Thank you. The first question is from the line of Anita Bajaj, an individual investor.

Congratulations, on good set of numbers. A couple of questions from my side. Firstly, I would like to ask that we can see across the Spencer’s, Jiffy & Nature Basket we're seeing very

different growth trajectory. How should investors think about the portfolio over the next 2, 3 years?

Yes. So look, obviously, there will be different levels of percentage growth given the size of the business. Jiffy, which is our online platform is at a much lower base. I mean, last year, we did Rs. 200 crores in that. So obviously, don't get misled by the percentage growth. It will -- the way we see it is all three will need to -- and will, not just need to, but will deliver growth, which are commensura te to their size, scale of operation. Nature s Basket has 31 stores. Spencer's has 89 stores. And Jiffy has a scale of business, which is Rs. 200 crores. The way I kind of -- I don't give individual kind of growth targets, but it's safe to assume that when it comes to the online business, we are looking at going from -- we're not burning a lot of money in terms of customer acquisition, and we don't want to kind of alter our unit order economics. So I think we'll see growth rates -- full year cumulative growth rates on that business, which will steady at around 25% as far as the online business is concerned. I think on the offline business, it will probably be mid to high single digits on the Spencer's offline business. And Nature s Basket because, clear ly, last year was not really a very strong year. I would say from quarter 3, quarter 4, we will start seeing early double -digit growth as far as Natures Basket is concerned once we finish the whole reset and the optimization. So yes, different growth trajectory, but all of them will be in growth, yes.

Yes. But Natures Basket has seen 8% sequential recovery. So, can you tell us what are the 2-3 KPIs that you are tracking internally to determine whether the turnaround is on track?

So, I think, look, I would not get too carried away by the 8% Q oQ growth quarter 4 versus Q1. I would be more focused on what was the year-on-year growth, which was negative. I think we are in the process, like I said, in terms of just resetting a few fundamental basics and those few fundamental basics are more around our own execution. So really in terms of availability, looking at kind of trimming the long tail of SKUs we have and focusing on the best seller, looking at certain must-win categories from a consumer perspective. A consumer walks into Nature s Basket for its quality and its timely availability of fresh products, fresh defined as fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese, dairy, fish and meat. So, we've always got to be -- we want to be winning in those categories and winning starts with first having the right assortment always. It's not just -- success is not by chance; it is by design. So, I think that -- those are the basics that we do. From an operating KPI point of view, for me, there are largely 3 operating KPIs. Number 1 is your sales per square foot, which is a reflection of your turnover, which you're generating. The sales per square foot needs to go up and will go up as we kind of drive throughput with the right categories. Number 2 wo uld be not just percentage margin, but looking at, therefore, rupee gross margin. There is no point in having a 30% margin on a Rs. 250 crores business versus having a 28% margin on the Rs. 350 crores business. We all know what works better for the business. So, the

second KPI will be the rupee gross margin. And the third one linked to that would be also ensuring that our costs are in control. Now having said that, let me be absolutely forthright, in a format like Nature s Basket, you can't do a big level of cost optimization simply because it is a premium experiential -led grocery format. So premium experiential formats require that you have stores which are in good condition, you have a lot more equipment, your staff needs to be of a certain quality. So I'm not -- unlike Spencer's where we've been able to do a lot of our optimization on expenses, we will not be able to do a lot of that on Nature s Basket. On Natures Basket it is top line led, driving sales per square foot, driving your rupee gross margin s. And of course, doing on support costs, on overhead costs, we will do. We've done one round of optimization when it comes to support infrastructure in Natures Basket. So I think those will be the three key KPIs, which we'll be tracking, the lead KPIs, which, again, will help us realize our stated goal of driving a higher level of top line in Nature s Basket. Will we see -- I'm preempting a few questions, will we see new store openings? No, we will not see new store openings because we believe we have a decent concentration and a presence of stores. In fact, we will be putting in a little bit of money in terms of refurbishing some of our stores of Natures Basket because some of them, as stores age, especially given that it's a premium experiential format, you need to kind of renovate these stores. So we will spend our limited capex on renovating stores, driving a higher level of throughput. We will not see too many additional stores. We will also use and drive a lot more of the online part of the business as far as Natures Basket is concerned. It is still not as significant in the mix as it is for Spencer's Jiffy format, and we intend to do that. We will share more progress of that in the next quarter. But really, I mean, it is -- that's the direction as far as NB is concerned. I hope I've answered your question, Anita.

