Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. A very warm welcome to the investor and analyst meet of Greenlam Industries Limited. I am Shrikant Sangani from Strategic Growth Advisor. Today we are privileged to have a management team of Greenlam Industries. The team is represented by Mr. Saurabh Mittal. Mittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ashok Sharma, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Samarth Agarwal, Vice President, Finance, and other senior team members of the company. This evening the management team will take you through the comprehensive overview of the business including the strategic insight, key growth drivers, and the future roadmap of the company. We will begin with the presentation after. this, the floor will be open for the interactive session.
We request all the team members in the room to keep your mobile phone silent. On the silent mode. With that note, I would like to invite Mr. Saurabh Mittal for his opening remarks.
Thank you for being here and very warm welcome from my side also. I'll run you through the presentation of the one we prepared. Samarth will run some part of the presentation. Some will be done by our CFO Ashok and the business that I'll cover. Greenlam Industries, it's a new chapter of transformation for us. We've completed all our greenfield and brownfield projects over the last three years in laminates, plywood, particle, and we've laid the groundwork as we say for the growth for the next three to four years. We've been able to build all the manufacturing plants with a high quality product output with complete discipline. We believe that this will create stakeholder value in the future. We've done, we've been 10 years now as an independent company. This is what Greenlam looks like after 10 years.
When we became an independent company we had two manufacturing plants and now we have five plants. We're a three product company. One was just introduced like a half a year back and now we're a fixed product company with laminates, spindle, core, particle board, plywood, veneer, liquid veneer, flooring, doors, geographical presence. We were present in about 100 countries at that point also and now we're at about 123 countries internationally. Domestically we were present with about 12,000 dealer distributors. Now it's nearly 40,000 and FY 2015. We were six subsidiaries and now we're nearly 15. When we became an independent company we were lasting three segments. You can save two. Plywood and veneer flooring had just begun and now as you can see we are in six segments. Plywood, chipboard, laminates, decorative veneer, floors, and doors. I think last decade was full of challenges and opportunities.
I wouldn't go through each one of them. I think last decade has been quite eventful for us. This is like a 10 year report card of the company. FY 2015 revenues were INR 925 crore. FY 2025 was INR 2,569 crore. Gross profits from 43% to 52%. Inventory days remain same. EBITDA from 9.7% to 10.7%. The 10.7% includes losses of the chipboard and the plywood business. Only laminates I think we were at about 15% odd. ROCE has expanded. Debtor days have reduced, dividend payouts have increased. Market caps have gone up and down and rose at INR 6,000 crore. We put a note that working capital has improved despite three new categories coming in. New investments, new ranges, new inventories. This is like a brief snapshot about the background.
Team manufacturing capabilities, products, domestic footprint, global footprint, several certifications we have across factories, products for various markets both international and domestic. The team size is nearly now 9,000 team members in India and abroad. Greenlam now is amongst the top three players in laminates globally. We are India's largest exporters for 16 years, 14 years we won the award. We're the only producers, first organized producers of engineered wood, flooring. First producers of engineered, organized producer, engineered doors. India's only integrated plant for laminates, particle boards, and compact laminates in one site in Andhra Pradesh. Across categories we operate more or less. We have the best facilities and capacities and capabilities. That's the dynamic, strong, and effective board we have. One of our board members is here, Mr. Dani. That's about the growth journey of the company.
We began in 1993 and I think last three years have been quite eventful for us. If I just focus on last three years with the starting of the plywood plant, the buying of the plant of laminates in Gujarat, raising equity of INR 195 crores, starting the chipboard line in Andhra Pradesh, starting the laminates line in Andhra Pradesh. I think last three years have been a lot of work has been laid down for the future. We also did our first bonus issue which commensurated with the 10 years of company's listing. These are the brands of the company. All the wooden business has been aligned with the brand Mikasa. It's Mikasa Ply, Mikasa Veneers, Mikasa Floor, Mikasa Doors, and laminates is with Greenlam laminates as flagship with Clads and Sturdo. The melamine chipboard is also under the Greenlam brand.
We have another second brand by the name of NewMika. Three brands as of now, Greenlam, Mikasa, and NewMika. I'm just going to quickly run through the various products we have in our portfolio, a laminates support business. Several designs, sizes, decors in compacts and sheets, and multiple sizes, multiple offerings which caters to global customers and domestic customers. That's the facade laminates which is used in exteriors. We were one of the first companies to start this product in India. Again, various sizes, various colors. That's the custom cubicle business, which uses compact laminate as the core with various kinds of hardware, various dimensions, various models, mostly a commercial product and gaining more and more acceptance in the market. Increasingly, people are moving from brickwork and wet partition to dry partition. The compact laminates really work well in those segments, being waterproof, being antifungal, antibacterial, etc.
That's the particle board. We call it melamine face chipboard. Melamine because the deco paper is treated with melamine and placed on a particle board. The samples are right there. Again, various colors, various dimensions. Being one of the first large organized players in the segment, I think you'll see a lot of innovation from us in this segment. That's the decorative veneer business with natural veneer, peak engineered veneers. Again, across various varieties, various origins, various dimensions as a pouring product, mostly two thicknesses, 10 mm, 15 mm. Again, various dimensions, two species, various coating processes. That's a door model, which is a made to measure model, not a standard product. This is customized for projects. Again, there's designer, there's fire rated doors, there are specialty doors, and that's the plywood business. We have five offerings in the plywood business and gradually we are adding markets to our plywood business.
Various credentials, we just put a few of them. Mostly globally, let's say comparable to any global company with the CARB certification. You can see the bottom. There's NSF, there's FSC, PEFC. Mostly we're certified or most of our products go into various markets globally. That's the domestic footprint of the company: five manufacturing locations, 23 branch offices, 17 regional distribution centers, two screening centers, 40,000 dealer distributors, retailers across the country. These are the capacities across locations, across categories. Laminate, being the core business, has 24.52 million sheets boards across four factories in North India, Western India, Northwest, and South. Veneer, flooring, doors is concentrated in the Rajasthan plant. Plywood at the moment is only in South India and Tamil Nadu. That's India's single site largest plant. Chipboard is again single site largest plant in Andhra Pradesh.
