Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Marico Limited's Q2 FY 2027 earnings conference call. We have with us the senior management of Marico, represented by Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO, and Pawan Agrawal, Group CFO and CEO International Business. 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 this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Before we get started, I would like to remind you that the Q&A session is for institutional investors and analysts, and therefore, if there is anybody else who is not an institutional investor or analyst but would like to ask questions, please directly reach out to Marico's investor relations team. I now hand the conference over to Saugata Gupta. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Yeah, hi. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. I will start with a perspective on the operating environment during the quarter and will then cover our performance, followed by our outlook and strategic priorities. The global operating environment remained volatile during the quarter. Geopolitical developments in West Asia led to higher energy prices and renewed concerns around supply chain and inflation. In India, however, the economic activity remained resilient, supported by domestic consumption and investment. Consumer inflation increased, led by food, edible oil, and fuel. These developments reinforce the importance of managing agility in pricing, sourcing, and execution. Against this backdrop, we delivered yet another quarter of strong all-round performance. Consolidated revenue grew 13%, driven by 10% volume growth in India business and 13% constant currency growth in the international business. EBITDA grew 27%, while PAT increased 31%, marking the highest profit growth in the last 50 quarters. Gross margin expanded by approximately 600 basis points year-on-year. This improvement was driven by favorable product portfolio mix, improving profitability across our new growth engines, and the benefit of softer copra prices. Advertising and promotion expenditure increased by 44% during the quarter as we continue to invest in strengthening the long-term equity of our core franchise while accelerating the scale-up of our new growth engines. Even as we significantly stepped up our A&P investments, EBITDA margin expanded by 200 basis points to 18.2%. Our performance stands out even on a two-year basis, with revenue growth and EBITDA compounded at 22% and 17% respectively, underpinned by 8% volume growth in India business and 16% constant currency growth in the international business. This strong performance demonstrates how Marico has evolved over the last few years. We have built a more diversified portfolio with multiple, increasingly complementary growth engines. Our core franchises, Foods, and Premium Personal Care and digital-first brands, and a geographically diverse steady international business. This diversification has increased the resilience of our business across multiple commodity cycles. Last year, when copra prices reached multi-year highs, we delivered resilient earnings growth and stable volumes in Parachute. This year, even after passing on the benefit of softer copra prices to consumer, we have sustained strong top-line growth led by double-digit volume growth in India and an unprecedented volume growth in Parachute post a significant price drop. The consistency of our performance reflects something fundamental about Marico, the willingness to challenge the status quo, the courage to set bold ambitions independent of external issues, and a deep sense of ownership to deliver on what we promise. That combination of strategic clarity, execution excellence in adversity, and accountability to outcomes is what continues to raise the bar on our performance. The numbers bear this out. Over the last 10 quarters, India has delivered high single-digit or better volume growth. In seven quarters, the international business has delivered teens or high constant currency growth in nine, while consolidated revenue growth has grown in the teens or higher in eight of the last 10 quarters. Pivotal to this strong performance is our GTM transformation under Project SETU, which has given us significant advantage in terms of better reach, assortment, rural distribution, and sharpened our execution. Our direct reach has gone up by more than 1.5x, while we have deepened our rural distribution by nearly doubling the number of stockists. We estimate that with SETU, we have been able to drive 1% to 2% incremental volume growth in the business over the last couple of years, with VAHO being the key portfolio that benefiting from this, and now PCNO getting some benefits. In addition, SETU has delivered a far better rhythm of business every day of the month, with significant savings in below-the-line spends and a very thin stock pipeline. We are now embarking upon SETU 2.0 in India, with a focus on AI and tech-led smarter growth and GTM expansion of our premium core and digital brands. Let me touch upon the key trends across the domestic business. Parachute Rigids delivered volume growth of 13%, its highest in 22 quarters. The franchise gained around 570 basis points of volume market share and reached a new high of 60%. Importantly, Parachute delivered positive value growth despite a deflationary pricing environment. This performance reflects the formidable equity of the brand, the trust consumer places in it, and the competitive advantage provided by our sourcing and supply chain capabilities. Value-added hair oils delivered its sixth consecutive quarter of stellar growth with a 21% value growth and an 80 basis point gain in value market share on a MAT basis. This consistency points to a structural shift in the portfolio's growth strategy. It is driven by our strategic pivot towards the mid and premium segments. This segment is both growth and margin accretive for us and delivered mid-teens volume growth in this quarter. Our Amla hair oil franchise accelerated further. We remain on track to scale it to an annualized revenue run rate of over INR 100 crore by FY 2028, with a medium-term aspiration of being a scale challenger by building it into a INR 200 crore to INR 250 crore ARR franchise by FY 2030. In Saffola Edible Oils, we are undertaking a deliberate reset to strengthen the long-term profitability of the franchise. We rationalized the supply of select low-margin variants, which led to a high single-digit volume decline, while revenue grew 6%. This process will get completed over the next two or three quarters. At the same time, our premium portfolio, led by Cold Pressed Oils and Saffola