Yes. So regarding the store expansion, you don't have any plans for Nature s Basket, but are there any plans for Spencer's?

No, not in this fiscal, we are not ad ding. I mean it's not a large plan. I mean we are opening -- so what we are doing is we are opening stores where we have to kind of relocate a few stores, plus we are trying a couple of stores within existing clusters. So, we just -- 2 days ago, we launched a small store in the suburban areas in Kolkata. So, we will look at it in a very calibrated manner, but I'm not giving a number saying we'd add 10 stores. I still believe that we have our task cut out, and we're making good progress in terms of driving a higher level of sales with the existing footprint. And that's the evidence is the SPSF going up. Yes. So not this year, but once we reach to our level where we want to be, then we will have a more calibrated expansion plan in FY '28 on store openings.

Sure, sure. Just one more question. As you mentioned in your opening speech that membership is driving the growth in Spencer's. So, what is the potential? Can 50% of the business come from membership?

Yes, it could. I mean I think it is -- it's -- we still have only -- the way I look at it, we only have 125,000 members, right? I think I'm not looking at the percentage contribution coming from these members. I'm looking at an absolute number. So, I think, just to give a ballpark number, I would love to have 200,000 members who shop with us at least 5 times a month. That's the number. If they contribute to 39% or 42%, that's okay. That's a derivative.

Okay! Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Parikshit Gupta from Fair Value Capital.

Hello, I hope I'm audible. Thank you for the opportunity. Just letting you know that I'm at the airport and the reception is bad. So I apologize in case I drop out. First of all, congratulations on a consistent growth quarter for Spencer's. I just wanted to check what was the major contributor for this growth? Was it volumes? Or was it more increase in average bill value?

No. So for us, the growth, like I said, came across both offline bu siness and online business. And our -- the driver for this was both a higher level of NOBs and slightly I would say it was 70% was driven by higher number of NOBs and 30% was a higher level of ABV. So it is a combination of 2, but largely driven by higher number of NOBs, number of bills, which to me is -- if you were to look at it in FMCG part, it's underlying volume growth as opposed to pricing growth.

This is helpful. Thank you. In terms of these categories, would you -- would it be corre ct to assume that more -fresh or fruits and vegetables would have been the growth factor in this quarter? Our channel check suggests that those have been the highest contributors for departmental stores in the recent quarter.

Actually, I mean, if I look at my category mix, it does not -- so for me, I mean, for our format, and I'm talking about Spencer's, FMCG continues to be at the same level of -- so I think it's category mix hasn't really changed dramatically. It's across the board, it has gone . I think where we've seen a slight increase is in staples. Staples has gone up by 100 basis points. Fresh has been the same level. So, it's neither gone up or down. Our contribution, we sell liquor. Liquor has gone up by 100 basis points. And our non -food portfolio which is apparel, E&E and GM has kind of gone down by 100 basis points. So, I think if I look at it, it's not -- there's no thing that -- it's the food part of the business, which is driving, both in FMCG as well as staples, which is driving. And fresh is at the same level. It's just that higher level of NOBs has gone up. And we've seen that in the category bill penetration num bers are almost the same. So, it's not that we suddenly added a lot more of fresh consumer. I think it's just because now we have sharp availability, our membership program, actually, I forgot to mention in our membership program, it's not just as a p ercentage off which you get on your monthly purchase. You also started having member special pricing.

