Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the earnings conference call of Cera Sanitaryware Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the 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. Devrishi Singh of CDR India. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you, Yashasri. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the earnings conference call for Cera Sanitaryware Limited for Q4 and FY 2025 earnings, which were announced yesterday. We have with us today the management team comprising Mr. Vikas Kothari, CFO, and Mr. Deepak Choudhury, VP Finance and Investor Relations of Cera Sanitaryware. We will start with brief opening remarks from the management, following which we will open the call for Q&A. A quick disclaimer before we begin: some of the statements made in today's conference call may be forward-looking in nature, and a detailed note in this regard is contained in the results documents that have been shared with all of you earlier. I will now turn the call over to the management for their opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, Deepak.
Thank you, Devrishi. Good morning, everyone. On behalf of the management team of Cera Sanitaryware Limited, I would like to welcome you all to our earnings conference call. I will begin by sharing some updates on the operations and strategy, following which our CFO, Mr. Vikas Kothari, will run you through the key financial highlights. I'm delighted to share that we concluded the financial year 2025 on a positive note, supported by stable margins and steady performance across key segments. Our focus on operational efficiency and disciplined cost management has been instrumental in sustaining profitability and supporting our performance. The operating environment in Q4 remained subdued, with continued softness in consumer demand across end markets. Despite this, the company managed to deliver a satisfactory performance for the quarter, largely driven by our strong business fundamentals, sustained focus on cost and efficiency, and consistent execution across key verticals.
Revenue from operations in Q4 FY 2025 stood at INR 578 crores, registering a year-on-year growth of 5.7%. EBITDA stood at INR 121 crores, with improved margins at 20.4%. Our profit per segment recorded a year-on-year growth of 9.6%, supported by resilient demand and good acceptance of our wider range of SKUs. In the sanitaryware segment, while demand remained subdued, we remain optimistic that structural drivers such as organization, rising disposable income, desire for improved living standards, as well as home renovation and upgradation cycles will support the recovery over time. In Q4 FY 2025, the sanitaryware and profit per business contributed to 48% and 40% of the total revenues, respectively. During the quarter, capacity utilization stood at 95% for faucetware and 90% for sanitaryware. At the same time, the B2B segment continues to gain traction, contributing 40% of revenues during the quarter, up from 35% in Q4 FY 2024.
We have witnessed strong pre-order momentum from the real estate sector, supported by rising construction activity and higher disposable incomes. Cera's long-standing brand equity and track record of quality and reliability has enabled us to consistently win project orders, further strengthening our B2B growth trajectory. FY 2025 demonstrated our ability to execute across multiple strategic funds despite a challenging demand environment. We enhanced our product portfolio with the launch of approximately 431 new SKUs across the Cera and Senator brands and undertook a comprehensive portfolio reinvention through the establishment of a dedicated design center at our factory. This has helped drive innovation in categories such as designer dressings, slim-profile water faucets, and PVD-coated faucets. During the year, we also significantly expanded our retail footprint, launching over 342 new stores and expanding our company-owned Cera Experience Center at Mohali, Jaipur, Pune, and Lucknow, bringing the total to 13 across India.
Our retailer loyalty program continued to scale effectively, now engaging over 24,400 retailers. Additionally, we strengthened market presence through participation in leading industry forums across cities such as Kochi, Vijayawada, Lucknow, and Siliguri. We continue to take progressive steps in evolving our brand architecture and sharpening our premium and luxury positioning. Our flagship brand, Cera, continues to perform well, while our premium brands, Cera Luxe and Senator, are poised to gain momentum in an evolving market landscape. Backed by a clearly defined product roadmap and supported by in-house design, manufacturing, and R&D capabilities, we are prepared for a focused scale-up in FY 2026 and beyond. There has been substantial progress on the Senator brand. The complete product range has now been finalized, covering faucets, sanitaryware, and wellness products to offer a full spectrum of action solutions.
In a significant strategic move, we are setting up a dedicated team under the leadership of Mr. Ramesh Paliga, Chief Business Officer, to exclusively drive the Senator brand. This move demonstrates our increased commitment to developing Senator as an independent premium retail brand. As part of efforts to deepen engagement with the architect and design community, we have partnered with the Festival of Architecture and Interior Designing as a powered-by sponsor. This platform will enable us to showcase Senator's full range across curated events in metro cities. This association includes exclusive branding, product demonstrations, and direct connects with key industry stakeholders. We believe this will significantly boost Senator's visibility in the premium design ecosystem. Our flagship Senator stores have already begun operations, with 17 stores functional as of March 2025, and we plan to open approximately 40-45 Senator stores during FY 2026.
