Earnings Call Transcript - XNSE:EUREKAFORB 2026-11-03

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Eureka Forbes Ltd. Q2 FY27 Earnings Conference Call. We have Mr. Pratik Pota, Managing Director and CEO, and Mr. Gaurav Khandelwal, CFO, Eureka Forbes, with us. As a reminder, all participant clients will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Before I hand it over to Mr. Pratik Pota, please note the disclaimer. Certain statements made by the management in today's call may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect management's best judgment and analysis as of today. The actual results may differ materially from the current expectations based on a number of factors affecting the business. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pratik Pota. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Speaker 7

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Q2F527 earnings call of Eureka Forbes Ltd. Let me begin with the performance for the quarter. In line with our strategy to accelerate growth, I am pleased to share the revenue growth 15% in Q2F527. For the first half, revenue growth now stands at 15.1%. A clear step-up from 12.7% in H1 last year. What was particularly encouraging was the quality and breadth of this growth. Growth was broad-based across channels and categories, with a product business delivering high-teens growth year-on-year. Within that, a water purifier business continued its strong momentum, delivering high-teens growth and gaining market share. Growth was driven by a heavy combination of volumes and higher ASPs, with particularly strong momentum in the economy segment, while our mid-tier and premium offerings also performed well. Water purifier penetration in India remains relatively low, and we see significant headroom for category expansion. Our strategy is therefore clear. To make water purification accessible to many more households, While continuing to premiumize and innovate at the top end of the market. Our innovation pipeline remains robust, and during the quarter, we accelerated the pace of new product introductions. In water purifiers, we launched the industry's first four-year range, designed to reduce lifetime cost and to make purifier ownership convenient for consumers. By the sustained market share gains we have seen in water purifiers over the past few quarters. An important enabler has been the significant strengthening of our in-store presence. We are rolling out currently Eureka Post branded fixtures across large retail stores, improving the visibility of the point of sale, and strengthening customer engagement and conversion. Beyond our core, our emerging categories comprising robotic vacuum cleaners, water softeners, and air purifiers grow significantly faster than average, reinforcing our conviction in these categories as future growth engines and in our ambition to build Eureka Forks into a broader health and hygiene company. Robotics at your cleaners continued to grow strongly. Driven by premiumization and increasing adoption of fully automated cleaning solutions. We increasingly see robotic cleaners becoming a part of the daily use appliance ecosystem in Indian households. Our new campaign, Ghar Ka Naya Favorite, builds on this insight by positioning the robotic cleaner as a trusted new member of the family, delivering effortless cleaning and convenience. Our new campaign, Life Hard Nahin, Aapka Paani Hard Hai, connects hard water with everyday consumer concerns such as airfall and is designed to build awareness of both the problem and the solution. Our air purifier business also scaled up sharply ahead of the seasonal demand period, delivering strong growth during the quarter. We launched six new SKUs under the AeroGuard brand, materially strengthening our portfolio and positioning us well for the opportunity in the second half. Turning to service, our performance remained broadly in line with the trajectory of the previous quarter. The impact of the AMC price increases taken earlier in the year continued to be partly visible and has been compounded by the broader inflationary environment. That said, servicing remains fundamental to water purifier ownership, and we remain confident of demand revivals. At the same time, we continue to strengthen our core service proposition. Thank you. This is one such example of how we are making a proposition much more differentiated and improving the customer experience. Encouragingly, growth in our filter business accelerated during the quarter, supported by stronger customer engagement and awareness. Given the size of our installed customer base, we see a significant long-term opportunity to increase filter penetration and build a larger recurring revenue stream from this franchise. Against this demanding base, the performance gives us greater confidence that the growth acceleration that we've been working towards is taking hold. Importantly, this acceleration has not come at the expense of profitability. 43 basis points year-on-year to 13.6% in Q2, reflecting discipline cost management and operating leverage. to create pressure on gross margins. We deliberately refrain from taking pricing actions during the festive period, choosing instead to prioritize growth, customer acquisition, and category expansion. While continuing to drive productivity and cost optimization across the organization. Our objective is to offset inflationary pressures without compromising the growth momentum we have worked hard to build. and sales promotion investments during the quarter, particularly behind in-store visibility, new product launches, and consumer campaigns. Turning now to our H1 performance. On to a higher level. Thank you. H1S527 revenues grew 15.1%. Each one last year. Despite commodity headwinds and higher upfront investments behind growth, the fact that we have been able to accelerate growth, gain market share, and maintain profitability simultaneously is particularly encouraging. As we enter the second half, our focus is straightforward.

