Shoppers Stop Limited (SHOPERSTOP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Q2 and H1 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call of Shoppers Stop Limited. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pratik Patel from Dentsu Creative Investor Relations team. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Patel.

Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for joining us on the Shoppers Stop Q2 and H1 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. Today, we have with us the senior management represented by Mr. Kavindra Mishra, Customer Care Associate, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Karunakaran Mohanasundaram, Customer Care Associate, Chief Financial Officer. We will begin the call with the opening remarks from the management, after which we will have the forum open for the interactive Q&A session. I must remind you that the discussion in today's earnings call may include certain forward-looking statements and must be viewed, therefore, in conjunction with the risk that the company faces. Please restrict your questions to the quarter performance and to strategic questions only. Housekeeping questions can be dealt with separately with the IR team. I would now request Mr. Kavindra Mishra for the opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Pratik. Good evening all. I have with me Karuna, our CFO; JP, our FP&A Lead; and Rohit, our IR. Biju, our Beauty CEO, will join me during the questions-and-answer session. We have uploaded the investor presentation on our corporate and in stock exchange website. As you observed, our investor presentation has 3 major divisions: our core businesses, new businesses, which we have invested in the last 2 years and our distribution business, which again we started in the last couple of years. Before I discuss the above in detail, let me start with the operating environment. Q2 was marked by sluggish growth in certain discretionary categories and consumer goods. The urban consumer was cautious due to inflationary concerns and geopolitical uncertainties. In addition to this, we also had an overhaul of GST amendments, which I believe in the long run will enable growth. Despite external challenges such as GST implementation and other market challenges, Shoppers Stop has successfully stayed ahead of the curve. This is primarily due to our focused premiumization strategy and other key initiatives, which have strengthened our market position and have driven sustainable growth. As I begin the journey of Shoppers Stop performance summary, I will focus my speech on core categories, new businesses. And lastly, I will also cover our distribution business. Let me start with our core business performance. Two years ago, we made a deliberate and strategic decision to shift our focus towards premiumization. We started this sporadically from 2020, but this time, it was a complete shift. At the time, this meant rethinking our product mix, enhancing the in-store experiences, refining our brand positioning and leaning into what we knew customers were starting to demand a better quality, more aspirational products and a retail experience that reflects that value. This wasn't just a cosmetic change. It required investments in everything from merchandising and sourcing to marketing and frontline staff training. We knew it would take time to show results, but we also knew that this was the direction our customers and the market were heading towards. Now we are starting to see the clear results of that strategy. Our high-end categories are outperforming expectations. The average transaction values are increasing, and we are attracting a more engaged loyal consumer base. And importantly, this shift is not at the expense of volume. We are maintaining healthy traffic and seeing stronger conversions, especially among shoppers who are looking for elevated value and experience. I am confident that this is just the beginning. We are now in a stronger position to scale this approach further across categories, channels and regions, and we are confident that this will continue to drive both top line growth and profitability. Our team is energized, our customers are responding, and we are committed to building on this momentum in the quarters ahead. The journey isn't over. In fact, we believe we are just beginning to unlock the full potential of premiumization. But the early success that we have seen reinforces our conviction in the strategy and our confidence in the direction we are heading and building the brand love through purposeful engagement. Let me give you some snippets and the results of what we did. We continue to strengthen emotional resonance with our customers through our proprietary brand IP such as India Weds with Shoppers Stop, Gifts of Love and ShowStoppers'25. These platforms have been instrumental in creating deeper connections, resulting in higher engagement and retention. The premiumization journey is well underway. We have enhanced the in-store experience with upgraded service and launched aspirational brands across categories. Our personal shoppers continue to redefine convenience and personalization. This segment alone now contributes to 25% overall sales, a growth of 300-plus basis points. Our private brands, including STOP, Kashish and Bandeya are no longer just an option. They are a preferred choice. In fact, all 3 of them rank among the top 10 apparel brands during this festive season. Our First Citizen Club now stands stronger than ever with 13 million members, contributing to a staggering 83% of total sales, which is up 270 basis points. We have seen the highest quarterly enrollments in our history. Engagement is deeper with 69% repeat purchases and strong adoption of Black Cards around 22,000 and Silver Card 28,000 memberships, including renewals. The results are evident. Our core business has solid results, a turnaround in motion. Let me share the numbers that reflect our execution strength. The customer entry increased by 6% like-for-like, a posture for the first time in many years. Our key KPIs continue to rise. ATV is up by 8%, driven both by ASP