Honasa Consumer Limited analyst Q&A

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and -answer session. We take our first question from the line of Vivek from Jefferies India.

My first question is on the Mamaearth brand. So -- if I have to look into FY '27 and medium term, both...

I'm sorry, you are sounding muffled.

Is it better now?

Yes, please go ahead.

So just to repeat, Varun, Mamaearth brand, FY -- the recent quarter has done well. FY '27 and medium term, given the size of the brand as well as the penetration-led opportunity in the offline side, how do you think about this brand growing into the next year as well as from a 3 -year perspective?

Thanks for asking that. So, we're fairly confident of delivering a double -digit CAGR on the brand from the next 5 years perspective. And we see a lot of share gain opportunity across the focus categories that the brand has in face wash, shampoo and other categories which are of interest to us on the brand, and we are investing in them We also see distribution gain opportunities given the brand is only 200,000 outlets and potentially can get to 0.5 million outlets over the next 3 to 5 years. And I think combination of those two makes us fairly pretty confident that over the next 5 years, the brand should continue to grow at double-digit CAGR.

Okay. Got it. That's very interesting. The second...

Sorry, muffled again. Can you repeat the question, please?

Is it better now?

Yes. Please repeat your question.

Apologies for this. So Varun, the second question is on the focus categories. You have had highlighted these 6 or 7 categories that you will go after and then you entered into men's category as well as you have spoken about nutraceuticals. Do you think tha t, again, these two initiatives will create a bit of a complexity or the organization is robust enough to handle beyond what you have already articulated as the focused parts of the portfolio?

I think I can say two things. Firstly, the men's skin care is a proposition. The categories continue to be skincare, face wash which are the core categories that are focus for us led by sunscreens in the Reginald specifically. So it's the same category, fo r example, sunscreen. But now we have another way to capture some of that TAM, which men are looking for within that same category. So I would see that engine like this. To answer the second question, honestly, I think I would like to state and probably I'll take a minute to answer that question. I think you will need to understand that philosophically, we're a team and I'm a person who believes in keeping my goals and dreams on the top and changing the circumstances and constraints to achieve those goals. And I heard this very young in my career from a leader called Miles Barber Hilton , who is a blind man of 70 years and has run marathons across deserts and has not let his blindness come in his way of achieving the dreams that he had set for himself. And the one thing that he stated in that conference 15 years ago was the fact that the only limits that exist for us are the ones that we choose to accept. And I think I was fairly moved by that and that has been my operating philosophy. And hence, if I believe there is a dream that we have as an organization, there's an opportunity that we want to go after as an organization, we would want to put that upfront, and we would want to shape our organization to go after those opportunities And which is why if there are right manpower, right talent, which is required to go after some of these new categories, I would rather build that out. And if there is probably worry of profitability in the way, then I would want to build all of those profi tably very early on itself. But I would want to make sure that the opportunities that we see and that we believe we can capture, we would want to continue to go after them. And we are building a robust organization and the right kind of playbooks to ensure we are able to execute on the same.

Got it. And genuinely, like the growth mindset. The last question is, and apologies if it's direct or fair -- unfair question, but I mean, over the quarter that I have seen your commentary and the presentation deck for TDC versus Aqualogica, I mean, this i s my feeling and correct me if I'm wrong or if you want to add anything, but it looks like TDC has actually performed far better than probably what we would have thought, and Aqualogica has been a bit under. One, is that observation correct? And if yes or no, can you give your reasons and some backdrop to especially the Aqualogica brand?

So Vivek, I think on TDC specifically, that's the second brand that we started after Mamaearth. And that is the brand where we want to take it to INR1,000 crores and become probably the only company in the last couple of decades with crafted INR2,000 crore-plus brands in this country, right, from scratch. And hence, we have been actively sharing a lot more detailed progress on Derma Co. as a brand. It is also, of course, benefited from being in the active segment that we recognized at the right time, whereby by executing it right and by finding the right kind of fundamentals, whatever we had learned on Mamaearth, executing that, we've actually been a ble to scale that brand very strongly and which is why we specifically doubled down and talked about that because that's where we want to show our replicability of our playbooks and our ability to build another INR1,000 crores brand. Rest all the brands are actually much younger, Aqualogica is 2 years later than Derma Co., actually 2.5 in terms of its birth year and month. And hence, they are actually years apart in terms of their progression as well. So on the rest of the brands, we provide a combined view. Each of the brands have their own trajectories. Every year, we have new learnings around how to make them sharper. And the overall strategy of the company has been to have horses for courses, right, different brands which have and stand for different kind of sharp propositions. And depending upon how consumer sentiments change, either it's naturals or it's towards pop hydration or it's towards actives, we will change our investment gears and make sure we are able to leverage on those consumer sentiments using the right brand chassis. If it is right now a strong tailwind on actives, we are doubling down on Derma Co. and sort of gaining a strong share with that. As and when Aqualogica becomes also then material enough and we would want to share more around that, we will keep bringing those updates to you as well.

Vivek, does that answer your question? Since there is no response, we'll move on to the next question. Next question is from the line of Manoj Menon from ICICI Securities.

