Somany Ceramics Limited (SOMANYCERA) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Sumani Ceramics Limited's Q4, FY26, and FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the management's opening remarks. 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 Sir Naveen Agarwal, Head, Institutional Equities and SKB Securities Limited. Thank you, and over to Mr. Agarwal.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's my pleasure to welcome you on behalf of Somani Ceramics and SKP Securities to this financial results conference call. We have with us Mr. Abhishek Somani, MD and CEO, Mr. Srivastava Somani, Head Pathway, and Mr. Sally Shraj Kidawatt, CFO. We'll have the opening remarks from Mr. Somani followed by the Q&A session. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Somani.

Good afternoon, sorry, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I hope I'm audible because I could hear a little bit of disturbance at the organizer's end. So, just to take you through the quarter and the year, and I'm sure there will be many questions later for the current scenario, specifically due to the ongoing geopolitical reasons. So, as far as the quarter is concerned, the domestic demand saw a gradual improvement during January and February on account of increased domestic demand, reducing the pressure on... From reducing the pressure from exports, so there was a little bit of a recovery in January and Feb. Obviously, March was a very aberration month because of the various circumstances which played out due to geopolitically. Overall, If you see, the exports did increase from last year. It would have touched about 18,000 crores for the industry, but it got stopped at 17,000 and something crores because of the March outage where nothing really went or sailed in March. Gas price, as you all know, has increased very significantly, which we can talk about that. I'm sure there will be a lot of question answers around that. As far as we are concerned, sales growth has been about 6% in Q4 and 5% for the entire year, slightly better than last year. Habitat improved quite significantly, 3.2% in Q4 and about 1% in the entire year. Propagency utilization was largely flat from approximately 80% to 79%, so that is largely flat. Of course, in the quarter, it improved to 82%, but otherwise, it has been largely flat. Max plant did, there is good news there, that we almost did a breakeven at max plant. Correspondent quarter last year, same quarter of Q4, the loss was about 9 CR. So from that, we have been able to breakeven max. So that's as far as capacity utilization is concerned for the year, at about 79%. Sales came in with a 4.8% growth and a 6% growth like I mentioned, 5% and a 6% growth like I mentioned. EBITDA for the year is 9.3 and for the quarter was 11.4. If you see the tiles volume, we have increased our GVT sales by 3% and there's been a reduction in the ceramic and PVT by 3%. Sanitary ware has done fairly well. We've grown by an 8% for the entire year, and we have closed the figure at 320 crores, up from 296, and this year we've taken a very aggressive target, a very aggressive double-digit target. Uh, gas pricing overall, uh... Before, the war broke out was pretty much constant. There were no major changes in the gas prices. Rupee here or Rupee 2, basically, are based on the rupee dollar conversion. And after that, obviously, it has gone up very significantly. As far as our business is concerned, our brand spend has been about 2% for the year. We got rid of the... I'm a superstar and therefore, it's slightly lower because of that reason. Working capital, we've done fairly well. It's marginally lower by four days to nine days. We've had a very good debtor collection. We have, that particular figure is at 40 days down from 51 days and 38 days on a standalone basis. The net dealer addition has been very strong this year. We've added net new additions of 200 dealers across India, taking the total dealer showrooms to about 3,100. So that has increased in a very significant way. The caveat is that no further shocks as we go politically, but otherwise our guidance is to improve EBITDA margin from here by at least a percent and a half or more. Brand spends will also go up a little bit, although in percentage terms we will maintain it as we have taken aggressive growth on our top-line growth and the value value growth. Input cost increase currently has been passed on to an extent, and we can talk about that in the Q&A. This is as far as our highlights are concerned. I would leave a lot more time, which we normally wouldn't do. We would give you a complete synopsis of where we are and what we are. But I'm sure there will be a lot of Q&A for you for the current situation. But overall, we are happy. This whole situation, the old saying that somebody's loss is somebody's gain. I think as far as the industry is concerned, the branded players, the organized players are to gain from this disruption, despite it, there is no further disruption in this regard. So we are to gain from this disruption because a lot of the capacity in Morbi shut down and everybody is now buying from the same source of gas, unlike earlier times where they were buying LPG and propane and that over in cash and various other sources. So this is again a positive for the industry. And the other positive for the industry is that our pricing has been narrowed between the small-scale unorganized players and the branded players. Overall, I hope this discipline continues. If it does, then there will be definitely better days for the dial industry. So, that's the highlights from last year, and I would now leave the floor for Q&A.

