Orient Bell Limited (ORIENTBELL) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Orient Bell Limited Q4 and FY26 earnings conference call.

As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode.

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 and then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Suyash Samanth from Stellar IR Advisors. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to joining us today. We have with us today the announcement of Orient Bell Limited, Mr. Aditya Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Anuj Arura, Chief Financial Officer, who will represent Orient Bell Limited on the call. The management will be sharing the key operating and financial highlights for the quarter and full year ended 31st, March 2026, followed by a question and answer session. Please note, this call may contain some of the forward-looking statements which are completely based upon the company's beliefs, opinions, and expectations as of today. These statements are not a guarantee of the company's future performance and involve unforeseen risk and uncertainties. The company also undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect developments that occur after the statement is made. I now hand over the conference to Mr. Aditya Gupta, sir. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Welcome to our Q4 and FI26 earnings call. All of you are aware of the current industry situation, especially in Morbi. So I will focus more on OBL. Over the last few quarters, we have remained focused on demand generation, premiumization, and strengthening brand visibility, while simultaneously digitizing our internal processes to deliver on the vision of simplifying time buying and selling. Technology and digital initiatives continue to remain a key differentiator for OVL. The company has consistently strengthened its digital capabilities through technology-led customer engagement, dealer enablement, and backend integration initiatives. Investments in our digital platforms, online catalog visibility, visualization tools, and lead management systems are helping improve conversion ratios, customer experience, and distribution efficiency across markets. These initiatives are now getting huge traction from consumers, both dealers and individual and consumers. For example, dealers are adding 50,000 new designs every month. Our website continues to be amongst the most popular and our online lead generation initiative is now contributing to sales for 350-plus dealers every month. These unique differentiators are helping us deliver a sell-out proposition to dealers as opposed to the industry norm of a rate-driven business. Same. On the business performance front, the momentum witnessed since Q2 continues to get stronger. Q4 volumes grew by 7% while revenues increased by 7.5% year on year. For FI26, volumes grew by 4.4% and revenues increased by 3.1% over FI25. From an industry perspective, the current U.S.-Iran war is driving structural changes which are advantageous for organized and multi-locational players. As a peer-of-play, blended-time company with manufacturing facilities spread across India and comparatively low dependence on Morbi, OBN is well positioned to benefit. While the immediate future is filled with uncertainty and volatility, Especially around the gas pricing and the impact, long-term impact it would have on demand, we feel that in India, long-term industry tailwinds are favorable. Supported by sustained housing demand, government infrastructure spending and renovation demand. Our strong balance sheet and success in cost management enables us to manage any volatility which might be seen in the short term. To some of those. We believe the strategic initiatives undertaken over the last few years across the value chain have started delivering meaningful differentiation and operational efficiencies, thus creating a strong foundation for sustainable and profitable growth going forward. Thank you.

Do we open the floor for questions?

Hi, this is Anuj, and thanks for joining us today. As Aditya highlighted, the company delivered sequential revenue growth during the quarter, supported by improved product mix, continued fee stabilization, and focused execution across markets. Profitability continued to outpace revenue growth. Given by operating leverages, manufacturing efficiencies, and disciplined cost management initiatives undertaken over last few quarters. On a consolidated basis, Q4FI26 EBITDA increased by a robust 66% year-on-year to 16.4 crores with EBITDA margin extension of 270 basis points. While PBT rose meaningfully. To 8.4 crores compared to 3.6 crores in the corresponding quarter last year. For the full year, EBITDA sold at 42.5 crores, reflecting a 38% year-on-year increase with EBITDA expansion of 160 basis points. PBT also includes significantly to 16.4 crores from 3.8 crores in FY25. This is after absorbing one-time cost of 1.3 crores towards compliance. As utilization levels continue to improve, the benefits of operating leverages are becoming increasingly visible in the business. Nearly 60% of the incremental revenue in F526 flowed through the bottom line. Importantly, as we operate 60-65% of the capacity utilization, We continue to have adequate available capacity to support future growth without any significant incremental capex. The company also maintain a strong focus on cash flow and working capital description during the quarter. Sighter controls over receivables help thus reduce DSO by 9 days to 48 days. Overall, cash and budget cycle include to 20 days from 26 days last year. From a balance sheet perspective, the company remains net free, supported by its strong cash position and liquid investments. This provides significant flexibility to support future growth opportunities. Overall, the continued improvement in revenue, margins, cash flow, and balance sheet gives us confidence that the business is well positioned for its sustainable and profitable growth going forward. With this, I request moderator.

