Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the PG Electroplast Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by JM Financial Institutional Securities. This presentation has been prepared for informational purposes only. This presentation does not constitute a prospectus, offering circular or offering memorandum, and it is not an offer or initiation to buy or sell any securities. Nor shall part or all of this presentation form the basis of, or to be relied, or in a connection with any contract or investment decisions in relation to any securities. This presentation contains forward-looking statements based on the current held beliefs of the management of the company, which are expressed in good faith and in management's opinions are reasonable.
The forward-looking statements may involve unknown and known risk, uncertainty, and other factors which may cause the actual results, financial condition, performance, or achievements of the company or industry to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent only the company's current intentions, beliefs, or expectations, and any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made. The company assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements. 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 a touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Shalin Choksy from JM Financial Institutional Securities.
Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Rutuja. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of JM Financial Institutional Securities, I welcome you all to the Q4 FY 2026 earnings call of PG Electroplast Limited. We have with us the management of the company, represented by Mr. Vishal Gupta, Managing Director, Finance, and Mr. Pramod Gupta, Chief Financial Officer. With this, I will hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Post which, we can open the floor for question and answers. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Gupta.
Thank you, Shalin. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for PG Electroplast Q4 and full year FY 2026 earnings call. I'm Vishal Gupta, Managing Director, and today I'm joined on this call with Mr. Pramod Gupta, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get into the numbers, let me set the context. FY 2026 was a complex year for the industry. The challenges were external and largely simultaneous. That said, our strategy remains the same and our long-term conviction has only strengthened through this cycle. I will take you through four things today. First, the industry context and what made FY 2026 so difficult. Second, our own Q4 and full-year performance. Third, the strategic progress we have made despite the headwinds, and fourth, where we are headed in FY 2027. Let me start with the industry backdrop.
The RAC industry, which remains the largest contributor to our product revenues, experienced a decline of approximately 15% during FY26. This was against a backdrop where just 12 months ago, when we and the rest of the industry were guiding for strong double-digit growth. Three demand-side shocks were largely responsible for this de-growth. First, Q1 was derailed by an early and unusually prolonged monsoon. The RAC season effectively collapsed after May. June and July saw very weak industry sales because of high channel inventory. Second, due to the GST rate cut announcement on the 15th of August, there were very few sales till 22nd of September, which further delayed our inventory liquidation. Third, anticipation of the BEE rating transition led to a pre-ponement of production and sales in the month of December 2025, resulting in less offtake in the months of Jan and Feb.
This further reduced our pricing power and ability to pass through the increases in commodities and exchange rate impact. Most importantly, on top of all this, there was a meaningful decline in consumer spending confidence. Inflation in essential household categories reduced the availability of disposable income, and Indian consumers adapted a more cautious, savings-oriented behavior throughout much of the year. On the supply side, we faced unforeseen and large cost inflation. Commodity prices, copper, aluminum, plastics, and key components rose sharply. Most significantly, the Indian rupee depreciated approximately 20% against the US dollar on a YOY basis, substantially increasing our import costs. Since December 2025 till April 2026, the industry implemented cumulative price hikes of around 10%-15%. With weak demand and excess inventory in the channel, the ability to fully pass through these increases remained constrained, suppressing gross margins across the entire value chain.
In March, which is historically our single largest production month of the year, we were hit by a shortage of commercial LPG arising from the Gulf conflict. This forced nearly two-week plant shutdowns to retrofit our operations to alternative fuel sources at a very exorbitant cost. Non-availability of LPG and general uncertainty triggered reverse migration of labor. The manpower shortages and uncertainty around fuel availability disrupted the ramp-up, which severely affected our production targets. We also faced a shortage of trucks because of a diesel shortage in the second half of March. Pramod?
Yes. I will now walk you through the Q4 numbers in detail. As you can see, consolidated revenues for the quarter were INR 1,717 crores, and a decline of about 10.4% YOY. EBITDA came in at INR 131.54 crores, compared to INR 231.72 crores last year, which was a decline of 43%. The net profit for the quarter was INR 64.2 crores versus INR 146.39 crores, and a decline of 56% for the quarter. If you see the specific disruptions and their financial impact, the LPG crisis in March disrupted room AC production, especially in Supa, and we lost production to the extent of approximately INR 300 crores due to the LPG crisis. The truck shortage, which resulted in an estimated sales loss of close to INR 120 crores for the quarter, as finished goods were stranded at our plant and dispatch were deferred into April.