by 6% and IPTs by 2%. Overall sales rose by 7% with departmental store like-for-likes at 9.4%, the highest in the last 10 years. Beauty continues to outperform, up 22% with fragrances leading the charge. Watches and handbags recorded strong double-digit growth of 13% and 11%, respectively. The premium product mix grew at 16%, contributing to a 375 basis points gain and now accounting for 69% of total mix. On our financial results of core business, EBITDA grew by 42% and more importantly, our profit before tax turned from losses to profit. That is from a loss of INR 12 crores to a profit of INR 9 crores, an improvement of INR 21 crores. Q2 was a demonstration of Shoppers Stop resilience, agility and brand strength. Our premium positioning, omnichannel model and customer-centric strategy helped us to outperform the market. From our core business, let me shift to our new businesses, which are in the investment mode. We would like to take this opportunity to update you on the progress of our new businesses, Intune, which is our value fashion format and ssbeauty.in, our digital-first beauty platform. Both ventures are currently in the investment phase and as expected at this stage, they are incurring planned losses. However, we are confident that these are strategic investments that will drive long-term value and significantly enhance Shoppers Stop growth trajectory. Let me talk about Intune, which is where we are trying to build a value fashion powerhouse. Intune was launched to tap into the high-growth value fashion segment, catering to a younger aspirational demographic. While still early in its life cycle, we are pleased to share that Intune delivered a positive like-for-like growth in Q2 from a negative like-to-like growth in Q1, which is a strong validation of its value propulsion and consumer acceptance. We are continuing to expand Intune's footprint and optimize its product mix and pricing to drive efficiency and scale. Though operating losses have increased due to front-loaded investments in store openings, marketing and back-end infrastructure, these are deliberate and controlled spend aligned with our long-term vision. Let me talk about ssbeauty.in, which is to create a distinctive beauty destination. With ssbeauty.in, we are building a differentiated digital-led beauty ecosystem with a focus on curated offerings, personalization and experiential engagement. The objective is to build a strong brand identity and connect with a wider, younger audience, complementing our offline beauty business. While initial investments in technology, marketing and customer acquisition are impacting short-term profitability, these are strategic outlays to build a high-margin, scalable business. We are already seeing stronger customer engagement, a growing user base and encouraging repeat behavior. We want to reiterate that both Intune and ss.beauty.in are in the early stages of their life cycle and short-term losses are not indicative of their potential. As with all our businesses, we are following a disciplined investment approach with clear milestones and robust tracking to ensure sustainable scale up. We are confident that these businesses will turn profitable as the scale and operating leverage kicks in. They are strategically aligned with Shoppers Stop's long-term vision of becoming the most trusted and innovative omnichannel retailer. Let me talk about the distribution business. I'm pleased to share that our beauty distribution business operated through Global SS Beauty has delivered outstanding performance in Q2, growing by an impressive 103% year-on-year. This marks a significant milestone in our strategic focus on beauty as a high potential growth engine for Shoppers Stop. Our key performance indicators across the board are trending positively. This reflects the strength of our operating model, growing consumer demand and our ability to execute with agility. During the quarter, GSSB successfully introduced several new and exclusive brands to the Indian market, enhancing our premium beauty portfolio and further differentiating our offering. These additions not only deepen customer engagement, but also reinforce our leadership in the aspirational beauty segment. Looking ahead, we remain confident in the continued momentum of our beauty business and are committed to sustained growth through strategic partnerships, digital acceleration and further store expansion. Let me talk about capital allocation. For reasons beyond our control, opening of new departmental stores were delayed this quarter. We'll be opening 5 departmental stores this quarter and 4 to 5 in Q4. On Intune, we had opened 3 stores in Q2, and we expect to open 5 stores in Q3, and we are planning to open between 8 to 10 stores in Q4. Our working capital reduced by INR 63 crores in Q2. Now let me give you the guidance and on the key strategic focus areas. As we enter the critical festive and wedding season in Q3, we are well stocked and strategically merchandised. The consumer demand indicators are positive, particularly in premium and wedding categories. We anticipate double-digit growth momentum to continue driven by early festive demand, upswing in beauty and fashion categories, particularly in beauty, wherein it's in the peak quarter for them and the ongoing omnichannel marketing campaigns. Shoppers Stop is no longer just a departmental store. It is becoming a premium lifestyle destination, but one that understands, serves and celebrates the Indian customer like no one else. In closing, Q2 was a demonstration of our ability, resilience, agility and brand strength. Our premium positioning, omnichannel model and customer-centric strategy helped us to outperform the market. We are confident that we will continue to deliver sustainable, profitable growth while delighting our customers and creating long-term value for our shareholders. As I conclude my team and I wish everyone a very happy Diwali and a great festive season. I'm happy to have the questions along with my team. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions]. First question comes from the line of Sameer Gupta with India Infoline.

