Dabur India Ltd

NSE:DABUR

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q1

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q1 results investors conference call of Dabur India Limited. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I now hand the conference over to Ms. Gagan Ahluwalia. Thank you. And over to you, ma’am.

[Ahluwalia Gagan, executive]

On behalf of the management of Dabur India Limited, I welcome you to this conference call pertaining to results for the quarter 30th June 2022. Present here with me are Mr. Mohit Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer, Dabur India Ltd.; Then, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. N Krishnam, BGM [indiscernible] an overview of the company's performance by Mr. Mohit Malhotra, followed by a Q&A session.

Over to you, Mr. Mohit. Thanks.

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Thank you, ma'am. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. I hope that you and your loved ones are feeling safe and healthy. The operating environment during the quarter remained quite challenging. The -- continues to have a cascading effect around the world, especially on the currencies of fragile countries. Inflation is surging globally, indicated by historically higher level across the world.

Even in India, inflation continues on reflected in WPI at 15.2% and CPI at 7% in the month of June. Softening of demand continues in the quarter with FMCG volumes contracting by 7% due to high price increases seen across categories. In such an environment, consolidated revenue operations posted a growth of 8.1% and a constant currency of 10.3%. In India, business grew by 10%, with underlying volume growth of 5% on a high base of 34% last year same quarter.

In this quarter, there was a significant difference between the growth of COVID contextual immunity-led portfolio, which had got a boost in quarter 1 of 2 years and the non-COVID contextual business. While the COVID contextual immunity links portfolio is seeing a decline due to exceptionally high basis, the non-contextual portfolio registered fairly strong growth. The operating margin has been higher than normal during last 2 years due to strong growth in the health care portfolio.

In quarter 1 financial year '22, operating stands at 19.3%, which is higher than level of around 18%. [indiscernible] profit after tax registered a growth of 0.7% to touch INR 440 crores during the -- for the India business, all the 3 metrics of revenue, operating and PAT are registering a 10% plus 3 years, reflecting that the business run exceedingly well this period.

In terms of categories on the back of intense summer season and good execution, food and beverage business registered a stellar growth of 50%. The beverage business was on a strong trajectory and outperformed the industry significantly with our market share in juices and nectar categories increasing by 330 basis points. This is bolstered by a strong traction of our proved drinks and milkshake portfolio. The food business also performed well with growth of 36%, driven by portfolio expansion and innovation.

The food category crossed the INR 100 crore mark in the last fiscal and is on track to reach INR 200 crore mark this year and INR 500 crores in 3 to 4 years' time. Home & Personal Care portfolio recorded a 0.5% growth on a high base of 26% last year same quarter, leading to a CAGR of 21%. Toothpaste portfolio reported a 13.7% growth during the quarter. Market share in toothpaste segment increased by 20 basis points.

We have now become the #2 brand in South of India. Hair Oils posted an 8.1% growth. Our market share in Hair Oils improved by 30 bps, driven by marketing investments, regional focus and distribution expansion. Shampoos recorded a 17% growth. Market share in shampoos increased by 50 basis points. Home Care reported a growth of 52%, driven by double-digit growth across Odonil [indiscernible] and Sanifresh franchises.

Odonil recorded an increase in market share across all sub-categories of air freshener category and Odomos most increased market by 260 bps. Excluding the sanitizing portfolio, skincare portfolio witnessed a growth of 35% during the quarter. The health care portfolio is lapping over 2 strong quarters of growth in the base or first and second wave of COVID. This portfolio saw a growth of 29% in quarter 1 financial year '22 and 28% in quarter 1 financial year '21.

As the COVID severity has been, consumption of COVID contextual health care products has significantly reduced. Consequently, the portfolio declined by 20% during the quarter. In spite of the decline, the 3-year CAGR for Chyawanprash is at 25% and our market share in Chyawanprash increased by 200 basis points in the quarter. Market share in honey -- by 190 bps with the new entrants seeing shrink in market share by almost half. Hajmola and Pudin Hara franchises posted a strong double-digit growth. Under OTC, while the COVID contextual brands declined, brands like Gassel and Shilajit reported a mid-teens growth. Among channels, e-Commerce was a standout performer with a growth of 42%. E-commerce channel continues to gain prominence and now contributes to around 9% of our revenue.

The [indiscernible] business also expected a good growth on back of FMCG portfolio doing well. International business recorded a constant currency growth of 8% on a high base of 34%. The -- business saw a growth of 13%. Egypt business grew by 17.5% and Nepal business clocked a robust growth of 30%. The business saw 88% growth in currency. Currency devaluation in markets like Turkey, Egypt and Africa impacted the revenue of international business in translation.

Overall, in spite of the weak macroeconomic environment, we continue to drive aggressively and have gained market share across 98% of our portfolio. Cost side pressures due to steep inflation and currency devaluations, trigger the global environment remain a cause of serious concern. Although current demand trends remain weak, a normal volume and a normal monsoon, good harvest and MSP increases should enable a recovery in rural in the medium term.

Urban recovery will be driven by a revival of economy, softening of inflation and buoyancy in new aid channels. As for Dabur, we will continue to focus on strengthening our power brands, distribution expansion, innovation, cost optimization and efficiency enhancements, which will hold us in good stead in the future. With that, I bring my address to a close and open the Q&A. Thank you.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] We have the first question from the line of Percy Panthaki from IIFL.

