Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our Q4 and FY 2024 Earnings Conference Call for Castrol India Limited. Please note that all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and you can ask your questions after the opening statements. If you need assistance during the call, please press star, then zero on your touch-tone phone to reach the operator. Also, please note that this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as of the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantee of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict. We have with us Mr. Kedar Lele, Managing Director, Castrol India Limited, and Mr. Deepesh Baxi, CFO and Whole Time Director, Castrol India Limited. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Lele for his remarks.
Good afternoon to you and to everyone, and thank you for participating in Castrol India's Q4 and Full Year 2024 Earnings Call. Since this is my first address to you all as the Managing Director of this company, allow me to give you a brief background about myself. Prior to my current assignment, I've spent over two decades at Unilever in various leadership roles, latest being the Executive Director of HUL, with responsibilities for sales and customer development for India and South Asia. I also established HUL's e-commerce initiative over a decade ago, apart from steering the modern trade and institutional business, post which I led Unilever Bangladesh as its Chairman and Managing Director from 2017 to 2021. And before that, I spent extensive time in the field of advertising, digital innovation, and sales, building my expertise in marketing, customer development, and general management.
I've also served as Vice President of PT Bangladesh in the past, and I'm excited to have joined Castrol India and look forward to working with my colleagues to drive this company's growth in the coming time. Moving on to this performance for this year, I'm delighted to announce that Castrol India has continued its growth trajectory in the Q4 as well as the full year 2024. I would like to iterate that, or rather reiterate that our reporting follows January to December calendar year. Our focus on continuous product and service innovation, along with consistent investment in our brand, has driven a top-line growth of 6% for the year, highlighting our ability to adapt and thrive in an ever-evolving market landscape. Let's start by having Deepesh take us through our Q4 financial performance. Deepesh, over to you.
Thank you, Kedar, and good afternoon to all of you. Before I begin, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you, Kedar, for joining Castrol as the Managing Director. I would also like to welcome Rakesh Makhija, who's taken over as the Chairman of the company, and Satyavati Berera, who's joined us as the Independent Director. Together, all of you bring tremendous experience and business acumen to the company's health, and we are all delighted to have you. Now, talking about the numbers and how our performance has been, we released our Q4 and full year results on Monday. Here are some key financial highlights. Firstly, for Q4 2024, I believe we reported strong financial performance. Our revenue was INR 1,354 crores, which is up 7% from Q4 2023 of INR 1,264 crores.
Our profit before tax was INR 371 crores, and that's an increase of 14% year-on-year on a quarterly basis compared to Q4 2023, and our Q4 2024 PAT rose to INR 271 crores, which is up 12%. Now, let me just talk briefly about full year. Full year, we achieved a revenue of INR 5,365 crores, which is a 6% increase compared to last year, January to December 2023, where we delivered a revenue of INR 5,075 crores, and this reflects our consistent effort to expand operations, optimize performance, and execute our strategy.
Profit before tax stood at INR 1,258 crores for the full year 2024, and that's grown by about 6% from INR 1,181 crores in full year 2023. This improvement highlights our focus on operational efficiency and cost management, and finally, profit after tax, that reached INR 927 crores, which is a 7% increase compared to last year of INR 864 crores.
This solid growth underlines our ability to drive profitability when navigating challenges, also making sure that we do a robust growth performance. The Board of Directors has proposed a final dividend of INR 9.50 per equity share, with a face value of five each for the financial ending 31 December 2024. This is, of course, subject to shareholder approval. This will bring the total dividend for the year 2024 to INR 13 per share. The INR 9.50 final dividend that we have declared includes INR 4.50 of special dividend that we have declared to commemorate the 125 years of celebration of global Castrol.
Before handing the call back to Kedar, I would like to highlight some of the biggest recognition that Castrol has garnered in the industry this year. Our three plants in Paharpur, Patalganga, and Silvassa have received multiple awards for safety, quality, and efficiency.
We have now reached 12 years of injury-free operations at our Castrol CMS site, a testament to our commitment to safety. Our customers like Tata Motors and JCB have recognized us for innovation and technology prowess, and our marketing campaigns have won more than 30 awards both nationally and internationally. With that, Kedar, I would like to hand over to you.
