Q1 26/27

Aug 14, 2026

Summary

Q1 revenue grew 16.65% and PBDIT 26.46% YoY, while commodity and forex costs continued to pressure margins. Management is targeting ~20% growth, with efficiency actions and product expansion supporting the outlook.

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the IFB Industries Limited Q1 FY 2027 earnings call hosted by Nirmal Bang Equities Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rabindranath Nayak. Thank you and over to you, sir. Thank you, Sandra. On behalf of Nirmal Bang Equities, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q1 FY 2027 earnings call of IFB Industries Limited. We thank the management of IFB Industries for giving us the opportunity to host this call. From the management team we have with us Mr. Sandip Joseph Abraham, Managing Director and CEO, Home Appliances Division. Mr. C.S. Govindaraj, Executive Director, Manufacturing Home Appliances Division. Mr. Soumitra Goswami, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Arup Das, Executive Director, Engineering Business. Mr. Jayanta Chanda, CFO, Engineering Business. Mr. Kartik Muchandi, Head, Finance and Accounts, Home Appliances Division. And Mr. Ranjan Mohan, National Sales Head, Home Appliances Division. Please note that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations which involve risk and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially. The management assumes no obligation to update these statements in light of new information or future developments. Without taking much of time, I would like to hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Following the management commentary, we will open the floor for the question and answer session. Over to you, sir. Thank you. I am Soumitra Goswami. I welcome you all for IFB Industries Limited investor call for first quarter FY 2027. Let me tell you about the quarter one revenue. Revenue for the quarter was INR 1,529 crore against last year's INR 1,311 crore, which is a growth of 16.65%. PBDIT for the period was INR 88.46 crore and its percentage to revenue is 5.79% as compared to last year's INR 69.95 crore, which was 5.3%, 3% on revenue. There is an increase in PBDIT amount by INR 18.51 crore, which is a growth of over last year by 26.46%. Fixed expenditures for that quarter were well within budget. However, in case of some of the expenditure heads, expenses increased over last year. PBT for that period was INR 51.54 crore, which is 3.3% on revenue against last year's figure of INR 33.96 crore, which was 2.59% on revenue. Q1 PAT was INR 38.06 crore, which is 2.5% on revenue against last year's INR 25.36 crore, which is 1.9% on revenue. With this, I would like to request to start the question and answer session. 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 touchtone 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 Lakshminarayan K G from Tunga Investments. Please proceed. Yeah. Thank you. Two questions. If I look at the commodity increase in Q1 and Q4, which you have actually mentioned, it totals to almost INR 90 crore and the Forex also totals to around INR 81 crore. So it's almost INR 170 crore of impact on both the things, right? While the cost savings, if I just total, it comes to maybe around INR 110 crore or maybe INR 120 crore. My question is that whether this commodity increase, is it behind us and do you think either it is behind us or can we actually pass this entire commodity increase so that the cost savings is actually permanent in the next few quarters? And how do you think about the Forex impact that you have got and what is the prognosis for the year ahead? That is my first question. Second, I see that room air conditioner growth has been close to 10%. What I gather is that the industry grew almost at 20% plus in the same period. Is it a kind of a choice of not matching the industry growth or there has been some kind of a disadvantage you had in terms of growth in the room air conditioners? So these are the two questions. Okay. As far as commodity is concerned, Sandeep here. Commodity and Forex continues to be an issue. Even when you look at Q1, we have an issue as far as commodity and Forex is concerned and whether it is behind us, as of now, no. We are still seeing commodity increases that are there, as well as Forex, there is not much of a change as far as Forex is concerned. Is it behind us? As of now, it doesn't look like it is behind us, and we continue to be under strain when it comes to both commodity and Forex. How much commodity you have passed on, sir? Because for example, if you just take the last two quarters, it comes to almost INR 90 crore of commodity increase. Has it been passed on or when do you think it can be passed on? No, we are trying to pass on whatever is possible, but we need to be competitively priced in the market and therefore, have we been able to pass on commodity? No, we have not been able to pass on commodity and Forex to the market. We've been able to get some cost initiatives that are there, which is basically to improve efficiencies in our operation. So that has helped us as far as our P&L is concerned. But no, we have not been able to pass on the commodity