session.

Thank you Jacob. We'll start with Q&A, just allow us few minutes to set up. I would request

and

to come on stage, please.

you.

start with the Q&A. We’ll first begin with the questions in the room. So we have a few questions but we'll start with Abneesh. Mr. Abneesh Roy, Nuvama Yeah. Thank you. I have two questions. My first question is on the year which went by. So in the last two quarters, we have seen very good improvement. Prior to that, the competitive intensity in the sector was very high, can that come back and derail the last two quarters strong outperformance? generally it is very easy to copy paste what you are doing with other players. So what can prevent that from our side? Second is when I see Sensodyne, 2000 crore CapEx, their whitening toothpaste currently has very high advertising, and I think they are very differentiated because you, the other player all are violet packaging, similar toothpaste similar.

Sensodyne toothpaste is different. It is actually looking white also. Plus I think their overall connect with chemistry is also very good, just like yours. So your thoughts on growth and market share in the whitening part of the toothpaste. And third of course is in terms of sensitive, although you are very under index versus the market leader, why is it not in the top three premium focus? Is it because it's too small? Ultimately you can't take everything as a topic. So I just wanted to understand that is my first question.

Starting with last year, I don't think our last year's performance, which was very, very subdued, was a function of competitive intensity. Actually, our last year's performance was more to do with the fact that we saw a significant slowdown in the urban markets in the first part of last year, which actually led us to a lot of the interventions that you saw in terms of superiority, the work particularly done on things like

Strong

and

fresh, which are significantly paying off dividends now. So I don't see that competitive intensity as either gone up or gone down, this is a great category to be in and people are giving it their all. To your question on our Competitor’s Whitening toothpaste, actually, when you own a segment, it's a good idea to have more competition come in and talk about it.

penetration in this country remains around the 2% mark. If you see other countries and let me take, you know, the US as an example.

toothpastes I think are about 20-25% of the market. So penetration obviously will be of higher magnitude. So when we see more people come into the whitening market, and it's not just the competitor that you named, it's pretty much everybody who is attempting to bring in a whitening toothpaste. It will, what it will do is serve to grow the market. As you can imagine, our shares in whitening are like massively ahead of our overall shares, like massively ahead because we were the pioneers in this segment. I think

kind of defines the segment. So it's not a bad thing when somebody comes in and, you know, attempts to help us to grow the segment. So are we worried? No, I don't think we are worried. To the last question on sensitivity, where we actually absolutely play the challenger role. I think the interesting thing about sensitivity is that it is a problem solution.

the kind of product that you use when you have a problem, you're looking for a solution, and there is a finite limit to that problem, because it's not everybody in this room who suffers from sensitivity and therefore looks for a sensitivity toothpaste. So in that finite problem solution space, for us to be able to carve out a portion of that I think is absolutely a viable proposition.

in terms of priority for us in premiumisation,

Total,

and

remain key priorities.

one we see as a challenger opportunity. Mr. Abneesh Roy, Nuvama One quick follow up on this. So Sensodyne earlier in India and globally was owned by a pharma company and now by Haleon. So I wanted to understand in terms of the chemist touchpoints and the referral by the dentist how over index or under index will be versus with that player.

I think you might want to ask that in Delhi. So I'm going to not comment so much on what they do, but

going to give you a perspective on what we do.

I think we still remain the number one dentist used toothpaste in

We have actually, over the last little while, significantly increased our feet on the street to drive the dentist advocacy. We have a robust multi-year partnership with the

Dental Association.

that's why we get, you know, in oral health movement, 60,000 plus dentists generously offering their time. And now we have the ISP seal of recognition for

as well. So I think from a dentist and

relationship perspective, I think we are in a really strong position. I think the team does an amazing job, and it's actually going from strength to strength, both in terms of investment and in terms of the outcomes that we see. Mr. Abneesh Roy, Nuvama Last quick question on Palmolive. You were candid enough about not being satisfied. I wanted to understand here will a D2C acquisition help what purpose

is serving here?

they themselves might be having some level of a challenge in the current context.

second is in your read, when you tried on your own without this tie up, what was the lacking thing because clearly differentiated product and premium products.

