Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q3 and 9 M FY 2026 conference call of Page Industries Limited. As a reminder, all participants' 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 call, please signal an operator by pressing star followed by zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to hand over the conference to Mr. Anuj Sonpal from Valorem Advisors. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and a very warm welcome to you all. On behalf of the company, I would like to thank you all for participating in the company's earnings call for the third quarter and nine months ended, of financial year 2026. Before we begin, a short cautionary statement. Some of the statements made in today's earnings call may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Such statements are based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements in making any investment decisions. The purpose of today's earnings call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and financial quarter under review. Let me now introduce you to the management participating with us in today's earnings call and hand it over to them for opening remarks. We firstly have with us Mr. V.S. Ganesh, Managing Director, Mr. Deepanjan Bandyopadhyay, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Karthik Yathindra, Chief Executive Officer. Without any further delay, I request Mr. Ganesh to start with his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you, Anuj, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the earnings call for the third quarter of FY 2026. As Anuj mentioned, I'm pleased to have with me our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Deepanjan, and our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Karthik. Together, we shall be presenting the key highlights of the quarter. To begin with, I will provide a brief overview of our performance during the quarter, touching upon the main achievements and developments. Following this, Mr. Deepanjan will present a detailed update on our financial results. After a presentation, we would be happy to address any questions you may have regarding the quarter's performance. During the quarter, while consumer demand remained selective across categories, our business demonstrated resilience. With stable input costs, tight controls over operating expenses, and a sustained focus on operational efficiencies, all these efforts enabled us to deliver healthy operating margins and protected profitability. The recent notification of the direct labor codes is a positive step that is expected to benefit our employees, while also simplifying compliance requirements. While the rule for the implementation is being formalized, we have made the necessary provisions for gratuity, and the only provisions have also been made in the financial results of the quarter. For the quarter, revenue grew by 5.6%, while operating profit before tax increased by 5.9%. Profit after tax declined by 7.4%. This is primarily due to the exceptional one-time provisions related to employee benefits arising from the direct labor codes. Excluding these provisions, our EBITDA growth and PAT, PAT growth remains broadly in line with Q3 of FY 2025 performance. For the nine months ended December 2025, revenue growth was 4.1%, and PAT increased by 3.5%. We have been maintaining our momentum on our distribution expansion. Our network stood at 113,600 multi-brand outlets. We now have 1,556 exclusive brand stores and 1,778 large format stores. We continue to lead across e-commerce platform, which is recording strong growth in that channel as well. We continue to scale our modern retail presence by elevating the consumer experience, expanding our footprint, and delivering strong growth across online channels. Our refreshed and expanded product portfolio is resonating strongly with our younger consumers as well, and we are confident that these initiatives will accelerate customer acquisition and drive long-term growth. Our recent product launches under JKY Groove and the bonded technology have received an encouraging response from the market. With several new line launches and strategic initiatives planned in the coming months, we remain very confident about accelerating growth ahead. So I once again thank you for joining today's call, and I will now hand over to Mr. Deepanjan to detail the financial results for the quarter. Thank you. Thank you, V.S. Good afternoon, and welcome, everybody, to today's earnings call. Let me share the results of quarter three of FY 2026. In quarter three, revenue was INR 13,868 million, which was a growth of around 5.6% year-on-year. Sales volume in the quarter was 58.6 million pieces, which has grown by 1.4% year-on-year. EBITDA for the quarter was INR 3,181 million, which is again a growth of 5.2% year-on-year. EBITDA margin was 22.9%. With strategic raw material sourcing and focused operating expenses, EBITDA margin continued to remain strong. Profit before tax, before exceptional items, was INR 2,913 million, which was a growth of 5.9%. The new labor codes were introduced in November 2025. The amendment stipulated changes in definition of wages, including enhanced basic wages for calculation of retirement benefits. Accordingly, additional provision of INR 350 million for gratuity and earnings has been made in the current quarter. Tax for the current quarter was INR 1,895 million, which was a decline of 7.4% year-on-year. Inventory days was 67 in the end of quarter three, as against 64 days in the beginning of the year. Net working capital was 52 days, as against 54 days in the beginning of the year. For the nine months ended 31 December 2025, revenue was INR 39,942 million, which is 4.1% growth year-on-year. Sales volume was 173.8 million pieces, which has grown by 1.9% year-over-year. EBITDA for the period was INR 8,923 million, which is a growth of 7.9% year-over-year. EBITDA margin in the nine months was 22.3%. Profit after tax was INR 5,851 million, with growth of 3.51, 3.5% year-over-year. We can now take up your queries. