What led Marico to upgrade margin guidance for FY24? Saugata Gupta explains

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, Marico, says “it was a combination of two things have happened, as far as margins are concerned. Yes, there is some raw material tailwind, there has been significant efforts which we continue to do to manage costs and obviously spend effectiveness and we have introduced a significant amount of analytics into our spend effectiveness dive. The other thing that has helped is that we have focused on two things; first is that in the food business, which we had scaled up from 2020. The other one which we worked on in a very focused manner was to improve or reduce the cash burn rate in digital brands.”

The company has upped its margin guidance for FY24. What are the factors that are leading to this particular move? Where do you believe the margin improvement in FY24 could be 200 bps versus earlier guidance of 150 bps? Is that on the back of the softness in the RM cost and also how much are you confident about the sustainability of the margin levels going ahead?
Our entire focus is to ensure that we maximize volume growth and market share subject to a threshold level of margins and in the past we have defined that threshold as anything between 19% and 20%. Some years, it has crossed 20% and this year we are going to deliver a number which could be one of the highest in our history.

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Now a combination of two things have happened, as far as margins are concerned. Yes, there is some raw material tailwind, there has been significant efforts which we continue