Separately, Cera Luxe products are also being prominently showcased in over 50 stores. They are also set to be prominently showcased in over 50 stores by the end of FY 2026. While this scale-up will take place over time, the initiatives underway today lay a strong foundation to capture long-term growth opportunities in the premium and luxury segments. Our advertising and marketing spend for 2025 stood at INR 54 crore. Our brand ambassador, Kiara Advani, continues to play a vital role in reinforcing brand identity and driving consumer engagement. We executed high-impact campaigns during the Lok Sabha and Delhi elections across 40-plus national and regional news channels, significantly enhancing the brand visibility. This work further amplifies through strategic media placements on platforms such as Bigg Boss OTT and Bigg Boss Tamil, helping us deepen our connect with younger and regional audiences.
We have seen strong traction from digital campaigns across popular social media platforms, with strategic influencer collaborations further enhancing visibility and deepening engagement with our aspirational consumers. We are increasingly adopting AI-driven automation and hyperlocal marketing to improve campaign efficiency and to personalize communication. Our Unboxing Smiles initiative, with a line showroom displayed with biannual product launches, has also helped energize the channel partners and consumer excitement around the new collections. We also launched an e-commerce platform during the year, a significant step in our digital strategy, allowing consumers to browse and order products online while enabling fulfillment through 200-plus onboarded channel partners. This initiative strengthens our omnichannel capabilities and opens new demand and revenue opportunities across touchpoints. During the quarter, Cera began implementing a robust dealer management system to enhance billing transparency and operational accountability. The system automates invoicing and integrates directly with our internal software platform.
We have already onboarded our top 50 dealers and plan to expand this to 150-200 dealers over the next six months. This will greatly enhance the data and analytics available within the company, providing further insights on trends across products, designs, regions, micro-markets, etc. During FY 2025, we incurred a total CapEx of INR 22.84 crores, with investments directed towards enhancing manufacturing infrastructure, upgrading retail experience centers, and strengthening our IT and digital backbone. We also allocated capital towards display enhancements and strategic brand-building initiatives to support our premiumization agenda. Building on these efforts, we have earmarked a CapEx of INR 24 crores for FY 2026, comprising largely of routine investments along with targeted spending on brand development initiatives. To summarize, FY 2025 was a year of steady execution amid a soft demand environment. Our overall market recovery was slower than expected.
We maintained healthy margins, expanded our premium product portfolio, and deepened our presence across both retail and project channels. As we move into FY 2026, our focus remains on building our brand, strengthening distribution, and advancing digital and customer experience capabilities. With a strong legacy, trusted brand, financial discipline, and fully integrated manufacturing operations, Cera is well-positioned to drive long-term growth and create sustained value for all stakeholders. With this, I would like to hand over to Mr. Vikas Kothari, our CFO, who will present the operational and financial highlights for the quarter ended 31st March 2025. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Vikas Kothari.
Thank you, Deepak. A very good morning to everyone. I will now provide a brief overview of the company's financial performance for the quarter and year ended 31st March 2025.
In Q4 FY 2025, revenue from operations stood at INR 578 crores, registering an increase of 5.7% from INR 547 crores in Q4 FY 2024. EBITDA, excluding other income, stood at INR 106 crores, as against INR 92 crores in Q4 FY 2024. EBITDA margins, excluding other income, for the current quarter stood at 18.3%, as against 16.8% in Q4 FY 2024, registering a healthy increase of 150 basis points. The rise in the margins was primarily driven by effective cost management, enhanced operational efficiency, and favorable operating leverage resulting from increased revenues. Gas prices increased during the quarter. The average gas price from GAIL was INR 28.68 per cubic meter in Q4 FY 2025, as opposed to INR 28.35 per cubic meter in Q4 FY 2024. Similarly, the average gas price from Sabarmati rose to INR 55.62 per cubic meter in Q4 FY 2025 from INR 50.12 per cubic meter in Q4 FY 2024.