Together, these two items alone accounted for an aggregate revenue loss of approximately INR 420 crores in the quarter on a base of INR 1,717 crores. Had these sales happened, we would have actually crossed INR 2,100 crores plus sales. Commodity inflation and currency depreciation resulted in an estimated gross margin impact of approximately 250 basis points during the quarter, which we were not able to pass through. For the full year FY 2026, our Forex loss was INR 38.77 crores versus a Forex gain of about INR 17.99 crores in FY 2025. Even for the quarter, we had a Forex loss of about INR 25.82 crores versus a gain of INR 12.77 crores last year same quarter. In aggregate, these combined factors resulted in an estimated PBT impact of approximately INR 120 crores for the quarter. We continued to incur most of our fixed and operating costs, even as the production was impaired in the month of March.
Even in January and February, because of the slow production, we had to incur all the major costs despite the production not being ramped up fully. Our product revenue contributed INR 1,412 crores, which is 82.5% of the quarterly revenue. Within that, room AC revenue declined 12% YOY to INR 1,210 crores, that is INR 1,210 crores. For the full year, RAC revenue grew 9% year-on-year. The washing machine business grew phenomenally 52% on a full-year basis, and for the quarter it grew at about 70%. Cooler business saw a decline for the quarter of about 10.8%, and on an even full-year basis, there was a decline of 8.2% in the cooler business. Goodworth Electronics, our JV entity, reported revenues of INR 155.1 crores in Q4 versus INR 107.6 crores in the same quarter last year. EBITDA improved to INR 6.19 crores during the quarter from INR 0.94 crores last year same quarter.
Full year consolidated revenues are INR 5,288 crores, versus INR 4,869 crores same in the last financial year. EBITDA stood at INR 441.76 crores versus INR 519.16 crores, and profit after tax stood at INR 193.61 crores versus INR 290.92 crores last year. The profitability decline reflects the margin compression from input cost inflation, operating leverage working negatively from lower production volumes, and elevated finance cost from higher working capital intensity and the Q4 disruptions. We continue to gain wallet share from within our anchor customers and deepen our trust with our brand partners, and continue to benefit from the structural shift towards outsourcing in the Indian consumer durable manufacturing. During the full year, working capital was stressed, mainly because of the higher inventory which we carried and the demand washout, which happened in the first quarter last year, and we carried the higher inventory through the Q4.
That also delayed the collections because some of our customers were also seeing huge inventory at their end, and the receivable cycle was stretched, leading to higher borrowing utilization, and therefore, the higher interest costs resulted. This year, things are likely to change significantly as we see things normalizing. Now let me hand back to Vishal Gupta to cover what we are building through the cycle. Vishal Gupta.
Yeah. Thank you, Pramod. Let me cover the new initiatives that will come online in the next few quarters. We are developing a new refrigerator manufacturing facility in Sri City in South India, which is progressing well. We plan to start commercial production by quarter four of FY 2027, and this will become a meaningful revenue stream in FY 2028. We have already entered into a tie-up with our anchor customer for this facility. We are now also establishing a rotary compressor manufacturing facility at our Supa Plant. Machinery has been ordered. Installation is planned to begin in August 2026, and operations are expected to commence by quarter four of FY 2027. We will have a capacity of 2 million compressors in the first phase, which can be expanded to 4 million compressors in the second phase. We have received approval and commitments from our anchor customer for this facility as well.
Compressor manufacturing will significantly deepen our backward integration in the RAC business and will greatly secure our supply chain. Our expanded washing machine facility is now operational at Greater Noida. We have strong order book visibility and outsourcing momentum in the semi-automatic segment continues to build. We have grown this business by 52% in FY 2026, and we look forward to again growing this business in a very meaningful manner in this financial year. We are consolidating some of our molding facilities at Salarpur, Raichur, which will help us in enhancing our operational performance, space utilization, eliminating warehouse leases, and allowing us to build better economies of scale. This is a multi-year cost structure improvement and initiative, and this will show up in margins over FY 2027 and FY 2028. During FY 2026, we have completed our migration to SAP. This has improved our inventory visibility, demand planning, and financial reporting accuracy.
