which we should be worried about, and that could be the reason for this correction? Okay. So let me clarify. This EBllDA margin guidance change has nothing to do with Home Care pricing and price value equa.tion. So that's number one. Number two, the reason we commented Avl that gross margin will see moderation because of the prtce value equation difference -this ls normal to happen. Remember, the pricing logic that we always follow - Whenever we see Inflation, In this case, read Inflation of Tea, Coffee and CPO, which Is Crude palm oil Impacting Skin Cleansing and Beauty & Wellbeing. We always take price Increase In smaller chunks, so that we're able to test the levels of price Inflation we need to do In correlation to commodity lnflcitlon. So you always end up having a deficit of price versus cost in inflationary categories for inflationary commodities. Parallelly, on the other side where commodities have a deflationary trend like Crude oil. there we take larger chunks of price decrease so that we're able to pass on bulk of the benefit In a quick manner to the consumers because we know that when you decrease price In a smaller chunk, you do have an Impact of trade stock getting stuck when you end up making multiple price downs. Price-ups are easy to flew Into the trade, prtce downs are not easy to flow Into the trade. So, this mechanism of Inflation - deflation, whenever It happens In any quarter, will always lead to a price versus cost Impact, and which Is why we mentioned that gross margin will end up seeing moderation. But will the entire amount of EBITDA change go Into price versus cost and gross margin line? The answer Is no. I did mention there are other elements of costs which get lncurTed In the Une of gross margin, be It trade Investments, which are above the line, which ultimately comes in gross margin, or product quality investment, which also comes in gross margin. So those investments will happen in the line of gross margin as well. which is one more reason why we mentioned that there will be moderation in gross ma.rgin. Take an example, Avl. We have Increased 400 bps of weighted value distribution. And this is in general trade, basically largely. And when you increase weighted value distribution, you increase your effort, which you do in distribution and of course, there's a cost to incur this effort. The cost gets Page1fiof40 llohltJawa: channeled through trade spends to our customers, and ultimately gets reflected In top line and In gross margin. So that's one of the examples why there are elements beyond price versus cost that happens. And last, to conclude your starting question on Home Care, our pricing always has been - we react to commodity and we do our price changes to maintain competitive price value equation responding to change in commodity. As market leaders, we always lead commodity trend-led price Increase. When we see signals In 1he market on pricing, which are not linked to commodity movements, we follow. If I may - Avl, tf I may zoom out a Uttle bit to give another perspective to this discussion. We feel two things quite strongly. We think that on macro, the triggers are tending/ biasing towards positive now. For instance, all of the monetary changes on inteA!st rates, the tax relief, 1he crude oil and, therefore, Impacting cost of Uvlng, generally speaking, coming down, the strong robust monsoon, Including projected monsoon, the agrtculture output. the resilient growth In rural where we haw a higher market share as It happens, are all giving us a sense of a prognosis of a stronger market demand In the next few quarters to come. we also feel very confident Internally on what we'Ve done around our core business. We have revamped most of our core brands, that's on the half of our business, Including the ones that we had some wortc to be done Uke Glow & Lovely and Ufebuoy. We have very materially transfonned our portfolio towards Future Core. We are now Innovating quite Intensively. We've also ensured that the price, quality and margin equation of our price-sensitive ca.tegories and brands are optimized and are absolutely in the sweet spot So, we feel that our business Is very much lnvestable. We have got the right capabilities, the business unit structure, we have got the right Leadership. So, we feel this is the time for us to Lean in. So, we want to not be defensive. We want to be offensive. So, we want to play to win. And therefore, for the next few quarters, one or two at least we want to Lean in with investments in the Channels of the Future, In all of these Innovations, many of the new brands
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