All the plants are up and running, all these capacities have been built. There's nothing to start or to kind of begin at the moment. Right, so all these are up and running plants. These are the images of the five plants. The first two images are still under construction and the below three are Gujarat and Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. This is a global footprint. About 120 countries we service across our five plants. 22 global offices, 15 subsidiaries of the company in various parts of the world, and about 200 team members work with us across various parts of the world. Most of the sales we do is with our own brand. There's no white label or OEM. This is about the market size of laminates. Where are we positioned of the 12,500? Approximate market size of laminates exposed is 3,400. Domestic is 9,000.
We have about 17.8% share of the organized domestic market where we believe we are nearly equal to our competitor as on last year's numbers and 29% of India's export business. If you add our subsidiary numbers, the percent increases, but this is a benchmark on a comparable data. International revenues last year was $138 million. Total market size globally is about $8.5 billion. Part three is just about our prospects. We want to talk a bit about what we've done over the last three years. The last three financial years we've operationalized four manufacturing plants in three locations, which is Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. We've moved from just north zone. The two plants from North India we've moved to now west and south and obviously North. We've moved from a four product offering to a six product offering.
Total capital invested over the last three FIs has been around INR 1,450 crores. These expansions have been completed within FY 2025. There's been recruitment of talent, we've strengthened our management bandwidth, yet more needs to be done. The team size has expanded across plants and sales offices and warehouses to 9,000 team members. From 14 warehouses we moved to 17. From 2021 to 2023. Two experience centers have been added. Dealer distributors have been expanded over the last three years. Subsidiaries have been added in the international markets from 2008 to 2015, we've added warehouses globally and offices have been added from 2015 to 2022. Teams have also been strengthened abroad. The message I want to give out is over the last three years, investments in manufacturing, resources, warehousing, distribution has all been done and completed. This is how our addressable market in India changes.
Earlier we were, you know, addressing a market size of INR 11,000 crores, which now moves to INR 49,000 crores. Although the entire plywood market we're not servicing at the moment, we're only in the premium in the market. We have entered the ply business is the message we want to give out. Besides this, we showed the previous slide, the international market, the international business opportunity is also quite significant for us. These are the goals the company has set about to move from a standalone surfacing product to integrated surface and subsidy solution provider, which I think largely we've achieved, at least from an offering perspective. We want to emerge as India's leading wood panel player. We want to become India's leading laminate, world's leading laminate, you know, player. We want to move from a position of respect, you know, to a first recall.
These goals were set out when we started the expansion plans and I think we are moving in that direction. Broadly, why are we optimistic about investments for domestic market? I won't read out each of them, but I think few points are important. Like the QCU implementation is going to drive a lot of panel production in India, reduce imports coming to the country, certifies products to be of a certain standard which helps organized brands and companies grow. We also see a shift from unorganized to organized within domestic market. We see a trend of carpentry moving from on site to off site OEMs and manufacturing customers, people making furniture panels fit outs in factory setups. I think they're again organized brands with better performance quality get an edge. Broadly about how we think of the international markets, now here again we think we have a great opportunity.
We've built a base, we built products, we built capacities. We have two manufacturing plants of laminates near the port. Now globally capacities are not being added in laminates because cost of adding capacities, cost of running capacities is more expensive than India. We've been able to achieve a certain quality standard, you know, expertise in this category, I think one of the only categories in the country where, you know, in exports we are dominant and probably equal or higher than what China does. I think clearly it's a strength of our country to produce and export laminates. Some brief points on demand drivers. I think here again several furniture brands want to come and set up factories in India, which again gives a flip to domestic production. They need panels and extra board in high quality laminates. This demand of renovation cycle reduces.
I think mechanized furniture manufacturing growing is also an important point to consider. I think this is also an important slide. The investments we made until FY 2025 can potentially generate INR 4,500 crore of revenue in the next three to four years. We've said that in the calls that we want to grow at about 18%-20% run rate over the next three, four years. We can realize this revenue when we do that from INR 2,600 crore we did last year. We think margins should improve at a higher scale, and we think we'll win more market share in both domestic and international market across product categories. This will also help us do cross sell of each product. Dealers, dealers, architects, IDs, OEMs, projects. There's a big overlap between all the products of the wood panel space. If they take plywood, they need veneers. They take chipboard, they need laminates.
All the products we have, by and large, there's an overlap with influencers channel and then customers. This also strengthens our brand. We end up giving a single point solution to the market. I think the portfolio we build again is probably quite exhaustive. Barring MDF, I think we have most of the products in our portfolio. This we believe will enhance profitability and sustainability. On the ESG, I'm going to ask my colleague Samarth to come and take you through. Samarth, please.
Thank you, sir. Good evening, everyone. I hope I'm audible.
Yeah.
For ESG, I think this is nothing new to Greenlam. We have been doing ESG in a softer manner for a very long time. It's just that now we have started to think in a very deeper manner here. I'll just take you through certain things. ESG doesn't only mean the letters of it, but in spirit. A lot of things that we do inside our operations, the way we manufacture, the way we operate, and the way we sell. We have a very detailed code of conduct for business ethics, a vendor code of conduct which has a compliance level across our vendors. We are audited for our ethical data exchange for one of our factories because this is one of the requirements in the European market where before they buy the material, they audit us for certain practices that we do.
These audits we have been getting done for quite a bit of time now. We also have our integrated management systems and energy management systems, which means that our production lines are much more efficient than the other things. ESG is actually not only a verbatim here, it is more built into the systems and processes. This year we have adopted ESG goals. We have officially kind of taken a target wherein we will do certain things over a period of time, next three to four to five years. I'll just brief you on those. The principles based on which we have adopted those targets are better use of resources. Since we use a lot of natural resources in the form of wood and paper, we have to be a responsible producer. We have to give back to the environment the resource that we use.
