Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Electronics Mart India Limited Q3 and FY 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participants' 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then 0 on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of the future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Karan Bajaj, CEO and Promoter. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you, Moderator , for that. Good evening and a very warm welcome to everyone present on the call. Along with me, I have Mr. Premchand Devarakonda, our Chief Financial Officer. We have uploaded our result and investor presentation for the quarter and nine months ending 31st December 2025 on the stock exchanges and the company's website. Hope everyone has a chance to go through it. The quarter began on a positive note with the festive season, with Diwali falling in October alongside the implementation of the GST rate cut during the period. While our sales mix remained broadly in the same line with the same period last year, demand across categories, particularly large appliances, was supported by the GST deduction and further aided by festival-led consumption. Importantly, on festival-to-festive comparison, we delivered a robust growth of approximately 25%, indicating a strong underlying demand.
At the same time, we saw operating leverage play out, resulting in an improvement in operating margins. Despite the continued additions of new stores, overall, the absence of a prolonged festive season, we delivered a steady growth performance, with the GST cut providing an additional tailwind to consumption trends. During quarter three FY 2026, we added 4 new stores: 2 in NCR region and 2 in Andhra Pradesh. I would like to highlight that our Andhra Pradesh market has seen a strong recovery, delivering approximately 14% growth in quarter three, and we continue to grow our market share. Over the last two years, we have added nearly 100 stores, which now accounts for approximately 50% of our total store portfolio. As a result, a significant portion of our network is relatively young and still in the early stages of maturing, yet to reach optimal throughput.
Constant fixed costs such as manpower, marketing, and promotional spends are not yet fully absorbed, while finance costs and depreciation remain elevated, partly due to Ind AS 116 adjustment. This has had a short-term impact on our overall profitability. As these stores continue to ramp up and move up the maturity curve, we expect operating leverages to play out, leading to a gradual improvement in profitability and ROCE as they mature. To give a clear perspective on our store portfolio for nine months FY 2026, we operate 219 stores, out of which 83 stores are over four years old and 136 stores are less than four years old. In the first nine months of FY 2026, the matured store base generated product revenue of approximately INR 3,523 crores, while the newer stores contributed to around INR 1,528 crores.
From a profitability standpoint, the matured stores continue to demonstrate strong performance with an EBITDA margin of 7%, whereas the new stores are currently operating at an EBITDA margin of 3%. I would like to highlight our geographical performance. We witnessed a broad-based recovery in demand across our key clusters during this quarter. In quarter three FY 2026, our core market of Hyderabad delivered a year-on-year revenue growth of 6.4% with SSG of 3.3%, supported by the revival of real estate projects across Hyderabad, which had impacted performance in FY 2025. In the Telangana and AP market, revenue grew by 2%. Andhra Pradesh reported a strong performance with a revenue growth of 18.2% and an SSG of 4.9%. Lastly, our NCR cluster continued to scale up well, recording a revenue growth of 30% along with an SSG of 7.1%.
Turning to cluster-wise profitability, we continue to maintain a healthy EBITDA margin of around 6% in our southern cluster, despite 70% of our new stores being added across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the past two years. We are also pleased to share that our NCR operations remain EBITDA positive on a nine-month basis, delivering an EBITDA margin of around 0.5%, translating to around INR 2 crore. This performance would have been stronger for the nine months ended than if we had experienced a normal summer season up north. We expect margins in the region to improve further as we continue to enhance store-level throughput, which will drive better absorption of fixed costs such as manpower, marketing, rentals. Moving to category-specific performance, in terms of contribution, large appliances accounted for around 42% revenue in quarter three FY 2026 and around 43% in the nine months FY 2026.
A positive trend we are observing at the store level following the GST deduction is a gradual shift in consumer preferences toward large televisions and high-value appliances such as front-loading washing machines and dishwashers. Notably, washing machines' demand had remained stagnant over the last four quarters, registered a growth of approximately 11% during the current quarter. We are also seeing an increased traction in newer categories such as dishwashers, air coolers, and other categories. This growing presence of premium products has helped us sustain our average selling price during quarter three FY 2026. Coming to the mobile categories, mobile contributed to around 44% of our total revenue in both quarter three FY 2026 and the nine months of FY 2026. The mobile phone segment recorded a growth of approximately 10% in quarter three FY 2026.
Looking ahead, we believe that the category is entering the next phase of demand driven by upcoming technologies, upgrades, and feature enhancements. Several OEMs are actively working on the next-generation AI-enabled devices, which we expect will further stimulate consumer interest and support growth in both ASPs and volumes. This positions us well to benefit as the replacement and upgrade cycle gains momentum. We believe the broader environment remains supportive. GST rates have come down, and the government also reduced income tax slabs previously, which is expected to boost disposable income. Together, these factors are likely to create a compounding effect on consumption and drive long-term structural demand for consumer durables. Several categories in our portfolio continue to remain unpenetrated, offering significant growth potential.
