It will be a digital and channel-focused future

Over the last few quarters, our direct value-weighted distribution availability has gone up 400 basis points.

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Can you elaborate on the investment levers? This means we're getting to more and more value-contributing stores directly. This requires investment but leads to more growth.

The second way we are investing is in product quality and the right price-quality equation. Because commodity prices are fluctuating, with increases in categories like tea, palm, coffee, and decreases in categories like home care, we want to make sure that we have the right pricing at the moment. We are never able to pass on price increases in one go. In the case of deflation, we prefer to adjust it in one shot. Both ways, it takes a few quarters to adjust.

We are not going to take our eyes off the right price quality equation. If that means that it impacts the margins in one quarter, that's fine, because eventually it will normalize. The third area of investment is media and A&P (advertising and promotion).

What are the headwinds you are seeing for the consumer market at this point in time? Could the tariff war have an impact on consumption?

At this point, given the knowledge we have, tariffs are not very material to HUL's business, because we are a local-for-local business. If at all, the crude oil softening is beneficial to the economy as a whole, and our consumers.

Consumer income isn't going up. How are you creating more consumers for your mass categories?