Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4 and FY 2026 earnings conference call for Electronics Mart India Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen- only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Please note that this conference is being recorded. This conference 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 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 very much. Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to everybody present on the call. Along with me, I have Mr. Premchand Devarakonda, our Chief Financial Officer and SGA, our Investor Relationship Advisors. We have uploaded our results and investor presentation for the quarter and financial year ending 31st March 2026 on the Stock Exchanges and the company's website. I hope everyone had an opportunity to go through the same. The quarter got off at a healthy start, supported by a summer season that outperformed. While March witnessed some temperature volatility and sporadic rainfall, the impact was well offset by a strong festive season across the south region. Our sales mix remained broadly in the line with the same period last year, and demand was robust across categories and each segment delivering double-digit growth. Large appliances, in particular, benefited from the GST reduction and festival consumption tailwinds.
We also saw meaningful operating leverage coming through, resulting in an improvement in our operating margins, even as we continue to add new stores to our network. On the store expansion front, during the quarter four of FY 2026, we added four new set of stores, one each in NCR region, Telangana, and two in Andhra Pradesh. I'm also pleased to share that during this quarter, both our South and North regions delivered double-digit growth in both revenue and same store sales growth. To provide a clear picture of our store portfolio, we currently operate 223 stores, of which 83 are over four years old and 140 are less than four years old. From a profitability standpoint, mature stores continue to demonstrate strong performance with an EBITDA margin of approximately 7.3%, while newer stores are currently operating at 3.1%, consistent with their stage of ramp-up.
We expect many of these stores to mature over the next couple of years and start delivering better margins. EBITDA margins for quarter four FY 2026 stood at 6.7% and 6.1% for FY 2026. On cluster-level profitability, we continue to maintain a healthy EBITDA margin of 6.5% in our South cluster, which is good, especially given that the majority of our new store additions over the past two years have been concentrated in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Importantly, despite the entry of new players into these markets, we have been able to sustain our market share. On NCR, I am pleased to share that our operations there are now EBITDA positive on a full-year basis. As store-level throughput improves, we expect better absorption of fixed costs, which should drive further margin improvement in the region over the coming quarters. Moving to category performance.
In large appliances, the positive momentum we have been observing at the store level, driven by GST reduction, festive demand, and new product launches has continued. Washing machines are reporting strong double-digit growth in quarter four FY 2026, which is particularly encouraging given that the category typically sees stronger traction during the monsoon season. The growth seen over the last quarters is therefore ahead of season norms. Panel continues their double-digit growth trajectory at 13%, sustained by the tailwind from GST reduction. Refrigerators have maintained stable with steady demand holding up even in the face of recent price increase. We are also seeing healthy traction building up in the newer and the emerging categories such as induction cooktops, dishwashers, and range coolers. Coming to mobile phones, the segment recorded a strong growth of 20% in quarter four FY 2026, supported by major new launches in January and March.
Looking ahead, we believe that the mobile category is entering the next phase of its demand cycle, driven by upcoming technology upgrades and the growing integration of AI capabilities into devices. Several OEMs are actively developing next generation AI-enabled smartphones, which we expect will stimulate consumer interest and support growth in both average selling price and volumes. On inventory, our days outstanding as of 31st March 2026 stood at 73 days. We have managed inventory efficiently throughout the year, maintaining a well-calibrated mix of carry-forward and of new AC models, ensuring we were well-positioned heading into the summer season. Coming to FY 2027, our priorities are clear. We will continue to optimize our supply chain and inventory management with a sharp focus on cash flow generation and working capital efficiency.
We will deepen our presence in existing clusters while remaining selective about new geographies, entering only where the combination of consumer demand and unit economic needs are standards. Above all, we will continue to invest in customer experience because that is what we have defined EMI's reputation over decades. It will remain the foundation of everything we're doing going forward. With this, I request Mr. Premchand Devarakonda, our CFO, to update you on the financial performance. Thank you all.
Thank you, Karan, sir. Good afternoon and warm welcome to all the participants. I would like to start with Q4 FY 2026 performance. Our revenues for the quarter stood at INR 1,913 crore versus INR 1,664 crore in Q4 FY 2025, a growth of 15%. EBITDA for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 129 crore versus INR 107 crore in Q4 FY 2025, witnessing a growth of 20%. EBITDA margin for Q4 FY 2026 stood at 6.7% versus 5.6% of the previous year's fourth quarter. Pre-Ind AS EBITDA for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 91 crore with a margin of 4.7%. Tax for Q4 FY 2026 stood at INR 40 crore, showing a growth of approximately 49%. SSSG for Q4 FY 2026 has been 12.2%. Moving on to FY 2026 financials. Our revenues for FY 2026 stood at INR 7,183 crore versus INR 6,731 crore in FY 2025, a growth of 7%.
