Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Aditya Vision Limited Q4 and FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by Axis Capital. 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 touchtone phone. Please note that this call has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Devanshi Khandelwal from Axis Capital. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Aditya Vision's Q4 and FY 2026 earnings call. We are glad to have the senior management team with us, including Mr. Yashovardhan Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director, and Ms. Yosham Vardhan, Whole Time Director. I will now invite the management to share their opening remarks. After this, we will move into the Q&A session. Over to you.
Thank you, Devanshi. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to all of you. Hope you have gone through our investor presentation, and if not, I strongly recommend you to go through it. As we speak today about our Q4 and full year FY 2026 performance, I would like to take a moment to step back and reflect on the journey that has brought us here. Aditya Vision started as a small single store with a simple vision to make quality consumer durables, accessible, affordable, and trustworthy for customers in underserved markets. Today, as we close FY 2026 with 207 stores across four states, that journey has scaled meaningfully. Over the last 27 years, that vision of Aditya has guided every decision we have taken, whether it was entering into new towns, building relationships with customers, or staying disciplined in how we grow.
I can say that our vision has not only scaled, it has become bolder and resilient. FY 2026 in many ways not only tested that vision, but also proved to be a landmark year for our business model. What is encouraging for us is that despite this year having the weakest summer since our inception, we delivered approximately 18% revenue growth year-over-year and 11% PAT growth year-over-year. At the same time, we maintained gross margins at around 15.6% and EBITDA margins at 8.5%, reflecting our continued focus on profitable growth. I'm delighted to share that in Q4, we delivered a strong revenue growth of 28%, accompanied by an impressive PAT growth of 36% year-on-year.
The last financial year liberated our company from the shackles of season-dependent model, heavily dependent on Q1, and more so freed us from a seasonal blockade of being dependent on H1 for growth. I am truly delighted to give the comfort to our investors, stakeholders that your company is now an all-weather, all-season company. Despite Q1 FY 2026 and H1 FY 2026 delivering only marginal growth of 6% and 11% respectively, we still concluded the year with top line growth of 18%, which is quite respectable. The year began with an unusually weak summer season that extended into late Q2, impacting demand of our core cooling category during the first half. Prolonged rains and delays in implementation of GST 2.0 further slowed the recovery trajectory in Q2. What stands out is not the challenge, it is how the business responded.
Historically, Q1 and Q2 together contributed nearly 55%-60% of our annual sales. Despite losing these low-hanging sales, we did extremely well in Q3 FY 2026 with a top line growth of 28%, driven by festive season demand. The momentum further accelerated in Q4 FY 2026, where the company recorded another robust top line growth of 28%. As a result, we see that the second half is now becoming as important as the first half, and our business is gradually transiting towards a more balanced full financial year model. This performance was further supported by our strategy of stocking inventory at the right time, which enabled us to fully capture demand and deliver an exceptionally strong quarter. On the expansion front, from this year marks a defining phase in our journey.
We have added 102 stores in the last three years, which is almost equal to 105 stores where we built in the previous 23-24 years. We have entered Chhattisgarh earlier than planned with three stores, marking our foray into fourth targeted state. This is an important step in our expansion journey as we continue to replicate our model, culture, and customer trust across new geographies in a calibrated manner. As I speak, another neighboring state border is held for our future expansion, which is earlier withheld due to political uncertainties. We are now present with 118 stores in Bihar across 38 districts, 33 in Jharkhand covering 22 out of 24 districts, 53 in Uttar Pradesh covering 30 out of 75 districts, and three stores in Chhattisgarh covering two out of 33 districts.
We plan to add more stores annually with a strong focus on scaling our presence in Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh while continuing to deepen our leadership across Bihar and Jharkhand. We are also on track to enter Madhya Pradesh this financial year as we expand into new geographies in a calibrated manner. You will be happy to note that we have onboarded Pankaj Tripathi as our brand ambassador, further strengthening our connect and brand recall across our core markets. Our inventory levels at the end of Q4 remain higher at approximately INR 840 crore, this is a conscious and strategic decision. We acted early in anticipation of supply side uncertainties highlighted by OEMs, particularly around gas shortages due to the sudden Iran-Israel conflict.
We also leveraged price changes driven by BEE norms revisions, where product prices have increased by around 8%-10%, to secure inventory at a relatively better cost and to remain competitive in the market. Importantly, with clear signals of a strong summer ahead, we ensure that we are fully stocked to meet demand without disruption and at the same time remain competitive. When I look at where we stand today, what gives me confidence is that we are no longer just expanding. We are evolving with resilience. Most importantly, our vision is no longer limited to where and how we started. It is now on a catch-up mode of the huge geographies laden with above-average population with ever-rising disposable incomes.