Gaurav Khandelwal, CFO

Good morning, everyone. to sustain momentum and strong market share gains in the EWP. These categories maintain their strong growth trajectory, with robotics benefitting from premiumization and expanded portfolio, while both water softeners and air purifiers are This side. We typically look at the business on a year-on-year basis. It's important to call out that a product business has delivered a strong quarter-on-quarter growth. My business witness is sequential. Moving on to profitability. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter grew by 18.8% year-on-year to 120.7 crore with adjusted margins expanding 43 basis points year-on-year to reach 13.6%. This was driven entirely by operating leverage. Q2 margins were at lifetime high. Gross margins were impacted by commodity inflation and declined by 138 basis points year-on-year to 55.1%, and they remained broadly within our expectations. The commodity environment continues to remain challenging, with inflation persisting across several key input categories, and in some cases are in fact worsening. We continue to closely monitor commodity trends which are showing no signs of waiting and are hence planning a calibrated price increase post the festive period. We have taken a conscious call not to increase prices during the festive season. Moving on to operating expenses. As the business continues to scale, the benefits of operating leverage are becoming increasingly visible. Total OPEX grew by 10.2% year-on-year, resulting in a meaningful improvement in the OPEX ratio to 41.6% of revenue, down 181 basis points year-on-year. This has been the key driver of EBITDA margin expansion and is despite step-up in advertisement and sales promotion spends. These investments were focused on in-store presence and strengthen in-market execution and support growth acceleration during the peak demand period. Adjusted PBT for Q2 grew by 17.8% year-on-year to 105 crore. Reported PAT grew by 19.1% year-on-year to achieve highest ever quarterly PAT of 73 crore. Moving on to H1 FY27 performance now. At the beginning of the year, we had stated that FY27 would be a year where growth accelerates, and we have backed that ambition with meaningful investments across the business. Alongside this, we stepped up and front-loaded our growth investments with enhanced in-store presence and high-impact consumer campaigns across categories. These initiatives were played out as planned, and H1 revenue grew by 15.1% year-on-year to 1590 crore, which is a significant step up from the 12.7% growth in H1 F526. Adjusted EBITDA for H1 grew by 15.5% year-on-year to 195 crore, with adjusted margins being flat on a year-on-year basis at 12.2%. What is particularly encouraging is that this margin stability was achieved despite an extremely challenging cost environment and significant front-loading of growth investments during H1. Reported path for H1 grew by 28.6% year-on-year, 229 crore. Pre-exceptional items path grew by 14.1% year-on-year, 214 crore. Turning now to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with a net cash surplus of 304 floor. Cash being in H1 was impacted due to working capital deployment. The first half typically involves higher working capital deployment due to two reasons. There is an inventory build-up ahead of the festive season, and there is a higher share of modern trade and e-commerce sales, which are on standard credit terms. In addition, during quarter two, we proactively increase inventory levels ahead of the implementation of BIS norms to ensure supply continuity and uninterrupted product availability during the transition period, which also coincides with the peak festive demand. Historically, a significant proportion of annual operating cash flow has been generated during the second half of the year as inventory levels normalize and receivables are collected. To illustrate, in FY26, the entire operating cash flow for the year was generated in H2 alone. H1 cash flow operations was negative. A similar trend will be visible in FY27 as well. Looking ahead, our priorities remain clear. First, we intend to build and accelerate on the growth momentum from the first half of FY27. Second, on profitability, given the challenging cost environment, calibrated pricing actions would be undertaken effective mid-November. However, given the lag between cost increases already being seen and the price increase, the full impact of price increases will be visible only in Q4. Hence, Q3 will witness a transitionary impact on margins. That said, we expect margins to recover in Q4, and we continue to aim for flat margins on a full year basis. With that, I will hand it back to the moderator and open the floor for questions. Before we begin our Q&A, I would like to wish all of you and your families a very happy Diwali. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