As our newly opened stores mature and reach steady-state performance, we expect margins to progressively normalize, setting a strong foundation for sustained and profitable growth in the years to come. With this, I request Mr. Premchand Devarakonda, our CFO, to update you on the financial performance. Thank you all.
Thank you, Karan sir. Good evening and warm welcome to all the participants. Now moving on to the financial performance of Q3 and nine months of FY 2026. First, I would like to start with Q3 FY 2026 performance. Our revenues for the quarter stood at INR 1,939.7 crores versus INR 1,805 crores in Q3 FY 2025, a growth of 8%. EBITDA for Q3 FY 2026 stood at INR 119 crores versus INR 102 crores in Q3 FY 2025, witnessing a growth of 17%. EBITDA margin for Q3 FY 2026 stood at 6.1% versus 5.6% of the last year. Pre-Ind AS EBITDA for Q3 FY 2026 stood at INR 82 crores with a margin of 4.2%. PAT, including exceptional items for Q3 FY 2026, stood at INR 30 crores. Same store sales growth for Q3 FY 2026 was 2.54%. Now moving on to nine months of FY 2026 financials.
Our revenues for nine months of FY 2026 stood at INR 5,270 crores versus INR 5,067.1 crores in nine months FY 2025, a growth of 4%. EBITDA for nine months FY 2026 stood at INR 311 crores. EBITDA margins for nine months FY 2026 stood at 5.9%. Pre-Ind AS EBITDA for nine months FY 2026 stood at INR 204 crores with a rate of 3.9%. PAT, including exceptional items for nine months FY 2026, stood at INR 67 crores. For nine months FY 2026, SSSG stood at 0.19%. ROCE and ROE on an annualized basis for nine months FY 2026 stood at 11% and 5.8%, respectively. The working capital days, as on 31st December 2025, stood at 60 days. Pre-Ind AS cash flows from operations, as on 31st December 2025 for the nine-month period, stood at INR 500 crores. With this, now I open the floor for questions. 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 will 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 evening, sir. So my first question is on SSSG growth in upcountry Telangana, wherein it appears to be a little on the weaker side. I think there's been a slight decline on an SSSG basis. And even from a slightly longer-term perspective, we are not really seeing that business scaling up, that part of the business scaling up very sharply. So what's the outlook in that region, and what do you attribute the SSSG decline to?
Hi. So if you actually look at the number, when we look at category-wise sales, or if you look at the overall number, firstly, the revenues are up but with a marginal 2% up, including the new 6-7 stores that we opened up compared to last year, quarter three. But if you look at the overall demand, there's a little slowdown. So I would not attribute or be at a spot where we want things are under control, we are not losing market share, how is the productivity personally going on. So if you look at the overall sentiment of the market, it's a little weaker compared to the other clusters that we are operating in today. So I would attribute that degrowth to that. But if you look at overall number, there was a good positive sign in January as well in that cluster.
This is predominantly the other categories. The cooling products that have not started yet at the full-fledged . But looking at the big days of January, looking at the festival day of Sankranti Pongal and the 26th of January, did really perform well there. So I think it is a matter of time. So we will definitely see a positive SSG in the quarter four there.
Perfect. My next question was on the demand trends that you are seeing in January pretty much across the country and how things are shaping up between north and south clusters in January.
Things look good for now. No complaints. I think we have finished the bad quarters that we had in the last financial year. I think we're only looking for the positive upside coming in the coming quarters, especially with the AC base being or the cooling product base being quite low in the last few quarters. I think the coming summer quarters are going to be good. No complaints of that. We're already ready for it. We started buying and started shelving our stores with the newer inventory for the new rating as well. I think we are quite optimistic on the upcoming season.
Perfect. That's helpful, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time. To ask a question, please press star and one now. The next question is from the line of Siddharth S. from ITI Money. Please go ahead. Siddharth, you can go ahead.
Hello, team. Thanks a lot for the opportunity here. So I would just like to understand that this could be in previous 2-3 quarters. And I'm just taking you through the previous 2-3 quarters back. So it was said that since there was a lot of credit scrutiny going around, there was a lot of issues or the sanctions of the credits that were issued as a proportion of 100 was going lower because banks were rejecting a lot of, what do you say, the EMI eligibilities of customers due to strict underwriting policies. Just want to understand how is the outlook on that or how is it going on right now because most of the credits, most of the sales that's being done or sanctioned by you is going to be credit sales, credit sales only. And this could be an important factor impacting the sale.