Thank you very much.

We will now begin with the question and answer session.

Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touchstone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and then 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. Again, to register, please press star and then 1.

Your first question comes from the line

of Ashwat from Arihant Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations for the good set of numbers. My first question is, on our margins front, do we see margins to stay at around Q4 levels in coming quarters, given the issue with gas price in the country? That is my first question. On the volume growth front, what kind of volumes are we seeing ahead? And have we taken any price hikes? And what kind of price hikes are we expecting?

So, on the margin strength, you must be basically, from quarter on quarter, you will be witnessing an increase in margins. So, the trajectory is likely to continue is what we feel. Quarter on quarter basis, I think last quarter was somewhere around 6%. This is 7.7%. And we feel that this trajectory will continue.

The call is just great. March and April put together, we have taken almost 30% price.

Sorry to interrupt, sir, you were sounding a little bit distant, and there was a bit of an airy sound also, which was disturbing.

So, I shall repeat, on price increases, we were, I think, the first company to start taking price increases around the 10th of March. We have taken increases in multiple stages. So, on a cumulative basis, almost 20% price increase has been taken in March and April put together.

Okay, so what kind of price highs are you expecting ahead?

So, it all depends on what the gas price is going to be, and we will wait and see how gas prices go up. Also, Ashwalt, you know, we also expect certain secondary cost pushes which will become more obvious. With diesel prices going up, and you know, gas is also impacting a lot of our raw materials also. So we see a gradual push upward over the next few months, and watching it very closely, as I said in my opening remarks, things due to energy pricing are a bit volatile. So, keeping our eyes peeled to ensure that our momentum on volume and on margins is kind of safeguarded.

My next question is, what kind of gas prices are we looking at right now? Could you help us with the breakdown?

So Ashwath grass prices are actually formula linked, and that formula keeps on changing every few days. So it was, it started with a 80% formula, I'm sure you are aware of, which has gone down to 55% at a normal rate and balance 45% at a small rate. It further got eased during April, so it's kind of very, very volatile. But in general, approximately 30% increase is what we have seen on an overall basis in the gas prices.

No, sir. Could you help us with the INR for SEM for Q4 blended?

So Q4 INR, we have somewhere around 45 rupees average.

Okay. Sir, another question, if you may. I just wanted to understand, since we have cleared off our airtime, we are sitting at some level of cash at this point. Are we looking at some form of KPX going ahead, or what is our next move forward?

So, I should ask now. We have sufficient capacities, like I mentioned in my opening remark as well. So, there will be capex basically for maintenance, but as of now, during the current year, we don't need any additional capex in FI27 for capacities.

No, Tutsu. And one last question on the marketing spins, what kind of percentage basis are we looking at to allocate towards marketing?

I think last year, FI26, we did about 3.5%, 3.7%, 3.6%, and this is an area that we will continue to invest, and I think 3.6% will kind of keep upwards, maybe closer to 4%. We have, we have not done. We have not decided yet, but traditionally we are very clear, like as FI26 was more than FI25, we are very clear that this is an area to invest, so it would traditionally keep moving up.

Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The next question comes from the line of Apoorva Sharma from Raas Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, I'm Adubhan.

Yeah, yeah.

Congratulations, sir, for such an encouraging set of results. It seems like operating leverage has started to kick in in a big way. I have a few questions, sir, starting with... You mentioned about capacity utilization to the tune of 60-65%. Is that right?

Correct.

So, in last one year, our marketing spend has been upwards of 3.5%, 3-3.5%. We have increased our sales mix from the Ceramic to GBT, and with the launch of your anti-static tile as well and your adhesives, when do we see a collective capacity going upwards of 80%? The real estate cycle also seems to be in our favor.