Thanks, Deepesh. In addition to discussing our performance, I would like to highlight some significant business developments at Castrol India during this period. To start with, this year witnessed several new product launches across our portfolio. We introduced Castrol EDGE variants aimed at SUVs, hybrids, as well as European vehicles, and CRB TurboMax Plus CK-4, a premium lubricant for trucks, extending our commercial vehicle portfolio.
We expanded our auto care range with two new products and developed four advanced rust preventive solutions, which is called Rustilo DW series, that combine high performance with environmental benefits. Moreover, we inaugurated our state-of-the-art technology center in Patalganga, which is now here to drive innovation, blending, analytical testing, and advanced EV and data center solutions. We have also installed state-of-the-art filling lines at our Paharpur and Silvassa plants, helping us unlock the headroom to grow in the time to come. In terms of brand-building initiatives, you all remember Shah Rukh Khan became our ambassador, and he endorsed Castrol EDGE's Stay Ahead campaign, which is boosting our visibility across digital, TV, and outdoor platforms. We managed to reach out to over 70,000 truckers across 35 cities through the CRB Turbomax Pragati Ki Paathshala program.
We also launched Castrol POWER1 Ultimate Motor star initiative, with training opportunities for the winners at Castrol, Honda, LCR, MotoGP, Teams, European facilities. In terms of geographical expansion, we also made a huge enrollment in the rural market. Now we reach over 36,000 workshops and retail outlets in rural India, and our national presence has now grown to over 143,000 outlets, including 600 Castrol Auto Service centers, also called CAS, 29,500 independent workshops, and 10,000 multi-brand car workshops. Now, sustainability remains a key aspect for the business, with over 50% of recycled plastic now being used in our HDPE bottles. We have also commissioned rainwater harvesting and solar farm power projects at our Silvassa plant, thereby reducing our CO2 emission by 45%. If you ask me, all this reflects the hard work, the innovation, and dedication of our teams across the country in delivering these results for 2024.
Looking ahead in 2025, we shall continue to focus on delivering high-quality products and services to the automotive and industrial sector. A key focal point for the team will be expanding our footprint further in rural India while introducing innovative services and products across various regions. This is in line with our strategy to make Castrol more accessible and affordable for consumers through our growing network. I'm hugely excited about the road ahead and remain committed to driving growth, sustainability, and excellence in all that we do. Thank you for your attention. I invite you to share any questions, feedback, or views as we open the floor for discussions.
Thank you very much, Mr. Lele and Mr. Baxi. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Dear participants, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Also, in lieu of the time, we will stick to two questions per person. If you have further questions, kindly rejoin the queue. Ladies and gentlemen, let us wait for a moment while the questions come in. We have the first question from the line of Harsh Maru from Emkay Global Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you so much for this opportunity. So my first question is relating to the volumes. So if you could share the Q4 volumes as well as the full calendar year volumes?
Yeah, Harsh, hi. So the Q4 volume was 59 million liters. And the full year volume was 234 million liters.
Right. And so diving a little bit more in terms of volumes, could you share some bit of approximation in terms of the Essential series that you all have? And what is the kind of ballpark volume share that you are having in the ESSENTIAL series? And do you see any downtrading within this ESSENTIAL series from your existing customers?
Yeah. So thanks for that question. I think, you know, personally, we are quite excited about the ESSENTIAL range that we have launched. And it is not only in commercial vehicles, but it is also in the two-wheeler segment as well. If you look at the volume, we've grown about 6% compared to last year. And almost 4% of that is coming from the ESSENTIAL series. Of course, you know, when you introduce, and this is the second year of our operation, really, there is definitely some downtrading that happens.
But the reality also is there is a complete demarcation in terms of the kind of consumers that we are targeting. And therefore, we are happy with where there has been downtrading. We are expecting not only to just look at ESSENTIALS as a growth profile for next year, but also the premium volume, both in commercial vehicles and cars.
That's right. And just one more question to Kedar specifically. So in terms of the strategy, now we intend to become more accessible to customers. So could you please elaborate on what does this imply in terms of financial as well as operational terms?
