Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to V-Guard Q3 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call hosted by ICICI Securities. 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 Aniruddha Joshi from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead, sir.
Yeah, thanks, Neha. On behalf of ICICI Securities, we welcome you all to Q3 FY 2026 and nine- months FY 2026 results conference call of V-Guard Industries Limited. We have with us today senior management represented by Mr. Mithun K. Chittilappilly, Managing Director, Mr. Ramachandran V., Director and Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Sudarshan Kasturi, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Now, I hand over the call to the senior management for their initial comments on the quarterly performance, and then we will open the floor for question and answer session.
Thanks, and over to you, Mithun sir.
Yeah, thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this earnings call. I would like to thank Aniruddha Joshi and the team at ICICI Securities for hosting today's call. We will be discussing the operating and financial performance for the third quarter and nine months of FY 2025/2026. I trust that all of you have had the opportunity to review the investor presentation shared earlier. The business delivered double-digit top-line growth in the third quarter, primarily driven by the electrical segment. Consolidated net revenue from operations for Q3 FY 2026 stood at INR 1,404 crore, reflecting a Y-o-Y growth of 10.6%. The electrical segment, our largest revenue contributor, comprising of wires, pumps, switchgears, and modular switches, reported robust Y-o-Y revenue growth of 26%, which was led by volume expansion and also supported by higher copper prices.
The electronics segment, which includes stabilizers, UPS systems, and inverters, reported largely flat revenues of INR 286 crore in Q3 FY 2026. While some summer-led categories continued to witness muted demand, this decline was offset by growth in other categories. In the consumer durable segment, comprising of fans, water heaters, kitchen appliances, and air coolers, revenues grew by 4.6% Y-o-Y. Water heaters performed well during the quarter, even as demand for fans and cooling products remained subdued. Sunflame reported a Y-o-Y revenue decline of 9.9% in Q3 FY 2026, reflecting the continued softness in the kitchen appliances category. Demand in the CSD channel continued to be weak. The operational integration of Sunflame has been completed, and the sales integration is currently underway, which is expected to support growth and acceleration for the brand going forward.
Gross margin for the quarter stood at 35.7% compared to 36.7% in Q3 FY 2025, reflecting a contraction of 100 basis points, largely arising from the mixed impact. Margins have remained resilient during the quarter. We foresee some input cost increases coming up, and the company plans to undertake calibrated pricing actions across the product portfolio in the coming quarter. EBITDA, excluding other income, for Q3 FY 2026 stood at INR 123 crore, representing a Y-o-Y increase of 18.3%. EBITDA margin improved to 8.8% from 8.2% in Q3 FY 2025, an expansion of 60 basis points. Pursuant to the notification issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment regarding the new labour codes, the company reassessed its employee benefit obligations. Accordingly, an incremental charge of INR 22.11 crore towards gratuity and leave encashment provisions has been recognized as an exceptional item during the quarter.
As a result of this one-time impact, the consolidated PAT for Q3 FY 2026 stood at INR 57 crore compared with INR 60 crore in Q3 FY 2025, representing a Y-o-Y decline of 5.2%. On an underlying basis, consolidated PAT improved by 22% Y-o-Y. Our working capital position remains healthy, which led to strong cash flow during the quarter. In terms of CapEx, the fan manufacturing facility and the second battery facility, both in Hyderabad, are two key projects in the pipeline. These will further increase the share of in-house manufacturing. We look forward to the upcoming summer season with the expectation to deliver strong results. With that, I conclude my opening comments.
I would like to thank Aniruddha Joshi and the team at ICICI Securities for hosting this call and would like to request the moderator to open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
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 their 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'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Aditya Bhartia from Investec. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, Mithun. Mithun, my first question is on the performance of South versus Non-South, where in this particular quarter we have seen fairly strong growth in South, while Non-South appears to be a bit muted. Is there any particular reason behind that, and is there any change in competitive intensity in either of these regions?