[Percy Panthaki, analyst]

My first question is on the margins. So typically pre-COVID, we have seen that full year margins and EBITDA are about 200 basis points higher than the Q1 margin. During COVID period, this relationship broke down, it was more or less in line, sometimes Q1 was even higher than full year. Now that we are out of COVID, do you think that we revert back to the pre-COVID kind of margin behavior Q1 versus full year?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Thanks for the question, we will answer. Yes, in that last 2 years, you would have seen quarter 1 margins were significantly higher than the pre-COVID, almost in line with the full year. But now I think the -- firstly, our portfolio is rebalancing to pre-COVID levels and therefore, you would see the margins trending to similar to what was in FY '20. Hence, Q1 margins would normally be lower than the full year margins, given the fact that Q1 is more seasonal to juices as well. Plus, also secondly, the inflation we're seeing in the first half will be significantly higher than H2. So your interpretation in trend is almost, I think, in line with what used to happen earlier. So the level of margin between Q1 and full year that yet, we still have to evaluate given these things are very volatile.

[Percy Panthaki, analyst]

Secondly, I just wanted to understand on the new product launches, whatever we have done in the last 2 to 3 years, what is the contribution of those products to the overall top line? And also, if you can give some flavor on some of the health care launches we had done, which seemed very, very contextual and got a very good response during COVID like tulsi drops, et cetera. Of course, the momentum would have reduced from COVID period, no doubt but is that reduction like very, very sharp or is there just a gradual moderation in that? And also, if you can give some color on the other new launches be it babycare or some of the food launches you have done, et cetera, et cetera.?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Right. So firstly, what's happening is the new product contribution to the business is around 4.4% in the current quarter. And most of the NPDs we had launched were COVID contextual during the COVID period but outside of the forward contextual also, we launched new products. We increased our addressable market, which is the long-term strategy for us. So the NPDs, which have really done well for us, are real drinks. So drinks have clocked a turnover of INR 100 crores in the current year. And we will be exiting at around INR 200 crore turnover for the drinks. Health juices have done very well in the health care business, which was COVID contextual but also strategic in nature because there is a set market. It wasn't just limited to COVID period but also there.

So for that, there, there's a turnover around INR 30 crores that we are registering. So although it has come down sharply by around 60%, 70% from the COVID time to now, but that is the structured good business and a margin lucrative business to us, and that we continue to grow. Then in HPC portfolio, there are new product launches like ayurvedic shampoos we guys rolled out. That's doing very well in the market, and that is gaining market share. Herbal toothpaste, which was a south launch, that's doing very well. We are broad-basing that to now national launch. Our Hajmola extensions like Limpola, Chatkola have done very well, and they are contributing more than 10% of the overall Hajmola franchise.

Our Badam Amla, which is a flanker brand strategy in Amla, so putting the Dabur amla core brand with planker brands doing very well, that is doing a turnover of around INR 20 crores, INR 30 crores for us. Real milkshakes are already alluded to in my narrative that it's doing very well. We've already gained 1.1% market share in the milkshake category. The food business of homemade chutneys and fundaments that we guys rolled out, that's also doing very well. It's outside of the COVID contextual portfolio. There's a lot of other NPDs that we rolled out in health care like Samsamibati, like Julita, like many other products, which have kind of gone down by around 60%, 70%, which are very contextual in nature and extremely COVID driven.

Like in hygiene products also, we've introduced a slew of health care products, for which the turnover has almost becomes 0, like sanitizers, INR 100 crores and now it's almost become 0. Our health care products under the brand franchise that we created of Sanitize, that has also got reduced to around INR 2 crores, INR 3 crores. So that we have cut the tail and we are not pursuing to reposition those.

But in the HPC, food portfolio and on Chyawanprash extensions, AME extensions, Hajmola extensions, all those are doing very well and contributing, as we speak, around 5% of the turnover. I hope I've been able to answer your question. And these NPDs are over and above the digitally first new products that we've rolled out on e-commerce. Our strategy is to apply a test balloon in e-commerce and as the brand does well, then we roll it out to modern trade that we've already talked about before. In e-commerce, Apple Cider Vinegar has done very well. Baby Care range is doing exceedingly well and exit shares are great. We've got around 2%, 3% market share on e-commerce.

And now we are extending it in modern trade also, the entire baby care range. Our herbal, pure herbs range is also doing well for us. Basic Suraksha Tea is doing well. In the current quarter, we'll be rolling out a green tea, which is another variant and cold pressed juices, mustard oil, castor oil and ground nut oil, they are all doing very well on e-commerce. So not yet extending to modern trade but are doing reasonably well for us.

On your previous question on margins, we see margins on all fronts going up to pre-COVID levels like operating margin is around 80 bps higher than pre-COVID to 21%. Profit before tax is 22%, pre-COVID was 20% and PAT is around 16.8% to pre-Covid, which was 16%. So everywhere, our pre-Covid level margins, we are better than the pre-COVID time because during the COVID time, health care portfolio went up and health care is structurally higher margins, because of that, the margin went up by 100 basis points. So despite inflation, we've been able to maintain margins higher than pre-COVID, to your previous question.

[Percy Panthaki, analyst]

And Chyawanprash extension into health food drinks, any comments on that?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Sorry, I didn't get that. Chyawanprash extension into...

[Percy Panthaki, analyst]

Health food drinks, HFD category?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. So yes, correct. So Chyawanprash extension to health food drinks is doing well. We've done a very segmented launch here, limited to around 10,000 outlets. And those outlets have registered a shelf share increase and also a 30% repeat purchase. So that's the indicator on how the brand does. And as and when the brand is doing well in a particular segment, we will be extending into other segments also.

So at the moment, it has been a very, very segmented launch for us. So wherever we've launched, we've got very good rave reviews about it. So we are in no hurry to gain turnovers on the NPD as long as we want NPD to be successful, and we will be launching channel by channel and state by state. It's a gradual slow launch. By the way, in Chyawanprash, we'll be extending it into granules also in the current quarter, it's called ChyawanShakti powder, which is what we are rolling out in the coming season, Chyawanprash extension into powder format.