We need to ensure that we contribute to zero deforestation. We need to be better for climate and water. We all know that India is facing a severe water crisis and the production facilities that we have use certain amount of water. We need to ensure that the water, whatever we use, one is the usage comes down and second, it is more reused at the factory end when we will be net water positive across our factories. That process has already started. We want to be better for people, both for our customer, from the health and safety perspective as well as from learning curve. I can myself say that being in NIO for more than a decade now, 11 years, I've seen organizations change a lot. I've seen people learning, growing. This is something that I can at least vouch for here.
The better way to do business is to build trust and confidence with our partners that we work with across the sectors, across the communities. That's something Greenlam is very, very passionate about. To work in an ethical and an integrated manner coming to the commitments. I think these are also published in our annual report. From a resource perspective, from the first principle that we have adopted, we will be taking, or rather we have taken a commitment to reduce the waste generation by 20% and be a zero waste to landfill by 2030. From a packaging perspective, we'll be reducing the packaging material by almost 25% by 2030. By 2027, 50% of our paper requirement will be from recycled paper, which in fact, you know, kind of reduces the virgin pulp paper requirements. We'll be sourcing 75% of the wood from local sourcing by 2030.
Then we have 50% of our chipboard business wood needs will be met by local plantation level. This is again an agroforestry drive that we're doing in the southern part of the country where our factory of chipboard is located, where we have undertaken an extensive plantation exercise where we are giving saplings to the farmers to grow and make available the wood which is a key raw material for our chipboard and the plywood business. For climate and water, we have taken a commitment to be net zero on scope one and scope two at manufacturing level by 2030. These are direct and indirect emissions that factories do. We want to be net zero by 2030 at the manufacturing level. We want to be water positive by 2027. As I said earlier, that's already started, you know, that process is already there.
20% reduction in water intensity, the amount of water that we use per sheet of our production. 12% reduction in energy. 20% cut in transport emission. One of the most difficult tasks that I've realized over the period is to cut the transport emission. This is one of the toughest things and obviously we are compliant with our environment regulation and we want to be compliant that way. For the people around, you know, our OHS safety ratings to be 4 above 4/ 5, reduction in reportable incidents by 50%. Medical insurances as a, you know, being concerned for health and safety of our people, learning and development and employee satisfaction score improvements for better way to do business.
We have initiated exercise of net promoter score which we are targeting to be 8.5 and above out of a score of 10, 90% of suppliers to be aligned with our code of conduct. As I said earlier, we have a detailed vendor code of conduct on which our suppliers have already given a written confirmation that they abide by those norms. We are targeting 90% of suppliers to be aligned by 2027 by our code of conduct. We will be undertaking a critical or a critical suppliers sustainability exercise by 2027. Again, 100 staff to be trained annually on compliance and ethics. This is very, very important and one of the principles of Greenlam. Again, our leadership level ESG ratings.
Once we mature in this subject enough to undertake though, we have a rating now, but we want to improve that score and then we want to go all out to the public and announce that rating. This is on the ESG part of it. That's the current year that we have started this exercise in detail and I hope we are able to achieve all our targets as we move forward. Over to you, sir, for the business update.
On the business update, we've largely covered a new product category in the new plant because I think other things are largely known. This is for the Andhra Pradesh plant at Naidupeta. Like I said earlier, this is the only fully integrated plant where laminates, chipboard, compact laminates, and all that can get produced in one plant. Typically, if we imagine there's an office project or any commercial project, people need toilet partitions, they need workstations, paneling products. Architects and customers can coordinate the entire program from one location in similar colors, similar textures, but different substrates. That's a unique property we are bringing to the market. I think the other points of proximity to ports, the facility will be IGBC certified. All other things of effluent treatment plants, world-class spark detection, explosive protection system, because wood business is susceptible to fires, all that's been installed.
Emission control systems, massive agroforestry belt around the plant location in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The most important point is the location. The way the plant's been designed, we have adequate opportunities to do multiple brownfield in laminates and the borderline. We can add three to five more laminate lines in this location and we can add one more broader lamination line. On this chipboard, this is the largest integrated and first of its kind in India, spread across 80 acres. Four ports are close by to the plant location. It's a fully automated continuous press line. As a main board line, the lamination line still needs manpower. The press width is adjustable between 7 ft-9 ft., which means you can make boards, you can make more flexible board sizes, which helps customers improve their yields and reduce their wastages. It's mostly relevant for the OEM manufacturers.
That's the capacity. The technology is German. On the chipboard facility, market opportunity is about INR 5,000 crores in India. We think this market will keep growing. It will take market share from other subsidized products for commercial applications. You will see we've made some samples of chipboards with screws. We've done some water testing. We've built a new product called high moisturisen particle board. I think as time passes we'll be innovating a lot in this category and bring about products, textures which India has not seen but is present in the European market, currently mostly dominated by the local unorganized players. Whether bagasse or wood, mostly Indian or Chinese technologies, multi opening presses, those boards have metal pieces. They don't have systems to control what's inside the board. OEMs have been facing challenges while using the board.
Clearly, I think we're competing with unorganized players and we think we'll win market share versus them. We think the awareness of the chipboard product is going to expand. Several residential usage of wardrobes, kitchen shutters, at times door infills, other fit out panels. People will move towards chipboard as they've done in Europe. Demand and decision making of furniture making is moving to organized setup. India is expanding furniture making production. In India now I think we have three players with continuous press lines. Comparable with us is only one player with the same European technology. The offerings we have are pre-lam boards, plain chipboards, exterior grade, interior grade, various certifications. We already achieved CARB which is E5, E1, E2, several ranges. All production of chipboard is with agroforestry wastewood. Nothing comes from the forest. It's all from the farmers from their plantations.
