Mallcom (India) Limited (MALLCOM.BO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Mallcom India Limited Q3 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by PhillipCapital India Private Limited. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vikram Suryavanshi from PhillipCapital. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, [ Suvam ]. Good afternoon, and a very warm welcome to everyone. On behalf of PhillipCapital, I'm pleased to welcome you all on the earnings call of Mallcom India Limited. We're happy to have the management with us here today for question-and-answer session with the investment community. Management is represented by Mr. Rohit Mall, Associate Vice President; and Mr. Shyam Sundar Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer. We'll begin the call with opening remarks from the management, followed by interactive question-and-answer session. With this, I hand over the call to Mr. Rohit. Over to you, sir.

Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to welcome you all to our earnings conference call for the third quarter and 9 months of the financial year 2026. I'd like to begin by extending our sincere thanks to PhillipCapital for hosting today's call. Let me start by sharing a few operational highlights for the quarter under review before handing it over to our CFO, Mr. Shyam Agarwal, who will take you through the financial performance. We are pleased to report a strong improvement in profitability with EBITDA witnessing a significant increase in Q3 FY '26. This improvement was driven by better realizations across key product categories, movement towards value-added products and continued cost optimization initiatives across manufacturing and operating expenses. As highlighted earlier, the company has undertaken -- had undertaken substantial capital expenditure to strengthen its manufacturing footprint. Both our Sanand facility in Gujarat and the industrial shoe unit at Chandpur, West Bengal are now fully operational. While this phase of investment has resulted in higher depreciation and finance costs during the period, we believe these facilities will be key enablers of volume-led growth and revenue expansion in the coming years. With enhanced capacity and integrated manufacturing capabilities, we are well positioned to support rising domestic demand and scale our export presence. Over the 9-month period, our domestic sales have grown at a faster pace than exports compared to last year, reflecting our increased focus on the domestic market. We also witnessed an improvement in market share across all our branded market segments. This was supported by sustained participation in domestic and international trade fairs, which helped deepen customer engagement and expanded our reach across geographies. In addition, our Annual Dealers' Meet held in December saw strong enthusiasm and participation from stakeholders. Also, recent GST rate rationalization on select PPE categories has improved affordability at the customer level, which aided purchase decisions, particularly in price-sensitive segments and replacement-driven demand. Our focus on driving higher sales is centered on expanding business with existing customers through larger order size, higher value contracts and cross-selling across multiple categories. During the quarter, we further expanded our product portfolio with new launches in the Safety Shoes and Helmet segment. These initiatives are aligned with our focus on innovation, customer centricity and addressing evolving safety requirements across industries. Our targeted push in high-growth and core sectors continues to support volume expansion. With that, I'll now hand over to Mr. Shyam Agarwal, our CFO, who will walk us through the financial performance. Over to you.

Thank you, Rohit. Good evening, everyone. I would like to provide an overview of the financial performance for the third quarter and 9 months of the financial year 2026. On a consolidated basis for the third quarter of financial year 2026, our operating revenue stood at INR 131 crores, reflecting a growth of 11.5% year-on-year. EBITDA for the quarter came at INR 19 crores, a growth of 27% year-on-year with EBITDA margin of 14.7%, an increase of 100 basis points on year-on-year. The net profit for the period was INR 10 crores, a growth of 13% year-on-year with PAT margin of 7.8%. Over a 9-month period, our operating revenue stood at INR 393 crores, delivering approximately 13% year-on-year increase. EBITDA for the period was INR 47 crores, representing a 3% year-on-year growth with EBITDA margin contracting by 109 basis points to 11.9% PAT for the period stood at INR 24 crores, resulting in PAT margin of 6%. Thank you. With this, we can now begin the question-and-answer session.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Aditya from Securities Investment Management.

Congratulations on a good recovery in margins. So my first question is on exports. So our growth in exports has not been that great in the first 9 months. I know you have mentioned Europe is a little slow. But if we look at our size, we are a miniscule player compared to the size of European markets. So even if the markets are slow, shouldn't we be able to still grow considering our size, the new capacities we have added, and the China Plus One opportunity, which we used to talk about earlier?