No, I don't think there is any change in competitive intensity. I think it's just that last year, Q3, the Non-South region, especially East, had a very strong performance for summer categories. So last year, last financial year, we had very, very strong performance from certain parts of Non-South, especially East, for summer categories. And this year, I think they have degrown. So that's primarily pulling down the Non-South performance. But otherwise, we are not seeing any major change in the intensity of competition. So it's a base effect issue.
Understood. And secondly, in this particular quarter, we have seen employee expenses going down. So is there some reversal of provision or something that we should be aware of? There's a fairly sharp reduction both on a year-over-year as well as quarter-over-quarter basis.
Yeah. Sudarshan, you want to take this?
Yeah. Yeah. So there's been a reversal of some variable pay provisions, which is why the goes down. It's something we review in Q3 every year. Depending on how the nine-month results look, we then take a call whether payout is likely or not.
Understood. Understood. That's very, very helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touch-tone telephone. The next question is from the line of Rahul Agarwal from Ikigai Asset. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening. Just one question was on the downside risk in terms of this entire inflation on commodities. It's a plastic, I think, a lot of metals are seeing very substantial sharp hikes. Is the market ready enough to take, absorb these price hikes, which we're planning to do? And I'm sure everybody else is also planning the same thing. And would you agree that temporarily these gross margins might come under pressure? Any thoughts around this?
So we see some risk in the fan category where this impact is very severe, coupled with new energy rating norms kicking in on 1st of January. So there has to be significant price hikes in the fan category. We have already taken some increases, and I think another 2% or 3%- odd of increases required before March. The other categories, the impact is not so high because the usage of copper and aluminum is not so much. Steel and some of the crude derivatives like plastics have actually softened a little bit, so which is making the impact a little less. Wire, as we have mentioned before, is a dynamic pricing. So really, I think the consumer durable segment is where we feel there could be some challenge.
Other categories, at this point, we don't feel it so much. Yes, there is a price increase that is required, but the quantum is not that high. But for fan category, it is.
For stabilizer, how does it work from a raw material perspective?
Stabilizer, I think. Ram, you want to take this?
Yeah. Stabilizer is a little bit about maybe 1.5%-2%. So generally, I think even in fan, right, the problem is for the copper models, right, the BLDC or aluminum-based model, the increases are lower. And if you have high-performance-based fans where the copper content is high, that is an issue. Okay. The extent of price increase required is larger.
Got it, Ram. Thank you for that. Got it. So basically, what you're saying is, in case this inflation continues, we'll take price hikes, and that should take care of margins. Is that the right understanding?
Yeah. So we have started to initiate price increases. I think we have passed on some price increase in fans. We have passed on we have taken some price increase in pump in January. And some categories we are doing in February, and some we will be doing towards the end of March, soon. And we will be landing all of these things. Typically, in some of the categories, it's about 2%-3%, and fan is the one that is fairly significant if it is copper-based models, right?
Got it. Our salience to copper-based kind of fan mix, what would that be overall?
Maybe about 20% or 25%.
Yeah. About 25%-30% would be copper-based. Others are all either aluminum or BLDC and aluminum models.
Got it. Thanks for that. And secondly, on wires, what was the volume and value growth separately within electricals, and how has been January so far? Is the momentum sustaining on volume growth?
The wire, right now, there is a significant increase in copper prices. So the trade is also incentivized to upstock. January also, we have seen continued increases in copper prices, and we are also in the process of revising prices. So January also, there has been decent offtake. Volume growth is muted, but value growth will be there because it's almost, I think now, 30%. If you look at January over January, it's almost 30% increase in prices. So volume growth could be muted, but value growth is definitely there because the ability for retailers to invest does not increase so much as with the increase in prices. And we are also seeing some softening of demand from project customers who at this price are not too confident to buy in large quantities.
For December quarter, on your question, the price growth was about 20%. Volume growth was 10%.
10% and 20% for December.