This is very important as we scale up our operations. We have implemented a comprehensive cost management program that includes granular expense tracking, lease rationalization, low-cost automation investments, workforce scaling, and productivity enhancement. These initiatives are aimed at preserving and extending our cost leadership, which is a very core competitive moat for us in our outsourcing business. Let me turn to FY27. Channel inventory have now normalized materially from the peak of approximately 5 million units seen during FY26. April and May have shown better sell-out momentum compared to the same period last year. This will help us in controlling our inventories in a very big way. The El Niño weather pattern is forecasted to intensify from July onwards, with a peak expected in September. If this holds, it could extend the effective AC season into months that are typically off-peak.
India's room AC penetration remains among the lowest globally, well below 10% of the households. Rising temperatures, urbanization, growing middle class income, and replacement demand from the shift to energy efficient models are structural demand drivers. The outsourcing trend in India's consumer durables manufacturing is a structural long-term shift. Brands are rationalizing their own manufacturing, focusing on design, branding, and distribution. They are relying on partners like us for cost-efficient production. For FY 2027, we are targeting better than industry revenue growth. We expect EBITDA margins to improve towards 8% as operating leverage returns, input cost pressures moderate, and our cost discipline initiatives take effect. Working capital intensity is expected to improve significantly as inventory and the return cycles improves. We expect to improve operating and free cash flow generation in FY 2027.
On capital allocation, we will continue to invest in our strategic products, the Refrigerator plant, the compressor facility, and washing machine expansion while maintaining our discipline on returns. Our business model is stronger, capacity is growing, customer relationships are deepening, and the balance sheet gives us the confidence to invest through this cycle. We are entering FY 2027 leaner, better organized, with normalized channel inventory, new capacity and capabilities coming online, and stronger customer relationships. The quarters ahead will reflect that. Thank you, everyone. Now we will open the floors to the questions, please.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mr. Achal Lohade from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes-
I'm sorry to have interrupted. Can you please speak a bit louder?
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. The first question I have, if you could talk a little bit about the gross margin contraction in a bit more granular manner. The question I have is, you had a large inventory, as you pointed out in the initial remarks throughout the year. Ideally, given the copper price inflation in December and January, with our inventories, we should have benefited. If you could talk a little bit about this pricing part of it, and has that normalized in the April and May month?
I'll take this question. Basically, what happened was we had a good amount of cheaper inventory till December. For us, December quarter was very strong. As you may recall that in December quarter, we grew almost at 46% during the quarter, and our AC business actually grew very significantly in the December quarter. The sales in the December quarter was almost INR 932 crores versus last year same quarter at INR 516 crores. This actually took care of our low-cost inventory of raw material. We had a good understanding of a good commitment from the customers for January, February, March. Therefore, we restocked the inventory of raw material for the March quarter. Whatever cheaper inventory we had, most of it was actually utilized in the December quarter.
In fact, to give you very specific numbers, we had about 6.5 lakh AC material, out of which almost 4.8 lakhs, kind of a number we actually did in the quarter ending December. The cheaper inventory that we were left with was very little in the January, February, March month. Unfortunately, the January and February months were very slow. We did try to take a price increase, but we were not able to pass on the raw material cost as well as the rupee depreciation fully, and it hit the margins in the January, February, March quarter to us, in the sense that most of the sales actually happened in the month of March, and we were not able to pass on the cost completely.
We had some additional cost during these months because some of the energy transitioning, which we had to do from LPG to maybe more expensive energy sources, had to be absorbed by us during that quarter.
How about April, May, sir?
We have taken a price increase in April, tried to pass on the price increase, which we have seen, or the cost inflation, which we have seen. To be very frank, situation is very dynamic. INR keeps on depreciating and some of the key commodities are still continuing to go higher up, especially on the aluminum and copper side. Whatever price increase we have taken, probably it's been good till maybe April and May. If season continues well into June or July, et cetera, the costs have further gone up from our price increases. That's all I can say.
Got it.