First of all, congratulations on a good set of numbers. Firstly, your comment on the value fashion as a segment, which is seeing moderation. As an industry construct, what really is happening over here? Like even the likes of the market leader here or the largest player here, Zudio, we are seeing some moderation over there. Is it that broad uptick in consumer sentiments, there is a shift happening from value to more premium end, just wanted some color on the overall industry dynamics, sir.

Thank you, Sameer. Great question. So there are 2 parts to it. One is, see, if we talk about -- and without commenting on the market leader, let me talk about Intune. As we expanded and as we grew our business, we also realize that we need to strengthen our supply chain. We need to strengthen the operational efficiency of the business. So what we have seen, and as I mentioned, we have seen growth from Q1 to Q2. And what we're also seeing that the current festive is also very, very strong. So while there has been a moderation maybe for other players, we are seeing that once we are improving our operational efficiencies, we are seeing an uptick in demand. In fact, the festive looks very, very strong for Intune as we speak in the month of October. And what we also feel is that at the end of the day, while customers will migrate from organized -- from other segments of organized to the value segment, we also see that a lot of value is happening when customers are migrating from unorganized to organized. So I think that aspirational Indian is always there, and that journey will continue to keep on happening. I don't see any issue happening there. I think it's for each of us as brands to see that what is it that was driving us before and what changes we need to ensure that -- we need to make to ensure that the growth continues. So for Intune, I'm very confident as we have driven changes and as we have taken things forward, things are improving.

Got it, sir. But your broad comment on slowness in value fashion impacting growth, that is more of a one-off, you believe?

Yes. And as we -- as I mentioned, we are seeing a very, very strong festive, yes.

Got it, sir. That's helpful. Second question is, sir, you have given a slide on the EBITDA margins or EBITDA, sales EBITDA, et cetera, for the core and the noncore businesses. I'm just looking at the EBITDA margin for the core business on the non-GAAP sales, which is coming to around 3.3% in first half. And I understand there is some seasonality in 3Q being the largest quarter, but it is still quite low versus our guidance of a mid- to high single-digit kind of a margin that is the aspiration at least in the medium term. So just wanted to understand, I understand the losses in Intune, et cetera, might continue, but even the core, how do we get to that mid- to high single-digit level in the medium term?