You know, we have consistently stayed away from giving future guidances and also I would request if, you know, we can focus more on FI26. But I think this year, even more than the previous year, there is a lot of uncertainty. Thank you, everyone, and welcome to the call. The market is going to pan out because of gas pricing and more so gas availability. There was a time just... You know, 10 weeks back, where we were actually sitting and thinking of which lines should be shut up, should be shut down lines because the gas allocation had been reduced to 50% and all. So I think talking of capacity utilization for FI27 is not something which is in our control now. I think... Let me tell you this, quarter 4 capacity utilization was better than what quarter 3 was, and if status quo continues, then we expect this number 2 to get better. Status quo in terms of gas...

So, Sarman, another question was, since because of this energy crisis, a lot of unorganized players have shut down their capacities, that is maybe across Amorbi and many other places in India. Now, when we see this transition of the organized market share increasing in next one to two years, How do we plan on capitalizing this? Does it still have to be that 40-45% of our revenue will still come from the OBTB or do we have a more aggressive strategy here to get the market?

So, I think you're right. We expect players like us to benefit strongly with the disturbances in Morbi because of our balance sheet, because of our cash position, and our focus for the last few years on... on selling out from a dealer go down as opposed to selling in. I think we are better placed to capitalize on this development. In terms of OBTX and all, I think it would definitely, it could go up. I haven't done those numbers segment-wise from exactly where it will, how much of it will come from OBTX or non-OBTX. But with the stronger retail footprint, I think that number should definitely get better.

Sir, the anti-macrobial tile and your anti-static tile, has Orientwell started getting a reasonable traction on these products lately? Because since the data centers are so much in your headlines in the last 6-7 months, have we received any good orders or any interest from these companies?

So, Purva, there have been some orders on anti-static tiles and all, but, you know, the contribution is still a very, very small portion of the overall. So, it is nice branding this thing. We are getting some orders, but really not enough to move the top lane.

All right. All right, sir, I'll wait for my queue. I'll ask my questions then. Thank you so much and wish you all the best.

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Deepak Pruthi with Wealth with Wisdom. Please go ahead.

Hi, congratulations on a great set of numbers. Just wanted to understand from you, how is the overall demand scenario looking like for building materials? So, has it kind of turned around considering, you know, five companies have also delivered good numbers? Tile companies, all of them have delivered good numbers. And, you know, overall, electrical wire and all these companies have also started delivering good numbers. So has it kind of, you know, in your view, kind of turnaround or, you know, if the demand has been coming from household and builders?

I think, uh...

We have a lot of organization and a lot of support, a lot of spend capex by the government also. Things for the building and construction industry overall are positive. We have had some issues largely related to Oversupply will be more the cluster. But I think this particular crisis has cut down that oversupply to a level which we can easily manage. So I think the long-term thing looks positive. But I also foresee that in the short term there could be some ups and downs. For example, you know, bond rates are going up internationally. Interest rates in India could also go up. The Prime Minister has already spoken about the need for austerity and how it plays out on the consumption side. We will know over the next one month or so. So, I think there might be some short-term blips for a quarter or so up and down, but the long-term story in terms of... Building and construction demand, I think, stays strong, and coming to Tiles specifically, because of the adverse impact on Morbi, I think the supply-demand overhang for Tiles would also get corrected, which is a big positive for the industry.

Okay, just a ballpark figure in terms of how much would have the industry grown in terms of tonnage, organized and unorganized put together. So, has the organized sector grown, you know, on the back of unorganized sector not getting enough from deal supplies? Or the entire industry has grown?

Yes, I think... The unorganized sector has not done too well in FI26 also because, you know, exports have been flat. Exports in FI26 would be slightly lower than FI25 and I think, or same, not lower, same size in FI25 and lower than what FI24 was. So, go out. The Anorganized Sector has not done too well. For the first 11 months of the year, there has been a steady price, selling price erosion also. So while volumes were still better, but the revenue piece took a bigger hit. Your next question was in terms of the organized players. I think different players have behaved differently. See, the figures of, say, March could be, fourth quarter could be an emulation. Some companies might have done better than the normal run rate, some could have done worse, depending on how big their dependence on Morbi was. But generally, I see that, I think, at least I can speak for myself, can't speak for the industry. January and February were also great months for us. So, it was not that we started, you know, growing in the month of March, and if I shared this information with you, say in the first week of March, we would have been equally frustrated about our quarter fall outcome, because a good March came on the back of a nice January and February.