Applications again: furniture, doors, tabletops, office fit outs, shutters, just a few images. When I was saying we coordinate everything, I think that's the image you see on the right side which is post forming laminates, pre-lam chipboard, compact laminate laminates. The edge band you see with the roll, we have built this program also, but with an outsourced model. People who make furniture get the entire program from us, so they get a melamine face chipboard with a matching edge. We don't have the edge band samples, but I'm assuming you all understand this. If you don't, we can explain to you. This is the entire program which is being put from our plant. Just a few images of where chipboard are used: office workstations is a big user, shop fit houses, all commercial applications, again a massive user. Most school furniture people use boards for desk tabletops.
Wardrobe shutters is again a big use of chipboards, and because you get 9 ft products you can also make taller panels. These are some tests we've done while doing some product development because images and samples are there. We built a high moisture resistant product and we've made some comparisons how it fares when it's tested with boiling water. A bit technical here, but we have images and samples there. You can just spend some time in the corner there. I think the message is that the chipboard, if rightly done, is an excellent product in terms of performance, even in water testing. Typically, people have a perception that water testing, boiling water, the chipboard will kind of disintegrate. That actually not the truth. It fared better than, you know, an ordinary commercial plywood and an MDF and a high moisture resistant MDF.
I think the message we want to give out is we will do a lot of upgradation of the product and kind of portfolio expansion. Product developments will be done in this category. The way ahead is margin expansion to be driven across categories as most of our costs of people, infrastructure, warehousing is all built into the system. Q1 was the first quarter after, I think, three years after 12 quarters where all are costed and built in. Otherwise, for the last three years, every two quarters we had a new plant, a new range, some expansions here and there. I think now everything is built into the system. The expenses increase will be very, very small and incremental. Rantage and Idupeta plants have adequate space for brownfield expansion.
Like I said earlier, multiple brownfield expansion laminates plant of laminates can be done in the Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh location. We don't need to build a greenfield plant of laminates for, let's say, next five, seven years approximately. These expansions will come with a lower CapEx and incremental margins and quicker execution. Also, deep focus and expanding international presence will further strengthen our brand presence globally. Over the last three years, we've expanded in various parts of Africa. We've opened subsidiaries in Germany, Spain, Poland, we have people in Romania, we've opened an office in Saudi Arabia, we've opened warehouses in Indonesia, Malaysia. Several expansions have happened which now, I think, will kind of yield more results going ahead. Increased revenues will also expand our profitability. We bought land in UP, so in Uttar Pradesh for plywoods and for some of the wood categories.
We can't be, you know, one sized player. We'll have to expand our manufacturing base. This is more concerning the future as this decision has been taken. We'll be leveraging technology to bring about efficiencies in customer experience and to augment growth. Several initiatives on the IT front have been taken, which again you know is being executed, and I think will drive a larger culture of data-based decision making and analysis. In conclusion, I think we've embarked on the next orbit, which will transform the company, which will make the company move from a small size to a mid-sized organization, make it more profitable, make it more sustainable, and I think over the last three years we have laid down a good foundation for the company to become more valuable in the future. We have the financial statements now.
I'm going to ask our CFO Ashok Sharma to take you through.
Thank you, sir. Good evening friends. I'll take you through the financial statement for the quarter. Though this quarter one is traditionally a linear period compared to previous quarter, this stood out. Revenue at par, nearly at par for the Q4 level. Our domestic business grew by 22% on year-on-year basis, driven by healthy performance across all segments including chipboard, which has been the first quarter of operations. While our international business remains flat. This quarter we see steady traction ahead.
Gross margin improved by 110 basis points and stood at 53.1%, supported broadly by stable raw material cost and a softening in the timber prices. Operating profits before accounting for net forex loss of INR 10.6 crore stood at INR 54.7 crore, lower by 14.5%, largely due to initial operating cost in our chipboard as capacity ramp up is still underway. Consequently, the EBITDA margin came in at 8.1%, lower by 250 basis points. The net loss of INR 15.7 crore for the quarter can be attributable primarily to national loss of INR 18.8 crore on account of euro denominated loan for chipboard which we have taken and euro has moved from INR 92 to INR 100 and higher interest cost and depreciation.
This INR 18.8 crore loss has been accounted for as the fluctuation in foreign currency, which is INR 10.6 crore, some has been accounted in the interest cost as per the guidelines, and some has been netted off against the exchange currency gain which has been accounted for in the books. We have successfully, as has been mentioned by Saurabh also, stabilized the chipboard production line, product line both for plain and pre-laminated board, and it is receiving good feedback from the market. We achieved around 30% capacity utilization during this quarter. Our efforts in this quarter, we have explored the quote opportunities also for the SIP board and we have got good traction in that. The government of Andhra Pradesh has sanctioned our project in Naidupeta, tailor made incentive package on an investment of our wood based chipboard and future capex.
The incentive package includes over a period of seven to 10 years from the commencement of commercial production and it includes capital subsidy, employment creation subsidy, and some power benefits on the power uses. In this quarter, we have successfully transitioned from decorative veneer brand to Mikasa decoud veneer brand, unifying all our wood panel offering, plywood, veneer, flooring, and doors under the Mikasa brand. The consolidation will strengthen our market position and enable us to offer a holistic, lifestyle driven product ecosystem to customers both in India as well as globally. These are the numbers which have been already published on the stock exchanges. Our revenue grew by 11.4% on year-on-year basis, over a D group by 1.2% on quarter-on-quarter basis. Gross margin improved by 110 basis point on year- on- year and 240 basis point on quarter- on- quarter.