EBITDA for FY 2026 stood at INR 438 crore. EBITDA margin for FY 2026 stood at 6.1%. Tax for FY 2026 stood at INR 107 crore. FY 2026 SSG stood at 5.3%. Pre-Ind AS cash flow from operations for the year stood at INR 299 crore. With this, we can open the floor for question- and- answers. 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 please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question is from the line of Manoj Gori with Equirus Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. My first question is, if I look at the overall numbers for Q4, one thing what actually was notable was that Hyderabad SSG was into double digits, and this has been after a very long time that we are sorry, we are seeing strong SSG into Hyderabad market. Probably based on our channel checks, even Q1 seems to be extremely on a stronger note. How should we read this from a Hyderabad market for FY 2027? That's my first question. I will come to the second question. Yeah.
Good afternoon, Manoj ji. As you correctly said, we also have seen a good SSG coming too in Hyderabad in the last quarter as well. Even this quarter, the beginning has been really good. What I would attribute this majority of the sales coming in from a lot of benefits that has come our way, especially post-September, when the GST was dropped, the tailwinds that led towards a lot of improvement in categories like televisions, washing machines, dishwashers, and in the last couple of months, we've seen refrigerators and cooling products also doing really good. Once you see a bump coming in from all categories, definitely you would see this kind of an SSG coming through. I would say that at the same time, there were a lot of big launches of mobile phones and Androids from Samsung, from Oppo, Vivo during the last quarter as well.
Mobile phones also performed really well. Cooling products are doing really good. [audio distortion] Double-digit SSG quarter four [Non-English content]. That is the number I would say that is being attributed to all the product categories because everybody here performed, not just one category.
Sure. Secondly, if I'm not wrong, when I look at the product mix, large appliances product mix has declined from 47% to 42% for fourth quarter. Despite that, the gross margins have remained very stable. That's one more thing which we believe seems to be on the positive side. How should we read here, and probably how should we look at the gross margins in the coming time? Obviously, you were talking about the margin improvement. If you can comment over there.
Manoj ji, again, there are smaller changes that we had made internally across categories, even mobile phones. We're trying to do a lot of attachment there with accessories to improve our margins in mobile phones as well. Apart from the cooling product categories, for which there was a delay in starting off during that quarter because last year January-February did really well, versus January-February were a little slow in cooling product categories this year. You would see a mix of the margin being almost similar or getting a little better, is because the throughput that came into other categories also was quite strong. We're trying to improve our margins wherever we can, even in mobile phone accessories, adding up of new categories like built-in appliances, audio, accessories. Definitely these product categories have a higher gross margin, and that is helping us improve.
I don't know how long will it take for us to shape up those other categories, but making sure that all categories that we are selling is selling with a certain productive gross margin improvement there as well.
Sure, sir. Last question, if I may. If I look at the cash flow from operations, I think this has been the record cash flow generation that we have done in our history. Probably how do we plan to utilize it? Do we expect to repay loans and probably help strengthen our balance sheet or probably any plans that you have for FY 2027 and 2028 for the utilization of this CFO? Yeah.
Manoj ji, the repayment of loans that we have taken against property that remains the same. There'll be no repayment of that. That is going to be more organic. Whenever there is every quarter or every month, whatever we pay for those loans, it's going to be a part of that. Our working capital requirement has definitely come down, so cash flows have already been thrown in to reduce the working capital. Now, by the end of this quarter, end of quarter one this year also, you'll see a much more higher improvement in our working capital cycles. The cash flows have all been deployed into the business, and whereas, the working capital requirement has definitely gone down to what it was during the same period last year.
Sure, sir. Thank you, sir, and wish you all the best.
Thank you, Manoj ji.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question may please press star and one on your touch-tone telephones. Our next question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal with Emkay Global. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, Karan. Congratulations on good numbers, thanks for the opportunity. Karan, summer season is expected to be strong this time around. Last year, we know that the base is quite comfortable. Can you guide us some bit on your growth expectation across regions for FY 2027? It will be helpful. Yeah.
Sir, if you ask me, it is too early to comment right now. See, Delhi, the summer started a little late. Delhi, it's been a little warmer from the last one week onwards, whereas, there was a little delay in summer starting off there. AP and Telangana definitely have outperformed on all our expectations. We still have 45 days left for this quarter to end, and that is 50% of the quarter time still left on board with us. We're still 10 days away in month of May and another 30 days in June. I would say a good positive outcome. What helps us during this quarter is that the cooling product categories because our margins are higher there. If that outperforms our expectation for the next 30-40 days, you would definitely see a great result coming through.
Understood. Delhi so far has been slow to start, but at least in the Southern part, if you could help us understand what has been the growth rate that can actually help us better sort of understand how competitive it is?