I have only one small clarification, which is exactly in the overall growth, which has been, obviously, top of the line and very, very impressive, how much is the growth driven by the core businesses and the newer, let's say, SKUs or products which you've launched? Let's say -- put it this way, right? So let's say, how much of the growth is driven by the products which you have launched in the last 1 year versus which existed previously?

So if we look at just the products launched in last 1 year, Manoj, that growth would be to the tune of about 7% to 8%. I mean, now we've also started to look at our innovations more from a 3-year horizon than 1-year horizon because it's unfair to see and leave innovations in just 1 year because most of the innovations that we are sort of focusing on, especially since last 1 year, are innovations where we want to enter a certain partition and actually structurally take share over time in that partition. So I think -- and we could probably from next time share a slightly medium-term number around innovation trend line as well.

Sure. That's loud and clear. Secondly, Varun, just about Reginald Men, whatever you can talk in a public platform about -- let's say, it's been a few months, maybe 5 months now, right, already. Let's say, what's your initial take? And where do you think the brand could be -- not necessarily numbers, right? And what are the qualitative aspects? The reason I'm asking because just as a consumer, when I was searching to buy the brand, for example, I couldn't find the brand, let's say, in a platform like Nykaa. So there is a common observation that probably there are a lot of low-hanging fruits to be executed here. So just a bit of Reginald Men and your medium-term aspirations in the brand.

Yes, sure. So honestly, I agree with your observation. I agree with your observation that we know that the brand has multiple axes to actually grow and which is what we feel -- made us sort of attracted towards the brand itself. One axis of growth is distr ibution, which like you rightly pointed out and we also mentioned, we are just about further extending distributions on the brand this quarter. So probably by next time when we meet, you will be able to find the brand on the platforms that you're looking for. We have done all of that basic work, and now it's just about replication and then scale-up of that distribution, right? So that is one axis on which we see the brand growing. The second axis of brand growth is just category expansion. It was largely a sunscreen brand, 98%, when we bought it. We are further unlocking newer categories based on our R&D and formulation as well as consumer insight understanding. So we see categories like face washes, , serums to also become categories of future for the brand. So that's the other axis on which the brand will grow, right. And the third axis is the geography axis. The brand, like we mentioned, was largely a South India-focused brand. And now slowly, we are coming up on that map with opening up of Maharashtra and then focusing on other states in the future. So we've been pretty confident that with those 3 axes and potentials of growth, the brand should continue to grow well over the next 3 to 5 years for sure.

And one last thing, if I may. I know it's very granular, but still let me attempt. So the growth in Mamaearth is very impressive in field. Is online also growing very well, or it's largely heavily being done by offline?

Yes. Online is also showing double-digit growth.

We'll take our next question from the line of Umang Shah from Banyan Tree Advisors PMS.

Just had one observation. Our advertising expenses had grown at 6%-odd for the full year, while other expenses actually declined. I just wanted to understand what led to the two. And going forward, how do we balance between margins and sales growth? Just w anted to understand in terms of reinvesting in the brand or in terms of expanding distribution.

In general, advertising as a value spend is something that we have talked about, will go up. But as percentage, it comes down. And hence, that's the A&P leverage that we see getting generated in the business. And we have seen that unlocking value for us and EBITDA for us last year as well. There are 3 key sort of buckets for us from a leverage generation perspective, one, our channel spend and performance spend. Second is our brand spend. And third is our OpEx spend. And a combination of leverage from these 3 is what will help us generate that 100 basis points improvement in EBITDA profile that we have talked about from a year-on-year over the next 5 years' perspective. Our internal plan is to make sure, even from here in 5 years, we are able to improve 500 basis points on our bottom line. And the combination of these 3 levers will help us do that. The weightage between those might vary between years. Some year, we might focus on channel spend, some year on brand spend, some year on OpEx spend to get to that expansion. But we are fairly confident of delivering our high- teens CAGR over the next 5 year s that we've talked about and along with this 500 basis points EBITDA expansion in the same period.

Great, sir. And sir, any reason for decline in the other expenses for full year and for Q4? Raman Preet Sohi Yes, hi, Umang. Raman this side. So I think when you look at Q4, and of course, even year-on- year, there is, like what we mentioned during the initial part of our conversation and presentation, it's not like-for-like because the reported numbers are taking the impact of Flipkart settlement and the GT charges that have reduced our realization and also the expenses or distribution expenses that it charges have also gone out of our P&L. So the other expenses that you see around 15% for Q4 are actually around 18%. And last year, it was about 22% same quarter. So the 300,400 bps reduction is largely due to the leverage and the scale benefits and everything, but the bottom line is more for like-for-like.

Next question is from the line of Nitin from HDFC Securities.

Congrats on the recovery. My -- so first question is around like how are you placed with the inflation and thoughts around price hikes?

Could you repeat that question, thoughts around? Did not understand the last part of that question.

Hello?

Yeah, we can you hear you better now.

Yeah. So I was asking like how are we placed with inflation and plans for price hikes?