Yes. So with regards to European markets, when the market situation is such where people are just wanting to spend on the mandatory requirements and they are looking to minimize spends. They're not looking to put a lot of effort on vendor development and changes because it's a cost for a lot of the categories. For some categories, we are definitely [Technical Difficulty] Hello? Am I audible?

Hello. Yes, it's coming from the mic.

Just a moment. Yes, I think it's good now.

Yes.

Am I audible?

Yes, sir.

Yes, it's difficult to convince people to, let's say, make a visit to us and get into product development and things like that when the economy is not doing well. That's number one. And number two, yes, we are small as compared to the market. However, the competition is still there. And especially when markets go bad, the competitions also realize and international competitions also, they start also lowering their prices. And some people are okay with lower margins as well and some people aren't. So it's just because we are smaller in respect to the market does not necessarily mean that every time we will grow. So it works. Definitely, we are trying to gain market share from European -- other competition because in Europe, in general, the growth of the market isn't as much. So whatever growth -- extra growth we are getting is by gaining market share from some other competition. So that's the overview with respect to exports into Europe. And also in this time, even if you are able to get somebody else's market share, you also have to ensure that your own customers are still growing. If they are reducing volumes. So even after getting newer customers, you're still overall not posting growth. So that also happens.

Understood. And generally, in such a situation, do our customers generally prefer bigger suppliers and they tend to give lower orders to their smaller suppliers? Does that kind of situation also play out?

It's not -- I don't think any customer is looking like a bigger supplier and give them more volume or smaller supplier. A, they definitely have multiple suppliers for similar product lines, most of the cases. B, when they don't have enough volumes, then yes, sometimes they would like to consolidate to get better prices. But I don't think with our customers or with any customer per se such that they would like to place some orders with just the big suppliers, some with small suppliers or anything like that.

Understood. And sir, now with recent talks of EU, India FA. So I just wanted to understand how could that be beneficial for Mallcom going forward?

No, that could be really beneficial because our sectors and our industry and our HS codes are usually the ones which are included in the free trade or any sort of trade agreements. That's what we have seen in the past. So we expect good results coming from it and it to open big markets and at least for us, have a level playing market from -- as compared to Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries who sometimes enjoy duty-free export to European Union. So I think that definitely will help us to increase volumes from Europe.

And sir, just to understand, what is the current duty which we are facing for our products versus the duty which other players like from Pakistan and other Southeast Asian countries would be facing?

So it depends. Something like leather gloves, it can be anywhere between 7% to 9%, but Pakistan can be 0 because of their status. For garments, it can be around 12%, 15% and Bangladesh enjoys duty-free. So it depends from HS code to HS code, and it depends on country to country. Some countries do enjoy duty-free. We do not enjoy for any of our product codes duty-free into Europe nor does China also I think. But yes, some other countries do enjoy some duty-free exports to the European Union.

Understood, sir. Understood. And sir, if I look at other export markets also for the first 9 months, so aside from South America, other markets are more or less flattish. So for us to grow in double digit in export markets, would we be dependent on recovery in Europe? Or there are other markets as well where we can see good growth in exports going forward?

See, in exports, more than 50% of our revenue comes out of Europe. So we definitely need our European markets to perform well. And the second largest market is South America for us and then followed by North America and other markets. So -- and North America also, as we all know, hasn't been doing so well. So the first -- the biggest market and the third biggest market are not doing well for us at the moment. So -- and honestly, the volumes are coming from these markets only, right? Other markets are there, but there isn't enough volumes for our white label business from these markets. However, we have been exploring other markets like Russia and Argentina and other places as well. But it's a start and the volumes are still very small.

Understood, sir. Understood. And sir, coming to domestic markets. Now so we have seen very strong growth this quarter. So was this partly due to destocking by our dealers who might have delayed their purchases in Q2 due to drop in GST rates? And in Q4, we should be back to a 19%, 20% growth rate, which we used to do earlier?