Sameer, thanks, Karuna here. I hope you can hear me. That's a great question. Yes. See, normally, what happens is Q1 and Q2 are relatively sort of a flat season. And Q3 is the one which drives a significant amount of sales. So the guidance what we have given should still hold because in retail, the fixed expenses are fixed. So to that extent, the margins for both Q1 and Q2 are lower primarily because of that. With the sales improving in Q3, one, because of season, Diwali festive and second, because of the end of season sale that starts in the month of December, you should -- we should be able to see a mid-single-digit EBITDA margin for -- or slightly better than mid-single-digit EBITDA margin for the core business, Sameer.

For 3Q, I can understand, but for a full year.

No, I'm talking for the full year. No, I'm talking for the full year. With that, we should be able to see for the full year a good EBITDA margin.

So this 3.3% for the first half is broadly in line with your own expectations. It is not running on the lower side. That's the broad understanding?

Yes, yes.

[Operator Instructions]. Next question comes from the line of Ashutosh Joytiraditya with ICICI Securities.

So my first question would be on the value fashion. So the question which the earlier participant asked. So just in continuation to that, if you think that the festive demand seems to be good and everything looks okay in the value fashion, then why are we not getting more aggressive on store opening front in Intune business?

Ashutosh, if we just go back last quarter and we speak about our guidance, we were talking about a 30 to 40 store opening plan for Intune, right? At the time, we were also reworking on our supply chain and a 2.0 version of Intune where we were doing some changes on our store, the way they look and feel because that's the feedback we got from our consumers. As we speak, we have been able to do those changes, and we are seeing the aggression in terms of the sales densities, right? There's always a cycle of opening of stores in terms of getting the right properties and then getting those stores up. What we have put in the -- in our commentary is something which we are 100% sure of. And you will see that as the numbers pick up, that aggression will also come in. So I'm not worried about that. For us, the important thing was that while we were expanding, we figured out there are a few things which we need to work on and improve upon, which we have done now. Yes, the early October results are fantastic. I think we'll keep on building on those and keep on -- so I think as I put in my commentary, this is a long-term strategic investment for us. We are not shying away from it, but we just wanted to be 100% sure that the changes which we have made start giving the results which we wanted. So that's why you see a little bit of a slowdown against what we had said before.

Okay. And sir, just to reconfirm like what I have understood is that because of these changes, there was some slowness, particularly in the value fashion segment for your company because other value retailers like V-Mart, they have actually given a decent set of same-store sales growth. So that was the only issue and rest all things are fine for the company.

Yes. So as I mentioned, from a double-digit degrowth like-for-like in Q1, we have moved to a positive trajectory in Q2. And we will see -- and we are seeing a much higher number in -- it's too early, but we are seeing very, very strong numbers in October as we speak. So we believe as a team -- operating team that we have been able to understand the customer feedback, work on it quickly, and I think the results are showing now. And as I said, I can't comment on V-Mart and everybody else because we have been in for quite -- we are very young and very new in this thing. But I think whatever has to be done, we are doing that continuously and improving. So quite confident of whatever numbers we have put there.

Okay. Sure, sure, sir. And second thing on this core business. So it is mentioned that the -- was 9.4%. And so what I can understand is that this result, as you said in the opening remarks that it was mostly because of the changes or the focus area strategy which the management has decided, it is actually giving results to the company. So that is only because of this or like in general, in the premium side of the apparel business on a whole, you are seeing some customers shift happening. Is there any trend which is observed there?

Yes. So I think it's a great question. So we definitely see the premiumization as a very strong trend. But we also believe that vis-a-vis other players in the business, whether it's brands or formats, we are gaining higher market share because our proposition of being the house of brands being curated, very -- being very, very strong in non-apparel, beauty. I think those things are very differentiated. And obviously, we loaded all with a great personalized service to a personal shopper. I think all that is coming strong, very, very strong. And I must say our private brand business actually -- and in so many calls, we have been saying that private brands is not about only selling more, it's about selling in the right way and in a premium way. And I think it's really playing. So out of the top -- out of the 500 brands we have in apparel, in this, we see that our private brands are among the -- like 3 of them are among the top 10, which shows the kind of work which the team has done and has been able to connect with the consumer and what they want.