So I think our learning has actually been that the flywheel over D2C brand is slightly different from the flywheel of the kind of brand that we are used to doing. We did try it on our own, and honestly, I don't think we were best in class. We like to be the best in class at pretty much everything that we do, from what we are seeing of the partnership so far and it's early days, we are very, very optimistic about what

brings to the table already early green shoots in terms of performance, and it's like I told you, it's a very nascent partnership. So

optimistic. Also, as I said before, it comes off a base that we are not happy with as a company.

so there are miles to go, and I think the early wins will be easy.

see where it goes in the next 2-3 years.

right now optimism is very high. Mr. Abneesh Roy, Nuvama If you could clarify what they are bringing to the table, they are handling the media spend?

They are actually handling the entire brand for us at the moment end to end. Mr. Mihir Shah, Nomura Hi Prabha, Hi Jacob, Mihir from Nomura. Thank you for taking my question. And firstly, congrats on tying up with KBC and getting

both for kids and adults.

looking forward to it. Firstly, while the category has seen universal penetration, there seems to be still significant headroom opportunity in both premiumisation and per capita consumption. So firstly on premiumisation now one has the tailwind of quick-com, which is relatively very accretive for the business and which way.

when you see the, you know, contribution is still at 6% versus many food categories we've seen, you know,

contribution going upwards of double digits, etc. what more can be done here? I understand the products are any which way they're in place and largely distributed, but is there anything else that can be done to accelerate this?

on the per capita consumption bit, you know, you have a very large,

program where you're tapping into a very large, newer consumer set in the rural areas. Any sense you have with dual brushing, you know, for rural kids, how much adoption has that happened there?

what do you think are the thoughts as this generation comes in?

can we think about the contribution to the overall. So that's question number one.

So I'm going to take the first part first. The 6% contribution of e-commerce is actually the market, it's not us.

contribution is actually double digit. So just to shade over I mean early double digits actually.

so and that's why it is share accretive growth accretive etc. that I mentioned. So I think we are in a good position. actually driving this forward.

what e-commerce quick commerce allows us to do actually, is the discovery of products that we will not be able to distribute across the 1.7 million outlets. So what you mentioned the

Potter's, the pumps, the

fresh as a sensorial range which includes watermelon and rainbow toothpaste, etc., all of that.

e-commerce, quick commerce allows us to do is to drive discovery of that, and when we see it get traction there, we are then able to travel it into the modern trade environment. On per capita consumption, to your question, we don't at the moment measure dual brushing or twice a day brushing in rural India, we think we have a massive enough task of getting everybody to brush every day. We are really excited to see 55 becoming 45, which I think is fantastic. I mean, 10% in three years is quite substantial for

rural population. So quite a dramatic improvement. I think our first job will be to get near universal, you know, brush every day before we start measuring the twice a day.

to your point, the

program when it teaches oral health, one of the pillars is brush twice a day. So we do expect that some children are hopefully taking home that habit. I don't have a measure of it. Mr. Mihir Shah, Nomura Understood. Secondly, you know Colgate's reach and brand equity is relatively quite strong.

know, any thoughts on how one can leverage that by getting, you know, into some mass market sub category in personal care.

I know that probably getting into a mass market category can be margin dilutive.

I just want you to know your thoughts around are you open to entering in or getting into maybe like just an example, mass market soaps significantly large category can be touched upon. Yes, dilutive.

it can bring in a lot of growth which is what the country gives you. So your thoughts around that.

So a two part answer. If you mean with the Colgate brand, then I must tell you that I had an interesting story that when I first walked into this company, there was a poster of something called

Lasagna that got launched, I think, in the US some many, many decades ago. We are very much as Colgate, though all joking apart, we are very much focused on oral care. So

will be an oral care brand. If you are asking me, is there potential for us to get into other brands in this country from the global

portfolio?

said this repeatedly that I think the answer is yes as this trajectory and performance continues in oral health. I do imagine that we will see more. Mr. Mihir Shah Understood, that was more specifically on the mass categories, not on getting it from the global.