For Delhi, again, see, because of the base, we had a smaller base last year. That base[Non-English co Delhi. Again, the value is very small on the total number of the company, in terms of any category that we look at today. Delhi expectations are big. Delhi, they are looking at a good double-digit growth coming in for this quarter. Now commenting on our existing Hyderabad number, I think will be too early. South region has also outperformed than our expectation or than the market, and we've definitely gained our market share in AP as a cluster, Telangana up-country market, where the competition was very stiff. There again, we've gained a lot of market share. All clusters will give you a good number to go forward.
You'll see a good growth coming in from a lot of stores that we've opened, which are yet to get matured. There are a lot of reasons the summer supported us. The matured stores, the stores which are on the turn of getting matured, are turning around to our numbers that we are doing. We've improved a lot in mobile phones, especially our mobile phone penetration in AP, Telangana was a little poor. We've increased that also. Not only air conditioning, coolers or refrigerators, but other categories have also outperformed in those regions. You'll definitely see a good SSG coming through from the matured stores from those regions.
Fair enough. Karan, I also wanted to check on the extent of sourcing that is directly from brands and that via distributors currently. I wanted to understand, is there a scope to increase our sourcing directly from brands, which might help in margin improvement going ahead?
Actually, most of it is anyway done directly from their OEMs or the brands directly, apart from few categories like accessories or small appliances, where the values are very low. I think would not even contribute to more than INR 50 crore a year that we would buy from local distributors because of the inventory management of any other issue. Apart from that, most of the sourcing now is done directly only.
Okay. Is this applicable also to mobile phones category, or you are speaking more from a large appliance perspective?
I'm talking about the group, the whole group. If you're talking about an INR 7,000+ crore revenue, only INR 50 odd crore comes in from the distributors going forward, and that also is reducing day- by- day. It is made to do with the logistics for the smaller products like accessories, headphones, soundbars, where logistically it becomes a challenge to distribute to 200 stores. Those local distributors are used in those regions. Apart from that, the majority of the products going forward also will be through a direct billing. Anyway, if it's direct or indirect through big distributors, it doesn't change the margin anyways because the brands directly get involved in giving us the margin. We enjoy same cash discount, the same schemes that direct or indirect billing would enjoy because of our volumes. It doesn't matter much to us now.
Got it. Last question from my end, Karan. You mentioned in your remarks that there is a sizable difference between margins for mature stores and young stores. By when do you expect these younger stores also to reach that 7% EBITDA margin that we sort of see in the mature store portfolio?
Devanshu, for example, [Non-English content]. So th at 100 odd stores plus will always be in the cycle of getting matured at any time. At the same time, idea is that are the stores which are two years old, three years old, or 15 months old, are they maturing in terms of revenue and their EBITDA profitability? That is what we look at. Those stores are trending up really well.
Got it, Karan. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you. Participants to ask a question you may press star and one. Our next question is from the line of Yash Sonthalia with Edelweiss Public Alternates. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, team. Thanks for taking my question and congrats on good set of numbers. My first is a follow-up on the first question on gross profit margin. Basically, is there anything which is related to mobile phone price hikes and any one-off in the margins, or all this improvement after the mix change, also the margin remaining stable is structural for us and it will continue happening?
Yash, I hope it continues to be this way or get better than this, because that is what we're thriving right now for because, as I told you earlier, there is a deep hyper-physical of every category, every brand, every SKU, trying to maintain gross margin levels across all regions. You would see a better improvement coming through, especially in the Telangana or Andhra Pradesh market, where the competitive scenario was very different. Our stores were still getting matured. The blended gross margin, because of the competition, was a little poor there, which now we're improving there. You would see not only one reason for it, but multiple changes and a multiple in-depth push that we have across regions, across categories to better those margins up, not only at gross margin level, but even at the EBITDA level.
Got it. My second question is more specific to RAC category. There has been a lot of price hike recently. How has been the absorption in the market and how has it impacted the demand? Anything we are absorbing on our end, which will impact our gross margin going ahead because of this price hike?
Here's two things. Firstly, we had an advantage of carrying our previous inventory from last year, so that helped us in the initial beginning days of the summer starting of this year. We did do purchase right in January- February. We didn't pick up usually the way we would pick up, but anticipating a little demand, we already had picked up enough inventory at the older pricing. For us, we will not see a huge change in pricing during the whole summer period. We still have some inventory left that is sufficing our growth as well as our requirement. At the same time, probably going another 20 days or so, we would be then picking up a little more inventory if required. That would be at newer price, but not with a major price increase.
I'm talking about 2% or 3% maximum, not more than that. We don't absorb any hike in the price. It's all passed on to the customer. If there is an increase of INR 1,500 or INR 2,000, depending on the SKU, it is all increase in the selling price on the storefront. That is how it is divided. Either the manufacturer would take a hit or will have to increase the pricing on the storefront. Usually, as a retailer, with our margin, we can't afford taking that price increase cost.
Got it. One last question. There has been some huge price hike in mobile phones. Was it already in this quarter, or it will reflect in Q1 more?