Drawal of gas from GAIL was at 73% and from Sabarmati at 27% in Q4 FY 2025. The weighted average cost of gas in Q4 FY 2025 was INR 36.03 per cubic meter, which is notably below the industry average. Gas constitutes 3.5% of our total revenue. For the quarter-end review, revenue contributions were as follows: Sanitaryware at 48%, Faucetware at 40%, Tiles at 9%, and Wellness at 3%. On a YoY basis, Faucetware revenues increased by 9.6%, Tiles by 4.7%, Wellness increased by 46.7%, while Sanitaryware revenues marginally decreased by 1.6%. Our core segments, Sanitaryware and Faucetware, contributed 88% of the total revenue. In Q4 FY 2025, 42% of our sales were in premium category, 35% in mid category, and 23% at entry-level category. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 86 crore, registering an increase of 14.1% from INR 75 crore in Q4 FY 2024.
EPS for the quarter stood at INR 66.36 versus INR 67.69 in Q4 FY 2024. In terms of the working capital management, inventory days increased from 70 days to 79 days, receivable days from 34 days to 44 days, and payable days decreased from 44 days to 43 days. Consequently, the net working capital increased from 60 days to 80 days in Q4 FY 2025. Regarding the sales distribution, Tier 1 cities accounted for 35% of our total sales, Tier 2 cities 21%, and Tier 3 cities left with 44% of the total sales. For FY 2025, the company reported net revenue of INR 1,915 crores, registering an increase of 2.4% from INR 1,871 crores in FY 2024. EBITDA, excluding other income, was at INR 291 crores, a slight decrease from INR 294 crores in FY 2024. Profit after tax stood at INR 247 crores, as against INR 239 crores in FY 2024. Overall, the company maintained stable revenues and profit on a YoY basis.
As of March 31, 2025, our cash and cash equivalent stood at INR 719 crores. In conclusion, we remain confident in Cera's financial resilience and long-term growth potential. With a strong foundation in place, we are well-positioned to benefit from improving market conditions as demand gradually recovers. Our focus will continue to be on prudent financial management, efficient capital utilization, and sustained margin discipline to drive value creation in the quarters ahead. Going forward, Cera remains focused on consistently improving its financial performance and is well-poised to create greater value for all its shareholders. With this, I would now request the moderator to open the line for Q&A. Thank you very much.
Thank you. 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 and to restrict to two questions at a time. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We'll take a first question from the line of Praveen Sahai from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity and good margin improvement in a quarter. The first question is related to the margin improvement only, sir. There is a, as you had already mentioned, that's the operational efficiency and some cost management that led to the margin improvement. Can you give us some way forward the margin to be how sustainable this kind of a margin and what kind of a specific cost management you had done?
One, I can understand related to the advertisement, which has a down on YoY side. Apart from that, what else you had done and way forward, is that sustainable or not?
Thank you, Praveen. I'll see the question. As we have rightly told, the margins have improved in the quarter, in the fourth quarter. Overall, if we see the margins, what we generally say is it is in between the range 15-16%, and that has been proven through our past performances also. Way forward is also very clear that margins will be within these ranges. Now coming to the part of what has played a role in terms of the improvement. This 1.5% improvement, which is there, this is contributed by the improvement by 0.10% improvement of gross margin.
We have the publicity savings, which has contributed 0.5%, and the cost-effective measures, mainly in production overhead and sales and marketing expenses, that has contributed 0.9% overall, leading to 1.5% in terms of improvement in the margin.
Okay. The next question, second question is related to the working capital, which has increased, and especially the receivable. Is it because your institutional business is increasing that is the main reason, or something else to read on, and where you will see the way forward to be?
As Vikaashji mentioned in the concourse clip, the inventory days have increased from 70 to 79. The receivables from 34 to 44. The payable days reduced from 45 to 43. The net working capital days have gone up from 60 to 80 days. Your question was specifically related to your receivable days.
The receivables have not gone up on account of the project business. Project business last year constituted 35% of our total sales. If you look at the previous quarter, Q3, it was in the region of 37%. In this quarter, it has gone up to something like 40%. We are in the same range, 35%, 37%, 40%, 35%-40% on a year-on-year basis, and 37%-40% on a sequential quarter basis. This increase that we are seeing is not on account of the project business. This is maybe on account of a change in the credit policy. The cash credit policy that we used to have earlier, that has undergone a change in the recent past. This has resulted in, we're talking about the cash discounts that we offer in respect of for somebody who's paying at before time.