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 use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants, you may press star and 1 to ask a question.

Hi, good evening, sir, and congratulations on SuperStrong Balance Sheet Improvement. The first question is related to receivable days. It's sort of coming down and, you know, working capital coming under negative. How sustainable is this improvement and where can we see the numbers in 27?

So, receivable days, you know, once you get it down, then you start monitoring a lower number. So, we hope that receivable days remain around the same area. It may increase a day or two, but we would want to manage it in the same area. As far as working capital is concerned, you know, a lot of our stock, which you may not see going down here, but a lot of the stock from our outsourced vendors have gone down substantially, which makes a lot of difference in the number of days. So, that puts less pressure. And even from our own plant point of view, a lot of the old stock, the over 180-day stock and et cetera, some other stock which was not so saleable got sold during March. So that's again a big relief. And again, once the stock levels are at a particular level, we start monitoring and learn from mistakes. So we should be able to control this. I don't know from a sustainability point that it's a question mark because currently we're seeing that there's been a delayed response to price increases in April. So, April was a better month for us, but nothing great from the point of view of such large price increases people take time to absorb. Labor was also not there. So, let's see. The net-net is that the tile is a product which will not be fungible with another flooring or wall material. So, there will be a vent-up demand even if it's a delayed demand. So, we're running plant at 100% capacity. In the interim, it may go But finally, let's not forget that one month or 40 days of stocks have gone out of the Indian market. So that will come back. And like I said, this is not going to be replaced by a marble or a stone or a wood or anything else. So good days to come in future.

Understood. So, secondly, while you, of course, mentioned the April month and how is it going at this point of time with price increases, what I wanted to understand was, can we break up Jan and Seb with March? Just want to see how was the demand panning out in Jan and Seb X of crisis. You did mention some amount of improvement happening. Just wanted to understand how would have been the volume growth in Jan and Seb.

Yeah, so if you remember even in the last call I mentioned, which was in January, that December being a very, very heavy month and we pushed a lot of material in December, Jan normally would have taken a dip, but we grew at decent single digits in Jan and also in February. So, from that point of view, we did see some uptake. For us, in March also, we didn't push too much material. First, we wanted to move the material of the vendors first, from our non-joint venture vendors, because there was a chance of they increasing their prices in April, and that would be on us. So, therefore, our focus was to remove that stock. In March also, we did not really overtly dump material. Jan, Feb, decoupled from March. We saw decent growth considering if December was a very heavy month.

Understood. And lastly, on gas pricing, could we get your North, South and West pricing for Q4? And how is it at this point of time?

Nina, Q4 would not be of any significance because from 9th of March it's shorter. So, like I mentioned that if it was not For the war, then the Q4 prices were pretty much standard to Q3, other than the rupee-dollar small movement, right? So there was no significant increase had it not been for March. So if you can clarify, what do you want me to tell you? I mean, the current price?

The gas prices, yeah, yeah. I mean, both would be actually appreciated even if considering the March impact or just per MSN pricing that you are getting, I mean, per SEM prices that you have in North, South and West.

For Q4?

Yes, for Q4 as well as the current one.

No, no, current is so extremely volatile. That I'll come to. That may be a larger debate, larger discussion. But otherwise, if you see, if I give you, you know what, let me give you an average. Q4 is largely flat, as it not been for the March last 15 days. So let me give you the FY26 and FY25 prices, because that would give you a better idea. Q4, I'll go to Q4. Kasar was in the mid-40s range, and in Q4 it was 48. Morbi was again in the mid-40s range, it was 46. In south it was 55 in Q5, it went down to 50 rupees in F5 26. So if you see, mid-40s and one was 50, so largely common. But if I see the whole year, I think it was 43 from Q5 for the north and Nantar to 45. For the west, it was 48 and 48. For the south, this was 51 and 51. So, absolutely flat.