[Percy Panthaki, analyst]

So just one related question on this, Mohit. I mean, you have launched a lot of new products and not just variant, like if you launched ayurvedic shampoo, that's just a variant of an existing category, but like you entered into various different categories. But I mean given that these are test launches in e-commerce, et cetera, and all of them are doing well except for COVID contextual ones but still, I mean, from us investors and analyst point of view, these are still so very, very small. Can you give some idea on what kind of ramp-up we can expect?

So let's say, out of the total, all these new categories that you've sort of launched either on e-commerce or otherwise, new categories, not new products like pickers, baby care, milkshakes, et cetera. these are considered new categories, but not fruit drinks. So what kind of turnover can these, in aggregate, deliver over, let's say, a 5-year period because Appleseed or vinegar, let's say, even if it's doing very well, if the total category is only very small and even 5 years down the line, let's say, we have only a INR 30 crore sale out of this, then as investors and analysts, that's not a very exciting product for us? So just coming from that point of view.

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes, I got you what you're saying. So what we are saying is a 5% of our turnover on an annual basis should come as a contribution from NPDs that we sustained over the period of time. That's the way we are looking at. But in terms of turnovers, to give you a flavor from an analyst perspective, just to give you an idea, in drinks, now we have in beverages done a INR 100 crore turnover on a drink size of around INR 1,200 crores. So this INR 100 crore in the second year is going to be INR 200 crores. So that's the turnover buildup that is happening on a base of around INR 1,200 crores, INR 1,300 crores beverage business.

In foods also, we are a home-based brand, which is INR 80 crores. And in 5 years' time, we are scaling it up to INR 500 crores, and we are giving you that particular vision also. So that's the way. In beverages and drinks now, we've expanded our addressable market. So I can't really give you the quantum turnover because new product failure rate is also very high. It is just not that our COVID contextual portfolio has done that, we've got certain other brands also, which has not done very well.

For example, we launched Dant Rakshak, which has not done very well in the toothpaste, so that we are kind of revamping. We had done an entry into our gels, which is a red gel, which did not do well. And we launched Amla Aloevera also, which also did not have a very good response. So that's not done very well for us. But wherever we are entering, we are wanting to have 10% of the turnover of that particular category being NPD and therefore, increasing the addressable market. So that's where we are. I don't know how to give you a specific answer or not but that's the way we are trying to gear our strategy.

[Operator]

We have our next question from the line of Avi Mehta from Macquarie.

[Avi Mehta, analyst]

I just wanted to clarify on the update. Can you do an update on the inflationary scenario right now? How are we based? How much have we passed on? Have you taken any further price hikes?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

So Avi, inflation is going on unabated. And I think the lesson said is better. So we have seen a 9% inflation coming on a base of 10% of last year, and it's happening across our commodity buckets. So whether you look at hydrocarbon linked commodity bucket or packaging material, which is again, hydrocarbon linked, oils and spices, edible oils or specialty chemicals. So all buckets of commodity are seeing a huge inflation. And inflation is in the range of around 9%, 10%. We've been able to take a price increase of around 5%, absolute price increase and a 1% to 1.5% of a corrugated price increase in terms of graded reduction in our LUPs.

So around 6%, kind of first 6%, 6.5% kind of a price increase, which is nowhere close to mitigation of 9%, 10% inflation. Rest has got reflected in gross margin compression of around 220 basis points that you actually saw. So this is what we have done. So we think the inflation will not abate at least in the second quarter. And second quarter, we will see margin compressions.

But I think in the third quarter onwards, when we lap over inflation of around 11%, 12% that was there last year, we think the commodities will soften and there will be a rollover price increase impact happening in the third quarter. So third quarter and fourth quarter should see a bit of softening of inflation and our price increase is kicking in and the margin protection happening in the third and the fourth quarter, second half of the year. But second quarter, we will see some amount of gross margin compressions, which on back of the scale, we should leverage other line items and try to minimize the impact of gross margin compressions on operating margins but that pressure will be there.

[Avi Mehta, analyst]

And Mohit, if I understand, primarily, this inflation, the mismatch is primarily in hair care, right? That's what you had indicated last time. That situation continues or is this now percolating across other categories as well?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. So what's happened is wherever we are market leaders, Avi, whether it's health care or in foods, we've been able to pass on the inflation to the consumer because we are the ones who set the pricing table and we've got the pricing power there in aside because most of our brands are market share leaders there around 60%, 70% market share that we've passed on. But we are cognizant of the fact that it might lead to some kind of compression in the demand also. As market leaders, so we have ownership to drive the market growth and the growth are not very easy to get by. But wherever we are market followers, we wait for the market leader to take up the price increases.

Like in Oral Care, Colgate has been very strict to take up market price increases, so we've also taken our price increases, so we've been able to pass on the inflation in Oral Care business also to the consumer. We haven't seen margin compressions there. In home care, we are again, market leaders there. There also we passed on. Skin care also we passed on. In hair care, you're rightly saying so. In hair oil, because the competitive intensity is very high, we have a lag inflation to price increase, huge, because we wait for the competitor to pass on, which they are not passing on. So there is a margin compression there. And in shampoo, where we have majority of the business at a price point at a INR 1 or INR 2 price point, there, we are holding ourselves back on taking price increases. So there are volumes, we are kind of titrating the volumes in our LUPs there.

[Avi Mehta, analyst]

So, if I may, just on the last point that you said, you will use all levers to maintain EBITDA that was that from an annual perspective that you're talking about? Or if you could give me the context, I didn't quite catch the thought process behind that?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

In the beginning of the year, we were facing a 7%, 8% inflation, and that's how we had budgeted ourselves, created cost in our budget. So we have taken a budget of maintaining our operating margins. But as we entered quarter 1, we saw inflation is much cheaper as compared to the budgets that we've taken. So we are budgeted to maintain our EBITDA margins.