Next question comes from the line of Ankit Kedia with PhillipCapital.

Sir, in Intune, we saw 1% like-for-like growth. And if you adjust for early festive, probably it's negative this quarter as well. You did mention supply chain changes we have done. If you could share some examples, what were the challenges in the last 2 years and how you have tried to mitigate that? And what changes have we done in Intune, it would be helpful.

Okay. Thanks, Ankit. For Intune, specifically because they hardly have any presence in East. So it -- so the early festive didn't materialize them. It was not a strong number for them.

Hyderabad is a big market probably.

Too, too, Hyderabad is a big market, but we also have a very strong presence in North and Gujarat and all of them got heavily hit by Dassehra also coming in between. So for Intune, that number is not that much of a difference. I think in supply chain, as you rightly said, there were a lot of things in getting our supply lines stronger, getting the whole consumer promise of getting a weekly drop, ensuring that the density in the stores also increased because we went with a certain set of estimation in terms of inventory when we also looked at and spoke to the customers and got a feedback. I think we increased the choices. And again, I think a lot of work happened on the store facade. We changed the pictures in our stores, the brightness, the lux level have also increased. So I think a lot of work has happened across getting the right partners, getting the frequency of delivery stronger and then also on basis of the fixtures and the way the stores look and feel. And I think that has started adding results to us, Ankit, and we are now building on that piece and working on that.

Sir, last quarter, Devang had mentioned that by end of FY '26, we should be breakeven at the store level. Given the losses what we have this quarter, are you confident that at least at store level, Intune should break even in FY '26?

Ankit, when you say FY '26, are you referring to March '26 Ankit?

Yes. Yes.

No. Very unlikely it will happen. See, what -- I mean, while in the first half, we have reported losses, in the second half, we are working on a number of initiatives to reduce the losses to almost half. So that being the case, in FY '26, we don't expect at the store level to breakeven. Probably in FY '27, we will be very, very close to breakeven. We may not be able to break even, but we'll be very close to breakeven in FY '27 at the store level.

Sure. So that will be year 3 at store level breakeven for Intune?

That's right.

Sure. My second question is for the departmental store. Stores opening continues to remain muted with a 10-year high like-for-like growth for the quarter, don't you think we need a revision of stores opening? What is taking us back to not open stores in the departmental store despite strong footfall growth and like-for-like growth?

I would love to open -- I would love to double the store openings. I think when we started this year, we were looking at around 6 to 7 stores. The visibility which we have, we are -- we have increased it to 9. We will keep on looking at the properties because typically, these are larger stores, Ankit. Like, for example, we had a plan to open 4 stores in Q2 only, right? But because of approval, [indiscernible] various things, they got delayed. In fact, we are opening the 2 stores which we are planning to open in Q2 are opening -- one of them is opening in Ludhiana by the end of this week and other in weeks' time in Hyderabad. So the ability to turn around a departmental store is a little -- is a variable which is not completely in our hands. Having said that, I think we should -- we will have between 9 to 10 stores between Q3 and Q4.

And these 9 to 10 are gross stores or net stores coming for the year?

Okay. So I think for the year -- can I just take a break? I need to have some water.

Sure, sure.

So these are net stores. I think we are looking at not many closures or no closures at all as we speak.

Sure. Second question on departmental stores is what is leading to this high single-digit like-for-like growth? Is it early festive years as well, which aided growth for us? And is the momentum for second half very strong led by certain brands, certain categories because you did mention premium product grew at 14% versus 9% overall for departmental stores. So what kind -- because other companies are not talking of this number what we have reported. So just wanted to double click to see, is it sustainable or it's onetime double-digit growth?