Understood. Got that, sir.

This is, let me clarify, only glass pricing. This has nothing to do with our other fuels which we use, such as...

Biofuel.

Yes, yes, biofuel. Correct.

And what portion of your fuel usage would be biofuel in case you can get that, we'll get to know the benefit also.

It's the same as last year. Nothing has changed over two years. It is identical to what we were using. We have not moved any other plant to BioQ.

And lastly, in case I can, I know I have taken time, in terms of Morbi, what are we currently using and what would be the gas pricing currently only for Morbi versus Latvia or Northland? Just want to understand that big definition.

Yeah. So the Morbi pricing is currently, for May, the pricing is 74 rupees plus 6%. I think it's 74.1 or 74.2, something like that, plus 6%, is the pricing for Morbi, and we are using GSPC gas, and we have been using GSPC for the last so many years. We didn't move to propane or LPG any which way.

Perfect. And North would be how much, average, need?

North would be about 3-4 rupees cheaper.

Got that, sir. Time for North, sir. And all the very best.

Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Daveneet Savla from Savla Family Office. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. My first question is with regards to the current scenario. Is there a particular point wherein we think that it's probably not feasible for us to, you know, produce the tile because it will affect our margins much higher than what it would usually do? And secondly, considering the current scenario as the base, if, if, if. If it wasn't there, then how much kind of an upset we were looking at the 27 numbers?

So, like I said, we didn't dump an upset on the 27 numbers. 27 numbers, we should be able to get a decent single-digit growth in terms of volume. Value, obviously, crisis has gone up. So, very difficult to say how much the prices will stay and when the gas prices go down, whenever it goes down, prices will go down. So, difficult to give you a prediction on the value number, but otherwise volume will be in a single, very decent single digit. For the tile business, for the sanitary ware and adhesive business, we'll be in very healthy double digits.

Okay, and about the first thing that, is there a point which, have we done any study or analysis on, if there is a point wherein it doesn't work for us to, you know, function the factory because the cost of gas has gone up so hard, and we are not able to pass on the cost?

Yeah, so I think how you would, what you are trying to understand is, is where is the tipping point to increase in price beyond the point where, you know, if you are not able to increase the price and pass it on, then we cannot run the plant. Is that what your question is? Yes, that's my question. So today, even after the price increase, we are pretty much at the historic price which was there two years ago. So from that point of view, there has not been a very inflationary change as far as a builder is concerned or as far as a customer is concerned. He was taking advantage of this over the last two years. So I think tile still being the most cheapest material for the flooring and wall, like I mentioned, there is no alternative I doubt there would be that situation where it won't be viable to run the factory. Obviously, the caveat is that the doomsday war doesn't come up. If oil jumps up to $200 or something like that, that I can't envisage. But at the current scenario, I don't see the factory shutting. Even if it had to go up by 15 percent.

Okay, okay. Thank you. Just a small, like, additional question. Like, you spoke about the bathware and the sanitary well section. Is it fair to say that since we have certain volumes coming from that segment, we are getting a little bit more traction than probably a pure play tile player would, or we are actually better able to mitigate this crisis because we have some additional value added thing, Which is probably giving us a little bit more margin than a properly invented a title player would.

Yeah, so more sanitary wear and adhesive gives us better margin and we are able to accelerate that growth because we are growing with the same dealership. So I don't have to make new relations and only 25% of our current dealers are dealing in sanitary wear, our sanitary wear. So that's the scope, that's the headroom which we have to accelerate our sanitary wear business.

And hence the double digit growth expectations. Thank you.

Thank you. I request to all the participants, kindly limit yourself to two questions per participant, and rejoin the queue for a follow-up question. Next question is from Lionel Ashruti Mulchandrani from IKG ISM Management. Please go ahead.

Hi, am I audible?

Yes, please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity and congratulations for a good set of numbers. Sir, sir, I just wanted to check that, you know, we have been hearing that Modi has started to get some gas supply from 1st of May. And it's been 15 days now. So, just wanted to check the status of how the plants are running. Is there some uptake in the factories operating out of Morbi? And what's the average capacity utilization of Morbi that has been, or do you expect it to increase in Q1?