It has been happening especially for the entry-level product categories in mobile phones. Unfortunately or fortunately, we are not that strong in that INR 15,000 to INR 18,000 kind of category. Our ACs are above INR 35,000- INR 40,000 for a mobile phone today.[Non-English content] iPhone price increase, Google price increase, Fold Flip price increase, S20 Ultra, [Non-English content], Vivo, Oppo, Realme, Xiaomi.
Got it. Important to me. Makes sense.
Correct.
Thank you.
Thank you, Yash.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Veenit with Investec. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, Karan. Hi, team. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
I have a couple of questions. How are we seeing the store addition for the next year or next couple of years, number one. Which are the geographies where we'll add these stores? A similar question to this is, are we looking at any new geographies to foray into? By when should we get into those newer geographies?
Okay. Veenit, we are currently concentrating on NCR, AP, and Telangana. Organically, we will be looking at anywhere between 12-15 stores in this region. We'll be opening up at least four to five stores which are getting ready in Delhi region and adding up another three or four new contracts in that region as well. Probably this year we might add seven to eight more stores in Delhi NCR region and a similar number down south. This would be organically happening as we talk. We'll be opening some stores this quarter in the coming times as well in this financial year. For the second question of yours, for the new geography, we've shortlisted few areas out of which very strongly we would be entering east, and starting our base with Kolkata in the eastern market organically.
Here we plan to open at least by, say, either the end of quarter two or the beginning of quarter three so that we can capture on the Durga Puja, Dussehra, Diwali period there. We would at least start off with five to seven stores in that region by the end of quarter two or the beginning of quarter three. Kolkata would be our new base for East, and from there on, we will start expanding organically in the Eastern part of the country.
Understood. More like 20 store additions is what we plan for this year.
More or less, yes.
Understood. Should we assume a normal sort of a CapEx which we do on a per store basis for all of these? Something in the region of INR 3 crores-INR 4 crores.
All that store sizes, everything, all that remains in line only. In the newer regions, we at least plan to open 10,000 sq ft stores. Some might be 7,000 sq ft, 6,000 sq ft, some might be 10,000 sq ft, 12,000 sq ft also. The average would be 8,000 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft is what we look at with the similar CapEx. The similar product mix. No changes there. The idea is to remain stick to our basics, what we are doing.
Understood. Just one more question from my side. Now, given the inflationary environment we are in, where essentially all the product categories are seeing significant price hikes, how does it work for us? Do we still work on a percentage margin basis? Given pricing is going up, we are okay lowering up percentages a bit and focus more on absolute EBITDA growth. How does our thought process work in that scenario?
Definitely percentage becomes the basis for our calculations, irrespective of the price that we operate at, right? If it is an INR 100,000 phone, I can't expect, Okay [Non-English content] . So, usually it is a math of the percentage that we look at. But what we look at is that because there are fixed expenses that we have to base, there are marketing expenses, manpower, a lot of other things are in terms of fixed to us. So, we at least make sure that when we look at profitability, we look at now in a deeper level where we look at profitability per store. So, to look at the productivity, how to increase the productivity because it can't be a varied price between the categories in different stores, but it can be a varied price strategy for clusters like I can operate probably Daikin AC at a higher or lower price in say Delhi versus Andhra, Tier 2 town.
But then that can be only a levy of 1% or 2%. I can't go drastic, I can't be higher than the market or way lower than the market as well. So, it is going to be a balance act, but look at at least a certain percentage of gross margins that we retain on our product categories that we sell because mobile phones would be different to large appliances, to say kitchen appliances, to say a Dyson product, to an accessory product or a warranty product.
Understood, Karan. This is helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Veenit.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask questions, you may please press star and one. Our next question is from the line of Rupesh Tatiya with Long Equity Partners. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Karan. Congratulations on good results. My first question, sir, is on ASPs. One of the struggle all electronic retailers have is that the ASPs go down 5%-15% every year, and this is what has been happening last three, four years. Now it looks like the underlying deflationary trends may be changing towards inflationary. Any comment on how do you see ASPs moving?
Rupesh ji, as you said, see, there is a very thin line between how the, say, an online player or a mom-and-pop store versus a premium modern retail store would look at ASPs. As you said, few markets look at this problem differently. We being a premium seller, we've always seen our graph of ASPs going up across categories. The value and the bill cuts might be a little different because you're talking about increase in a lot of newer low price product category like accessories, audio product categories, which have increased a lot for us. The ASP on the bill cut, you would see a little different scenario versus the individual ASP increase. Basically, ASPs have gone up at least by 5%-6% this year and on average is higher by 5%, for example.
Otherwise, there's a lot of improvement in technologies, a lot of ASPs going up for the after post GST drop, people who were buying a 55-inch have started shifting to a 65-inch or a 75-inch because it became more affordable. Automatically, [Non-English content] same thing with washing machines, refrigerators, accessories, every category. People who buy an AirPods today, for example, earlier they were buying a headphone now are buying a INR 15,000-INR 20,000 headphone. Every category is seeing a definite increase in ASPs. There is not even one single category across the board where we would see a reduction in ASPs.
