Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Havells India Q1 FY 2026 earnings call hosted by DAM Capital Advisors. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Bhoomika Nair from DAM Capital Advisors. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thanks. A warm welcome to everyone on the 1Q FY 2026 earnings call of Havells India Limited. We have the management today being represented by Mr. Anil Rai Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Rajesh Kumar Gupta, Full-Time Director and Group CFO, Mr. Ameet Kumar Gupta, Full-Time Director, and Mr. Rajiv Goel, Executive Director. At this point, I'll hand over the floor to Mr. Gupta for his initial remarks, post which we'll open up the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Good evening all. Thank you for attending the call today. Hope you would have reviewed the results by now. Quarter one was a challenging quarter with unexpected weak summer and prolonged subdued consumer demand. The decline in cooling products revenue was more profound due to a strong base of last year. On the other side, infrastructure and industrial-led demand continued to drive robust growth in cables and wire segment. We have further accelerated capacity-building investments in this segment with an additional CapEx commitment of over INR 340 crore announced during the quarter. Our focus on cost discipline resulted in modest growth in expenses, a step towards driving better operational efficiency. During the quarter, we invested INR 600 crore in Goldi Solar to accelerate our growth in the renewable sector. Through this investment, we target to expand Havells' solar portfolio by leveraging Goldi's Solar module manufacturing capabilities.
We feel quarter one challenges are transitory and expect to drive revenue growth and margin improvement over the coming quarter. Thank you. We can now move to question and answer.
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 touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Vishal Dudhwala from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Good evening, sir. Am I audible to you?
Yes.
Yeah. I have a couple of questions. First question on the macro side. With rural infrastructure spend and electrification schemes accelerating, but the urban CapEx is slightly low, how are you seeing demand split between urban and rural market in upcoming quarters, and which product line are you focusing?
Very good question. I think we still are nascent in our rural journey, though we are one of the deepest penetrated in the electrical industry as far as rural markets are concerned. It still comprises only 5%-6% of our overall consumer products revenues. It is growing at a faster pace than in the urban areas. One of the reasons also that we are expanding, once we now have the base of distribution, we are expanding our product range in those markets. Last year, we expanded by not only giving the geo products, but there was a consumer demand for Havells branded products as well. Last year, we have launched that. That is also giving us growth. Even in this particular quarter, if you see, our rural growth, though very small, has been higher than in the urban demand. This will continue in the future also. We'll keep adding deeper distribution.
We'll keep adding product categories into the rural areas. We believe that this will be a good growth engine for the coming years.
Okay. As you said, we will expand our distribution. The second follow-up question is on Lloyd's revenue message shifted towards channel expansion in North and West India. How are you balancing deeper penetration against margin preservation? Specifically, competitive discounts are rising. How are you managing that?
I think. For Lloyd, actually, over the last few years, if you see, we have been expanding margins. And this is a combination of a few things, not just market pricing or discounting, but also a lot of internal efficiencies, manufacturing efficiencies also. So Havells, sorry, Lloyd, will continue to remain on this journey of margin improvement by better operational efficiency as well as better price positioning in the marketplace. While there will be, this market will be a competitive market, but we do feel that there is a good positive room to grow margins in Lloyd.
Okay. Got your point. That's it from my side. I will wait for your upcoming questions.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhoomika Nair from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Sir, obviously, this quarter has been quite challenging with the weak summers. If you can talk about the inventory levels at the channel for both AC, fans, and coolers, which have been the key areas of decline that we've seen this quarter. How is that at the current moment? With Lloyd seeing a fairly weak performance in 1Q, does that kind of impact our cooler performance in terms of continued turnaround and improvement in margin profile?
No, I think, first of all, it is a challenging quarter, but a challenging quarter based on the fact that it was a seasonal effect. It was not something which was pertinent to one brand or one company. It was a market reality. I think how we fare during these times in terms of ensuring how we manage our supply chain, how we manage our expenses, I think that's the key. Whether we continue to invest for the future, Lloyd, I think we are looking at a fairly medium to long-term play. What is very encouraging is the fact if we actually see that we grew extremely well last year first quarter, and then again, because of structural demand, there is a regrowth in this year.