So I just want to understand that note. And how would that, since you guys have been in a very good spree of expansions and there has been a lot of expansion that's been going on, how would you give us an outlook in terms of how the future expansions is going to be and when are these stores, respectively, going to contribute to the revenues, respectively, as majority of the stores right now are non-maturity stores? So yeah.
Hi. To answer your first question, usually every year after the two big seasons of festival and the summer season, we would see a little slowdown in approval rate from the NBFCs. That is a normal trend in the industry. So definitely after Diwali, we did see that trend going a little slower. But then usually once the Christmas days always start off well. And now they already would get ready with the upcoming summer season. So that is a trend that we see always where the approval rates go a little lower, not too low. But I think going back again to the summer upcoming season, we will have higher approval rates coming back through all the NBFCs. So that is how it works for them.
For your second question on future expansion, currently, we are looking at opening the set number of stores in NCR, AP and Telangana that are lined up already in the pipeline yet to open up. By 31st March or maximum second week of April, we'll have additions of new stores in this geography which were already under construction or already for which we've signed up. As we stick to our plan of further expansion into a new territory, that probably after the quarter one is when we would venture out into the new geography that we are currently looking into. Could be Odisha, could be Western UP, and some of the newer markets that are exploding right now.
Between me and the teams, we are looking at a further newer cluster that we will definitely add up in probably the quarter two or the quarter three of FY 2027.
Okay. Okay. Got it. So I did get some clarity on this. I just have two follow-up questions on the same line. So the next thing would be a majority of your sales mix makes up it is made up of white goods and electronics. So the thing is that when we look at AC as a good in terms of the sales, there are some reports or there are some studies suggesting that this summer is not as hot as it is expected to be in the previous years going ahead. How would you think that would impact the AC sales of the company in general, or what is your outlook as an opinion of yours or something? So that's one question from my end.
The next thing is that there is a lot of talks going around in terms of the increase in RAM prices which is going to translate into a higher, say, final sale price of the mobiles and other electronics. Since electronics also makes up a huge mix of your books at the moment, sales books at the moment, what do you think is going to be the impact in general that can be attributed to the price increase in the electronics and the slower-than-expected summer this quarter, which will essentially how can it have an impact on the AC sales as well?
Okay. So I wish what you said is not true, that the summer sales are not going to be good. Let's not hope for that. But what we experienced last year in the quarter one or, say, mid of March, we got the flavor of the weather not supporting us for the season. But that being a low point, I would still put in the base at that level and expect at least some growth from that number from there on. I think if that is also delivered at a higher number from the last year's base, I think we're sorted. We don't need to look at a 70%-80% kind of a jump, right? So we are still optimistic on the category because the penetration is still very low. The new rating has also come in. We don't see a drastic increase in pricing from the AC brands.
It is a nominal price increase. That too would get mitigated with the EMI offers and the cashbacks that the brands provide during the summer period. I think we're looking at an optimistic sale, and we are ready to go ahead for the season. We've aligned our inventory accordingly so that we are not stuck.
Sorry to interrupt. Just to start with that, so you're also positive in terms of how the underwriting is going to be from the NBFCs and banks, right, coming up on the quarters as well?
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So the NBFCs are also ready. So currently, all the NBFCs that we work with, IDFC, Bajaj Finserv, HDB, so all are lined up and geared up for the season as well. So they're also looking forward because cooling products as a whole contributes to a bigger book size for them as well.
Yeah. Yeah. Correct. So you expect them to have some softer underwriting policies in general, unlike how it was multiple quarters back?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. Got it. So I did get some so in general, you're also positive on how the AC sales is going to roll out in general, considering the fact that we're not going to hopefully not see a worse season in terms of the slowdown in the AC segment?
Correct. Correct. Correct. Because in January, the base is not high last year, but the January, we've also seen a positive uptrend in that category. But last year, if I actually attribute the AC sale in quarter four, it was majorly February and a couple of weeks in the March month that did well. But then after that, after March 20th, we definitely saw a downfall up till May. So usually, that is the peak season for us for AC sell-out, AC and cooling product sell-out. But hopefully, this year, we though might have a longer winter in place, but so we expect a longer summer going forward, or at least an unsaturated summer with no rains in between.
Got it. Got it. Got it. Nick, just to follow up, as I already, I'd just like to reiterate on the question of how do you feel the RAM prices, which as an expectation, they're saying the mobile and the electronic price in general is expected to go by 8%-10%. And there's a lot of proxy companies and the companies which is directly that can be impacted where the sales is expected to see some slowdown. How do you view that, and what is your outlook in general of how we are going to navigate or how the numbers are going to play out for the electronic segment in general?