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, press star and one on your telephone keypad and wait for your turn to ask the question. If you would like to withdraw your request, you may do so by pressing star and one again. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, please press star and one. Let us wait for a while until the question queue establishes. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from Mr. Nihal Jham from HSBC. Please go ahead, sir. Mr. Nihal, please go ahead with the question, sir. Yes, hi. Am I audible? Yes, sir. Yes. Yes, please. There are two questions. The first was that this quarter we see that our net realization has seen an increase of 4%, which was close to 1% in the last quarter. So has there been a mix change towards our leisure, or we've taken price hikes in certain categories? Just wanted to understand that. There has not been any price increase in the current quarter while we have been discussing that, but as of there has not been any price increase. Increase in ASP is reflection of both category and within category changes of product mix as well as shift in channel mix. Understood. And Deepanjan, the second thing is, if I look at the employees that you disclosed, there has obviously been a reduction of around 2.5-3,000 employees, and that's sort of reflection how the employee costs have also reduced in this quarter. Just if you could give more clarity about what is the nature and the thought related to that. We had a recruitment freeze for most part of the year. And given the fact that our efficiency has been improving and maintained over a large part of the year, we didn't see any requirement of major recruitment this year. Of course, there has been workforce addition in our new facility in Odisha, which was as per plan. But otherwise, our wages cost and staff cost has been well within our target ranges. So Nihal, just to add to what, Mr. Deepanjan was stating, you know, we -- the reason for controlling the headcount was because of the initiatives we have taken, especially in the back end, to substantially improve our productivity. We have been taking quite a lot of lean initiatives, we have been automating, and we have been doing value stream mapping to remove all the non-value-added work. And therefore, we are now able to get more productivity and more output from less people, and this is actually enabling us to control the headcounts and, and make the productivity much better. And this is something which we have been doing for some quarters now, and you can see that we have been one of the key reasons, despite a subdued retail environment, we have been able to maintain our profitability. There is much more to do, I think, for us, the journey has just started. Understood. Just one final question. Mr. Ganesh, you mentioned that obviously growth accelerating ahead. So are we seeing a decent uptick as we go into Jan, Feb? And maybe when is it that we expect that we can get back to our double-digit growth? Karthik. Karthik, you want to give a flavor about the market outlook? Yeah. Nihal, thanks for the question. Quarter three has largely been barring the impact of Diwali, which a portion of that was actually absorbed in quarter two this year because of the advancement. Other than that, the market has relatively been better when compared to quarter two. We expect that to flow into quarter four as well. So without giving away too much about January and February, let me just say that our better performance of quarter three is likely to flow into quarter four as well. Sure, Karthik. Thank you. I'll come back on this one. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from the line of Mr. Sameer Gupta from IIFL. Please go ahead, sir. Hello, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, just taking it from the previous participant, so there is an aspiration of double-digit growth. You are still about pondering on price hikes. So unless consumption environment improves drastically from here on, how do we reach to that double-digit growth? Well, the potential for double-digit growth is available. If you look at our market penetration today at a consumer level, it's still quite low when compared to what the opportunity offers. This is against a very tightly defined target audience for our brand, considering the price points that we operate in. So the headroom for growth in all of our categories are there. Yes, the last few quarters have been tight, purely given how consumer sentiments have played out and how retail has played out for us. But you would have noticed that, in spite of that, our efforts in terms of expansion and building our moat in the marketplace have continued, both in our existing traditional channels as well as the new channels that we've been in operation with, over the last few years. So the intent is to concentrate and add value in the products that we are offering, as well as go out and expand. There's also substantial investment that is going behind how we can activate consumer with this, and we are seeing signs of that paying off. So with this, the confidence that double-digit growth for us should come by is very much there. Karthik, just a follow-up here. Basically, you're saying that you're not now reliant on overall market and consumption environment improving. You can deliver a double-digit growth based on your own initiatives. Would that be a correct assessment? It's a combination, Sameer. I don't think one thing leads to growth alone. It will be a combination of both. We will need to, in a way, depend on markets for like-to-like growth, for sure. But that's also being backed with considerable amount of expansion, which should bring in inorganic growth opportunities as well. And a combination of both is what would lead us to double-digit growth. Got it. Second question, just a like, bookkeeping one. So at a consumer level, what is the blended price decrease after factoring in the cut in GST rates? Oh, so that's been quite small for us, because at a brand level, the cut in GST rates has been only for products above 1000. That is a very small portion of our business in terms of what we operate. All of our innerwear more or less fall under the 1000 bracket, which did not see a change in GST. It remains at 5%. It's only our a few styles, a few products in our athleisure and outerwear category that actually saw a gain from 12%-5%. In terms of overall impact at a brand level, that is quite negligible. Got it, sir. I'll come back in the queue for follow-ups. Thanks. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from Prerna Jhunjhunwala from Elara Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, my question is, the challenges that you're facing in reaching this double-digit growth. You've answered to some extent in the previous participants' answers, but I would like to understand what is the challenge in various categories that you're facing, that double-digit growth is getting difficult? Well, at the cost of being repetitive, I think, like I said, consumer demand has been weak right through quarter one and quarter two. We've seen some level of uplift from quarter three, and we hope that flows into quarter four. So that has certainly played out its part in us not being able to deliver on double-digit growth in the three quarters that we've come by this year. In addition to that, there have been also, you know, disruptions in the marketplace, which is, which has been, outside of, you know, regular course of business, and this has largely affected quarter one, quarter two, and we've spoken about that in terms of, you know, geopolitical activities, in terms of how floods in parts of the area, parts of the country have cut, have kept retail out. So these have impacted us to some extent. The mix also is a change in terms of channels in which we operate. We have seen consumer behavior from offline to online, and that, in a way, plays out in a market where a huge portion of our business is dependent on offline. So it will take time before, you know, the mix actually settles for us to reach a new base and then continue to grow from there. So these are some of the pieces that have made it challenging for us to hit those double-digit growths. But whatever growths we have delivered have been on the back of actual serving consumer because we haven't touched prices as such. So our volume growths and associated value growths have been purely in terms of better consumption, either from a like-to-like point of view, which has been fairly muted, or from expanding and reaching more consumers. Thank you for this. Just to follow up on this theme, could you just brief on the category-wise challenges or opportunities as well? Because you had mentioned last time about entry-level products facing some heightened competitive intensity. So, some color on that would help. Absolutely. So I think between the categories that we operate in, men's innerwear as a category has relatively been tougher. It also happens to be the largest base for us in terms of business. Our growth in women's innerwear as well as outerwear have been relatively better in terms of both volume and value growth. Within price points itself, I don't think we'll attribute that to competition at this point. But yes, the more premium offering seems to have had better acceptance. Also, bulk of our new product, innovative products that we've introduced over the years, over the quarters in this year, has been at the premium levels, which have been accepted well and has obviously contributed to the growth. So yes, within price points, the mid-premium and premium offering has performed better when compared to the entry-level offering. Okay, thank you. One more question from athleisure point of view. Could you help me understand till now, what is the reach now for JKY Groove, and how do you plan to scale it up? So we had the second launch of JKY in quarter three, after having done the summer version in quarter one. We followed that up with winter in quarter three. The first launch in quarter one, we had reached about 50 EBOs, and of course, on jockey.in, and it is selectively available on Myntra. In quarter three, that has expanded to 150 EBOs. The next version is expected to be launched in the month of April, which will be again, the Summer 2026 version, that's expected to expand to about 500 EBOs. Okay, understood. When do we plan to reach the entire channels of your MBOs, LFS, and the entire 1,700+ EBOs? So we intend to take this in phases. So I think quarter after quarter, we will be expanding the reach. What we are also doing is, products that have performed well, within this, have been extended to general trade as well, in selective markets, in metro markets, where we believe there is, a need for this product. And outlets that are capable of retailing and doing justice to this particular range, that has been extended selectively already. But quarter after quarter, you will see expansion in terms of reach for this particular collection. Thank you, and all the best. Thank you, Prerna. Thank you, ma'am. The next question comes from the line of Avi Mehta from Macquarie. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi. Thanks a lot for this opportunity. If you could just, you know, just clarify, I'm sorry, I just want to check this. The weakness in the entry-level demand weakness in the entry-level price point in innerwear, is continuing, or has that changed? I couldn't kind of grasp it from the last. Yeah, in relative terms, Abhi, it is slower than the mid-premium and premium segments. We are seeing better growth rates in the higher priced products when compared to the entry-level products. Got it. Got it. So in that kind of backdrop, I wanted to kind of just, you know, check again with you, by when do you expect us to be able to clock a double digit, you know, level of growth? You know, something that we were hoping we would get by the end of the fiscal. Would it be something that kind of moves into the next year? Any thoughts on that would be helpful. Again, so, it'd be difficult for me to put a timeline to this, because like I said, there are too many variables