Just to summarize, generally, for example, TVs, we see 15% price decline across years is very common. Even with the phones, it's same, right? What you are saying is on an average, in every category, TV, phone, AC, refrigerator are still a bit different. More electronics, there you are saying even there the ASPs have gone up this year, and they might go up over next two, three years.
Correct. Focus on entry-level product categories or majorly older models. I have no idea what the ASP is changing there. iPhone 17 is there now, we sell iPhone 17, for example. We sell all the latest models of all brands. You will see some improvement in ASPs there. If you see, you are saying that last year iPhone 15, 16 is there, it will sell in the market at a lower price because 17 is come. My mix on that product category is very low. Where a lot of other retailers might be predominantly selling only 15 or 16. I would be selling only 17, 17 Pro Max. For me, the product mix is more premium always.
Okay. That's clear. The second question is, the rate of store opening has come off quite significantly in FY 2026 versus FY 2025. I think it's 23 this year versus 40 last year, and I think that is what has come into the cash flow from operations. Is there some change in strategy? Because I remember in one of the discussions that what you had said is that this year, whatever cash flow from operation we generate, everything will be reinvested back into the business. That is what we were looking at or thinking few years ago. Is there some change now in that strategy?
No, sir, that remains the same. Certainly, it is more to do with the penetration that you would have in a certain market. Like Delhi was a new market, we now had majority of the stores opening up in Delhi. For example, this year also, when we plan to go to a new region and automatically with the organic existing region like NCR and South, you would be adding up a new cluster altogether. You will see that improvement. We have a requirement of opening stores, we would definitely do that, we will not shy away from that. Until and unless we don't feel there's a potential in the certain market to open and expand further, we would slow down that thing. If you look at Hyderabad, on average, only one or two stores open every year.
Either we relocate our smaller stores to bigger ones, or we find a new geography in Hyderabad. Because it is already an older market for us, already penetrated with good number of stores here, we don't see more potential of opening stores like 10, 15 here. We opened in Andhra, [Non-English content] See, there is no potential more than that, then organically, like in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, in any big towns, your one store will keep opening. Like Delhi is there. In Delhi, you are seeing Noida, there will be expansion. You are seeing Gurgaon, there will be expansion. Periphery is more than the city.
[Non-English content]
What you're saying is that in our Telangana, Hyderabad, AP, NCR, in all four geographies, we have reached now enough scale and incremental store opening run rate will now be low.
Sir.
It will not go away, the requirement of enough, but on average, it looks like it'll be now low.
Correct. Organically, if you see, between the existing older clusters, we would be opening around not more than 20 odd stores this year. The remaining 20+,[Non-English content]
Okay. Understood.
Understood. [cross talk]
North cluster, any margin trajectory for FY 2027, FY 2028? It's profitable now, congratulations on that.
[audio distortion]
Maybe FY 2028, you see it'll be around south cluster margins? Or it'll take longer.
[audio distortion] . Not this financial year, sir. You'll have to give me at least 20- 24 months more because.
2028. I'm asking 2028. FY 2028.
Yeah. By FY 2028, we should at least, not the same number as South, but at least a 3%-4% higher number than what it is currently.
Okay. Perfect. There is this mature versus non-mature slide. What I understood is what you are saying is that 30 stores, for example, on average, will move from non-mature to mature, and then newer, whatever you open newer will get into non-mature. Correct?
Correct.
-understanding.
Correct.
Maybe in 2028, it is fair to assume that mature/non-mature mix will move to 50/50?
Not really, sir. Suppose in 2028, to give you an example, but don't catch me for that, but suppose if I enter U.P. as a market. U.P. is, say, a 50- 70 store kind of a market. If I have to open 50, 60 stores and if I feel I'm getting 30, 40 properties in FY 2028, probably in one year, I might open 30, 40 properties there. That kind of an expansion happens in a bigger state. Suppose if I have to go to Goa or if I have to go to Dehradun, I will open only one store each in a new cluster. Depending on the cluster that after Kolkata that we would enter into, that would define this. This is, actually, if you ask me, it is something that is secondary for us.
Primarily, what we look at is the productivity of the existing stores also. That is more important. That these 140 non-mature stores. How are they trending? Though they might be aging towards mature stores, but actually, are they delivering revenue and profits as were mature stores required to do? That is more important for us.
Yes. Just one final question. NCR market had its own nuances, and you had to buy properties, which has kind of increased our depreciation and suppressed return ratios. If Kolkata also has a similar nuance where you have to buy properties or Kolkata expansion will largely be leased?