During these two years, if you see, while the revenues may have remained the same in this quarter, our profitability improvement or margin improvement is significant. This is despite the fact that Lloyd continues to invest in brand building as well as deeper penetration, for which it requires they invest in in-shop demonstrators and people on the street. Those expenses have increased, but there has been a tremendous margin improvement. Again, as I said in my opening remarks, Q1 can be seen as transitory. We see that structurally, Lloyd is on the right path to gain revenue growth as well as profitability.
Okay. On the channel inventory, sir, across the three product categories, which.
I think when there is such a deep, let's say, I would say, reduction or destruction in demand because of certain structural reasons, channel inventory would be there. We have also high inventories at our level. I'm sure while we can say that during the second half of the first quarter, the primary sales had already reduced, which means the channel inventory might have adjusted itself to some extent, but I'm sure it would not have come down to normalized levels. It might take some more time, maybe a few months, for the entire supply chain to get readjusted.
Okay. Just quickly on cables and wires, it was a fairly strong performance. Could you kind of call out the volume versus the value growth for the quarter? We are expanding our capacity out here. How has the wires versus cables played out for us?
I think overall, the volume growth is about 20%, 21%, as it is 27% overall value growth. This is also very similar growth both in cables and wires. This is because of the fact that there has been a decent demand on the low base of wires of last year, as well as we have expanded capacities in underground cables, which is now panning out. That investment continues till next year for underground cables. If you see from FY 2024 to FY 2027, we will be doubling our capacities in underground cables, which will be coming at different times. Since the Tumkur facilities now started giving us production, the underground cables sales have also grown at a decent level.
We really perceive a good growth traction in the medium term on the cable side. I think we are fairly positive on the Havells side that this will be a good growth opportunity we have got now. With the capacity now falling in place every few months till FY 2027, I think this will also substantiate our efforts to grow the business.
Will the cables mix improve versus historically at 30%-40% kind of a range?
To some degree, yes. But wire has also been a very strong growth for us. So I will not claim very meaningfully, but yes, I think it could improve from what it is today.
Sure. Sure. If I have some more questions, I'll come back in the queue. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Natasha Jain from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on Lloyd again. Lloyd is predominantly a South and East India brand, and summer was worse off there versus North and West. Now, when I went on my distributor check, what I understood is the distributors have moved products from South to North in order to liquidate their own inventories. You mentioned to the last participant that your inventory is also high. Can you tell us how high is it? Could that lead to some price discounting we could see in the following quarters?
Are you talking about our inventory or the channel inventory?
Your inventory at Lloyd at Havells's end, not the channel's end.
No, I think if you see Lloyd's, inventory is definitely at a high level. You know very well that we have production facilities which continue to run at full capacity from October. We build up capacity inventory till March, and so there was a decent amount of inventory at the end of March as well, which obviously could not be brought down to normalized levels of very low inventory at the end of June. Because we have two manufacturing facilities, plants have to keep running. I think if we really see from a season point of view, then it's not a very large inventory. We are now coming into the upcoming low season for AC sales. We are very confident that in the next couple of quarters, all this will get readjusted fully.
Understood. My second question is on the creditor days. Your creditor days have reduced from 57% to 44%. Any specific reason for that?
I think largely because the manufacturing activity also were lighter, particularly, let's say, ACs, for example. What happened in the last few months of the quarter, we were not producing to the optimal capacity. What happened is that you're also not purchasing, as you see what you were doing compared to last year. The creditors keep getting paid off. Ideally, had the manufacturing been at full peak like last year, then you would not have seen this difference. I hope you understand it's more of a cycle thing. Nothing structural changes that we have changed any terms or anything with the creditors.
Understood. Sir, one last quick question. When I see an ECD margin trend that's been on a declining trend, and Havells is one of those companies which is indexed to premium products, so honestly, the margin should have gone upwards rather than downwards. Any structural change, any competition too much, or what is happening there in terms of sustainable margin decline?