I will further add to this. See, we have been able to take some price increase in the March quarter, and in the June quarter also, we have taken some price increase, which has largely taken care of the commodities. The problem is the exchange rate. Exchange rate is something which is so volatile and moving, normally whatever price arrangements you have with the customers, they are based on your current dollar exchange rate. Normally the payments happen a month or two months later from the current supplies. So what will be the exchange rate in month or two months later, that is one big joker in the pack.
Understood. The Forex loss, what you mentioned is part of the RM cost or it's part of the other expenses, sir?
It's a part of the other expenses. It actually goes in the part of other expenses. The Forex gain actually reduces the other expenses, and Forex loss actually increases the other expenses. Coming back to your one more data point I want to highlight that a lot of the Forex exchange loss happened because most of the liabilities, which is the unhedged liabilities on account of opened LCs or some of the OA payments which were due later on in the quarter, maybe in the April or May or June quarter, they were mark-to-market at the quarter end number, which was at INR 94.8 for us at the end of March. Those also actually led to a Forex hit.
Some of it we actually covered when the rupee came down to something like INR 93, almost about INR 15 million-INR 20 million of hedging we did, and some of the payments of those liabilities have been made at those payments. Again, the rupee has further moved to now INR 95.5. Those are the kind of things which are leading to the Forex losses this year.
Got it. Just one number on the industry, if you could talk overall volume number for the industry in terms of manufacturing and how much was the outsourcing of the total? I believe you would have still gained some market share, but just wanted to understand what the numbers would be in your estimate?
It's very difficult to have those accurate numbers. The industry overall manufacturing FY 2026 should be anything between 13 million-14 million. I think we are operating around 13%-14% of the total India's market.
Got it. Thank you. I'll fall back in the queue for more questions. Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tanay Shah from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is on how the quarter is going well rather the ongoing season. Given that almost three weeks of April were muted, and we just saw a pickup post that for second week and end of April. Given that we also begin the year with higher inventories because of the challenges which we faced in Q4, how is demand shaping up for us? Also the outlook, to some extent, if you can give for the industry from an FY 2027 perspective.
Overall April has been a decent month. May is also looking to be a decent month, but I will not risk taking any such long-term forecast. Last year we have already suffered on that because this business is so dynamic and so much weather dependent, and nobody knows what is going to the weather. These are all forecasts, what we have. Overall channel inventory has normalized because the April, May, the sellout has been very good. As of today, channel is sitting at a very normal inventory. We can see at least not as compared to last year. We might see some good sales or some decent sales happenings in the off-peak months of July, August, September. That is all I can say, boss.
Nonetheless, I will just add here that this year the channel and brand inventory is very much normalized at the end of mid-May also. Even in the May month, whatever feedback we have got from most of the brands, the sellout has been much higher than last year. Channel inventory, brand inventory is normalized. Most of the industry players this year have had some setbacks in production on account of multiple factors like labor shortages. In some geographies, there has been this new labor code, which has caused some disruption temporarily and in some cases, because of the non-availability of LPG or LPG cylinders being priced very high, the temporary labor has gone back to their home. All those kind of issues have actually also hit the production.
Net-net, the supply has been lower this year and while the demand has been higher, which has led to overall channel and system inventory becoming much normalized than last year.
Sir, any number which we could put to the channel inventory right now?
I don't have those numbers right now. Maybe you can connect probably post maybe first week of June. That time we will get to know a good color on it. From whatever feedback we are getting from the sales channel, the sellout this year has been much stronger. That is what we have learned till now.
Sure, sir. Understood. Sir, my second question is the margin impact which we've seen on a YOY basis. On the gross margin especially, almost a 260 basis points impact. We spoke about a 10%-15% price hike which the industry has taken. Can you possibly quantify the amount of price hike which we've taken to the brand and the gap which yet sort of remains? Because I'm trying to understand that how do we see the margin sort of normalizing into FY 2027 from a gross margin perspective?
I'll tell you like, we would have also taken a price increase of anywhere between 10%-12% till now from the last year basis on our overall numbers. As Vishal ji was explaining, there's a rupee which has depreciated very sharply, and some of those payments are made generally slightly later. Those things have not got priced in till now yet. That is one. Second thing is there, which is important is that now the whole value chain has been under stress last year, and it's only in the month of April that the industry took a very meaningful price increase, which is the brands took a meaningful price increase to the channel, and that has actually also reflected for us also. Nonetheless, we will be still probably having a lower percentage margin in the AC business this year.