at play for us to get to that goal. We've seen a consistent improvement even within this financial year. And that kind of a number is what we'll be gunning for even for quarter four. But to put a number in terms of timeline and say exactly by this time we would be able to get to double-digit growth is difficult. What I can, of course, mention is that the intent and target that we are taking and everything we are putting behind the business is keeping that goal in mind. Sorry, if I may push a bit, just kind of clarifying it a bit. Would it, if I want to kind of understand, maybe not an exact timeline, how would you, y ou know, your initiatives clearly are kind of reflecting in the pickup in growth rate versus the first half. Is it fair to say that a demand pickup is what is needed for double digit? Or how should I parse this? Not looking for an exact timeline, but just the levers for reaching that number. So it's a combination. So, like I said, our investments in terms of product, betterment in terms of newness and freshness, for example, this season, this summer, should be hitting the market between January and February. We wait and watch how the acceptance for that is on the market, but we're counting on it, considering what we've put behind it. We're very confident about the product that we are putting out there. Our marketing plans are in place in terms of what we want to do with the brand, what we want to communicate. Expansion is a year-long thing, especially with exclusive brand stores. We continue to expand, and that is something that we will see in quarter four as well. Typically, quarter four is also a timeline where many of our stores go under renovation to give it the new retail identity and brand new look, which typically gives us an uplift in the retail sense. So in terms of timeline of initiatives, that's what we are looking forward to: better product, more aggressive marketing, a better brand presentation at the point of sale. All of this is going to hit us starting quarter four itself. Got it. Got it. Just the second, because on the margin front, now, you know, we've traditionally shared 19%-20% kind of margin range. This quarter has obviously significantly breached that. Is there a revisit to that range, especially for, say, FY 2026 and 2027? And any clarity on that, please? We continue to maintain this margin between 19%-21%. We have seen some gains in the form of EBITDA this particular quarter, but of course, that's not translated to tax because of the one-time exception. But in terms of a long-term range, even for the coming year, we are maintaining a similar range of 19%-21% as the EBITDA that we look to deliver. We would also be looking at investing further in the brand, and hence, the current EBITDA rates may not be indicative of what we are targeting as we go forward. But the range remains intact. It will be as sound as it has been. Got it. Got it. And if I may, with your permission, just a bookkeeping, just clarifying, you have not taken any price hikes as of now, or has that kind of broke through into the market? Have you done any pricing changes? Not yet. Okay. Price increase that has hit the market as yet. It's something that we are considering, keeping how the market is playing out. But as of now, no price increase has hit the market. Okay, perfect. That's all from my side. Thank you very much for the clarification. Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Jogani from JM Financial. Please go ahead with the question, sir. Thank you for taking my question. So the first question is with regards to the, the data on the, in-sourcing manufacturing, that is. In last quarter, if I remember, it was 20%, and this time it's reflecting around 52% also. So does this have to do anything with the employee cost also coming down, or are the outsourcing more and hence the employee cost is also coming down as a result? Sorry, can you repeat the question? It was not very clear. The manufacturing capacity in terms of the in-sourcing capability that you have put out in the presentation, it shows now 52% versus 70% last quarter. So does that have any linkage with the employing trends that you said? Because now it's just outsourcing and don't require that much employee. Yes. There has been some increase in our outsourcing procurement. So currently or in the current quarter, outsourcing is around 36%. So there has been some increase, which is well in line with our plan. There can be quarterly variations in outsourcing, depending on the kind of product and the demand. So yes, current quarter, we have seen increase in outsourcing. And overall, if you look at it, the overall year, higher outsourcing has given us some cost benefits as far as the product cost is concerned. Sure. So my second question is with regards to, you know, the gross margin. The gross margins have been quite stable, and the premium net is also reflected in the expanded gross margin, which are at lifetime highs. How should we look at the gross margin going ahead, given that, you know, you are guiding that the EBITDA margins to be between 19%-21%? Is there any further juice left for expansion here, or do you have any particular vision on gross margins? So juice is always there. That's what Karthik was telling. We always have many efforts in hand. So, one big lever is definitely increasing productivity, and that's a continuous effort. So that will reflect over time for sure. But as of now, the gross margin that we have got, that will largely remain stable even going forward. So in that context, shouldn't the EBITDA margins be better from here on, rather than, you know, saturation in that range? Because it's around 22% or... So why should it correct if you have further room for- There are costs below gross margin, which is largely investments in business, whether through marketing, whether through several automation initiatives that we are taking. Even normal increases like increments and recruitment, so those things keep happening. So while gross margin will remain stable, the other input costs and overheads, since they