In this context, like earlier, our total discounted sales [city] sales constituted something like 74%. In Q4, this has gone down to 67%. This is the primary reason why the receivable days have gone up. If you look at a slightly higher reading, for more than three months, we are at the same level which we were in Q3, as well as what we were there in financial year 2024. As of May, this has already come down from 44 days to 38 days at the end of April. Going forward, we do not anticipate this to be a challenge. It is more of a kind of an adjustment that is happening due to a change in the CB policy. Going forward, we can expect the same level of data which was there earlier.
Okay. Okay. Great help, sir. Thank you. I'll come in the queue.
Thank you.
We'll take our next question from the line of Lakshmin arayanan K G from Tunga Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Sir, when I just look back, the last four quarter calls, you have been alluding to slowness in demand. When we started last financial year till now, now why there has been a slowness in the demand, can you just elaborate as to what led to this, what has been your read, and how it is different now than earlier?
The slowness in demand is mostly in the retail sector. In the project sector, we have mentioned earlier that it has been going up. If you look at the proportion of project sales vis-à-vis the total sales, it has consistently gone up from, if you let's say go back two years, it would have been 30%, 70% being retail sales, went up to 35% in FY 2024.
By the end of FY 2025, quarter four, we're looking at something like 40% being coming from projects. There has been a slowness in demand in the retail sector. These factors have been many over a period of time. The real sluggishness started by, let's say, Q3 of FY 2024. Since then, that trend has continued due to various factors, regional factors, as well as the elections etc. which had happened in the last year. It has continued to subside. Now, exact cause for that slowness in demand is very difficult to pinpoint. We are hoping that once that slowness in the retail demand improves, we can expect greater momentum in our total revenues also.
Got it. Now, is it more prevalent in the Sanitary segment for retail, or is it prevalent in the Faucetware segment in retail?
The slowness in demand is across both segments, but we have been experiencing that slowness more in the Sanitaryware segment. In faucets, we have typically grown by 10% in FY 2024 as well as in FY 2025. That is essentially because of the fact that we are a much smaller player in the case of faucets as opposed to the largest player in the industry. Even in a slow condition, it enables us to gain market share from others. In Sanitaryware, us being one of the largest players over there, that becomes a little more difficult to sustain the improvement in growth in the demand, growth in the revenue once the demand is sluggish.
Sir, on the Sanitaryware segment
I'm going to join back the queue, please, as we have other participants waiting for their turn. Thank you.
We'll take our next question from the line of Moksh Ranka from Aurum Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. I wanted to understand our scale-up of the Tiles business. Could you just help me understand that currently slate rates are down, so the over-supply which was there for the tile segment should not be an issue. Is my understanding correct?
Regarding the tiles business, if you see the composition of Cera, the Sanitaryware and Faucetware contributes almost 88% of our total revenue, and Tiles contribute 10% of our total revenue. In case of our business model, Tiles business is fully outsourced, and we operate at a zero inventory level model. Our larger focus in terms of including this as part of our portfolio is to provide a full solution to the consumer.
Whenever there are consumer requests in terms of the sanitary faucet, along with that, these tile offerings are also given. Largely, we have different ranges starting with five tiles, GVTs, DG wall tiles. GVTs almost constitute 50% of our total tile sales. Ideally, our focus is largely on sanitary and faucet. In case of tile business, this is offered in terms of the complete package solution to the consumer.
Okay. The margins in the Tiles business would be lower than our Sanitaryware and [Faucetware] sale, right?
Correct.
Okay. Could you give me some color on exactly what the margin range would be for the tiles?
Can you repeat?
What exactly would be our margins? How low would it be compared to our average 15-16% EBITDA margin for the Tiles business?
We provide the complete financial performance.
In terms of the individual segmentation, we do not disclose the margins. The margins are lower, as you rightly told, than Sanitaryware and Faucetware.
It will be a single digit. You find that the margins in tiles is a single digit. Okay. Just one last question.
Could you join back the queue, please, as we have other participants? Thank you. We will take our next question from the line of Rudraksh Gupta from Navneet Family Office. Please go ahead.
Hello sir. Good morning. Thank you for offering this opportunity. I have two questions. I would request you if you can throw some light on export opportunity referred to in the earlier call of quarter four, FY 2024. Is it arising out of the tariff situation and supply chain realignment, or does the company see it as a strategic focus area in exports?
