Earnings Call Transcript - XNSE:JSWDULUX 2026-11-04

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to JSW Deluxe Q2 F527 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an option for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call? Please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. And now in the conference, over to Mr. Aniradha Joshi from ICICI Securities. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Yeah, thanks, Nirav. On behalf of ICICI Security, we welcome you all to Q2FI 27 results webinar of JSW Deluxe Limited. We have with us today, Senior Management, represented by Mr. Rajiv Rajgopal, Joint Managing Director and CEO, and Mr. Rajiv L. Jaa, General Counsel, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer. Initially, there will be a presentation from the management on the quarterly performance, and then we will open the floor for question and answer session. Now, I hand over the call to Mr. Rajiv Jha for reading out the disclaimer and then to Mr. Rajiv Rajgopal for the comments on the quarterly performance. Thanks and over to you, Mr. Jha.

Rajiv L. Jha, General Counsel

Thank you so much, Anurad, and good afternoon. Rather good evening to all who are attending this Q2 earnings call of JSW Deluxe Limited. And as per our process, let me start with that self-aware statement that I am reading out. This presentation contains statements which addresses such key issues as the company growth strategy, future financial results, market positions, product development, products in the pipeline, and product approvals. Such statements should be carefully considered, and it should be understood that many factors could cause forecast and actual results or outcomes to differ from these statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, price fluctuations, currency fluctuations, developments in raw material and personal costs, pensions, physical and environmental risks, legal issues and legislative, fiscal, and other regulatory measures and approvals, as well as significant market disruptions. The stated competitive positions are based on management estimates supported by information provided by specialized external agencies. For a more comprehensive discussion of the risk factors affecting our business, please see our latest annual report for the financial aid in July 26th. Now, I would welcome Mr. Rajiv as your call to take it forward for me. Thank you.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