First, you would have followed the organization for a long time. You know that Castrol is a market leader across all the spaces that we operate, as well as a premium brand, perceived to be premium, priced at a premium, which means that we left out a large part of our market, which is called Middle Kingdom or many of the markets, where we did not compete, and over the last one year, the organization introduced the ESSENTIAL brand, which is a sub-brand across most of the spaces that we've got, and made it available, and by doing focused market testing, we realized that, as Deepesh also said, the amount of cannibalization is not very high. It's a very small amount of cannibalization.
It tells us three things. One, consumers love the brand Castrol, and they always wanted to have it, but they couldn't afford it. Second, when you make high-quality products available at an affordable price, new consumers start coming into the franchise, and third, retailers who have been able to store or stock both premium as well as affordable range of products have seen growth across their portfolio, so that allows us to really be consistently growing while also maintaining the profitable profile of the organization that you have seen in Q4 in this year, and that is what we will continue to do in the time to come.
Right. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hardik from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Congratulations on good set of numbers. So can you just share how the lube prices are moved during the year and during the quarter? And also, I just want to understand in case of the increase in crude prices or in case of increasing the crude-linked prices, which is our raw material, how are we passing the input cost hike? That's the number one, sir.
Okay. Thanks, Hardik. On the crude oil, first, I just wanted to explain that in the past many years, we've seen a strong relationship between crude oil and diesel. Diesel is our input cost material, as you know. But over the last year or so, that relationship has decoupled. But notwithstanding that, if I look at the average diesel for 2023 versus 2024, it has been broadly flat, $1,000 plus minus, a few percentage. As far as 2025 is concerned, of course, with the geopolitical, it can be anybody's guess where the crude oil will go. But our assumption is that it will be in the range of $75-$80. So for that, I think we have a sort of pricing strategy in place if we need to intervene into the market. But the input cost that we are already seeing a hit coming through is forex.
So as you know, we import almost 50%-60% of our input materials. And forex, which is averaged out about 83 in 2024, is expected to be in the range of 86, roughly. Again, we know that we are following global events. So that is something that we're keeping an eye on. By the way, as I've explained in the past, these input cost increases are part of our business. We have predictive models that we use within the organization and take strategic pricing. As part of that, a part of our portfolio, retail, we have taken some pricing intervention already in the month of January as well. So that is something that I would like to share with you in terms of the premium numbers view as of now.
Okay. Actually, you mentioned that the volume for the CY 24 is around 235 million liters, right? So just wanting guidance on how the volume should grow going forward for the next two to three years. And if you look at for the quarter, the margin, we have almost hit the all-time high EBITDA level. So just wanting guidance, is this sustainable, or what has driven or drove this margin expansion?
Yeah. So EBITDA margin for Q4 is definitely at a higher level. But when you look at full year 2024, we are within the guidance that we said, which is 22%-25%. And for 2025 as well, we will continue to maintain that margin of 22%-25%.
On volume growth?
Yeah, volume growth. So across our portfolio, and as you know, we have a very balanced portfolio. Give or take, we will see the market will grow in the range of 4%-5%. And we are committed to grow above the market.
Okay. And so one more, if I can, can you just break down the volume details into the passenger vehicles, motorcycle, or you know? If you can just break down how the growth has been or in the percentage term, how the volume constitutes has been?
Yeah. So look, 40% of our volumes come from commercial vehicles, and clearly, in the commercial vehicles, on the back of our introduction of the ESSENTIAL series and product portfolio, we've seen a double-digit growth this year. Without getting into the details on cars and bikes, we look at both of them together, which is personal mobility. Yeah, so in personal mobility, we've grown in single digit, and we are expecting a good momentum right now. And that should continue in the next year as well, and typically, industrial portfolio is also growing in single digit. As you know, industrial portfolio does not get impacted at all by electric vehicles. That's definitely another area of focus that we are looking at for 2025.
Okay. I have a few more. I will come in to you. Thanks.
