Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Kajaria Ceramics quarter two financial year 2026 earnings conference call hosted by Investec Capital Services (India) Private Limited . As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the 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. Ritesh Shah, Joint Head of Research and Analyst Materials from Investec Capital Services . Thank you and over to you, sir.
Thanks, Samantha. Hi everyone, good evening and thanks for joining. We have with us Senior Management of Kajaria Ceramics , including Mr. Ashok Kajaria, Chairman, Mr. Chetan Kajaria, Vice Chairman, Mr. Rishi Kajaria, Managing Director, Mr. Sanjeev Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Parveen Gupta, DVP Finance. I would request Ashok to start with the initial remarks, post which we will have a clear decision. Over to you, Ashok. Thank you so much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Ritesh. Good evening everyone. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the quarter two FY 2026 earnings conference call of Kajaria Ceramics Limited. Joining me on this conference call is the Senior Management Team of Kajaria Ceramics. In quarter two FY 2026, our consolidated revenue stood at INR 1,186 crore, a marginal growth of 1% year -to -year compared to the corresponding period last year, mainly due to low growth in tiles volume and excess supply sales due to the closure of this region. During the last two quarters, the market remained soft. Our sales growth was minimalistic, yet the company achieved a good operating margin and healthy cash flow, underscoring its operational strength and financial discipline. As you are aware, the company is currently undergoing a transformative journey focused on cost optimization, capital pooling, and strategic decisions research.
This transformation is intended to build a leaner, more agile, and growth-ready organization that is both responsive and customer-centric. While the process is gradual and better sales growth will take some time to materialize, we remain confident of achieving it in the coming quarters. Sales optimization and productivity will begin to accrue across the remaining years, where unification became fully active over the next few quarters. The short-term adjustments, which are part of this process, are strategic steps that will result in higher efficiency, operational consistency, and a stronger market presence. Kajaria today is set to operate on three fundamental pillars: one, delivering above industry growth rate; two, superior operating margin; and third, higher free cash flow generation. With Kajaria 2.0, we enter a new chapter of both transformation, fresh thinking, and renewed energy.
Led by both Chetan and Rishi , who have been recently elevated as Vice Chairman and Managing Director respectively, I am confident that Kajaria's future rests in capable and visionary hands. Their new roles reflect our continued commitment to strategic growth and leadership excellence, and will result in creating sustained value for all our stakeholders, be it our customers, our dealers, our employees, and our shareholders. Now, for this quarter, segment-wise financial performance, tile segment remained flattish year to year at INR 1,051 crore compared to INR 1,054 crore in quarter two FY 2025. The market segment registered a 14% growth in revenue, reaching INR 102 crores compared to INR 90 crores in quarter two FY 2025. The revenue from the adjusted grew to INR 32 crores in quarter two FY 2026, as compared to INR 18 crores in quarter two FY 2025.
EBITDA further improved in quarter two FY 2026 to 17.94%, + 122 basis points sequentially, and + 447 basis points year -to -year. Past for the quarter, it grew by 58% to INR 133 crores in quarter two FY 2026, as compared to INR 84 crores in quarter two FY 2025. As of 30th September 2025, the working capital days reduced by two days to 56 days, compared to 58 days on 30th June 2025. With this, I take this opportunity and thank you for joining us today. Over to operator please .
Hi, Samartha. Are you there?
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone 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 Keshav Bigharatan Lahoti from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, sir. Congratulations on a strong set of margins in the quarter, high margin. I want to understand on cost. I mean, you evaluated your cost rationalization. I want to understand more how the progress has been in this quarter, possibly if you can speak some line item by line and what sort of more direction is possible in upcoming quarters. How long will this journey go on? As you highlighted multiple quarters, will this journey get over in FY 2026/2027?