But if the commodity prices remain, especially the oil prices remain at the point where they are, we are seeing some softening happening today, it has reached 100 level and therefore, has gone down below 100%. So if the commodity prices soften, then we'll be able to maintain the margins on back of second half of the year. But if the inflation doesn't abate, then it could be a little difficult. But in terms of prioritization, the management priority is always to gain market shares, not to let up on the volumes and the value. And second priority is given to margins, as push comes to shove.

[Avi Mehta, analyst]

Sir, and lastly, if I may, if you could give us a sense on the rural side, especially, you had indicated last time about the channel helped also being an indicator of how demand is, how is that changing? And if you could give us a sense on how rural is panning out?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. So our numbers don't kind of reconcile with the syndicated data, which Nelson talks about. So we have seen our rural business and urban business almost neck to neck to each other, and we did not see as much compression in the rural business the way Nelson is indicating. Nelson indicates 0.6%, 0.7% expansion in urban business and rural business down by around 2.4%.

For us, both of them are around 8.3% and 8.4% growth that we've seen in our business on back of a head of the curve infrastructure developments, which we have done in the rural business or where the village expansion is concerned, top stock case, technology intervention, et cetera. And for us, rural is doing relatively better. But off late, what we have seen, business is definitely a lead indicator and an indication of things to come. So we are seeing some credit want or credit desire in rural and we've extended credits in rural.

So tell sales signs in rural India is there. So that's one. Thus, demand compression is also is being observed in the rural India, plus impact of inflation is much higher in rural as compared to urban, and therefore, volumes are also getting compressed. That said, on back of a medium term, on back of normal monsoon, MSP increases, infrastructure expansion, government focus on rural, I think rural will be very resilient and will be very quick to come back to where it was.

But we have seen in the last 2 to 3 quarters, rural for syndicated data is flagging and is suppressed more than urban. But urban is also doing well because post-COVID, urban markets are opening up, and we see huge buoyancy in modern trade and cash and carry and e-commerce, they have taken the slack of GP. And on back of these emerging channels, urban businesses are doing reasonably good.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Abneesh Roy from Edelweiss Securities.

[Abneesh Roy, analyst]

My first question is on the hair oil. So 2 questions here. The first one is on this new launch of [indiscernible], if you could tell us what is the pricing, positioning? And already, Indulekha and some of the other players are quite well established here, so what will be the USP? And second question on hair oils is, as seen the one-on-one offer in coconut hair oil, you're a small player there with 6% to 7% market share, what would be your 3-year 5-year ambition in coconut hair oil? And this 1 plus 1 offer, is it on just go or you're doing it across e-com and across modern trade?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Abneesh, I didn't get your question. So I think, first of all, I'll answer what I got. So first of all, you're talking about [indiscernible] Our [indiscernible] entry is coming from the rationale of Dabur's non-presence in the INR 1,000 crore category. There's a ayurvedic oil, which is INR 1,000 crores, the new category where Indulekha came in and Keshking came in, Dabur does not have a presence there. So we are trying to get into that and that's why this NPD of Neelibhringa 21. So while there was an entry of Bringha, this is Neelibhringa, Neeli is Amla and Bringha is Bringha and Neeli is also known to keeping hair black rather than just hair growth, our positioning is more on black air, long hair and hair growth.

And apart from hair growth, also here reduction and hair fall reduction. The price point is a sweet spot between Indulekha and between Vatika, which is a premium coconut oils. So we are at around a price point of INR 400 per 100 ml as compared to the market lead, which will be at around 600 per 100 ml. So we are cheaper and we see a clear price band opportunity available in between the lead player in this ayurvedic category and Dabur Amla or Dabur Vatika, which is at the premium end. So there's a huge gap between the 2. So that's where we guys are. In terms of price positioning, so Amla, if you see, it's INR 50 per 100 ml, so that's the popular price point.

And the premium guy is operating at INR 600 per 100 ml. So there's a huge difference in a gap available there for the consumer to make a choice, and these are all value-added coconut oils with different benefits given to the consumer. But that's the segment that we've made an entry in. So we'll be watching. We have done a test marketing in South of India because that's the largest market for coconut oil and if we see green shoots here, then we will roll it out in the other parts of the country also. So as far as coconut oil is concerned, it's a huge market. I don't have to belabor on that point.

And we've got a brand called Dabur Anmol. Dabur Anmol is already a INR 200 crore franchise, and we are looking at ramping it up to around INR 500 crores in 2 to 3 years' time, and that's why we are extremely competitive here. We are half the price of what the market leader is in 100 mL SKU, which is what we guys are flashing on the back. On larger, we have a different pricing in larger packs. We have a different pricing in the smaller pack.

[Abneesh Roy, analyst]

But the industry isn't growing, right? Hair oil CAGR 3 years is 3.6% and if you have to more than double in 3 years, it will be essentially market share gain, which is you will target?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

So Abneesh, we are not concerned with the market growing or market declining. The hair oil market is actually declining at 0.4%. The hair oil market is huge, more than INR 10,000 crores. You guys have a market share of roughly around 15.4%, 15% thereabouts. So we are lying on market share gain. Only it is the market leader, who should be bothered about our market growth rates. We are not concerned with growth rates, we're concerned with gaining share. And it's almost like a monopoly situation here where we are at around 15%, 16% and the other player is around 40%, 50% share.

So therefore, a huge gap and a huge opportunity for us, and we have a right to win in this sub-segment. So that's what we are playing in all the subsegments, whether it's the [indiscernible] segment, where we have Amla, there is a pooling segment where we guys are not present as yet. So we will be making an entry into pooling also. I can't tell you the timeline as yet. Then there is a segment of ayurvedic that we've already made an entry. Then there is a coconut oil, where we have Anmol. Then there is a value-added coconut oil where we have Vatika, which is already doing well for us. So likewise. And there is a light oil where you have Bajaj, which is the big boy. So there also, we are gaining market share steadily, so in the Dabur almond segment. So all the sub-segments, we feel there's a huge opportunity here.