As of now, export constitutes a small portion of our total revenues. With the tariff situation which is prevailing right now, we do feel that there is an opportunity for us to kind of grow a little. It is not something that we anticipate will grow by leaps and bounds. Like we are currently, I think it is at 3.5% of our total revenues. We don't anticipate it to grow to double digits or something like that. This actually presents an opportunity. Let's see how it goes forward. More time will enable us to gauge the real impact of the tariffs and what kind of opportunities are actually present.
Okay. My second question is that the company has guided for a potential revenue of INR 2,900 crores by FY 2027. Given the aspect, are you still comfortable and confident to be able to achieve the same?
The guidance what we have given, that guidance was given in the scenarios where the market will perform or the market conditions will be positive. As we have seen, market conditions have remained subdued for almost six consecutive quarters, primarily due to the weak retail demand. The projections what we have made, those projections were made with the anticipation that the market growth of what we expected was 7-8% in case of Sanitaryware segment and 12-13% in case of Faucetware segment. We had expected to outperform the market by 6-7%. However, in the actual scenarios, the market growth has consistently fallen short of our expectations. To be on the positive side, in spite of this challenging environment which is there, our project pipeline remains very good.
We are confident to meet our growth targets as the retail momentum improves. The idea here is that it is dependent on the market conditions. Market conditions, once they improve, this is that we will outperform the market by 6-7% through our strong execution and focused strategic initiatives.
Okay sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Sonali Salgaonkar from Jefferies India. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. My questions are on the industry basis. Real estate cycle generally has been steady over the past four to six quarters, a bit weakening probably over the last one or two quarters. Overall, in the industry, and I'm talking about your competitors as well, could you please probably shed some light as to why the volume growth is coming slower?
Because if we were to look at the real estate launches which happened about two to three years back, then intuitively that demand should come in the system right now, probably in FY 2025. That has not really happened over the industry. Any particular reasons why you feel that is? Also, any pricing pressure you have seen either in Sanitary or Tiles in FY 2025?
Definitely. This is your second question first, your pricing pressure. There has been some pricing pressure in FY 2025. With the slowness in the demand which has been prevailing in the current year, the industry has been [facing] oversupply and overcapacity. With the result that most of them are offering higher discounts.
In account of the fact that you find that even our discounts have gone up slightly in the last one year, and it has not enabled us to take price increases over a period of time. We have kind of tried to balance that by way of better efficiency and cost management so that our profitability and the margins, they remain intact. Going forward also, we do not anticipate as of now in the immediate near future, we do not intend to increase our prices. That is based on, again, the plugging cycle is continuing in the current quarters also, in the current Q1 also. In respect of your first part of your question, when you are talking about the industry and real estate, your typical cycle, as you mentioned, for real estate would be nearing completion should be in the range of three to four years.
Ideally, projects which have started in FY 2021, 2022 should have been started and nearing their completion cycle by 2025 and 2026. We have started seeing that upswing in our project business in the last one year. We anticipate that FY 2026, the number should be translating even in higher numbers.
What is the quantum of price cuts that you have taken, or rather discounting that you have taken in FY 2025? My last question is about the Tiles. I understand you outsource your majority of your Tiles business. What are your views on the Morbi exports? Also, going forward in FY 2025, do you expect the exports to resume?
I'll talk about the price cuts first, which you asked on the first part. We don't have price cuts in our business.
What we do is the amount or quantum of discounts which are being offered, they typically go up. Over the last one year in the retail sector, the discounts would have gone up by something like 0.5%-0.75%. That is on the retail side. In the project business, it is a little more complex because it depends upon the size of the business. On average, the same level would have gone up in the project business as well. That was in respect of price cuts. In tiles exports, we do not have too much of exports, as you said, as Mr. Vikaash mentioned. We are mostly in the business of procuring and doing trading business within the domestic market. We would not be the right people to comment on the exports position, which is on an industry-wide basis. Sure.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
We'll take our next question from the line of Pranav Mehta from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, sir. And thank you for taking my question. Congratulations on good optimal improvement. Sir, my first question related to the breakup of episode of breakup, if you can share for Sanitaryware, Faucet, and Tiles and other categories for Q4 2025 versus Q4 2024. That was my first question. Sir, my second question was related to the INR 34 crores credit balance write-back that we have seen in the cash flow. Will it have been taken in here?