Got it. Perfect. Thanks, Sudarshan. Thank you, Mithun. Thanks, Ram. All the best. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Aniruddha Joshi from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Sir, regarding the fans, now we will see material price hikes in the copper-based fans or aluminum fans also. And the gap between induction fans versus the BLDC fans may come down. So do you see the BLDC fan as a category, the attractiveness of BLDC fan as a category itself may go up materially, and that might be impacting largely the induction fan players and some of the new age players who e-commerce players who are largely focusing on BLDC that tend to be at a slight advantage. Or in such a scenario, what will be the strategy of V-Guard as far as the BLDC fan is concerned? And then one important question, do you see a threat to induction as a technology itself the way it happened in case of CRT televisions or CFL bulbs like that?
So definitely, the delta, that means the difference between a BLDC and non-BLDC is shrinking because BLDC fans require less. The motor design is very different, and it requires less content. And most of the motors are made out of aluminum. So in that sense, the BLDC fan price inflation will be relatively low, and the induction copper motors will be the highest. So definitely, so today for V-Guard, maybe the BLDC sales may be 25% of total sales. We will see that steadily increasing, but I don't think 100% will move to BLDC because BLDC still has some challenges or some acceptance issues. For example, upcountry markets where there is violent voltage fluctuation and all that, not all the BLDC fans are working properly there. We have certain models which are able to work in low voltage and high voltage conditions, but not all the companies have such models.
So among the trade and among the customers, there is a general pushback for BLDC in certain markets. So we'll probably see induction motors still selling, but the percentage of induction motors is steadily coming down. Maybe we can see 5%-10% reduction in the size of the induction motor fan towards BLDC in favor of BLDC every year. And that's what we expect. And V-Guard is well active. We caught this trend at least three, four years back, and we have very good offerings in the BLDC segment, and we continue to have products in the pipeline to launch. And we have the right models to attract customers to the segment. So definitely, yes. So BLDC segment will grow, but I don't see it becoming 100% soon.
Maybe after a few years, we'll see because as of now, we still have certain markets where customers are not fully accepting BLDC.
Okay. Sure, sir. Just last two questions before I get into the queue. You indicated there is a high channel inventory of wire. So if you can indicate the quantum compared to a normal inventory level, what is currently the excess inventory? Point number one. And point number two, how do we read butterfly numbers? Because now profitability has improved, but again, the revenue dip continues to be there. And again, profitability may get under stress with the increase in commodity prices. So how should we see or model the numbers of Sunflame over next, let's say, three to four quarters? Yeah. That's it from my side. Thanks.
Yeah. So wire, yes, there has been some upstocking by the retailers, but it's not that a lot of them are holding that inventory. Many of them have, when you're looking at inventory levels of distributors, they have sold out. But definitely, they are holding more inventory than in a price deflationary environment. Ram, you want to take this question about Sunflame's margins?
Yeah. So we are right now in the process of Sunflame sales integration, which started actually about two months back when I'm talking about sales integration. We're talking about integrating the sales force and the go-to-market system between Sunflame and V-Guard. So this quarter is the quarter when the transition, I mean, it started somewhere around November of this year. So I think when you look at a full-year basis, we will have decent growth both in GT and also in, I would say, organized retail. Yeah. It is taking time for us. I mean, we have lost some ground in CSD, CPC for challenges we have already discussed earlier. And that's the segment which is under pressure. And e-commerce is also taking a bit of time because we need to refresh the product portfolio. So that work is underway.
We have been working on the product refresh roadmap of Sunflame. I think starting now over the next one year, and I think already some newer models have landed also, and some more are landing in the next 12 months. I think I would say that Sunflame is more or less, I think the challenges are behind us, and we look forward very optimistically. We have completed the customer service integration, and our service levels have significantly gone up. That was a huge pain point because cycle times were long, and it was, and we also had issues with spares and all of those things. Those are all behind us now. The new customer service system is now three to four months old. Yeah. Supply-side integration is also underway in parallel. This quarter and next quarter, I think the integration will get complete there.