In terms of cost reduction, we have taken significant steps. For example, re-engineering of the packing boxes across all our plants across the country has resulted in a substantial saving of INR 30 crore, INR 35 crore on an annual basis. Plus, we've also worked on reducing our purchase price and outsourcing of tiles of ceramic and polish, which we've tried. We moved a lot of people, around 250 people. A lot of work has gone behind the scenes to rationalize the cost, which you have seen in the results.
Got it. Whatever is there is done, or possibly no sort of reduction is possible on employee cost or other nine substantial line items?
Some more savings will occur as we go along, and it will happen as we go quarter by quarter. Some savings might happen as we go forward. Line item is like the savings will accrue in raw materials, savings will accrue in purchase of finished goods, savings will accrue in salary wages, and savings will accrue in administrative overhead.
Got it. What would be the margin of the company once all these savings are done, and by when this will be done?
We can't say about the margin, but as we said in the previous communications, we have started the cost optimization journey, and some portion we have covered in the first and second quarters. Every quarter, the journey will remain. In the next two to three quarters, there will be more savings, but we cannot quantify the margin by now.
No, I get it because you are in a cost reduction. At times, we also don't know, but it's already two quarters. You might have some sense, at least maybe a broader range of what sort of cost saving is still possible. Maybe a broader range would be helpful: 100 days, 200, 300 days, more cost saving as a percentage of savings. What that number would be?
I think it's difficult to quantify right now, but you are seeing the difference from the first quarter. We had a margin of 16.74%, which has increased to 17.94%. Going forward, I think it should be a little better only from here, but we can't quantify any numbers in any basis points.
Got it. Understood. Thank you. I'll come back to you.
The next question is from the line of Shaleen Kumar from UBS Securities India. Please go ahead.
Good evening, Ashok. Rishi, Chetan has the muted. Just checking in my audio because I'm in a road, so I'm speaking with my audio.
Clear? Line clear? Shaleen, Ritesh, the line is not clear, so can...
Okay, sure. Just to begin with, can some initial feedback from, let's say, distributors, you know, it's been a few months of this unification, any feedback that you can share? How is the feedback from the distributor or the influencers, you know, customer side? Any, you know, both on the positive or negative side, if you can share something or any challenges that you've been facing on the positive side, that would be great.
We'll start. Individually, from the distributor point of view, they're very, very happy. Earlier, what used to happen was three people used to go to a single dealer, and now we've reduced that to one. If it's a very, very big dealer, maybe two. Overall, they are very happy that they don't have to answer to so many people. Coming to architects, influencers, we were never there. We never serviced them. Recently, about a month back, we started making a team, and we already have about 18-20 people who are on board. We're going to further extend the team. Their job is only to go and meet influencers, architects, interior designers, and talk about Kajaria, Kerovit, Despond, whatever products we are offering.
Also, I think another change we have done is we have kept a consultant now, a management consultant who is guiding us how to increase the market share of our company. I'll just give a very small example that, in that tailwind, a lot of dealers were there who were not performing. We accessed that data with a very open mind. We got a lot of information that there, some dealers need to close, some white spaces are there where the dealers are being made. The consultant is going to structure the entire thing for us, how we can penetrate further into the market and increase the market share.
Got it. Anything we are doing also on the sales incentive structure, etc., towards, you know, to drive the push of our product?
Yes, yes. That has also completely changed. Earlier, because there were three verticals, we had very different systems. Now everything is volume and growth linked, that only if you reach a certain growth percentage, only then the incentive gets applicable.
Sure, sure.
The more you sell, the more you get. This should be a carrot and a stick.
Okay. Got it. We understand not just on the growth side. We understand that this time we had a heavy reinforcement in Q2. Do you see any changes coming back in October? Any uptick in green shoots in terms of the growth for October or too early to say?
It's too early to say because it's the Diwali time also, but we are pretty hopeful this quarter, October to December, we should have some volume growth. The exact number we would not like to say, but we should definitely have some volume growth this quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sneha Talreja from Nuvama.