Okay. So Ankit, [Foreign Language]. I think if you look at it, continuously from Q3 last year, we have been around 5% to 6% or 4% to 5% like-for-like growth, right? When we entered into Q2 this year, we have shown a 9.4%. My July growth is around 6%, 6.5%. My August actually is around 10% and so is September. So what I'm saying is it is not only related to the festive early coming in. That's one. Second, as we enter and as we have entered into the October and one of the fears was that October was where the festive event got preponed. So what we are seeing is that October is showing some incredible numbers of growth. And to be honest, I have never -- I have not seen these kind of growth numbers in retail for a very, very long time. And I think we -- as a team, we are pleasantly surprised. Now how is it coming through? It is coming through, one, increase in customer entry. So customer entry is really, really growing very, very high. And we had a 6% like-for-like growth for the quarter, complete quarter. It is at a higher level now as we speak. So that is one. Second is we are seeing a growth in our premium portfolio. So as you rightly said, 14% is the growth for our premium portfolio. And for overall, it is 9%. So it is obviously over-indexed on that. That card, which is the heart of our program or whether it is the silver, I think the card system is really working well. The personal shoppers where we -- and I remember 7 to 8 quarters back when we started talking about this, there were questions around that card means higher -- the personal shoppers mean higher cost. But the investments which we have made then are now playing through. So any strategy which we do once it takes time to execute, but I think we are in the execution stage now. It is the first stage of execution, and I think this will keep on getting built. My sense is that while we have always been conservative in talking about growth and giving estimates, but Q3 will continue to be very, very strong. October, the post Dassehra, currently, as we speak, we are double-digit like-for-like growth, more than what we also did in September. And these are like very, very strong numbers. And we don't see them as one-off.

Sure. My last question is on the beauty portfolio. While we have seen strong growth in beauty distribution business, and it continues to be at a INR 400-plus crores run rate. But in the core EBOs and in shop-in-shops, we are not seeing growth there, right? While last quarter, we did allude to high discounting, but now it's been like multiple quarters that the growth in the EBOs in beauty is just not happening or it is below the company average. So is there a thought process what we are doing here should change or we will just let the market forces dictate terms and just sit on the sidelines here?

This is Biju here. To your question, the first point is that retail have posted mid-single-digit positive growth. And if you look at it, for us, the premiumization as a journey is doing extremely well on the prestige segment, and you can see that the prestige segment is doing far ahead of the overall beauty -- acknowledge the fact that at the masstige level, the pressure still continue and there is no different narrative is exactly similar to what has happened. We have decided to play on the expression engagement and education route, which is arguing well on the prestige segment, and we continue to do well there, which is led by fragrances. Not letting know of the opportunity that may come through because at the end of the day, the bottom funnel is very important in terms of the premiumization journey. But we are clear that we need to have sustainable and profitable growth. And hence, we are focused on the prestige segment for the moment.

You have to just hit 2 years or 3-year view on beauty? Do you think this category of distribution business, we can grow double digit because last 2 years, we have not been able to grow double digit in this category. And probably it is a strong pillar of growth, a lot of capital being employed there. And actually, the performance is disappointing. So do you think next 2, 3 years, you can turn it around and grow double digit?

Look, the fact of the matter is beauty as a segment is quite overheated. We have to acknowledge the current landscape. And if you think about it, early players who came into beauty driving business through EBOs at that time was a very profitable business, maybe it's not a very profitable business at this stage. But for us, what is a good possibility is because we have stand-alone, we have beauty stand-alone, that is EBO, brand EBO, beauty stand-alone and also the SIS within the department store. I think it's not too difficult. But yes, on the stand-alone part, there is some strong headwinds, which we are mitigating because at the end of the day, the EBO business still excite consumers more from an engagement perspective and the larger assortment perspective, et cetera. So I think it's a bit of a combination of all the 3 elements, and we are fairly confident that we should get into this high single digits in the near future and move past that as well.