Total, continued to grow significantly ahead of the overall franchise. Beyond our core, our diversification agenda keeps gaining scale. Foods grew 45% and crossed an annualized revenue run rate of INR 1,500 crore, a significant jump from the last quarter. Saffola Foods delivered early teens growth led by Oats, Muesli, and Soya Chunks. Saffola Oats retained its position as India's number one Oats brand. True Elements, 4700BC, and Cosmix are scaling up in line with our plans, with growth accelerating sequentially. We are expanding these brands into relevant adjacencies and addressing a wider set of consumer needs and consumption occasions. At the same time, we are generating synergies across our Food platform in order to drive margin improvement in the overall franchise. Premium Personal Care delivered a strong performance led by Livon Serums and Parachute Advansed Protein Shampoo. The portfolio comprising premium hair nourishment, hair cleansing, male grooming, and skincare has crossed an annualized revenue run rate of INR 500 crore. We are witnessing very good traction in shampoos and confident of achieving INR 100 crore plus this ARR this year, with an aspiration to build it into a INR 400 crore, INR 500 crore ARR portfolio in the medium term. Interestingly, shampoo as a category globally across different brands is beginning to contribute nearly 4% to 5% of our total turnover. Talking about digital-first Personal Care, we had identified quite early that this will be a key growth driver and had accordingly pivoted towards covering this white space and building digital capabilities. Over the years, our digital-first Personal Care portfolio has grown to about INR 1,150 crore, and we have built some serious holistic internal capabilities to scale up digital brands profitably. Beardo perfectly exemplifies this. Since we took over the brand under Marico's leadership in 2020, the business has scaled by more than 6x and is expected to cross INR 400 crore this year. At the same time, the profitability has improved by 1,900 basis points. Our recent integration experience with True Elements has also been very good. This is indeed a strong proof of our ability to deliver sustained and profitable growth across the digital brands we fully acquire and scale up. Shifting gears to the international business, we continue to see robust growth momentum with 13% constant currency growth and 23% growth in INR terms. Bangladesh delivered a 5% constant currency growth, a sequential improvement despite continued demand softness amidst persistent inflation and broader macroeconomic challenges. Business continues to grow competitively on a high base, compounding 13% on a two-year basis, and strengthen its market position to sustain market share gains in the core portfolio along with robust growth in shampoo. We expect the business to see a gradual improvement in growth in the subsequent quarters, driven by focused consumer activations and GTM transformation as we leverage our Project SETU playbook globally. Vietnam delivered another outstanding quarter with 22% constant currency growth led by strong performance across the portfolio and a sustained acceleration in e-commerce. Project SETU was rolled out in Vietnam during last year and is already delivering encouraging results through direct reach expansion, sharper in-store execution, and AI-led selling, building a strong platform for sustainable long-term growth. MENA grew 15% in constant currency terms despite the inflationary pressures and operation challenges. The business delivered a resilient performance driven by strong execution, focused innovation, and continued market share gains in key categories. South Africa grew 15% in constant currency, accelerating on the back of a strong performance in hair care. New country development and exports grew 17%. Summing up, it has been a very strong first half, with revenues, EBITDA, and PAT increasing by 18%, 26%, and 28% respectively. Importantly, all growth engines, including India core, Foods, Premium Personal Care, digital-first, and international business, contributed to stellar performance. We enter the second half with high confidence and a strong momentum that positions us well to sustain the robust growth trajectory as we navigate the geopolitical challenges with disciplined execution. We are improving our annual outlook across key parameters. We expect to deliver teens revenue growth this year and comfortably cross the INR 15,000 crore revenue mark. We are confident to deliver mid-20s EBITDA growth, up from around 20% that we had estimated earlier, as we now have better visibility of the full-year picture. India business volume growth is also expected to touch double -digits for the full year. On the cost side, copra prices have stayed range-bound at about 35% below last year's peak. Crude-linked derivatives and veg oils, however, have risen further on the back of geopolitical developments and weather-related concerns. We are well-equipped to manage these pressures. We will draw on the pricing power of the brand and have distinct advantage in the form of softer copra prices and an aggressive cost management program to help cushion crude-linked inflation. A repeatable business model and way of working is what powers our growth flywheel. Strong brands, wider reach, and better assortment drive volume and favorable portfolio mix, leading to improved profitability, giving us the headroom to reinvest in our brands, people, and capabilities, which turn fuels the next round of growth. We have chosen to keep investing through cycles, and that consistency is now visible in our results. The quality of our execution and coping with adversity has become a key differentiating factor for us, and it is what keeps the virtuous flywheel chugging along. This is further supported by the longevity and stability of our leadership. We are fully aware that the biggest enemy that stalls a virtuous cycle of growth is management complacency, overconfidence, and arrogance. Therefore, we are mindful of being hungry, humble, and paranoid every day. As we progress towards our stated vision to reach INR 20,000 crore by FY 2030 with mid-teens EBITDA CAGR, we feel more confident about our strategy, our capabilities, and the strength of our brands and people. With our current momentum, we aspire to wrap up our INR 20,000 crores target by 2029. After all, Yeh Dil Maange More. This will mean that we will be doubling from INR 10,000 crores to INR 20,000 crores in four years without any major inorganic component, which will be unprecedented in the sector. We remain committed to growing profitably with sharper portfolio choices and disciplined capital allocation. Underpinning all of this is an empowered organization built on depth of top talent across functions and specifically P&L leaders or general managers, AI-led capabilities, and strong execution discipline. Today, we have a portfolio that is insulated from the impact of a single category or of a single commodity cycle, and multiple growth engines that strengthen one another. We have built deep capabilities in brand building, TAM expansion, digital marketing, GTM transformation, cost management, et cetera. We have shown that we can deploy them at scale across our three businesses. The strong performance over last several quarters is an outcome of the choices we made and stayed committed to. With the strategy, the momentum, and the organization in place, we are determined to compound this performance and deliver consistent profitable growth in the medium term. With this, I close my remarks, and we can take questions. 