Hello, and congratulations on great margins. Just a couple of questions from my end. While you spoke about, you know, employee expenses coming down further and, you know, other expenses also coming down, what I wanted to understand is power and fuel cost too is down this particular quarter. What would be the reason here for savings? Is it an industry-led phenomenon?
Power and fuel is lower. Power and fuel remains the same. Power and fuel is lower because of the lower production there. That is the concern we faced because of the concept that savings are foreign. Cost is the same.
Understood, sir. In any of, you know, numbers that we can get, how much further reduction can we get? I know the previous participant has already asked this, maybe in terms of, you know, raw material expenses also, you were saying, you know, there could be some savings there also. How are those savings coming up in raw materials?
Sneha is working on continuously. We can't quantify the exact savings as of now, but we are constantly working on the raw materials also, wherever we can save cost at the factory level. A lot of the work has already been done also, Sneha, and you can see that is a positive number also. A lot of impact is starting to come. Like even in this month, we did some reasonably good saving in certain materials, so this will be reflected in Q3 and Q4.
Based on my understanding, it's not an industry phenomenon like raw material prices falling down. It is your efforts where you're trying to maybe negotiate with your guys in terms of supplying and all of those things.
Correct, correct. You're absolutely right. With the unification of sales, we are also unifying our purchases and utilizing our power of volumes for better negotiations.
Understood. While you mentioned that you formed a team for architects, you also had formed a team for catering to projects. You were.
See, projects and projects, you were always tapping. The big projects were always we were looking at. This is a new segment which was not there with Kajaria, where meeting architects and interior designers. With that, we also have some people who are there also going to tap the government projects.
Right. We had increased some focus on projects, if I'm not wrong. We did speak about it in the last quarter. This thing also confirmed. I just wanted to understand, are projects really doing better than the retail segment, and what is our percentage share, and what is the percentage share we look at in terms of three years, five years down the line?
See, our current percentage should be about 70% retail, 30% projects. We are to work on all the fronts, whether it is the dealer network or the project network, to look at volumes. It is difficult to project what will be the volume, what will be the ratio going forward. What we mentioned last time as well, we are more seriously working on the dealer segment. We are always very, very strong. Project segment, we are putting more emphasis and more pressure on that so that we can get more volumes there.
Understood.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sajal Gupta from FE Securities . Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, or good evening, Ashok. Congratulations for such a strong performance. It's been a performance that was really surreal. I think from the information which I'm getting from the dealers at the ground level, that our business and overall in the business, which has resulted in a lot of.
Sorry to interrupt you, sir. Sorry to interrupt you. You're not audible, sir. Mr. Sajal?
Yes, I am now.
Mr. Sajal, yeah, it is loud and clear. Yeah, it is loud and clear.
Okay. No, I'm saying, yeah, at the ground level, what I've checked with the dealers is that there's a lot of reinventing of the businesses which is happening and overhauling of the business operations, which has resulted in a lot of cost savings. Plus, the charge you have given to the younger generation, Chetan and Rishi, to run the business is an excellent, I think, excellent move by you. I must congratulate both Chetan and Rishi for coming on board and doing such an excellent job. My question out here is, you know, with such a strong performance, there's obviously other people who have also asked this question. Locals making it. When do you start seeing the growth and what levels of growth can actually come? My second question to you would be, you know, during the COVID time, if I'm not wrong, the company had reported a 30% EBITDA margin. How far are we from achieving a 30% EBITDA margin from here?
The question you asked is, I think the volume growth is already said by Chetan and Rishi just now, with the transition of hiring a management consultant also. We are doing a lot of work on the ground level as to identify which are non-performing dealers, which areas we are not there. I think that will add value. Plus, an architect team has been installed, which was literally not there in Kajaria because there were three divisions working independent of each other. Now, with this unification, that is going to help, number one. Volume growth has to come. No questions about it. As far as the margins are concerned, I think they are on a positive side. Already they have said that the, you know, what was first quarter, second quarter is 17.94%.