I think the way we track is that we actually track contribution margins, where we have started seeing improvements in our ECD business in all the businesses. Sometimes it's the product mix issue because the summer products didn't sell very well in this particular quarter. The contribution margins, if you look at business to business separately, fans, water heaters, coolers, LDA, they're all on the improvement side. Two things, product mix change because of lower summer season sales, and operating leverage also could not be achieved fully because of lower sales. We are actually, we called out earlier also that while we are also looking for good growth, we are also improving margins through operational efficiencies and premiumizing our portfolio.
Got it, sir. Thank you so much. I'll get back in with you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Renu Baid Pugalia from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good evening, team. The first question is, sorry to circle back on the channel and company inventory. Is it possible for you to quantify the inventory situation both on the RAC as well as the fans. Portfolio levels with the company, and which may have a drawdown in the coming months based on the non-seasonal trends?
No, we would not like to quantify on this call.
Sure. Secondly, cables with now capacity doubling in the next two years, how are we investing to build our capability and portfolio as well as requalifications in the cables business? After a late catch-up, any details or comments that you would like to give here?
Yeah. I think from when we are seeing doubling the capacities from FY 2024 to FY 2027, that's when the major CapEx started. From 2024, 2025. I think right now we see a good traction. Our issue was capacity was not capable to sell. We are building new customer base as well as not only in India but outside India as well. We are seeing good traction in the export market, and our growth in export markets is also quite decent for underground cables. That will continue to be.
Largely, cables broadly will continue to be a low-voltage portfolio for us, or are we making any investments in the medium voltage segment as well?
I think major investments which have gone for capacity expansion are both more for medium voltage to high voltage. Actually, we had enough capacity on the low voltage side. Our major buildup is more on the medium voltage and high voltage.
Sure. Lastly, given that we have now investments committed for Goldi and investing in the solar segment, would you like to share what would be Havells' aspirations in the solar market, both rooftop and solar pumps? From a three to five-year perspective, in your view, how large can this segment be for us in revenue terms?
I believe that. With this investment and the way renewables is coming up, we are definitely looking at a very sizable growth in our solar business or renewables business. I think last year we did about INR 500 crore in the solar business. We definitely see that it could cross maybe INR 1,000-1,500 crore in the next couple of years. There is a, and you said the next four to five years, there's a huge potential for growth coming up there. I would not like to just divide this between modules or solar pumps because solar pumps is also a bigger opportunity. This is something which is happening overall. Just remember, it's not only our products like solar panels or inverters which get sold, but it also builds a pipeline for selling cables, switchgear, and other lighting products also in this business.
I think we are looking at this sector for future growth opportunities. Renewables, I think, is something which we will focus on in the next few years.
Got it. Thanks for your investigation. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in this conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Siddhartha Bera from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, the first question is on this other than ECD categories where we have seen decline. Now, I believe others also include many other components. Is there a seasonal element there as well where we have seen a drop or any particular category which is sort of leading to that decline? Same for ECD. Is it largely only led by fans, or are there categories where you have seen growth? Some color there will be as well.
In others, we also saw a decline in pumps because of the intermittent rains and motors. As well as in ECD, primarily it was fans, but also room coolers. That also saw a significant decline in sales. Very similar to what we saw in air conditioning.
Understood. When you say this was transitory, have you already seen signs of any recovery sort of playing out in any of these categories in the current quarter or going ahead, or still things remain not lustered as of now?
I think very early to say because especially products like ACs and coolers, this is a very low season period anyway. Fans is now more like a structural demand than just seasonal demand. In the season, it definitely increases. During these quarters, it's not as pronounced as in room coolers and ACs. We will definitely see growth in fans in the coming months, but it may take one or two months for the inventories to get readjusted in the channel.
Understood, sir. Sir, last year on switchgear, we have seen the contribution margin also falling a bit sequentially. Is it any mix impact or anything which has happened here if you can help us understand?
Yeah. Again, I would say that we've always maintained 38%-40% is something which we try to look at in the switchgear segment. Sometimes there is a mixed element of maybe higher exports or higher project-oriented business. Generally, this is what we are aiming for. If you've seen over the last few quarters sequentially, we are improving now, and we are trying to get into the range of the 38%-40%.
