Growth clearly was driven by institutional business. Onย theย otherย hand, was there a one-off which led to this substantial 2x jump sequentially?
The fact of the matter isย theย factย that we have 3 engines. The retail domestic, international retail and the institutional business. The institutional business has done very well in Q4. Onย theย otherย hand, theย expansion has been equally led by domestic and international retail. And very pleased to share that on the institutional business for the year we posted revenues of about 170 odd crores and this year we are targeting to do significantly better than that and almost about 90 percent of that order book isย indeed in place for theย present financial year. And, we expect inย orderย continuation this growth in this year also.You talked about 170 crore run price for institutional business and you stated it will be significantly better in FY24. What mayย be that number, 250 crore thereabouts?
Approximately. Inย reality, slightly better than that.
What? Targeting 300 crores then?
Yes, we already have about 250 crores of order book in place and it is a long lead cycle on this institutional business. And, maybe, yes, maybe another 20-30 crores over that.
Onย theย otherย hand, talk to us about the retail side asย well. It used to be lower margins for you and you had tilted towards institutional. Isย theย factย that the tendency which is going continuation going forward? What is going to be the split betwixt retail and institutional?
Not at all. Inย reality, the retail business is our pride and joy. The kind of leverage that we have on the retail business beyond the breakeven, it is almost an 83 percent addition to our bottom line and the leverage is tremendously high and we have been growing 40 percent year on year on that business and it is a very, very, very healthy margin business for us both domestic and international.
And, since you have given us a guidance of approximately about Rs 300 crores for your international business, tell us what is the number at work for retail?
We should be in a position this year to post almost about 700 crores plus at an overall level as a company, up from about 400 and odd crores that we have done overย theย pastย financial year, that is almost about a 60-70 percent growth in terms of numbers.
Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) is clearly the buzzword. Can you just tell us how you as a company are gearing up for it because it will definitely change likewise the skill set that is required going forward.
Definitely true and if you look at how our international business is doing, we are market leaders in at least about 10 geographies where we keep winning awards for the state-of-the-art content that we post and the students that we have in all these geographies get fantastic jobs.
Just to give you an example of Vietnam, the average salaries in Vietnam for IT student is about $800. Our students, the minimum salary that they command in the market is about $1200. And, it is a fabulous kind of story that we have in the international market and that is essentially driving our IT business. Similarly, what is doing incredibly well for us is the media and entertainment space, where our foray into animation, VFX, gaming and I am very excitedย to share that gaming isย indeed contributing about nextย to 12 percent of our revenues in the training space and we expect this to goย up to about 20 percent plus this year.
You talked about gaming, media and entertainment, but we likewise wanted toย comprehend artificial intelligence asย forย the other applications that mayย be there. What are you exploring there, is there manyย of interest with respect to training and courses around that?
If you look at the deep technology that we talk about, we have courses in Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI). We have courses in ML. We have courses in blockchainย tech. If you look at theย pastย few Government decision, especially after the hacking of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a decision has been taken to move the complete chain of Government business onto blockchainย tech and that opensย up a substantial opportunity for both professionals likewise as for training corporations like ours to sort of strengthen our offering both in India and abroad. And, we are already there in almost every space of deep technology and cutting-edge IT that you can think of. Content is state of the art and people are doing very well.
And, what is expansion thisย year ahead going to look like? Are you looking at new centre additions or is digital going to be the focus?
Look at it this way, our same-store sales growth has already been at about 30 percent plus and frankly, it is difficult to sort of move it beyond 30 percent in the same store sales growth. And, manyย of the future growth is going to be driven by expansion, both digital, we are coming up with a blended model where in tier III and tier IV cities especially the teaching will be done by us and the student acquisition will be the job of the franchisee. International markets, we are looking at a similar story and we expect to add almost 100 plus stores this year.