So, thank you, Rajiv. Just from my perspective, I'd like to just say that, again, just to give a disclaimer, as you've seen in our press release, we've reported the comparable results of like-to-like because we still in this quarter had an overhang of about 34.3 crores of revenue of the revenue of the, which got transferred to the Axi Nobel unlisted entity of customers and businesses and also some inter-company sales of decorative sales which no longer continue, right? So just to be clear, if you look at our volume growth, our volume growth was about 21%. Our revenue growth was about 21.3%. EBITDA growth at 110.9 is up 4.4% versus a like-to-like of 106.3 crores. Our PAC, excluding exceptional items at 71.2 crores, is up 2% from 69.8. Yeah. So if you look at our business, both decorative and industrial business continue to do well. We've seen mid double digit growth in our decorative business and almost a 32% plus growth in our industrial business. So our revenue growth has been led by industrial business. But what has happened when you look at the gross margins, given that we've got a 60% contribution from decorative and a 40% from industrials, we've seen that in the industrial business, the price hike that was taken So it's a bit of a tale of two stories, high volume growth, high revenue growth. If you look at the numbers and look at the volume price mix, right? So you can see very clearly a 21.8, you know, in terms of volume, a 21.3 in terms of revenue. We had a price increase of almost 7.9 and a mix adverse of about 8.4 primarily because of the business mix and also because of the fact that the price of the price of the The fact that, you know, we grew faster in some of our industrial business. That's the way it is. It's not a structural issue. The entire AOP budget planning, etc. was done at a different crude and, you know, dollar to rupee. That no longer stands sort of there. In this quarter, we've seen elevated crude levels and we've seen elevated, you know, the dollar to rupee conversions at 96. So obviously, those two variables have impacted the industry. You've seen it industry-wide, particularly both in the paints and adjacent, you know, spaces, companies which have declared the result, you've seen some similar. We believe that look on the volume and revenue, we've seen a faster growth. And for me, that's very encouraging. If you really look at it on the decorative sides, our margin, if you look at it sequentially also, we've largely remained. It's on the industrial side. We've seen about two, you know, a higher drop. So, if you look at the 400 bibs drop in the gross margin, it's largely led to the industrial business, which we believe that in this quarter, we've announced our price increases on our industrial side of about 4%. We believe that we can recover, and we believe that, look, it's a bit of a short-term issue, which we start to correct, right? So, that's broadly it. If you look at the EBITDA margin, hence, the EBITDA margin operates at about 11.5, which is… You know, obviously, at elevated levels. We also, if you look at, you know, had a bad growth of 2% because, you know, it was limited by lower investment income. So that's broadly the story we've had. A broad-based growth. If you look at Decorator, we've continued to, in the first half, grow in premium with a high single-digit growth in volume and double-digit growth in revenue. We've seen our flagship brands, whether it's Velvet Touch or Weather Shield, continue to do well. But we've grown faster in our adjacencies, which is basically waterproof and wood care. And we've seen some challenges in some of the lower margin where we've chosen across both Decorator and Industrials to do it. If you look at our price increases, while we've seen most of our competitors announced from 1st of November, we took it in three branches, September 30th, October 14th, and then we took the balance on October 26th. And the reason we took smaller tranches was to make sure that our smaller dealers also sort of are able to bite it. And that's something that we think has helped us in the quarter. Yeah, so we are, I think, overall, I would say, if I were to look at it, I think it's a balanced performance. We continue like the way India sees a high growth, high inflationary environment, and the high inflation is impacting our margins, which we believe is temporary and will correct as the markets correct on some of the raw materials. So that's broadly it. So that's what I would like to say. We've seen the power of innovation. We've seen a lot of work which is happening. On the integration, I'm happy to report that we talked about Project Akshia last time. We've seen unlocking of synergies. We've seen about 7.3 crore realized in Q2, which is driven by supply chain efficiencies. We've cross-manufacturing and unified projects business. On the ERPN systems, that's going to happen sometime towards the end of the year to in the month of December. And we've also started aligning our functions. So if you look at on the functional side, we've got now integrated structures between JSW Deluxe and JSW Pains. So that's broadly what I have to say. The investor deck is already loaded. So I think it's better we take all the questions than you may have to ask. And I hand it back over to the moderator and Anirudh for all the questions you have for me. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please click on the raise hand icon available on your toolbar or on the Q&A tab available on your screen. Kindly turn on your mic when the operator announces your name. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Yeah, hi, Anirudha here. So, three questions from my side. One, how do you see the industrial coatings profitability shaping up for FY27 for the industry as well as for JSW also? We have seen probably the price have been materially lower than the decorative business, so how should we think in terms of the profitability? I guess the enamel element is bit more in industrial. I mean to say the crude oil component is much higher compared to emulsions. So logically, the crude oil dependence and impact of higher input prices is also a bit higher. So how should we read on to the industrial coatings of profitability?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

So, let me split the industrial into the different verticals. If you look at our marine protective and industrial, you know, coil coating and our packaging coatings, here the raw material inflation in the quarter went up almost to an extent, the cogs increase was almost 30%, right, 30 to 35%. And obviously, the price increase has been, you know, just about 6 to 7%. And as a result, there is a lag, you know, automotive and in our vehicle refinished business, really. And like our decorative business, Anirudh, we the price increase, The price increases has by and large been sort of recovered, not fully in the quarter, but by end of October, we've started recovering. In decorative, we've announced the additional price increases in November. As I told you, we ran the additional price increases between last week of September and October. And again, further announced another price increase of another 1% because we've cumulatively taken almost about 3.2 to 3.5% in decorative additional. And in industrial business, obviously, there is a bit of a lag. So industrial, when you look at our exit of 10.4 or an average of 7.9 during the quarter, it's basically industrial business, particularly on our industrial business, which has been a bit of a laggard. We are currently at high single digit EBITDA margins. We believe in the industrial businesses. But if you look at, we believe that, look, this is not, we are pushing for price increases. We are also looking at low margin accounts and we are trying to see various things that we can do to try and make sure that while we've been in the market, we do it in a margin accretive way. So that's the focus. So you're absolutely right that, look, we need to make sure that we continue to navigate this through in the entire industrial piece. On the decorative side, I think largely the price increases have got covered. What's yet to be covered is the anti-dumping duty, additional 2%, which has gotten done, which we'll wait to see how the industry responds and then sort of play. If you've seen the EBITDA for the quarter, it's at about 11.5%. I'd said that, look, in the year, we want to be at about 13, 14. When I made the last comment, the crude was hovering at about 95. The crude went up to 114. Today, it's at 105, 106. So, it's still at elevated levels. And similarly, the Forex at that time was about 93, 94. It went up to 96. It's back to about 94.5. So, we've got to understand that we're living in elevated times of inflationary environment. To predictability is a little tough, but we are doing whatever it takes through various measures, both on the cost side, on the R&D side, looking at different value engineering programs without affecting the end quality, because quality is what JSW Dulux stands for, both on our decorative side and our industrial side. And we are also looking at new segments, new opportunities that we can play. So that's the approach, Anirudh, to answer your question.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Okay, sure, sir. This is very helpful. Second question, the volume growth that we are reporting over past two, three quarters has been very strong, 20% plus on almost every quarter. So, just want to understand more on this. So, if you can share more color on this, are we getting more market share in urban, rural, metros, tier one, tier two, any product segment that you would like to call out? And is it fair also to assume that we would have gained market share drastically in past three quarters?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