The line voice is sounding a little muffled.
Yeah. What I was saying, the second question was related to the INR 34 crores of credit balance write-back in the operating cash flow. Wanted to understand where exactly in the P&L this effect has been taken.
Thank you, Pranav.
Regarding the first question, the breakup of the revenue. Largely, if you see quarter four, in quarter four, Sanitaryware was 48%. The Faucetware was 40%. Wellness was 3%. Tiles was 9%. Sir, if the absolute breakup, if you can give, that would be helpful. Sanitaryware, it is INR 269 crores. Faucetware, it is INR 222 crores. Wellness, it is INR 16 crores. Tiles, it is INR 53 crores. Okay. Sir, similar in 4Q24? For the full year? Sir, 4Q24. If you can share for full year, it would be good. Okay. For the previous year's quarter, the Sanitaryware figure was INR 273 crores. Faucetware was INR 202 crores. Wellness was INR 10.96 crores. Tiles was INR 50.7 crores. Is that okay?
Yes, sir. Yes. Okay.
Regarding your question with respect to the write-backs, what you have said, there is what we have seen that there are some excess provision which was provided earlier. They have been taken back. They have been written back. The amount what you are saying is reflecting in the balance sheet.
Now, is that on the P&L? Is that of the INR 34 crore? Okay. Sure, sir. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that management is able to answer queries from all participants, kindly restrict your questions to two at a time. We'll take our next question from the line of Udit Gajiwala from Yes Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking up my question.
Sir, in terms of the real estate demand that you mentioned in your opening remarks, I mean, what is the kind of traction you are seeing there? Is it an order book kind of a business for you?
As I mentioned earlier, even earlier doing that as a part of a total proportion of total sales, which constituted 30%, which has gone up to 35% and then 40% in Q4. The way it functions is that depending upon the number of bathrooms which are being offered, it classifies as a project business. If it is classified as a project business, the kind of discounts which are typically offered is higher. Normally, what you are saying is right. Depending upon the size of the project, the delivery could be varying over a period of time. For larger projects in different states, you find that it is different.
Let's say we talk about Gujarat, you find that in the larger projects, the builder would typically have a sample home constructed just at the time when he has started the project, and he will take an order at that point of time so that deliveries would happen maybe after some time. It will not happen immediately. It will only happen over a period of time. Typically, the deliveries are spread over a period of two to three years, normally two years. For the smaller projects, you could typically find that once you give the order, within a very short time frame, the deliveries start and get completed also. It depends upon the kind of builder and the size of the project.
Typically, you can see that it's 50-50, 50% of the deliveries happen in the first year and 50% in the next year for larger projects. Understood. Understood, sir. And sir, the CapEx that we had deferred for the sanitaryware, so there are no plans on it as yet, or you are still considering any timeline? As of now, it is on hold. We have purchased the land, which we have communicated earlier also. The land acquisition is complete. The construction activity will keep on moving on a quarterly basis, depending upon the demand scenario. As of the end of the year, we are not intending to start with the construction.
Understood. Thank you, sir. All the best.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Samyak Jain from Marcellus. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity.
My first question is, sir, while you gave us some color on the discounting aspect, just wanted to understand whether you see the discounts have peaked out, or going forward, you expect them to increase on account of the slowdown in demand. Just your thoughts on that.
The discounts have kind of now flattened. If you look at the, as I mentioned earlier also, the slowdown started in Q3 of FY 2024. In the first few quarters, it was an increasing trend of discounts. In the last couple of quarters, the discounts have stabilized and are remaining constant at that level, which had already been reached by Q2 of FY 2025. Now they are stable. We are not seeing an increasing trend. In fact, we expect them to improve, like the discounts to again become lower going forward.
Got it. Got it.
My second question is on the faucets. Like in quarter two of FY 2025, there was some channel restocking due to the price increase, and that led to some liquidation in last quarter. Has the liquidation of the restocking been done or completed in quarter four, or do you think some reduction in stock is still pending?
No. As you have rightly told, the price rise was taken, I think, from October onwards. There was an impact, what we have seen in quarter two, where the growth has come higher because of the price rise taken. Now, if you see the quarter four figure, the growth is now 10%. If we need to characterize this growth of the increase, the volume has increased by 2.8%. The product mix has improved by 3.5%.