So right now, we don't see a drastic change in the pricing from any OEMs right now. It could be a minuscule change going forward. But as I told you earlier, EMI schemes are available up to 24 months. Brands are forwarding that. There are cashback offers. There are one EMI off, two EMI off coming in from the OEMs as well. So eventually, the price is going to be in line with what it is currently operating at. So there would be a major jump there as well because a lot of these OEMs do absorb the cost as well. So not necessary that they always keep on increasing the price to the end consumer.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Understood. So in general, it is also expected to have a good view. And just to catch you on the last point there, you're also saying that apart from the soft underwriting, there is also a lot of customer-friendly policies that's going to come up, like cashback and a lot of offers in general to wise customers.
Absolutely. So ultimately, there is a new technology change. For example, if it is like a 4K technology moving toward 8K or something better in any phone devices with the AI coming in. So if there is a new add-on on a technology, definitely the price goes up. But apart from that, there is no price increase for like-for-like product.
Yeah. Yeah. No. I just asked it on the front of the memory and RAM trend, which is the existing same technology of electronics, just upgrading due to the RAM price hike in general, which was observed and which is a hot talk that's going around in market now. So yeah, I let get in.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Definitely. Definitely.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Understood. As a last question, I'd like to know which are the major NBFCs partners or major bank partners that you guys have tied up with. And in terms of who basically, let's take account of funded, and if there is going to be credit sales of you guys in general, which NBFC or banks takes up the major portion of these customers of yours who are available for the EMI sales in general? As a mix, I'd like to understand that for some better clarity on that.
So the NBFCs that are prevalent in our industry in consumer durables are Bajaj Finserv, they're the biggest players. So our share or any retailer share is in line with what they are as market leaders. Number 1. Number 2 would be IDFC. Then would be HDB, ICICI, and.
TVS Finance.
TVS Finance, especially for mobile phones in a few of the markets. So IDFC is not present in a lot of our country stores, for example. So then where it is, Bajaj and HDB, TVS, so it all depends on the market reach of these NBFCs would have. But predominantly, it's the four, five companies that are prevalent in the market across all retailers.
Okay. Okay. Understood. Can you just take me through who that HDB is? I'm unaware of all the other parties out there.
Subsidiary of HDFC Bank. HDB is a subsidiary of HDFC Bank.
Oh. Okay. Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. Sure. Sure. Okay. So yeah. So thanks a lot for the clarity, Karan, from your end. And I'm looking forward for the upcoming I mean, business to go well. And yeah, hopefully, it is expected to do so. Thank you.
Thank you. Just pray for the summer to go well.
Sure. Sure. Definitely.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Awais Bakshi from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Am I audible?
Yes, please.
Sir, just first question on the pricing side. You mentioned that the new BEE pricing are in. So what's the differential, sir, right now versus the earlier SKUs on your team?
I think it's not much. It is like 1%-2% ±. They're not more than that.
Okay. So just one follow-up here. Given that the price differential is not much versus others, wouldn't it somewhere affect the sale of existing non-BEE products in our portfolio? What's your sense on that?
So if the difference on pricing is not much, but the rating and so if you're comparing it, the lineup right now is still in the transition of having a complete range of the new BEE rating on the storefront because we're just hardly a month in because the production plus the stock are not completely available across all brands. And then we also are left with some older inventory, though we started buying the newer ones now. But we are left with some older inventories also. So by, say, and the summer season is not picked up yet. So if I look at second week of March, that is when we'll have a complete transition of the newer models on the storefront. So by then, it will be hardly left with some 10,000-20,000 units that will sell through the summer period after that.
Okay. Sir, just one question here. On the overall inventory, what would be the AC inventory right now in our system?
Right now, AC, we've already picked up for the season, right? So we are already at the same current levels of usually what we would have for our beginning of summer season. So it's a little upwards of 300,000 units. No, no. Sorry.
In terms of.
One second. No, no. One second. One second. Yeah. So in terms of units, we're around 250,000 units ready for the summer season.
250,000 units. Got it. And this will be more or less the older non-BEE norms, right?
Sorry. Sorry. I didn't get your question.
These 250,000 units, this will not be the new BEE norm ones, right? This will be the.
No, no. Almost 50% of this inventory is the newer rating ones.
Okay. Okay. Understood. And sir, just one more question. In terms of discounting intensity this quarter, what was the status coming in from, say, the September quarter to December? Any changes there?
Sorry. I didn't hear you. Can you repeat your question, please?
Sure. In terms of discounting intensity, September, we had a higher instance of discounting, right, given the GST, etc. So is that continued in December, or that intensity has cooled off?