Sure. Thank you, Hardik.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashwini Damani from Manyavar Family Office. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hello, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So you mentioned that you expect a volume growth of 4%-5%. If we look at the last 10-year data, our volume growth has hardly been one or two%. I understand that you are increasing the outlets. But do you have some benchmark on the sale per outlet? Because if we plot the data, going back to, say, 2018, 2020, we used to do a sale per outlet of almost 1,500-1,600 per liter, which has now fallen down to, say, 1,200 per liter. So how will your volume growth come? A, on one side, vehicles need lesser and lesser fluids. Your own outlet, sale per outlet is reducing. So how do you plan to change this scenario?
Sure. No, great. Ashwini, thank you. I'll share my thoughts, and then I'll invite Kedar to build on. So firstly, what I said is just a clarification. 4%-5% is market growth. And we will grow above the market. You're right. In the past, we have not grown in line with the market, but we've grown our profits and gross margin much above the market. The shift, and I think we've spoken earlier whenever we've met, is that for the last couple of years, there has been a conscious effort to do a volume-led growth. And if you look at the last two years, both years, we've grown volume above the market. And that's been a part of a very specific intervention strategy. For example, we've gone into renewable. And that's definitely an area of focus for us.
We have launched this middle market, middle kingdom, as we call it, which is also giving us at a slightly lower price point, the volume uplift. Yeah. So we are confident that we will continue to grow above that 4%-5% of market growth rate. Kedar, you would like to build anything?
So I think you've answered the question, but maybe a perspective I can bring in is, Ashwini, when I started looking at this business a few months ago, I realized that the vehicle ownership in India is expanding rapidly, not just in new cars and new bikes, but also in the second-hand market. And with that, as the ownership increases, so does the reach of these vehicles in the rural areas. So you're right in saying that expansion of outlet coverage leads to per outlet throughput coming down. But collectively, it goes up because our products become available in the vicinity of these consumers who could be in urban areas, in the new suburbs which are coming up, or in rural areas. So the idea is to be present where consumers are.
The idea is to easily bring them into our consumer franchise, brand franchise, and make brands and products available at the top end of innovation, which is where performance is needed, as well as at a more affordable end of the portfolio where consumers are looking for a good product, which is what we offer. So that's how the firing on all cylinders is what the plan should be for the time to come.
Sure. So one more question. The stock market today feels that Castrol is in a situation where there is terminal decline in the business because of the onslaught of electric vehicles. And the stock prices are also similarly valued. At the same time, you coming from such an illustrious career background and from such an organization as large as Unilever, what is your thought process when you join a company? And I wanted to understand your psyche. So that would help us understand that as a senior person, how do you approach Castrol at this stage of your career coming to a company which is being considered on a terminal decline?
Yeah. That's a very good question, Ashwini. I must say, and it challenges maybe my decision to have joined Castrol. But I should tell you my induction experience has been incredibly immersive. It's a new category that I have begun to love and understand, and I made this decision with a lot of thought. So I must tell you two things which are maybe more factual in nature and more macroeconomic. If you look at today, the vehicle park that we have, you look at the vehicle park for two-wheelers, it's over 240 million vehicles. Vehicle park for four-wheelers, it's 45 million vehicles. Every year, India sells about four million, give or take, cars and about 20-22 million of two-wheelers. Now, the penetration of EVs in that is about 5-5.5% for two-wheelers and 2-2.5% just about for four-wheelers.
India, as a country, doesn't have an incentive like China does to drive EV penetration at the same speed because for us, whether it be EV charging batteries or fuel or the crude oil, everything is imported at the moment. So India will benefit as the evolution of vehicle technology changes from ICE to hybrid to EVs. And we will have EVs coming in in sectors such as look at the buses in the towns or cities. Look at the mobility or two-wheeler mobility that last-mile users or salesmen and women use. Now, those are kind of things which should become EV very, very quickly. Rest, I think, next 15-20 years' horizon, ICE engines will continue to remain relevant.
Castrol, as a business, is also innovating and finding new applications for products, not just the lubricant, but also in different products that we are getting into, which is coolants and transmission liquids and fluids for data centers and so on. So while I appreciate your view on market viewing the business as terminal value zero, there is a lot more, so to say, juice in the lemon to squeeze for the next two decades and more. That's how my perspective has been. And we can really create a very different business in the time to come for this brand to keep growing.