and Forex to the customer in the form of a price increase. Got it. My second question is on RAC. Yeah. As far as AC is concerned, you see with quarter one, when you look at it, every couple of years, two years or three years, the government changes the ratings that are there. We had taken a conscious call that we would not build up stock of the older rating AC products. Therefore our old rated AC products, actually, we completed it in the first month itself. By about January itself we had completed it, and we moved into the new rating as far as AC is concerned. The new rating, as you might realize, is about 10%-15% more expensive in the market. Therefore, we did not have the advantage of the older rated products with the price advantage in the market. We consciously said that we would not carry it forward. From that point of view, yeah, we had that disadvantage when it came to the operations itself. However, we are concentrating on some of the higher capacity models where we are seeing good growth and we will continue to focus on that. In terms of capacity of RACs, can you just tell me how many shifts are going on and what is the current capacity and how much you can actually enhance without adding more capacity, just by enhancing the shift? Govindaraju- Yeah. This is Govindaraju here. Right now our capacity in air conditioner is about 75,000, and in the peak month we are using about 85%. At the same time, we are working on improving the capacity through debottlenecking and some automation. There is no need for us to increase the number of shifts, et cetera. We will be able to achieve 75,000 to 80,000 when it is required per month. Got it, sir. I will stay back in queue. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vivek Kumar from Geometric Securities. Please go ahead. Sir, am I audible? Yes, you are. Sir, this question, if you can help us understand how, because you are not able to pass on the cost to stay competitive. Are we seeing growth then in sales? Are we not even having sales growth? Because if we are not able to pass on. You have told in the last con call that 20% growth we are seeing. Is it continuing or even that has slowed down? No, that is not slowed down. In fact, if you look at the P&L, you would find that our revenues, the HAD division revenues went up by 18% for the quarter, and therefore, while we have said 20% growth, we are definitely moving in that direction. So we have been able to get an 18% growth as far as our net revenues are concerned. So you are able to at least have a growth even in this quarter? Yes, definitely. Sir, second question is around the same thing. How are you looking at this opportunity? Because now that you have a washer, cooling, and cleaning, most of the categories you have covered. Can you explain us, is the even competition facing the same issue of not able to pass on or is it just for us or we are able to pass on in few categories and not in other? And then why are we then persisting or how you will be able to pass on over the next two, three years? How are you thinking? Because this has been a persistent issue if you see, because if there's such a high competition, then why are we putting up our own capacities instead of doing an outsourcing? If you can please make us understand the assumptions the management is thinking over the long run of being present in all categories if we do not have the pricing powers in the long run. Pricing, as I said, wherever there was an opportunity we have actually taken the price increase. But then these are I think tougher, tough times where the commodity and Forex are unprecedented increases that are there. We hope that it does not last. If it does not last, then all the benefits that we have done to tide over these difficult conditions in the form of whatever cost on activities and all those activities that we have done to improve our efficiencies, that continues. We are hoping that the commodity and Forex negatives that is happening now will ease out over a period of time. Yes, sir. But in general, I was asking about. Sorry. Go ahead, sir. Sorry. Yeah. If that element comes down Then I do not know how many people will then look at the pricing and stuff like that. If the commodity and Forex actually eases out, then all our parameters will look much better. As far as I am not sure. I think we should check out their results also. But beyond a certain stage, we are not seeing it will increase prices. Then how should we think about the IFB presence across in the long run? Can we expect this 20% growth, at least in sales to continue for 2 or 3 years? Vikram sir was to tell us that the channel extraction is the work at least over there? Yes. The 20%, as I said, that is definitely what we are working towards, and Q1 has been at 18% growth. As far as revenue is concerned, that became critical because that is going to power our entire growth story. As you mentioned, a lot of things are being done at the channel level to ensure our placements are improved, our extraction is better. We are ensuring that we have got people on the ground, at the counters, manning the counters, et cetera. A lot of work is happening on the harder things, which is