Total expenses fell 4.36% YoY to Rs 636.44 crore in September 2024 quarter. Cost of material consumed, including packing material was at Rs 282.84 crore (down 2.98% YoY) and employee benefits expenses stood at Rs 106.21 crore (up 10.92% YoY) during the quarter.

EBITDA declined by 4.34% to Rs 88 crore in Q2 FY25 from Rs 92 crore recorded in Q2 FY24. The company maintained its EBITDA margin at 12.9% during the quarter as compared to 12.8% in Q2 FY24, despite subdued demand.

On half year basis, the company’s net profit declined 19.31% to Rs 81.10 crore on 1.82% fell in revenue from operations to Rs 1,427.56 crore in H1 FY25 over H1 FY24.

Ramesh Kumar Dua, chairman and MD said, “the company reported a decline in revenues during the quarter as the overall demand remained subdued. During the quarter, the industry witnessed an increase in lower priced unorganized competition, which led to downtrading by consumers in a high inflation environment. Margin pressure was also high from organized trade channels. The company took a call to not dilute pricing and margins to unsustainable levels due to which we were able to maintain our operating margins during the quarter. However, higher depreciation in the quarter has impacted the net profit of the company.

The company has been sanctioned a grant of Rs 10.00 Crores, which is 50% of total expenses i.e., Rs. 20.00 Crores for Design Studio, under Indian Footwear and Leather Development Programme (IFLDP) that will boost our focus on best-in-class technological upgradation and advanced level of designs.

The company is in the process of adding new distributors to our network, to ensure Relaxo’s presence in each district of the country. To improve our reach and market penetration, we launched a retailer connect initiative through ‘Relaxo Parivaar’ mobile application. This has shown an encouraging response with reach of over 70,000 retail outlets and has been driving consistent month on month improvement in secondary sales.

To drive premiumization, we have collaborated with global brands viz. ‘Disney’ and ‘Marvel’, launching a new collection featuring ‘Disney’ and ‘Marvel’ themes. Further, in line with our continued focus on cost efficiencies, we are working on optimizing our backend operations, which would enable the company to deliver a sustainable performance in future.”