[Abneesh Roy, analyst]

Sir, my second question is on shampoo. So if you could tell us for the category, how much is the natural currently? And for you, how much is the bottle currently versus the industry, if you could point out how are you different in terms of bottle salience?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. So shampoo, the overall market segment of natural will be in the range of around 10% or thereabouts. As compared to oral care, the natural segment is 30%. So we feel this 10% market segment will only inch up and it's growing at a much faster tip as compared to the shampoo growth rates are concerned. So that's the way Oral Care is also panning out and there is no shampoo in the market which has a right to win in the herbal space of shampoos. And that's why Vatika ayurvedic shampoo as a launch is doing very well for us. And in sachets also, it's doing reasonably well.

Our saliency of bottles is around 16% to 18%, which in some quarters goes up to 20%. In some quarters, it's around 16%, which used to be around 10% at some point in time. So on 10%, it's ramped up to around 16%, and we are continuously working towards ramping up our bottle saliency, which is margin accretive to us. And there's a huge gap in margin. So we make around 55% margin in a bottle as compared to sachet, we'll be making something like around 20%, 25% margins thereabouts. And there is also inflationary pressure in sachets because there is a price point, and there's a special level of quantity which women needs to watch the hair, so not much one can do.

So we are ramping up our bottle significantly. And modern trade and e-commerce totally put together in cash and carry, if I also see the business, this is roughly around 20%, 25% of the total category. And our P&C is only around 16%. So it's natural and shampoos are more skewed towards modern trade. So we are more pivoted as compared to the category saliency of bottles. So there's a huge headroom for us to grow the bottle saliency driven by modern trade, e-commerce, cash and carry and OFO formats, which are also driven by pricing. And our pricing is also in our favor because we can give a one-on-one free also, and consumer is very price conscious when it comes to interacting with the product that Ike. You know what I'm trying to say.

[Abneesh Roy, analyst]

And last quick question is on up. So you said Dant Rakshak and Red Gel into as per expectation. Now you also mentioned that for naturals, for the category, it is around 30%, which is a very high number. So if I see your growth versus market leader on a 3-year basis, you have clearly grown faster even this quarter. So my question is, is the natural shift within toothpaste, is it now coming to a much lower change? And second, Dant Rakshak and Gel or say, below expectation, would you attribute that to any specific reason?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

So I think, a, natural segment, I think, continues to trend higher. Now because the inflation pressures in the category, you see the pressure acting on the entire category and it's just not natural. It's the non-natural category also, which is facing headwinds of the category growth. If you look at this quarter, the category has declined by around 3.5%. There's volume decline happening in the oral care category.

Now this is happening but Herbal category, it's declining. It's almost stagnant as compared to other category decline of around 3.5% to 4%. So that's the Q. But Herbal is definitely driving growth. Now the pace of growth has slowed down because Patanjali's growth has slowed down, not that our growth has slowed down. There are 2 big players in the natural category, one is Dabur one is Patanjali. So the growth of Patanjali slowed own, that's why you see a slower growth happening in the natural sub-segment.

But I think the market leaders natural offering is also growing at a [indiscernible] compared with the non-natural for them also. So that's as far as the natural is concerned. Now, our offerings in natural, whether it's Dabur Red or Dant Rakshak or Dabur [indiscernible] all of them are doing well, except for Dant Rakshak, which didn't do as per our expectations. But we were also not sure at our end, whether it will do well or not. So we said that there is a price point gap between the Dabur Red and Patanjali.

So we wanted to play at Patanjali's price point. Unfortunately, North of India, it has not resonated well with the consumer. So we have withdrawn it. We are focusing on urban. But as far as Gel is concerned, Gel is definitely a big opportunity. I think it was our marketing failure at our end, which we are correcting the mix. The benefit orientation for the gel category is all youngsters and freshers.

Unfortunately, we brought in a do-good element in the freshness category, which we will be correcting going forward. And using our tenants of success, which have always been using like a celebrity, et cetera, and making a revamp of the gel proposition in the market once again. So that you will see in the next quarter or the next quarter, we're rolling out revamps in the Gels in the market under the Dabur Red brand, and we are calling it a sub-brand called fresh. So that will be coming out in the market.

[Abneesh Roy, analyst]

One follow-up on what you said. So Patanjali market share now would be how much? And are you taking any practice steps or is it just that brand and innovation from that company is, in general, extremely slow versus what you do or versus what the Unilever does, is that the reason? Or it's just a very targeted market share from Patanjali which you are doing?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Patanjali was around 12%, 13%, they have come down to around 9.7% and the growth has also slowed down. I think there is no lack of aggression from Patanjali, except that Patanjali's efforts are dissipated in a lot of other launches and the company acquisitions of Ruchi, et cetera. So that's why, but aggression is not dropped out. I would not say. But the brand is not doing very well in the marketplace and some amount of scheme has got lost as far as Patanjali is concerned. So that's my take. What was the second part of your question?

[Abneesh Roy, analyst]

No, related one. So are you doing any proactive steps to further take because 9% is still a very respective market share from Patanjali?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. So what's happening is, Abneesh, if you really analyze the market, Dabur Red is doing significantly better in South of India and in East of India. We guys are very weak in West India and we are in North India, which is where Patanjali has a saliency. So that's the gap in our portfolio. While we are a North Indian company and Dabur's equity is very strong in North and East, but we've not been able to make inroads with Dabur Red into north. So we are strengthening our portfolio of Red in North.