Yes. So, yes, you're absolutely right. From 1st of May, they've all got gas. There's enough gas being supplied to Morbi at 74 rupees plus tax, which I mentioned to Sneha. The situation currently in Morbi is that whoever has started up is facing a little bit of challenge with labor. There's a major, major, major labor shortage in Morbi. As a result of that, as we speak today, approximately 60-65% of Morbi is up and running. And I believe by the end of this month, the number would reach about 85%. So, 85% or more, we would start running to capacity. The balance 10 to 15% I don't think will run ever. My guess is they would shut down. If they can't run now, where everybody is passed on prices, I doubt they will be able to run their plants because they are extremely inefficient. So every time somebody increases prices, an inefficient plant has to increase that much more, which is anyway not being absorbed by the market. So, if you see what is happening in Morbi, Morbi has increased prices by about 30-35%, which means that the organized players have increased prices by about 16-17%, because we were that much more expensive than Morbi. So, in percentage terms, our increase is lesser versus theirs. So, with that kind of a sharp increase, we are having trouble facing demand. Demand is weak currently, like I mentioned earlier in the call, that people are waiting, general sentiments are down, plus the labour is not there for putting the tiles. Therefore, we believe that the demand will come in as a front-up demand like we had after COVID. It could come by this month-end or in June, but it would come in because tile does not have any alternate, plus there has been a 40-day gap, which is pretty much an entire year's growth has gone off. the grid, which cannot be made up. So, I believe that Morbi, it will be a very testing time for them post-July as to whether they will be able to hold their plants running with expensive gas and piling of stock. So, if demand doesn't come back in June in a very, very significant way, Morbi will be troubled. In fact, as far as we are concerned also, maybe We may have to shut down due to stock, but overall we are currently running at 100% capacity as we speak.

Okay, so this was very helpful. So, like you said, that you are operating 100% utilization. So, is this across the plants, like in the country, or is this specific to Mohi?

No, it's across the country. There are certain plants which we have taken decisions to shut down in terms of our product mix. So there are a couple of kills which are down, which we do not consider in our, it's there as far as our capacity, but when we say 100, we're not considering that. So other than those non-value added kills, everything else is running across the country at 100%.

Understood, sir. And so, given that 30% of your capacity of 75 million square meter comes from outsourcing, and like you just mentioned, that Mordi is troubled and it can face some challenges of demand or the price hike absorption does not take place very well. So, will we expect some deterioration in your volume growth in the outsourcing part as well in F597, and that can be covered up by your own NJV plans?

Yeah, so currently, the couple of plants which had gone down and we were not getting material, we are building up stocks there. But I don't think we would have that much of an issue because our plants are generally OEM plants and they are OEMing to other large manufacturers. So chances are that they would keep running, unless demand has an issue with some other geopolitical issues. But otherwise, these plants which we were facing volume issues in April because there were four or five plants which we were buying our material from and they had no material to give us, that will come back in May in terms of material availability. But yes, we're keeping a watch. I doubt there would be that situation for the plants which are these OEM plants for large organized players.

I request you to come back for a follow-up question. I request to all the participants, kindly limit yourself to two questions per participant. Next question is from the line of Keshavgarh from Counter-Cyclical PMS. Please, go ahead.

So, firstly, I wanted to congratulate you for great numbers and rock-solid balance sheet. And a great job on working capital, too. So now, going by your commentary, it seems that going forward, we are set for revenue growth in somewhere in the mid-20s, because if we take roughly 15% price hike and add roughly high single-digit volume growth, then that's where we reach around mid-20s kind of revenue growth. So is that understanding correct?

Yes, if the prices remain at current levels, then anywhere between 20 and 25 percent would be the revenue growth. Obviously, if the gas prices towards the end of the year had to crash back to original levels, I can't predict that. In that case, the prices will obviously drop. So, if you factor that into consideration, then I don't know what it will be. But at a steady stage, you're absolutely right.

Sir, and margin should, like you already mentioned, from 11.5, we can probably go to low-teens kind of margin, or even mid-teens kind of margin?