Operator

Our first question comes from the line of Siddharth Beira with Nomira.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Siddharth Bera, Analyst — Nomura

Yeah. Hi, sir. Diwali wishes to the entire team, and congrats on a great set of numbers as well. Sir, first question is on the water purifier side. I mean, would it be possible to share the volume or value breakup in the quarter on a YOY basis, just to understand the amount of price increases we have taken till now? And if you can quantify how much we would need more to sort of get back to our earlier cross-margin levels, that will be the one. And second, some granular data point now, like this two-year product has been in the market for at least a year. So if you can share some trends about what is the contribution from that in our portfolio, So, just to understand the type of acceleration it is seeing, and thirdly, on the four-year life as well, if you can share some more insights on how is the initial traction building up.

Speaker 7

And thank you for the wishes, and I wish you and family the same. Let me respond to your questions about water first and the water prolifiers performance and the profile of growth. As you saw in the results and in my opening remarks, we've had a very strong performance in water prolifiers in quarter two. We delivered growth in high teams. And for us, what was very encouraging was that the growth was on the back of very, very healthy volume growth and size increase. This continued the pattern that we had seen in quarter one as well. So while not getting to specific numbers, I would like to reiterate that the growth was, you know, a healthy combination and the volume contribution to the growth was higher. And so that was the first question. That is that they... Therefore, they address a very fundamental customer need. These products have done very well for us, and then now they contribute to a large share of our overall revenues and overall mix, and growing LPD as well. On the four-year product, Siddharth, you're absolutely right. We launched it in quarter two, and as you can imagine, the four-year product... Very, very fundamental category barrier. We kept hearing from non-users that the uncertainty... Recording costs. Which, again, are helping create the buzz and driving customer interest. On your earlier question of how much pricing will be required to be taken, That in any pricing, that action that we evaluate and take, we have to balance the need for margins and the need to maintain. has actually moved up in the first half of the year. As we look at the pricing in November, Price increase range of between 3% to 4% to be told out post-Post-Diwali.

Siddharth Bera, Analyst — Nomura

Got it, sir. Thanks a lot. I'll come back and review.

Operator

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Keshav Lahoti with HTSC Securities.

Keshav Lahoti, Analyst — HTSC Securities

Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Congratulations on strong set of numbers. Firstly, what sort of price like you have taken so far in each of the product categories?

Gaurav Khandelwal, CFO

The price hike that we had taken was in April. After that, we have not taken any price hike since then. I think I have to give you a broad sense. Water was in the range of around 5 to 6 percent. That was the range in which price increase was taken. And outside of that, then there are other commodities that was more SKU specific. But water was the main one where price increase was taken. The other important call out is the price increase that was done on the AMC side. So, AMC witnessed the price increase as well, which was roughly, depending on, because there are various propositions that are there, the price increase there ranged anywhere from 3 to roughly 10%. So, that was the broad band in which price increase had happened.

Keshav Lahoti, Analyst — HTSC Securities

Understood. You have, the company have taken, you know, multiple initiatives to revise the service growth, which we have seen, you know, picking up till last year, but somewhere now it has been stable. What are the thoughts on seeing what is working and what is possibly not taking for the company?