Well, on our industrial side, I would say the market shares have been, again, by different verticals would be different. Vehicle refinish, we believe that we've started gaining market share. In our marine and protective, we are holding to minor league, you know, in some segments gaining, but otherwise holding market share. In our coil coding and packaging codings, we believe that we are getting market share, right? In decorative, on an aggregate, we believe that versus last year, where we had lost some market share, we've started gaining it back, and we've started gaining it quite significantly. In terms of sources of gain, look, Dulux still is largely, I would say, tier one, tier two, tier three. It's not fair for me to say that I'm getting in rural because that definition is not true. What I would say is that what we've seen is a little more broad-based growth, right? And that's what I would say that we've seen a little more broad-based growth. Earlier, we had seen growths higher coming from the north and west. We've seen some good growths coming now from some markets in the south. Our challenge continues to be in some markets in East where, again, we've seen a little bit of bounce back in October, but again, we have to be very careful because how much of this is price-led and how much of this is actually demand-led is something that we need to keep monitoring and come back to.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Okay, sure, sir. Thanks. The third question, how do you see the overall CapEx intensity at JSW now? And potentially, there is a group company also in the paint business. So, how should we think in terms of the CapEx plans and in a way, any additional incremental spend that we may need to strengthen the… Because the volume growth is 20% plus.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

So I am assuming maybe... Absolutely. So two things. One, I mentioned to you last time, and I already mentioned on this call that we have already started cross-manufacturing. So across both our plants, JSW Deluxe, five plants, and the three plants of JSW Paints, we've started cross-manufacturing. So we are making JSW Paints, for example, in plants like Mohali, Hyderabad, and vice versa. JSW Deluxe in Vijayanagar and in some of the other markets. So what we are going to, of course, there is an additional capex because obviously we are going to beef up investments. We've had a higher capex increase on the industrial side of the business early during the year because the capacity utilization on our industrial business, particularly in some of our verticals, had touched close to 75%. So we had to put some investments there. And on our decorative business also, we are looking at, in terms of demand by segments and seeing some additional capacities, a capex in terms of both our tinting machines, our stores, et cetera, continue, as you know, because do store has been, you know, we talked about it earlier and we continue to invest in our stores and our tinting machines as we move forward.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

OK, sure, sir. This is very helpful. Uh, many thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Participants may click on raise an icon. To ask their question. Next question is from line of Angit Kamli from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Aniket Kamli, Analyst — ICICI Securities

Hi, sir. Aniket, this side. Congrats on a very good performance for the quarter. My question was on a little bit on the second half of F527. Since there is a deficient in rainfall, what is your sense on H2F527? And since we are mostly a tier 2, tier 3 kind of a player, what is your sense on that?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

So look, I think we'll have to wait and watch because while there's been some rainfall deficiency in some markets, particularly in some states, right, at an aggregate level at India, I would say the overall deficiency is within the range. So I don't see dramatic impact. Again, we'll have to wait and watch of what the demand is by market. And as a result, our H2, we still believe that, look, I think subject to no other external intervention, which we've seen, which will affect the, you know, The crude and the dollar, we believe that demand should continue to be buoyant. Of course, we have to wait and watch to see how the price increases are sort of imbibed. We believe that the current price increases are already fairly at elevated levels. If you take decorative, that you mentioned, it's already at about 13.5%, which is a little high. So we'll have to wait till November, December to see how this gets passed on. It will have some impact, but we will take time to sort of come back to you in terms of how this is playing as far as demand Yeah, on the rainfall, I think we'll have to wait because typically some of these things will come with a bit of a lag, to be honest. And so it's little, I think early for me to give you a clear commentary and directly correlated to rainfall because we're still not seeing, for example, in Maharashtra, you know, we've seen a uniform growth. Right. And maybe I can just invite Rohit to say a few words. I think, Rohit, do you have anything to add?