If the volume growth also comes, which it has to, we should look as a positive figure for the oncoming third and fourth quarter.
Sir, about the margin and what Sajal said, in COVID areas, the margin which we got in a particular quarter was a result of a significant fall in the fuel price. That was one of the things, but sustainably, our margin trajectory was around 14% to 15% to 16%. We have moved into a new orbit of margin. When we will reach 20% or 21%, even that 20% is not comparable with this margin, because this margin is based on the overall cost optimization. We are working on all areas of cost. Quality-wise, it's a much superior margin if you ask me than that 21% margin in that COVID area, because that was a result of a particular commodity which went down that significantly up our margin. That margin was not sustainable. This margin is definitely sustainable.
As we move towards our cost optimization journey, there could be some improvement further to this margin.
That is remarkable that margins are sustainable, and you are talking of a higher margin from that 14%, 15% margin originally which the company used to run. Impressive. Back to.
Huh?
With the volume growth, I'm sure the company is going to do very, very well. I think you have answered most of my questions. Thank you so much, and I wish you all the good luck for the future. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sagar Jagtap from Marine Research. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes.
Yes, you are audible. Good evening, team. Thanks for the opportunity. Government projects had last year a 10% volume. This year, I just wondered, how do we see the numbers going forward to the year?
As we said, our retail projects mix in roughly 70% to 30%. That 30% includes both private and government projects and builders. It's very difficult to quantify how the ratio of government and projects with private builders will keep on changing within that mix. As you said, we are more focused and aggressive on getting more project volumes also as we keep on going forward.
How is pricing in Morbi workspace branded segment evolving this quarter?
Pricing gap between Morbi and Kajaria is about 20%. That remains. That remains.
Okay. Other expenses had advertisement expenses for further an increase in quarter on quarter and full year spending of advertising.
Actually, the advertising expenses have come down. It has come down in this quarter and half year as compared to the previous one. In the next few quarters, it may go up.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahman KV from Sequent Investments. Please go.
Hello, sir. Thank you for allowing me to ask the question. I have two questions. One is, as everybody was asking margin, you said there were some initiatives which led to, one of them was re-engineering the packaging across all your factories, which led to INR 35 crore of annual savings. When I look at this quarter, on a sequential quarter basis, there has been INR 30 crore of additional EBITDA. When we compare it on a YoY basis, there is an excess of around INR 70 crore of additional EBITDA despite the revenue being flattish. I just want to understand, in brief, how are we able to optimize the cost? At the same time, what's the company's restructuring policy with respect to the employee cost? Because I have seen that during this quarter, the employee cost has come down a lot.
It has not come down a lot, but as we move around, it will not go up. There could be slight saving in the employees as we are not giving increments this year. Some people may be relieved, may go, and we are not intending to hire any fresh people. There is a growth of the percentage of employee cost of sale will go down. One, and what was the other question? Yeah, Adivita.
I just wanted to understand the trigger, which is the 17% margin through 20%, 22% margin.
You are comparing previous year margin, which is this time, the cost savings. Last year, there were some losses due to the fly events also, which are not real.
Fly and London?
Yeah, fly in London. Yeah.
Hello.
Did you get it on?
Sir, my second question is with respect to volume. Sir, can we expect the volumes? What are you expecting the volume in H2? Going forward, are we expecting volumes to come back?
As I said earlier, we cannot give you the exact number of what we're expecting in H2, but yes, we'll definitely see some volume growth from here on. In H2, we'll definitely see. H1 was, we had zero volume growth. H2 will definitely have some good volume growth.
See, in the why we didn't get the volume in the first two quarters, there are two reasons. One, the market was soft. Another, we were busy in the unification. When you change a process, which was there in the company prevalent for so many number of years, there is some adjustment happened as said by Chairman in his speech, if you have noted. Some sales we must have lost because of that change in the system. We had changed the change in the teams. The reporting is, I mean, there is a change in reporting. Some dealers, some de-stocking, some re-stocking. Some length may go towards that also. We believe the market improving and as we move towards unification, three, as the benefit of hiring a consultant will also give some fruit. A combination of all three factors will definitely lead to some volume growth.