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 please use handsets when asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Abneesh Roy with Nuvama. Please go ahead. Yeah, thanks, and congrats on numbers and EBITDA upgrade. I wanted to understand the EBITDA upgrade. If I see copra is fairly stable last four, five months, and your non-coconut portfolio, in fact, sees more inflation versus three, six months back, either in terms of Foods, Personal Care, or even Edible Oil. So what has led to the upgrade? Is it because operating leverage kicks in a bit more stronger, given overall pricing environment is strong? Or is it that the growth portfolio either is doing better than expectation, I think, which you mentioned, or because the funding needs for the growth business are a bit lower? Or the Saffola Edible Oil, because you said some of the lower margin segments you are culling down and more focus on the premium end, is that a bigger reason for the upgrade? That's the first question. I think it's a combination of four, five things. Obviously, a favorable mix where we are consistently ensuring that we keep on chopping things which are not profitable in the long term. Secondly, I think we now have a fair idea about how the year will go. As you know that as a procurement, we believe procurement and position holding is a source of competitive advantage. Therefore, the consumption cost and the market prices are different depending on how your procurement efficiency is. Secondly, as you know that the Parachute growth has been, I think when we started the year, we were not sure about Parachute volume growth during a deflationary cycle. Although, in terms of we have now, in terms of taken only one pricing, we have a very thin pipeline. Therefore, we have managed it, I think, very, very well this time. Obviously, there are improvements in profitability of the diversification part of the business. Lastly, I think, obviously, what has happened is even in value-added hair oils, if you notice, the premium and the mid segments are growing further. Of course, we have a very able cost management program. I think we now have a fairer visibility than what we had one quarter ago to call this out. Sure. My second question is two parts. First is protein segment in India is doing really well. If you see Milky Mist numbers, there is a 40% growth consistently. You also do have the Soya Chunks business where you have done quite well. If you can discuss ARR for Soya Chunks, what kind of market share in modern trade and e-commerce it has, and what will be the 2030 aim in this part of the portfolio? Second is, are you looking at value-added protein? Because ultimately, protein value-added sells at a much higher pricing and margin. For example, something like tofu, which will be a processed product of soya, but obviously, that requires cold chain and a lot of different elements. So what's your thought on participating in the value-added protein? Second quick question on shampoo. Anything in kirana you have managed to take, and what is the success you're seeing? What is the reason for the success? Is it just the brand extension which is working or something different? Because 5% of your salience international comes from shampoo. So something from there is able to plug the gap here, or is it just the brand extension and your normal very focused market share gain in a new category that is helping? If you can elaborate on that. Okay, the first, I think, let me answer on protein. If I look at protein, we see protein as a big bet, and we want to participate across different categories, across different price points, and catering to different consumer segments. Therefore, we see holistically, we will operate and participate in protein through at least four brands, which is Saffola, Cosmix, Plix, and True Elements. Therefore, our participation in protein is aggressive, broad-based, and ensuring that we plug multiple consumer segments, o kay. Coming to the mass end, we obviously participate in Soya Chunks. We are about INR 100 ARR, but I think the question is, and you are absolutely right, that what we did on Oats, we need to do on Soya Chunks, which is basically, how do we premiumize that segment and participate in the mass end? We participate in the premium end with Cosmix, which is plant protein and yeast protein. Plix also participates in it. True Elements has come up with protein bars. Saffola in protein, in terms of Oats and Muesli, it will now have participating protein. Overall, we see protein, by participating with multiple brands, multiple categories, we believe we will be a broad-spectrum protein player and will be a big protein player in the next, over the medium term. The second question is on shampoo. Shampoo is available in both sachet and rigid format, which is available across all channels. We are seeing a good response to it, and we should be able to cross INR 100 crores. Not many new products cross INR 100 crores in the first year of launch. In fact, if you look at it, we launched it in May, and we expanded in GT actually in July, August. So actually, it's not even 12 months, o kay. We will be crossing INR 100 crores. The issue is, I think this is a tried and tested mix, and we used uncommon sense rather than launching in the home market. We ensured, can we launch it in some other market where the risks are low and we learn? I think it has been a fantastic success in Bangladesh. We replicated this model in Middle East and Parachute as a brand. Mind you, we have participated in this category, shampoo, also through X-Men in Vietnam, and we have been participating over the last 15 years. So, I think we know the category. Parachute is obviously a strong brand, Parachute