Rohit, Other

Oh, hell. Thanks. Yeah, you summed it up well, but as of now, we are not witnessing any demand slowdowns, both in detail and project. So, we clearly see... And now with the season getting opened and the October was really good. So we see similar kind of a demand buoyancy in going forward.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

No, we've been traveling to markets and I can it's not so that it doesn't sound anecdotal. We've seen, you know, we've seen markets like we've been to many parts, whether it's in Central India, East India, North or even some markets in South. We are still seeing a good uptick, but too early to say that ends some of the points you made. We'll have to wait and watch and navigate it as we move forward. Thank you. I hope I've answered your question.

Aniket Kamli, Analyst — ICICI Securities

Yes, sir. Thank you. That is very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Participants, you may click on raise an icon to ask your question.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Yes, sir, Anirudha here. So, one, two questions which we have received from the Innovae investors. So, first of all, the tax rate seems to be slightly on the lower side in this quarter at around 19%. So, any particular reason for that or do we see just quarterly aberration and the full year tax rate should be around? 25%. That is question number one. And then in terms of. Yeah.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

So I'm just asking Ramesh, Subramaniam, who's our accounting controller, who's standing in for the CFO to reply. Ramesh.

Ramesh Subramaniam, Analyst — Accounting Controller

Yeah, so we had a favorable order from the income tax department relating to... Assessment year 2008, 9 and 9, 10.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Your voice is breaking.

Ramesh Subramaniam, Analyst — Accounting Controller

Yeah. So I said we had a favorable order in relation to income tax matters for assessment year 2013-14 and consequent to that the provision that was not required was released. So that's the reason you see. So it's a one-off to answer the question. It's a one-off.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

It's a one-off. Okay, no, no, that is, okay, and for the full year, the tax pitch should be around 25 odd questions.

Ramesh Subramaniam, Analyst — Accounting Controller

Yeah, it should go back to, it should go back to the same 25.6, thereabouts.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Okay, okay, so that's, that's helpful. In terms of the competitive intensity, it seems to be mellowing down, but is it really visible on ground and Are we seeing the competitive intensity from the new entrance has really slowed down, and any particular region it has slowed down or has it in a way slowed down only in metros or tier 1 cities. So, any color on that and. ah How is EXO ah sorry how is JSW develops now responding to the ah in a way new ah paradigm which may emerge ah as far as competitive intensity is concerned.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

So look, as far as competitive intensity is concerned, let me break into two parts. The competitive intensity done by the challenger brands where they used pricing as a huge lever while some of those activities like giving still 10%, etc. continue. We've seen that at least the price hikes have been taken by most of the players. So to that extent, there is a little more discipline. Obviously, there's fiscal prudence coming, which is the right way to run the business and that's seen across. However, competitive intensity in terms of activation programs, etc. continue to be intense across in the decorative market because I assume you're talking more of the decorative segment. So my answer is yes, competitive intensity in terms of market activation, you know, discounting continues to run maybe at slightly lower levels than it used to be a couple of years, but it's still the same. I wouldn't say it's completely somebody has pulled off the, you know, pedal off the pedal. In terms of how the new competitors, how is our response? Look, I think we are working on a strategy where I think our focus is in terms of driving the JSW Dulux based on certain strategic pillars, which I've already presented to you a few times. I think we remain focused on our strategy. Our challenge is in terms of execution excellence and making sure those strategies are delivered and making sure that we integrate over a period of time seamlessly into the group. So I think these are the two things where I still think that there is still lots to go in markets where execution excellence is of a higher order. We are seeing higher performance. But again, these are market related challenges that we see in some of the markets. So hopefully, Anirudh, I've answered your question. Comparative intensity continues to remain the same. But with the guidance that I think the pricing discipline is a little better than what it used to be in the past.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Okay, sure, sir. This is helpful. Just last question. Do we see any improvement in working capital also with the change in competitive industries?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