I understand. I understand. So, one last question. So, in terms of segments, you know, what would be the contribution coming from institutional vis-a-vis retail segment, and which segment has grown the most in the last quarter?

So, for us, retail has, I don't have the numbers offhand, but retail has grown much better for us. The enterprise business actually has not come too well for us in FY26.

Okay, and what would be the contribution coming from retail vis-a-vis institutional overall revenue?

So, retail is somewhere around 78% in this year.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you and all the best.

Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, you may press star and then 1 to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Tanmoy Roy, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Hello. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. So, my first question is, actually, I was seeing that our power and fuel cost, which has gone up by 34% year on year, and then our input cost is also up around 24%. Thank you. Our revenue growth is only 7%. So, how do you see if the same pressure persists, are you going to manage the, you know, our margins in the next coming quarters? Considering that because demand supply will be in balance.

Salve, these are two separate sets of data that we are talking about. So, the current view that you are looking at is basically as a percentage, you need to look at it not as a percentage of sales, but as a percentage of production. In the last quarter, our production has gone up by 20-25% if I remember correctly. Good morning, everyone. So, on an overall basis, like I mentioned initially, that in quarter four, power and fuel cost, the fuel cost which was somewhere around 43, 44, in the quarter three, it was at 45, 45 and a half in quarter four. So, as such, the increase that you see is mainly on account of production increase.

Okay. So, you are saying that the pressure from the, you know, Iran war, which is still, I am thinking that it will actually be shown in the Q1 results. So, you are saying that has already been absorbed in this quarter also if this cost, you know, increases what you are saying is linked to the production increase?

The cost increase started from 9th of March. So there was a part of that which was basically in quarter 3, quarter 4, and the balance will come up in Q1. We have already covered because we have already taken price increases during March as well as in April.

Okay, so based on the current input cost and the increase, we don't need any further price increase if that persists.

Yes, if the gas prices stay where they are, if they move up, then we just will have to take another increase.

Okay. So, how is our inventory level right now? So, are we, I mean, are we, see, in case if something comes up again to, you know, gas, you know, gas we are not getting properly and we have to hold our production, how long we can serve our customers?

So, there is no problem in terms of availability as such. It's just that the pricing... It will change. If the allocation changes, the pricing will change. But as I said, because we being a Bhatti location there, we haven't faced any availability related problems.

So we have to pay a stiff price if you consume more than what the government has given as a quota. And so to answer your question, we are comfortable on inventory. I think we are maintaining our inventory levels to what it was in quarter four. And I think unlike Moldy and all, we have sufficient stocks falling near town. And we continue producing. As somebody has said, capacity utilization, this, you tell me, has been better than what it was in quarter four.

Okay. Yeah, so that's fine. Thank you. So one last question. So from May 5th, there are supposed to be some units supposed to be open in Morbiz. Any quantifiable number which you can see, like how much has been reopened and how the production is going in Morbiz?

They have opened. From 1st of May onwards, I think 500 plus units have opened in Modi. Most of the GVT units have opened. The percentage of units who are doing ceramics is lesser. Most of the units are struggling not because of gas availability. But they're struggling because of labor availability. Labor has been a big challenge. The output from the chain is coming out, but, you know, polishing and packing where a lot of manual labor is needed, that is taking a hit, so people are not able to actually sell in the market to that extent.

So, in that case, sir, if demand continues the same, Any price increase can be absorbed by the end customer, right?

That's what we also expect. The dealer is, the customer is trying to shop around, check whether they are getting, you know, something cheaper from a competitor. So all that shopping around is currently on. But it is a far from perfect kind of a situation. Supplies, we really had run down. See, from more than half of March, no production, full April, no production. So, stocks at the design level in Modi have really run down. So, to kind of get that whole assortment of design. Available does take time. We are lucky that way because we have bulk of our sale originates from outside of Morhi cluster, from our three factories which are located outside of Morhi. So we have had a better availability, stock availability situation.

Sorry to interrupt sir. The line for Tanmoy sir has been dropped from the queue. We'll move on to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Ashwat from Arihant Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you for the follow-up. So, my question is on the dealer inventory. I just wanted to understand, sir, what kind of traction are we looking at there, and are we getting new ordering activity from the dealer's end?