Some of it might be because of GST, which has impacted in Q3. But I don't think all of the growth is because of that. We are expecting, yes, overall, if you are able to do a 19%, 20%, it should be good, but we are aiming for higher also in Q4. So one part is definitely GST, but I don't think all the parts because with the dealers also, not all of them have the capacity to hold on to a lot of stocks and not all of them have -- most of them will not have the space or the cash flow for that to happen. So they would like to keep rotating their stocks. So we hope to see similar kind of growth coming in Q4 as well.

Okay. And now if you could just talk a little bit about the new products you have launched, so helmets and nitrile and PU gloves. So how has the offtake been for these products? And what kind of customer feedback we have been receiving? And sir, also, if I look at your LinkedIn page, I could see a post that Mallcom has launched helmets, but there wasn't any mention of nitrile and PU gloves being launched. So if you could just let us know if you have started selling gloves in the market or not?

For gloves, yes, we have started selling PU gloves in the market. So we were always selling PU gloves in the market. It's just that it was something that we were trading, right? And now we are producing ourselves. And helmets, yes, we launched a new range of helmets like more of -- to cater to the mid-tier segment. And we also launched a very lightweight sporty kind of safety shoe and all of this happened in December and third week of December only. So with respect to our marketing and promotional efforts, we are still doing it. We don't want to put everything at once. So you'll -- in the -- if you're following us on social media, you'll see it happening in the coming weeks and months. But yes, we have started selling these products, and we started receiving interest and inquiries. So we are at a stage where we are sending out samples and getting more and more feedback.

Understood. And now just to understand this better. So I believe we have around 65 to 70 distributors in India. So just to understand, so are these new products being given to all the distributors, have they been taking all these products? So is it a step-by-step process where we are giving these products to the top 10 or top 15 distributors and then see how the offtake has been for these products?

No, we don't restrict it for anybody, any of our dealers. It is given to all whoever -- depends on where their dealer is placed, what kind of industries they cater to, what kind of end user or reseller connect they have. Based on that, they show us interest. And based on that, we also know who we could target, which dealers we could target with what kind of products. Not all dealers will do all kinds of products. But yes, we don't restrict it for any particular dealer.

And to understand this better, so out of the 60, how many of these -- how many of the distributors we can target? And do we need to look for new distributors for these products?

We need to aim for new distributors in general, not specifically for these products. These products can go in the normal distribution channel that we have. But in general, we need to have more distributors as well. And for the specifically, we launched helmets, we launched gumboot, we launched sports style, lightweight safety shoe. PU, we are already doing. So a lot of our dealers were already doing these products. It's just a new addition. So about -- in all cases, nothing less than 50% of the dealers have asked for samples or inquiries, and we are doing pricing and sampling, and things like that with them.

Sir, next, we had set up 2 lines for...

Mr. Aditya. Sir, we request that you return to the question queue for the follow-up questions, as there are several participants waiting. The next question comes from the line of Rushabh Shah from Berk PMS.

Am I audible?

Yes, sir.

So in the previous years, we were one of the major suppliers in the oil and gas industry. But as you have said in the previous calls that you have not been present in industries like mining or other construction. So what is your progress on that front? Have you diversified into other industries? Or we still cater -- or are still major business from the oil and gas industry?

I'm not sure where this is coming from, but we are not industry specific. Even other industries, we definitely do cater. Yes, there are some industries where like mining, where we don't have a lot of products to offer to or they're not buying a lot of the -- in the price range that we offer, let's say. Even in oil and gas, there are things that -- more things we can explore something like even coveralls, inherent flame-retardant coveralls and things like that. But we go to each and every industry and industrial town and target all sorts of end user if we have products matching for that industry or that end user. Yes, there are specific requirements which we cannot cater to. But we do not restrict ourselves to any industry. We are making a portfolio of product, which at least where some product goes into each of the industries because a lot of these -- the usage of the product is in general handling, which works in all the industries.