Okay, thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sajal Kapoor from Antifragile Thinking. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Ashok, it's uncommon to see the promoter directors voluntarily foregoing salaries in a fiscal year, and that's obviously commitment. The question is, how does the management now ensure that the best-in-class and capability employees are, you know, quote-unquote, "ring-fenced" amid this internal restructuring as typically low-quality employees, you know, who are forced to leave, but the high-quality ones may voluntarily resign and they move on, right? How do we make sure that the resultant organization is stronger, actually?
That's what we are trying to do. See, that's what the goal is, to make the organization leaner and more effective. The management not taking a salary was a bold decision. Let me tell you that after a lot of deliberation, because two reasons. One, we didn't give any increment to our people this time. As a management, we said, let the company become stronger. That's point number one. Point number two, the whole effort is to make it as lean and clean as possible, effective but lean and clean. That's what we are trying to do, and it's working. It's working in the right direction.
No, that is for sure, Ashok. My question is, how do we convince good employees that they have a bright future ahead?
We don't have to convince. There is no, first of all, there is no rating. We don't have to convince. We are doing our job, and those people who are there, they have been there for 20 years or 25 years. They know where things lie, number one. Number two, basically, a lot of people, extra people came in because of the three divisions working. We are doing only rationalizing and making sure that this unification works and right people stay, which is happening already. We don't have to make sure it is happening.
I will add one more thing. It is not that we are letting the people go. We are hiring fresh talent also. You see, it is a turning of manpower. We have hired good professionals in the last two quarters, and the company will continuously be hiring in different divisions. I cannot tell you what division, what rank and all, but the mind is very clear that we will be hiring good professionals as well because we have to work on systems. We have to work on IT. We have to work on HR. Every year, we have to work on our own systems. We have to revisit. For that, we will be needing good talent, and we are not shying away in hiring good talent and staying good to them.
No, absolutely. I think that's reassuring.
I think with a leaner and fitter organization, all we need is our demand recovery, which none of us can predict or control. At the moment it comes, the earnings should be speaking for themselves. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's all I had.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Omkar Gugardhare from Shree Investments.
Is the increase in the dividend payout linked to the performance or increase in the margins? Is this sustainable, or is this a one-off phenomenon you have done?
It is not one-off. It is a dividend. We have paid as per the dividend policy. We have a dividend policy to pay between 40%- 50% of our earnings. This is not for the first time we have paid. We have been paying for the last three, four years.
It's just the increase in the dividend payout. That's what I'm asking. I know you have been paying dividends for the last three, four years.
In that, we have increased a bit as compared to the last two years. Overall, dividends will remain within the policy unless the board changes the policy.
Okay. You have mentioned that the demand is soft in the first two quarters. Actually, if you see for the last three, four years, there have, I mean, I would say maybe 4%, 5%, 6%, 7%. Some years, 7%, 8%, 10%. It hasn't been much. What has been the major contribution to demand not being there for the last three, four years when the sales of real estate companies are growing? There is a lag effect, but how much lag effect?
There was a slowness in the demand in three, four years, and we didn't grow the way we have been growing prior to that. This time, it is not because of the unification, because of the correction of our system, we will not be, see, prior to this four, five years, we have been growing in good double digits. We have been taking market share. Even in the era where we have grown 4%, 5%, we have taken the market share because the industry had not grown at that percentage even in those years. As we said in our reply to the earlier question, three things will happen. One, the market may improve, which will help. Two, we will continue to take market share because of the change in our marketing policies, the unification majorly. Three, as we are thinking freshly, we are hiring the consultants.