With this approach, backed by disciplined execution, strong regional understanding, and a customer-first mindset, we believe we are well-positioned to deliver consistent and sustainable growth over medium to long term. With that, I would now like to hand over the floor to Mrs. Yosham Vardhan to take you through the financial highlights. Ms. Yosham.
Thank you, sir. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are pleased to present the financial performance for Q4 FY 2026 and the full year FY 2026. For the full year FY 2026, revenue grew by 18%, reaching INR 2,672 crore. Gross margin stood at 15.6%. EBITDA reached INR 228 crores, registering a growth of 12%, with EBITDA margins at 8.5%. Profit before tax stood at INR 157 crores, with PBT margins at 5.9%. PAT stood at INR 117 crore, growing by 11% year-over-year. Same-store sales growth for FY 2026 stood at 8%. For Q4 FY 2026, revenue increased by 28% year-over-year, reaching INR 625 crore. Gross margin stood at 16%.
EBITDA for the quarter was INR 51 crore, with EBITDA margin at 8.1%. Profit before tax stood at INR 31 crore, with PBT margin at 4.9%. PAT grew by 36% year-over-year to INR 22 crores. Our store count stood at 207 stores as of March 31st, 2026.
Same-store sales growth for this quarter stood at 18%. In Q4 FY 2026, Bihar remained our largest revenue contributor at 74%, followed by UP at 14% and Jharkhand at 12%. In FY 2026, Bihar contributed to remain our largest market, contributing 75% of revenues, followed by UP at 13% and Jharkhand at 12%. This reflects the strength of our core markets while our newer regions continue to scale up steadily. We can now open the floor for questions.
Thank you so much, ma'am. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with 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 only while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Aditya Bhartia from Investec. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, sir. My first question is on inventory for room ACs that we are carrying. Do you think that the inventory that we will be carrying will be significantly higher than what general competitors would be carrying? To that extent, it will be a big competitive advantage, at least in the next quarter. Should that also bode well for margins and boost our margins from what is usually the case in first quarter?
Aditya, thank you for asking me. First of all, we cannot comment on inventories of our other competitors. As far as we are concerned, we are adequately stocked, and that is as per our strategy, which I will not like to divulge. It's our strategy to build up inventory as far as cooling products are concerned. Definitely, one thing I can say that we will be carrying inventory as per our need and as per our historical figures.
Sure, sir. Given that this year is very unusual one, wherein we are seeing multiple price hikes as we are kind of progressing through the season, do you think a scenario like this helps us a lot in terms of margins, or is it that it's almost the same scenario for all retailers, to that extent, the entire benefit gets passed on to the end consumer? What are you really seeing in the marketplace?
I will tell you, Aditya, actually, the whole business model is like that even if they are hiking prices, OEMs, since we are carrying our inventory, this is the reason we carry lot of inventory because we know that price changes can come. For smaller dealers, they may be having those inventories of earlier pricing. We want to remain competitive all the time. Our buildup of inventory helps us in being competitive all the time, and which is very important and very necessary also for our business. This competitiveness remains there. It's not necessary that whenever there is a hike in price, that comes as a profit to us. Rather, we watch the market, how it reacts, then only we take a call. Our profitability is not very much dependent on the price hikes of OEMs.
Understood, sir. That's very clear. My second question is that given that almost 50% of our stores are three years or less than three years old, that proportion of new store addition will gradually be coming down, do you think that that will be a bit of a margin lever as those stores start generating high revenues, become profitable, or improve their profitability, even the company level profitability can have some benefit out of it? I'm specifically asking because in UP we would have spent a fair bit of money that will start getting absorbed over larger revenues. How are you thinking about margins from a slightly longer term perspective?
You are absolutely right, Aditya. In fact, these stores which you referred to, our bottom is now getting heavy in the sense that more and more matured stores will be there, and fewer stores, as you said that in percentage terms, fewer stores will be added as a percentage. This is why, in fact, in my opening speech also, I told you that in the very near term, we'll be in fact definitely having better control over our operating expenses.
Sure, sir. Sir, anything that you can share in terms of how throughput per store of a mature store and margins of a mature store may differ from a store that, let's say, is two years old?