Got it, sir. Thanks, sir. I'll come back with you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aniruddha Joshi from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Sir, thanks for the opportunity. While the season has been bad, if you can indicate, is there any market share gain in the three products, RAC, fan, and coolers? Secondly, what are the additional initiatives done by Havells to clear off the inventory, like additional discounts to the trade, or the market trader is giving free installation of air conditioners or something like those kind of any initiatives which Havells has started?
Yeah. I think a lot of times it also depends upon the selling strategy of various companies. If you see from the start of the calendar year, January to June, our sales have fairly remained flat over last year, which shows, and we are also seeing if we look at the figures, what we get from the market intelligence, we continue to remain amongst the top three sellers for air conditioners. As far as discounting or anything on that goes, Havells is generally not a company who would take short-term decisions. In any case, during the season time, there are more attractive incentives given to consumers so that while they are picking up the product, they are selecting a certain brand, and that Havells or Lloyd also comes out in the quarter.
I do not think on an unseasonal basis, they will be coming out with heavy discounting. That is not what has been the strategy. We are fairly flexible with our supply chain, and hopefully that should come to our benefit in the second and third quarters. We have better adjustment capabilities in the coming quarters.
Okay. Sure, sir. Last question. Rural sales have remained at 5%. I guess this number has remained 5%-6% over many years now. Now, Havells had done, I guess, some rural stores. I guess Usta was the name of the stores. Again, we have pumps business also. What are the three to four key initiatives that we are working to take this 5% number upwards? Do you have any three-year or five-year target for rural sales to increase, maybe 10% of sales or 15% of sales? Anything like that? Yeah. That's it from my side. Thanks.
Havells is a portfolio of many products and brands. I think overall, as a company, it's not right for us to give a number for overall rural sales. The initiatives that you talk about, I spoke earlier also, while we are also opening Usta stores which are fully branded, full-brand stores in very small areas like 5,000-10,000 population, which is actually giving us very good traction from those areas. We are adding product categories in the same channels. The initiatives could be like these added pumps. I spoke about the Havells branded products also launched in the last one year. Very soon, we'll be looking at launching Lloyd products through this channel also. There is a certain development time required for these markets because not the entire complete portfolio is given to the market.
We also do it at a pace where it can be absorbed in those markets rather than just becomes a dumping ground for businesses. I think it's a fairly calibrated strategy of expanding the network and expanding product categories. Some of the product categories actually have broken the 10% level. Even Rio brand has gone to almost 25% coming from the rural areas. I think that's how we are targeting whichever product category or brand makes sense for the rural markets. We will continue to expand the share of that.
Okay. Sure. Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Praveen from TL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my question is related to the gross margin which has improved by 160 basis points for UI. If I look at your contribution margin or even the EBIT margin, except the cable or others which has improvement, what is the reason for the GM significant improvement?
Sorry, can you just—I am a bit lost. What is your question? GM here.
Gross margin for a quarter has been improved on the UI side. Whereas if I look at the segment-wise contribution—
Where are you seeing this number?
Gross margin, sir. Material margin, I can say.
I don't know whether you've gone through the information memorandum where we give contribution margins for each business. That's how we usually track because product mix can vary completely in a quarter. We have to look at quarter-on-quarter numbers or YoY numbers for various different businesses, like switchgear separately, Lloyd separately. That's how we look at it.
Okay, sir. The next question I'll come to, that is related to the Lloyd itself. As you had already mentioned, that the inventory level were on the higher side. Also, there is a BEE norm change by January 2026. Do you believe there would be some pressure of a liquidation of your product in the coming quarters, which will be a risk to our margin profile?
No, actually, the inventories are not that high level that in the next two quarters, we'll be worried about the fourth quarter. I think usually, October to December quarter is a bigger quarter. We have our own factories, we'll be adjusting our supply chain. We don't see a challenge in terms of transition towards the new BEE norms.
Right, sir. Right. If I can take on the one last question related to the lighting, you had mentioned 10% YoY LED prices decrease. What's your expectation the way forward in the coming quarters? The LED pricing to be—is it continuing to be a declining phase, or do you believe that's done from here onwards?