I think there are opportunities for us in categories that make money as well. So

not sure we necessarily need to go into the low margin mass category.

not necessarily the direction we would travel in, but there's enough opportunity. We are relatively limited portfolio company, so there are enough opportunities in categories that have the opportunity to make money. Mr. Mihir Understood, if I may just ask one to Jacob. Jacob, If one looks at the past couple of years, the quarterly volume growth trend, you know, for a category which is significantly higher penetration, a daily consumption category, the volatility is a bit too much for one's comfort.

know, we have seen high single digit growth.

seen early declines.

you know and now again coming back.

should one think about with everything that you know

highlighted what she's doing.

should one think about, you know, a steady state growth on volume side, you know, for a medium term for a category and maybe in the near term also if you can talk about you have a significantly lower base that you will start lapping now. So should one expect higher growth in the near term because of that? See the category growth in the over the long term has been a bit soft. I mean, if you look at the last five years or even a little bit longer, so, you know, the growth mainly comes from pricing over the last few years, right?

could have been one year up and down.

if you just smoothen it over time.

we are now looking at a much more balanced growth, which is, you know, not entirely price driven but more balanced with volume and mix. would mean premiumisation.

you saw we are growing at 6X and we need to continue the premium growth because ASPs you know, 2X-3X.

one way to grow the portfolio.

same unit pack that a consumer buys. are paying much more and therefore the sales growth, right?

that would need higher levels of sustained advertisements across channels, digital, TV etc.. So that's what we are focusing on. So what we are saying is that we will deliver higher levels of growth, but it will be a more balanced mix of these three than you know you've seen in the past. Mr. Amit Sachdeva, UBS Yeah, Hi. Prabha I have a small question on the growth template that has emerged. So first of all, congratulations on return to double digit growth.

I assume that that sort of a template that you would like to follow staying in double digit, because that should be the kind of growth that consumer companies should deliver in

My assumption is that having covered it for a while now, if I sort of double click on that expectation, and I clearly see that premium side is doing very well, if I assume that it is mid to high single digit, even if it's growing 20%, it can add about 2% to the overall that double digit expectation. But despite doing exceptionally 20% kind of growth, I just do the rough maths and then comes in pricing and mix. So unless pricing is part of the equation, the double digit expectations become still elusive because category volume will be two, three, four.

can have good cycles and bad cycles.

with going up, QC supporting you, which is margin accretive, growth accretive, urban doing better than even rural. If I look at the last presentation, is it safe to say that rising in

consistent 4-5% pricing and delivering that volume and then mix improving, is that formula that you have discovered that double digit is here to stay with that template, because we have seen past patches. So having done that for, you know, price increases, do you feel comfortable in that template now and should one make that expectation as double digit is here to stay?

the kind of I just would like your thoughts on that.

So I think, you know, I just want to talk a little bit about premium because I think when you peg premium at 20% growth, you're actually massively under pitching it and there is significantly more opportunity. We talked about the fact that in the toothpaste category, only 19% of toothpaste sits at the above 140 index, and that number could be anywhere between 40 to 60%. Even if we take a look at the shampoo, soap, etc., etc. categories. So we are also seeing that our premium business is growing 6X the market so much faster than the levels that you're growing that that you were building into your model.

your model at an overall level actually is right, which is that we will we are we have found a way of delivering a balanced growth between mix, volume and price, like

talked about.

that's exactly the model that we will continue to drive as we go forward.

that will be the focus where the volume will come from us, ensuring that we keep our core brand superior and competitive, because that's where really the volume comes from.

obviously comes from the premiumisation part.

then of course, pricing.

will be good years on pricing and there will be not so good years on pricing depending on what competition does, what inflation does, what the market overall does. So that will then become the third leg of the wheel.

if you're looking for me to give you a comment on the exact amount of growth, we never do that. Not going to start now.

that's absolutely formula. Mr. Amit Sachdeva, UBS I'll just hope that you do double digits. We have well-wishes on this side.