The price impact, which is now stabilized in terms of liquidation being completed, that has given the impact of 1.7%.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Jenish Karia from Union AMC. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. First question is with regards to the premiumization that we are planning. Considering we are planning to ramp up the Senator and Luxe brands, which will largely be in-house manufactured, and considering we are still guiding for INR 2,900 crores of revenue in the next two years, hoping that retail demand will revive, why do we not go ahead with the CapEx rather than delay it?
I understand we still have capacity and we can outsource it, but considering the premiumization, hope of demand revival, and the CapEx, if we announce next quarter also, it will take two years to commercialize. Just your thoughts on whether we will be missing out on an upcycle in demand because of short of capacity or not be able to properly capture the premiumization that we are trying to do because of shortfall in capacity. Just your thoughts on that front.
Yes, you are right that we are taking a premiumization drive. As Mr. Vikaash mentioned in his questions that he answered earlier, like Senator and Luxe, we have mentioned in our previous calls also that we intend that over the next three years, we would be constituting something like 10% of our revenues.
The products which comprise in sanitary and baths are a mix of in-house manufacturing as well as outsourcing. Some products are always outsourced. If you see the faucet range, you find that most of the showers, spas, etc., which are being offered over there, will always be on an outsourced model only, which will never be in-house. The premiumization drive, if you see, is not something which will be kind of driving the manufacturing capacity. The manufacturing capacity is primarily driven by the main core segment of Cera. Over there, till the time that we do not start seeing an improvement in demand, it is not really making sense for us to start with the expansion project. We are closely monitoring the situation. As you mentioned, it will take roughly 18 months from the start of the project to get completed to be operational.
Once we start seeing the kind of demand improvement, we can start and complete it within 18 months. In the meanwhile, we have adequate inventories and outsourcing arrangements, which can take care of any incremental demand or upswing in demand which happens in the interim period. We do not see it as a challenge within that 18-month period that we will be resulting in any lost sales.
Jenish, does that answer your question?
Yes, that answers my question. Second question is on the marketing spend. Although your premium products will be 10%-12% of the revenue over the next three years, can we see an aggressive marketing expense going forward, maybe 2.5%-3% is the range, but additional 50-60 basis points for the premium products that we are driving?
As far as our marketing spend is concerned, we are strategically reviewing the scenarios in terms of the current market position also. We are focusing on those particular spends where we think that in the current scenario, the ROI in terms of reaching out, the share of voice is higher. Like you have told, now Senator and Cera Luxe, these are the new brands which are added in our family, Cera. Definitely, there is an allocation of the budget in FY 2026 also. The spend will be done considering the market and how we want to target each of these brands.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Akshay Chheda from Canara Robeco Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah, sir. Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, two questions from my side.
The first is on the B2B side. Sir, you said that it was 40% in fourth quarter. Sir, can you give the contribution for the full year? That is FY 2025. What was the B2B share? That was one. And related to that is, sir, what is the ratio the company is okay with? Would the company be okay to take it to 50, 60, or what it is? That is one. Secondly, on this retail piece, sir, is retail actually remaining flat for us, or is it degrowing for us? And thirdly, sir, what is the reason for sequential decline in the gross margin? Because that is steep at around 250 basis points. Of course, it remains in the guided range, but still, if you can talk a bit on that. Thank you.
Akshay, too many questions at one time, but I'll try to remember and answer them one by one. First, you asked B2B was 40% at the Q4. What was there for the full financial year? For the full financial year, the project composition was 38% of our revenues. This was for B2B FY 2025. If you can repeat the balance part of your question, the retail-wide degrowing?
Sir, on the retail side, sir, is it actually remaining flat for us, or is it degrowing?
If you see our total revenues, we have been kind of going at 5%-6%. And if you look at the proportion of the project business, they have been going as a proportion of our total revenue. So retail has been kind of, if you do the mathematics, you'll find that it is more or less remaining constant.
I think you also asked whether we anticipate the project business to go further in the coming years. That will totally depend upon how the retail business picks up because we are seeing that fraction in the project business. As I've mentioned in my earlier calls also, we do not have too high a difference between the margins in the project and the retail business. The gap would be something like, you can say, 5%-6%. The difference in the margins, even if the proportion increases, as you have been mentioning, if it increases from, let's say, 40% to 50%, it could impact the margins by, you can say, 10% of 5% of the differential, which is there between the project and the retail business. On an overall basis, it will impact us by 0.5%.