Thank you, sir. That is what I wanted to just understand. Thank you for your thoughts.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants, you are requested to please restrict yourselves to two questions per participant. You may rejoin the queue for further questions. The next question is from the line of Nitin Tiwari from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity. So my questions basically are related to your raw material cost and gross margins to start with. So your gross margin actually had a very decent expansion on a sequential basis in this quarter. Raw material prices, I mean, were lower on a per-unit basis. So what led to that? I just wanted to understand that first.
Yeah. So for the quarter, compared to sequential, this quarter was a sequential quarter. The main reason is that every year in Q4 , we get our rebates, which is on the volumes that we purchase, both for local and international. So that is one of that is leading to the reduction in the per-liter costs of the custom material. I mean, there are many other factors. Of course, it offsets there is a forex in China. But before we simplify the.
I'm sorry. I missed on that. You said that rebates that you offer. I didn't get that. Or rebates you are offered.
So because we have term contracts with our suppliers for purchase of raw materials, both global and local, at the end of the year, the rebate basis is the slab gets transferred to those rebates. So our cost of production goes down.
Okay. Is it right to understand that, I mean, most of the rebates that came in for the year were in the last quarter? That would be the right understanding?
That is exactly. And it happens every year. So when you compare last year's Q4 and this year's Q4 as well, you will find that the cost is slightly lower compared to sequential quarters.
Understood. And secondly, if I have to look at your raw material in terms of a breakup between base oil and additive pricing, so what would be a broad bifurcation in terms of percentages if specifics are not feasible between how much would be additives and basically base oil when I look at it in volume terms and percentages and when it comes to and in terms of cost in terms of percentage?
Yeah. So I can't give you exact breakdown. But broadly, you will find that 60%-70% is base oil, 10%-15% is additive, then 5%-10% is the cost of packing material. And then all the other overheads, etc., will form the remaining very high level.
60%-70% is base oil in cost terms?
In cost terms, yeah.
In volume terms, how much is base oil in a liter of lubricant?
What do you mean in volume terms? Meaning what?
I mean, if I'm looking at a liter of lubricant, right? So in volume percentage terms, how much of that would be base oil and how much would be additive?
Yeah. So look, I mean, that's almost a question around what our bill of material build is. And that, I don't think we will be comfortable sharing with you in that granularity.
Oh, I mean, that's more of a population question. But that's fine. I mean, even a broad percentage would be okay with me.
Yeah. I mean, look, I mean, it will still follow the similar sort of cost profile. It's not materially way off, yeah, if you want to take a ballpark.
Secondly, I mean, this would be the last one. How do we account for our inventory? I mean, was there any incidence of inventory losses in this quarter because our raw material prices declined, so have we booked any inventory losses as well?
No. So we do it on a weighted average cost. But there aren't any inventory losses as we appreciate.
How many days of inventory do we carry generally?
Of course, base oil and finished goods both are different. On an average, you can take that finished goods is much lower, okay? Raw materials is slightly higher because there are imports involved. There is a lag time. I would say you can take anything between, on an average, 30 to 40 days.
30 to 40 days combined for both raw and.
Nitin, we request you to please rejoin the queue if you have further questions.
Sure. I mean, it's just continuation of the same question. I understand that I'm not the last one. So base oil and basically raw mat both combined along with final products is 30-40 days, you said?
No. So that will be yeah. I mean, that will be slightly higher given that we also have additives, okay? So I think base oil, that's my answer for base oil and finished goods. So there's base oil, finished goods, additives. If I put all of that together, that will be about 50 days.
50 days.
Yeah.
Great. Thank you so much for taking the time.
All right. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kirtan Mehta from Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. One question on the sort of margin drivers for the upcoming quarter. So what I understood from this is that there were higher rebates which had benefited the cost. Probably that would be absent during the next coming quarter. However, we may see some impact from the depreciation of the rupee. And this could probably be partially offset by the higher volumes which are typical for the Q1 quarter. So how would we see the net margin moving sequentially in the next quarter?
