Prince Pipes And Fittings Limited (PRINCEPIPE) Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1FY27 Earnings Conference Call of Prince Pipes & Fittings Ltd. hosted by MUFG End Time. As a reminder, all participant lines will be the listen only more and there will be an opportunity 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. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sumit Khaitan from MUFG in time. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Good evening, everyone. I welcome you all to the audience conference call to discuss Q1FI27 results of Prince Pipes and Pittings Limited. To discuss the results we have from the management, Mr. Nihar Cheda, Vice President, Strategy, and Mr. Anand Gupta, Chief Financial Officer. They will take you through the results and the business performance, after which we will proceed for Q&A session. Before we proceed with the call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's call may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risk and uncertainties. For more details, kindly refer to the investor presentation and other file links that can be found on the company's website. With this, I now hand out the call to the management for their opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Sumit. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our first quarter FY27 financial results call. The presentation and press release has been issued to the stock exchanges and uploaded on our website. I hope everyone has been able to go through the same. Before I share the demand outlook and our strategic initiatives, I would comment on the raw material scenario. While PVC resin prices witnessed a recovery during the March quarter, prices saw a sharp correction from early April, following the temporary suspension of import duty on PVC resin till June 26, which introduced fresh uncertainty into the market and resulted in de-stocking across channel partners across the industry. Despite these external challenges, Prince Pipes remained firmly focused on executing our long-term strategy, which is based on three pillars. Product innovation, distributor network expansion, and retailer network expansion. Innovation and product development continue to be key pillars of our long-term growth strategy. As the Indian piping industry evolves, We are actually seeing a gradual shift from conventional commodity products towards more advanced performance driven solutions. This transition presents a significant opportunity for value creation. And we are focused on expanding our portfolio with differentiated offerings that address the customer's needs. While PVC has been the traditional material of choice, evolving customer expectations around faster installation, low noise performance, and lower lifetime maintenance are creating demand for next generation solutions. We have developed our polypropylene-based drainage system, Decelo, which is designed to deliver superior performance across these parameters. We believe that Decelo has the potential to redefine customer expectations and establish new benchmarks for architects, developers, and plumbing consultants while selecting pipes. We have started manufacturing Decelo at our Haridwar facility. And material has started to be installed in not only residential projects, but also commercial projects like hospitals and hotels across India. Our second pillar for growth has been distribution network expansion. At the beginning of this fiscal year, we have identified white spaces at a district and taluka level across India. In the June quarter, we have been able to add many new channel partners, and we will continue to do so aggressively in the September quarter. Network Expansion We will be a key lever for growth going forward. And thirdly, we have strengthened our program of digitizing our value chain. DMS, which is Distributor Management Systems, are now fully in place. And now we have complete visibility and tracking of secondary sales at a retailer level. Our scheme spends are now directly targeted to retailers across the country. Which has helped us move to a pull-based demand model rather than the legacy push-based way of selling. Furthermore, SFA, which is Salesforce Automation, also is in place, which is helping us improve productivity of the ground-level sales force. Lastly, brand building also is a key strategic priority for us during this quarter. We significantly enhanced our consumer outreach through high visibility campaigns across local trains, buses, and other strategic locations with strong daily footfall. These branding initiatives are designed to reinforce Prince's brand recall and to further strengthen our positioning as a trusted provider of high-quality piping systems. We expect industry demand to be supported by a recovery in infrastructure activity, increasing premiumization across product categories, and the benefits of operating leverage as market conditions normalize. Thank you for your time. I will now hand it over to our CFO, Anand, to take you through the fiscal highlights.

