 50% discount, nobody is going to buy it unless there's a wedding. So there are a lot of challenges in our industry, which is not possible for any unorganized player to cope up with. And, you know, they are having very small working capital. So obviously in 1-2 years, it looks exciting, but once the overall liquidity gets stuck because the inventory is not moving, because USS discount doesn't play a role, that is where the consolidation starts. And good part about us is that, look, overall, all our KPIs have been increasing across year-over-year. Every year we are seeing every quarter, while, of course, you know, the revenue-wise overall, we have not been able to grow to a great extent. But as far as retail KPI is concerned, which is the main fundamental and basics of running retail, that is growing every quarter and every year, which is the most important thing, and we have been able to fundamentally maintain our margins also at a pretty good level. So that is where we feel that, you know, as soon as the macro environment improves, we would be the first person, and we would be in a very advantageous situation, basis whatever initiative we have taken in last one year at the ground. All right. All right. Thanks a lot. Thank you. I'll come back. Thank you. Thank you. Before we take the next question, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Rahul Agarwal from Ikigai Asset. Please proceed. Yeah, hi. Good evening, Rahul Ji. Hi. Good evening, Neeraj. Just a couple of questions, then I'll get back in the queue. Firstly, you mentioned about, you know, a store consolidation still going on, and then next year should look better. Could you elaborate a bit? Could you give more color? Where are we on this journey? What have we seen in this nine months? We have seen some more shutdowns in third quarter. Just a bit of elaboration on what are the thought process right now, and how do you see next two years evolving on a top-down basis? That will really help me. That's the first question. Thank you, Rahul, for your question. So, you know, strategically, as a management, we, we focused on improving the quality of our retail footprints, which will result in improving the quality of our business. That would be helpful for a long-term sustainability of the business from a long-term perspective. So that is where, you know, we were focusing on our retail footprint, which existing we have. And there were some store closures which we have done last year and currently also, because of various reasons, starting from, you know, smaller stores. Because if you see, our majority store expansion are having in the flagship segment. We are opening more larger stores. So in order to improve the overall brand, brand identity and customer experience, we have been closing smaller store of 1,000 sq ft and less, including the SIS stores. So that is one reason. Secondly, you know, generally, because the Indian environment is very dynamic, cities, many cities in India are also dynamic. New markets are evolving, old markets are getting old. So there are a lot of market shifts are also which are happening within a city. So that is another reason what we are doing, is that we are closing the stores in markets which are very old, and now where the market is not doing so well because it has shifted to another location. So that is another reason. And third is, of course, there are certain stores which are not very, very much performing as per our KPI. So that is why we are consolidating on those things. And what we feel, and I, I'm very confident as a management, is that once this exercise is over, in next two, three quarters... So to answer your question, Rahul, we feel that this exercise should get over in next 2-3 quarters. And from there on, we feel that the quality of business and the overall productivity should be very good. And as far as store expansion is concerned, this is where, you know, store expansion also, we have not seen much store expansion this year, strategically, but we feel that the store expansion should start normalizing from next 2-3 quarters. Right. Right. So if I look at, you know, the store count, right? I mean, June 2023, we had similar stores, 664 odd. This is going into next three quarters. Are we going to see an absolute decline here, or we're going to see... Though we're not going to see net additions, I understand, because it's going to be gross plus some closures, but we'll maintain this count going forward. Is that understanding correct? So to be very frank, you know, how we judge and how we monitor square feet store expansion is based on square foot area. And why you see a decline in count is that, because as I mentioned, we have been opening larger stores, and we are the closures which are happening are smaller stores which are there. So because 1,000 sq ft and less or smaller stores are closing, so that is why count-wise it is going down. But I think the kind of store opening which we do, it varies from 2,000 sq ft to 20,000 sq ft. So that is why the right way of monitoring, which we also do, is based on square foot area rather than count, to see how we are progressing on the expansion. Got it, Rahul. We understand that, understand. The last question on balance sheet. You know, given the slowdown and moving of demand between quarters, I think wedding days for, you know, February 2026 is a very strong month. I would imagine almost double-digit wedding days. Some flow-through we have seen in January, some comments on that, and, and on inventory, is there anything to worry about? Sure. So on the inventory side, you know, we have built a lot of efficiency around there. As a result of efficiency in supply management and inventory management and demand planning, as a result, we have seen improvement in inventory terms as well, which is actually something amazing to have from a business perspective, because we are able to do, much more business with lesser inventory terms. So basically, from that perspective, inventory levels have really improved at our warehouse as well as at the store. On, as far as January is concerned, as we discussed, there were no wedding dates at all in January. Considering that aspect, we have been able to do different business in the month of January. Got it, Rahul. Thank you so much for answering. I'll get back in the queue. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is on the line of Aashish from InvesQ PMS. Please proceed. Yes, sir, just wanted to understand, because we're, we've stalled on opening new stores, and I would assume that, we are still a long way to go, in terms of penetrating the markets that are available in India for our sort of, products. So, is it to... I mean, it sounds like, the ROIs on those investments may not come immediately or maybe might be lower than what your company ROIs would be or paybacks would be. But does it make sense to just stall the entire process because, we think that the markets are not supportive enough? Because, maybe the ROIs are not like maybe 30%-40%, and maybe it's like 20%. So as a businessman, how one should, one would approach this? Sure. Thank you for your question. So two things are there. First of all, look, last year, if you look at FY 25, on a net basis, we did open 85,000 sq ft, and that too is on, also on a net basis, because there were closures also. So at a gross level, in last year, we did decent openings, and we did pause on store opening acceleration. And this year also, we have opened store at a gross level, but we have closed also because of reasons we have discussed. And as a result, on net basis, it looks like, we are just 2,000-3,000 sq ft area expansion, but we have been expanding also. And the reason we have been doing is, first of all, to improve the quality of our retail footprint so that the quality of business improves. Secondly, you know, one year back when we discussed, there was a lot of inflation in the lease rentals, because of which also we had paused the acceleration of store expansion, because whenever we enter into lease rental, it is for a very long period. It is for 10-15 years. So if we enter into a commitment with a very high yield lease rental, then it is a long-term impact on our profitability, and that is why, because of these reasons, we did pause the manner in which we were accelerating the growth of retail opening. But having said that, the fact is that we have been still opening even last year, and currently also we have had some good gross openings. We feel that this exercise of consolidation will get over in next, around two quarters, and from there on, we feel that the store expansion will get normalized as it was happening earlier. A follow-up on that would be, would you say that the paybacks on the new stores has elongated versus what you used to see, you used to see in the past? Not really. Actually, to avoid that, we have done this, because, you know, as I mentioned, that, to avoid a scenario wherein we get into a very commitment of very high rental, we didn't want to get into that situation. And that is where, because we are into franchise business, so we are very cautious, and we have a very proper approach on store opening, so that we ensure that wherever we open store, we ensure that not only we make money, but the franchisee also makes money. So we open the store only with the context where both of us are able to make good amount of money. So the point is not that we were seeing that the ROI will not be good, but because of, if you look at our store expansion, in last 2-3 years, we have opened at least around, on an average, around 7 lakh stores in the, in the store area, which is a huge store expansion. So we also wanted to review those ones which we have already opened. But the question was not on the ROI, the question was how we can improve the existing fleet which we already have, and how we can wait for the right moment to come, then we can accelerate our store expansion. So, you know, store expansion is already in our hand because we have all the mappings of the market, the cities where we need to expand. It is just about the right moment we are waiting, that is where we will accelerate that in next few quarters, as I mentioned. Okay. Actually, so is it likely to be a problem with the festive wear category itself? Because there are different retail businesses having different directions, because in certain mass retail, we are seeing that the SSGs and everything is growing very well. So, would you comment on that? Is it specific to category or is generally the market not great, because numbers speak something different for other people. Sure. So overall, this industry has been really doing very well, as we discussed. Overall, the industry has been doing very well, and that is where we see so many players coming up as well as consolidating. But the point is that this industry itself is very difficult to work upon. It is not a very easy industry to work upon, because consumer tastes and preferences are very different. Every region, every city... India is a complex country, look, with different tastes and preferences across markets, cities and states. So it is very different, difficult industry to work and survive and grow from your own. So that is the reason we see some consolidation already happening. But from an overall industry perspective, it has been really doing very well. When we compare with, you know, any mass or a value retail or a premium retail, as I mentioned, you know, in India, middle class segment is something which has actually got impacted in last one year when it comes to consumer sentiment. But if we talk about value or when we talk about premiumization, those are the areas which have actually not got impacted. So that is where we see, as I mentioned, that, you know, our premium brand, Twamev, is doing exceptionally well, while Manyavar being in the middle class, mid-premium segment, has been impacted because of the current macro environment. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Azad Uddin, from Sumitra Capital. Please proceed. Yeah. So thank you for taking my question. Most of my question was already answered. So, just, one question on we took some initiative on our COCO stores, in last quarters, and we invested around INR 11 crore as a CapEx as well. So just, can you please share the initial performance insights? How are these stores performing in terms of revenue per sq ft, store level EBITDA, and, payback period compared to COCO stores? And based on the pilot result, do you see a larger rollout of COCO stores ahead? Thank you for your question. So look, as a model, we will continue with the franchise model, which we have. So from future prospect also, largely our expansion would come from franchisee store only. As we mentioned in our earlier call, we had converted some franchisee store to COCO store to, to do some experimentation and to try new things, to see, you know, how, what is the outcome of that. So from a, so from a future prospect, the expansion would be largely from, franchise only and not COCO model. As far as performance of these stores are concerned, it has been doing decently well. Apart from, you know, general, the December return and whatever is there. But overall, when we compare to the other stores in the same region, it has done decently well. They have done exactly what other stores have done. Okay. How are you tracking the, let's say, average selling price across your different brands? Let's talk about the Manyavar or the Twamev or Mohey, Mebaz. So is there any data which you are tracking across your new product launch in the particular brand? Or what... I just want to know the blended realization across the brand compared to your peers. So look, brand wise, we are having a complete track of ASP, brand wise. Typically, you know, because we have access to all the post-sale, which is happening in the franchise store. So our ERP is fully integrated, for us, wherein we have full visibility of at what price, what products are being sold to which customers. So that is not a problem. So look, blended ASP for us is around INR 5,000, if you look at current YTD. And of course, the ASP of Manyavar would be below that, and the Twamev would be higher, it would be in the range of INR 15,000 ASP, INR 15,000-16,000, and Mohey would be in the range of INR 7,000, INR 6,000. So that would be the breakup of ASP. Okay. Thank you. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Miten from Fractal Capital. Please proceed. Sorry to interrupt, sir. Miten, sir, your voice is not clear. Is this now clear? Yes, sir. Still better. Thank you. So your gross GST rate, as I understand, is about 17%. Could you help us with the net GST rate? Sir, can you please raise your voice because it's coming very low for us. I'm not able to hear properly. Yeah, so your gross GST rate is about 17%. Can you help us with the net GST rate? Our GST rate on all products above 2,500 is 18%. Yeah, yeah. So blended, I calculated about 90 above. So basically, 90% of our products are in that bracket only, and only 10% of products would be in a bracket where the GST rates are 5%. So overall, if you ask me, maybe, you know, it would be in the range of 16% tax. Okay. And, could you sort of, give us some sense of the net GST rate after considering the benefit of input tax credits? So look, input tax rate in our case, the fabrics which we purchase are generally at 5%, whereas our output is at 18% for the manufacturing, which we do. So basically, at a net level, if you reduce 5%, you'll get the net GST rate for that. But do you have other credits as well, right? On rent, et cetera, you would have credit, input tax. Rent? Yeah. No, we don't take anything on rent, actually. We don't have any rental model. So there are other input credits on services, if you are coming to that, like lease cost and other things, so those inputs are there. But broadly, at a net level, I would tell you that it would be net of everything. It would be in the range of, you know, high single digit, I would say, at least. Got it, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prashant Shah, an investor. Please proceed. Hello, is my voice audible? Yes, absolutely. Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Just an analogy, I mean, you know, I mean, you mentioned in your earlier comments that the middle-class sentiment has not turned up as the company would like to be. As an analogy, I mean, gold prices have gone through, I mean, have gone up exponentially. But still, I mean, jewelry companies have done, have reported fantastic numbers. The quantity sold has been, may have come down, but the realization, the design, almost all of them have done, have reported a fantastic numbers. So my point is, I mean, pardon me if I'm very blunt, has there been some sort of slip-up in reading the consumer sentiment which has impacted our quarterly sales? Or is it that, I mean, the consumer is not finding a value, which is why he is looking for alternatives, and that is impacting our sales? That is my first question. Sure. Thank you for your question, sir. So look, we are not an expert on jewelry companies, but the basic thing, what our understanding was, is that considering the price for jewelry, which has gone up significantly in last 1 year, I mean, that would be 1 important aspect to consider from a growth perspective for them. And secondly, is that, you know, in India, jewelry is not a discretionary, it is an investment, it's, it is for both. I mean, even in the last company, which we were dealing with jewelry, less than 50% is based on wedding for them, and, more than that is other than wedding. And in India, you know, people look for jewelry from an investment perspective also, and not for an expenditure. Sorry to interrupt, sir. The line is breaking again. I'll just reconnect. Sure. Ladies and gentlemen, please stay connected. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management connected. You may proceed, sir. Yeah. So I think, we, I was able to explain the rush which is there on silver and gold, which may be driving the, the overall growth for the jewelry players. And the jewelry as a segment is not an expense, but also considered an investment from an Indian culture perspective. So not very comparable, to be very frank, with our segment. So from our reading, sir, the actual reason is because we have been closely monitoring our products, performance, all retail KPIs. We have been doing market surveys at the ground level. We have been discussing with various people at the market. We have been discussing with various players also. So our understanding seems to be that the overall consumer sentiment at the middle class level are actually impacted, which is majorly affecting our business. Apart from, the wedding dates play, which did play a very important role. Because if you look at, overall our revenue also, as we mentioned, if we exclude, you know, December month, then, you know, in the festivities and celebration, we have been able to do decent