So working capital, last quarter, if you look at, you know, because in the quarter we have to announce a balance sheet, we've seen an elevated levels of inventory, primarily because we wanted to, you know, do a bit of pre-buy on the titanium dioxide as a group, as a company. Other than that, nothing else. We've seen some challenges on the market credit, more on the industrial side of the business than decorative, but otherwise, nothing exceptional. These are the two things which have sort of really sort of impacted. Other than that, I think over a period of the next three to five months, we should be back to normal levels.

Operator

Thank you very much.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Very helpful. Many thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Participants, you may click on the icon to ask your question. Next question is from the line of Umang Shah from Avengers BMS. Please go ahead.

Umang Shah, Analyst — Axis BMS

Bye, sir. Hi. So firstly, congrats on project where we have seen 7 crore worth of another savings. My basic question is that how much of gross margin savings are we looking at assuming that the pricing remains as it is because obviously in presentation also you have clearly mentioned that how their B2B margins are, you know, they are lower due to business mix. So what exactly should we be watchful for when we are assessing your gross margin?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

I think what you should be aware of is the fact that JSW Dulux, the composition of the decorative to industrial business is 60-40, right? In fact, 57-43, right? Compared to some of our larger players, which are 90-10 or 80-20. And hence, the gross margin dilution of the industrial business impact is significant more on Dulux, which is not structural, it's temporary. And as the crude starts coming down, obviously, JSW Deluxe will start having a better ability to play and win in the market, right? So that's one. Two, I think on the, thank you, on the integration and Project Akshia, our ability on Project Akshia comes from two parts. One is things like cross-manufacturing, integrating the functions and looking at cross-liverage across the group. There, we are on target. I'd suffice to say, I would not like to disclose the targets for the year at this point of time. And as I said, on a quarterly basis, we'll bring up to you where we stand, what is accruing income for a simple reason that, you know, there are many factors in terms of implementation at a broad level. I would say that, you know, we are, you know, if you were to look at it, we are trying to at least on a full year basis, try and get at least about a 7 to 10% of the overall EBITDA coming through the, you know, savings coming through this Akshia project. Yeah, that's broadly the, you know, and it could be anywhere between 8 to 8% roughly coming through the project Akshia. That's broadly what I would like to say.

Umang Shah, Analyst — Axis BMS

Sure. Thank you. That's very heartening to hear. And sir, staying on the industrial front, because we are one of the biggest in industrial, where do you see the scope for further growth or further gaining in market share? Is it automobiles, manufacturing, or construction? Any broad-based idea would be helpful.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

No, I think you're right. Firstly, automobile, because the car park, I mean, if you look at the vehicle is virtually growing, the industry is growing at 20% CAGR. So I think, and we've got a right to win. We've got strong brands. We've got a very strong team, you know, great leadership and great. I think the challenge has been in terms of investment in brand and technology, which I think our chairman has been very kind coming back and saying, you come and tell me what you want. I think what we need to do is to re-look at the market and say, from an ExoNobel perspective, we were not playing in many segments, but the JSW approach is what's good for India is good for JSW and what's good for JSW would be good for JSW Dulux, right? As long as they are not margin dilutive, right? As long as they are not margin dilutive, we will continue to play in it and continue to grow the market as long as we are able to grow the absolute abinda. So that's the approach we are taking. In our other businesses, similar approach. We are again looking at saying, we are looking at opportunities. I don't want to define it because you would appreciate that. But suffice to say that we are looking at margins, high margin segments, etc., which over the next year or so we can enter and successfully where we've got a right to win.

Umang Shah, Analyst — Axis BMS

Got it. Just for a broad-based understanding that when we acquired that time, what would be automobile as percentage of revenue versus broad-based? Where do we see that growing? Any rough range? No, no, I will not be able to share all that with you.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

Please. It's an indirect way of quickly breaking up my segments, which we're not allowed to talk about. I was fighting my luck at that thing, but no, thank you. Good luck.