So, for example, you might have an SKU, which has an MRP of 100. If you're a regular nonmember, you'll probably get it at 90. I'm just giving a hypotheti cal example. But if you're a member, you could be getting at 85. So, a member gets a dual benefit. Not only do they get a percentage cash back at the end of the month, depending on which slab they have spent, but they also get member special prices on select categories. So, I think that is driving across the board buying. So once the consumer comes in and you're a member, you are interested in buying the whole basket, your monthly purchase basket, and that could straddle FMCG food, that could straddle stap les, fresh, et c. I think we're seeing the category mix hasn't really changed dramatically. It's across the board increase in NOB. Parikshit, I hope I've answered your question.

Yes. That was helpful. My next question in terms of Nature s Basket, I know that the category optimization would take some time. However, you've mentioned the quick commerce part on the Natures Basket, the pilot program that you were considering. Is there any update on that? Did you try it out? Did it work well or any comments that you have on that, please?

Yes. So, it wasn't really quick commerce. I think what we were mentioning was we said that we will start building the online segment for Natures Basket as well. So, the progress so far has been on -- good progress will happen on the tech part, on the tech stack so in terms of the app, etc. But I mean, given all the other challenges which we had around availability, range optimization, we were not able to dial up the consumer acquisition piece of it. I think that's something which will be in play as we do that because that's a prerequisite. You don't want to spend money in either awareness or consumer acquisition if you don't have the right inventory and the right availability to drive that because that's very, very sensitive on the online channel. So, I think that's something which will -- which is going to follow as soon as we fix this part of the inventory. But from a tech development point of view, I think it's ready. It's riding on the same tech backbone as the Jiffy platform, which is now very, very stable. It's quite -- the consumer interface is very friendly, very modern, very contemporary and best -in-class. So I think that part -- the tech part has been solved. We will do the consum er acquisition and the scale out. We'll do it selectively in 2 cities where we have a concentration of stores, but that will follow.

I understand. But I was actually referring to the idea of maybe letting an Instamart or a Blinkit be -- have the Natures Basket store products on those platforms because we have some...

Yes. you're right. So, I think, look, on that part, as you know, these players have their own plans and in fact not just their plans, but they all -- most of them have a gourmet section. So, I think we did explore that. But the fact that there will be a substantial margin sharing does not commercially make the case for us to do it. And similarly, for them, they were -- they would probably -- not probably, they are -- they're looking at doing it on their own.

So Blinkit today has a gourmet store. You would have read that Flipkart wants to launch a gourmet kind of a platform called Pykd, P-y-k-d. So, I think all of these guys will do it. So for us, it's not about -- we don't want to take shortcut quick wins, which are not sustainable. One can list it on Amazon and give a 15% - 20% margin and scale of the business, but th at doesn't really help because you'll get a good top line, but you will sacrifice margins and tomorrow that might not be sustainable because they will learn and develop their own versions of the gourmet online store. So I think we are not aggressively looking at these fronts.

In terms of the balance sheet, what is our current level of debt, if you can help me with that, please?

Yes sure.

So, at a consol level, we have a total debt of Rs. 1,266 crores, SRL is Rs. 1,019 and NBL is Rs. 237.

And I just wanted to check this -- a large part of the debt was supposed to get refinanced in this current year. So has that process already...

The process has started and it will kind of in the next -- in this month itself, we will get some.

Financially secure?

Yes. Parikshit, any more questions?

His line has dropped actually. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, since there are no questions from the participants, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

So, thank you very much for your time. And like I said, we are making good progress against our ambition of getting to an EBITDA breakeven. It st arted with Phase 1, which was around, like I said, a cost optimization, efficiency -led EBITDA improvement. I think the journey has started since the last 2 quarters, now to pivot to a sales growth -led EBITDA improvement. It's happened for 2 quarters, and we are quite confident that will sustain. So, stay tuned, stay patient, and we'll come back to you in quarter 2 to apprise you on how the quarter 2 went. Thank you very much and have a good day.

On behalf of Emkay Global Financial Services Limit ed, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.