Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited — Q1 FY25
ABFRL reported Q1 FY25 revenue of INR 3,428 crore (+7% YoY) and EBITDA of INR 406 crore (+15% YoY) with an 11.8% margin.
neutral
medium
✓ Verified against BSE filing
Claim Ledger
Did management answer the analysts?
Every material analyst question, graded on whether management actually answered it — with the verbatim exchange and quantitative claims checked against filed numbers.
75%Questions answered1Evaded / deflected12Questions auditedContradictedNumbers vs filing
Partial answer
High priority
Asked for lifestyle brands SSG and wedding category sales.
Asked by Nihal Mahesh Jham, Ambit Pvt. Ltd.
Provided SSG but did not give approximate sales for wedding categories.
no specific wedding category sales given
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Question
The first question is on lifestyle brands. If you could just give the ballpark SSG for this quarter, and also, what would be the approximate sales for all the wedding categories?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director
low single digit negative, okay, for the quarter, primarily impacted by wedding dates, while definitely our suits and blazer business and categories, which are more impacted by weddings, had that impact more.
Answered
High priority
Asked about Pantaloons positive SSG despite reduced discounting.
Asked by Nihal Mahesh Jham, Ambit Pvt. Ltd.
Answered with specific initiatives: premiumization, planning, in-store execution.
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Question
despite reducing the discounting in Pantaloons, we managed a positive like for like. What are the initiatives which helped achieve that?
Sangeeta Tanwani, CEO of Pantaloons Division
Staying the course on strategy, both on premiumization, making the stores look good, improving the product and improved planning processes, which has also, by the way, resulted in reduced markdown, helping us in optimizing the markdown and improving our sell-through as well on the merchandise.
Answered
High priority
Asked about Pantaloons margin improvement drivers and sustainability.
Asked by Gaurav Jogani, AXIS Capital
Clearly attributed margin improvement to gross margin enhancement, not just cost cuts.
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Question
the Pantaloons margins have seen a sharp improvement despite, you know, not seeing a sharp improvement in the SSS, SSG or even the revenue per square feet. So, how should we look at it? Is it largely, you know, rationalizations of cost that we have seen, or is it also because of the, you know, closure of the loss-making stores that has helped in this?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director
The bigger improvement in Pantaloons has happened through gross-margin enhancement, through better quality product, better intake margins, superior inventory management, leading to lower markdowns and discounting, and all this happening and increasing the share of private label.
Partial answer
High priority
Asked about sequential increase in consolidated losses QoQ.
Asked by Gaurav Jogani, AXIS Capital
Attributed to TCNS and TMRW but did not quantify the split.
no specific breakdown of loss increase by entity
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Question
from Q4 to Q1 also, the losses have actually increased by INR 60 crore or so, on a sequential basis, that is. So my question was more with regards to the sequential loss increase.
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director
There, there also, I think TCNS remains a major part of it. The losses, all, all businesses, TMRW losses are also this quarter higher compared to last, last quarter, and TCNS losses are also higher.
Partial answer
High priority
Asked about demand trends in ongoing quarter and H2 outlook.
Asked by Devanshu Bansal, Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd
Acknowledged Q2 improvements but deferred to H2 without quantifying.
no specific Q2 growth guidance
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Question
I just wanted to catch your thoughts on demand trends in ongoing quarter. As PPT mentions, there is a pickup in value retailing, and if I remember correctly, base is also supportive due to shift of Pujo Plus, but there was extended the Shravan period last time around. There are some incremental wedding days in Q2 also. So, what's your thought on the ongoing quarter?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director
We're being very careful in stating that the H2 will be better than significant improvement. You have rightly pointed out some of the occasions for which Q2 has some factors of improvement over Q1, but most of them is happening towards the tail end of that quarter. I still believe that the greatest shift in momentum will happen towards the second half of the year.
Evasive
Medium priority
Asked about EBITDA breakeven for ethnic segment in FY25.
Asked by Devanshu Bansal, Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd
Did not confirm positive EBITDA for ethnic, cited Tasva investments.
no commitment on ethnic EBITDAmultiple moving parts
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Question
there is a comment for TCNS that over the next nine months, we should largely be EBITDA breakeven in FY25. I guess most of the losses in this ethnic segment were due to this particular entity. So overall, for next nine months at least, can we expect a positive EBITDA from ethnic?