In the absolute amount, the gross contribution that we try to target per piece is likely to be in the range of historical averages. That is what we foresee for ourselves in the coming year.
Understood, sir. Sir, for this year, the PLI remains at INR 37.5 crores.
Yes.
Understood. INR 50 crores for the next year, right?
Yes. We have been able to meet all our PLI targets in the last year. The PLI that is going to be due for the financial year 2026 is going to be received in 2027. Therefore, we will be taking that into account in 2027.
Sir, I think that will be INR 71 crore, Pramod, because we will have NGM + PLI also kicking in.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
Total amount will be INR 71 crores.
INR 71 crore for FY 2020?
The amount.
FY 2026 year. Yes.
Yeah. The amount is for FY 2026, which we will be receiving in 2027 and recognizing in 2027.
Okay. Just one last question if I can squeeze in. On the compressor bit. We spoke about putting up the machinery, et cetera, in this year. We're yet awaiting the approval. Any update on that?
No, we don't need any approval. The compressor machines have been ordered, and we are putting up this plant by ourselves, and we already have tie-ups for the customers also, and the product approval is also online right now. We don't need any approval for this, sir. There is no JV in this.
Understood. Got that, sir. I'll fall back in the queue. Thank you so much for answering my question and wishing you all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jitendra Arora from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. Actually, given the fact that you mentioned that it's very difficult to give any kind of guidance about FY 2027, go about planning what kind of capacity you want to install, how do you stock up on inventory, then how do you do that? See, because as investors, we'll assume that management has to have some sense of what kind of demand they can expect. I understand that weather can play a spoilsport, but we know that at least the bulk of the season is through, because we're sitting in May, and June is perhaps the last big month of the season. We will start planning for next year now, practically, or next season. I'm actually wondering how should one, if one were to model any kind of revenues from the season for FY 2027, how should one go about it?
Hello?
Yeah.
Hello? I think we lost you in middle, Jitendra ji.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah. It's better. Yeah, please.
So-
No, I think I got your question, Jitendra. See, we do modeling. You know what has happened this year, why this year is little different from last year. Last year, if you see the whole year, there was such a big inventory overhang on the whole industry, which won't be there. As we have already said in our commentary, that we will see a better uptake in next few months, which might be off-peak months also. Once we enter the season with a normalized inventory. See, last year was a low base, we should see a decent growth in this. We don't want to take any risk of giving any numbers as of now.
As Pramod said, first quarter is done, and then by June, by July, middle of July end, we'll have a fair idea how the industry is performing, then we might be in a better position to give some clear answer on the numbers.
See, by that time it's nothing that it will not be the weather next season, right?
No, definitely, sir. That is right. We'll start preparing for the next year's season, and typically it's in March, which is FY 2027 last date, but up to March, it's a roll of a dice. It's all primary selling, manufacturing, and channel filling. That should remain strong going into by end of FY 2027, because by June, July, August, we should be at a very normal inventory at an industry level. It is there. We have our internal plans available with us, but I don't think we are in a position to share those plans right now with the investors.
My second question is about, not the gross margin, but how should one look at the gross profit as a whole? You mentioned that you were not able to pass the price increases in the last quarter, and right now also what you have passed on perhaps not fully cover you for rupee depreciation or rupee volatility per se. Let's say as investors, if FY27 I'm looking at your gross profit and top line, will it be fair to assume that your gross profit will at least move in line with your top line? Will it be better off given that you've been able to pass on some price hikes?
As I told you, sir, commodity price increases are largely taken into account from our customers as of today. Exchange rate is one thing which is really, you can't put any finger to that number right now. As we have seen last year, we have suffered massively because of the forex thing. We take certain budgeting in the costing also, but if it moves beyond that, then it becomes a pretty big problem for us, which has been there for FY 2026. As you said, largely our PBT numbers should move in line with our sales top line growth. It should move in line, provided we don't see very big change in the rupee exchanges. Today we are sitting in maybe 94, 95.5 something. It can go up to 97. This is what we factored in.
It goes beyond that, then it becomes a problem for everyone.
That is understood, sir. Going back to this, the fact is that in FY 2025, we reported a PAT of around INR 270 odd crores. This year, it was much lower than that. When do you expect to cross the FY 202 ?