So I think we should be able to perform much better going forward. Landing pricing has not been a challenge as far as Sunflame is concerned. I think we have been able to hold our gross margins. We have been able to transmit pricing. So that has not been a challenge at all at any point in time. Mainly, the stress has been because we have not been able to, the product refresh cycle is long because it takes about 18 months to refresh the portfolio, right? So those actions were late to start for various reasons, and the impact of that will be felt as we go through the coming year.
Yeah. For sure, sir. This is very helpful. Many thanks.
Yeah. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Naushad Chaudhary from Aditya Birla Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Hope I'm audible. Sir, first thing wanted to understand on the Gegadyne battery startup, how is that doing, and how can that help our base business in the future? And is there any scope for emerging any new category with the help of that startup?
Yeah. Ram, you want to take this?
Yeah. So I think Gegadyne was a Gegadyne is a technology company, right? And that's the technology evolution has shaped well. And they have now, with the limited ability at this stage, right, they have been able to start to make supplies for a couple of local players, small quantities as a proof of concept and so on. And also, they will be supplying to us in some time. Yeah. Maybe over the next three months or four months, I think they will start supplies to us also in small quantities. Yeah. So I think that is the so they are now moving from what I would say technology development phase to commercialization phase at this point in time, right? And they are evaluating and exploring, yeah, how to set up a supply chain that can be scaled up to address business and market opportunity.
I think that's where we are, and we continue to support them in technology development and in helping them to find a pathway for building a supply capability.
Assuming if it goes well, how will this benefit or strengthen your base business in the future?
I think, see, it will give us a vehicle to participate in opportunity that will come by way of what I would say energy storage, right? So we'll see how that market develops, and it will be possible for us to participate in that opportunity. And the scope of that opportunity will depend around how the market develops for the new energy offerings.
Okay. And second, on the competition side, especially in the southern market, we have been hearing the intensity in that market is increasing. Just wanted to qualitatively check in terms of market share, especially in your core categories. Are we holding up in the southern market? Are we gaining, or are we finding it difficult to hold on the market share in the southern market?
Mithun, you want me to take that?
Yeah.
No, I think, see, I think competitive intensity has been expanding from somewhere around 2016 or 2017. Yeah. So it's been a continued process, right? So I think to that extent, I think nothing different. I wouldn't say that there is a particularly strong increase in competitive intensity. I think what happens is southern markets, the trade structure is better organized, right? Organized retail is well developed in South, and e-commerce is also well developed in South, right? And because of these two factors, yeah, market entry is easy, yeah, relatively, right? You are able to reach a larger portion of the market through these two vehicles. That being said, right, the consumers in the southern markets are quite discerning, right? So it's not that easy to build a healthy franchise, right?
So you could make entry by way of maybe aggressive pricing or something like that, but it will be very difficult to sustainably run business because these channels also have very high cost of doing business, right? And all are also competitive. So at this point in time, I wouldn't say in any of the categories we are losing ground. I think, in fact, some of the core markets we have had strong growth also. We may have some problems from time to time in one or the other market, which may be related to, let's say, talent attrition or something like that. Those kind of sporadic things will be there, but nothing fundamentally. I wouldn't say that there is fundamentally any loss of ground from an overall perspective, right?
Generally, okay, there are some years because a lot of our categories are also connected to, let's say, weather and those kind of challenges. In a country like ours, right, this is not uniform across every part of the country. But generally, we have found, okay, if one year we don't do well, next year we do very strongly well. And when you look at a three-year growth or a five-year growth, we are fine. So I wouldn't say that there is any systemic issue at this stage.
Two more questions, sir. On the margin side, just wanted the recent information as we have expanded the gross margin, though this year's cycle was not in our favor. But assuming if growth comes back in double digit, should we expect our margin, EBITDA margin, to go double digit within two years?
I think so. I think if our growth does come back, we should be expecting double digit EBITDA margins, yes.
By FY 2027 end?