Thank you. Mr. Amit Sachdeva Yeah. My second question Prabha is on. For example, last year when I was here in this room, you showed a slide where a lot of international brands would, you know, kind of share that this is the kind of portfolio we have.

it sort of signalled an expectation that some of these are coming and maybe in a one year or two year time frame, but not much progress has been made, or at least narrative has not been built by you. Why is this the parent not interested? Or you feel it's not required to do it at this stage because QC, e-com and D to C, so a lot of excitement is being built in PPC or at least many other categories.

why would

not want to participate in it when every new company which has no right to exist also they are building 1000 crore brands.

just surprised.

So Amit, I think that's a great question. And I'm just going to say that I don't think it's a matter of either the parent or us not being interested, because both parent and us are very interested.

just a matter of the right timing for us to do this in the context of everything that's happening with oral care and with

So it's more than a case of lack of interest. Mr. Amit But do you have any sort of time frame when such things could happen?

Not one that I can share here. Ms. Latika Chopra, JP Morgan Yeah. My question was actually just to get more color from you on this arrangement with the

If I recollect correctly, I think the parent invested into that company and you just mentioned, you know, end to end,

will be managed by them. So if you could, you know, throw some more light on what the arrangement looks like.

if you could also share anything on financial terms, you know how this is going to work. The second question also let me just add it to Jacob. You know, you mentioned that growth is going to be ahead of profitability. So are we kind of calling out that, you know, we should be prepared for, you know, operating margins to moderate from FY 26 levels.

you.

Yeah. So on the second question, first, you know, we expect gross margins to be in the range, but would be a function of what we are going to invest.

you know we invested at the high level of 15.8%.

seen great growth on premium.

going to double down there. So the bias here would be on higher advertising and

percentage may be impacted. We are not working towards any particular level of EBITDA.

as I said, the advertising levels in the short term, we should expect it could be going north and the monitorable would be the premium growth, because that's where really we think there's an opportunity is the most elastic form of demand that in that segment is the most elastic.

that's where we go into double down. Ms. Latika Chopra, JP Morgan Operating leverage to kind of be there to support your operating margins. Yeah. So you're talking gross margin Ms. Latika Chopra, JP Morgan No, I am talking about the operating leverage if you get higher growth. Right.

you're so conscious.

just talked about like almost 4.5- 5% of savings. Gross margin is going to be pretty healthy. So I was just trying to wonder whether there is enough scope for or unless we are thinking about the 16% range also to step up from here.

Yeah. As I mentioned, you know, there would be an upward bias even on the currently reported quarter advertising numbers.

therefore, in the short term, we're not going to, you know, be held by the

levels, no target at a specific level. If we think, spending X more on Total and

is going to give you Y growth then you know we are open to doing that.

know, we are not going to be constrained because we believe, you know, this is the way we build brands.

you know, while in a few quarters, we may be a little bit short on some of those ratios over the long term, you know, we build brands. We know how this takes time to stick, premium brands will take back by technology like the technology we have on Total.

know once consumers start using it over and over again, they will be habituated to use that. So, you know, we are doing it a little bit for the longer term.

therefore, you know, while we will continue to maximize all the efficiencies that a company of a size offers, at the same time, we think sometimes we may need to still invest further ahead of the curve.

And if I take your Palmolive question, what I mean by end to end is really all the consumer facing advertising and the customer relationships on

is being handled by

innovation, the product quality, the supply chain, all of that remains with us.

so why we are looking to leverage this partnership, like I said, is because we believe that they have a better understanding of how this entire D2C flywheel works.

not a flywheel that we understand as a Company, so we're looking to learn from them.

that's why we've entered into this partnership.

Yeah. Just to add to that, when we mean end to end, it's for e-com and D2C only. So modern trade, traditional trade, those will stay with

We continue to manage that piece. Traditional advertising all that stuff will be ours.

will do only the e-com and D2C. Mr. Jay Doshi, Kotak Securities Hi, this is Jay from Kotak. Thanks for the opportunity. I've got a couple of questions. First, the bookkeeping one. you give us your salience for modern trade e-commerce, quick commerce channels.

again if you can share, you know, once in a year the salience of premium because X to 2X-5X if you could actually share actual numbers.