If the normal situation is there, then yes, we very much hope that we should be able to cross that PAT. The situation is very dynamic still. There are many things which are not yet known. One is obviously this situation in the Middle East, and then this El Niño, how the consumer sentiment is there in the second half this year, especially after a very steep energy price increase, which is there and maybe more coming, and also because of the rupee depreciation, the inflation. All those things we have to take into account, and we will probably be in a better situation post June quarter to take a call on these things, and then we can probably give you some better color on that.
We are very hopeful that if the situation normalizes sometime this year, then we can probably cross the profit which we delivered in 2025.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vipraw Srivastava from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good morning. Just quickly from the compressor side, given that now we are going on our own in terms of setting up the capacity. Just to double-check, so we're not tying up with the Chinese partners we had before. Secondly, we have the required technical expertise for the manufacturing of these compressors. Both my understanding is correct, right?
Yes, sir. We are going on our own. We are setting up this facility, and we have acquired those capabilities which will help us in offering a cost-competitive and efficiently performing compressors to our customers in India.
Sure, sir. Just to follow up on this, sir. Currently, as we know, there are two brands which dominate the compressor market. Will PG be the third brand there, or how do you plan to go about it?
Sir, once the commercial production will start, we will update you on that. As of today, this information is enough that we are setting our compressor manufacturing facility, and we see no challenge in the acceptance of the compressors which will be made by us, by our customers. The tie-up is already in place, as I have said in my commentary.
Sure, sir. Sir, lastly, in the entire compressor, what percentage of value add we'll be doing in the entire development of a compressor?
Around 60% of that will be localized and around 40% will be to import.
Sure, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saumil Mehta from Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, if you can just call out for FY 2026, what was the total production in units, both for IDU and ODU, and the capacity utilization for the year?
Our overall production in FY 2026 was around 1.75 million sets. Okay. Normally we make some extra IDUs for some customers who take IDUs extra, which should be around 250,000-300,000 for the whole year.
Okay. INR 1.75 million and INR two million, very broadly.
No, 200k. 200,000. Yeah.
200,000. The average utilization for the year was?
The average utilization is something, it's very difficult to tell, but it should be something. See, our overall yearly, if you talk about annual capacity of AC manufacturing is around, as of today, I can say it's easily around 4.5 million. Average utilization normally in AC business is around 50%, sir. 45%-50%.
Sure. Second question, in terms of the incentive income, have we received the entire incentive income due for FY 2025 in this financial year?
We have received the amount of PLI which was due for us. We have received that after the closure of this quarter, but we did receive the amount which was due to us.
For as of March 2025, whatever the PLI was due, there is no receivable on that front. It is only for this financial year, which will be the part of the receivables.
Yes. Which we will be filing for the same, probably sometime around in October, and we hope to get sometime in February, March next year.
Okay. For the financial year of FY 2026, in terms of top three or top five, however you would want to call out, was there any change in terms of the top three or five clients? While this year was challenging, for specific brands where the challenge was far higher than others. Something on those lines, if you can comment.
See, overall, there was no such specific behavior from any of the clients. Largely, top three clients are in the same ratio as of today also. It was a general industry-wide, very similar behavior what we have experienced in FY 2026 itself.
Okay. Last question from my side, and slightly a bit premature, but in terms of compressors, once the stabilization of the plant happened, which could be maybe 12, 18, 24 months from now, whatever timeframe will be required. In the initial cost analysis, what you would have done, how competitive would you be versus maybe some of the Chinese players who have plants in India? Any ballpark number, 10%, 15%, 20% premium, or you would be able to produce at the similar price what has been offered by plants which are in the nearby vicinity for you?
Sir, this whole project has been delayed by more than 18 months because of certain things. There were certain setbacks. That is why it took us 18 months to reach a level where we are confident that our product will be cost efficient also, energy efficient also. I will tell you, sir, we are expecting that we will be able to hit our capacity numbers in FY 2028 only. That is the target internally we have with us, that is the kind of discussion we have already had with our customers also on this.
Okay. Sure. Thank you so much, and all the best for subsequent quarters.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Neel Mehta from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, roughly we have spent almost INR 800 crore in our financial or FY 2026. Can you ballpark give us a broad range in each of the new initiatives that we have spent in these years, and what kind of quick acceptance in each of the initiative looks like?