Yeah. It's a great question. So two things. One is the depreciation to a large extent we have already, as I was mentioning earlier, we've taken our necessary pricing interventions to cover that, okay? Every year, our quarter one compared to quarter four, we'll see the cost of materials going slightly up because we take away that underlying rebate impact, yeah? So strictly, the comparison will be with previous quarter or as in the previous year Q1 . So in this case, Q1 2024. All our strategic interventions are firing. We're in a good place. And from that point of view, we do continue to expect that the volume growth will be above the market.
That volume growth, once we get the mix right, which is the mix of the portfolio which is ESSENTIALS, cities and our brand, and that I think we're making a lot of interventions in Q1 as well, we believe that the margin profile on an EBITDA level will continue to be in that range of 22%-25%. I wouldn't comment on the gross profit because as a listener, we would like to look at the full P&L as well. We will continue to invest in our brands. Very important. We have taken and you'll see it in the market as well. We are launching our flagship brand, Activ. There is a lot of action on other initiatives that we are taking to help the volume growth as well.
Right. So one follow-up on the same. In terms of the Q1 being a seasonally strong quarter for the market, do we expect our margin to be on the higher end of the range during the quarters on a seasonal trend?
So again, look, I mean, I may sound boring, but I'm going to continue to say that we will see it in the range of 22%-25%. And let me just explain why we are doing it this way. The reason is the input costs does fluctuate. And we've seen this year on year. Even if you see the four quarters EBITDA margin that we've had in this year, we were very close to 22% in one Q. And as we went along, we were able to take the necessary action to get the volume growth, get the right mix, and then navigate through these uncertain times in terms of the geopolitical situation and forex, yeah? So that's the reason we need a bit of an elbow room to make sure that we are able to balance the volume and the margin, yeah? That's really what our intent is.
One other thing you might want to appreciate about our business is while we have the automotive business and we also have the retail business, we also have a very strong B2B business and industrial business. And some of the interventions around price to get the new customer acquisition, I mean, that takes time. And that's not directly you can't start in one quarter and finish in the same quarter as well. So that's the reason we are giving a range. And this year is a classic example where we've grown the top line. We have grown gross profit. We have grown PBT. And we have managed to be in the EBITDA margin of 22%-25%.
Right, sir. Thanks for this color. One more question on the volume side. We mentioned that around 4% out of the 6% growth came in from the ESSENTIAL range. Would you also be able to give us some color in terms of how the rural expansion is helping us to drive the volume growth? How much would you attribute to our rural expansion?
Yeah. Look, I think the rural impact is, so let me just clarify. Rural, while most of our Middle Kingdom volume is in rural, not all the rural is Middle Kingdom, if that makes sense, yeah? So in the rural, there is a huge opportunity and requirement from our customers in rural to get the right mix and right product, yeah? So the rural volume growth is much higher, in fact, in double digit than what we have done compared to last year.
Thank you, sir. Thanks for this color.
Thank you, Kirtan.
Thank you. Participants, as we are in the last five minutes of the call, you may please press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Karthik, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. This is actually with reference to the last quarter's call. You mentioned about liquid cooling, and you made some strides in this space. I would like to get an update on where this is. Is it picking up in India or abroad? Do you have some use cases that you can share? Any information on this would be useful.
I mean, I don't have too much update except for the fact that there is a significant amount of work that is happening, and all in the right direction, in the U.S., in Europe. They are taking the lead in terms of the data center capacity development. We know that in India, we're going to grow double-digit in terms of the market of the liquid cooling. We are in India, in talks, talking to our customers to both do a proof of concept and commercial viability of these projects. A lot of different technologies are currently in progress. Hopefully, I think in the second half of the year, towards the end of the year, we will be able to give you a more concrete answer on where we are and what our roadmap is for the liquid cooling.
But I must say that there is a lot of work happening globally as well. In fact, in our Patalganga plant, we have set up an R&D center. This is in addition to what Global Step has set it up at the cost of INR 500 crores in the U.K. So we are doing that in India as well. So that hopefully gives you an assurance. I think you have to just give us some more time, and we'll come back to you in terms of the roadmap.