I think when we compare year on year, there seems to be a decline in, again, over a large product mix. However, sequentially now, they are plateauing. Hence, we should be in a position to see growth in the lighting segment. As you would have seen, as we continue to invest in lighting, our contribution margins continue to remain high because we are selling very high-end premium products, more solution-oriented products in the lighting segment rather than getting into very low-cost businesses. In fact, our margins in lighting are industry-leading margins, and we will continue to invest there. We have to tide over this time of price deflation. I think over the last few years, Havells has done a tremendous job in terms of maintaining profitability during this deflationary period, while also continuing to expand capabilities in selling products which are far more solution-oriented.
I think we are very, very positive about the lighting business in the coming time.
Thank you, sir. All the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Achal Lohade from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, two questions. First, just on an aggregate basis, for the RAC and fans, particularly, is it fair to say that we would have maintained market share, we would have lost, or gained a little bit market share on a year-on-year basis, on a like-to-like basis? I'm just a bit puzzled about the sharp decline. Like ECD, we have seen for the first time such a sharp decline for a mature category like fan. Is there anything specific to us for the quarter, or is it the industry as a whole that has seen that kind of a double-digit decline, even in fans?
If we would see that, again, as I mentioned earlier, there are certain selling strategies. For example, in air conditioners, we achieved a 40% growth in the fourth quarter. That was an industry-leading growth in terms of room ACs. If we actually see the first six months of the year, calendar year, we believe that we have either maintained or gained market share in room air conditioners. As far as fans are concerned or ECD is concerned, this also has to be looked into as a combination of both fans as well as room coolers, which room coolers saw a much more sharp decline. As you would recall, we were growing at a very fast pace in room coolers till last year. We have made structural changes in our room cooler business, and we were gaining market share heavily.
It is also because of the, again, the structural seasonal destruction of demand in the room cooler business, so we saw a sharp decline. I believe that there is no reason why we would not have maintained or gained market share in our fans business, where we have been investing heavily in building the premium portfolio as well as the BLDC portfolio. Our distribution reach has also improved significantly over the last year. We believe that we would definitely not have lost market share in any of the product categories.
Got it. The second question I had with respect to cable and wire margins, 12.6% PBIT margin. I was just curious if cables have grown at a faster pace. There would be some impact on the margins, on the contrary, margins improved. Is there any structural change in the cables margin we have seen? Are the newer categories, what we are selling, at better margins compared to what earlier it was? Yes.
I have not said that cables have grown faster than the wires business. In fact, it's very similar growth. Maybe wires might be a few percentage points more growth as compared to cables. What we were not able to see in cables growth earlier, now we are seeing because of enhanced capacity expansion. Obviously, better operating leverage, a good product mix would help in margins. Again, quarter-on-quarter is very difficult to say that these are steady-state margins, but we usually are ranging between 14%-15%. This particular quarter has been 15%, but our aspiration has always been between 14% and 15% for contribution margin for cable and wire business.
Understood. This is very helpful, sir. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in this conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Naushad Chaudhary from Aditya Birla Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Two clarifications. First, on the Lloyd business, just wanted to understand if broadly our cost structure or the efficiency which we were seeking from this piece of business is broadly set for us. And if one season goes well for the category, can we think this business can be, this business margin can be as good as any other guys are operating in the same segment?
I don't know. I don't want to say compare with the others, but as I've always mentioned, our investment in brand building and distribution is higher as compared to the others. We have been able to get benefits on the structural changes in terms of our cost structures. That's what I said maybe sometime back on the call itself, that if you compare our results of the last two years in Lloyd, we have seen significant improvements in contribution margins despite the fact that we continue to invest in brand building as well as people deployment in the distribution. That is very heartening to see, and hopefully, this should be good for the coming quarters for Lloyd business.
All right. Second, on the switchgear business. As there are new players who are getting very aggressive in this piece of business because of the lucrativeness this category offers, are you also experiencing the competition emerging here, and that might give some risk on the growth as well as on the margin side of this piece of business? What is the outlook here?