Vishak Kumar, Director and CEO, Lifestyle Business
I think there are multiple moving parts there. TCNS is one element which, obviously we are fixing as we go along. We will have continued investment, and I think this year, losses in Tasva. So while TCNS will fully turn around, but because Tasva, we have a more ambitious growth plan, I think our investment will continue there.
Answered
Medium priority
Asked about Pantaloons store addition guidance and closures.
Asked by Sameer Gupta, IIFL Capital Sevices Limited
Confirmed store addition guidance and clarified no further major closures.
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Question
Firstly, on Pantaloons, we, the company hasn't added any store this quarter on a net basis. So would you want to revise your guidance, if any, on store additions? What do you expect in FY25, given that, at least on the margin front, there has been a turnaround in this brand and format?
Sangeeta Tanwani, CEO of Pantaloons Division
We maintain our guidance of 20-25 stores for the year. The store additions are backended. There are no more loss-making store closures remaining; normal course closures may happen.
Partial answer
Medium priority
Asked about innerwear segment growth and Athleisure decline.
Asked by Sameer Gupta, IIFL Capital Sevices Limited
Explained Forever 21 downsizing and Athleisure base correction but no quantification.
no specific Athleisure decline number
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Question
So it means overall, 5% growth for that segment, that would mean Athleisure must have declined very drastically. So just trying to understand what exactly is happening in this part of the business.
Jagdish Bajaj, CFO
There is Forever 21, which we are sort of consistently downsizing, so that factor is built into it, apart from everything else that you mentioned. And Athleisure yes, continues to... I think that's a more longer-term phenomena. It's a base correction happening across the industry.
Answered
High priority
Asked for net debt number at end of Q1.
Asked by Sameer Gupta, IIFL Capital Sevices Limited
Provided a specific net debt figure.
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Question
Just an update on the net debt number for the company, ending Q1?
Jagdish Bajaj, CFO
INR 3,500 crore, approximately.
Answered
Medium priority
Asked about Bangladesh unrest impact on supply chain.
Asked by Rahul Jain, Philip Capital Inc
Quantified exposure and stated it's not material.
Read the exchange
Question
My first question is regarding the Bangladesh unrest. Is there any disruption in our supply chain or sourcing on that front?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director
No, it's not material. It's between 2%-3% of our sourcing comes from there on an overall basis. So there might be a, you know, individual business, some segment, a little bit of it, but at overall level, it's not significant for us.
Answered
High priority
Asked about TCNS margin trajectory and inventory writedowns.
Asked by Gopal Nawandhar, SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd
Explained causes and confirmed inventory corrections are largely complete.
Read the exchange
Question
My question is on TCNS. Basically, post our acquisition, we have seen, you know, EBITDA losses. And, company, pre-COVID used to do 17%-18% margin. Before we acquired, it used to be at 12%-13%. What exactly went wrong? And, are we through with the, you know, inventory writedowns, or we'll see more writedowns?
Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director
We have, over last three quarters, taken deep corrections on all these fronts... I can assure you that journey is more or less over as far as the inventory corrections go. Our organic performance has already started to show improvement.
Answered
Medium priority
Asked about pause in lifestyle store additions and franchise strategy.
Asked by Tejas Shah, Avendus
Explained consolidation in small towns and continued expansion in urban areas.
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Question
there has been some kind of pause in store addition in lifestyle segment over last 12 months. Is there a focus more on SSG driven growth, or there is some revisit on the franchise strategy with this?
Vishak Kumar, Director and CEO, Lifestyle Business
This quarter has been combination of both, expansion and some consolidation, particularly in some small town markets. ... But yes, this was a quarter of consolidation, especially in smaller town markets. Bigger cities, urban, mall expansion, et cetera, continues aggressively.
Quantitative claims vs filed numbers
| Claim | Management said | Filing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lifestyle brands low single digit negative SSG | -1% | 7% | Understated vs filing |
| Pantaloons revenue INR 1,100 crore | ₹1,100 cr | ₹1,674 cr | Understated vs filing |
| American Eagle grew 35% | 35% | 7% | Overstated vs filing |
| TCNS like-to-like 5%+ in tough market | 5% | 7% | Understated vs filing |
| TMRW revenue run rate INR 800 crore NSV | ₹800 cr | ₹1,674 cr | Understated vs filing |
Filed figures sourced from Screener.in. Claims within a small tolerance of the filing are marked “matches filing”.