It will depend on a couple of things. One is the raw material inflationary environment. I'm hoping that by that time, this sudden spike and all that is going to get normalized. Then in that case, we should be able to come back to double-digit margin.
Sure. And last one, we have done amazingly well in terms of our stabilizer, UPS, water heater. But in the newer categories, we have been slightly struggling. So in terms of strategy, our playbook, is there any differentiation we are trying to bring on the table, which might be slow in terms of ramping up these categories? But once you reach to the size as you have reached in the base business, it would be very difficult for the competition to challenge. So just trying to understand, are we just trying to play like any other me-too player in these new categories to get the growth and a little bit of time from here and there? Or is there any differentiation we are trying to bring to these categories which can help you to be a better player in the next couple of years in the newer categories?
As far as kitchen is concerned, once the integration with Sunflame is complete, we expect a very strong both product portfolio as well as the sales team and the sales system to enable us to grow faster than the market. We are putting all the building blocks in place for that. Some of the other categories we are working on, we are also doing some work on modular switches where we are, again, working on some product refreshment and all that. Some of the other categories have already done well. For example, both in the case of inverters, solar, rooftop, and fans, we have had very decent growth in the last six-seven years. Our current focus is to improve sales of kitchen and modular switches. These two segments have not done as well as we hoped.
Definitely, we are doing some work, and we hope to see some results.
Yeah. And listen, I'll just add two more points, right? See, fundamentally, our gross margins are decent in all of these categories, right? So we are comparable with market leaders. Yeah. So I think the acceptability of the brand and the acceptability of the offering and the willingness of consumer to pay the price, all of that is fine. The other part then is that it is not reflecting in EBITDA, right? Because these businesses have to scale up, and they will take their time to scale up. And as each of these businesses scales up, they will become profitable. So it's more a scale issue. Even though mostly you are referring to consumer durable categories, and even though we have scaled lately, but still, pre-COVID, post-COVID, it's gone up. But at the same time, there are challenges. These categories are also strongly influenced by weather.
So you have a good year, a bad year. That is one issue that is there in these categories also. Yeah. So it's and since it's a seasonal category, the significant window is like a four-month, five-month window as opposed to some of the other categories where we have a 12-month window. So these are some of the challenges. So fundamentally, I think it's not an issue of the margin or pricing or positioning. It's a matter of scale up. And once the business acquires certain scale, I think the health will fall in place.
Yeah. Just on follow-up on that only, I was just trying to understand whether your new categories offer similar kind of scope of opportunity to bring differentiation to the market, which may help you to dominate the market share as you have done in your past few products. Or would it remain a very competitive market, and you have to operate at par what you guys are operating? So on that aspect, I was trying to understand, is there any space you see to dominate the newer categories as well?
No. So we have an active product pipeline, right? And of course, we continuously try to strengthen our product pipeline and improve our refresh rates, right? So that's a continuous exercise. You would have seen that we launched Luxecube. Yeah. Right now, we also launched a popular, not popular, I would say, mid-premium platform in BLDC fans. Both of them were launched this season, and they have done exceedingly well, right? They have exceeded our plan for the year. So this is a continuous exercise. Yeah. This is a continuous exercise. And as you can see, right, this year, summer was not great. So summer categories, including fan, were impacted. Yeah. So although the underlying movements are good in some of the categories, the overall may be dampened.
I think this is, see, also what is happening is we are, as the time is progressing, looking at the future opportunity, we are also investing in those businesses, right? We are putting people on the ground, right? We are making investment in retail. So all of those things are happening. So see, if we were to hold a business static, right, then whatever improvements we make, we can show in the bottom line. But we continue to invest in those businesses, right? And when we invest in the businesses, that impact of that has to be absorbed on a smaller business, right? So that's the thing. So that's why I said, fundamentally, not a problem of margin, right? It's a problem of scale. So when we hit the right scale, like inverter battery, now we make good money because we will hit that scale, right?