And North is a very price-sensitive market, so therefore, we have opened transit and augmented capacity in our INR 10 price point, which is doing very well in north of India. And in South, we already are doing very well. And we, as I talked about, we are already a #2 brand in the South, and we are doing well in East. In north, to bolster our sales and our position, earlier, we thought that we'll come out with Dant Rakshak but Dant Rakshak hasn't done well less and well learned.

So we'll be focusing on Red only in north. We are augmenting LUP there. Plus we are taking a celebrity, which resonates with north. So Dabur is tied up with Amitabh and we are in the process of making a shoot and doing TV commercials with him. So we will be doing a press release on the same and coming out. So there will be a big campaign launch of Red with taking a banner like Amitabh there who resonates in North India.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We have the next question from the line of Prakash Kapadia from Anived Portfolio.

[Prakash Kapadia, analyst]

Mohit, in honey, we had done a couple of launches, Tulsi, Organic, Himalaya, Ashwagandha, so what has the response been to some of those launches? And coming back to the immunity positioning of honey, it is slightly different as compared to a Chyawanprash, so what are the challenges we are facing in terms of repeat purchase of one because the positioning always has been replacement of sugar, weight loss and not just immunity as compared to maybe Chyawanprash?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes, Prakash. So I think the asset test for all the launches is your market share increases, like at the time in Patanjali had launched [indiscernible], we had lost out roughly around 1,000 basis point market share to Patanjali. But this time around, when new players entered the market, we've only strengthened our position on back of all the NPDs and pivoting the brand to immunity during the COVID period, when the immunity-driven brands were doing so well and the category was growing out of proportion.

So therefore, all those initiatives and NPDs have really helped us to ramp up our market share. Our market shares are all-time high, almost in the range of around 50% plus as far as honey is concerned, it all lost ground at the time of Patanjali has been made good by Dabur honey. On the campaign of immunity that we did, you're right, immunity angle is different on honey as compared to Chyawanprash because honeys are adjunct to other products, offering immunity and it increases the efficacy of anything that you have with it, whether it's fruits or medicines, et cetera, so the absorption becomes much easier and much better sugar to have as compared to sucrose because it is lactose and it aids in slimming and multiple other benefits.

So during COVID, because immunity was so salient, we had pivoted all communication towards COVID contextual communication. Now, we are going back to our old positioning, which is all about slimming and all about sugar replacement. So you will see Honey now coming out with positioning, which is going to be super replacement and telling consumers that it's better to use good sugar, which is like honey and not use sucrose because that impacts your glycemic index levels, et cetera.

That said, all the NPDs have done very well. By the way, our e-commerce NPDs of Himalayan Honey are doing well. We'll see an Ashwagandha contextuals. So therefore, now the context of COVID is not there. So therefore, they are not doing very well but they were there at the time when [indiscernible] and Ashwagandha were doing well, and that's why we launched it, and the uptake has been good. So we've not taken back any stock. That was good but we've reduced the production of these 2 variants.

So that said, but other value-added variants of honey are doing exceedingly well for us. Honey, as we speak, in the quarter, has gained 190 bps market share and the new player who entered the honey market has also seen a reduction of market share to half of the peak levels that he had got. All the products are actually stuck on the shelves for them and have all crystalized due to offtakes being low. So we are in a very good space as far as honey is concerned.

But I must tell you, while that said, all is not great because there was too much of activity which happened on honey during the COVID period. So stocking levels have gone up, both at the retailer level, SCRs have gone up, and also at the consumer pantry level from the data that we see. So consumers have purchased 1-on-1 free. So instead of one bottle, they are now started with 2 bottle stock. So there, the category decline is very sharp post-COVID but we see it stabilizing over a period of 1 year as the activity actually gets reduced. So the season is almost approaching and we will see our market shares only go up from here.

[Prakash Kapadia, analyst]

And these newer products would be 5%, 7% of our overall honey sales or could be more than double digit?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

No, no. They will be less than 5%. They will be less than 5% of our overall turnover.

[Prakash Kapadia, analyst]

Secondly, on Real vitamin boost range, is it targeted towards sales? How is the pricing there? And any price increases we've taken in the juice portfolio?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

We've taken around 3% to 4% price increases because that was the extent of inflation. We've actually taken price increase of more than what the inflation was in the food juices, but the real inflation of food juices and drinks is going to pick up now. And therefore, the mango pulp has become expensive, and therefore, that's the dime. But we've taken a 3%, 4% pre-emptive price increases in juices. On the vitamin range, the rationale for launching it is essentially for South of India.

What we see is that smaller players like Trop and ITC are putting a lot of pricing pressure on to us on the modern trade. So our regular brand, if we match up the schemes and play a very competitive activity, then it infiltrate from modern trade on to our GT. So we want to segregate the mix that we sell in modern trade versus what we sell in GT. In GT, we are selling our regular variants and in modern trade, we'll be wanting to sell our masala juices in the north of India. And because the masala pallet is different for South, we are pivoting the vitamin range to the south. Vitamin range in terms of MRP will be expensive.

Our gross margin there will be ahead of our average by around 300 to 400 basis points. And that will be discounting to gain market shares in modern trade. Like I alluded to before, so we need to have parcels for courses, not one strategy works well for all channels. It's a channel-wise strategy. So this vitamin strategy is more for modern trade for us and the channel-wise strategy that we are pursuing there for modern trade to gain shares.

[Prakash Kapadia, analyst]

And lastly, on the raw material cost increase, if you could segregate the mix impact because juices had a much higher contribution in the unlock this year after 2 years of COVID and the actual raw material pressure because juices have grown far, far better and the mix is much higher. So if you have it ready, it will be nice?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. So, I think, Prakash, maybe out of the 220 bps contraction in juices, half of it is coming mainly because of the mix impact in this quarter. Almost 100 basis.

[Prakash Kapadia, analyst]

So it's roughly half-half is only...

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

We're rebalancing that, yes.