Thank you, Nihar, and very good evening, everyone. I'll be taking you through the quarter one FY27 financials now. Revenue from operation in this quarter stood at 609 crores, a growth of 5% YOY. Our volumes for the quarter stood at 40,729 metric ton, de-grew by 7% YOY, EBITDA for the quarter stood at 77 crores, a growth of 93% YOY, while margin stood at 13%, registering a 600 basis point growth. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at Rs. 34 crores, a growth of 580% YOY. Patent margin for the quarter stood at 6%. Working capital days stood at 71 days in Q1 FY27. Receival days stood at 40 days, whereas inventory days stood at 100 days as of 30th June 2026. With this, I now end my speech and open the forum for question and answer session.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may please press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dalat Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, sir. A couple of questions to get a better understanding of result and congratulations on a good set of results, particularly on the margin front. So, before asking the question, just a couple of data points, if you can share, Pathfair revenue and Pathfair EBITDA loss and any inventory gain in Q1.

So, the revenue for Bathway segment is at 13 crores, EBITDA is minus 5 crores, and there is no inventory gain for this quarter.

Okay. So now, if there is no inventory gain, because what we are seeing the significant improvement in the gross margin for this quarter, close to a 30 odd percent, primarily because of the change in inventory, which is a kind of a 100 crore negative figure, and that's why there is a significant improvement. So, just wanted to understand given the PVC prices, so now in last almost 13-14 days, we have seen a 12.5 rupees PVC prices again going up. So, how one can look at in terms of the gross margin first, will there be any kind of inventory gain or loss in the Q2?

I think, yeah, thank you for your question. I think, you know, with the MIP, I think that essentially acts like a floor for PVC prices. So rather than, you know, I will not speculate on inventory gain or loss going forward, but I think the good part is that now there is less uncertainty. For distributors to, you know, be scared of de-stocking, because they are scared of prices to fall further. Now, there is a very clear bottom of, you know, $7.66 per tonne in PVC. So, going forward, you know, we should see good realizations and good growth because of this lack of uncertainty going on.

Yeah, so to understand better, so this quarter, the 7% of YY degrowth on the volume front, last time we said that in the May month, April definitely was a problem, but in May, we have seen a kind of a recovery in terms of the channel again restocking. So this 7% degrowth is mainly because of the April month, and May and June have we seen kind of a flatties or maybe a marginal growth. And similarly, now, because we were looking at 12-15% kind of a volume growth, so the ask rate obviously in the nine months is 17% to 21%. So how do July is there, and are we sticking to our volume growth number?

Yeah, I think the April degrowth of 7% doesn't keep me up at night because like you rightly said, fourth quarter we had delivered a 25% kind of a volume growth, which obviously is not sustainable. That was led by very heavy restocking in the channel. So at beginning of April, one is channel level inventory was very high. And then prices started to correct. So April was like a washout. And May and June, we saw strong recovery. And July also, obviously, I will stay away from quantifying, but we have seen good growth. April was a blip because of the one-way decrease in PVC prices and high level of channel inventory as of March 31st, but if I look at June-July, again, we are back on the growth trajectory.

So, for full year, we will be doing a 12-15% guidance that we have said last time in terms of the volume and on the margin front, 11-13%. So, any change in the guidance?

We will stick to our guidance on growth going forward.

Okay. Okay. Okay. A couple of data points in terms of the capex in Q1 and for full year, how much the capex will be and net cash as on June?

So whatever we have given data point in the May call stands as it is. There is no change in capex plan. For this quarter, around 40-42 gross has been spent, and that has primarily been on the completion of second tranche of Bhuja plant takeover. So that is the only thing which has happened. Rest of the capex will flow in next nine months. What was the second part?

Late test, and if you can also spell the gross rate also, that would be helpful.

So, net cash is almost neutral on 30th June. I think the gross debt is around 120 crores, kind of, including long-term and short-term both.

Okay. Okay. Thank you, and all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Sneha from Novama. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, good evening, team, and congrats on greater of numbers. Just a couple of questions. You said that there was no inventory gain or loss in this particular quarter, but we've seen a phenomenal improvement in margins. Would you want to give some reasons of why these margins have improved, despite the volume drop that we've seen, and also how sustainable are these margins going ahead? Let's first.