EBITDA margin stood at 8.1%, 250 basis point reduction on year-on-year basis and 190 basis point on quarter-on-quarter basis. PAT margin stood PAT margin PAT was in negative INR 15.7 crore as I mentioned earlier in comparison to INR 19.9 crore last year and INR 1.5 crore in the Q4. Moving on to segment laminate and allied segment this saw a growth of 3.8% on year-on-year basis. However, a degrowth of 3.6% on quarter-on-quarter. The gross margin improved 200 basis point on year-on-year basis and 360 basis point on quarter-on-quarter basis. EBITDA margin for this quarter saw a degrowth of 40 basis point and a 50 basis point from the last quarter. EBITDA with forex saw a growth of 60 basis point in this year-on-year basis and 40 basis point on quarter-on-quarter basis.
Capital employed largely remains flat in comparison. To previous quarter. In terms of sales, it was 4.94 million sheets, a growth of 5.8% on year-on-year basis and nearly flat in comparison to quarter basis. Average realization is also nearly flat. It was down by around 1% on year-on-year and around 2% on quarter-on-quarter basis. Moving on to another segment, plywood and. Allied segment this quarter we have.
Realigned our segment into laminate analyzed segment and plywood analyzed segment and chipboard and allied segment. Plywood and allied segment will consist of plywood, decorative veneer, floors, and doors. Net revenue from the operation for this segment was INR 8.88 crore, a growth of 25% on year-on-year basis over a degrowth of 13% on quarter-on-quarter basis. Gross margin saw a degrowth of 130 basis points on year-on-year basis and a growth of 180 basis points on quarter-on-quarter. Overall, the EBITDA was in negative almost at the similar level in comparison to previous year. However, it has gone up in comparison to Q4 level. Capital employed largely remains the same at around INR 350 crore. This is another decorative veneer which is under the plywood and allied category. Here also, if you see, the sales are grown up by around 21% on year-on-year basis.
On a quarter-on-quarter, it saw a degrowth of 38% in volume. In terms of average realization, a degrowth of around 4% on year-on-year and a growth of 6% on quarter-on-quarter. This is in terms of plywood where we saw a capacity utilization of 28% in comparison to 24% in previous year, previous year same quarter, and 31% in quarter four of last year. Sales in volume terms grew by 21% on year-on-year basis or degrew by 8.5% on quarter-on-quarter basis. Average realization is continue to see the improvement which was 11% on year-on-year and 7% on quarter-on-quarter basis. This is our newest segment, panel and allied segment. Since this was first full quarter, the figures are not comparable with the last quarter where it had only two months and the production was getting stabilized.
We saw a revenue of INR 31 crore in this quarter in comparison to INR 5 crore in quarter four of last year. Gross margin was at 45%. EBITDA loss without forex was INR 9.8 crore, down from INR 11.8 crore previous quarter. After the forex loss, the EBITDA loss was INR 25.9 crore in comparison to INR 7.5 crore last quarter. Capital employed was INR 808 crore in this quarter in comparison to INR 769 crore last quarter. In terms of production, we saw a 30% capacity utilization in comparison to 24% previous quarter. The sales was cubic meter and average realization was around INR 21,000. This is in terms of operating parameters. If you see, the overall net working capital is improved by around six days from the quarter one last year. However, it has been deteriorated by four days from quarter four of last year.
Our debt position as towards the end of last quarter was INR 1,040 crore in comparison to INR 921 crore in quarter one of last year and INR 989 crore in quarter four of last year. Return ratios are distorted because of the figures. What is the in terms of loss which is there on a net basis in this quarter over the capital employed? If you can see, these are more or less at the similar level in comparison to quarter four as well as in quarter one last year. That's all from the presentation. Now I would like to open the floor for the question and answer.
Hello. Hi sir. Firstly, on the guidance, the guidance which you have given of 18%- 20% growth, does that hold or any change again please?
Guidance does that.
Sorry?
I couldn't follow the question, please. Yeah, my question was the revenue growth guidance which you have given 18%- 20% for this year, that holds?
Yes, that's right. Okay. Like I saw in Q1, domestic did about over 20%. Exports were a little bit of a challenge in Q1, but in Q2 we are very hopeful that this should go well.
How has been the July so far?
July so far decent. I can't give the numbers, but let's put it this way: we are trying, we are on the track or at least the attempt is to do those, deliver that 18%-20%, unless something specific comes out, can't say. That is the plan. Got it.
Last question from my side. How is the chipboard written profile looking like? What sort of calculation are you doing once this plant is at optimum utilization, what sort of revenue margin and what sort of return ratios will this make?
This will depend on the value mix, RM cost, etc. When we did the project also, you know, I think we had this discussion. EBITDA margins on a near full capacity, assuming normalized RM cost, not very low, not very high, should be between 18% - 22% kind of a margin. The European plants, once they cross like a 70% utilization, all your cost of production of raw material consumption, glue consumption, power consumption, fuel, fuel consumption comes down. I think right now it's sub optimal. I think once we cross that stage, a cost of production will come down. On the operating side, as I was telling you through the presentation, we're also going to build some more products in the chipboard segment. We'll also innovate with designs and textures. We are hoping to improve the value mix also, which we've demonstrated successfully in the laminate business.
Also, if you go back 10 years in laminates, you know, the marginal laminates, the product offering was very basic and, you know, through the years with new design, textures, compacts. I think there's been a change in the profile of the product and the margins and we hope to replicate that and it's not something new we'll do. This is already present in Europe and in many other international markets on how people have moved up the ladder in the chipboard valuation. I think at that EBITDA margin level, we've done the maths earlier, about 18%- 20% ROCE was something which we think we can achieve.
Okay, got it. That is helpful. This was Keshav from HDFC Securities.
Hi, good evening sir, and thanks for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions from my end. You know, you haven't actually given in the presentation what has been the only revenues for plywood division along with the EBITDA loss that we're making currently.
We regroup the plywood and veneers. This is not, first I tell you, this is not unusual. Every other plywood competitor has plywood, decorative veneers, flush doors, laminated flush doors in the segment. From our side, the difference is the engineered doors and flooring is also booked in the same segment. That's one part on what is the independent revenue flow. I'll have Ashok respond.