Yeah. Out of the total INR 785 crore that we have spent this year in the CapEx, almost close to INR 500 crore has actually gone into the land and building piece. I'll try to put things in perspective. We have actually put up a new 10-acre campus for washing machine in Greater Noida. That came through, and that facility is ready. We have another, about, I think, 50-acre campus in Sri City for which land has been procured and construction is going on for the Refrigerator. That part of that money was spent on the land and some advances for the building has actually gone into that INR 500-odd crore amount of CapEx. We had a completion of the compressor building in MIDC Supa which was already about a 12-acre campus, half of which was built and half of which was completed last financial year, which is in FY 2026.
The building was ready in early May, June itself. Some part was spent there on that. We have actually this year also bought another 72-acre land in Kamargaon, in Ahmednagar only. All the payments for the land have been made, and some leveling, et cetera, has gone into that. Those things contributed to the land and building portion this year. Apart from that, we spent close to INR 70 crores for the washing machine plant and machinery. Almost close to INR 165 crores was spent in the RAC plant and machinery for expanding capacity. The other businesses, which is molding and electronics, took about INR 35-odd crores for the increasing of the capacity. INR 10 crores was the plant and machinery advance for the refrigerator business, which was done in the last financial year. That is the breakup. Coming to your asset turn business question.
We are very hopeful that once all these CapEx are over, which should be happening this year, we will probably be doing a CapEx of close to INR 400 crore this year. We should be able to utilize these assets and get to our asset turn of 4x plus by 2029. Maybe this year and next year, we'll see the ramp-ups of the facilities which we are building, and we will be able to get the 4x asset turn, which we typically have for us from these new facilities also, by end of 2029. One more thing I want to highlight, we also actually bought an eight-acre campus in Salarpur where we are consolidating our plastic molding business.
That campus is also going to get ready by maybe July or August this year, and that also has been a part of those INR 500-odd crore which we have spent in land and building.
Okay. Sir, in initial remark and during the call, you also mentioned that it's difficult to gauge the number for the RAC business in FY 2027. Sir, would you like to give a color on how the washing machine business would be panning out in FY 2027, kind of growth what you are projecting or numbers you would like to put on for the FY 2027, particularly in the Washing Machine segment?
I'm not saying it is difficult. I'm just saying that uncertainties are high. I don't want to actually make a guess on numbers, but I think the numbers in 2027 for AC will be much better than the 2026 financial year number, where the industry actually saw probably a slight decline in primary sales. 2027, from that point of view, will be much better, and we should probably continue to gain some market share. Difficult to put those numbers right now. We will be able to get to the numbers probably after first quarter, because by that time we will actually know how the situation is panned out in terms of sell out and what are the inventory levels, et cetera. That is one.
Second thing is, we have a good visibility and commitment from some of the clients with whom we are working in the washing machines. We grew 52% last year. This year also, we are expecting a very robust growth. Upwards of 30%, 35% is what we think we should be able to do in the washing machines, but specific numbers we will spell out after first quarter.
Okay. Sir, this last question. The inventory that we are having right now at the, let's say, at the end of the March month, what would be the roughly bifurcation of the raw material inventory within that and the CBU and then the final good inventory of that?
We had an inventory of close to INR 1,600 crore at the end of March quarter. Out of which the AC business alone was having close to INR 1,300 crore of inventory, rest of the other businesses had about INR 300 crore odd total. In this INR 1,300 crore inventory, we had close to INR 450 crore of finished good inventory, rest was the raw material and semi-finished good inventory which we had. This inventory has meaningfully come down in April and May. We are hoping that by June end, the inventory levels will very much normalize for us, and we will be able to bring it significantly lower. Significantly in the sense like more than INR 600 crore-INR 700 crore is what we are internally targeting on overall inventory level reduction by June.
INR 600 crore, INR 700 crore, you mentioned about the RAC inventory or total overall inventory.
Total inventory, which is INR 1,601 crores as of, think should be less than INR 900 crores in our opinion by June end.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Keyur Pandya from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Please go ahead. Mr. Keyur Pandya, please go ahead with the question. Your line is unmuted.