getting our distribution up and running. That is what has actually got us this growth. Is it a done deal? No. Obviously, all these things keep constantly getting improved. We are on the right path and the good thing is that we grew 18% in Q1. So we should be able to grow at the same rate, sir, in the coming quarters and years? Yes, we should be. Thank you, Dheeraj. All the best. Thank you. Thank you. Before we take the next question, we would like to remind participants that you may press star and one to ask a question. Reminder for all participants, please press star and one to ask a question. We take the next question from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor Company. Please go ahead. Namaskar, sir. I am Saket Kapoor from Kapoor Company. Firstly, sir, as you were mentioning that we are anticipating that the current run rate of growth to continue for the ensuing year. Firstly, if you could give us some more color on our engineering segment and our CapEx plan, when can we expect the 50/50 of the same and the business environment for the home appliances. Some more color of how things have shaped up for the previous quarter and how are things currently placed, the dynamics the business environment would suffice. I will take the engineering question. The home appliance will be answered by the concerned person. This is Aurobindo Das. As far as engineering last quarter is concerned, as sales is concerned, we have exceeded the budget, and we have grown by 17%. EBITDA level was what was budgeted. In all terms, engineering division met all the KPIs related to budget. We expect that we will continue in the same fashion going forward, until otherwise there are certain dips due to global scenarios, et cetera, where we have no control on. Still we will try to manage as much as possible. As far as present situation goes with the festival season arriving, we should be in the same line. Okay, sir. Because sir, we have also outlined some targets for I think so a higher top line. I think the 2,000 crore plus and with some acquisition, some land acquisition has also been done, some product introduction is also there. I wanted to understand where are we in midst of closing on those aspects, what can be expected going ahead? Okay. As far as new projects are concerned, as you know, EV is penetrating the Indian market. We wanted to be a part of that growth story. In order to do so, we had bagged LOI from Tata, which is about 150 odd crore. You might have seen that yesterday in the newspaper, news related to Tata Agratas and others, there are issues. Probably the Tata Group chairman is resigning and Noel Tata has expressed his concern about the battery project. However, we are in touch with them, if they drop the project, because we have already acquired the land in Gujarat. The other investments, we have machine, et cetera, we have not done yet because this change of situation. We wanted to understand, because the project is a go-ahead from our side. Now, under the revised scenario, we are reviewing the situation. We will take a call as things progress. That particular piece of land which we have acquired will not only be for EV project, it will be for stamping project as well. That is also being pursued. We are in discussion with customers. We have zeroed in lot of businesses where OEMs have confirmed. There are CapEx plans. It all will move in with the receipt of LOI. Once we receive the same from the customers, we will move ahead with the CapEx. You mentioned about INR 150 crore, the battery project. I missed your comment there, sir. Yeah. So that project, if you have seen the newspaper yesterday, there was a big news that this project, we do not know what decision finally the Tata Group will take. We are holding back, but we are okay with it. It is true from our side. Once we understand, we are in continuous touch with them. We are ready for it, but it all depends on the decision from Tata. Okay. And on the existing set of product profile, what kind of volume, as concerned, are we still expecting for the current year? We expect a similar sort of growth, what we achieved in the first quarter. So our growth story will remain, both in terms of top-line and bottom. Correct, sir. Right, sir. Now, for the home appliance part, sir, if some light can be shed. Yeah. Sandeep here. Yes, sir. If you see quarter one, we have actually grown in all the lines. There was a question that we are in multiple lines. We have seen a growth in all the lines that are there, and I am presuming with what we are doing at the ground level, that should continue to be growing, if not becoming better. Also, we are seeing some opportunities when it comes to certain capacities, certain kind of models which are there. That is something that we will be investing in, and over the next three to six months, we would have capacities which are currently not being served by us. We would have products there also, which should be giving us an additional fillip as far as our growth are concerned. At this point of time, we are seeing growth in all the categories that we are operating in, and we believe that we should be able to continue that. There will be capacity