We are not too worried about that because we are hoping that the retail business would be picking up in the future, and this proportion should ideally remain at 40%-45%. Even if it increases, the impact on our EBITDA margins would not be too great.
Sir, the third question on the gross margin, I mean, sequential declines, any specific reason you would like to call out?
No, as such if you see, the gross margins for the quarter, or if you see in terms of the quarter, you are talking about quarterly. Means quarterly, it was first quarter, it was 55%, and now it is 50%. Your question is why it is declining, correct?
Yes, sir.
No, in terms of the gross margins, if we see the full year basis, if you see for the financial year 2025, our gross margin is 52.51%.
The previous year, if you see financial year 2024, it is 52.86%. There is a slight decrease, you can say, in terms of the overall gross margin on the overall full year basis.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from the line of Shubham Parihar from Tamohara Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Hi. Am I audible?
Yes, please.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you for the opportunity, and thank you for answering my question. My question is on the strategy side. How are we going to strategize ourselves in the market being an entry-level brand and positioning ourselves as a premium brand going forward? Your voice was not too clear. If you can just repeat the question. I'm asking about the strategy aspect. As of now, we are positioned as an entry-level brand.
How are we going to differentiate ourselves and compete in the market as a premium brand going forward?
I think your understanding in terms of positioning Cera is not correct. We are a mass premium brand with the portfolio or with the products we are focusing. As you have seen, over a period of past three years, we have seen there is a steady increase in demand for the premium products also. Now we are strategically introducing our two new brands, Cera Luxe and Senator, which will show our premium face. That is going to be the, we have already told that these two will be contributing around 10% of our total turnover in the coming next two to three years.
Okay. How are we going to compete with the existing players in that segment? Any table plan?
That is what for the Luxe and Senator, means we are now completely focusing on how we can compete with the competitors. As a step-wise thing, what we have did is, means there is a separate team which is going to focus on this Senator part, which will be under the leadership of Mr. Ramesh Paliga, as told in our con call. We are separately focusing on the separate flagship stores. As on March, as on by 31st March, we have already having 17 stores for the Senator. This year, we have targeted roughly 40-45 more stores to add on to this. Apart from that, the complete portfolio, which is premium in nature, is almost now finalized, and it is going to be displayed across all these flagship stores.
We are also connecting with our architects, the Architects Connect, and the other influencers, which will lead in terms of showcasing the product and its technical strength, which is going to be there to compete with the competition.
Thank you.
Okay. Yeah.
We'll take a last question from the line of Aasim from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good morning. Just one question. I couldn't quite pick up the reason for sequential gross margin decline, 53% down to 51%. Is it due to higher discounting of another meter to push sales? Because the reduction in cash discount sales on [debtors] should ideally have improved gross margin sequentially.
So the discounts, reduction have not happened. We are anticipating it will happen in the future. As of now, the discounts in the current financial year have increased with the previous year.
Let's see what happens is the gross margin is a composition of both the kind of discounts which are being offered as well as the efficiencies which are going to be the composition of the cost of the product, both on the procurement side as well as the manufacturing side. The discounts have increased over the last one year. The decrease in the gross margin is only to the extent of 0.4%. The discounts maybe would have increased by higher margins than 0.4%, but the cost efficiencies have also kind of made good the increase in discounts. What Mr. VIkaash was saying was that on an overall basis, from FY 2025 to FY 2025, the decrease in gross margin is only there to the extent of 0.4%.
Is it also a mix-led thing then? Faucetware might have done better. QoQ, could that also be a reason?
It could be because the gross margin is a composite of so many factors. Such small deviations will keep on happening on a year-on-year and a quarter-on-quarter basis. It is very difficult to really pinpoint as to what reasons have gone into quarter one to quarter two, quarter two to quarter three kind of a deviation which has happened of 1% and 2%. On an overall yearly basis, it is more or less remaining constant from 52.86% to 52.51%.
Sure. Sure. Thank you, Deepak.
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you. I now hand over the call to the management team for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, everyone, for attending this call and for showing interest in Cera Sanitaryware Limited.
Should you need any further clarification or would like to know more about the company, please feel free to reach out to me or to CDR India. Thank you once again for taking time to join the call. Thanks. Bye-bye.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Cera Sanitaryware Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your line.