But so, based on what you're saying, is you're saying that there is a good amount of promise outside of India where it has been a pilot has been done and looks promising, and you want to expand it in India. Can I make that statement? Is that correct?
No. No. What I'm saying is the work is essentially led by Global. And there is, so there is a technology aspect of it. And then there is the commercial viability and testing of the product aspect of it. All that work is happening in Global. We are in conversations with them. And with help of our Global, we're doing similar conversations in India. We've now set up something in India as well. And India market, India market, yeah, not Castrol India, India market is expected to grow at about 20% on these cooling solutions. That's the frame I would like you to operate in. And Castrol, being a leader in technology, we will play into that aggressively. However, we can't give you exact numbers at this stage.
Yeah. No problem. Yeah. Thank you. And all the best. Yeah. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Karthik.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Natraj Sankaranarayan from DSP Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. I just had a follow-up to Karthik's questions earlier. So the roadmap, you said you will probably share in the January call, in the previous two calls. I just wanted to follow up on that. You said in six months, probably you'll give some color. Is that understanding correct?
Maybe I can take that, Natraj, because I could give you a color from my induction time and some learning as well. See, if you look at the number of data centers that exist across the world, most of them are in the U.S., followed by some in China, Europe, and then India as an emerging space. Within the data centers, as you know, the liquid coolant-based data centers is a new technology coming up to manage the thermal management as well as the carbon emissions of data centers, which is now becoming a big area of concern. Now, as we said earlier, Castrol is now leading conversations with multiple partners because a data center has three or four big partners that have to come together. There's server manufacturers, chip manufacturers, tank manufacturers, liquid coolant providers, and then a technology integrator.
Those are some of the pilots which have started in India as well. At this stage, we are not at a freedom to disclose who these customers are because we are in advanced stages. Some of the pilots have succeeded. They're waiting for the next stages of expansion. As it expands, good for our business and good for data centers. We will have freedom or rather privilege to announce those as the agreements get signed in. Before they even dry on the paper, you wouldn't get to hear about it anyway.
Okay. And secondly, on the 240 million two-wheelers and the 45 million passenger vehicles you spoke about, what would be your aspirational market share, let's say, three years hence from where we stand today? And if you could also give a color on where you stand today, I mean, ballpark of aspirational?
Yeah. I decided when I came into the role that as a matter of principle, I'll not comment on market share because you would know already that Castrol is a market leader across the three spaces of commercial vehicles, two-wheelers, as well as cars. Now, the aspirational market share is a pipe dream for many people because there are aspects of coverage of means and where do you pick up the data and so on and so forth.
At an overall level, as long as we continue to grow our volumes ahead of the market, you would see our shares would grow. And that, to me, is a real testimony to our performance in terms of innovations that we will bring to market, which would be in constant currency with engine changes which are taking place, as well as consumer affordability for value and value-price equation that we offer. So you would see us, in fact, firing on all these cylinders in the time to come.
Okay. That's it for me. Thank you. And all the best for the road.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vipulkumar A. Shah from Sumangal Investment. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. So what type of R&D spend we are looking from Castrol India on data center solutions per annum?
Yes. Vipul, see, the fact is R&D is global in nature for Castrol. And every year, the company spends anywhere between $250-$350 or $400 million on R&D. And given that we are a globally wired organization, all of those innovations come into the country without any delay. So India specifically doesn't need to spend on R&D for data centers. It's a global project. It has some portions being done in India, some parts being done in Europe, some in the US. And then it all comes together. So I think suffice it to say that we will have access to the best and the latest on the day it gets signed off and approved with our vendors and customers.
Okay. So can we assume that over the next two years, we should be getting sizable revenue from our data center solutions?
I think I would have to bring in some more understanding of how data centers would expand in the country and how would they look at reshaping themselves. Because today, opening up a data center and most of the large companies and data centers are doing it, still have to understand how immersion cooling system will work in those data centers. And that's what we are all pushing for. So it's a third degree of impact on our category after data centers start changing their shape and structure. But yeah, we would all be hoping for that kind of a change to happen in the environment for us to have another fresh line of business coming to us.