We will answer it separately.
Sure. Secondly, on the chipboard side, you said that, you know, government is giving you some incentives which are for over the period of seven to 10 years. Could you just speak about it and how will it benefit in terms of margins or ROCE or, you know, the export opportunities that come up with it?
Yeah, sure.
This benefit will be there from seven to 10 years. As I mentioned, some is there in the capital, some is there as the employment, and some is on the power. Power in terms of one rupee we got for the concession for the power, as well as the electricity duty will be waived off, kind of things. This will be over a period of time every year. It will vary in terms of that. Let's say around INR 40 crore or something if everything comes at the right moment, kind of things with the government, because this has been sanctioned and now the next level is in terms of going to the government and applying that and getting that money into your hand.
Regarding export opportunities and the chipboard part, you mentioned that it started already. Can it become as large as what we've seen over the years for your laminates or is it too early to say?
No, I think it's too early to say. The advantage we have, one is the plants located at the port. The wood cost in India typically has been higher than wood cost of Southeast Asia. It depends on where the wood costs, how the wood costs move. In fact, I was in Southeast Asia two weeks back and our sense is at some point for chipboard business wood cost would be very similar to the wood cost people are having in Thailand because that's a major exporter of chipboard. As you know, Greenlam sells to 120 countries. In many markets, our channel partners, our distributors also carry chipboard of some other brands. It could be a player from Europe, it could be a Thai producer, it could be a Turkish producer.
Because of the popularity of the Greenlam brand in many locations, we are able to open doors in many markets to push Greenlam melamine support. We started exports to now four countries. Clearly we can't export everywhere like we do laminates because wood is expensive and the freight cost of the percent is quite high. Geographies where there's no local production, geographies where accessibility through the sea is efficient, I think we'll find markets in those countries. Fortunately for us, we already have some presence in those markets with the laminates brand. Either we have a channel partner, maybe we have a team. I think that gives us a kind of a head start on that front. Like we said, the program of compact laminates, melamine chipboard and laminates also come in from the same plant. We've seen some markets, some customers want some compact laminates, some chipboard.
Again, it's very early to say or tell you how large this can become. I think this would be meaningful for our business, but very hard to say at what level this can get scaled. Bare boards will not do much. Plain boards I don't see. We get traction, we'll get traction with the melamine chipboards where we have strength on the design and where the product and the brand gets specified in those markets. I think that's a sense.
You know, lastly on the wood side, your peers have been speaking about wood prices going lower. How are you seeing the scenario for your plans and your procurement, and how much could be the decline from here also that we could see.
On the wood, our wood factories are in South India. One is in Tamil Nadu and one is in Andhra Pradesh. For the plywood, we are seeing it is more or less stable. There's not much reduction on the chipboard. Our base is of Q4, so versus Q4 to Q1, the buying has come down a bit and we think Q2 will be probably similar or slightly lower. The difference, because when you say peers, you're mostly referring to MDF producers, so their mix of wood and our mix of wood will be a bit different. In chipboard, you can use multiple species, waste wood. You can mix different species, so there's more flexibility in the production process. As you can see, it's layers of product, it's not one fiber. There will be a different way to look at the wood cost there.
As you see things now, stable or slightly softening, we will not give you exact per rupee cost like a competition does when you wait for one year Settler business, give it all that.
I think you could read my next.
Yeah, I knew that. We'll not be able to do that. Please.
No problem. The last one, what would be your portion of prelam. I know it's too early, but what would be a portion of pre laminated at this point of time? What are you aiming for the entire FY 2026 and 2026?
First, I must tell you that typically most chipboard eventually gets sold as a laminated board. Maybe a very small percent, 4%, 5%, gets sold as a bare board. Even if I sell chipboard to somebody else, it's somebody else who laminates it. Because they're short cycle producers and because India didn't have enough board production, short cycle producers came up in the country who were importing boards from Thailand or Vietnam or some other place or buying local boards. That's the overall situation as far as we are concerned. Obviously, the aim will be to continuously increase the value mix to more pre-lam. At this moment, because we have enough capacities, we're shipping plain and pre-lam. You can see that from the competition data, what their value mix is, what ours is, and you can make a guess.
It's already quite a high percent of pre-lamination that we've already started.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Yeah, hi, Praveen here Sir, from PL Capital. My question is related to chipboard only. You had said about INR 21,000 is a realization right now and you are selling a bare board right now. How is the realization difference between the prelam or melamine or, you know, bare board?
No, we're selling boards. We are selling plain boards as well as melamine boards. Even now, our melamine percent is quite high. I think it's very similar to our nearest competitor data which you all have in the market. We're nearly at that level of percent of prelam already because we compared the data. It's both. The difference, so plain board and prelam is basically you put a deco paper on both sides, you can see those samples. Typically, a prelam, depending on the paper, will be INR 23,000- INR 24,000 a cubic meter, you know, and plain board, depending on the thickness, you know, and what prices, could be anything between INR 13,000 -INR 14,000 a cubic meter.
Okay. You had given that the margin improvement will come with the utilization improvement. The number you had given on. The basis of you know what the bare board utilization only or the please laminate.
It's a mix of bare and free and elementary board. Even in there until now the industry was selling only interior grade plain board. We have some samples for you all. We built a high moisture resistant product also, which we've not launched full scale. It's still been a small launch in few markets. The UFI, so the realization profitability will be a mix of plain board, interior grade, plain wood, HMR, and malevolent support. It'll be a mix of all of them. Obviously, it takes time for us to kind of get the mix right.
Right. Next question is plywood. You said about this year is to break even. This is hold true like this year.