No. No. No. So that was up till Diwali would end up probably the first week of October. That's when Diwali ended up. And then after that, we did see an increase in pricing again, or the discounting was reduced to the minimum during that period again.
Understood, sir. Those were the questions from my end. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, Karan. Thanks for the opportunity. Karan, Hyderabad cluster has seen a good pickup over the last couple of quarters. So wanted to check what is the confidence on sustainability of this growth for this cluster. You did mention that some of the real estate projects are picking up, but if you could give some confidence on the sustainability of this trend.
Hi. So if you look at definitely, there's no store addition in this cluster, Martin. We already captured the market here. The market would organically grow from here on. But the newer product categories like dishwashers, audio has picked up here. Accessories are doing really well. The attachment has definitely gone up, especially in mobile phones and televisions. And post the cutdown on GST, we've definitely seen an uptrend on the sell-out on televisions. So looking at that number, I think going forward, but not a big jump from here on, I think it will be in line with what the numbers are for this cluster. The SSG would remain under 3%-4% kind of a number.
So I think on such a big base, that kind of an SSG without new store opening, all mature stores, I think it is a good sign that it is sustainable for the coming quarters as well.
Fair enough. Fair enough. And from a daily perspective, sir, the growth is a tad lower, right, 7%-8% SSG, while this cluster particularly should see very high SSG, right, just because the majority of stores are relatively lower. What's your expectation from this cluster maybe going into FY 2027? What is the kind of growth minimum we should see in this cluster?
So if you actually see Delhi would also have an extended cooling product sale, which we didn't see this year at the level that we would see in the previous year. We would attribute a little SSG growth slowdown to that as well. But overall, if you see our contribution on the premium is definitely increasing there. The ASPs are going up. The ticket sizes are going up Y on Y. And especially for the new stores that we opened up are in the major clusters like Janakpuri, Pitampura, and Golf Course Road. So I think even Faridabad, we opened a store recently. So the new stores that are there actually are more prevalent and more bigger clusters.
So the SSG that you'd see a drop in, especially for older markets like Daryaganj, Karol Bagh, or in Punjabi Bagh, where the market size has not increased much because there's no new construction in that area. So the market size remains muted there, the growth in the market size. So overall, I think if you look at the number, it is up by 30%. But I think in the coming quarters, you'll definitely see a higher growth coming in from this region because on a daily level, when we look at the sales, say, January also did very well for us in that cluster, or every weekend that we look at the sales from every productive store, it's growing year-over-year. So we are quite impressed on the growth coming in. But definitely, Delhi would need another year or so to stabilize further.
At the same time, a good summer season would boost the sales from there on because it would create a huge customer base for us during the summer period as well.
Just to better understand, are you indicating that maybe FY 2027 would also be like a break-even kind of a year for Delhi market, or we will see some kind of a profitability in the market?
No, definitely. We will definitely see a profitable FY 2027 in Delhi. But what I was suggesting was that if we have a great summer in that region, then you will see a better profitable margin for that cluster.
Fair enough. Fair enough. And sir, lastly, I noticed that the inventory levels are about 15 days higher versus last year. You did mention that you're stocked up for the upcoming season, but that would be the case last year as well, right? So I wanted to check as in because in the channel also, every player would be having higher inventory this time around. So any opinion in terms of, say, competitive intensity from sale of these cooling products in the upcoming season, can that impact our margins to some extent?
So the margins, just to answer your first question, yes, you would definitely see an increase in number of days of inventory. But that is in line with what we had planned, especially with the television stocks because we picked up a lot of television stocks post Diwali as well because the sell-out was good. And we were seeing, of course, a drop in GST. There was a shortage on the stocks. So we had to pick up a little more stocks there. And definitely, yes, we were sitting on a higher inventory of air conditioners. But compared to that particular year, quarter in FY 2025, we would not see the inventory of ACs at that level. So ACs of inventory were lower, but the purchase would start off in January or so.
So that is why you would see that number coming in quarter four rather than quarter one for cooling products. So this would include a little bit of ACs that were still stuck from the summer of FY 2025, quarter one.
Now, anything on the competitive intensity, sir, do you foresee there may be some extra discounts that we may have to offer to liquidate?
Really, not really. So that is in line. So that is in line. So whatever, wherever it is needed to discount, especially to liquidate the stocks of ACs, whatever support we got additionally from the brands is what we've passed on. So we didn't go ahead and discount a lot from our end, 1% here or there in terms of gross margin for that product category. But everything else remains intact.
Fair enough. So just to summarize, so FY 2027, ideally, if summer goes well, should see return of double-digit growth in the business, right?