We are revisiting where the white spaces are there in our dealer management system, dealer system. Everything we are revisiting. That will also help in getting good volume. Secondly, as you are aware, in the second quarter, a lot of rains, floods have been there in the entire northern bank. Your damage you're not sure, but construction will be there. At the end of the day, the construction will also happen in quarter three onwards. Automatically, demand will revive because the second quarter has been very bad for the entire northern India and part of eastern India because of floods. Automatically, the demand will arise in all sectors.
How soon are you expecting the demand to come back?
Not from this quarter, sir.
With all the efforts you are putting in, you are saying that it should be visible from this quarter itself.
Absolutely correct.
Okay, thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pulkit Patni from GS. Please go ahead.
Sir, thank you for taking my question. Enough has been said about how the management has actually put in the best effort to cut costs. I think the one question which we are all grappling with is, what is actually happening to demand itself? In your view, your experience of doing this business for more than two, three decades, why is it that for the last three years, demand is so sedate? What do you think needs to change for demand to come back? As a management, while you're doing all the right things to cut costs, I don't see that optimism in terms of demand, given that a lot of the initiatives you are doing are quite dominant in terms of cost cutting. Please help us educate a little bit more on what you think is happening to demand of tiles in India.
I think a lot of answers have been given, and you are missing a few points. Point number one, there is a unification which has been done by Kajaria. You see what has happened. As you are aware, the last two years, there was a commonality in products between ceramic and 355 division. As a result, what we decided is that starting from this financial year, we'll do unification, number one. Number two, with this unification, a lot of corrections have to be made, as said earlier by Rishi. For a dealer, see, 31st of March, three people were vesting. Now one person is vesting from Kajaria. The efficiency of the dealer and the efficiency of Kajaria also improved. Third, demand has to come. It can't be there if it is there in other industries. Demand has to come.
As we all know, demand has been sluggish for all kinds of building materials. When you say it has not been, I disagree with you because the results of all the other related companies of building materials are also saying that demand has been sluggish. Things have to improve with all this happening. A lot of corrections have been made by this government by cutting off the reduction in GST in many areas, creating demand in the economy by putting in money in the system. Demand has to come. What we are doing as management, as said earlier by Chetan and Rishi, I think this kind of effort by hiring a management to identify where the dealers are not performing, where Kajaria is not there, all this, the demand has to come.
As I said two minutes back to one of the questionnaires, starting from this quarter, you will see the change in scenario. Let's accept. Let's not talk negativity. Let's look at positivity. Also, we are making our organization ready. What we have also done in the last six months is we made our organization ready that any spurt in demand from the market will be the major dinner.
Sir, maybe I didn't put my question across correctly. No, I by no means meant that, you know, others are growing and you are not growing. I'm just trying to understand why in the last three years, tiles as an industry, which is also building materials, is not showing the kind of demand. Like, what do your dealers tell you? What's happening on the ground? Sir, I want to just improve my understanding rather than questioning what the company is doing because I 100% appreciate that you are doing the right thing in the interest of the company. It's just why tile demand has been so weak if you can throw a little bit more color on that particular aspect.
No, no. I answered that point. Not only tiles, all kinds of building materials, except cement and steel, which go into the building industry, have been weak. They have been weak. Two answers we don't have right now. You see, whatever. All of a sudden, you see demand coming in with all the infrastructure government is doing. Government has also slowed on the infrastructure of late. I think now things are pushing where they are only talking about infrastructure development and all that. Once that happens, demand has to come. Let's keep our thing on the mind that demand has to come, and we should look at a positive atmosphere from here onwards.
Sure, sir. We are all hoping for the same. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mr. Ritesh Shah from Investec Capital Services . Please go ahead.
Yeah, actually, a couple of questions. First, sir, you did indicate that we have appointed a management consultant, and the target is to enhance market share. Sir, can you highlight a few underlying variables that we need to target over here? I think you did touch upon incentives being rechecked. Anything specific on product pricing, discounts? How should we look at it? We have the brand, we have the distribution. What incrementally? What next?