So, I'm sure dealers have been, have turned cautious. They don't want to get stuck with high price inventory because many of them hope, many of them are hoping that prices might come down, though they are kind of reducing their stocks. That is where, you know, our focus of sell out. It's kind of helping because our teams are going to the dealer and talking to them, telling them that look in the last six months, this is your total sales, this is the percentage of secondary sale orders that we have generated and given to you, which is all documented and digitally available. So why don't you give me another order and I'm helping you to sell out. So that will continue, but my sense is... A, there is a working capital squeeze at the dealer's end because you know of this 20% increase, that same square meter of tile is costing him 20% more than previously, so there is a bit of working capital squeeze there, and he also wants to wait and watch in terms of projects for example, not just dealers, large projects. They are in a wait-and-watch mode. Right through April, they were in a wait-and-watch mode. So all that is playing around. I think it will start settling down because there really is no alternative to time. If prices go down, they will go down for everybody, not just for me, but for the whole industry. So everybody will take their prices down. And they can't substitute a time with some other surface. Okay, sir.

And another question is on the impact that you could see in Q1 because of gas. My question is on what extent can we pass on this impact? And will this also pan beyond Q1 to Q2 in any front because of the inflation in gas?

What percentage of the cost increase we will be able to pass on to the consumer? Is that the question?

Correct.

So, I don't know...

And we'll just continue over Q2 as well, in case the price remains elevated.

I think so. I think so. See, recently there have been some talks since yesterday that in Moebi cluster, Gujarat gas is increasing. June pricing has indicated that June price will be about 5 rupees per cubic meter more than what May was. I think there was a very small diesel price increase today. There was a diesel price increase a few days back. All of these things, I think, are adding up. So our downward movement of pricing and all doesn't look very terrible in the next few months. Definitely not in quarter one.

Can you just help us understand what kind of utilization split we have in our non-vetrified versus our vetrified at this point ballpark?

So, our vitrified, your own manufacturing, vitrified is around capacity utilization, I don't have the exact number, but the capacity utilization on the vitrified piece is much higher than the ceramic line.

If you could help us quantify that, that's my ballpark number, the details in between the WITRIVY and the Onward.

We have lots of a direct number to it, but I think WITRIVY should be somewhere around 80%.

And the normal 5 would be around?

Maybe even more than that. Maybe even more than quarter of a month even more, no? 80, maybe 90, but I don't know. Actually, you'll have to work that number out. I haven't seen it separately.

Sir, and another question was on our new adhesive brand. What kind of traction are we looking at there and when do we plan to launch the adhesive brand and all its game? So, I'll repeat, on our LSS segment that we have introduced lately, which is on its pilot, are we?

So, we have started, so this year is the first one here. I think we have, it has been a learning curve for us. So, this year, step-by-step, we will be kind of expanding, and again, you know, with all this volatility and all, we have not given that much attention to addresses in the last one or two months that we would have given. Otherwise, it is also, there has been some pricing, cost-push challenges and all. But, we are slowly opening it up to more and more of our dealers. And setting up, you know, multi-location tie-ups. So, this is something which we all, you know, quite gumbo about, and we expect to get some decent volumes from there in FI27.

And has it been introduced to our OBDX outlets? Is it widely available for dealers who want to purchase it? My question was, is it available in the open market for developers, for people to purchase it, for the consumer to purchase it at this point, or at what stage of...

It is there in select geographies. We have also added a lot of products in the last 2-3 months. We have added epoxy, we have added grout. And all these things are not there two, three months back. So all that work is happening. So that is kind of moving on. But geographically, it is still pockets of North India may be available. Pockets of North and East India. So that is something which we will keep on expanding.

Just one more question, just for modeling purposes. Did you mention some maintenance CAPEX that would be for 27? I just wanted to understand what kind of number would that be?

Again, Ashwalt, your voice is not very audible.

Is it better? Hello?

Yes, Ashwalt.

Yes, my question was on the maintenance KPEGs. If you could help us quantify what kind of number are we looking at for modeling purposes only?