So we don't typically give them. So what we showed was the Nielsen numbers where you know, e-com, direct modern trade is shown as like 15% Mr. Jay Those number are incorrect, right? It was 6% if you are 50% of the market and so it means that others are zero.

As Prabha mentioned, we've crossed double digit on E-com as a contribution. So we don't call out the splits because that's internal. We normally quote Nielsen, but you are right, the numbers are a little bit different there as to what we are seeing internally. Mr. Jay Doshi, Kotak Securities Modern trade if you can share. Because again how do we see those numbers are not reliable anymore. It was relevant a few years ago.

basically that is why we are requesting you for

Further splits we are not calling out Mr. Jay Doshi, Kotak Securities Premium if you can share.

Yeah, I mean we said we are growing at 6X of the core brands. So you know. Mr. Jay Doshi, Kotak Securities On a lighter note sir, if you don't share any data, it's difficult to write a one page note sometimes. Anyway, last one and I hope you can share some qualitative color. See, when you started this journey it was 12-13% A&P spends.

today it's almost 16% right? So can you give us some qualitative color on you know how A&P has moved from traditional to digital.

much of your A&P for the programs that you, you know, continue over years and how much of your A&P today is, you know, directed towards the premiumisation, you know journey.

So I think if you see the way A&P has evolved and this I am sure, true of pretty much every company, what we are seeing is a steep drop off in TV viewership and therefore our consumers, particularly at the top of the pyramid in the bottom of the pyramid, neither of them are watching television. One, because it's so much easier to access their phones at the bottom of the pyramid with electricity always on and the phone is always available, and everybody now has a phone.

at the top of the pyramid, obviously they're just opting out of advertising and so they're moving into non advertised sources. So these two sets of consumers are now almost entirely reached by digital.

the middle continues to watch television.

we continue to advertise particularly our core brands to this middle

on television. If I was going to give you some numbers, I think we're about roughly 60% of our money now goes behind digital and the remaining behind television.

a significant proportion of our money actually goes behind premium, far in excess of the size of the business. So premium tends to have advertising ratios that are in the ballpark of 50-60% of our business being plowed back into advertising, which gives us the flywheel to allow us to generate this 6X growth that we are talking about. Our ongoing programs. That's ring fenced investment and that grows steadily year on year to make sure that we can continuously reach more and more children. So last year we reached 12 million children.

looking at to keep me honest on this number. So 12 million children that we reach through the BSBF program.

previous year it was 10% less than that.

year we expect it will be 12-10%, roughly more than the 12 million children. So that for us is a non-negotiable, ring fenced spend that doesn't move.

way we deliver, that investment could move, but the spend and the reach just increases because it's the right thing to do. Mr. Jay Doshi, Kotak Securities Sorry, I didn't understand 50-60% in premium. So what is that number? It's higher than

50-60% of the turnover of premium. Is the A to S on premium. Mr. Jay Doshi, Kotak Securities Oh wow! Thank you. Mr. Aditya Soman, CLSA Yeah, hi. Thanks Aditya from CLSA. So just one question in terms of increasing the gross margin versus a higher spend on A&P, and particularly now that you said about half of that higher spend is on premium brands, would it just make more sense to cut price for the premium brand?

if not, why not?

Okay, so firstly I just want to make sure that we understood. I didn't say we spend half our money on premium. I said that premium has an A to S ratio in that ballpark. So not the same thing. I think the joy of selling a premium brand is that you deliver value at a premium, because otherwise you will just cut the price of everything and everything will be the same price, right? So the logic is that the consumer sees value in a better proposition and a better product, which allows her to pay more, pay you more money.

that's why pricing is a lever on our premium business.

not the only lever on our premium business.

in fact, we are seeing in toothpaste the opportunity to pull in the other direction. So if you see in toothbrushes, for example, the cheapest toothbrush being 10

and the most expensive toothbrush being 300 Rupees, that's a 30X multiple. We don't have a 30X multiple in toothpaste, but there are consumers who have the desire and the wherewithal to pay more money for more benefits. So actually the intention is to push in the other direction, which is to make sure that we are constantly innovating so that we get more and more benefits that are worth paying more money for. Mr. Harit Kapoor, Investec Yes. Hi. Good evening. This is Harit from Investec. Just two questions. The first one was on distribution expansion. So your oral care slides mentioned that the category is still under indexed on distribution.

distribution is still moving up. Also you are adding premium. adding products to the portfolio. Yet our directory has been in the same ballpark of 1.7 million over several years. I just wanted to understand whether there is a, you know, an actionable trigger here in terms of growth in distribution, or do you think that 1.7 can still, you know, it's more throughput per store than anything else that can drive? So there is distribution expansion in terms of direct or any other reach a lever for growth?

my first question.