Yes, of course, it matters, but it's not very similar to each other. All the stores are having different metrics, as you know, like all territories are slightly different. I can tell you one thing that after three years, at least we take these stores as quite matured. However, as you know, one full last year was washed out. In fact, this whole arithmetic has gone a little haywire. We are very confident that in this current financial year, once we are in a normal season, then all these branches are going to catch up to the previous expectations.
Understood, sir. That's very helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Yash Sonthalia from Edelweiss Public Alt . Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you team for taking my question, congratulations on good set of numbers. My first question is I want to double-click on gross margin of 100 basis point negative YOY. Is it more or less because of change in product mix? If yes, can you help me understand what has changed over there, why we have seen 50% growth in small appliances, and why the hit on the large appliances?
I can tell you that, Yash. It is very simple. In fact, gross margin has come down only because we failed to capitalize on our seasonal product like air conditioners, air coolers, and refrigerators during first H1. Obviously, we always feel that these are the appliances that are having better margins. But there because of the seasonality and because of bad season we have encountered last financial year, margins naturally will be depressed. Secondly, when the share of these products came down, share of mobility, et cetera, went up. Even what you said that small appliances. Maybe, as you know, mobility ASP was also gradually rising throughout the year. More and more volume was coming through these products, which were having lesser margin.
Still, I think that despite being a bad year as far as seasonal productivity was concerned, we have done fairly well in containing the margin to these levels.
Understood. Sir, my question was more related specifically to Q4. Q1, Q2, we understand because of unseasonal rain.
Okay. I'll tell you. Naturally, it has come down just because in Q4, the ASP of mobiles went up by 20%. The share of volume of that mobility was 20% more than what we were encountering in year before. This was the reason, and that carries low margin. This was the reason for the Q4. Laptop. Again, laptop also, the ASP went up by 8%-10%. Both these products, which constitutes more than 25% of our sales, because of price hike, it has impacted our margin.
Got it.
If you want more clarification, I can give you. That in a basket where you have products of lower margin, and these have grown because of sudden spurt in their prices, then obviously entire margin of the basket will come down.
Got it, sir. We saw 50% growth in other expansion. Majority of this will be promotional because of the expansion in UP. Can you help me? What was the exceptional or one-off advertisement spend we have done in UP to normalize this number?
As I told you, that we onboarded our brand ambassador also during this period, as well as, again and again, I'm telling you that we are entering new geographies and more mature and, in fact, evolved geographies of Uttar Pradesh, Western Uttar Pradesh. Where we are now trying to invest also, and we are doing quite well there, and only because of our efforts. I don't think as you grow and as you expand the geographies, your all costs, freight cost, every cost, all costs, they go up. So is this elevated miscellaneous. Everything goes up. Your 18% volume has come, so your freight cost, commission is going to go up, your DBD is going to go up. There are several expenses which are going to go up with your sales.
Got it, sir. Majority of our expansion is right now happening in UP and going ahead also, assuming it is going to be very similar. Can you give some color how the unit economics of some mature stores, which are now 20, 30 stores, has been present in UP for last two years or more? What is the performance of those stores?
I got your point, Yash. I've just told you one thing, that one year has, in fact, not responded to our model in normal way, as I told you last year. Even if they are two years older, we'll consider it as one year older only because they haven't encountered, let us say, Q1 or Q2, a similar Q1 and Q2, which has always come to the company. That way, I'll say that they have been doing well, and they will do very well once we settle down.
Got it. Thanks. Thanks a lot, sir, for answering my questions. Best of luck for the season.
Thank you, Yash.
Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Aniruddha Joshi from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats for great set of numbers. Sir, two questions.
Yeah.
You can indicate what will be the normalized margins for Bihar as a state, because that's a completely mature state for us and a UP or Chhattisgarh as an MP may dilute the margins. What is the margin that a mature state like Bihar is generating? By what time frame do we see UP also reaching to similar margins? Which may be two years, three years down the line.
I can comment on your second part of the question, but not the first part, because we usually do not diverge because of, as you know, competition and all that. We do not diverge state-wise margin. I hope you are getting my point, Aniruddha.
Yeah, sure.
I can only say that, yes, we are looking forward to even UP or other states where we are expanding. Definitely it will take some time. We're very conscious of our margins, as you must have seen us right through so many years. We will try always hard, but not at the cost of our sales. Our dominant position will be paid At the same time, we gradually increase our margins. This is the way we have come up in Bihar also, and same will be the strategy going forward in UP or This will be our strategy. Rather than asking me margin for a particular state, I'll say that we have to make other states catch up with that to Bihar, and for that, all the time we are working.