Hopefully. Hopefully.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankit Kedia from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Karan, you mentioned that festive saw 25% growth, but ex-festive, the growth would have been pretty much flat or low single digit. So what happened in ex-festive days that the growth was so dismal, while in festive, you saw 25% growth if I add quarter two, quarter three together?
So, Ankit, firstly, there was 9-10 days of split between quarter two and quarter three in terms of the festival sale. Dussehra, Navratri, and all went up to the quarter two, whereas the beginning of Dussehra till Diwali was in quarter three. And by the first week of November, we were done with the season. So post that, November definitely saw a huge drop, which we usually see. So it was no surprise to us. But the recovery, which was, say, 2 weeks or 3 weeks down of slowdown of sale, went up to almost second week of December. That's when we started seeing an uptrend coming back again. And then the Christmas and New Year sales were really fantastic. So that is what you would see usually as a trend.
There were no external factors for us to push the sales back, especially after the festival period when they grew at 25%. The offers were really great. They were really on the televisions and appliances as a category. There were huge discounts, cashbacks, freebies, offers from the manufacturers, which ended up by the first week of November, right? Definitely, you would see a lot of pre-booked sale also getting booked during that period for the offers that were on the floor from the manufacturers. These are normal trends. But I think the recovery was a week later, 10 days later in November-December transition. And then picked up after second week of December. That's when we saw the uptrend in all categories pushing up to the first week of January.
Karan, but even quarter two, quarter three together, it's just 12% growth, right? And if festival is 25% growth, that too because of the GST push which came in. And going forward, if summer is just normal and not very harsh, do you think double-digit growth rates can come back?
So if you look at the trend that is going on right now, there is nothing that is going to stop us from that or the market trends that we would have seen for quarter one, quarter two, quarter three, FY 2025 versus what we anticipate going forward is quite positive than what has happened in the past. And if I look at the base on the cooling product categories, February and March last year was a very normal sale that I would look at. That is very organic that we would do rather than not attributing it to a double digit or a higher number of growth. Because if I break up and give you that number, January, last year, it was INR 38 crores. February was INR 104 crores. March was INR 168 crores.
So it was around INR 340-INR 350 crore in quarter four, which we see that that's going to definitely grow in the quarter four this year. Going forward, April was really bad again, and there was no sale practically in May and June again in quarter one last year. So I think we're quite positive. Same thing with refrigerators or air coolers. They were practically next to zero in terms of what we would deliver during that period. So we're quite optimistic on how the season's going to pan out. But this time, we're a little cautious on inventory pile-up so that even if the season goes at a double-digit growth, we still don't need to suffice our need for high inventory risk that we had throughout the FY 2025 year.
My second question is on the Delhi market. It's been three years for the first six stores which we opened, right? Or we will complete three years now. When do you think would be the right trajectory for us to achieve company-level margins from a Delhi market perspective? I'm not looking at the full break-even because obviously, you're continuing to expand stores in the region. But at least the earlier stores which we have opened, the first 10, 12 stores, when do you think they can break-even?
So if I look at those numbers, they're quite optimistic and quite positive on the throughput that you would expect from them. So I think if we do this same question at the end of quarter one, I think we'll have a better answer for this because we'll have a good summer and hoping that Delhi is going to have a good summer this year. Then we'll understand how the contribution of cooling products in Delhi as a market can change the whole game compared to what happens in the southern market. So the throughput is going to be sufficing the need for a few quarters there. So that is how it's going to be. And hopefully, by quarter two, FY 2027, we should see that numbers going up in terms of profitability from that region.
So from a store economics perspective, earlier, you had clearly mentioned that it takes three years for the store to break-even, right? And more than that, actually, to achieve company-level margins. Now, do you think as a unit economics, given the competitive intensity and the season change, which is more frequent now and dependence on season change is much higher, do you think that unit economics doesn't hold true today for the new stores opening, or you'll still stick your neck out and say, "No, in three years, for the new stores, we can break-even" or achieve company-level margins?
We stick to the same concept and the same numbers. They're still prevalent if you look at the numbers. If I break down Delhi in terms of the first 6-8 stores that we opened up in August 2022, they are in line with the same numbers. But then the attribution majorly in Delhi as a region, if you look at, comes at the depreciation and interest level because the cost is a little higher because we did a lot of capital investment in buying out properties there. But if I look at the store level EBITDA or if I look at the store level performance for these stores, the store economics for this set of 8 stores in fact, the other ones that we opened up also are showing up results much sooner than expected. So the burn is much lesser.
The marketing cost is all divided, absorbed between all the stores. So if I look at the revenue going up there, it is a matter of the delta coming through, which definitely you will see not only for the set of eight stores which are three years old but even for the newer ones that we recently opened up in the coming quarters.