business. But of course, with positive, more positive consumer sentiment, we could have done better as well. But overall, when we talk about Q3 performance, it is majorly because of, you know, December and January wedding dates, along with the muted consumer sentiment, of course. Well, I mean, we'll have to go with that, but because, you know, I mean, jewelry was one example, but otherwise, if you say wedding venues, airlines, hotels, wedding coordinators, I mean, all of them seem to be doing a roaring business. But if you say so, I mean, fair enough. I mean, my second question was, in one of your earlier calls, you had mentioned that, lease rental inflation, you consider it 4% per year. So, a growth below 4% would be a degrowth. So is my understanding correct? So thank you for your question. I actually don't recall that we did give any commentary. What we mentioned is that, you know, every... We have generally lease term of 10-15 years, and every three year, generally three to four years, there's an escalation clause which is there for around, you know, say, 5% or plus of escalation in the lease rental. So that is how we are. And because we enter into lease rental for long-term basis, say for 10-15 years, so if we commit on a high, on an environment where the lease rental at a high, high, high rate, then it becomes a long-term commitment for us. So in light of the recent, I mean, what you just said- Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Prashant. May we request you to join the question? Madam, this is an add-on to that only. I mean, this is the last one. Is the company thinking of renegotiating any of the lease rentals and buy, I mean, in view of the recent business trend? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So look, I mean, we do renegotiate this lease rental wherever we feel that there's an opportunity considering the overall market situation. We always do that as a normal process. Okay. That's all. I wish you all the best. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prerna Jhunjhunwala from Elara Securities. Please proceed. Thank you for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand the mix of cities, how the demand has been panning out, whether cities paying in some segment of cities like tier two, tier three, because you are the widest available brand in the organized space. So, is there any opportunity or challenge that you see in tier one, tier two, tier three, that has been affecting you in some way, or is now available for opportunity? In both ways, I would like to understand the geography of our brand visibility. Thank you, Prerna, for your question. So, you know, at a YTD level, we don't see any gap geographically, to be very frank. But on a quarter-on-quarter basis, there are various reasons why different geographies do behave differently. Like, like in case of South Two, we saw that, you know, overall, at a YTD level, it has done good positive business. But when you look at Q3, it was more impacted than other regions because they have their own inauspicious period, which started earlier, called Moodam, which started earlier this time in November end, which generally started in December mid. But apart from that, we have not seen much major difference geographically at a pan-India level. A follow-up to this is that we're seeing difficult time across geographies, given that our SSSGs have been declining. So is that a right understanding? Not even for this quarter, but you know, from a nine-month perspective as well. You know, to be honest, if we exclude the December month, which has been exceptional December month, which we have not seen at least in last 5 years, wherein there have been no, no weddings in January. If you look at the core wedding and festivity period, we've actually done decent positive business. But it is just because of this December month that our overall, you know, performance has got impacted in Q3, and of course, as a result, YTD levels have also got impacted. As I mentioned, if you look at September to November or October to November, then we have done decent positive business, both overall as well as LTL. But the December month was so drastically impacted that it actually impacted the entire quarter. So to be very frank, when it comes to festivity and wedding wear, there was another question that others are also doing well. So we have also grown only during that period. But it's just because of the wedding calendar, because of the December month, it got so much affected in quarter three. Okay. So my second question, even brand wise performance, given that, your premium portfolio continues to do better, could you just help us understand how the brand mix has changed over the last three to four period years, and how do you foresee it going forward? And whether Manyavar as a brand, what kind of investments would you see if, if that percentage is declining meaningfully? Sure. So with the growing brands, of course, you know, the pie of new brand percentage of mix has been improving. And, of course, we expect that to further improve along with Manyavar, because Manyavar also, we are very confident that it will grow with, along with other brand also. But yes, of course, there has been some percentage slight, which has also overall, other brand, if you see, that has improved over Manyavar. But from a future prospect, we are very confident that all our brands, along with our flagship brand, will have a very strong growth potential. So difficult to comment on, you know, how the mix would change going forward. But yes, we see a healthy growth in all our brands from a future prospect. The current mix would help if you could share. Actually, I'm so sorry, but we are not currently sharing the mix percentage. But yes, in future, at some point of time, we would definitely do that. Sure. Thank you so much, and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Due to time constraints, that was the last question. I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Over to you, sir. Namaskar, and thank you, everyone. It was a great pleasure interacting with you all, with all the analysts. Thank you very much for joining. Looking forward to interact again in the next quarter. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of JM Financial, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.