Thank you, Sneha. I think let me answer the question in two parts. First, at the gross margin level and then at the operating margin level. As far as gross margin is concerned, Q1 typically is an agri-heavy quarter. But this time, given that the prices were so volatile, we have seen more demand coming in from plumbing. And Agri has actually seen a major degrowth relative to the rest of the portfolio, which is plumbing and drainage. So one is product mix has improved relative to what it usually is from a segmental point of view. That is point number one. And second point is from a polymer mix as well. You know, CPVC, PPR, PP, these kind of product contribution has improved. Compared to what it was in the past. So, one is agri versus building material, and second is PVC versus CPVC, PPPR. So, both product mix improvements at a segmental and at a polymer level have helped as far as gross margin is concerned. And at the EBITDA margin, Apart from these two, you know, while volumes de-grew, better realizations helped better operating leverage. So that is how the, you know, margins have played out in the June quarter.

Sorry to interrupt, Sneha, ma'am. Your voice is breaking.

I was saying, typically, are you able to hear me now? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, sir, I was asking, typically, what we see is, quarter core is the best product mix. Have we seen product mix improvement even over quarter core?

Yes, I think, even because quarter 4 also is agri-heavy relative to Q3 and Q4, so Q1 is the heaviest in terms of agri followed by Q4. But if I see contribution of plumbing versus agri and contribution of CPVC and PPR versus PVC, both have been superior in June quarter. Understood. I think we are passing it on in a phase-wise manner. So, usually, we give one to two weeks to the channel. So, accordingly, we have done it this time as well.

So, despite everything, but Quartet 2 would look like a quarter which would have inventory gains. Is that understanding correct, along with the volume growth because of the re-stocking?

I see. I would not like to comment on inventory gain or loss right now because we also have, you know, while the MIP is in place, we also have higher cost cargo coming in because we did see correction in the month before this month. I don't think there will be significant inventory gain or loss in second quarter. But yes, for the rest of the year, with better price certainty because of the floor of PVC pricing, I think there should be, distributors should not be anxious while stocking material, which will definitely help us from a growth perspective going forward.

Understood. Lastly, I just wanted to understand the end-user demand. While I understand Agly Tizen has almost done this, but how is the end-user demand when it comes to plumbing? And while you were saying that, you know, you are following a pull strategy versus, you know, historic push, should you explain us more in terms of what are the actions you are taking on the ground?

Yeah, I think a couple of strategies that we are working on. One is... You know, while network expansion always is a focus for Prince, I think at the beginning of this financial year, we had again sort of identified white spaces and done an exercise, and we have identified white spaces across key markets, and it's a KPI for the sales team to sort of fill these white spaces with channel partners. And with the kind of consolidation that is happening, we have been able to add channel partners, not only from unorganized players, but from organized players as well, during this quarter, which should reflect in the growth going forward. So that's as far as primary is concerned. As far as secondary at the retailers and plumber level, because now, you know, TMS has been in place for a few quarters now. Apart from data collection, now we've been able to start working on this data. So there are tens of thousands of retailers who we now directly give schemes to and directly reward from the company to the retailer. So while the supply happens to the distributor, but this kind of a focus at the retail level really helps us create pull rather than push. So, digitizing of the value chain happened over the past, I would say, six quarters, and now the dividends should play out over the next few quarters. And the third part is, as a part of this digitization, is also digitizing the salesforce tracking through salesforce automation, where we are able to improve productivity of the feet on Street, essentially. Which is sort of synced with our distributor management systems. So, to conclude, you know, primary network expansion, retailer network expansion, and improved productivity at the sales force ground level. This is what we have been working on and, you know, raw material scenarios could change, but these are things which will really help us build a robust sales engine. And this is not hypothetical anymore. This is being done on ground. And I am confident that this will play out in industry-leading growth.

Got that. Thanks a lot.