Rohit, Other

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. Participants may click on Razer and I can to ask the question. Next follow-up question is from the line of Omang Shah from Appendus BMS. Please go ahead.

Umang Shah, Analyst — Axis BMS

Sorry, I missed one more question. So now that we will be investing or cross-manufacturing, do we see any tax benefits or any incentives that we would occur over the years?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

No, no, and the current, we are all maxed out because of the number of years is there. We are doing it because we believe that there's a consumer and we believe that there is an opportunity to win in the market.

Umang Shah, Analyst — Axis BMS

Okay, that's the only reason, right? I mean, there is no, so no state benefits, no other.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

At this point of time, no, because in the current plants, we've by and large got most of the benefits all over a period of time.

Umang Shah, Analyst — Axis BMS

Okay, sir. Okay.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

And look, I think we are looking at operating performance, you know, as our chairman reminds us, you know, looking at it in terms of benefits, etc. I think we are going to be judged by our operating performance. So, yeah, that's the focus.

Umang Shah, Analyst — Axis BMS

Got it. Great. No, thank you so much, sir. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. Reminder to all the participants, you may click on raise an icon to ask your question. Next question is from the line of Abhishek Mathur from Systematics Group. Please go ahead.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

Good evening. Abhishek, we can't hear you.

Operator

Abhishek, may I request to unmute your line and proceed with your question?

Abhishek Mathur, Analyst — Systematics Group

Yeah, am I audible now?

Operator

Yes, yeah.

Abhishek Mathur, Analyst — Systematics Group

Yeah. Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So just wanted to double click on this volume growth of 21%, which you have reported. So a couple of other listed players who have announced results, their volume growth is significantly lower than the 21% number, which you've reported. You know, if you can give any color on where this is coming from, is it the greater thrust on mass segment emulsions, or is it distribution expansion partly any color that you can give on? What is driving this 21% number?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

Yeah, what I can say is you're right in some of our products because this is a quarter where the undercoats sell a lot and we historically have not been a player in the decorative side on undercoats, right? So we've seen a bit of a bounce back with very normal, not at elevated levels, but at normal levels of say discount and margins, etc. is what we've seen on our rest of the portfolio. If I just take out some of the categories like putty texture, etc., we've still grown at about 8%, 7% to 8%, which is still higher than the overall growth that some of the competitors have so far announced. And this is largely because I mentioned to you that we had to take some price corrections last year, and what we are seeing now in three quarters, because we took the price corrections between September and October last year, three quarters in a row, we've seen good performance, right? And which is why in the first half I mentioned to you that in decorative, the premium volume growth is almost 8% and the revenue growth is mid double digit. So I think that's what is sort of helping us. We're seeing a little bit of buoyancy come back on that. And also in our adjacent spaces of waterproofing and wood care. Right. Again, on our industrial side also, we've seen high double digit growth in volume across businesses. And as I mentioned to you, that's also largely been because of the fact that we've been getting new accounts. And even in our existing accounts, we've been able to get a higher share of the revenue from, you know, versus what our competitors have got. So that's largely the focus. In terms of decorative, I think our own store growth has been higher than the new store. In my understanding, we've added new stores. If I were to dissect the growth of decorative, I think the existing store growth has been higher. Well, yes, typically we used to grow higher in the new store. So it used to be 70-30. But this time it's more balanced with more tilting towards one stone. It's almost about, I would say, half-half for us, 55-45 towards one stone. That's the answer.

Abhishek Mathur, Analyst — Systematics Group

Understood, sir. This is very helpful. Secondly, sir, I just wanted to check early on in your remarks, you mentioned price highs of 7.9% and then you mentioned something like a 10.4% exit.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

Exit September 10.4, average for the quarter 7.9 for a blended decorative plus industrial.

Abhishek Mathur, Analyst — Systematics Group

Got it, sir. Thanks. That's it from me. Thanks and all the best. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. Participants may click on raise an icon to ask their question. Next question is from the line of Nikita Ganodhya from PGM India Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.

Anirudh Joshi, Head of Investor Relations

Oh, how are you?

Operator

Yeah. Ma'am, you're sounding distant. Can you speak through the handset a little closer to your device?

Nikita Ganodhya, Analyst — PGIM India Mutual Fund

Yeah. Is this better now?