See, it is going to be a mix of both. For this financial year, I don't look at more than INR 50 odd crore investment happening in real estate there. Probably over a period of time, we might end up doing not more than INR 100 crore of acquisition there in the next, say, 12- 14 months.
Clear. I don't know how many of our stores are franchisee, but any color on that, and how do you see the percentage of franchises moving up? Is it going to move up over the next two, three years?
Sir, we only company-operated stores only. We don't have a franchisee model currently. We would be sticking to this current model only where we only open stores and operate them, sir.
Franchises will give you significant capital efficiency, right? What prevents us from going into the franchisee model? Even experimenting, for example, let's say.
Definitely we can look at it, but franchisee to me sounds more like an affair that one would have, a married man. I would rather stick to my wife rather than having an affair outside. I'm happy doing that. I would consider it that way. We definitely keep on internally discussing it. If given an opportunity, if we have all the support from our OEMs and we feel that a certain region or a geography requires a franchisee model, we'll definitely explore that, sir.
You're afraid that consumer experience might go down if you go the franchising route?
Consumer experience. There are a lot of nuances that are involved in our business on a daily level. There is a lot of control that is needed. There are good to it, there is bad to it as well. Right now, as you said correctly, one major advantage that we will have is our capital allocation will be much lower in growing in a franchisee model versus what it is today. For a long-term strategy, the mind share has to be of our partner also coming on board to what our requirements are. It's not only about the capital investment by the franchisee partner, but we need a lot of mind share of them because there is a lot of seasonality involved, there are a lot of ups and downs in seasons, in quarters.
The expectations have to be very varied compared to what a regular franchisee partner of any big brand would have.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for being so candid, sir.
Thank you, sir. Pleasure.
for answering all the questions. Yeah.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. To ask a question, ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one. Our next question is from the line of Akhil Parekh with 360 ONE Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Karan, my first question is on the EBITDA margin side for North cluster. If I remember correctly, you had said at INR 1,000 crore, we can do 3%-4% EBITDA margin. A, is that correct? Should we be looking at that number in FY 2027 or 2028? If you can please help here.
Akhil, you're absolutely right. I think the last discussion we had, we had come out to that number. FY 2027, I hope that we achieve that number in FY 2027 itself. FY 2028 is definite for sure. The way we are trending, we closed FY 2026 at INR 585 odd crore for NCR as a region. The additions of stores, the stores getting matured, we see a bigger traction. FY 2026 definitely was a bad year for summer. We anticipate that this summer at least is going to give us that bump organically, and then we're increasing our market share there. FY 2027 is also going to be a good year, than what it was in FY 2026, compared to FY 2026. INR 585 crores versus, say, we end up doing INR 800 plus odd crores in FY 2026. That is the target that we're looking at.
With a good summer or a good festive period, we would definitely look at a little slighter bump there. If we achieve that kind of a number, we would look at an EBITDA margin of at least 2%- 4% kind of a number there. That is the least that we have in mind for Delhi as a region.
Is it then fair to assume that in Andhra and Telangana upcountry, we would be doing at least 3% of EBITDA margin, given both of these regions have now crossed INR 1,000 crore plus revenues?
Telangana, if you look at Andhra and Telangana, the EBITDA margin is much better than that number that you just said, 3%, because compared to what Delhi is at.
Okay
Yes, not only this year, but last year also we crossed that number there. We are on a good track. If you look at the cluster-wise number in Andhra and Telangana, we would definitely from, say, about INR 1,100 odd crore in Andhra and INR 1,000 crore in Telangana. We would definitely look at a higher single digit or SSG, I'm talking about with the new additions of stores, it would definitely be a little more higher number. Both the clusters would definitely contribute to anywhere between INR 2,400 crore-INR 2,700 crore in the coming year.
Okay. Sorry, just to clarify, when you say things are different in NCR versus Andhra and Telangana upcountry, it's to do with the buying out the property versus rented property, or is there anything else basically which gives us the difference?
Sir, interest or depreciation EBITDA level [Non-English content]marketing, manpower cost. This competitive scenario, gross margin a little lower there versus your gross margin here, productivity per store, [Non-English content] definitely improvement.
I think competitive intensity is higher in NCR geography, basically vis-a-vis South.
Look, in Delhi, not only like you say, your competitive intensity with bigger guys like Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales, you are fighting there whereas here you are fighting with mom and pop. a little of your margin, discounting structures and product mix and with it, the other expenses, even manpower or marketing cost, rental cost, all these differ a lot, right?
Got it. This is clear. Second, would you be able to give the store count for Hyderabad and the sales for Hyderabad?
Sorry, sir. Can you repeat your question?
Sales and store count for Hyderabad, basically.
Okay. sir, FY 2026, currently we operate around 72 stores in Hyderabad city.
Okay.
For FY 2026, the revenue generated out of these stores were INR 1,422 crores. INR 4,122 crores, approximately.
Got it. There is huge differentiation in the productivity. Obviously, Hyderabad being our core geography as I compared.