Sure. Karan, I don't know if you answered this question on store opening. I joined late. I just wanted to know, for this year and for next year, what is the store opening guidance we are giving?
So this quarter, we've ended up opening another 4 more stores. So the store count, definitely from 219, will, if I finish the making of the stores, which summer is usually when we, if you remember, every 31st or 30th of March, every year, we add up at least 7-8 stores. So that is in line. So in case we finish making the stores both up north and down south, we will add up another 5-6 stores by the end of March. That is the plan, probably if not in first week of April. Uthna delay [Foreign language] . But once the quarter ends, the first quarter ends in FY 2027, that's when we plan to venture out to a newer geography. Either it could be Odisha, could be Western UP. And we are evaluating a couple of more areas there up north also.
So if things work out, after the good summer season, we'll definitely venture out to a newer geography as well.
This year, the store opening is lower than last year on gross basis also, if not net. Is this a conscious call because of summer being poorer this year or?
Absolutely. So we have to make sure that the store count that were added last year, we were seeing no, at the same time, see, Delhi was a newer market for us. So if you look at Delhi [Foreign language] main stores add [Foreign language] , tier three, four towns add [Foreign language] , AP Telangana, where we were not present. Currently, we are all present in the markets that we look at. So organically, if you look at, there are one, two markets left in AP and Telangana where we are adding up stores. And it's not just to increase the store per se, this number, but we have to evaluate the markets, make sure the markets are big enough. In fact, after a very long time, Hyderabad might see another two or three stores coming up in the next couple of quarters.
We are looking at areas in the peripheries of Hyderabad to add up new stores because that is where the market would demand them. Right now, if you look at the stores which are in pipeline, there will be a similar number of stores. A lot of these stores, especially the stores in Delhi, took a longer time to finish because of the GRAP again there, which happens every year. We got delayed with those stores. If you see Faridabad, second store, and Budh Vihar is what we were able to end up opening up. If I look at the pipeline there, again, we have 6-7 stores in the pipeline in Delhi which are getting ready, which will open up in the coming time.
So the overall expansion plan that we had is in line with around, say, 20-odd stores that we opened up this year. Another 10 probably will add up in the next couple of months. So I think. [Foreign language] delay [Foreign language] But [Foreign language], definitely, we were cautious after the bad summer that went through. We were cautious not to otherwise, by now, we would have been into a newer geography. And automatically, you've seen a much higher addition of store count with a new geography as well.
If the summer is poor this year, the new geography can get delayed further?
No, no, no. Irrespective of how the summer pans out, we are ready to expand further.
Sure. Because last year, you delayed. So I'm just thinking that this year, again, could you delay if the summer is bad?
No, no. Irrespective of how the summer pans out, we are ready for it. We hope that all of you also pray that the summer goes well because an optimistic mindset would definitely change the weather for us.
From Odisha or Western UP, between the two clusters which you would plan to add, where do you think is the bigger opportunity, and where is the less competition for you?
Sure, sir. Apart from this, we are definitely evaluating a lot of other regions in and around our southern markets as well as some western and eastern markets as well. So because we have time on hand, we've got one more quarter to go. So because Western UP will be more organic because we already are present in Noida, Greater Noida. From there, expanding into Western UP is much easier. But both Odisha and Western UP will not be more than a 10-store count that will increase our footprint in the geography. So apart from that, because we'll be ready to expand further by the quarter three next year, so we wanted to make sure that we at least enter one more new geography on a newer cluster altogether.
Obviously, there will not be ownership model like we went in Delhi, right? Because I don't think they would have such flagship locations you would need to invest on land.
Exactly, exactly. And most of the markets would have lower rentals, longer leases available unless there is an opportunity for us. But the majority of them are going to be in fact, in Delhi as well also, if you see now, the peripheries, Budh Vihar, we opened Faridabad, one more store, all around rental only that we are planning to open. Apart from the stores that we already procured, which are under construction, like Saket is under construction, two stores in Golf Course and two stores in Gurgaon are under construction. So those stores will take time because we are constructing it from the scratch. We bought the land out. Apart from that, there's no new further acquisition up north as well.
My last question, if I may. On the average ASP, ticket size, do you think the price cuts taken or the discounting given is impacting SSSG growth overall, or do you think volumes today are good enough for us to sustain the drop or the promotions which are being offered by the brands?
Definitely, the volumes are good enough. That's it. So more than the value trend, we definitely see a very constant volume growth as well across all categories. So that is an upside, right? But then as a technology seller, how do you upscale your product value as well in case the values remain constant or the values keep degrowing? That's what we always keep discussing, that we push customers to more premium, especially after post-GST drop in the televisions. In tier 3, 4 town cities, we've seen the penetration of 75 inches and above also growing drastically, front loading growing. Front loading had nothing to do with washing machine. Also, I've seen a drastic change from semi-automatic towards front loading. Dishwashers have become prominent. Dishwashers are, though the category is small.