Okay. Sir, my next question is many companies are mostly served by the Chinese players. You say like 70% of them. And there are these big billion-dollar companies like Ansell or [ VIP ] or any such companies. So just wanted to know what parameters are we fighting these huge players? Are we going to gain market share from them? Is it the price or the quality, because product quality would be at par with us?

Yes. So a lot of these big players, they would sell only under their brand name across the world, whereas we are happy to be a white label manufacturer for a lot of our customers who want to build their brands and compete with these brands also in their markets. So that's one. Second, a lot of them, because of their brands have command a higher price and not everybody can afford that price. So we are able to beat them a lot of cases in the pricing as well. And then we allow -- we have a multi -- we are a manufacturer. So we are -- we have the capability of customizing a lot of the items, which these players most of the times don't. And then we are able to cater to smaller firms and smaller customers as well because we give them the opportunity to consolidate container with different items that we produce. So these are some of the benefits based on which we can win the contract. And a lot of times, it's a question of relation also. We are able to maintain good relations because we are into servicing the customers ourselves where we are talking to the promoters or owners or key decision-makers within our customers, and they are doing the same with us. So the decision-taking process, how fast we can move, how nimble we are, that also helps, which may not be the case with larger organizations.

Just a follow-up on this one. As you say you are happy in the white label segment also. So sir, what has been our mix of branded versus private label? Because as I recall, in 2020 -- 2 years back, we were trying to build more on the branded sales, making a higher percentage of our revenue. So how have we progressed on those lines?

So I would say the progress has been good. I think even from the beginning of this year to now, the progress has been good as well. We are almost closing on 50-50 ratio. 2 years ago, we would have been something like 65-35 ratio, if I'm not wrong. So the growth in branded has definitely been higher and as expected than the growth in our white label business.

Sir, just to understand on the total market side, side, out of the total market of PPE India share is only 6% to 7%. And our share in that was less than about 2%, if I remember correctly. So my question is whether the increase in various product categories like we've introduced boots and helmet and also helmet is a completely new category. Have we increased our share in the whole basket? Because in the PBT also you've mentioned that you've increased market share across both branded and local market segments. Just wanted to know in the whole segment, we were less than 2%. So have we increased our share in the whole India PPE market?

I would assume so because we don't get a lot of this data to study. So I would assume that we are growing at a faster rate than the growth of the industry because I don't think the industry in India is growing at the percentage of growth that we are posting. So that would ideally mean us gaining market share from others as well. So yes, I would assume that we have improved on our market share in the Indian market.

My next question is, let's say, since the certification is one of the major differentiation between, let's say, Mallcom and other unorganized players. So my question is how difficult is it to get a certification for an unorganized player? And especially which category would it be more difficult across all the category.

See, for the domestic market, if you really want to get a certification and be a BIS certified player. So in a lot of the categories, the requirement is to have a lab, and that is the first impediment for people to having a lab where they can test the product and then continuously submit details to the BIS authorities that you are selling these BIS certified products. So -- but in each category, once you have the lab, it's -- a lot of the categories don't have a BIS certification, so that those categories are very easy for somebody to enter. But with which -- in the categories that you have, once you have the lab, the entry level is, I would say, easy to pass because you have enough players in the market to study the samples and the products and get a certified product. But it gets tougher and tougher as you get into more complicated products or if you go into more value-added products in the same category. So that's where the segregation starts. And then obviously, it's not just getting the BIS, but also maintaining it and ensuring that each product which comes out is a certified product.

Okay. Okay. So what type of, let's say, in a product category, you are seeing more of, let's say, complicated products. Sir could you please expand on that? What more complications will be -- you have in the categories?