Correct. Absolutely right. I wish all the stores in the country wherever we open start performing like Hyderabad.
Yeah. Great. These were my questions. Thank you so much, and best luck for upcoming quarters.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Pawan Vinod Katariya with Bullseye. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. My question is, could you just share how demand trends have been so far in the current quarter?
Sorry, sir. I didn't get your question. You want to understand the trends for quarter one? Hello, Pawan ji.
Sir, the current participant seems to have dropped from the queue. We will proceed to the next questioner in the queue. The next question comes from the line of Hitaindra Pradhan with Maximal Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi sir, I hope I'm audible.
Yes, sir.
Congrats on the good SSSG delivered this quarter. If you can say, I joined a little bit late, so it might be repetitive, but on the SSSG for the Q4, for the South versus the North, Delhi NCR, if you can bifurcate the volume versus value, that would be helpful.
Okay. Sir, one second. Go back on the previous slide. The first pillar slide. Go back to the store one. Sir, in terms of store count, today in South, we've got 72 stores in Hyderabad, 69 stores operating in Andhra Pradesh, and around 46 stores in the Telangana region. This contributes to around INR 6,000 odd crores of revenue. INR 6,000 + crores, around INR 6,500 crores comes in from this region. Around INR 590 odd crores comes in from Delhi as a region, which operates currently has 35 stores, out of which six stores were opened in this financial year, the last financial year, in FY 2026. If you see, this is the split that we have today between North and South in terms of store count and revenue that we generated from these regions.
Yes, sir. That's helpful. I was specifically asking the SSSG
Okay. Sure.
Yeah. SSSG, what was the contribution from volume versus value? I see that the North cluster, Delhi has done like 18.6% SSSG in Q4.
Yeah.
I was wondering, what is the volume contribution versus the value contribution?
Okay. Sir, You want the volume contribution, you said?
Yeah, ballpark would do, sir. I just wanted to see the volume side.
I don't have the exact volume category-wise, but in terms of the revenue that we generated, we split the volumes would be in the similar percentage of the revenue that we generated out of different clusters. Telangana definitely would be one of the highest volume generators for us. Almost 70% odd comes in from here, and then another 10% comes in from Delhi, and around 20%, 18 odd % comes in from AP and Telangana, sir, up country market. That is how the split is more or less.
No, that is your overall what is the contribution you are saying. Delhi, sir, like to store sales has grown by 19%, right, in Q4?
Correct.
Yeah. In that, sir, 19%, what is the contribution of the volume? Is it more volume led or more value led in the Delhi region?
Sir, I didn't understand the last part you said.
Yeah, this 18%-19% growth from the mature store that we currently showing. That growth was led by volume or value, sir? Like for the quarter.
Volume. Okay. That, yes. It is a mix of both. I'll just give you the exact number. One second. One second. One second. Let me give you the details. Give me a second, sir. I'll just open that report up for you. If you look at Delhi, sir, across categories, if I give you a detailed number, say, the mobile phones would be at, say, 70% value growth, whereas the volume would be around 50%. That is the number, because the base in Delhi was practically less. If you look at-
Right
televisions, the value growth there would be around, say, 18%, but the volume growth also would be around a similar 17% kind of a number.
Okay.
The maximum jump that we would see over overall categories would be for categories like kitchen appliances, audio devices, where the value and volume growth were up for the 30%- 40% kind of a number.
Got it.
would be much lesser to the top line there.
No, got it. I mean, the numbers are higher in Delhi region because of the smaller base, whereas your Telangana and Andhra Pradesh stores are already kind of way ahead in terms of your sales numbers, I assume. Hence, the growth is still impressive, the S SSG for the quarter for the South cluster. Delhi, it is more to do with our base, right? You are also seeing a lot of volume and value growth in the Delhi kind of-
Absolutely. The base itself is quite low there.
Right. Sir, in terms of the base and how you're ramping up, because in past few quarters we've been seeing that clearly the competitive pressure in Delhi was way higher.
Yeah
Ramping -up took a longer time for us, and you had to do additional marketing as you described earlier as well. Sir, in terms of this ramping up and all, do you think that from here we can at least improve our per store sales for FY 2027 in the Delhi cluster? Can we sustain the Q4 SSSG? That's what my question is, basically, in FY 2027 for Delhi specifically. We know that South you have a good presence, but for Delhi cluster, can you sustain this kind of 19% level of growth like to like basis?
Sir, two things have been here. Last year, see summer didn't support us that well across the country. This year automatically, you're looking at a much better number because summer is supporting you. That is more organic, right? If you ask me, we have no other option. We are in Delhi right now. We've invested so much. We have to make sure that we start delivering numbers, right?
Yes
I think there has to be a reason for us not delivering it, right? We have to figure it out, fix that problem of quarter on quarter, month on month. Start moving from there on. Fix issues, whatever the issues are, either from our end, from the OEM, from the store level, customer perceptions, marketing issues, whatever it is. We have to move on day- by- day. It is always a new.