[Operator]

Our next question is from the line of Shirish Pardeshi from Centrum Broking.

[Shirish Pardeshi, analyst]

Indeed, it was a good performance. What I can see there the health care expectedly has come down. But just let me step back and say that the loss of health care business, which has climbed up to almost, say, around 35%, which has now come down to 25%. So I think you're doing a lot of product launches with the new product, and you are also expanding the hair oil and even juices portfolio. But just one quick question on that. In the medium to long term, what are the core businesses you think the growth will happen, basically on the power brands?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. So Shirish, the power brand strategy remains intact, and there is no change of force on the power brand strategy. So we've got around 8 power brands in the company and we want to strengthen each one of those 8 power brands and scale them up. So those are the core areas of business where we are investing funds and we are augmenting capacity and we are increasing our distribution and we are taking celebrities and connecting with the millennials on e-commerce across our world.

So we are ring-fencing all our efforts to these 8 power brands and increasing scale. So one by one, Amla, which is a core brand and a plan cobrand strategy that is continuing. And then there is Dabur Red core brand, plan cobrand is continuing the game with Dabur Herbal and with the peripheral plan. Real is our core brand. That is where we are continuing. The Chyawanprash, honey, those are the extensions that you guys are seeing and Pudin Hara, Lal Tel and [indiscernible].

So those are the power brands that we'll continue to receive focus from the company and the extensions will also happen. Innovations will also happen around the same. We are not planning to introduce any new brand because we have so many brands and we want to just focus on energies, effort and packaging, manufacturing, all efforts around these brands. So that's what one is trying to do in terms of the power brand strategy.

[Shirish Pardeshi, analyst]

Yes, that's correct. At this time, you have not spoken anything on the distribution. So what kind of efforts which you are taking in terms of village coverage expansion? I think last time, you mentioned that we are targeting to reach 90,000.

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

No. So village coverage, this year, the target is to reach to 100,000 villages, and you know that we have a UBA program. And we have already appointed around 10,000 UBAs as we speak, and they've contributed to around INR 20 crores of business. And this UBAs are continuously be converted into substockist for us, who will eventually be converted into stockists and super stockists depending upon the turnover. So that is going on at a fast pace. And for rural sales promoters, we have added more rural sales promoters and [ Pieton ] Street.

And now we are trying to bring the transparency to how they are doing transactions and giving them handheld terminals, which is earlier limited to our substockist. But now, we have sales promoters with the substockist who is doing the last mile field, we are trying to bring transparency and visibility to that data. So that's on digitization, which is happening on the rural end. In the urban end, we are increasing our number of outlets from 1.2 million. And this year, the target is to reach up to around 1.4 million. And we are trending well, 1.35 we've already done in the quarter. And from 1.35, we should be going up to around 1.4 million by end of the year. That is on the urban growth that will be seeing.

In addition to that, even 6,000 additional chemist outlets have been added, and we are doing engagement program with chemists in addition to the grocery and the rural substockist also. That's also been doing well. And to improve the efficiency, we used to sell around 4 SKUs in our outlets. Now we find 4 SKUs low, so we are trying to work on MSLs, which must talk less for every outlet and working on touristic and push less in our handheld terminals to ensure that the guys confirm to our picture of success that we've decided. And every conformity done by a sales officer is rewarded. And there is an intelligent controlled tower, which is there, by which we are doing all the monitoring of the sales force as they the conformance to the picture of success.

[Shirish Pardeshi, analyst]

While I visited recently to Nepal. And in that, I've heard that you are doing a significant investment. So is it that you are expanding the [ Hitoda ] base or there is some more factors you're putting in?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Sorry, expanding the...

[Shirish Pardeshi, analyst]

Hitoda factory base.

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. So in Nepal, our business, again, it's a reflection of what the India business does, it's the extension of India. It's the SAR strategy is very similar to what India strategy unlike Middle East and North America. So it's trying to mirror what India is doing. And juices is around 60%, 70% of the overall turnover, and we are, by far, the market leaders in the juices category. Like in India, we've increased the total addressable market of juices to bring even we are doing the same thing in the past. India was more led by what competition is doing where we are #2 but in Nepal, we are #1. So we are in the process of putting a pet line there.

And therefore, we'll be the first company to have introduced juices in pet line after TetraPak, so that will have a very big leg up in the Nepal business. Also, we've introduced INR 20 price points there also, which are doing exceedingly well for us. And also, in the health care and the personal care space, we are kind of identifying the gaps and plugging those white spaces, as we speak, even in health care and personal care. So our business is doing very well. We've grown by 30% in the past and that is coming on back of a good growth of last year also, and our market shares are steadily increasing across our categories there. And we've got a very good team in place in Nepal also doing a good job there.

[Shirish Pardeshi, analyst]

So this investment, what we are doing in terms of its going to be next 4, 5 years?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes, absolutely, the long term. Nepal has also used as an outsourcing hub for us in terms of business. So therefore, as the used business expands in India, so we are putting up venting capacities in Nepal. So that becomes a larger feeder market for us from Nepal to India.

[Shirish Pardeshi, analyst]

Just last question, the promoters of the company has bought a lion's share, our promoter share in the Eveready. Is there any plans that we want to merge the distribution?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Not really. [indiscernible] you want to comment.

[Unknown Executive]

Yes. Shirish, that is their personal investment, it has nothing to do with Dabur India.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Jay Doshi from Kotak Securities.

[Jaykumar Doshi, analyst]

My question is on drinks portfolio. What is the kind of growth trajectory you expect based on the success you've seen so far? I know the category is very large. And how should we think about the growth for overall beverages portfolio given that you've also entered milkshakes and seen some early success there?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

There, we are limited by our capacities. So we are busting from scenes in terms of demand and the supply is not able to keep up pace with the demand that we had in the season and we were not mapping, and we did not have capacity. So whatever we could supply has been absorbed by the market, and we've increased our outsourcing from something like around INR 3 lakhs to around 7 to INR 10 lakhs. So 3x outsourcing of capacity in which we were giving margins which are much higher than what our cost was internally is concerned. We know [indiscernible] make but we had to buy because the capacities are short and we want to plug in those gaps.