Fan, we will hit the scale maybe in a couple of years, right? When we do that, we will make money in fan just as others do. That is how it will go, right? Those categories that we make money, we have the scale in relation to the category size. We'll have to hit those numbers. Of course, we can force the pace by putting more money, but in our experience, we found it a lot more easier to balance and take time to build the category, right, so that the fundamentals are strong.
Sure, sir. Thank you so much for all the.
Okay.
Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Ankur Sharma from HDFC Life. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Good afternoon, and thanks for your time as always. First question was on the overall demand over the next two to three quarters. And the context being, given we are in a fairly inflationary RM environment, and as you mentioned, both for fans, obviously, for wires, that's a continuous process where you are taking significant price hikes. Would you believe that volume growth also may start coming down? Something we saw post-COVID as well when we had this highly inflationary environment and the industry tolerating price hikes. And for quite some time, in fact, volume growth started to kind of suffer. So would that be the same kind of environment in the next few quarters as well?
So definitely, in the case of wires, there has been a significant increase in prices to the tune of close to 30%-odd. So definitely, there this argument that volume growth, volume for the product demand could take a hit is true. But the other 75% of categories, the price inflation is not that high. So we don't expect any much impact on the volume growth going forward. And the second thing is the next big trigger is the onset of summer. So if by February, we have a decent start to summer in South India and we have a continued warm temperature across during the summer, we should be largely okay. And the expectation as it stands today from IMD, the meteorology department, is we will have a fairly warm summer this year. So that's what we are expecting. Wire, yes, because there has been significant price inflation.
Volume growth could be a challenge. But then this is a product that is required, and it is not a V-Guard-only problem. All copper wires manufacturers have to increase prices. So finally, people who are constructing something and building wiring something will have to purchase it. But yes, there is a fear because the quantum of increase is very high.
Just to kind of follow on that one, so even on fans with an 8%-10% price hike, assuming a normal summer, you think that can be easily passed on and volume growth should continue, right? That's the way you should understand.
So, fan, the major price hike is happening for copper models and models where we are using only copper and high-performance models. So we see a shift for demand from those models to BLDC where the price increases are much lower. So in fan, at least, we will see more movement to BLDC from the traditional induction copper-based models. So fan, like I said, all the SKUs, it's not going up at the same rate. Only certain SKUs, this kind of inflation is there.
Fair. And just on stabilizers, could you talk about the inventory there within the system, given I believe more than half of the inventory, sorry, the supply sales for ACs? So how's the inventory there and any initial feelers you're getting from the southern markets in terms of how the coming summer could be? Typically, by the end of January, we start hearing initial trends. So yeah, anything you can highlight would be helpful.
So stabilizer inventory is largely normalized. You would have seen that our working capital management in Q3 has been fairly good. So a lot of the inventory that we had produced last summer, a lot of them have started to get liquidated. The preliminary report from the ground is Kerala, at least we have started to see warm temperatures. We are hitting like 32-33 degrees in the daytime, which is pretty warm for January. So the expectation is this will continue, and this is fairly good news as we speak. But then again, we have to wait and see till we complete the quarter. But yes, we have started to experience warmer weather in down south.
All right. Great. All the best, and yeah, that's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Keyur Pandya from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Actually, the question is again on the demand side. So specifically for two-segment electronics and ECD. So probably because of the low base of last year in both the categories for some of the products like stabilizer, coolers, and fans, I mean, is it logical to believe that the growth should be easily in the double digit, at least for the next financial year, and is in the backdrop of low base plus newer categories like solar, inverter, etc.? So that is the first question on the growth side for both of these segments.
Yeah. So electronics segment, within that, the air conditioner stabilizer segment had sharply de-grown this year. The same is for air coolers. So for both these products, we are expecting a very strong rebound in the current year. The base is already low. As far as solar rooftop is concerned, they continue to do well. I mean, we have not had a big slowdown in the sales of that category because that is not fully dependent on summer. So that will continue its regular trajectory. It is a category that's growing fast. The entire category in the country is also growing fast. So we are very bullish about solar rooftop business. So this is what I can say about the demand side.