So I think the answer is kind of a qualified yes. Because if you see our premium business, it will in the first instance go to these 1.7 million stores, because these 1.7 million stores are the cream of the entire retail universe in

Having said that, if you see the way

is evolving, particularly the city to city corridors, you see where urban adjuncts or urban agglomerations are increasing, like where ended a couple of years ago and where

ends now, or any other large city. You're seeing the expansion and you're seeing consumers again who have the ability to buy for us to reach the service, the store directly and therefore higher quality retail that is available there.

where we will be judiciously adding coverage. So it's not a blanket. Let me add coverage across the entire country.

we're definitely seeing an opportunity in urban and city to city corridors that are getting created across the country. Mr. Harit Kapoor, Investec All right. And the second question was more, you know, on ground kind of question over the last decade, you saw, you know, this naturals category really pick up and ayurveda, the herbal, etc. over the last say 12, 18 months, even in D2C or last two years, we're seeing science backed to being a larger share.

then you know, herbal, ayurveda, natural you know your premium products are also doing exceptionally well. Obviously you're driving that. Just wanted to get your sense.

you look at the competitors who you don't play in that category, but just your feedback on how is the consumer moving back to a kind of more science based as compared to ayurveda, herbal, natural? Is there a trend?

starting to see some feedback on that.

So I think, you know, I've always been a firm believer in the fact that consumers buy benefits and just a product having great science or great natural credentials doesn't make that a benefit.

wants the product to do something for her fresher breath, whiter teeth, prevention of cavities.

know, stop my gums from bleeding, what do you have?

I think the company that convinces her that the offering that they have delivered to that benefit will win.

I don't think it is about the source of that delivery where it comes from. So that's always been my belief. I think what we found as we have got the mixes right on Total,

White, PerioGard, is that it is absolutely coming alive, that as we tell the story correctly, as we talk to the consumers about the superior science that these products have.

most importantly, as these products deliver in her hands, that makes all the difference.

that's why we are actually seeing a resurgence here.

Thanks. Prabha, there are a couple of questions on the chat box. What is the demand outlook amid deficit monsoons and commodity volatility.

are we going to take any more price hikes?

have we seen any demand softness in the rural areas?

These kind of macro questions I always look at Jacob. So yeah. Mr. Jacob M.S. So we I mean we don't know how this is going to pan out there is the headwinds of inflation.

is you know a lot of stuff happening on macro.

you know we delivered good growth in the last few quarters.

we continue to see good growth coming in.

we believe it's also because of all the stuff we are doing on, you know, our communication, the premiumisation and upping of advertising, all this stuff. Inflation will be an issue. And, you know, we also keep a close tab on pricing.

taken around the low single digit level of price increases in the last little while. We will keep an eye on costs because, you know, gross margin is something we are looking to keep in the range and not let it slip by given, you know, the advertising investments we are looking to do.

we are going to look at this very closely and definitely, you know, not look at increases every few months, etc.

know, we know in our line of businesses and given traditional trade is a big part of our business, you need to space out price increases, etc. and all that learnings from the past will incorporate as we address some of these challenges.

And if I can also add that I think one of the things that we've taken rightly, a decision on is to ring fence the most vulnerable consumers. So with GST, we had the opportunity to increase grammage on our 10 and 20

SKUs. We actually increased the grammage by more than the

cut, making sure that we are softening the blow for those consumers who buy price point packs.

even within the face of this inflation, we continue to hold that grammage.

as a result of which our

10 and

20 actually now offer fantastic value, which I think is important at the other end of the pyramid, as much as we look to drive the top end towards premiumisation.