Thank you, ma'am. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Praneet from SJ Investment. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So, you mentioned the fact that you are focusing on high-value products. What is that meaning? Like, are we changing our strategy in terms of focusing on basic types to this? And in terms of these high value, do they already exist, or are we creating these new products and trying to educate the audience that this can be easier?

Product mix improvement is primarily by two things. One is the existing portfolio or value-added products are CPVC and PPR, plumbing systems. So here the mindshare is more at the sales team and at the management level. How do we increase our contribution from these products, both in retail and project vertical? And the second phase is higher focus on product innovation. And R&D, which starts with our new product of Bacillo, which is low-noise drainage PP pipes, where we are ahead of the curve and an early mover to introduce this product. And we are looking at many more new product launches within the pipe vertical, where gross margins will be significantly better than our core products of PVC. So, existing products. We are putting more mindshare of how do we grow, higher than industry, in both retail and project segment. And second is product innovation and R&D, where we can have new product launches within the Python segment.

So basically, the developers are mostly focused towards projects, is it?

No, it is retail and projects, both.

So, in terms of the contribution from Agri projects and remaining retail, how was it split for the last year and in this quarter?

So, Agri typically is, you know, so we don't give segmental breakups, but just for direction, typically Agri is around 30 to 35 percent at an annual level. This quarter, it was more skewed towards the plumping.

So the thing I asked is, trying to understand, are growth being mostly focused from projects, or is it retail? Because you mentioned the detail we didn't add in, but just understand otherwise.

No, no, let me be very clear. We have to grow. We are still, you know, working on low capacity utilization. We have just completed a... Large capex cycle of capacity that we've put up in Jaipur, Telangana, and Big Viserai at all our three manufacturing facilities. So today we are not in a position to pick and choose whether we want to grow in retail or projects. The sales engine has to fire across verticals. So, retail and projects both, and the more important thing is we see that there is market share up for grabs if we play our cards right, with some of the larger players also struggling and consolidation happening where smaller players are also struggling. So, there is room for growth across retail and projects, and our focus is on growing in both verticals.

And so you mentioned the fact that we were able to gain some in terms of distributors and final touch points from organized and unorganized players. What exactly has driven that? Is it because that we are not increasing our prices compared to our competitors? Or what was it?

No, you know, price-driven... It's not price driven. It's tough to add distributors by just giving a better price. I think more is just a stronger relationship and a stronger demand engine. Today, more than margin, I think what is important for a distributor is how fast you can rotate their material, the amount of inventory terms you can offer them in the retail market. And because we now have DMS and SFA in place and a direct control on retailers across the country. Distributors want to be associated with a strong brand, where there is a pull for demand, rather than a push, so, and of course then relationship building, which is very important at the senior management and at the family level. I think it's a combination of these.

So basically, right now, we are, how many other players to organize wants to have a DMM system?

I will not have an exact count, but we have been ahead of the curve. Not everyone does out of the top five. So we have been ahead of the curve and we have been one of the only movers in digitizing the value chain. And, you know, it's not just by having a DMF is not enough. It's what you do with the data. Data collection is only half the journey. It's also how do you put that data to work and, you know. Make schemes accordingly and have direct outreach to retailers. I think it's a combination.

So, sir, the reason I'm stressing on this part is because…

Sorry to interrupt, Praneet, sir. May we request that you return to the question queue for follow-up?

Just one last question. With regards to our utilizations, at what level will we be able to reach your guided of 14% to 15% EBITDA margin?

We have not guided at 14 to 15 percent. Our guidance is 11 to 13 percent kind of operating margin.

So when do you think you'll be able to reach that level? Would it be that existing utilization also will be able to reach or how is it going to be?

So it's a function of product mix, pricing power, operating leverage, decentralizing of manufacturing footprint now with a new plant in yeast. Those freight benefits also have kicked in. Apart from utilization, which leads to operating levels, we also have product mix and decentralization benefits. So, these are the three or four levers, and of course, focus is on improving capacity utilization. Our guidance for operating margins remains in that 11 to 13 percent.