Speaker 7

Look, let me respond to that question. And as we said in our opening remarks, that our service performance has been in this quarter, has been broadly in line with the earlier quarter. And one reason for that is that the impact of the price increase that Kaurav spoke about just now remains visible, even as customers are dealing with other inflationary pressures. We have taken many initiatives. In this year and more recently in quarter two to drive both service revenues and improve customer engagement. I think one big intervention that we've done is to allow us greater access to customers for servicing their devices and for trying to convert them into an AMC opportunity. Towards that, we've launched two initiatives. One is that we've launched a nationwide free filter check campaign, which allows our customers to reach out to us and for our technicians to go and ensure that the customers' filters are genuine. And if there is a need to be replaced, offer them that replacement opportunity. That's one. The other one that we have launched is... Typically, six months after the AMC, we have now introduced another additional calling opportunity where we call the customers, go to their homes. AMC or a filter opportunity. Now these programs are going to work for us. HMR filter, which keeps... First of the steps we've taken.

Keshav Lahoti, Analyst — HTSC Securities

Thank you for such a detailed explanation. One last question from my side. What is the increasing ASP spend in this quarter and for H1?

Speaker 7

Sunil Dukeshav, I think, as Gaurav mentioned in his opening remarks as well, I think this is one investment we've deliberately chosen to make both in quarter one and in quarter two ahead of the curve. Our A&SP spends have grown healthily. Thank you. Further, give you a breakdown of our ANFP spends and where they've gone behind. I think from a campaign point of view, Thank you. Vishuddha Kapoor, the Ghatka Naya Favorite Campaign. We also have rolled out a category creation campaign on water softener, which is Life Hard Me Apto Paani Hard He. We also, I mean, I'm hoping you might have noticed this. We have really stepped up our influencer marketing work across the board, across all our categories. And we are beginning to see a lot of traction on that. So these are in the broad areas of ANSP Spence. In the last two quarters, and especially in quarter two.

Keshav Lahoti, Analyst — HTSC Securities

Possible to quantify the growth, what earlier we used to do?

Gaurav Khandelwal, CFO

No, we give the numbers, you know, we give the numbers at the end of the year, but as Pradeek mentioned, you can imagine that, you know, H1 growth is 15.1% and ANSP growth is higher than that, so we are making, you know, meaningful investments.

Keshav Lahoti, Analyst — HTSC Securities

Got it. Thank you so much.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Umang Meta with Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Umang Mehta, Analyst — Kotak Securities

Hi, thanks for the opportunity and congrats on our strong quarter. My first question was on growth. You know, last year we had a situation where we had a very robust growth in e-commerce and then, you know, 3Q had certain impact on, you know, actual performance in not coming in line with joint business plans. Just wanted to check, given that the festive sales are done, how do we see this pan out this year? How are channel inventories as of quarter end? Any commentary would be very helpful to understand.

Speaker 7

Thank you for the question. Is that the growth was based on strong sellouts, strong tertiary sales? And we have seen that continue in the festive period until now. Therefore, whatever inventory we built up ahead of Q3 for festive was normal, and our tertiaries and our sellouts have been in line with that. So, we do not expect. Last year's issue was a one-off. It was confined and limited to e-commerce, and within that, one specific partner.

Umang Mehta, Analyst — Kotak Securities

And the second question was on service. So you mentioned that this two-year filter life and multi-year filter lives were a large part, you know, of sales. I think we launched these, you know, May, June last year, right? So I've already anniversarized. Do you think this could be a headwind from AMC growth perspective incrementally, you know, from this year? Given that, you know, if you would have sold a one-year device, then, you know, those would have come in the funnel somewhere right now.

Speaker 7

I think that's a fair question. Thank you. And with the broad expansion of the two-year range and now the more recent introduction of the four-year product, that barrier gets fundamentally broken. And one reason why we are seeing the category grow and come back to momentum and double-digit growth and us growing ahead of that is because we have chosen to make those investments in innovation and product development ahead and address that very barrier. So that's number one. The other point to keep in mind is that Welcome to Anniversary. Unlike the one-year filters and the one-year products, there is no parallel market, there is no open market that's available for these filters. Probability becomes significantly higher. to Keshav earlier, that our filter investments in Are you a dedicated team?