Yes. So for example, let me take the example of a safety shoe, right? So safety shoe has 2 classes. There's a Class 1, Class 2 or a type 1, type 2, right? Type 1 will have something which is occupational shoe. It will not have the protection required like a safety shoe, but it will still be classified under the safety shoe category. So that's basic. Then you have a safety S1 category, we call it. And then there's S1P, there's S2, there's S3. So these are different categories based on if you want a toe protection, if you want a nail protection, if you want a water-resistant shoe. And then comes the Class 2, which is a complete waterproof gumboot, things like that. So there also, do you want it with the metal protection in your feet or not, things like that. So as and as you get into -- and then whether you want an antistatic shoe or electrical shoe or -- these are the differences which start creating. And most of the people are good in the basic ones and the first level of certification, but when it goes -- becomes more and more stringent or more protection to be provided, that's where you get -- find lesser and lesser number of players. That's how it differs.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Dhwanil Desai from Turtle Capital.

Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Sir, my first question is, if I look at the margin, gross margin, I think it's probably one of the highest or close to one of the highest in last 2 quarters. And last quarter was probably on a much lower side. So if you can help us understand if there is any one-off in this margin? Or is it just a product mix? And second part to this question is that our EBITDA margin is close to 15%, again, significantly higher than what we have done in the last 2 quarters. And the ramp-up from the new products and new plant is yet to happen. So should we expect this kind of a margin to sustain both at a gross level and EBITDA level?

Shyam-ji, I think you can take that.

Will you please repeat the question?

My question is that this quarter, our gross margin has improved significantly even from our historical average of 38%, 39%, while the last quarter, we had one-off because of RM and FX issues. So is there any one-off? And if not, then our EBITDA margin is close to 15%, which is again at a higher end compared to last few quarters despite our new plants and new products yet to scale up to optimal level. So should we expect this kind of margins to continue going forward?

Yes, yes, definitely. So I would say the last quarter was one-off, and you will see that over last 3, 4 years, we have been having EBITDA margin in the range of 13% to 15%. And this is what we have done this quarter also. And definitely, with the new facilities coming up and the investment we have done, definitely, we have some additional cost in the range of interest and some employee cost also because we have hired new employees and depreciation also has gone up. So definitely, we need to catch up on the productivity side of the new units. But overall, as you have seen that margin remains because of nature of business and the product which we are manufacturing, the margin -- overall margin would be in the range of 13% to 15% only. And this quarter also, the realization has been better because of the increase in exchange rate also and the prices -- raw material prices were also stable. So yes, so we could do 15% -- and definitely going forward, we should be working in this range only.

Okay. Got it. Rohit, second question is from a 2-, 3-year perspective, I think our aspiration is to grow top line at 20% at least. Now if I understand correctly, currently, we are at 55-45 or 50-50 kind of a domestic versus export. So in order to get to that 20%, the domestic piece has to grow at 25% because from all the commentary that we are hearing from you guys for last few quarters, export has been a bit soft on the growth side of it. So how do you guys look at it in terms of how do you -- what is the playbook to get to that 20% plus kind of a growth over next 2, 3 years?

So when we made this projections, obviously, one part of it was also that some policies do work in our favor as well. So we are pretty confident about the branded and the domestic growth and growth coming out of, let's say, Middle East and Africa because we can see and control that market and the policies are also in favor. However, when it comes to our export and white label, we expect that the -- hopefully, the worst is behind. If the world seems stable and will be stable, I think we can expect better growth from our export market also. Like we were discussing earlier that if this trade deal with Europe is to be signed, there could be great positive ramifications from us. Even with Russia, we've been able to get a breakthrough in the market. We are also expecting that with the U.S., there will be some better deals coming as compared to now. So we are definitely expecting more growth out of our white label business. And yes, with -- for our branded, definitely 20% or plus is growth something that we can target. So that was our idea of getting to the target, and we are still confident that we would be able to get there. Maybe we've been set back a little bit with things which we can't control, but we are still hopeful and confident that once things settle down, it should -- we should be back on track.

The next question comes from the line of Viraj from SiMPL.