Advansed, in terms of distribution. I strongly believe that it's a question of execution. If you look at globally, the natural space is something which is available in the shampoo category globally. Therefore, we believe that Parachute Advansed, with its equity, has a strong right to win. It has a great product, and obviously, we have to continuously execute it well. The other interesting thing is that given our overall cost structure this year, we have the leeway to invest heavily behind it. In line with our fewer, bigger, bolder, and faster philosophy, we will do few things. Therefore, the entire concentration as far as the core is, while we will continue to diversify and premiumize, is to focus on shampoo and almond. These are the two big bets as far as we are concerned, and therefore, we will continue to focus that. We strongly believe that given our experience, we should be able to do INR 400 crore, INR 500 crore in the near term. The good thing is that in both sachets and Parachute Rigids, we are getting good response across channels. Sure. Thank you. That is all from my side. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Arnab Mitra with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi, and congratulations on a very consistent and strong performance again. My first question was on Parachute, where definitely the expectations have been exceeded significantly in the first half and this quarter. Compared to the past in these deflationary cycles, you did mention the pricing, the change you did in terms of how you took the price cut. Other than that, what are the other drivers why it has exceeded your expectations so much? Do those drivers sustain in the second half, or there were some specific advantages versus competition which may or may not hold true as you go ahead for the next few quarters? I think I would say there are four drivers besides, of course, the flawless execution we have done, which has helped Parachute to sustain. Is it going to be I think we still stand by that we will be happy over the medium term if we deliver 4%-6% growth in Parachute. Coming to this year specifically, what worked for us? I think what we did was we did selective price drops in loyalty packs, and that reversed the down trading which we had been witnessing last year because of inflation. We didn't pass on the benefit in terms of adding volume in the, you know— Prices. —price point packs. The price adjustments were more in the mid and the larger packs, which are loyalty packs. We did one price change. Secondly, because of SETU and our rhythm, and we believe in doing 3.5% sale every day, our overall pipeline in the trade, pipeline in the distributor is thin and is one of the, I think it is the thinnest in the industry today, one of the thinnest in the industry. In the previous time, what used to happen is by the time the price drop got executed, it used to take four weeks, eight weeks in rural. This has happened in record time. The third thing which has also helped us is SETU. SETU, while it has done VAHO now, the very fact that we are going deep in rural with increased number of stockists, which are nearly 1.8 x, we have increased the stockists and now helping Parachute in mass. Two factors which are extraneous which have helped. One, I think, is more consistent. One could be slightly more, I think, transient. First is obviously whenever there was supply chain shocks that happened, there was a shortage of packaging material, there could have been shortage of things like commercial gas. Obviously, smaller players get more impacted. Secondly, obviously, our procurement advantages, we get a cost advantage. Lastly, I think organized competitive pressure, given some of them have other priorities, or it could be also because of the hyperinflation that happened, has been. There has been no irrational competitive activity also. I am hoping that is slightly less transient. The first one is transient, but today also, the overall supply chain conditions continue to be slightly favorable as far as we are concerned. It's a combination of all that. I believe that, yes, this year will be very good for Parachute, but what we have now done is we have now got the playbook for both a hyperinflation cycle and a deflation cycle, which we will replicate, and in the future, there will be no shocks. Having said that, given our multiple vectors of growth, we are not dependent on copra and Parachute performance anyway for total performance. I think that we have moved away from. Sure. Thanks. That is very helpful, Saugata, to understand this. The second question was actually on A&P. You have obviously done a big increase in investment, 44% growth. This time, even the standalone A&P has significantly gone up. It is not just in the consol. Just two parts to the question. On the standalone side, is it largely going on the new vectors that you discussed right now in the last question, or is there generally higher spend you are doing on the core itself? Secondly, on the new businesses, the digital-first brands, while they are still growing, the growth rate is now more in a normative, like 20% type of range, at least it looks like from the ARR. Is there a case to further accelerate A&P there, or given the scale of the business, this is a growth which is more sustainable for that part of the business? Coming to the A&P in the standalone, what you are saying, obviously a significant amount of A&P has gone towards shampoo and Amla. As you know, Amla, we want to be a challenger. We believe that what we did in Amla, between 2009 and 2016, there is a case for replicating that over the next five to seven years in Amla, and we think we have got the mix right this time. Also, we have invested in core. We are investing in VAHO. We are also investing in driving Parachute in the non-Maharashtra and the markets in the markets. Also, have you noticed one more thing is Foods has also accelerated, core foods. We are ensuring that. Interestingly, Arnab, if you look at it, we must be one of the very few companies, we have not cut back on A&P on any cycle. A&P, investing behind talent and investing behind capability development, develops muscle in the organization long term. We have not taken any short-term bets. Coming to the digital business, your question, I think we have always stated that we are happy to get 25% growth while we do it profitably, and this is something which is our base case. If there are opportunities, we will definitely not take advantage of, but we do not believe in steroid-based growth. There will be always new things we will be adding up, which can accelerate the growth. But whatever we have, I think, in the organic digital, it is okay to grow, that kind of a thing, that kind of a rate. Got it. Very helpful. Thanks for all the best. That is it from me. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tejas Shah with Avendus Spark Institutional Equities. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on a very good set of numbers. Saugata, the kind of numbers that we are showing and the guidance raise also that we have done in terms of pre-poning our edge target also, it needs a lot of macro support as well. Just wanted to understand if you can comment on how are you reading the demand scenario in general and then specific to core portfolio, and also the competitive landscape you touched upon, but how bad or how good it can go from here for us not to deviate or achieve our target on time? I think one of the things we always believed in is that we want to create a resilient organization and execution and agile capability where the strong gets stronger and the weak gets weaker. Therefore, coping with adversity has been a source of competitive advantage for us. If you really look at globally or even in India, organizations which are what I call self-help organization and who don't believe in being a victim of external circumstances perhaps tend to do better. Having said that, we are mindful of two things. In India, obviously, we are mindful of the demand situation if in certain states there has been a little bit of deficient rainfall more than others. The very fact that if crude continues to be at high level, whether there will be more inflation. In some of the international markets, obviously, same thing, and also the supply chain complexity. As I said that we don't want to be While we don't want to be overconfident and complacent about this growth, we are paranoid every day and ensure we have a plan B, plan C, plan D for everything. Having said that, I mean, if what I call black swans keep on increasing, that's a different case. Even at this current crude levels, whenever we are giving outlook, we have baked in a current crude level, and we are not hoping in the next six months, the things will drastically improve. Yeah. Would you say that the consumer sentiment are better quarter-over-quarter versus when we spoke last versus today? As of now, we are seeing resilient consumption as far as India is concerned, and I think if you look at the overall results of all the sectors, although some of them you have to look at from a two-year perspective, and that's why we shared the two-year numbers with you, are improving. Now, we have to see how it pans out in the next couple of quarters. As I said, having said that, as far as we are concerned, we have baked in a kind of a scenario, continue to be at this rate. As I said, sometimes we believe procurement decisions and other things, supply chain can be a source of competitive advantage. Usually, in tough times, it is the smaller players, regional players who get squeezed and the larger players consolidate. Yeah. If I may squeeze in last one. Project SETU, you spoke multiple times adjective of rhythm there. Is it largely helping as 2.0 is largely about more of a quality of execution rather than numeric expansion? Is it largely helping in quality of distribution, A, and B, what percentage of our portfolio is still not, have not seen benefit of Project SETU yet? Yeah. So I think it is twofold. First, it is both quantity and quality. If you look at the sheer direct distribution, we have improved 1.5x plus. Whenever there is direct distribution, what happens is you start selling not just not the leader brands, but the second, third brand. So it started benefiting VAHO brands like Jasmine, Hair & Care, Aloe in the first instance, because that is what, and basically, we were little under-indexed in direct distribution, especially in north and east of the country. But now, as we are going deep in rural, I think we are now beginning to see significant benefit even to brands like Parachute in a, say, like Maharashtra, we are deepening rural distributions by adding stockists. Now, I would say, Tejas, Project SETU, the first phase of Project SETU is maybe 70% complete. We still have a job to do. We will continue to. On conservative basis, we have definitely got structurally 1% to 2% extra growth. The part which has not got, I think, still covered, and that is a huge opportunity for us when compared to a lot of other brands, is the premium part of the portfolio where the urban Project SETU is, and the tech and AI-enabled thing, which can lead to far better execution. So, if I look at it, we have not yet leveraged the power of the digital brands in GT, we have done in [Fix & Spot] and also Food. And to me, that is the second part of Project SETU that will give you benefit in SETU 2.0. And the good thing is now Project SETU has become a playbook. So we have seen the advantage in Vietnam in one year. If you see the growth impetus that has happened because of Project SETU, and we are now starting to implement Project SETU in Bangladesh from this quarter. So I think now it is a global playbook for us wherever in GT and in other places. And the other thing in Project SETU, which is the unsaid part of Project SETU, is that I talked about this uniform rhythm of sales. So we have stopped all month-end, quarter-end. There are no SKUs, okay. And that means that I do not have to give extra trade loads in the month-end to do our numbers or quarter-end to do our numbers. I mean, I can give you an example. I was working the market on 31st of October with the sales team, and nobody was tracking sales. It happens automatically today, okay. And therefore, I think that has also saved a lot of money, which we have now put it into ATL. So some of the A&P spend which you are seeing is actually because of the BTL savings which we have done. Very interesting. Thanks, and Diwali wishes to you and the team. Thank you. Happy Diwali to you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of [Avi] with 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, Saugata. Thanks for the opportunity. I just had one question. I just wanted to follow up on the marketing bit. You are indicating a focused approach on new launches and also sustained brand investment intensity. What, in your view, is this ad-to-sales ratio which you see panning out either in India and/or on overall basis? If you can give us a sense. Yeah, I think this year, obviously, and we have, as I said, that we have never ensured that this is resourced well. Having said that, in line with our fewer, bigger, bolder, better, we are trying to focus on the few things and doing it well rather than proliferating. I think that is