Umang Mehta, Analyst — Kotak Securities

Understood. Thank you so much for your responses and happy delivery to the team in Iran. Thanks.

Speaker 7

Thank you. And same to you, Mark. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Samir Gupta with IISL Capital. Please go ahead.

Samir Gupta, Analyst — IIFL Capital

Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for taking the question. So, it's partly a follow-up to what Tomong was asking, but slightly in a different way. So, let's just say that two-year and four-year life products, you would assume that these are superior products, and any customer today who's using an existing one-year life product, and he chooses to replace it because it's at the end of his life or anything, which is the product life, I mean, He would basically upgrade to a two-year or a four-year life. There's a high chance to that possibility. Am I getting this right?

Speaker 7

So, Samir, it's a bit of both. Fundamentally, what the two-year and the four-year products do is that they give customers a certainty and greater control and visibility over the lifetime ownership cost. They also reduce the interventions required from a servicing point of view and a filter change point of view. Therefore, they address two fundamental opportunities, or they provide and offer two fundamental opportunities. The first one is to address the category entry barrier of non-users who find the cost of ownership either high or ambiguous and uncertain and beyond that control. So it addresses that barrier, number one. Number two, it also addresses the opportunity, like I said, and the question that you asked of devices coming up for replacement. They offer customers looking for an upgrade, an additional reason to upgrade, because it will reduce the service intervention and the ownership cost. What also two-year products do, and the two-year filters do, is that they essentially push out the parallel market and create a much more organized play for us as a brand.

Samir Gupta, Analyst — IIFL Capital

Got it. And would you say that the cost of ownership across the life cycle of a two-year filter life product is still equal to a one-year life, but it still offers the better benefits of lesser uncertainty and lesser service interventions, or would you say the cost of ownership itself would be lower?

Speaker 7

The cost of ownership would be lower. Also because not all customers need, so different customers have different needs, depending on their usage and the family size and the water quality. Different products would work for different customers. But fundamentally what two-year products do is they give control and they give a lower cost of ownership.

Samir Gupta, Analyst — IIFL Capital

Got it. So, basically, then the product is aimed to get more customers, which will probably offset its cannibalizing impact. I mean, that's how we benefit from this. And the other added benefit that you said that, you know, going to a third party or a fake filter, that all problems will get sorted here, unless, of course, people find ways to devise two-year filter-like products as well.

Speaker 7

No, so what happens is that, and let me talk about my first point, that it appears to the non-user, and therefore it gives, it takes on a fundamental category entry barrier, and therefore helps grow penetration and get more customers in. Let me talk about one specific experience that we've had. So, as we looked at a larger suite of two-year products that we've sold, and the profile of customers who have bought these products, we have seen that a dominant share of these customers actually are first-time category entrants. And that tells us that we are fundamentally addressing the task that those two products are allowed to do, because to grow the category, grow the market, number one. Number two.

Samir Gupta, Analyst — IIFL Capital

That's all for me. I'll come back in the queue for any follow-ups. Best 50 wishes from me. Thanks and all the best.

Speaker 7

Thank you, Samir. And to you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may please press star and one. We also request that you please restrict yourselves to two questions only. If you have any further questions, you may rejoin the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Mr. Achal Lohadeh with Nobama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Achal Lohade, Analyst — Nuwama Institutional Equities

Yeah, good afternoon, team. Thank you for the opportunity. Congratulations for the excellent show, especially given the higher base of 2Q. Sir, two questions first. Sorry, I joined the call a little late. You know, with respect to the guidance, I just wanted to check, you know, is there any change upward or downward to that guidance on revenue as well as the profit growth?