A couple of things. First, we are mapping the country state by state to see where the dealers are not, where the dealers are not performing, where they are not present, and where the competitors are. We're doing a deep analysis state by state of the country and identifying those areas where we can connect deeper and extend our distribution network. That's also focusing on where we can make more exclusive showrooms as we go along. Currently, we have 450 exclusive showrooms of Kajaria and 1,850 dealers. Our target is to increase that more in the next couple of years and get more exclusive distribution showrooms. Those are the efforts going on behind the scenes. Also, the unification is now happening.
We're looking at making a policy uniform in terms of pricing and the discount structure to become simplified so that dealers will understand all the verticals of the company when a guy goes to visit them and sells the product. All these actions are happening behind the scenes as we go along. In terms of products, a lot of new products are launched. Earlier, some dealers were not keeping those products, but now that cross-selling has happened, all dealers have access to the entire range of Kajaria.
Sure. This is helpful. Sir, my second question is on the distribution side. We had different store formats: Prima Plus, Eternity, Galaxy, Ambience, Gres Universe. Sir, what happens to that? Does it remain the same way, or are we giving the flexibility to the dealers to choose whatever brand they want to use?
That's how the dealers also come into play. They are guiding us to see how we are going to do the outside branding for the normal customer, for a regular customer. All Prima Plus, Eternity World, all those terminologies will go. There will be a common name, maybe like a Kajaria Galaxy or a Kajaria World or whatever. That work is already going on. We just got this consultant recently. Maybe in the next one or two months, we'll have the entire plan ready. The last quarter, January to March, we'll get everything implemented.
Sure. This is helpful. Just a quick question on the export side. Ashok Ji, I think last quarter you had given a number of around INR 16,500 crore for FY 2025. For FY 2026, we were looking at around INR 18,000 crore of exports at the industry level. Sir, how should we look at this? If the exports don't go up, is it something which worries us? How should we think about it?
For the data which you got, the last six months, export has grown a little bit. From the last six months, they added April 2024 to September 2024, they had a volume of about INR 7,600 crore. April 2025 to September 2028, we have exported about INR 8,300 crore. There's a marginal 10% increase, 9%- 10% increase. This will continue looking at the two-year situation in India. Two years should be INR 18,000 crore. Yeah.
Okay, thanks. I will join back with you. Thank you so much for your answers.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deya from Sapphire Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Yes, you are audible.
Sir, I just wanted to ask if you were adding any new capacities. If I heard you correctly, you said 20% EBITDA margins from Q3 or Q4.
No, we never give you any figure like that. We have never specified any EBITDA margin.
We have always said there will be some cost optimization reduction. How much it will result into EBITDA margin, we cannot say because EBITDA is not a result of cost optimization. It's a combination of cost, selling price, gas price. The other factors are not in our hands. We have never guided for 20% EBITDA margin. We have always said that we are in the process of cost optimization. Every quarter, there will be some improvement as far as our costs are concerned.
The first question, we're not adding any capacity right now. The first focus is to run all our manufacturing plants to 100% capacity. Our current ratio is 25% of outsourcing versus manufacturing. If the demand goes up, we'll immediately outsource from Gujarat and supplement that demand.
All right. Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Keshav Bajajratna Lahoti from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, how much was the ad spend as a % of sale or absolute number for the H1, and what is the target for this year?
Actually, I think there was a respend, roughly. What was the question?
Ad spend.
Hello?
Oh, how much was the ad spend for H1 of this year, and what is the target for this year?
I think that the range number is ready, but this H1, the ad spend was lower than the last half year.
Okay. As you highlighted, the ad spend is lower. Possibly the target is to lower it or maybe because of ad spend.
We intend to increase it in the second half. The reason for the lower ad spend in the first half was also that we did not do these dealer policies which we used to do in Thailand.
Okay.
We're heading now for six months, and in the next six months, we will push the advertisement further.