Last year we started the plywood business. FY 2024 first year we did about INR 60 crore of revenues. FY 2025 we doubled to INR 120 crore. Right now we're present only in the premium end of the market over the budgets we have for this year. If that gets done we should be EBITDA breakeven, not net breakeven. Earlier we were present only in South India. We added Maharashtra and a few more states of Central India and East India in the sales program. We still are not a pan India brand at the moment.
On the depth, a ny guidance how much is expected to r educe by this year?
Yeah, in terms of this year we don't foresee there is a huge debt reduction kind of a thing. We foresee this as similar to last year. Even though in the quarter one this has gone up in comparison to last year, we believe going forward it will come down and it will remain around INR 1,000 crore or similar to what previous year kind of a level. Since this year is still the remaining CapEx of around INR 150 crore need to be made in this year, we believe from next year onward this debt should keep coming down.
Right. Last question is how much is the. Export percentage in laminates?
Laminates approximately 50% is international business
And where it is largely?
Our sales are quite diverse. It's across several markets. If you take a top 10-20 market, it would be Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, UAE, Saudi, Germany, Italy, U.K., U.S., Mexico. I think that's where it'll be.
Thank you, sir. All the best.
Thank you.
Sir. Good evening, Rishabh from Anand Rathi. Just wanted to understand. You mentioned there is scope for brownfield. Expansion in laminates at both Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Any timeline when we will be expanding? You mentioned that you acquired land i n UP for plywood. Correct. What's the scope there? What will be the size of the plant CapEx and what timelines? Thanks.
Laminates, you saw we are about 84% utilization right now. With the projections we have, it depends on when we hit a certain point where we need to expand. With the targeted volume growth as seen right now, as we see things in FY 2027, we will need to add a production line. I think we will take it as business improves and we have that flexibility. We already have land in both the places. I think we'll see the next few quarters and then make a decision. In laminates, we have various sizes. Sometimes, you know, we might have a capacity free in a certain size, but some of the capacity, some of the dimension rest is running full capacity. Seeing the situation, we'll take a call. We'll review the coming six to nine months, then appropriately take a decision on the up. The land acquisition work is nearly over.
Final formalities of approvals, etc., are going on there. Again, we want to see at what level we ramp up the private business. At the right point, we will take a decision to invest in North India. Yes, should be. Next question, please. Any?
Hi sir. What would be our export contribution to the U.S. and any impact from tariff? That you've started witnessing?
The U.S. is a very small part of our overall export. If you say so, only to the U.S. is around 4%-5% of our export goes to the U.S., and overall of the turnover it will be less than 3% in terms of that. Prior to the, in the U.S., when the 10% increase did happen in April, we have passed on that price into the market and consumer; that has been absorbed. The recent increase of 25% and further 25% still we are evaluating because this will be applicable when the goods reach the U.S., not as of now. The duty is not applicable. We are still reviewing the overall situation, and the last 25% is still not applicable. It will be applicable only for whatever goods leave India after 21st of August . We are still reviewing that, and then probably we will take a call based on that.
It's not a very big business. For us as of now.
Okay, so on the plywood side, how a re we priced against our immediate competitors, and what's our right to win there? Like you know, compared to the larger players?
Our focus is right now on the branded premium plywood, let's say INR 120, INR 125 per sq ft plus plywood. In that category, we can confidently say we are best in class in terms of quality, the production process, the equipment we invested in, the quality of raw material. You know in plywood they check with density, uniformity, calibration, etc. etc. I think we've been able to consistently thwart good quality to the market. The right to win is from a quality, from a focus on premium category plywood. The secondary working being done in the markets with architects, contractors, interior designers, homeowners. That's how we're winning market share. Earlier we were only, like I said, in five states in South India and now gradually we are adding into more markets.
In that segment, our pricing will be more or less equal to the number one, number two player in the market. In some markets we could be 2% or 3% higher, in some markets we could be 2% or 3% lower, but in that band.
Just last question. On the chipboard, do you think it would cannibalize the market of MDF?
It's hard to say that we've seen, with our understanding of the limited understanding of the market, all the three panel products, plywood, MDF, chipboard, finally make a space for itself. Yes, we can say that over the last few years, because of a lack of high quality boards and meaningful capacity, there was no meaningful company promoting this category. They were all subscale plants in India. One of our competitors will end up taking some share of MDF, some share of the local plywood, some share of local chipboard, the prelim chipboard market, the melamine chipboard market. I think we'll end up taking some share of prelim MDF in the commercial segment because in the absence of melamine, good quality melamine chipboard, furniture makers were using a melamine MDF product, which I think there will be some cannibalization there. I guess so.
We have to see how this pans out because the price point of melamine chipboard is approximately 30%- 35% lower than melamine MDF. From a performance perspective, in dry application workstations or any other dry application commercial shop fit outs, cabinetry work, it just does the same thing. The density is good and we have made some samples. The screw holding of the product is excellent. When you close it with the edge band, it looks very homogeneous. Like I showed in the slide, we are going to offer melamine chipboard with 100% matching edges, which until now, there's no other company in the country which does that. This will be stocked in our factory and it built an outsourcing program. When we ship melamine chipboard to the customers, they'll get a 100% match of the edges, which typically in the market people don't.
No other company does a match. They put some local materials, so the product doesn't look homogeneous. With the design development we've done, with the product development we will do, and the program we are putting across with HPL, with laminates, with compact laminates, edgeband working in the market with architects, ID specification, I think we'll end up winning some market from that. That's my sense. You come to know when it happens.
The pricing would be similar to, like, how cheap would it be compared to MDF?
No. Like I said, melamine chipboard will be on average 30%-35% lower pricing compared to melamine MDF, same thickness. For many applications, the furniture makers, the contractors, large GCC office projects will move to melamine chipboard. Also, the dimension in chipboard, again I'm not trying to sell chipboard and de-sell MDF, that's not the objective. The sizes you can do in melamine chipboard are 6 ft by 8 ft, 6 ft by 9 ft. You can do larger boards. For furniture makers, they need bigger panels which helps them reduce their wastage and use the product more smartly because it's all automated and it's a furniture setup. I think all these things, once it gets into motion, we believe will win more market share.