Speaker 7

Ajal, let me respond to the question on the growth and the growth outlook, and I request Gaurav to talk about the margins. On growth, in my opening remarks, I underlined the fact that in H1 and in Q2, especially, like you said, we have left a strong base and delivered a 15% growth. In H1, therefore, in its entirety, a growth of 15.1% is meaningfully higher than the H1 growth last year of 12.7%. So, this acceleration in growth. Sorry, sorry. Did you say something, Achal? So we saw meaningful step-up in growth and what was encouraging was and what gave us a lot of energy was that this growth was extremely broad-based. We saw very strong growth in water purifiers, a high team growth, which also led to significant market share gains. We saw growth in emerging categories across the board. And in all of these, water and emerging categories, the growth was volume-led and mix and pricing contributing as well. As we look ahead to H2, Q3 and Q4, our conviction is that given what we see as tailwinds in our categories, given that we have seen strong sellout momentum both in Q2 and more recently early in the festive period, Good morning, everyone. We believe that we will see and we will deliver a step-up in growth and an acceleration in growth over H1 in H2. On margins, as you are aware, we have delivered a flat margin in H1 year-on-year, and on the nuance in H2, I request Gaurav to pitch in.

Gaurav Khandelwal, CFO

Hi, Achal. I think if I were to just, you know, step back, our ambition at the start of the year was to have a step-up in growth. And I have at least margins to be flat on a year-on-year basis. On an H1 basis, if you look at it, there has been a very clear growth step-up that Pratik spoke about, and margins have been flat. And hence, we are very much in line with our ambition. I think H2 is a story of two parts. I'll just repeat since you joined in a bit later. We had consciously... We have not taken a price increase in view of the festive season, although the commodity environment has been fairly volatile, and hence it will differ taken a price increase. We will be taking a price increase effective mid-November. What this would mean is that the full impact of the price increase would not be visible in quarter three, but would come only in quarter four. Hence, there will be a transitionary impact on margins as far as quarter three is concerned, but we expect the margins to come back in quarter four. On a full year basis, we continue to aim for holding on to margins on a full year basis as flat.

Achal Lohade, Analyst — Nuwama Institutional Equities

Would the working capital, if you could, give us some sense as to how it is progressing, particularly on the receivable days, etc., that would be helpful.

Gaurav Khandelwal, CFO

Yes, Achal. I think if you look at the business model, typically for us, quarter two is the main season because of monsoon, and it's also just the start of the festive season. Thank you. You will always find a quarter, two receivables and working capital deployment to be on the higher side. The pattern is very much consistent this year as well. If I were to look at, for example, Cash flow was delivered in H2. Thank you. September and Just achieving the unminding happens. You've seen in H1 is very much consistent. The trend passed here, and you will see this unwinding to start happening in H2.

Achal Lohade, Analyst — Nuwama Institutional Equities

Got it. Just a small clarification, if I may ask, you know, when I listened to your comments with respect to the two-year filter products and four-year filter life water purifiers, you mentioned very clearly that, you know, basically there is no gray market filter for these filters. Have I understood, right? So, is that because this is relatively new and it is not developed, or you think, you know, structurally, you know, these gray markets segment will not be able to offer that kind of a filter? Just a clarification on that would be of great interest. Thank you.

Speaker 7

No, that's a very fair question. I think, let me break into two parts. I think the reason why there is no parallel market as of now for two years and two years filter. is because this category is still relatively new, and it's only now acquiring momentum and scale. For a parallel market to developer proposition, it requires a very large install lease to cater to, which this proposition doesn't have right now, given the recency of it. So that's one reason why the two-year filter life doesn't exist in the gray market. The parallel market depends on frequency of renewal and frequency of sale and frequency of engagement with the customer to keep their model going. The unit price that they sell at is low, but the frequency of contact is high and frequency of change is high. This two-year filter life, given the longer life, breaks that relationship and breaks that equation fundamentally. Therefore, the parallel markets' interest... It's a business model.

Achal Lohade, Analyst — Nuwama Institutional Equities

Thank you and wish you all the very best.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ritesh Chedda with Lucky.