Oh, sorry. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, on the RAC side, you mentioned couple of times that inventory has come down, system inventory has come down significantly. Because of this primary/secondary mismatch, you think you would be lagging the secondary industry growth rate, your primary sales would be? Basically just to get sense of how your growth would be against, say, secondary consumer growth in this season.
Well, we hope to be at least in line with the secondary sales volume growth of the industry in the financial year 2027. For us, April and May have been good months, and we hope that if the summer continues in June, July, August also, we should see a decent volumes from a very low base of last year. Last year, actually, if you see, for people like us, the sales actually became almost zero from June till October because in August there was the announcement of a GST rate cut and then all of the purchase from the customers got postponed till October end when the GST actually set in. We think that we should have a much better year in FY 2027 in comparison to FY 2026.
Does this hold true for quarter one as well? I was referring to Q1 when I meant season, because then it would be more of stocking season from Q2 onwards. Q1, how should we think of your sales versus industry growth rate?
I cannot actually give you the number right now because June is still to happen and in our industry, lot of things change when the monsoon sets in. Till now, monsoon has not set in properly even in the southern area, and north is still very hot. Till now I can tell you that we are probably doing good and our numbers are great in comparison to last year. June is still to happen. Right now, plans are good and if we are able to execute those plans fully, then we should see a good growth in the first quarter.
Understood, sir. Second question on the new projects, compressor and ref. What should we think of profitability in first year and when things now stabilize or volumes have reached, say, near peak utilization?
First year is not going to have a much high profitability, because in the first year you typically have a lot of startup costs and utilizations are typically low. Still, as Vishal was telling you, in compressor, we think that we are going to be able to kind of stabilize the operation in the very first year of operations only. We are targeting that in financial year 2028, which is going to be the first full year of operations, because in FY 2027 we'll just get probably a quarter or so. We are hoping to at least run the capacity at something like more than 70% capacity utilization. We think that compressor should be profitable in the first year itself.
Coming on to the Refrigerator, there the plans are good, we have a support from one of the anchor customers, we think that we should be able to reach something like, in the very first year of operation, that is FY28, something like 50-55% capacity utilization we should hit in the very first year. Important thing to note there is that in certain markets, there are not many Refrigerator facilities actually. The market remains good and we are going to start with both Frost Free as well as the other kind of a Refrigerator. Also we may start Side-by-side Refrigerators also in that plant immediately. From that point of view, the product range as well as the customer support, we are very hopeful that first year we will not be having losses for sure in the Refrigerator.
I don't know how the profitability will pan out, but in compressor, we are very hopeful that first year itself we should be seeing some profitability.
Understood, sir. Sir, just last question. You highlighted that you aim to maintain gross profit per unit in RAC this year.
Yes
at the normalized levels. With industry growth and you gaining market share, EBITDA per unit should be higher? We should see increase in that number per unit in INR terms?
For sure, internal targets are to basically restore the EBITDA per AC to original figures, which was there in FY 2024 or FY 2025 year numbers. Lot will actually depend on how the industry pans out. We are hopeful that if the industry does not have the supply side challenges and does not have the pressures of inventory like last year, profitability should get restored maybe in the second half this year.
Pramod, there is one thing which we need to factor in. See, last year is the last year of the PLI target achievement for other brands.
Yes.
There is lot of desperation with certain people. You know why? Because they are not able to achieve their PLI targets. That puts also some pressure on us. Just be very conscious about this fact also, sir, please.
Yes. This is something which I missed out and was rightly pointed out by Vishal Gupta. The industry dynamics are going to be important to see because this is the last year for PLI targets, and targets are quite steep for everyone this year from our point of view. Let us see how things pan out and how the volume growth happens for the industry.
Understood, sir. Thanks a lot. All the best. Will get back to you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. With that, I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Thank you, everyone for attending this call. As you know, FY 2026 has been a very tough year. Let me tell you, I can assure all our investors that at a company level, at a management level, everyone is trying to come back strongly. We are quite hopeful that FY 2027 will be a very different story from FY 2026. In case you have any specific questions, you can get back to Pramod, our CFO. In case you want to plan a visit to our plants, you can talk to Shalin. Shalin can organize the visits also to the plants. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of JM Financial Institutional Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.
Thank you.