So, basically, I think this year we have done some 6-7 crores of cathex. Next year also it should be in the range of 10 crores plus minus 4-10 crores.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for taking my questions.

Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants, please press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Apoorwa Sharma from RAS Capital. Please go ahead. I'm audible.

So, just last two questions, if you can indulge me. Number one, we have taken a price hike of, the first person asked about the price hike, it was not really audible. Can you just again guide me as to what the price hike has been so far?

So, we have taken a price hike of 20% over March and April, put together.

Okay. In meanwhile, for the month of April itself, the gas prices in north have again risen by more than 12%, from 55.5 SPM to 62.5. So, does that indicate that there is also going to be another very small price going forward?

So, I mentioned that we have taken both in March as well as April. So, the cost increase in April in terms of fair prices is already covered in our price increase.

Okay. And sir, going forward, whenever the situation, the energy crisis situation mellows down, for the sake of my understanding, these realizations that we are seeing right now, post-high, these prices remain in the market for at least six to nine months?

No, no, no, not that long. I think they will start re-adjusting in a bureau, say, three months, four months, they will re-adjust.

So this is basically a one-off event where, because of this extreme situation, we have gotten this re-adjust.

Yeah, you can think of it this way, but I think it will not change very soon. And secondly, it's a bit of a blow to players who don't have a strong balance sheet because now they have to get a lot of working capital in place to buy gas while they were earlier relying on some other fuel and all of that. So I think late night, things can change, but it will leave us better off than what we were before this crash has happened.

Okay, that's great. This just leads to my last question, sir. We have seen our peer, you know, they have shifted already to 30% of their power to biofuels. Going forward, do we have any plans in respect to the same phasing out to biofuels? Because in that case, our SCM then suddenly drops down to 2025, which is a significant savings.

Apuru, I don't even know when we shifted. I think it must have been six, seven, eight years back that we shifted to biofuels in our plan. It is not something new for us. In our spray-drive, we have been using biofuels in Chikandabad for at least seven eight years that I have been around.

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

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rakesh Kumar, an individual investor. Please go.

Hello, am I audible?

Yes.

Yes, sir. Yeah, hi. So firstly, congratulations on a good set of numbers. I just wanted to get a quick sense on, means, can you give an elaboration on the price I've taken recently and how do you see this thing out over the long term? So are these sustainable? How do you see the demand shaping up given the price hikes?

You are talking about sustainability of price highs.

Correct, correct. So, how do you see this playing out over the long term?

A, as I said earlier, there is no substitute for tiles for flooring, also internationally, that's number one. Secondly, tiles, over the last two, three years, the pricing of tiles has only dropped. So to that extent, if there is a bit of a... Shock when prices go up by 20-25%, 30%. But if you look at it over a three-year period, the time price would have only gone up in line with the inflation. So I don't really see an issue there. The more question is, how will fuel prices behave in the future? I think if field prices were to change, either go down or go up, accordingly the tile pricing will move up or move down, because what I am hearing is that whatever calculation Moldi cluster has done for the month of May, that this is going to be the incremental cost push, I think many of them are now But seeing that their actual cost of manufacturing in May is higher than what they had end by first. And if plus on top of that there is a diesel price nudge and then there is a possibility of 5-6 rupees of without gas going up which is again for 5-6% day. So, I don't know near future if things are going to come down, but whenever pricing of gas, cost of gas comes down, then these tile pricing will also follow suit and will get adjusted downwards.

Got it, got it. So, sir, similarly, as you're saying, Morbi's operational slowdown. So, we saw a good, strong volume growth in Q4. So, how can we see the trajectory going forward in the next few quarters? So, do you see the Morbi production coming back strongly? What's your view on that?

So, like we mentioned earlier that we don't give future guidance. So, we would like to stick to FY26 only. What will happen in future, nobody knows. How gas prices will behave, how the demand will turn up, nobody knows. So, I think let's stick to FY26 only.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for...

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Saqib, an investor. Please go ahead.