something we are doing. So, you are seeing a marginal increase, and it will stay at this level, a 1% increase of A2S kind of a level, which we will see now. Pawan. Yeah, also for us— Got it. —many times it's also a function of how the revenues are panning out depending on the inflation-deflation cycle. So the thing is that we've never under-invested. We continue to invest behind both India international and as well as digital businesses. Broadly, at this point in time, whatever visibility we have from, let's say, next year perspective, you can take about 10%-10.5% of A2S. Got it. No problem. Where I was coming from is this sustainably, you think, is not. This is more near term, is the right way to read this, right? There is near the stable level, in your opinion, for India possibly lies, given that you are going to be focused where you are in, is probably going to be somewhere lower than the current number in this year. Is that the right way to? That is the right understanding because we cannot be expected to continue to spend at 30%, 40% A2S. Of course, we had some levers in our hand which we deployed, and plus also a lot of [NPD now]. That is the reason the spends in this year is higher. On a steady-state business, you can expect in the range of double-digit growth in A&P. That will definitely happen in the India business. Perfect. That is all from my side. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot, and festive wishes. Happy Diwali to you. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Harit Kapoor with Investec. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Just two questions from my end. The first one was on international. I just wanted to understand, is the confidence of accelerating growth in international driven by your SETU interventions beginning to kick in in H2? That's the first question. Second was slightly on the broader growth expectation. I know you have a target for 2030, which you would like to achieve in 2029, which actually implies a teens growth even beyond FY 2027 on revenues. Just wanted to understand your level of confidence on this. I know it's an aim, but just your level of confidence and what are the pockets that you believe are surprising you from a growth standpoint that can further accelerate? These are my two questions. Thank you. See, as far as international is concerned, I think the biggest driver would be sequential improvement in growth in Bangladesh. As you know that Bangladesh has been lapping a very high growth of last year, while two-year CAGR is still very high. I think sequential improvement in the growth in Bangladesh. Yes, I mean, as SETU, as it has proven in Vietnam, we believe that we'll start delivering incremental growth in Bangladesh out there. While Vietnam and Southeast Asia continue to grow, and others staying at these levels. I think that gives us the confidence of a marginal improvement in the overall IBG or growth. We are not saying we are going to hit the ball out of the park and get into 20s, but a marginal improvement in IBG growth. Your second question was the construct of the future growth. If you look at the construct of our growth, it is like this. We believe that we should be able to deliver high single-digit growth definitely in India. That's a base case for us in the next couple of years. A mid-teens kind of international business growth. If you look at inflation broadly, you can take 3%. That construct actually leads to obviously the kind of growth which we are talking about. We have a visibility of our FY 2027 number, which will be comfortably above INR 15,000. All I can say is that that journey to 2029, it's an aspiration, but is the number impossible or very difficult? It's not. The number is broadly, as you indicated, at the kind of a growth rate which we have been doing. I think it is very much possible if we continue to execute, and unless there are multiple black swans or something happens. It is good to aspire, and I believe that when you are on a virtuous cycle, it is better to press the acceleration, but do it the right way. As we believe in doing growth the right way, and it should happen. Great to know. If I could add one more question. Sure. If you could just give an update on the recent additions to the portfolio, which is Cosmix and 4700BC. They were typically both similar-sized businesses at the time of acquisition. I just wanted a sense of what you have done to those in terms of execution and what you have seen in terms of green shoots, challenges, et cetera. I think they are two great essential buys, very strong brands. They are both tracking ahead of our acquisition assumptions. I think Cosmix is also very profitable, as you know, makes high teens operating margins. It is a very brand with a very loyal consumer base. It is going to move into VMS in a structural way very soon. As far as 4700BC is concerned, again, in terms of what I call premium gourmet snacking is a big trend. We are doing very well, and I think quick commerce is helping, and this is one brand which has leveraged quick commerce very, very well. And it is trending very well, including the nachos, and you will see far more innovations. The other area which has surprised us very positively is gifting. Between Raksha Bandhan and Diwali, gifting of this brand and institutional selling, I think this brand is doing well. All I can say is that when we talked about the digital brands aspiration, both are tracking ahead of their medium-term aspiration, and we should be able to share with you a definitive run rate by the end of next quarter, but it is definitely tracking ahead of our initial assumptions, both these brands. Other good news is that I think the break-even of 4700BC will be definitely significantly ahead of our target dates. What is we are doing differently here, unlike in the earlier brands where we let it be completely, now that we believe our internal digital capability, especially in the other supply chain, product development, and other areas, and also the cost synergies are high, we are getting into delivering these synergies for the founder brand from day one. As a result, that extra money, which is now available to them because we have unlocked those synergies, is invested behind A&P to fuel further growth. That's the one thing which we are doing differently from the earlier acquisitions we had done. Great. Wish you all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mihir Shah with Nomura. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question, and congrats on a great set of numbers and upgrading the guidance once again. Thank you. Saugata, I just wanted to understand on your growth portfolio, which is now 27% of India, which used to be 20% earlier. Once the acquisitions are in the base and once the A&P kind of normalizes, what is the kind of growth that one should expect for Foods, Personal Care, and digital portfolio? I know you said digital portfolio, 20%, 21%, 25% is normative for that. But for Foods and Personal Care, if you can highlight in the near to medium term, what is the kind of growth that one should build in? Similar. The growth portfolio should deliver 20%-25% while subsequently improving profitability. In the Premium Personal Care, obviously, the driver will be serums and shampoos. In the case of digital, obviously, while we continue to grow, there will be different brands in different growth phases. While we subsequently improve profitability, 20%-25% growth in the construct is something which is very much possible. If you look at the overall growth construct, it should be like mid-single-digit growth for Parachute and Saffola in the medium term, value-added hair oils delivering double-digit value growth, and these part of the business consistently delivering 20%-25%. That adds up to a kind of a number which enables us to double every four to five years. Understood. This is despite A&P normalizing later on. That construct holds. Yeah, yeah. Understood. I will tell you what is happening. If you add up all the digital brands and the kind of synergies, and the cost synergies we get. For example, we now have consolidated manufacturing in some cases, consolidated media buying with some of the digital media buying. These are significant synergies which are there. Obviously, the A&P amortization or efficiency will now accelerate further in spite of inflation of digital media. Got it. Got it. Secondly, on Project SETU 2.0, is there any tangible impact that you have in mind that you would want to share on the project, like how you had shared for the Project SETU 1.0? I think two things. I think quality of execution and significant range selling. I would say that, can you get a critical mass of Food and Premium Personal Care digital? Basically, how do we create significant strength in cosmetic, specialty food, and chemist outlets in urban? Therefore, one of the metrics will, this one is that how do you have a prof- And as you know, GT margins of digital brands are higher. Unfortunately, for a lot of standalone players, they don't have the capital to invest capital and capability to invest behind GT, which Marico has. Therefore, if we have a successful GT business, and obviously, we are not going to We have learned from others and from us what kind of assortment to do, like different pricing, different pack sizes, so that it's not cannibalistic. A sizable GT business of our digital brands is something which is the endgame. IT enabling will also give you far more assorted selling, driving behavior. One of the big projects which we are very excited about is the entire gamification of incentives and the entire assortment selling. Ultimately, we want to automate the selling and not depend on that person in the last mile. We are doing something pretty unprecedented in the industry, and we will be happy to share once we get some prototype results over the next six months. Sounds exciting. Thank you. One question to Pawan, if I may. Pawan, after the 25%, mid-20s growth in FY 2027 on EBITDA level, should one also continue to expect mid-teens EBITDA growth in 2028, or there can be some risk to that assumption? No, that is what we had alluded earlier also, that our expectation is that from here on, after this year, the EBITDA growth should be at least mid-teens. Got it. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Wishing you all the very best. That is all from my side. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nihal Mahesh Jham with HSBC. Please go ahead. Yes, hi, team. Congrats on this great performance. Saugata, my first question was again on the target that you've sort of preponed from FY 2030 to 2029. Just to understand, you've earlier called out that the Premium Personal Care and the Foods portfolio will sort of contribute like 33% by FY 2030 in the earlier guidance. Does that number of 33% sort of still get revised to FY 2029, when you're sort of targeting to achieve the INR 20,000 crore number a year earlier? I think bringing it forward is an aspiration. We haven't broken it up into this one. I'm sure the team will go about it. Therefore, what we have said is that that will be a derived number. I think what we have done is a more ballpark-ish, this one, that if I maintain this construct of growth and the very fact that I don't see next —see, I think because we have visibility that next year will not be major deflationary, we know if we can deliver this volume growth, automatically that value growth will happen. Now, coming to some of the diversification agenda and other parameters, can it get forwarded by one year? Yes, we will aspire to, but this is something we'll see how it pans out. But definitely, as far as the top line is concerned, we see a strong possibility of aspiring to and making it happen. Can I just add, looking at the current year's visibility, what Saugata mentioned, that we'll comfortably cross INR 15,000 crore. If you're able to do that, there's an opportunity to push towards mid-teens in terms of revenue growth for this year. Then if you look at FY 2029, the CAGR will be about 13% to 14%, which is fairly achievable. If you really ask me at this point in time, do we have a bottom-up of that? We don't have. But achieving a 13%, 14% CAGR, given the kind of strong momentum that we have at this point in time, looks achievable. But this is an aspiration, and that's what we are rallying the organization towards, that can we really achieve our targets one year ahead. So that's the broad philosophy here. Fair point, Pawan. Saugata, the second question was on Plix or Satiya Nutraceuticals. It was interesting to note that we ventured into Korean beauty via Joyun there. Just wanted to understand your thoughts for this specific subsidiary, that are we looking at getting into multi-diverse brands, and this also as separately, other than Plix, we will see a lot more diversification? Do you have similar plans for the other acquisition that you have also made, that beyond the existing brands, there could be new sub-brands which could potentially flow out, and that is also an incremental kicker to the growth that can play out? See, I think this is a prototype which we are doing. We will see how it pans out. But yes, a brand like Beardo or Plix, which have scaled up, we can experiment with other brands, because there is an ecosystem, there is a consumer knowledge, and there is a capability to test out. But as far as the other brands are concerned, they are still small in size. There is a huge journey ahead. But yes, for Beardo and Plix, we can experiment, and maybe we will. Got that. Very good. Thank you so much. Wish you all a very happy Diwali. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Siddhesh Deshmukh with IIFL Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, this is Percy Panthaki here. Sir, my question is that you have upgraded the EBITDA target of this year by about 5% to 7%. Does that automatically mean that FY 2028 EBITDA also would see a similar amount of upgrade? Where I am coming from is that the upgrade is mainly coming from better margins this year. It is not as if the top line for this year is sort of getting upgraded in any material fashion. Is it just that the margin normalization is happening earlier, instead of over a four to six quarter period, it is happening earlier, and therefore, the FY 2028 EBITDA would not materially change because we are just reaching there in a steeper curve, rather than in a gradual curve? Is that the right interpretation, or should we say that no, FY 2028 also would see similar kind of upgrades? No, see, I think we have better visibility into the year, given that we know what positions we have. We have a fairly good idea of what could be the consumption cost in the rest of the year. Plus also, we have now a better understanding of where our volume growth and revenue growth trajectory will be for the year. That is the reason why we are upgrading the guidance for this year only, which means, of course, when we are saying mid-20s, about in the range of 24%, 25% on the minimum side. Now, whether it sort of increases the guidance for FY 2028, not really. We are saying from FY 2028 to 2029, we stick by our guidance of mid-teens growth from a margin perspective. Okay. Let me just ask it in a slightly different way. If, let us say, FY 2028, on FY 2027, whatever margin we reach for FY 2027 full year, do you see a material margin expansion potential in FY 2028 on that base? If so, what would drive it? Percy, again, I am not giving a guidance on margin percentage. I am giving a guidance on EBITDA absolute growth, right. This year, percentage margin could expand by about 120 to 150 basis points. From next year perspective, what we are saying is that operating profit growth will be in mid-teens. Percentage again for our business, as we have discussed earlier as well, that depending on the inflation-deflation cycle, how the revenue pan out, the percentages could inflate or deflate. But at least from a growth perspective, what we are saying is that we will definitely deliver mid-teens profit growth. Understood. Very clear. That is all from me. Thanks and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Anurag Dayal with PhillipCapital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. First question is on our Saffola, the Food business, our core Food business. What has been the growth in that business? Secondly, on Just Herbs, where we are right now in terms of scale, and there was some profitability issue and growth issue there. What we have done to address and to ensure that also comes back to the growth path? As far as Saffola Foods portfolio is concerned, it delivered early teens growth, and most of them are growing. We are going to continue to invest while improving profitability. Just Herbs, yes, we had some integration issues in the first year, and we have got it back on track. The significant improvement in performance of both top line and bottom line, and then the losses improvement, it will still take some time to break even. It should happen sometime over the next couple of quarters. But I think the growth is back on the franchise. I think it has been a good learning, and I think we applied all the learnings to ensure a very, very smooth integration of two elements. Could you give some detail about what changes we did in Just Herbs? Anything specific to which you can [crosstalk]— I think better execution, rationalizing of SKUs, ensuring that we focus on only certain channels, getting the D2C AOV. It is a complete playbook on, I think, digital business management, everything, I think. Basically, we now have much more focused portfolio. We improved product from the founders in terms of product quality, far more investment behind content and influencers. Basically, what was going right in Beardo and Plix, we replicated. Simple. Oh, got it. That is great to hear, sir. Secondly, just to say this INR 20,000 crore target which we have, is it based on current portfolio or do we account for some inorganic additions there as well? See, we believe that inorganic should never be an escape button for our ability to do organic growth. That is why if you look at even an international business compared to a lot of people, we have been less adventurous in places like Africa and LATAM. We have primarily focused on organic discipline growth, building equity and investing behind organic growth creates long-term sustainable focus capability. Therefore, we never give surprises in the international business. Similarly, this is based on organic. Any inorganic will be an upside, plus we have a very good M&A team who continues to look at digital opportunities, and I am sure there will be some more opportunities. We are a strategic partner of choice for all the digital brands because I do not see in terms of and we, of course, want to do in the right value. We don't pay 6x for all this. Oh, that is fantastic, sir. Thank you so much and happy Diwali to the team. Happy Diwali. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as our last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir. Okay, to sum up, we are pleased with the progress we have made in the first half, with a strong growth across key metrics and demonstrating traction across businesses. While the external environment remains challenging, the strength of our performance and improved visibility for the balance of the year give us the confidence to raise our full year profitability guidance to mid-20s growth. On revenues as well, we are increasingly confident of delivering teens growth with an opportunity to push towards the mid-teens. We enter the second half with a strong momentum and remain focused on sustaining the trajectory, while continuing to invest for long-term growth and value creation. That is all from our side. If you have any further queries, please feel free to reach out to our IR team. Thank you and have a great evening. Thank you. On behalf of Marico Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.