Understood, sir. Just get back in case. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and run now. The next question is from the line of Anu Parak from Anand Rathi. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah, hi, sir. Sir, what would be the gross margin we can expect for FY27? So, is the 34% level going to sustain going forward? Like, what would be the guidance for the rest of the year?

I mean, we will stick to an 11 to 13% kind of an operating margin guidance. And I think I've just walked through the, I think more than the numbers, what is important is the levers for a margin. And I'm happy to maybe go through it again. Product mix, pricing power, operating leverage, and freight benefits which come through decentralization of the manufacturing footprint, which we have done through new plants in south, which is in Tangaredi, Telangana, and in east, which is in Begusaray in Bihar. So, these are going to be the three or four levers for optimizing our operating margins.

Sir, I was asking about the gross margin.

Yeah, so out of these, product mix and pricing power are at the gross margin level. And even freight is at the gross margin level. Operating leverage is the only one which is at the EFTA level.

So, we can expect the same levels to continue for the rest of the year.

So, we don't guide at the gross margin level. I'll repeat. We guide at the EBITDA level, which is 11 to 13%. But, you know, I've walked it through the three or four levers, which help us strengthen our margins.

Okay. And so, last question. What could be the amount of inventory, debtor, and creditor at the end of June?

So, we have guided the numbers, which is around 40 days for debtors, 100 days for inventory, around 70 days kind of for payables. So, these are the inventory days, payables, and debtor days.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Roshan from Antic Stock Broking. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on the set of numbers. So, this content is understand, have the channel partners resumed normal buying behavior or are the dealers still operating with low inventory to the uncertainty?

Sorry to interrupt, Roshan, sir. Can you speak a little louder?

Yeah, is it better now? Yeah, so I was asking, have the channel partners regime normal buying behavior or are dealers still operating in its lower inventory levels because of the uncertainty in CDC prices that had happened? So that's my first question.

Yeah, I think in June and July we saw better stocking from channel partners, which is more reflective of The secondary demand or the last mile demand. And especially now with the MIP in place, that really, that there is no uncertainty of what is the bottom anymore. So that waiting game with the channel partners is over, at least for the next couple of quarters. So distributors are happy to keep regular levels of inventory, which we have seen play out in the past couple of months.

Okay. And on the unorganized trend, have the smaller regional manufacturers recovered from the raw material volatility that we have seen over the last few quarters? Or are the next players still in a kind of continuing to consolidate the market share?

My view is that larger players continue to consolidate because in the volatility, a lot of the smaller players face raw material insecurity. And in our kind of industry, unless your machines are running 365 days, it's very tough to survive. And even now, with the MIP, actually the open market rates are much higher than what Reliance prices are, or what kind of inventory large players are holding. So, supply security also at the right price becomes very important because currently there is a more than physical, it's a sentiment driven also where open market prices are really high. So, it becomes very tough for smaller players to compete with larger players who have better supply security. And apart from this, end-user, even for a product which is behind the wall, is becoming more and more brand conscious. And as we are aware, piping is less than, you know, one to two percent of an overall project cost. So, this industry has consolidated and will continue to consolidate. And these kind of volatility in raw material prices or any changes in raw material prices only support this.

Okay, that's helpful. That's all for my time. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Sunil Jain from Nirmal Bank Securities, Saibet Limited. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah, thanks for this opportunity. Sir, last quarter you had sacrificed inventory gain food to gain the market share. And rightly, you gain a lot of volume in the last quarter. So was the policy still continuing in the current quarter or current?