Operator

Yes. This is better, ma'am.

Nikita Ganodhya, Analyst — PGIM India Mutual Fund

Yeah, good evening, sir. Thank you for this opportunity. Sir, just wanted to understand what is your current revenue mix between industrial and decorative mix?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

It is broadly 60-40. Between 57-43 and 60-40 is what the mix is between decorative and industrial.

Nikita Ganodhya, Analyst — PGIM India Mutual Fund

Okay. And you mentioned high double digit volume growth in industrial. So in decorative, what's your volume growth during this quarter?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

As I mentioned, we had almost a 20% growth in decorative, and if you take some of the lower margin products, still we had approximately 8% to 8% overall growth. So if you take out, say, Pari, Texture, etc., we still had about 8% to 8.5% volume growth in decorative.

Nikita Ganodhya, Analyst — PGIM India Mutual Fund

Okay. And sir, how do you see your EBITDA margins moving towards the end by end of F527? As in 13 to 14% was the target when your crude prices were around $90-95. That's right. So with elevated crude prices, what is going to be your target EBITDA margins for?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

See, our target EBITDA in the second half because Fulio now is not valid because when I gave you a 13 to 14 percent, as I mentioned, the crude was at 95 and the dollar was at 95. The dollar went up to 96 and now is at 94.5. But crude has gone all the way to 105 to 115 levels. So it's at elevated levels. So it's very difficult for me to predict. But yes, our intent is to come close to the 13 percent, which is the guidance I've given. Which I believe is what we believe we should do, which is why we are taking price increases across our businesses, right? And how much of that gets realized, we'll have to still see. But we want to make sure that while taking the price increases, we are very careful to monitor demand, right? Because as we will agree that JSW Dulux as ExoNobel India, one of the challenges was in terms of growth. So we want to just make sure that the growth is accretive to the margins, but we still continue to continue on our growth journey. So, we are going to balance it out and then make sure that we get closer to the 13%. I hope I have answered your question.

Nikita Ganodhya, Analyst — PGIM India Mutual Fund

Yeah, that was very helpful, sir. Thank you. Just one more question. Now, after price increases, what are the other growth drivers for your EBITDA as in margin expansion or what other cost efficiencies could be, you know, perform in the business in order to improve the EBITDA margins from 13 to maybe 15% level in the medium term?

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

Look, I think we are working on, that's why we are doing a lot of work on synergy between the JSW Paints and JSW Dulux. We've integrated the functions, projects, business, and decorative is an integrated business now. And we are obviously yet to sort of completely get the benefit. We are looking at different streams across functions like procurement in terms of buying, where the combined businesses of JSW Paints and JSW Dulux, both the teams are working in sales. What do you think to make sure that we are able to get an accretive margin to our respective businesses? So we've got a very clear plan across manufacturing only being one of them, but we've got very clear plan in terms of, you know, how do we really leverage the synergies across both the business with the combined volume and revenue to try and make sure that we across different functions get a higher, you know, synergy and get a cost benefit to the respective companies. Because remember that both the companies are being managed separately, you know, which is a need. Yeah. So that's the plan. Thank you.

Nikita Ganodhya, Analyst — PGIM India Mutual Fund

Thank you. Thank you, sir. This was very helpful.

Operator

Thank you very much. I remind you to all the participants, you may click on raise an icon to ask your question. As there are no further questions, I'll now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Rajiv Rajgopal, CEO

Thank you. I'd like to thank all the investors for all the support that you've given us. Again, this quarter, the growth and our performance is reflective of the fact that we are executing on our strategy. Yeah, I think while there are a lot of external challenges, we need to be very careful of the fact that we are... I think there is an echo coming in. We need to make sure that, you know, we are watching in troubled waters and making sure that we don't. We don't have any headwinds, and we are prepared for our headwinds as we move forward. So that's really what I want to say. I'd like to thank all of you. Wish you all a very, very happy and prosperous Diwali. We hope to continue to keep the faith in terms of our performance. It is tough, as you can expect in the market, but we, as a team, look forward to keeping up the performance. Thank you very much. Wish all of you a great day. Bye-bye. Good day. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. Thank you. On behalf of ICICI Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect. Thank you.