Okay. Sure, sir. Got it. The second question, if I take the interest cost and divide it by average debt. We get a rate of interest at almost 12.8, 13%. That's a pretty high interest rate. One is the average.
This includes finance cost on lease liabilities also. This is now your bank interest. Our bank interest, again, I cannot divulge you because certain banks do not like us to divulge the rate of ROIs. What you are looking towards this finance cost includes interest on lease finance also.
Okay.
When you will get the full annual report, then you can find that separately.
Okay. Sure, sir. Understood. Sir, third and last question. Any outlook on the real estate or rental inflation because post IT slowdown or some of the issues in IT sector due to AI, we are hearing about some slowdown in real estate markets in places like Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, et cetera. I don't know, is there having any derivative impact on the real estate market in Bihar, Jharkhand or even UP also?
No, not at all. As you know, they are hardly having a few, so this has not impacted neither Bihar nor UP or Jharkhand.
Okay.
Till now, it has not impacted, it has not come down. Maybe, let's see what is in store in future.
Okay. Sure, sir. Absolutely last question. Is there any plans to implement AI in the operation? We keep hearing about other retailers also investing in terms of AI for demand generation, reaching out to customers, and multiple other innovative initiatives. Any plans on that? Yeah. Thank you.
Aniruddha, actually, we are always open to new ideas and always exploring these things, AI and other things. It's not that we go with the crowd. We always explore, and we will like to see the benefits vis-à-vis the cost we are going to incur. Everything will be taken into account, what benefit we are going to get, then only we will take a decision, management will take a decision.
Okay. Sure, sir. Many thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bhavya Gandhi from Bajaj Alternate Investment Management Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Just wanted to understand if there's any unsold inventory left, can we return that back to the OEMs? How's the policy usually over there?
No, actually, we have been telling in so many conferences and con calls. Actually, we do not have to return those inventories to manufacturer. Usually, manufacturers, they don't prefer taking back their inventories. Rather, they help us in liquidating that inventory. If there is any unsold inventory left with us, the onus is on them to get it liquidated as quickly as possible, then only we go for new billing. It is always OEMs are in pressure as far as unsold inventory is concerned.
Okay. Got it. Sir, would you like to guide for the store expansion targets for FY 2027 and FY 2028?
We have been expanding by over 30 stores every year since last, I think, three, four, five years. We don't give a guidance because we are always ahead of the guidance. We remain always ahead of the guidance. You can safely assume when somebody actually will ask us how many stores we want to open, then we only say the figure of 25 stores. However, we have been delivering much more than what we have been guiding as we told, we just do not believe in expanding anywhere or anyhow. It's not our model. We want to expand very calibrated in a cluster approach manner, where we try to capture the entire state. This will be.
Got it.
Our policy.
Got it, sir.
Yeah.
Just one last thing on the EBITDA margin. If you are expanding in newer geographies, the OpEx will tend to be much higher. Will it weigh on the overall EBITDA margins as we expand into newer geographies, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and all those regions?
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh is the next target. Again, try to understand what I said, that now that most of our stores will be over three years old, so in fact, we'll be bottom-heavy as far as mature stores are concerned. Newer stores will be very few as far as in percentage terms of the overall entire store count. Despite this, as we can safely assume that going forward, our OpEx will not increase. It will be commensurate with our overall expenses.
Got it. Sir, out of the 30, 35 stores that we target, how much will be in the new state? If you can just provide some numbers on that front.
Usually, we want to go to a new state and try to, on a creeping cluster basis, we want to capture the entire state. We just simply do not stop our expansion there. Wherever we get the opportunity, wherever we see new opportunity, we too will go there. It's not like that we're only expanding this year in Jharkhand or Madhya Pradesh. UP is a big state where we have to do a lot of things. As I told you in the earning call, that our neighboring state has also now political uncertainties are over, so it's a good place for us to go and start expanding.
Got it. Thank you so much. That's it from my end. Thank you so much, Tapasya.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Manoj Gori from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, sir. First of all, congratulations for strong recovery after the weak start of FY 2026. I have two questions. One, if I've understood correctly, contribution has been around 14% last year. If I'm right, we have opened more-
I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir, but your voice is breaking. Continue, sir.
Manoj, please repeat your question, and it will be very clear.
Yeah.
Go ahead, Manoj.