I am talking about margin improvement from the 9.8%, 9.3% base to improve it by 150 bps and more.

Okay, understood. And lastly, sir, now the market leader has announced a share buyback of 300 crore, and our stock is also at 2015 levels, and our balance sheet is far more stronger. We are almost debt-free. So don't you think it's an opportune time to do a share buyback?

Unfortunately, we are consolidating some of our JV, sorry, our wholly-owned subs, and therefore, there is an embargo from SEBI. We can't do a share bye-bye for the next six, eight months, but we'll see after that as to how the war progresses, but currently, we can't do it for that reason. And therefore, the promoters stepped in before the trading window shut to buy some stocks.

Great, sir. Thank you very much, and best of luck.

This is from the land of Keshav Lahoti, from HFC Securities, please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity. It would be fair to assume in Q1 and going forward this year should be a good year for organized players as you highlighted, you know, Morbi is also shutting down the operation and possibly Morbi was shutting April, so possibly the organized players can gain market share. I think going by the thesis, ideally, April should have been a good month, is it, especially because Morbi was shut, but your commentary has been April has been a bit on the slow side. By slow, you mean April, the volume had declined?

So, April has been slow for two, three reasons. A, we did not get quite a large portion of our material which we normally would have bought from Morbi because those plants were shut. Our volume did not get up. So, that was one reason which we had no handle over. Other than that, we had a price increase of approximately 15-17% and Morbi of 30%. So, consumers take a while to absorb this kind of price increase. Thirdly, we have dumped a lot of material as an industry, not Sumani. But generally, as an industry, a lot of material got moved to the dealers, and the dealers were also cautious. They didn't want to get stuck with higher value material in case the war had to stop and the prices had to go down. It was their fear. Obviously, An unfounded fear, but there's only so much you can explain to them. So they also doubled down on removing their stock. So all of these three reasons, April was kind of a, for us it was a little bit of a growth, but it wasn't a flat month. But normally April, it was, let's put it this way, it was like a normal April with a little bit of growth. So, I don't know about my competition, but we had a little bit of growth. So, very happy about that.

I'm not sure. Got it. And one last question from my side, it will be fair to assume whatever the cash price hike and other price hike we might be seeing because of this inflationary situation, entire cost inflation is passed on. So nothing will hit our margin. That is a fair assumption. And secondly, you know, when you take a 10-15% price hike, possibly if you, let's say, the 15% price hike is taken to pass on the entire cost inflation, in a way the margin gets diluted. In a percentage now, maybe not on per sheet basis. How could we rate?

I mean, we have taken almost an entire price increase. I mean, there is obviously something which you absorb as far as projects are concerned, but if you discount the projects, which is approximately a 17-18% business for us, where we have been able to pass on about 85% of the cost, but in the retail, we've been able to pass on 100% of the cost.

Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

From the line of Nile Sharma, from Ananta Skycon Private Limited, please go ahead.

Thank you so much, sir, and congratulations for Greg, sir. My question is that we have achieved break.

Sorry to interrupt you, but your audio is breaking in between. Can you please come in a better reception area and speak from the handset?

Yeah. Okay.

Sir, can you try asking your question?

Yeah, yeah. So my question is that, at Samani Max plant, where we achieved a break-even, so is it sustainable or is it one of tailwind or morbid disruption that supported us?

No, in fact, in Somani Max, we have achieved break-even, and if you see our inventory is going up, a reasonable amount is also due to Somani Max, because we've produced more and we've put more material in Somani Max when we put the new press. So, Somani Max is clearly sustainable. Last year, the entire loss of Somani Max was down by 6 crores. It was 27 crores last to last year, and it went down to... 21 crores and we believe what we had said in the beginning of the year that this loss will be under 10 crores or maybe a break even. We have yet to see that. But substantial improvement in some animax and next year, if not next year, next year it will be in a positive.

Utilization level will be required for Somani Math to deliver EBITDA margin to

make the utilization level better in Somani Math by putting the press. Absolutely right, sir.

Sorry, sir, I didn't get you.