Okay, thank you, sir. I'm Varun from B&K Securities.
Investment Advisor. Your debt equity is about 1 now. You are in a business where. You know the margins fluctuate because of. Realization, because of whatever, you know, wood sourcing, etc. What debt equity ratio are you comfortable going forward and when do you. See that achieving next one year, three years, five years.
We'll respond on the debt equity, but on the margin fluctuation. A margin fluctuation you can think will happen in the chipboard business. Laminates, plywood business will largely be stable margins. What you're seeing is like we said through the presentation, last three years, one after the other, plants came up, capacities came up, there were initial operating losses, investments in raw material and programs. The margins have moved. You see the laminates margin, if you remove the new plants, the margins have been stable and actually been going up. In the chipboard business you can expect some fluctuation basis of raw material. That also depends on how once the entire program is put in place, we'll come to know what the fluctuations can be or will be. Clearly the bigger investments are behind us.
As you move ahead, if the revenues can go to INR 4,500 crores over the next three to four years, this will drive operating margins and fat margins and clearly debt will reduce. The debt equity ratio will be comfortable. At what ratio will it be comfortable? I think it depends on the cycle of the business. Sometimes you expand aggressively because in the chipboard MDF business, investments come at one block, unlike laminate and plywood. You can still stage it. You can put one line now, but here you have to put a minimum 800 cubic meter-900 cubic meter capacity to be competitive in the long term. In the short term it looks like a little bit of a problem. When these capacities start running, all the operating parameters improve. India's furniture manufacturing base is still very small.
The furniture makers need these panel products which were either being imported or because of lack of panel products, good furniture manufacturing setups have not come in India. It's the way you kind of view this. I really think as we move ahead, these facilities will help expand furniture making in India and also cause a great advantage. All these board plants are agroforestry based. You're not going to natural forest, all plantation based. You're buying from the farmers. I think that ecosystem will also build. Clearly I think moving ahead, these businesses for us will grow up and it will fluctuate in the sense like a few years you could see things, equity going up, it really coming down. When you make one big investment again, the debt goes up and the ratio gets a bit disturbed.
No sir, the question is basically, you know, the new plants' capacity utilizations are v ery low, and that's why p robably?
Yeah, because one plant is just four months old. Yeah, yeah. The other supply, this is about, let's say, two years old there. I think we could have been slightly better.
Going forward, what do you see? When do these reach a level of 60% or 70% capacity utilization? Because that's the time when you know. Debt equity will become more manageable. I'm asking that will happen in. Next three years, five years?
No, no, when we say 18%- 20% growth over three to four years, at that point the laminates business, the chipboard and ply will be near full capacities because these plants can run at full capacities. The declutter business will not be at a full capacity because it doesn't need to run at that pace. Clearly, if the answer you're looking for is next two to three years, I think this should kind of normalize to a decent level.
Debt equity should be a reasonable number in the next two, three years.
Should be, I don't know what number.
If you see what we said, that debt will remain similar to last year level in this year, and with the equity going up, from the next year we are expecting the debt to come down. It should come down to the better level in next two to three years.
Okay, thank you. All the best.
Hello sir, it's Manish from HDFC Securities. My question is regarding particle board segment. What top line and utilization level are you looking for t his fiscal?
This fiscal? Yeah, we are expecting around 40%- 50%.
When you are expect this to hit break even?
It's breaking even at around this level. Of course, everything will depend upon how the raw material prices specifically would behave in terms of.
Okay, my last question on laminate prices. How are the prices in the market currently?
Prices in the sense you are talking about?
Laminate prices.
Selling price?
Yeah. Laminate prices have been stable with the unorganized companies. Sometimes you don't know at what pricing they operate. We took one increase last year, I think in September. At the moment we are comfortable with the laminate pricing, and as you can see, gross margin went up by about 11%. We want to build more volumes. The normal cost at least for us is more or less stable. The value mix is quite good. We are comfortable with the sales pricing of laminates at this moment.
Okay, so that's all from my side.
I think if you're done with the questions, we have Mr. Dani, our Independent Director, he also wants to say something?
No. Having seen the home improvement industry closely over the last 30 years, I would just want to bring out three things. One is the rise of the OEM furniture manufacturer. Whether it's the shift that you are seeing in office spaces, to tourism, to other infrastructure that's coming up in the country, that's a shift that's taking place. As Saurabh said earlier, availability has ensured that better material is available now to manufacture furniture. Also, this is a sector that creates many jobs. I think there'll be more emphasis also on furniture manufacturing and the whole value chain as far as India is concerned in the next few years, keeping in mind the challenges we see at the macro level. Second is, I think, seen it in laminates, I think we'll see it in the other segments that Greenlam has entered.
Also, the shift from unorganized to organized, I think buying from a branded player definitely has happened in the last few years and Greenlam stands out as far as quality is concerned. If availability or service is ensured, if price competitiveness is there, if the service is there and innovation is there, it's possible to gain from the shift from unorganized to organized sector. That's the second thing I wanted to say. Third is, and that's where you've seen the brand alignment and many other things that have taken place. I think one stop solution from Greenlam is possible as far as the sector is concerned, the product range, and there are many finer nuances as far as offering is concerned.
All that has been thought through and being rolled out and that will also ensure that, one is of course distribution cost comes down, there is more excitement as far as distributors or the distribution channel is concerned. It will also ensure much higher market share across categories because it's possible to cross sell. That's all I wanted to say. Thanks.
I think with this we thank you all. We close this Q& A session as I think there's no further questions there. We thank you all of you for taking out time and attending this, and we also invite you to the area which is outside. There you can also see the product samples, interact with our sales people, and get a far better knowledge of the products and their applications. Both look forward for you for the next round of analysts meet somewhere next year. Thank you so much.
Thank you once more.