Actually, on the switchgear side, there is much of. There is less of emerging competition. More is the established competition, which, again, because this has higher barriers to entry. In any case. So I think switchgears. Margins-wise, we are not seeing that much issue on the. Business.
The growth outlook here, sir?
Growth outlook, as I said initially also, that the consumer demand overall has been tepid in the last few quarters. I think this will pick up. Hopefully, in the second half of the year, where we see that by that time, things would have settled down. With a good festive season, hopefully, we should start seeing growth in our core categories.
Sure. All the best. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashish Jain from Macquarie India. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening, sir. My first question is on the investment in Goldi Solar. Apart from product access, what is the thought process behind it, and how do we really stand to benefit from that?
I think I had mentioned earlier also today also that renewables is something that Havells is looking at as a big future growth possibility. Our investment is definitely to ensure that we have product access to achieve this growth opportunity.
I think. So. Ashish, increasingly, the government is insisting that all the products should be made in India, including shells also. I think it's important to align through a strategic investment. The other option could have been to do it all yourself. We believe this has been a balanced way of assessing the best possible source. As well as, you see, having a strategic impact here. We do not want to be transitional in this business. We believe the renewable has a lot of, sort of, multiple levers going forward. You see, tomorrow, it could be even battery storage, which could come up. I think unless you invest in these businesses, you cannot have the long-term structural story intact.
Sir, can you talk a bit about, if possible, about what Goldi Solar is doing apart from solar panel? Is there something else which is in the offering?
They are also going backward integration into solar cells as well. I think their opportunities tomorrow also could be into battery energy storage as well. Right now, it is for the modules as well as for the solar cells, which they are going to implement in the next 18 months.
Okay. All right, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Umang Mehta from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question was on wires. Did we see any inventory buildup in that segment, considering that copper prices were on an uptrend through the quarter? Gradual price up moves generally good for your margins, right? When you say normalized kind of contribution is 14%-15%. That's the kind of outlook you are giving for the near term. That's correct?
Yeah. I think, first of all, yes, we did see some inventory buildup in the first quarter for wires. Again, this is a short cycle, and hopefully, this should get clear in the next first 15-20 days of the month. It is something which is not a regular thing and it is very difficult to predict also. Yes, you are right. I mean, 14%-15%, when I say it is a combination of both cables and wires. We do get benefited if there is a gradual upward movement and higher sales. That is why I am saying that maybe this particular quarter could be 16%, hopefully. We are definitely always aspiring to be above 14%-15%.
Great. Yes, sir. Thank you. The second one was more of a longer-term question. We have seen media articles circulate about some acquisition. Now, not particular to that one, but how are you thinking about inorganic growth going forward? Is there any size restriction in your mind or, I mean, just your thoughts on this?
Yeah. I think we have always maintained that. These things will be open for discussion and evaluation. As you also mentioned, this has to be a certain size so it could move the needle forever. Also, it should be complementary to our categories. Depending upon the opportunity, whether we like to double down on an existing category or we rather add an adjacent category, I think those are the considerations which have to be weighed at the time of the evaluation. Yes, inorganic, open to them. Frankly, we have a very large organic portfolio today, which has got a lot of exciting opportunities moving ahead, particularly, as you mentioned, even renewables. There is a lot on the plate, honestly. Never say never on the inorganic as well.
Sure, sir. Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Keyur Pandya from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. First question on the switchgear side. You have maintained for a higher contribution margin, probably 25%-26% kind of range. Sorry, 38%-40% kind of contribution and 25%-26% EBIT margin. I mean, you have shown growth, and despite that, margin is lower in switchgear. Any specific reason in general outlook on the category which is more linked to real estate? That is the first question. Second question is, overall, when you have seen good demand for house wires, any reason for discrepancy in the sense that other real estate-related categories like switchgears or switches or other real estate-related categories not doing well? And on your view, real estate-related demand as well. Thank you.