So the utilization level for improve karne ke liye we had put in that press to make sure that we utilize Zumanimax to the fullest. So that's going as for planned.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

You're requested to limit yourself to two questions per participant, and rejoin the queue for a follow-up. Next question is from the line of Anubhav Goel, from Cosma Ventures. Please, go ahead.

Yeah, hi, sir. Congratulations on the margins and the max plan break-even this quarter. Sir, you said 85% of Morbi should come back by the end of this month. So, this means 85% of those 550 units which used to run on propane should be back on gas. By the end of this month?

Yes.

Okay, sir. And so, most of these units who must have made us switch from protein to gas, so R-pricing and Morbi will be the same versus them at this 74 plus 6 percent, or we will be slightly lower?

Yes, yes. The source is exactly the same. Everybody is getting from a single source, which is GSPC, and price movement upwards or downwards would be common to everybody.

Okay, got it. So, our price is the same. Okay, sir. And so, for North Plant, can you give some color on what is the pricing currently, like you mentioned this for Morbi?

North Plant is a couple of rupees cheaper. It's about 4-5 rupees cheaper, because we have different formulas in the North Plant versus GSPC, but it's largely the same. I mean that 77, 78 in the, oh what is it, 74 plus 4, 60, 70. 8 is the price for Morbi and about 73, 74 prices for the North Carolina.

Thank you, Anubabha. I'll request you to come back. Next question is from the line of Varun Jalasuriya. From 361 Capital, please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So I just wanted to understand for this quarter, we did a 2% volume growth, you know, whereas our competitors, they have done a double digit volume growth, even some smaller competitors have also done a higher volume growth. Even our realization has not grown to their extent. So just wanted to understand like, you know, what, you know, happened like in our case, like why we could not achieve that kind of goal.

We focused a lot of volume growth towards our non-JV partners. There was a lot of inventory lying there. I didn't want them to price me at a higher price, so we focused there. Our inventory we kept for sale in April because prices were further going to go up in April, and this was material which was made at older pricing. As far as realization is concerned, I think your figures are wrong. We have improved our realization by 6 rupees over last year.

No, sir, I'm just, so if you take on Q on Q, like compared to competitors, we have grown, you know, around 0.2%, and whereas, you know, they have grown around 1.8%, right? That's where I'm coming from.

You mean the EBITDA margin?

Sorry?

You mean the EBITDA margin?

No, no, no, I'm realization, per MSM.

Realization, overall, it matters as to what kind of stocks you've sold, what kind of product you've sold. So, obviously, the fact that I've sold more of my non-JVs and my outsourced material, that's obviously cheaper material. But overall, if you see, in the year, I have increased my realization by 6 rupees, and my stock is down by about 2.5 million square meters, which is down by about... 15 days over the year. So it was a strategic move to sell the non-JV material first because they would have immediately priced it in April and asked me for a higher price for a material which they produced at a cheaper rate.

Okay, and sir, on the margin guidance, you mentioned around 10.8 for the next year, right? That's what you are targeting.

Yeah, or better.

Thanks to come back. The next question is from the land of Anuparak, from Anurvati, please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I just wanted a clarification as to how much price has we taken in size, sanity, wear, and process in Q4526 and Q1SY27.

Since... We started to now. The average price increases around 16 to 17 percent as far as style is concerned. The price increase in bath wear is concerned and bath wear is concerned put together is approximately 8%. We had taken a price increase in bath wear in February when the grass prices had moved up very significantly. That particular price increase in February was about 18%. But currently in the month of April, a blended price increase between bath wear and sanitary wear is 8%.

And also, last year, the outdoor sales volume was 27.6 million square meters. So, can you please help us understand what would be the guidance for FY28 in terms of the outdoor volume?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you very well. Can you speak with your asker once again?

Yeah, so the outdoor sales volume last year was 27.6 million square meters. So, what would be the guidance for FY28?

No, I'm not understanding. Our total sales volume was 72 million square meters last week.

I'll quote. I'll quote sales for you.

What's that?

I'll quote.

Anu, can you please speak through the handset if you don't mind? I cannot understand which sales you are.

Am I audible?

Yeah.