Okay. The reason I am asking this question is because I'm trying to understand the margin as the ad spend is lower. Possibly how much lower it was in H1, possibly once the ad spend will increase, it will have some dent on margin. I understand you have legal team who rationalize more costs.
There could be some portion of the margin improvement is very significant. There could be some portion of ad spend saving, a lower advertisement to this margin, but it's not very significant thing.
Got it. The target is to continue with 3% of sale as an ad spend going forward?
It's not percentage. See, it's not. We were never spent in a percentage term. See, we are the largest spender of ad in the whole industry. It's an absolute number. Even if we do the same number, it's very, very fine. Number two, as we are doing cost optimization in other areas, we are doing the same in the advertisement. Optically, the number may be less as far as the financials are concerned, but we are taking more value from the lower number. We have negotiated with our advertisement vendors as well, and we have got good saving in that.
Understood. Got it. Can you wonder in H1 as your tiles revenue is flat? Any colors? How would be the project and retail? What would be flatter or something doing better?
Sorry, come again? The voice is not clear.
In H1, your tiles revenue growth is flat. Can you possibly bifurcate in project and retail? Both have been flatter or something is doing better?
Both are rationally maintained at the same level, approximately.
Understood. Got it. Sir, how is Nepal? We can see there is a good ramp-up in production in Nepal. What was the Nepal sales in this quarter, and how is the margin profile looking now? What is the possibility of the outlook for the same?
We sold roughly 0.7 million sq m in quarter two. There is a lot of turmoil also happening in that country. We are just waiting and watching and trying to sell the capacity as we keep on going along.
Okay, how is the margin looking right now?
The margin is okay, but see, we have made some profit in Nepal. I said in the last call also because we have some inventory in the system which is beyond the norm. We will not be very happy with that profit number. Our intent will be to liquidate the inventory even if the margin or the profit is less. It's a very small venture, just a [INR 5 million] venture, and out of it, 50% is the JV partner, 50% is ours. That margin will not, in this, will not be any impact on the overall thing. Otherwise, also, it's a JV. It's not part of EBITDA. It's just below the line.
Right. I understand that. It is fair to assume Nepal won't be loss-making at JV level for this year? That is a fair assumption?
I will not say.
It will not be loss-making for you.
We are making profit. We continue to make the profit, but that will be very insignificant profit. As I said, the intention will be to liquidate the inventory and set the plan. The profit we can get next year or maybe later. That's not an issue. The primary focus is to sell, reach to all the dealers because it's a new country, new dealer base, and everything. The focus is not on profit. You should also not look at the profit. Your question is to ask how much money, how much sale you are making, what percentage capacity utilization of our plant is running, what is the inventory level, and all, rather than focusing on profit.
It shows the point you can show. My first question was on the same side only. It's about it. Right now, it's a fair strategy. I agree with you. Yes, sir. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Omkar Gugardhare from Shree Investments. Please go ahead.
How much this unification, because of this unification, how much volume should I have lost? Also, by closing down one of the business, approximately how much should I have lost?
Sorry, because of unification, we will not be able to quantify what volume we have lost. What we are saying is that our main focus was more on strengthening the organization. For that, in that configuration, we could have lost some sales. We cannot deny that, but it is not possible to quantify that because the sales people, dealers, I mean, they are just having a new thing to them. Everything is new, so they are making adjustments, very insignificant figure. We have not lost our own sales as such. Yeah.
Hello.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Participants may press the star and one to ask questions. Noble.
I think there is no question. There is no participant left for the questioning. Can we conclude the conference?
Yes, sir. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ritesh Shah from Investec Capital Services for closing comments.
Thank you all for joining on to the conference call. Ashok, Rishi, team, thank you so much for joining this opportunity to host you. Thank you so much, sir.
Thank you for organizing this.
Thank you.
Thank you on behalf of all of us. Wish you all a very, very happy Diwali. To all the participants and all of you, wish you a very, very happy Diwali. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Investec Capital Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.