But since the drop in GST, month-on-month, we've seen 100% growth in that category, though the base was very small. But overall, we see a good volume demand setting up across all categories. So that is a good positive.
Sure, Karan. Thank you so much. I'll come back in the queue.
Thank you.
Advika. Advika, come here.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are requested to limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Nimish Shah from Fortune Finance. Please go ahead.
Hi. This is Nimish Shah here. I had a question which doesn't relate so much to the operations, but just a very quick one. About 18 months back, or 16 or 18 months back, you had offloaded the family had offloaded equity at around INR 220-INR 230 to SBI and Mirae or some such fund. The stock price has not reached that level then for a variety of reasons, and we won't go into that. At a price of INR 100, don't you think you all should be doing some form of creeping acquisition, at least for tokenism or for confidence-building measures for shareholders who are stuck on?
Nimish Shah, good evening. I think you have raised the point where we not only today but every month, every investor meet, every quarter, CFO, me, the team, dad, everybody keeps discussing it. I mean, I don't know what is right or what is wrong because we get a mixed review on this of giving news out in the market that we would be picking up something or continue the same way. It is always a mixed review that we've got. Just to answer your question personally, I would say 65% of the company is still owned by us. That itself is a good.
No, no. I appreciate 65%. No, no. No, no. No, no. I understand. Sorry for butting in, but I understand where you're coming from. I know 65% is a very, very robust and a very, very healthy equity stake. So your skin is completely in the game. I'm not taking away anything from that. My only point is.
If you guarantee me that if I put some money on the table tomorrow, if it's going to help somebody or give out a positive.
Yeah, yeah. 101%, 101% at 225. I mean.
There are a lot of other people when I discuss that. I mean, like.
Tell me one thing.
I didn't crack on that.
No, no, no, no. Karan, let's cut to the chase. Tell me one thing. How will it harm anybody if you buy your own shares, maybe 200,000 shares or 300,000 shares at INR 100? It just gives me confidence that the promoter I bought at INR 225, okay, the price has not reached that level. Today, the promoter sold at INR 225. Today, the price is INR 100. The promoter feels that if promoter is buying at INR 100, so obviously, he sees some value at INR 100, it just inspires me to buy more at INR 100. That's about it.
No, I do agree. No, I agree.
This cannot harm. We can ask 100 analysts. I've been in this business since 40 years in investment banking at Fortune. I see no reason how it can.
If you let me complete, I'll answer your question. I would love to complete.
Please, please, please, please. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Please go ahead. All yours, all yours.
But if you let me answer.
No, no, no, no. All yours. Yeah, please.
I think after that, see, it is a number that we also have lost. So whenever we, it's been four quarters since the time we have discussed this with multiple investors. So usually, it is like the promoters, that's what I also had an intent of picking up something, but then always a confusion. The statement that I got, that, sir, it would create a confusion out in the market. But as you said correctly, if you feel that, like you, a lot of other people have said yes, but a lot of other ones that I spoke to also said no. So I always had a mixed review of whether to go ahead with that or not. See, because the money that we've raised, it's still lying with us.
It's not that I have invested in 10 other companies where I have lost money or doing something else or I'm into real estate. This is the only business that we do. So the money is lying with us. I can definitely pick up a stake back to give the confidence to the market. And if time permits, I will definitely take in once we finish a couple of more investor rounds, investor meetings in the coming months, I would definitely take a call. And much sooner than that, probably before the end of quarter one result, we would definitely have a positive news on this as well.
Yeah. It's just tokenism. It's a confidence-building measure.
See, I get your point. I get your point. I get your point.
Yeah. See, you've been told.
It's strictly nothing to do with, so that's why, see. It is personal to me, but it has nothing to do with what signals the market takes, if positive or negative. It is just a token of appreciation to the market that we are still there with you, and we are going to turn things around, definitely work harder from where we are today, and give a positive sign to the market.
Actually, something the owners of this restaurant also eat here. It just helps us that, okay, promoter [Foreign language] promote[Foreign language] ? It's just about that. That's nothing else. It won't move the needle if you buy 4-5 lakh shares. That's it.
Definitely, definitely. Point taken on that.
All the best in your endeavors.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
I would like to thank you all for joining the call. I hope that we were able to answer all your questions. For any further queries, you may get in touch with us or our SGA team. We will be happy to address all your queries. Thank you once again.
On behalf of Electronics Mart India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.