increase, there will be inflationary pressures as well. So we do expect that we will be maintaining our EBITDA margin of 19%-21%. The current elevated EBITDA margin that we see around 22% or so, that's unlikely to be maintained going forward. But yes, we'll be there within our 19%-21% range. So just to clarify on what Deepanjan and Karthik were saying, you know, we are comfortable with the 19%-21%, because we are not facing a percentage increase in EBITDA. We want to actually improve the absolute EBITDA margin by giving value for money for our consumers and get better top line. And we don't want to outprice ourselves. And we, as a brand, we always believed in promising less and delivering more, and giving value for the money spent by the consumers. So, we believe that is the right way to do and expand in a sustainable manner. We do agree there is leverage or there is scope for us to increase. But we wanted to respect the sentiments of the consumers. As Karthik rightly said and as Deepanjan said, with the inflationary pressures and some of the cost pressures which may come, since we have not touched prices for three, four years, we may look at some corrections, you know, and that is only time can say, because there are so many things happening. We are keeping a close watch on the cotton prices also with FTAs and all that. You know, there can be pressures on the input costs. So it is very volatile out there, so our pricing strategy will be based on those developments in the market. But from EBITDA point of view, 19 to 21 is a comfort zone for us. Yes, sir, actually it makes sense. And just one last question from my end, is in terms of the market share. So, you know, one of the competitors who have recently reported their results, they alluded to a strong double-digit growth rate this quarter, even the last quarter I mean, which was strong. So just by clear inference, have we lost some market share and if yes, is there any particular segment? Because we are also seeing, you know, multiple players now entering the HPA space. Some players have also alluded to this. So what have you updated? Well, Gaurav, it's hard to tell, because there is actually no syndicated study of market share in this particular industry. But from physical evidence and our understanding of the market and what's happening on the ground, we don't believe there is any erosion in market share. If at all, I would suspect there would be some amount of gain at a consumer level when it comes to market share in both the categories that we operate in, which is innerwear as well as athleisure. Thanks. Thanks for answering the question. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from Mr. Devanshu Bansal from Emkay Global. Please go ahead with the question, sir. Yes, hi, thanks for taking my question. Karthik, you did mention that there is broad divergence across price points, right? So, I wanted to check when the problem has been identified that the entry-level price points are not doing better. What are we exactly doing in terms of new product launches for this particular price segment? Maybe a live marketing that is required. Because in my opinion, this should be a key recruitment driver from a consumer perspective as well. So any thoughts there that you could share? Absolutely. So, I think thanks for the question, Devanshu. Firstly, I think given how it stand out, we've held on to our prices to make sure that the attractiveness of that range, purely for the value-seeking consumer, is still intact. Now, having done that, there's also efforts gone in in terms of improving the product in that particular range on two fronts. One is the fabric that we operate itself to see how we can add more value to the fabric so that, you know, the durability as well as the comfort on skin improves. Secondly, in terms of freshness, I think the entire portfolio has been looked at to see how we can bring back something to that range, as we can be at that price point, to make sure that it is not less than any other brand or any other price point product offered by in terms of appeal and appeal. So that's something that has gone in. Also from a marketing standpoint, strong BTL initiatives have been taken during quarter three, especially in our general trade channel, which happens to be a large contributor as far as this part of the portfolio is concerned. That push has happened. There is some level of traction that this portfolio enjoys in, let's say, quick commerce as a channel or e-commerce as a channel. A large part of this position is happening in this area between channels, which is why we believe what we're facing in the market is to this extent. Whereas the more premium products continue to, you know, operate and grow through more organized channels like EBOs, large format stores, et cetera. Whereas the entry-level or the economy-level be also suitable for quick commerce and e-commerce, and hence we're seeing that shift. Understood. These product changes as well as marketing, et cetera, is this already in the market in full way, or we have only just started and- The marketing piece was put in place through quarter three. However, the improved product version should be hitting the market between January and February, which is what I had mentioned earlier, which is for the season of S1 2026, season 1 of 2026. Got it. Got it. Secondly, this gap between- Devanshu, sorry to interrupt you. I request you to join the queue for more questions, sir. I have only one question, if you'd allow me my second question. Please go ahead, sir. Yeah. So this 4% difference between volume and value that we've seen—wanted to check if the winter also has a part to play in this, and was there any additional incentive income due to the start of our Odisha manufacturing plant? So we know the broad team gains. This is the ASP question, right, Devanshu? The difference between volume and value growth that you're talking about. Yes, yeah. So this is a portion of it is attributable to winter because of the higher priced athleisure products that see traction at this point in