Next question comes from the line of Abhishek Shankar with ICICI Securities.

So I just wanted to understand post the GST reforms and whatever benefit has been given to the consumer, I want to understand how much of it is being seen in the stores? Like are people moving from lower value apparels to higher-value apparels? Just wanted to understand from the industry perspective.

So Abhishek, thanks for the question. Actually, we primarily operate in the premium segment, right? So we have not seen any significant movement, large movement from lower to higher and vice versa. I think the general behavior, the way brands were working and the brands are being used before or consumed by the customers, it continues to remain the same. We have not seen any specific benefit. I think it's the same thing. There is no change, if I can answer you.

Okay. Okay. Okay. But how has been the general trend, I mean as far as GST I'm just...

Frankly, I'm not sure that in the premium segment, there has been many changes and the brands and the categories which we operate primarily, there has been major impact of that -- direct impact of that.

Sorry, I couldn't hear you. I'm sorry.

I'm saying that there has been no major impact for us, and we don't see that.

Next question comes from the line of Jay Prakash, an individual investor.

I have been attending [indiscernible] investor conference call for the Shoppers Stop from last year to this year, we have been reporting sales growth or sales around [indiscernible] crores plus or minus something. But the -- I mean the value return for the retail investor has been almost nearly negative growth. You have given negative return to the shareholders. I have been consistently asked for dividend or any other thing. Last 5 years also, you haven't given anything. And I asked many times that the debt level is [indiscernible] reduced also. There is a promoter pledge for 9%, it's almost 3 years. In future, is there any way to turn all these things positive and any value for our retail investors.

Jay Prakash, thanks a lot for the question. Okay. Let me take one by one. See, the retail has been impacted by the slowness in the last 2 years. Whereas this year, the Shopper Stop performance, be it in Q1 and Q2 has been quite strong. We can't determine the market prices because there are a number of other reasons, the market prices are behaving in a different way. As far as Shoppers Stop performance is concerned, our Managing Director, Kavindra Mishra, spoke in detail about 3 sectors, how the core has performed. In fact, the core has performed with a growth of 9 percentage with a strong growth in bottom line. We have also invested in the new business, Intune and ssbeauty.in, which because of the investments, it has reported losses. And our 100% subsidiary, Global SSB has grown by [103%]. So we have -- the sales have grown, the profits have grown. Probably it will take some more time even for Intune and ssbeauty.in to either breakeven or reduce the losses. And overall, the Shoppers Stop performance will go -- will be better than what it is right now. So that's all we can answer, Jay Prakash. While I understand your concern about.

Yes, I also understood your -- the management that the thing is that whether it is seasonal or nonseasonal, our top line is reporting almost that is the level that you are unable to break that INR 1,200 crores about that level. It is for the fifth quarter as I said now. So is there anything you could do something innovative that you can increase the sales once you see if you are not able to increase our sales means all other parameters, it cannot be improved. There is that in the management mind?

This is Kavindra here. So we hear your concerns. I think the growth which you have started seeing from this quarter is a signification of how we are going to go ahead. I'm quite confident that the growth numbers would come in very, very strongly. Please have some patience with us. I know that you -- I understand and appreciate what you have said. As we go through this journey, you will see a much, much stronger Shoppers Shop. And I'm sure you will not regret or disappointed being with us. So we -- as a management team, we ask you for some more time and patience as we turn around the business and drive growth. And you can see that in the last 2 quarters, we have started seeing this growth. And you will see this going forward. And I'm really, really looking forward for how we perform in Q3. So -- and what we will also do is I will request my team members to reach out to you for further explanation and any details you need.

What I will do, Jay Prakash, I mean, probably I will get you your telephone number, and we will talk one-on-one with you probably to understand further your concerns.