No, we are not continuing that. I think that was one time because there was a very sharp increase in raw material prices in March quarter. So we thought it is only fair to share that with the channel partners and with the market and focus on growth. But that is not sustainable every quarter because we will not have those kind of price swings every quarter. So now we are any increase or decrease we pass on either immediately or maximum within a week or two we pass it on to the channel. And especially now with the MIP, there is no reason of having those kind of strategies. So I think that was more just a tactical part in one quarter because it was a very severe swing and we thought it's opportunistic to get the sales engine firing again and do a record kind of a volume. But that cannot be done. Every quarter we are confident that more long-term initiatives like... Network expansion and digitizing of value chain, new product innovation, these are going to be the levers of sustainable growth going forward.

So in Q1, do you see you gained market share because the competitor's sales growth is higher than yours?

Yeah, I think obviously it is not a zero-sum game between two players, I think, but overall if I look at the industry, yes, I think our degrowth has been lower than what industry degrowth has been or what peers degrowth has been. So I think we are confident about volumes.

Great, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Shravan Shah from Dalat Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you, sir, for the opportunity again. Sir, in Bathware, we were looking at to break even in Q2 or Q3, where we will be having a kind of a 25-30 crore quarterly run rate of revenue. But this quarter also we were having a similar kind of a 13 crore revenue. So, do we think that in Q2, Q3, we will be able to achieve a break even or maybe a 25-30 crore kind of a quarterly revenue run rate?

I think in Q2, we should have a much better performance in Q1. So, Q3 adding 25 crores is an achievable number if I look at the monthly run rate. So, in the December quarter, we should be doing 25 crores, which will be very close to breaking.

And Q3 will be a significantly better performance than Q1. Okay. Okay. Great. Great. Answer. In terms of you highlighted, in terms of everything, particularly on the channel, strengthening the pricing power and digitization and product mix, all this, this will be, as you highlighted, that will help us to post industry-leading volume growth. So, I assume this will be a kind of a structural thing for next couple of years that we are talking about in terms of growing better than the industry.

Yes, definitely, and there is market share of programs, and we do see that for an agile player like us, with a focus on new products and new markets, there is structural improvement in volume, and industry leading growth is our aspiration, and we are confident.

So do we also think that maybe a couple of years, maybe two years down the line, then once we will have a better than the industry growth, obviously this will be also can have operating positive leverage and can help us to improve the margin. What right now we are guiding 11, 13%. Can we, can we, is there a possibility? Can we see maybe a two, three or down the line that, or are we, are we aiming to kind of a 15% plus kind of a beta margin?

I think for now, if I look at medium term, I think 11-13% kind of operating margin with industry leading growth should be the focus. Any improvement in margins has to be driven from value-added products like CPVC coming in, as well as new products like Decelo. So, superior product mix and superior contribution from value-added products. This is a sort of key performance indicator for us internally as well, which should help margins improve in the long term. For medium term, I think growth is primary.

Got it. And this quarter, broadly in terms of the project versus sales business mix, would be similar of the Q4 or has that changed?

What is the question? Could you repeat?

The project versus retail business mix. So, I agree you have highlighted that broadly on annual basis, 30-35% that we have agreed. But in terms of the project level, this quarter would be broadly would be at what level?

Yeah, it would be broadly similar where, you know, 25-30% would be project and balance would be retail.

Okay. Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. The next question is on the line of Shushant Soni from Vrishya Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah, hi, team. Are you able to tell me?

Yes, sir.

Yes. Perfect. Thanks a lot for giving me the opportunity and would like to first appreciate the efforts put in the managed right to connect the trajectory that our company has seen in the last two years. Slee on human working capital, which, you know, clearly can be seen in the numbers. My question kind of revolves around management's strategy or view on the appropriate mercy for this business, particularly in light of competitive intensity and also the fact that most of the capex is now behind us.

Sir, what is the question?

Sir, management's view on the appropriate return on capital employed for the business, right? Clearly, currently, it's depressed because we were in the investing phase and we were correcting a few operational things, right, like volume and working capital. What is your view on a sustainable ROC for this business?