So we are not supplying in many markets because of share shortage. So we are in the process of putting up CapEx'. In the current board meeting also, we've got a CapEx approved or putting up additional line in Indore and at other places also. So I think we should be growing at above 20%, 30% ahead of the market. The market is growing at 30%, 35% because out-of-home [indiscernible] We've grown by 50%. We've gained 330 basis point market share in overall beverages to reach up to around 62.7% market share. But I think the right way to look at is that we are hardly doing around 2.5% in drinks market. So that's what we got to ramp up. So there's an ocean of opportunity staring at us, and we have to quickly put up CapEx and try to capitalize on the opportunity here.

[Jaykumar Doshi, analyst]

What is your distribution for juices portfolio today in terms of outlets and what is it for drinks?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. In terms of juices, we reach out to peer around 2 to 2.5 lakh outlets. And when it comes to drinks, the distribution is quite different. So when we entered into the drinks category, we said that first, we'll try to capitalize on our existing footprint of distribution of juices. First, we get that before we get into the drinks. So as we speak in the quarter 1, we've already reached up to around 230,000, 240,000 outlets for drinks also, which is our numeric distribution for Nielsen, direct and indirect. But the drinks market is a little different in terms of distribution because the market size is so huge.

And it gets into rural and it gets into highways and it follows the soft drinks market actually. So what we've done is we put up exclusive distribution infrastructure for drinks. Earlier, it was limited to metros but now, we've gone beyond metros into smaller towns also and we've appointed 131 exclusive superstockists and which has generated a INR 12 crore additional business. We put an exclusive 20 rural sales promoters. We've put in around 530 fad out dealers, which are called food and drink outlets. We've added roughly around 10,000 superstockists as we speak, the [indiscernible] in the current quarter. Plus, we've introduced 45 new highway routes because that is a huge drink consumption beat to what we say.

So we've taken a person exclusively for drinks distribution from Coca-Cola, who is leading our distribution vertical. And that's what will provide the focus. All this has led us to a weighted distribution of drinks up to around only 11% and numeric distribution of roughly around 6.5%. So that's the growth that we've done in the quarter because that was the season, and this growth will continue. So we are putting in investments in the drinks market for distribution. And this is over and above INR 2.5 lakhs of the juices. So this will grow an exclusive infrastructure for juices will be earlier. We had exclusive infrastructure for HPC, for health care, for ayurvedic and for juice, now, there will be drinks also which will be added on to this.

[Jaykumar Doshi, analyst]

Final quick one. Is profitability going to be very different from the rest of the beverages portfolio given the cost of distribution?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

So for drinks, it's a little margin dilutive but Jay, it's a scale business. The more you scale up the business, the more leverage comes at the level of the operating profit. So optically, when you look at the gross margin, gross margin may look lower but when you go down to the level of operating margin, operating margins are higher because the investments required in the drinks market is only at the level of infrastructure and not at the level of advertising so much and it's a scale business.

So as you scale up the business, the business becomes more and more profitable, and it's marginal incremental profits that we see over and above the turnover that we already have in the juices business. So if you look at our segment profitability, which we also published, you will see our foods and beverages profitability has inched up both in terms of percentage and absolute. So INR 60 crores of additional profit is what we've added in the quarter only on account of the incremental business that we are getting out of drinks.

[Unknown Executive]

And at higher margins than previous years for foods.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Swati Jhunjhunwala from VT Capital.

[Swati Jhunjhunwala, analyst]

So regarding the margin [indiscernible] maintaining the margin and protecting the margin. So what commodities [indiscernible] impacting you right now? And like the easing in which commodities will be the most beneficial for you?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

There's only one short answer to your question. The most important commodity is energy prices is basically a petroleum price. Petroleum prices are the ones which are impacting 50% of the RMPM cost, entire packaging cost is impacted by the petroleum prices, which was at INR 100 plus and now a little lower. So faster the derivatives of petroleum, which are impacting our overall business, our shampoo business, our SLES business, our specialty chemical business. So I think most important is power and fuel. So all that is getting impacted by the petroleum prices. The number 2, if you ask me, is commodity. Honey prices are what is impacting our business big time. The third in priority would be herbs and spices is what is impacting our business. So that's what it is.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of [ Shubham Toran from Perpetual Investments ].

[Unknown Analyst]

My question is related to our health care business. So I understood that this quarter's performance was later subdued due to high based of COVID demand. So how do you see this healthcare business among outlook moving forward?

[Mohit Malhotra, executive]

Yes. Shubham, our health care business is navigating a very high pace. So first quarter last year was a COVID quarter and last year saw 2 or 3 waves of COVID, so the full year last year was on a very high base. So while the quarter was muted in terms of health care declining at minus 20, but the CAGR, if you see, it's around 10% for us, and we'll continue at that 10% rate of CAGR, and I don't see any reduction in that CAGR. But if you ask me, is the uphill amount of last year over, I would say not so because we are getting into winters. And in winters, also, we had a high base of COVID contextual portfolio selling. And also in the month of February, when there was a second Omicron variant, there also, we had a high base of health care. So health care in the current year will be a little muted. But the CAGRs will be pretty robust.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, that would be our last question for today. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Gagan Ahluwalia for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, Ma'am.

[Ahluwalia Gagan, executive]

Thank you, everyone, for your participation in this conference call. The webcast audio recording and transcript of this call will be available on our website soon. Thank you. Stay safe.

[Operator]

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Dabur India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.