There is one more. It seems that Colgate's marketing investments to improve brushing are helping other players, so how can you ensure that benefits remain to you?

So I'm not sure where the source of that data is going to come from, but I'm going to tell you our, I think, a philosophical answer and a real answer. So I think the philosophical answer is that our mission is to improve the oral health of this country, and we will take the necessary steps to do that, whether it's brushing twice a day or

Future.

less philosophical answer, I think, is that if you take a look at growth over the last little while, maybe the numbers there are not quite true.

We will take last one from Avi Mr. Avi Mehta, Macquarie Hi. This is Avi from Macquarie. I just wanted to kind of understand your perspective on the premium side, because you did highlight that.

said, you believe that the consumer looks at benefits. So do you see this, you know, when you look at this premium segment right now you have three bets.

is there an opportunity across each benefit case that one should look at from a premium category over time? Is that how you see the premium category?

second, if you could share your thoughts on how you see it from an urban rural perspective or a channel perspective? Is this largely a, you know, e-com or largely urban? Or any thoughts over there would be helpful?

you.

Sorry. Could you just help me to understand the first part of your question better? Mr. Avi Mehta, Macquarie See, when you say, the consumer looks at it from a benefit perspective, right. And then logically, the consumer buying decision is from a benefit perspective is how you see it. Then is it fair to say that over time this premiumisation lever would be along the benefit use cases? Is that the right thought process?

hence would you see this as an opportunity going forward versus what you have or no? You know, so your thoughts on that would be helpful first, and second, as I said from a rural perspective, how do you kind of look at that.

you.

So I think, you know, do we see this as a benefit-led opportunity. The answer is yes.

that's why if you see our three focus premium plays play in three very different spaces. So there is the everyday prevention that is

Total which is meant to be absolutely family everyday toothpaste.

is a whitening toothpaste which delivers all your basic dental health.

the spike is on whitening.

therefore if you're looking for something that's a little bit more outward, then you're going to sit in that segment.

then there is PerioGard, which is again problem-solution, which is that if you have gum issues, which unfortunately many people in this country do, then that is the toothpaste for you. So we are seeing them as three independent benefits.

there be other premium benefits? Of course they could.

could those benefits come? Of course they will as well.

for now, in terms of prioritization, this is where we are prioritizing the benefits. In terms of the consumer space. Of course, premiumisation is higher in quick com than e-com, than modern trade, than general trade.

the hierarchy of the way it's going.

what's interesting really, is that unlike the earlier India, where all of this would start in the metros and percolate its way down, what we are seeing is that this is quite democratic. We are seeing the uptake of premium in tier two towns.

seeing the uptake of premium in, you know, rural villages.

this is really aided by the fact that physical reach no longer needs to be there in that town for consumers to be able to access this benefit.

the fact that the phone allows us to or digital allows us to communicate to people almost on a one on one basis, like, I don't have to do an entire state to get to a certain audience. I can just get to the audience that is more likely to buy premium. So we are certainly seeing a more democratized desire for premium, which we are then able to fulfil through some of these channels.

Thanks. I know there are some more questions, but you can connect with me and Neethi separately, and we are happy to answer all your questions. That was the last question Prabha, any closing remarks?

I want to thank you all for coming. And I want to just reiterate the position that

left you with, which is that we are very pleased with the way the business is progressing over the last little while. We do think that we found a space where our key priorities are being able to be delivered in the way that we would like it to be delivered, and the key messages that he left you with, which is the great governance of this organization, will continue.

we intend to drive growth ahead of profitability as we go forward. So thank you again for making the trip.

really been a pleasure to have all of you here, thanks Jacob.

Thank you.

Thanks Prabha. Thanks Jacob. And thank you all for your time and great interaction. I would also like to thank

and

for all your time and sharing your thoughts.

and the entire team here for this wonderful event. Monica, thanks for the presentation and request you all to collect your smile hampers outside this room and please do share our feedback. Thanks again for your time.

you. Disclaimer - This transcript has been edited for readability and grammatical accuracy while preserving original intent.