Am I audible? Yeah. So the outsourced, that is the traded sales volume.

Okay, outsourced sales. I don't know if I put my hand as to what, but as a percentage, our outsourced sales is 30%, but mind you, Acer and Amora. Both now outsourced, which is actually used to be a JV, so it's counted and outsourced, but anyway, with that, the outsourced sales is about 35-36%. But one must discount Amora and Acer, which were no longer JVs, but entire produce has been bought by us.

Okay, so will it not get impacted because of the gas supply disruption in FY28?

No, so all of those plants have started running.

Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.

It can affect. My volume got affected in April because I didn't get material in Morbi.

Okay. Okay, thank you so much.

All plants have started, specifically our plants where we were taking joint ventures by 15th, 16th of May as we speak. Most of them have come online. The problem is on the gas right now. The problem for the next 10-12 days is more about the labor. April they were shut because they did not have the gas. May they have, you know, slowly coming up to full capacity because of labor. So, by June, it would be 100% up and running. So, May also partly we did not get material, but June onwards we will have 100% material.

Question is from the line of Vivian. Information market securities, please. Go ahead.

Hi, current information markets. Am I all over?

Yes.

Yes, sir. Quickly on KPEX and debt-keeping plans for 27.

So, somebody, I think, also.

Sir, sorry to interrupt. Karan, can you please mute your line from your side?

Yeah.

It would be balancing equipment. We are doing some balancing equipment in the vintage plant also to make it more value added. So we reduce the losses there. In fact, we come into profit over there. So basically, it's going to be small investments, nothing of significance. So everything will be contained in the 70-80 crore rupees of routine capacity and balancing equipment to make our assets more value added. Towards more capacity utilization. So, everything for us, as of now, seems to go in absolutely the right direction where the JVs which were pulling me down should only keep giving me more profits and boost the bottom line and the top line.

All right. And, sir, apart from gas inflation, what kind of inflation can we see for packaging, logistics, transportation, employee costs for this year?

So, the new labor code, you've seen, we've taken a one-time 5 pro rupee adjustment. In Haryana, which we have... Thank you. So, I will not be able to quantify that impact. So, currently, the gas, in fact, is approximately 5.5 to 6 rupees, and the other input cost is between a rupee, rupee and a half. The total increase of approximately 7 rupees a square feet is what we see. So, depending on the plant, depending on the value addition, anywhere between 6.5 to 7 rupees is the price increase in current scenario. All the prices. So, this...

So, this 15-16% Trizac, which we've taken, covers for the entire 7 rupee kind of cost escalation, right?

Yes, entirely, but in projects, it slightly lowers about 15% of our business's projects, and there we've been able to pass out about 90% of the cost.

Yeah, that's your mind.

Reminder to all the participants, you may press star and 1 to ask the question. Next follow-up question is from the line of Anubab Goyal from Cosmo Ventures. Please, go ahead.

Hi, sir. So, just wanted the current pricing for our south unit.

What pricing? Gas pricing?

Yes, sir.

8 rupees, a standard cubic meter, but we have from next month contracted a long-term contract, so that will go down very significantly. It would be at least a 17-18 rupee difference. So, significantly go down.

Got it, sir. And some margins for this year, we can expect from 9.3 F526 to about 10.5 11 percent. Correct?

Yeah, yeah. 150 bps plus.

Okay, sir. Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.

There are no further questions. Thank you, Mr. Samani, for closing remarks.

Thank you so much everyone for your time for coming for our investor presentation. I think it is quite a boon, this whole scenario which is played out for the Thailand industry, especially for the organized sector. We are very, very confident. These are an aberration. The war has been an aberration, but other than that, taking some advantage from that, but more so strategically, I think we've played our part, right, of putting some investments in our max plant and also now in the vintage plant, plus putting some Thank you. This is very good. Any new plants coming in will be very difficult because with the current rupee dollar and the current uncertainty, new plants coming in, unless otherwise it's already en route, new plants will not come for the next 18 to 24 months. So I hope all this has a benefit towards the overnight sector. So until next quarter, I will take your leave. I wish you a very happy summer holidays.

On behalf of SKP Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.