Just a couple of questions. First is on export. I think you said somewhere in the call that there's a pricing pressure and customers are not really looking for an alternative supplier. But we have also seen some new additions. So one is, if you -- one has to understand the cost structure of competition from other countries. I understand there's a duty part, but if one has to understand the pricing and the cost structure vis-a-vis ours, how would that compare? And what kind of profitability they would still be making at the low reduced prices? That is one. And second is, what kind of initiatives you are taking in major markets like Europe and Lat Am? So if you can just talk something on the qualitative part, what kind of initiatives we are taking and what kind of a flow, the new products -- new business we are seeing there?

Right. So cost structure-wise, again, depends on product category to product category, how we are placed as compared to the world. Something like leather, yes, we are placed very well as compared to other players, the competition comes largely from Pakistan. When we talk about textile, so one is the technical textile, one is the regular cottons, polycottons. So again, cottons, polycottons, something that we compete mostly with Pakistan or the Southeast Asian country. But when it comes to technical textile, that's largely against China that we compete against. So I would say the pricing is okay. Sometimes we are cheap and sometimes expensive. When it comes to polymers and synthetics, synthetics, there's not a lot of ecosystem in India. So we are trying to build that. And a lot of times, we are expensive. But in polymers, I think that's something that we can also do as comparable to any leading player in the world. This is all obviously leaving aside the duty part. So we -- price-wise, yes, we have a right to win in some of the markets. And the efforts that we are taking is -- see all these markets, it mostly works on relationship building, trust building, showing your product development capability, showing your capacities. So we continuously participate in trade fairs or we make visits to potential customers and regular customers. We showcase them all our new launches. We invite them to visit our facilities. We keep our facilities compliant with the latest audit standards and regulations. So these are some of the efforts that we keep taking and doing on a continuous basis to just keep knocking and showing them that we are around what we are doing, any developments that can be interesting for them. Yes, these are the kind of marketing activities that we undertake for these markets.

And in terms of value-added products, what will be their share of revenue now? How is the traction happening?

Product-wise differs. So in footwear, we've started doing value-added work. We started -- we have invested in newer machineries, newer setup in newer materials to do more value-added work, and it's been going on good. We are doing hardly 5%, 7% or maybe not that -- not even that. And now we have increased to at least, I would say, 15%, 20%. Workwear also, that's an area where we are developing, a lot of our vendors and doing a lot of back-end integration to ensure we go move more towards technical textiles. Same is the case with our synthetic gloves as well. The move has been from very, very commoditized items to more value-added items. And leather gloves still largely is non-value-added. But yes, there also, we are increasing our share of value-added products, which is giving us better margins as well.

Okay. Last question was on the utilization. Just last question. Can you just give some color on the capacity utilization?

Yes, yes. So in case of regular products, we are almost operating at 80%, 90%. But definitely for the newer units like the safety shoes unit, which we have set up in West Bengal. As of now, we are doing almost in the range of 40%, 50% only. And we target that by March, it should be working again in the range of 80% to 90%. And same for Sanand also. So they are maybe again, in the range of 40%, 50% as of now. So definitely, we are adding a percentage also and the existing capacity utilization should also -- should be improving in this quarter.

The next question comes from the line of Krishna Satija from Smart Sync Services.

Am I audible, sir?

Yes, sir.

Sir, like focusing on some numbers, like the finance costs have increased significantly year-on-year basis. And I guess it's mostly for the working capital basis. Is that right?

Yes, yes. It is completely for working capital funding only, right?

Sir, it has [indiscernible].

Yes, yes. So as you see, it has gone up because of 2 reasons. As you know that the CapEx, which we have done over the last 2, 3 years is solely funded by us. And second thing is that, yes, the cost of funding has also gone up because of government removing subvention, which they were providing earlier for exports and to MSME. And -- but after a long -- almost 1 year, they have again introduced this, but with some cap. So we will be benefiting with this, but there is a cap of INR 50 lakhs per annum and which is maximum one can enjoy for a particular financial year. Otherwise, it is -- the level of borrowing remains the same as last year and this year, and it is solely for working capital funding, right.