See, if you historically see, apart from the past few years, 15 to 20%, sometimes even higher than that has been done. And of course, for us, that has to be the, that is the goal. So with volumes coming in, stricter capital allocation, We have done that in the past, and there's no reason why we can't do it again. So, I think that is the range where I think any good business needs to be.

And is there like a particular utilization level that you track internally where you hit those levels?

I mean, typically, you know, 60 to 65% is where we'll hit it. Anything more than that... I see it that we have been late with our capex cycle, because while utilization levels are important, one of the reasons that we have been able to reach the scale that we have is that we have been ahead of the curve in adding capacity. And we've always had the financial muscle to have that weighting power and put up capacity well in advance. So I'm not too fussy about reaching 70-75%. I think 60-65% will hit. If we hit more than that, I see it that we've been late with adding more capacity.

Understood. Thanks a lot. Just one last thing on this, the utilization you say is on the installed capacity or the production capacity? Production capacity. That you mentioned in your house. Okay. Understood. And so, just one last question on just the inventory. I understand that it's 100 days for this quarter versus our stated guidance of 65 to 75. Now, that increase is just maybe specific to this quarter given the supply situation that you alluded to earlier on the call?

Yeah, it was two parts. One is, of course, we stick to our guidance. Excuse me, we stick to our guidance of 65 to 75 days for inventory. Two things. One, there was supply insecurity during the wartime. And second, we did not expect 7% kind of a degrowth. So obviously there was sales loss. So while we are better off than what industry is in June quarter, we had planned our inventory as per, you know, better volume performance. But we should see immediate correction in inventory. This is not a structural thing. We will be back to our stated guidance by end of September quarter.

Perfect. Thanks a lot and gracious luck. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. The next question is from the line of Sonal from Precient Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, sir. This is Sonal Minas. I hope I'm audible. Okay, sir, just carrying on from the questions from the previous participant, you mentioned that 60-65% is a good capacity utilization. Is there a broader timeline that you have in mind where you would be hitting this capacity utilization? So, as of now, we are at around 50% to 53% kind of utilization, and what we have calculated is 13% to 15% of growth in this year, which translates to if the capacity is static, then we will reach to around 60% of utilization.

Got it, sir. So, this 13% is volume, basically.

Yeah, I mean, 12 to 15 is what we have guided, and we hit the upper circuit of what we have guided. We will reach to 60% of our utilization.

Got it, sir.

So, one more question with regard to you passing some benefits of inventory gain in last quarter, and there is an inventory in your books as well this time now. Is there a visible change? In your data days, because of this practice that you've started, that you've seen, and you do mention that your data days are to be 50-60 days kind of guidance, but because of this, is there a longer term trajectory that this number can come down to 40-45 days?

So if you speak June end, we are at 40 days of data days. This is key for us, and as the brand becomes stronger, this has to reduce. Compared to my peers, my day-to-days is still higher, and we recognize and acknowledge that. And our complete focus internally as an organization is two-fold to reduce day-to-days. One is to use channel finance aggressively, and second, as the brand becomes stronger, as we digitize the value chain and move to a pull-based demand model. Debtor days will also come under control, which I think is the true sustainable way of tightening the working capital cycle. In my business, I have to keep inventory of raw material and finished goods, so I cannot reduce it beyond two months. So debtor days eventually has to go in the next couple of years towards 30 days is what my target for debtor days is. You know, inventory and all of that, passing on the gains is more tactical, but fundamental growth levers, you know, I've explained in terms of network expansion, new product launches, and keep investing in the brand visibility in good and bad quarters. I think these are more fundamental ways of driving demand. But debt-to-day control and reduction is a key priority for us. We will not have any growth at the cost of...

I understand that. And that should translate into ROSI, I'm presuming, and that should also be at par with or directionally trending towards the market leaders in the PAs that you've been leading to.

Good.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you for answering your question. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, that was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. On behalf of Prince Pipes and Fittings Limited, that concludes this conference call. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.