On the switchgear, you see, you would have seen last two quarters were 38% and a half, like what we have always maintained as a bank. One quarter here and there could be productive, like this year, this quarter, the exports were pretty high. I think these contributions sometimes they get reflected. We know no structural sort of issue out here. Second, on the house wires, look, the wires are not only from real estate. Wires also have multiple uses. To some extent, there is also some degree of the previous question which somebody asked. You see, it also got helped by the stocking due to the rising copper prices. As far as the real estate is concerned, we remain positive. I think I know we have called it out several for the last few quarters.
I think we are positive that the real estate-led, what we call the finishing stage demand will come, whether it has come this quarter, in the next sort of few quarters. This is something we are very sort of confident of. Hopefully, this should start reflecting in a few quarters as we speak.
Just one follow-up on that answer. Is this recovery more of a hope, or are you seeing any soft signals as in inquiry or demand or any change in, I can make correct?
Look, this quarter has just started. You cannot expect that in 20 days, you have the trend which can be predicted. I think, yes, I think there is a positive hope that this will come because if the real estate cycle has started, if you guys claim that there is so much housing happening all over the country, so many mortgages are happening, mortgage companies are growing, then someday, I am sure they also need the real product if they are real houses. I see no reason why one should not be positive, and I have hope on the same. Yes, that is what we are looking at.
Noted, sir. Thanks a lot. All the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Sir, thank you for taking my question. Just one question. I think you did speak this number, and I maybe missed it. Can you just enumerate what is the total contribution that we have across different products from the solar portfolio today?
Solar portfolio, if you are talking about including. Yeah. No, no. Every business has different. Last year, we did solar business, almost INR 420 crore, INR 400 crore business in solar. We are not including business of wires or switchgear. Maybe we will have to come back to you, Pulkit.
Sir, okay. No problem. I'll take it offline. My purpose of really understanding was INR 600 crore investment. What is the kind of TAM or growth that we are looking at from that investment, given that the base we are working with is INR 420 crore? You can come back to me, this is really what I'm trying to come to.
Yeah, yeah. No, TAM could be ever-expanding, frankly speaking. This TAM is not stagnant. This TAM could lead to multiple things. You know how the energy storage is coming up, how the cells are coming, how it is all being made in India. So TAM, I think, could be significant out here. But I think we'll take it offline with you.
Sure, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Charanjit Singh from DSP. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is regarding the overall cost rationalization, which we had been talking about in terms of the buildup in cost, which has happened across particular heads. Either it is employee expenses, other expenses, or A&P spend. If you can touch upon what's the kind of rationalization we can see going forward, and from a margin trajectory, how we should see in the next coming quarters, or where do we see the company-level margins? Because now they have been at that 9.5% for the last three years' time frame. That's the only question from my side.
I think. We have maintained in the last five years, if we see, we have been investing in terms of manpower, and we've started seeing some reflection in this year. Hopefully, going forward, also, we'll continue to see higher productivity. Gains out of the investments that we've made. I've called out a few things like Lighting will continue to invest in terms of capability building. Lloyd is a growth engine. This investment will be there. Overall, we will definitely be trying to gain, we'll try to gain operating leverage from our fixed expenses. A lot also depends upon the future growth prospects. I think if future growth in each business continues to remain robust, definitely, we'll start seeing flow through into the bottom line.
Is there any kind of segments where we see also targeted reduction in this expenditure, while there are certain segments where we are investing or channels where we are shifting our investments and reducing in certain parts?
I think it's a readjustment of expenses. For example, you've rightly said, if there is a channel mix change in certain product categories, there is a readjustment of focusing towards. Our manpower efforts towards a certain channel, like if rural is expanding or projects business is expanding or modern format retail is expanding. It's a readjustment towards that. It's not that we'll continue to hire there also and there also. It's a readjustment. That's moving in line with the way product mix and channel mix is changing.
Got it, sir. That's all from my side. Thank you, sir, for taking my question.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, this would be our last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Bhoomika Nair from DAM Capital Advisors Limited for closing comments.
Yes, I would just like to thank all the participants and also the management for giving us an opportunity to host the call. Thank you very much, sir, and wish you all the very best.
Thank you very much, Bhoomika. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of DAM Capital Advisors Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.