If you can elaborate, that would be really helpful. We just hear that the regional competition, regional stores and local store competition is very high. Also the customer perception in Delhi is very different compared to, say, South. They don't trust probably the bigger format stores and all. We don't know, we are just speculating. If you can elaborate more on what went wrong or what was the market study like and what did you experience? What has been your learning so far in the Delhi market, from a customer point of view and the competition point of view? That would be helpful.
See, now, sorry, even if I've done a mistake, I'll not agree to it. I think we've done everything right, that's why we're sitting here. That is just to start on a lighter note. On a serious point, every market, even Hyderabad today, there is a new learning that we go through every day. It is not that because we are sitting here at a much higher market share or we are the leaders here, it doesn't mean that we don't change the customer experience, introduce new product categories, or don't understand what the market is operating and what the demand on the store front is. What we have to understand on a daily basis is that, are the positioning of our brands right? Are the pricing right? Are the stores' location right? Every small detail and detail matters a lot, right?
That is very important for us to understand that why a customer is coming to our store in Hyderabad and why not in Delhi, right? There has to be a reason for it, and I don't think our conversions are good, but our footfalls are lower. We have to increase on our footfalls in Delhi. The market size is so big, how do we move customers from, say, not only from the modern retail stores, but even from a mom and pop distribution market to a modern retail format. We are opening stores relevant to sizes or markets where either a market leader is a mom and pop store or a LFR format store. We have to look at those things. We have to concentrate on a lot of marketing.
We have to start educating our customers a lot that we are available in this location with these many products or brands. Pricing, if you ask me, any of the markets, there are set customers who are price sensitive, a lot of customers who want service. Customers who believe in faster deliveries, customer whose store ambience matters a lot, or the range that we offer, especially the premium range, matters a lot. There are a set of different customers everywhere. You got to make sure that you have a bouquet of different experiences and offerings to your customer so that you can improve your market share in that new market, especially.
Got it. Sir, on that note, we are also expanding to Kolkata, right? Shouldn't we just pause on that and just try to focus on improving the profitability of the north cluster first and before even moving to Kolkata, because that market is also kind of pretty much fragmented and might surprise you in terms of again, ramping up and getting the market set. What are your thoughts? Do you think that you have some advantage in Kolkata, that's why you are pouring into that micro market?
Sir, Delhi till now the stabilization [Non-English content] . It's going to be more organic journey from here on. We can't expect that Delhi is going to keep giving us 50% year-on-year growth, right? It has to be more organic. It has to be more trending with what the market demand is.
What is the growth and margin outlook for Delhi for FY 2027?
Sir, for that particular cluster, we'll be at least looking at 25%-30% kind of a growth from the existing INR 590 crores kind of a number.
Okay. And margin, sir?
Margins will improve. Right now, I would consider that 0.2%, 0.3% kind of an EBITDA margin, which would definitely increase to 2.5%, 3% kind of a number.
These are all pre-Ind AS we are discussing, right? Pre-Ind AS EBITDA numbers. Yeah. Okay. Sorry, sir, I just interrupted you.
No. Till the time we enter a new market also, I can't expect that Kolkata is going to turn shape up from day one onwards, right? It's going to take a little time. Till the time we open 15- 20 stores, we understand the market better. It's going to be an organic learning. That will at least take us from this day of opening, it'll take us at least a year or two to understand, set up things better. Till the time we do that, there has to always have to be a new cluster for us to explore from here on. Delhi has now started stabilizing. We'll see a better result coming into Delhi on this onwards. It is just a improvement from the existing base, whereas, creating a new market would always take some time, right?
Even if we start off by quarter two, quarter three this year, we would at least take some time to get in the right people, the right brand, the product mix, the pricing, competition, right marketing. A lot of your learning happens only after. It is not that you go blind to a market. You understand the market, you do a lot of your research, have your people on the ground, get the right team in, and then you launch a store in a new geography. From there on, the learning happens on a practical level, where on a daily basis, you understand customer requirements, pricing, marketing, everything, and then you improvise from there on. That cycle is, say, 12-14 months cycle for you to get things right on the floor. From there on, you move ahead.
That is how things work for us, at least. We plan to get into a new market. Kolkata came in our way, so that's why we entered Kolkata. There are a lot of other markets also that we would like to explore in the future, for which, once, say, Kolkata stabilizes, then we'll enter those markets.
Got it, sir. Okay, sir. That's all from my side. All the best.
Thank you, Hitaindra.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as our last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sirs.
Thank you. I would like to thank all of you for joining into the call. I hope that we were able to answer all your questions. For any other queries, you may get in touch with our team or SGA. They will be happy to address all your queries. Thank you once again.
Thank you. On behalf of Electronics Mart India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.