Yeah. My point was, if we look at the current year, we have opened more stores into Uttar Pradesh as compared to other geographies. The revenue contribution has come down from 14% to 13% during FY 2026. Anything to read here? Ideally, more store openings should result into more contribution from UP markets.
You've got two questions. This is your first question, right?
Yeah.
Second?
The second question is, obviously, the operating cash flows have been positive. How should we see in the coming years whether we'll continue to stay OCF positive and probably, day by day, our balance sheet will strengthen. Any highlight, any inputs over there will be appreciated.
I'll tell you the first question first. Why it has come down is a different thing. You will go through our store opening schedule, you'll find that most of the stores have opened in last month or February or March of the last financial year in UP. Most of the stores. You are taking for the full year. That full year, they have not worked. Most of the stores have worked very less than a full year.
Sure.
Still, contribution from UP is 14% and not 13% as you are saying. It is 14%.
Okay. My bad, sir.
Still, I would like to tell you that most of the stores are very new and in fact, they've not run even three months of the full financial year. As you might have taken into account that what contribution they have made, you cannot strictly go by the numbers unless and until one full year goes by.
Sure.
Second, as far as balance sheet and cash flow is concerned, yes, this time our cash flow is quite healthy. We'll continue to invest the cash flow, and as I've been telling that, we do not require any equity. Our internal accrual- Hello.
Yes.
Can you hear me?
Yes, sir.
We'll continue to strengthen our balance sheet, no doubt about it, and most of the money will be invested in opening new stores and acquiring inventories at the right time. Our internal accrual, together with our borrowings, short-term borrowings, which is working capital borrowings, that will be enough for us to continue for at least we do not foresee raising any capital in this financial year, definitely not in the near term.
Sir, lastly, just to continue on this, with better efficiencies and better scales from the new stores, your OCF to EBITDA should ideally keep improving from year on a YOY basis, right? Is that understanding correct?
No, I can't understand your question. OCF?
What I meant was operating cash flow as a percentage of EBITDA-
From here on should keep improving with higher scale from the newly opened stores. Should that be assumed that it will keep improving from here on?
No. That you should not take it as a benchmark because operating cash flow will definitely depend on how we get our inventories built, how we take advantage of OEMs, and how do we manage our working capital. That will be very key to cash flows. We won't like to comment on that. It will always depend on the betterment of the company finances.
Sure, sir. Got it, sir. Sir, lastly, if you can throw some light how things are progressing in April. Sorry if I am making you repeat this. How things are shaping up in April, and probably how things are progressing in May. If you can highlight over there.
April has been very robust for us, and May is slightly colder in the initial period. We are expecting very soon that it is going to become a normal summer season.
Sure, sir. Thank you, and wish you all the best, sir, for future quarters and years to come.
Thank you, Manoj.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vaidik Bafna from Monarch Networth Capital Limited. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir, congratulations on good set of numbers. Sir, can you just quantify as to, suppose, for example, around more than 50% of our stores would be mature now, the balance would not be so mature. How much margins do the mature store enjoy, how much do the unmatured stores enjoy, versus how many stores are there which are still yet to come profitable?
We have been giving guidance that most of our stores, they get breakeven between nine to 12 months from their opening. Again, it will not be proper for me to give you the guidance or rather margins for mature stores and things which are middle. It is an evolving process, Vaidik. You try to understand.
Yes.
It's not as one thing has stabilized. Even those branches which are mature, still lot of things are still to come. Similarly, for stores which are not that mature, even there, in so many geographies, some stores are still doing very well. Some stores are growing in normal way. When you are talking about more than 200 stores, you cannot give a bifurcation of, let us say, margins, what mature store is earning and what a non-mature store is earning. It all depends on how crowded that market is, how you are placed in that town. These are all important thing in this format of business.
Okay, sir. Sir, one last thing is that.
Vaidik, can you speak louder, please?
Yes. Sir, one last thing is that, when can we expect our margins to reach back to 9% or levels? Is there any guidance on that?
I cannot give you a guidance on that. Our endeavor, we always give a guidance of between 8%-10%. 9% will be the mean factor of our margin, and we strive to be at that type of margin. Again, as I told you, we cannot compromise on certain sales, and we have to have those sales as well. It is all controlled growth, but still, we can give you a fairly good guidance of 8%-10% of margin.
Okay, sir. Got it. That was my question. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to the time constraint, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to management for the closing remarks. Thank you, and over to you, team.
Thank you, Danish. Thank you, Devanshi, and all people who are on the con call. Thank you very much. See you soon again, and take care of yourself. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Axis Capital, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.