[Operator Instructions]. Next question comes from the line of Tejash Shah with Avendus Spark.

Sir, government has kind of taken a big bet on reviving consumption for the last 15 months, multiple interventions or initiatives that they have taken. Now your numbers are kind of instilling some hope that they might be working. So just wanted to understand your read. Are you seeing any sentiment revival at consumer level? Or are these all are our efforts which are actually leading us to gain market share and sentiment remains the same largely?

No, no. Tejash, great question. No, I think it's a combination of both. It will be very wrong from our part to say that the sentiments are poor and it is only Shoppers Stop and it's the things which we are doing, which is driving 9.4% like for growth. I think it's a combination of both. You can maybe contribute 50% to both the factors. There's definitely a demand increase. And as I was mentioning in my commentary before and to one of the questions, actually, the kind of -- especially over the last 7 or 10 days, the kind of run-up we are seeing to the festive as a retailer and as a student of retail for the last 27, 28 years, I have seen this kind of pickup last in 2007, '08. So I think that it's very, very strong. It cannot happen only through what we are doing as an organization. It comes through a function of both the things, whether it is the market sentiment being very strong, and that also reflects in the customer entry and people shopping more because as a business, we are able to provide more options and curated options. So I believe it's a function of both. And the market sentiments have definitely picked up.

Perfect. And sir, if we have to double click on this and if you can share, as you said, as a student of retail also, are there any regional nuances here, a? And b, this optimism is visible in more footfalls, easier conversions? Or is it that bill sizes are also increasing along with all these 2?

Yes. So I will answer all. So earlier, what used to happen, a particular region used to do well and not otherwise right? But what -- just to give you a sense, and I think it's a great question because while at these conferences or these discussions, we don't talk about it. But just wanted to share for the last 3 quarters, for Shoppers Stop, all the regions have grown. So this is a broad-based growth. It is not that because Pujo came in September, so East grew and others degrew. This growth is happening a, across all the businesses and all the regions. So I think that's wonderful. And that can be cut across Tier 1, Tier 2 metros both. It's not to say that the top 5 metros or cities are growing and others are not growing. So I think broad-based secular growth is what we are seeing across, and I think that gives a lot of confidence. That's one. Second, obviously, the footfall has gone up. The premiumization because of that, the ASPs, and we have mentioned that in our commentary as well, the ASPs have grown. I think the amazing thing is that the bills per items per transaction is also growing. So if my ABB has gone up by 8%, ASP has grown up by 6% and the IPT has gone up by 2%. So we are actually seeing a mixture of people buying more and people buying more premium. Obviously, with the impact of the greater personalized service, the personal shopper, the curation, which we have has helped us to gain and maybe additional market share. But the fact is that there is a growth trends across. And what we really find encouraging is that the volume growth have come, which I think at a high ASP is very good.

Perfect, sir. And sir, last follow-up here. The one lagging point for urban consumption, what we are picking up is that IT job creation has not happened, and they are very specific to certain urban locations. So -- and then you are also well interested in some of those locations. So any read-through there? Or is it like it is not impacting us in the centers, like you know the centers, Bangalore, Hyderabad, or Gurgaon. Are we seeing any pressure there? Or they are also part of the secular growth that you just spoke about?

They are a part of secular growth. We see Hyderabad doing extremely well. We see that Bangalore is doing really well. And to add to it, Pune, which was a struggling city for us for some time, has also picked up and doing well. Gurgaon does really, really well. So at this point of time, as we speak, we don't see that pressure.

Sure. And sir, last one, a bit nagging perhaps. When you talk to the mall owners because we are part of many such formats where the footfall is organic also, do the mall owners say that we are doing disproportionately better than others or we are actually part of that overall growth in general?

We are doing better than others disproportionately is our objective, which I would love to believe, but I think I should not believe in. I think we are doing better than others.

On behalf of Shoppers Stop Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

Thank you.

Thank you.