Okay. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohan Jadhav from Jadhav Family Office. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. So I have three questions. One is, what would be the advertising expenses during the quarter? And what would be the major activities done in regards to advertising? Secondly, any price hike taken during the quarter and for the year and in which segments? And lastly, what would be your B2C and B2B growth for the quarter? Thanks.
Okay. Sure. So in terms of advertisement, I'm going to just simplify the definition. Advertisement and sales promotion, if I add together, that is in the range of about 8% of our turnover. And that is something that we will continue to do. In fact, we would want to do more as we go forward. As far as price hike is concerned, I assume your question is, did we take any price increase in 2024? So in 2023, Q4 , we took a price increase. And like I was explaining earlier, price increase and price reduction is a matter of strategic pricing, both to cover input cost and inflation as well. So we did take one more price increase in the middle of the year, and that's about it.
On B2C and B2B breakup, look, I think you just have to understand the model because B2C is retail, and B2B is got to do with a lot of contracts which we have with OEM and some of the other businesses. Yeah. I won't be able to share the breakup of both the sectors in specific terms. But B2C, we grew single digit, and B2B, we grew double digit.
Okay. Thanks a lot, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Hardik from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for giving me one more opportunity to ask the question. So as you mentioned that going forward, not very nearby, but going forward, there'll be some demand that might flow from the EV space as well. So just want to understand any investment acquisitions we have done or looking for in the battery space or the coolant space. If you can just throw lights on that. Secondly, you did give the breakup of the segment by volume growth. But I just want to understand how the constitute is. For example, the diesel for the commercial vehicle is a volume 70-80%. That how it can just break up within the segment. Thanks.
Yeah. So I think your question is more wider in terms of inorganic. So if we work to a capital stream, and this is our projections for the organic CapEx, which we will grow next year, and our dividend policy, and our intent to share the success of our cash generation with the stakeholders, if you factor all of that, in terms of that frame, we will continuously be looking for any inorganic investments.
We did one investment of INR 100 crores in the service and maintenance space in Ki Mobility over two years ago. And not only EV, but there are other areas also where we continuously look at the market in terms of scanning and finding opportunity to invest. These are matters of more discussion. So, of course, I cannot share with you. But rest assured, cash is not a constraint. We want to invest in inorganic.
In fact, as a matter of fact, as you must have seen, this year we have declared a special dividend of INR 4.5, which will be held over as well in line with our intent to distribute cash to our stakeholders. So that's on EV. The second question was constituent of commercial vehicles. So can you expand what you really meant? I mean, commercial vehicles is broadly 40% of our volume. What constituent were you looking at?
So basically, commercial vehicles would be your 40%, then your two-wheelers, then your passenger vehicles. What is the breakup? And the industrial segment.
Yeah. So 45% will be personal mobility, cars and bikes. And then remaining 15% is industry.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Hardik.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Shah from Harshad Gandhi Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my question is on the advanced EV in the data center opportunity. So just want you to reconfirm. So whenever the said opportunity materializes, it's going to be flowing through the listed entity? I just have one question.
Yeah. I think we are actively working on those opportunities, as Kedar had also explained, and currently, I do not have any other ideas in terms of telling you otherwise, so the Castrol brand in India is operating through the listed entity.
Okay. Okay. That's it. Thanks.
Maybe I'll ask you the question in return. So what was on your mind? What exactly were you looking for?
So whenever the opportunity materializes, when it sells, when we start the selling and all that, so it's going to be booked in the listed entity, not in some other unlisted entity, right? So Castrol India listed entity will get all the benefit from that opportunity, right?
Yeah. As long as it's Castrol brand, it will be in Castrol entity. But I mean, these are matters of structuring, right? I mean, it's very difficult for me to say anything on that part. But the intent is that diversification is very much a pivot, important pivot of our forward strategy for Castrol, not only in India, but globally as well.
Okay.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. We are at time. This brings us to the end of the call, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of Castrol India Limited, I thank you for joining this call. You may now disconnect your lines. Wish you a good day ahead.
Thank you.
Thank you.