time. I'm talking about sweatshirts and hoodies and jackets and products like this, that we've seen a lot of traction during this period. We've also seen considerable uplift because of, you know, change in mix within categories. You would recall that sometime during the month of September and October, we introduced a top-of-the-line innovative range called the Bonded Collection, both in men's innerwear as well as bras. Both these collections have been received extremely well with the consumer, and they also happen to be our highest priced products yet. And with volumes coming our way in these two collections, that's helped the ASPs go up. Nothing from incentive perspective, right? From a retail incentive plan perspective. No, no, nothing. It doesn't reflect in the ASP changes. Yeah. Sure. Thank you, sir. In the interest of time, I will request the participants to restrict with two questions in the initial round and get back to the queue for more questions. The next question follows from Mr. Ashish Kanodia from Citi. Please go ahead, sir. Yeah. Thank you. My first question was on the GST rate cut. So while I understand, you know, the rate cut was only for a small portion of the product portfolio, but have you passed that on to the end consumer in terms of price cut? And a related question was on the gross margin also, that what led to sequential decline in gross margin despite much better ASP? Okay, two parts. On the GST rates, obviously, most of our products were at 5% and continue to be at 5%. Wherever there has been a reduction in rates from the earlier 12% to 5%, we have done the necessary changes. So, if the selling price itself was higher due to 12% GST, then that has been reduced. And wherever the selling price was still attracting 5%, that has remained the same. I mean, just to reiterate, GST is applicable on selling price, not necessarily the MRP. And the reduction in the gross margin sequentially largely attributed to the slightly higher marketing spends that we have done in the current quarter, and a bit of increase in employee costs. Sir, my question was on gross margin, not on EBITDA margin. Sequentially, your gross margin has declined from, say, 60% to around 58%, while your realization, of course, has gone up. So, I mean, is w hat led to that, not on EBITDA margin? Yeah. So there also, gross margin, there has been slight variation in the product costs, which is sequentially and which is normal, so that's what reflects in the gross margin overall. Got you. My second question is on the entire discussion around, you know, double-digit growth. One, can you clarify, are you looking at volume growth, double-digit volume growth or double-digit value growth? And second, related question on the demand side is, if I look at the entire discussions during the call, you know, one, when I look at this category, it's a very sticky category. This is category where the demand is not lost, right? Whether it was a geopolitical event, monsoons, et cetera. If someone needed to buy a product, they will push it by a month because of geopolitical event or of that sort, right? Secondly, if you also look at the target consumers, these are not lower middle class target consumer. This is, you know, the target consumers are, can afford the Jockey product, and especially given that in the last four, five years, you have not taken any, price hike. And in that context, when I look at, you know, 2% volume growth, this, this, financial year, nine-month, financial year, it just looks underwhelming, given the fact that, you know, as Karthik was mentioning, right, that the market opportunity is very large, even if you restrict it to the target consumer. So, I mean, how should we think about it? What's happening here? I mean, at, at least, you know, when we look at, this data, it seems at least on the mass end or the lower price end, there must be some sort of a market share loss. Because the industry is growing, at least, this is, you know, what others are reporting. Industry definitely seems to be growing faster. So two parts, one, 10, you know, double-digit aspiration, is it volume or value? And second, you know, how do you read this 2% volume growth 9-month, you know, despite much lower market share? You know, customers being very sticky, right? It's very difficult for customers to down trade. A valid point, Ashish. I think firstly, on the first question, we are—I mean, the intent would be to hit a double-digit volume growth. That's what we used to be delivering. That's what we've seen the kind of growth we've experienced over the last decade or so. So that's what we'll be trending towards, and all plans and intent is to deliver on that. Coming to your second question, again, there are two parts in that. I agree, some level of market disruption and closure does have an impact. At the end of the day, if retail is shut, avenues to purchase is closed down in whatever parts of the market, for whatever reason, that does have an impact at a consumer level. For a business like ours, where D2C portion of our business is relatively small, and large portion of our business actually comes through the value chain, through distributors, through retailers, or partners in key accounts, the impact only, in a way, expands when, you know, points of sales get disrupted. But on your larger point, and that's probably the most relevant point, y ou're right. We do believe that the headroom for growth is there. Unfortunately, it has not come by in this year, in the first three quarters that we've looked at. But like I said, quarter on quarter, the performance has been better. We've seen that level of, you know, recovery that has happened, and it shows signs of that recovery. But again, see, like I said, these are conversations we can have, whether there has been a loss in market share. I'll be the first one to admit if there is, and there is sufficient evidence to say that, you know, we've lost share to somebody. It only makes us that much more hungry to win it back, if at all that's happened. But my only submission is that we don't have evidence of that. In fact, we have evidence to the contrary, when we see shelf share, when we see spaces in the market and also in certain parts of our business where market share is actually reported. Let's say, partner business, e-commerce business, large format store business, there, there is numerical reporting of, you know, gain in market share, and that's what I had expressed earlier during the call. But yeah, to summarize this, Ashish, yes, the growth has not come by as we had anticipated in the first three quarters, but the recovery has been steady, and we are confident that going forward, we should still be targeting that double-digit growth. And in terms of what we want to put behind this to get there, all of that is in order, and in fact, in—and if not, it'll only get even better in terms of our intent to get there. Sure, Karthik. That's helpful. Thank you, and all the best. Thank you, Ashish. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from the line of Mr. Rahul Agarwal from Ikigai Asset. Please go ahead, sir. Yeah. Hi, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. Just two, two questions. Firstly, on the ASP bit, on the volume value gap, you explained the product mix change. You also mentioned that there's a channel mix change. We just wanted to know, you know, what has actually changed in the quarter, and directionally, where are we moving in terms of, you know, more channel growth? And related question was on MBO versus EBO. I think, you know, historically, we've been speaking about MBO being weaker, and EBO and quick commerce, e-commerce actually doing much better growth. Has that been solved? And I think, you know, most of these double-digit growth questions are also revolving around solving that. I think if the MBO bit gets solved out, most of the growth should come back. So, you know, how can we improve on this? And if you could guide for another, you know, next two years, what do you think about growth from MBO? These are my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Rahul. In terms of the first question of ASP, like I said, during the quarter, we've seen gains because of change in product mix. We've seen relatively better performance in categories like bras, categories like outerwear or athleisure, which are higher priced products when compared to categories like innerwear and, women's innerwear, categories, and that's what has led to the ASP growth. In terms of channel mix, considering we realize, MRP as revenue in, through Jockey.in and as well as marketplace and e-commerce, any gains or shifts in revenue from offline to online tends to give better value growth, because we realize MRP as revenue. These are the two areas that has impacted the difference between volume and value, just because of better realization. On your second question of performance between channels, while we don't give away exact performance between channels, but yes, the general trade business has been tougher when compared to the EBO business as well as the e-com business. Also, when there is a consumer movement from, A, offline to online, and B, unorganized to organized retail, it's natural for the general trade business to come under some level of stress. I also believe that there is some level of shift happening within the general trade business in terms of stock holding, considering how retailers are dealing with the softer demand at a consumer level. That I anticipate would have led to some level of, you know, stock corrections at the store. This is at the retailer level, which should have, you know, impacted in the growth rates that we have reported. But I think you're right. For us to get to the double-digit growth, if not double digits, general trade should go up to, you know, late single digit kind of growth, so that overall as a brand, we're able to deliver double digits. You know, in terms of the price hike, right, you've been saying that you're discussing that internally and, you know, thinking about it. Have you seen any cost inflation which is driving this decision or discussion, or is there anything else? Nothing yet, but there is, i t is expected, considering the recent news about exports, specifically how it impacts textile garments. It's quite volatile, so there could be an increase in input costs, then there may not be, but we don't know. So we are waiting and watching, keeping a very, very close eye on how the input costs are moving. And that's the reason we are saying that if there is, you know, substantial increase in the input costs more than what we can absorb, we might have to consider touching our prices. Got it. Yeah, thanks. Thanks so much, and best wishes for the rest of the quarters. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from the line of Mr. Anuj Sehgal from Manas Capital. Please go ahead, sir. Yeah, hi. Thank you. You know, if I look at the distribution channel, you know, the MBO, the large format stores, and your EBOs, you know, the network, for MBOs is up 3%, large format stores, the number is up 8%, and the EBOs are up 5% from last year. In that context, given you said that the salience of online has actually gone up, is it fair to say that on a like-for-like basis, given your overall volume was up 2%, on a like-for-like basis in the MBO, LFS and EBO channel, volume would have actually been down in mid-single digits? In the general trade channel, yes. While we don't have tertiary data, but yes, I would expect that the throughput per store would have softened when compared to last year. But in the other channels, we do have that data at a consumer level. We've not de-grown like-to-like, but it's been a lot softer than what we targeted. What you're saying is that MBOs could have been down in the mid-single digit, but LFS and EBOs would have been sort of flattish? Yeah, that's right. Okay. And given this channel mix, you know, that you also mentioned offline to online and the, you know, previous discussion, like, what... And, of course, you know, the consumer sentiment being whatever it is, what can be done to, you know, sort of grow in the