Understood. And second, on the profitability for both of these segments, I mean, as you mentioned, the fans and specific categories of fans have high inflation. The rest of the portfolio has manageable inflation. Plus, in electronics, I mean, in the weak year like FY 2026, whatever margins that you have mentioned, so is it fair to believe that whatever margin we see for, say, FY 2026, FY 2027 should be either similar to that or better margins than that FY 2026 just because of the operating leverage in both of these segments?
So that is our expectation. But one caveat is there. I mean, today, we are in a fairly uncertain environment as far as commodity prices are concerned. We have not seen this kind of an increase in copper in a single year going up by 40%. We have not experienced something like that in a, at least, I have not experienced it in the last 17 years. So we are talking about a very, very volatile commodity environment. So if the commodity doesn't violently go up from these levels, whatever you're saying is possible. But that's one caveat we have to hold because we had that issue in 2023 when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out and commodity prices skyrocketed. So if that kind of a situation, today, it is mainly copper that is going up and aluminum. Other commodities have not still gone up. So we'll wait and see.
I think, in my sense, yes, we should do better than in FY 2027, better than FY 2026, is what we feel because of the better summer category contribution and operating leverage.
In terms of profitability, right?
Yes.
Or profit margins for this. Okay. Thanks a lot and all the best. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankit Soni from Mirae Asset. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for having my question. Just one question on the solar business side. Since we have a solar inverter rooftop inverter business and the panels business, you also mentioned that V-Guard is more looking into entering into solar pumps business. So any forward move over there?
So we have started to participate in the tenders for solar pumps, and I think we have got our first order, and we are in the process of completing it. It's not a very large order, but we tend to, in the next 12-18 months, scale it up meaningfully. So we have already started to supply to, I think, Maharashtra state government for solar pumps, and we intend to scale up this business going forward. We have already started. It is already, yeah, we are already processing this order. Yeah.
Yeah. Can you please let me know the quantum of the order once?
It's not very large in my view. It was some INR 4 crore or INR 5 crore, around INR 4 crore-INR 5 crore. It's a small order. It's not a very large order.
Okay.
INR 4 crore-INR 5 crore.
Fine, sir. Yeah. But you look a visible green shoots for the company to expand in that particular segment.
Yes. Our acceptance has been very good. I think we're just putting in baby steps today. I think in the next 12-18 months, we hope to build a solid business in this category.
Sure, sir. All the best. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Natasha Jain from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. So my first question is on stabilizers. So could you tell us what is your market share in that category and who are your exact peers here? Also, we observed that in calendar 2025, a lot of newer brands had come in. I mean, I even saw Voltas, for that matter, coming up with stabilizers. So how do you see competition in that segment? That's my first question.
So we estimate that we have a market share of about 40%-45%. This category is fairly niche in that sense. The only serious competitor we have today is a company called Microtek, which is into inverters and batteries based in Delhi. They are probably our closest peer, maybe doing about INR 150 crore-INR 180 crore -odd . Almost all the air conditioner companies have stabilizers. At some point, they will launch, and then they will stop. Then they will launch again, and then they will stop. So I think I'm pretty sure this is not Voltas's first time they're launching. They've launched in the past also.
Not their focus.
Yeah. So the thing is, this is more of an ancillary income. So probably it is not so all the air conditioner companies have stabilizers, but usually, they tend to lose focus a few years down the line. So that's what we've seen in the past. But as far as serious competitors are concerned, we have one brand, which is called Microtek. Then we have a lot of regional brands in each state, but I would say nationally, maybe one brand is there.
Got it. And, sir, one related question to this, a little bit longer term. So nowadays, we see that ACs come with an inbuilt stabilizer. And I have also heard a lot of influencers trying to educate people on this that you do not need to buy an extra stabilizer. So do you think is that a risk? And if so, by when will it start impacting us on a larger scale?