Yeah, sir, I actually had a broader question. Like, I've been tracking the sector for quite some time now, and for the last 10 years also, you see, for our company also, and for many other companies, the sales growth hasn't been 10-15% tagger also for many companies. So now for this quarter particularly, we have seen a significant increase in the prices, right? And you also mentioned, like, for the last three years, the prices have been falling. Now in the industry where we were not able to keep the prices to protect the margin or improve it over the period, suddenly we have taken this kind of price increases. So what is the on-ground reaction of people, like off-take of the product, or is there any demand slowdown? Because other players in the industry are talking that still there is segment demand increase. So how do we see for our company?

If you are a consumer and you are renovating your house, a tile comes in at the second of your renovation project, and you can't leave your home undone, your project unfinished, just because tiles have become more expensive than what they were a month back. And secondly, what substitute do you have of tiles? You could definitely... You know, downgrade. You could use a cheaper tile. You could use a different kind of tile, a ceramic tile, or a nano, this thing. Those choices are available to you as a consumer to downgrade. But you might have a choice to say, look, you know, I've got an unfinished house and all, and, you know, for three months, six months, I'm going to wait till the time price comes down, and only then they'll have finished the work. So that doesn't happen. Even in large projects, they have a capability and a capacity to kind of hold down their purchase, they will run down their existing inventory, but that will be a month or two months at all, they will negotiate to the best possible figure. But existing projects have to be completed. You can't leave a project half done just because the pricing has gone up.

You know, on your overall basis, tile is not more than 1-2% of the overall project cost. And holding construction will cost more than the cost increase in terms of tiles because... The cost of production will increase in terms of interest and all. So it doesn't make sense basically to hold construction, just to wait and watch when prices will go down.

One more question I had, sir. You commented that last quarter, you have seen an improvement in the margins, and you told that the productivity will be maintained in the future quarters. So what I want to ask for that, you want to say that the current quarter margins will sustain or will still improve the margins going forward also?

So, second, fourth quarter is, sorry, first quarter is normally a much leaner quarter compared to the fourth quarter in terms of sales in our industry, across players and across years. So, there is a lot of extra operating leverage which comes into play in fourth quarter because of a lesser turnover is not so available in quarter one. So, you see, historically, so that's why I don't want to talk to you about quarter-on-quarter kind of a number, but as Anush said earlier, we see a much better year-on-year growth, which we have delivered for the last three quarters on margin this thing. We expect that it will continue because As mentioned a couple of times, whatever price and cost push has happened, we have compensated for that in our marginal price increases. So we have not taken any hit on because of that.

Sir, I wasn't asking for the next quarter or so, for next financial year also. So we are seeing this last quarter's overall margin maintaining for the next quarter.

Thank you, everyone. So this financial year is optimistic compared to last financial year. We expect to do better.

Is there any sales kind of guidance if you have any, what kind of growth are we expecting this year?

We don't, as mentioned earlier also, we don't give any future guidances or numbers.

So what is the capacity utilization we are having in our call of plants?

I mentioned it earlier, it's currently around 65% in quarter 4.

Thank you. Thank you. The next question comes from Shubham, an individual investor.

Thank you. Yeah, hi. First of all, congratulations on a good set of numbers. So, I just wanted to understand what is the exceptional item that we have in this quarter, somewhere around 1.28 CR.

So, that is all account of the new labor code which has come up. So, you have to basically provide for the retirement at the rate of 50% of the total salary. That is the exceptional item.

Okay, and second thing on our other expenses, if we see one where there is an absolute dip of 5%, so what line items does it include? Like, where did we see a drop in absolute numbers?

You're talking about which number?

So, other expenses, if we see, current quarter, it is around 31.84 CR, and Y&Y, so for quarter, ended on 31st March, it was 33.66 CR, so there's a drop of 5.4%. If we can have, like, which line item does it include?

You're talking to the Lord at the result.

Sorry?

You're talking to the Lord.

Results, results.

Access 33.6 crores. The reduction is... There has been, on the overall issues, there has been...

In terms of? Do you see the current trend going forward as well? Are we expecting some further drop in other expenses?

Thank you very much.

We paid a significant amount of debt this quarter, so what is the current future details that we are eyeing at? Like, are we going to have zero debt on the books?

This is a required photo.

Yeah, that's it from my side, and good luck for the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Raditya Gupta for closing remarks.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you for your interest and oriental. Look forward to meeting you next quarter.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. On behalf of Orient Bell Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you everyone for joining us and you may now disconnect your line.