offline channel? Or is it just that this shift will continue to accelerate, and therefore the business will continue to remain challenged, especially at the MBO level, you know, let's say, as we go forward? Because it seems like the consumer is moving to the online channel. So my view on this, Anuj, is that that while there is a shift between offline to online, there is a certain audience that necessarily shops in the neighborhood store or in the offline store, on what we call the hosiery store, when it comes to all their hosiery needs. I would imagine that from a, from a sentiment point of view or, or you know, propensity to spend point of view, this audience might have been the most affected. But that is not to say that this would not come back, and hence, I strongly believe that this consumer coming back, as far as the general trade and hosiery kind of outlets to shop, will happen, and we'll have to just wait for the overall sentiment to pick up as far as that is concerned. So that's purely for, you know, like-to-like at a consumer level, consumption to improve. But beyond that, there is opportunity for us to penetrate deeper, within the existing stores in terms of the kind of products that they carry today. Today, the general trade stores, in terms of what they carry of our portfolio, is a lot smaller than what the EBOs carry. And that's not by design, it's purely based on what they've chosen to carry and our efforts in terms of placing products with them. There itself, there is headroom, in terms of, you know, increasing that penetration per store, in terms of the number of styles and the options that they carry. So that is, you know, beyond the consumer, just making sure that more of our stores carry more of the brand, would help us gain shelf share, would help us gain business at a secondary level. So these are two pieces that I believe should impact growth in general trade. Got it. And just to clarify- Sir- on the MBO and LFS. I'm sorry for interrupting you. I request you to join the queue for the next more question, sir. Sure. Thanks. Thank you, sir. The next question comes from Vidisha Sheth from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead, sir. Vidisha Sheth from Ambit Capital, please go ahead with the question, sir. It seems the line is not active. Shall we take the next question, sir? Yes, please. The next question is from Sheela Rathi from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Two quick questions. First is, you know, with JKY Groove doing well for us, do we see a need to, you know, launch more brands in 2026? Are there any plans here? Not more brands. Again, Groove is not a brand on its own. We see it as a collection at this point in time. It does show the promise of maybe being a sub-brand someday, but it's very early days. It still has the status of a collection within the product architecture. The success of Groove has been quite heartening this year. But again, I still maintain that it's early days and it's a new territory for us in terms of, you know, the model in which we are operating. We're learning with every launch. We want to build this so that it lasts and becomes a considerable part of our portfolio with a sound business model, so we just want to give it time. Meanwhile, there are a couple of other pieces that we are toying with. There's not much I can give away at this point in time, but yeah, at least one out of those two I see coming live in some form in the coming financial year. Understood. And the second one is, you know, thanks for the guidance on, you know, where we see our revenues, and then, you know, by FY 20 29 at INR 8,000 crore. I just want to understand, is this, you know, trajectory of revenue be largely organic, or do we see an opportunity to, you know, make some inorganic or, you know, acquisitions at some point if there is something interesting, that comes along? Well, the projection that has been given is for overall. It will be all the opportunities that comes our way, and that we see meaning in investing in. We see inorganic opportunities within the existing business itself. These could be new channels that are coming up, quick commerce, the way it is going and how much it can bring back to the business is a very inorganic avenue for us. International is another inorganic avenue, which we're taking very seriously in the coming year. A lot of groundwork has happened in this area, and we believe that should, you know, contribute to inorganic growth. New product spaces, which I just spoke about, are again, inorganic avenues that come our way. But will this mean acquisitions? Will there be new brands, new licenses? At this point, we don't have visibility to that. But, you know, as an organization, we are always open, and we, you know, evaluate everything that comes our way, give it its due to understand whether it adds to the organization and makes sense to, you know, add to our portfolio, and then we take a call accordingly. Just one quick follow-up. Which other international markets are we, you know, focusing on right now? So we've gained the license for, w e've always been in the Middle East, but only in select markets of UAE, Oman, and Qatar. We now have the license for Saudi. We have the license for Kuwait and Bahrain. So the whole of GCC now is a license for Page for Jockey, which we see as a large market, much larger than our current presence in UAE, Oman, and Qatar. That should be of interest to us to make, you know, a meaningful presence for the brands felt there. And a lot of groundwork has happened in understanding that market over the last one year, and we expect to be launching there soon. Understood. Thank you very much, Karthik. Thank you, Sheela. Thank you, sir. In the interest of time, that will be the last question for the day. I now hand over the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Thank you everyone for joining. It was an interesting discussion today. We look forward to more such discussions. Thank you, sir. I now, on behalf of Page Industries Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.