So this is a debate that's been going on for 15 years. It's not a new thing. And to put it in perspective, last seven-eight years, we have had a volume CAGR of 7%-8%. So even last five years, we've had a volume CAGR of 10%. So we still very strongly track the air conditioner sales. We are selling more in upcountry markets, and that's where the more growth is coming from. So the newly electrified villages, the hinterlands of north and east where electricity electrification is new, where also power issues are more. So these are high-growth markets for us. So I mean, your guess is as good as mine. So we have reduced dependence on this category significantly. So today, it's less than 15% of our sales. It used to be much higher 10-20 years back.
We have diversified a lot away from this category. To your question, when it will go out of relevance, your guess is as good as mine. I mean, we keep debating this, and it's been going on for more than 15 years. All we can give you is the last 5-year, 10-year CAGR numbers.
Got it. So just to clarify, you said less than 15% of your total sales, right, currently for stabilizers?
Yes.
May I know what it was, say, three years back?
It would have probably been the same. But if you look at 10 years back, it would have been.
No, no, no. At some point, it was 60%.
Yeah. Maybe 15 years back, it was about 50%-odd.
Got it. And, sir, one last question on kitchen appliances. Is there still very severe competition coming from the unorganized or unlisted side players, or has that eased out?
You're talking about kitchen appliances?
Yeah, Kitchen Appliances.
Kitchen? Ram, you want to take this?
Hi, yeah. No, I think that is activity happening. I mean, there are continuously people entering the category and exiting the category. So that action is happening. But this is a complex category in terms of GTM because the revenue is coming through multiple pipes, right? So I think it's. I mean, there are people who have taken the route of trying to build and establish through brand shops. But there are so these things are going on, but mostly people struggle beyond a point in scaling.
Understood. Thank you so much, sir, and all the best.
Thank you. The next follow-up question is from Rahul Agarwal from Ikigai Asset. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for the follow-up. Just one question, Mr. Ram. Let's say a bit longer term, five years from now, growing at 15%, the company should somewhere target INR 9,000 crore-INR 10,000 crore sales. At that level, just in terms of categories what we have, right, which are the categories which can be INR 1,000 crore kind of sales benchmark with double-digit margins? And in terms of your market share in those categories, would you visualize that you would be in top three? If you could just talk about what categories have that kind of potential. This is excluding wire. And where do you think you can actually claim market leadership? Something like what you have been for stabilizers. Can you create something into other categories? Just a longer-term thought. Thanks.
So there are a lot of categories that are more than INR 500 crores , 600 crores -odd for us. There is the stabilizer segment, fans, inverters, and batteries, and solar rooftop on its own. So all these four categories are very much and kitchen appliances is almost INR 500 crores if you put V-Guard + Sunflame. So we have at least six categories that can do more than INR 1,000 crores. And many of them are in fairly good EBITDA margin profile already. And many of them we are working on them. So there are at least six categories that can potentially be more than INR 1,000 crores to contribute to that total you mentioned.
Would that mean in terms of market share, can we claim top three positions? Is that something a priority in the company? How do you think about that?
So I think we don't chase volumes. We chase, we are more chasing profitability. So if you look at the fan segment, we don't play in the mass segment, the economy segment. And that segment is a segment that's going to get hit the hardest when inflation like this happens. So I think our focus is on building profitable business rather than claiming a certain market share position. But in some segments, we will be in the top three. For example, we would like to be the top three in the decorative and BLDC fan segment, for example. We would like to be top three in the premium TPW fan segment. So we may not figure in the overall scheme of things, but I think in some segments, we would like to be in the top three, yes.
Got it. All right. That helps. Thank you so much, and wish you all the luck for the rest of the year.
Thank you.
Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thank you all for taking time to join our earnings call. Once again, I would like to thank Aniruddha Joshi and the team at ICICI Securities for hosting this call. We look forward to interacting with all of you in the next quarter. Thank you.
On behalf of Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.
Thank you.