So we did foresee the crude impact and war scenario to impact some of the PM and RM prices for our portfolio. And in line with that, we have already executed some calibrated price increases in line with where we've also seen competition taking the price in crease the same, and our RPI is still remaining fairly competitive at that premium that we want to maintain. And those have already been sort of executed as we speak in Q1. So we don't impact at least at this point of time with where crude is at this point of time. We don't expect any further price increases. But what we have already done should take care of the COGS inflation that is coming in.

Not really.

Sure, no problem. And with respect to actives, I just wanted to check how we are placed compared to a bigger competition like HUL, so which is placing Minimalist aggressively in the offline channel?

I would just say that The Derma Co. continues to grow really fast. In our view, it's a larger brand. And in fact, even according to Euromonitor data, it is the largest actives brand in the country. And even according to Nielsen, Derma Co. shares are the hi ghest amongst any other active brands in the country. So I think we are well positioned.

And how is the ARR now for the TDC brand.

Yes. As we disclosed, it was at INR750 crores-plus. It continues to grow on from there.

Okay. And the last question pertains to -- I just wanted to have a sense on how big is the GT sort of revenue for us for FY '26. And any thoughts around how we want to grow this channel because lots of action we have taken, and it has started sort of helpi ng us grow faster? So that's the last question.

Yes. So this channel continues to be one of our fastest-growing channels now. And fundamental inputs, including right manpower, right distribution partners, covering the right kind of stores, tracking execution at store level and ensuring quality of distribution and automatic ordering sort of systems and high visibility on distribution management system, so a combination of all of those levers is what we have deployed, which makes us feel confident and that we'll continue to win in the current outlets that we are present in and also continue to add newer outlets, which has been our active agenda.

Next question is from the line of Mehul Desai from JM Financial.

Yes. I just wanted to know the like -for-like growth if you remove Reginald from sales as well as EBITDA. I mean how would the core business growth look on that -- on sales and EBITDA for the quarter?

So, from a growth perspective, 21% will be the like -for-like growth. And from an EBITDA perspective, the impact will be just about 30 basis points. Rest of all EBITDA is of the core business.

Okay. And this 21% you are removing the Flipkart impact also, right?

No. Flipkart impact, we'll need to further remove, which is why I mentioned it's like-for-like. If you remove Flipkart impact, then it's not like-for-like.

Yes, they are at 28%-plus.

28%-plus. And lastly, I mean while you did allude to Mamaearth's growth for the quarter, can you give some flavor on what was the Mamaearth growth for the full year FY '26?

So for the full year also, it's in double-digit range.

We'll take our next question from the line of Yogeeta from Aditya Birla Capital.

Congratulations on your good set of numbers.

Can you use your handset mode, please. Yogeeta, please use your handset mode. Your audio is not clear.

Am I audible?

Yes.

Congratulations on the good set of numbers. So can you give some strategy, your strategy on driving premiumization in skincare and haircare? And how are we expecting this to impact growth in margins going forward?

So honestly, our underlying hypothesis around all our brands has been premiumization. We exist because we felt that the emerging middle class of the country was not being served with differentiated, more aspirational brand propositions, which makes them feel like they're moving forward in life and upward in life. And hence, all the business that we have built has been by tapping on the premiumization trend. And we expect this premiumization trend to continue for decades to come.

Okay. Understood. Another question, can you give some color on margin performance across a few brands, core brands, Mamaearth, Derma Co. and others, their performance in FY '26 and maybe some guidance for FY '27?

So, from a margin standpoint, Mamaearth and Derma Co., both are double- digit EBITDA - positive now. And we foresee them to continue improving their margin trajectory in future, as they have done in the past, along with growth. And from a forward-looking outcome, we -- like we said, I mean, from the next 5 years' perspective, the company plans to grow at high-teens CAGR. There will be years where we'll do a few points better than that and years where we'll do a few points lower. But overall, we'll grow at a high-teens CAGR from the next 5 years' perspective. Effort would be to, of course, even do better than that. And from an EBITDA profile perspective, over the next 5 years, we want to get 500 basis points better. And again, there might be years where we'll do better than that in terms of the 100 basis points or depending upon the strategy that we take. Last year was a strategy where we delivered higher than that sort of a benchmark. But overall, the plan will be, over 5 years, increasing at least 500 basis points in bottom line.

Okay, got it. Just one more question. The young brand and focus categories, how you've seen the growth for this year and quarter? So do we expect to -- should we expect it to continue driving at similar levels in FY '27?

We expect the young brands to continue to grow strongly and drive growth for the company in the next year as well. And the levels, et cetera, will keep changing. Like I said, we are more aligned to the broader goals and numbers that we talked about. But ye s, some of young brands will continue to drive stronger growth for the company and drive growth for the organization.

And about focus categories?

Again, yes, focus categories are getting more than 90% of our investment and focus. And hence, we expect them to continue to be growth drivers for the organization.

Next question is from the line of Aditya Ladhad from Stallion Asset.

My questions have been answered.

Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as a last question for today. I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments. Over to you.

Thank you so much for asking those questions. It was a pleasure speaking to all of you. We will see you in the next quarter with, hopefully, even better set of results. Thank you.

On behalf of JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.