Operator

Please go ahead. Pritesh, your line has been unmuted. You may proceed with your question. As we're not receiving a response from the current participant, we will proceed to the next question.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Ashish Uggenlauer with Invesque Investment Managers LLP. Please go ahead.

Ashish Uggenlauer, Analyst — Invesque Investment Managers LLP

Yes, a couple of questions from my side. So, one is I don't know how much you can contribute on this, but there has been a promoter pledge activity, which has been quite big on the pledges. So, anything to share on that, because that has an impact on me. The sentiment towards this talk seems to be falling. So, I think to share on that. Please help us with that. Some clarification would help.

Gaurav Khandelwal, CFO

Yeah, I think just a couple of points of clarification. See, as far as Eureka Forbes is concerned, this has no bearing on any of our operations. That is something which is between the promoter and whatever, you know, funding arrangement that they would have had with the financial institution for the acquisition. So from our perspective, there is absolutely no impact on companies' operations, impact, governance, etc., etc. We are a professionally-run company with a strong independent board, and from our perspective, it does not create any obligation on us, financial or otherwise. So, from our perspective, there is absolutely no impact.

Ashish Uggenlauer, Analyst — Invesque Investment Managers LLP

No, but sir, the point is from a minority stakeholder point of view, it's a problem actually. It doesn't impact the company's business that we absolutely understand. We have been investing in so many companies for a couple of decades, but all this affects the stock price which you already have seen apart from business scheme. So I think any clarification from the promoter side would be helpful on this because if this continues, then… I mean, why should minority holders be there in the stock, actually? So that is the point. Second is on the business. Just wanted to check on this robotic cleaners that you have introduced. How are they picking up? And is all this likely to be reasonable contribute given the traction that you are seeing in the home cleaning? side of the business overall, because it leads to premiumization possibly, and secondly, it leads to better sales from the same units, I mean, same number of units. So, if you could share your thoughts on that, that's another thing that I want to try to say.

Speaker 7

Is it reasonable? No, Ashit, thank you for that question. That's a question, it's a subject very close to my heart, and I must state that You know, we were very quick and very early to spot the opportunity in robotic vacuum cleaners more than three years back. And we built very systematically a strong portfolio of products. In India. The customers need for convenience. We have a very, very important role and plug a very important. It's becoming more and more meaningful, both at the category level and for us as a company. the category elsewhere globally, a very strong nationwide service. Thank you. Thank you. As we see, a mainstream device. If you go down the box, it won't be, as we've seen already, not only a metro-centric category, but also a metro-centric category.

Ashish Uggenlauer, Analyst — Invesque Investment Managers LLP

If I can ask one more question, the competitive intensity in the water purifiers, if you could explain us by categorizing it into the segments of premium and mass and submass, basically, how are you looking at it? Because there are launches coming, there is... Probably the intensity in the market is reasonably high over there. So if you could explain us, is it only in the premium segment or is it in all segments? Because this is the biggest category for us, so that would help us. Is there any stress there as far as maintaining the sales momentum is concerned?

Speaker 7

No, Ashit, thank you for that question again. I think it's a very good question. Let me start by saying, first of all, it's great that there are more players looking at this category and entering this category. Competition always leads to more innovation, leads to more consumer interest. Purify the stainless steel tanks. So some of these innovations that we've rolled out have helped us drive growth and gain market share. We also have a very strong retail execution engine. And more recently, in the last two quarters, we've begun investing and we've increased our point of sale presence. Thank you. We believe that we have the right playbook to keep driving growth in this category and to gain share as we go forward.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as a last question for today. I would now like to have the conference over to Mr. Pradeep Hota for closing comments.

Speaker 7

Thank you, everyone, for attending the call and for your questions. I hope you were able to answer them to your satisfaction. Of course, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to Investor Relations. Before I end the call and before we sign off, I would like to extend my warm Diwali greetings to everyone on the call. On behalf of all of us at Eureka Forbes, I wish you and your families a joyful, prosperous, and safe festive season. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. On behalf of Eureka Forbes Ltd., that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.