augmentation also, sir? I missed your comment. You are- No. Capacity, as Mr. Goldberg said, capacity is there, so we don't have to augment capacity. At the same time, the manufacturing side is looking at ways by which debottlenecking can be done. So without any additional investment, if required, the capacity can be augmented. Currently, we don't have a capacity constraint. Okay. And lastly, on the cost reduction exercise and the benefits that were outlined to us, what have we achieved, sir, there, both in the variable as well as the fixed cost component? Earlier, sir, you people have given us the idea that you have outlined what are the issues. So how are we going to address it, and where are we in terms of putting things into place? In terms of some manning issues also were there at counters, and so that our growth were affected. These were the pillars given to investors two or three quarters back. So what are the updates currently on the same? So as far as cost is concerned, what you said is right. We are looking at INR 150 crore to come in this year in the form of various cost initiatives that are there. In the first quarter, we have already got about INR 42, INR 43 crore has already flowed in. So we are definitely on track as far as the INR 150 crore cost initiatives are concerned. We are not cutting down anything that can impact our presence in the market when it coming to the number of counters which are manned and things like that. We are not cutting anything out there. In fact, we are increasing the number of counters which are going to be covered by our in-store promoters. Therefore, while cost is important, we also believe that what we are seeing in the Q1 should continue and therefore we will continue to invest in activities which will generate revenues for us. Right. And lastly, sir, on the performance of our associate and I think it is a refrigeration unit. If you could just share some color, how has that performed, the contribution rate? That is a different company, so I think we should not be discussing that here. Sir, that gets consolidated. Sir, that gets consolidated, I think so, for our numbers. Correct me there. Yes. Ramesha here. Yes, sir. Ramesha here. That is getting consolidated in our consolidated statement. Yes. We are taking our 41% share of their profit or loss. Correct. IFB Refrigeration Limited is a separate company. We will not be discussing in IFB Industries call. If Mr. Abraham wants to talk about how the IFB Industries branches have performed in case of selling IFB refrigerator, he can discuss. But total IFB Refrigeration company, we will not discuss it in this call. Okay, sir. I was just referring to the 0.33 contribution. That was the reason why the refrigeration has gone down. Yes, their PBT for that quarter is 80 lakhs. Out of that, what is our share, 41.40. That we have taken in our consolidated statement, which is INR 0.33 crore. That means 33 lakhs. Yeah. I was only looking for why the numbers have gone down quarter-on-quarter. So from 4 crore to 33 lakhs, that was my question. Precisely my question. No, last quarter it was a loss. I was comparing with March quarter. I was comparing it with the March quarter. March quarter, there was a different story. March quarter, they recognized the deferred tax, so the profit was coming more. We should not discuss it here. But in case of corresponding quarter of last year, there was a loss, and this time there is a profit. But we will not be discussing the IFB Refrigeration company performance as a whole in this call. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, sir. I join the queue. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vivek Kumar from Geometric Securities. Please go ahead. Sir, am I audible, sir? Yes, you are. Sir, can you share your market shares in top loaders and front loaders and how it has been moving in the last 3 years, and where do you see? Is it stabilizing or in the next 1-3 years, top loaders and washer category, like top loader and front loader? See, there is no consolidated place where you get the market shares, because obviously there is an online business, there is an offline business. Therefore, there is no consolidated place where I would be able to say what is my market share and how it is growing and things like that. However, we believe that our market shares are improving because the volume growth that we are seeing, we believe that our market shares are growing both in front loader as well as in top loaders. So you can say we will be in the top two or top one in both the categories, sir? Difficult to say, but yeah, front loader we would be definitely in the top two. And top loader could be a little less, could be lesser. Top four at least or there we have to go beyond four. Yeah. We should. But I am not able to give you a number per se because there is no published market share data that is available. And we see these market shares improving because we are growing faster than the market. Yes, we do. Sir As I said, some of the segments that we are not there, once we get a product there, apart from the growth that we are seeing now, we should get the benefit of that also. Sir, if you can elaborate more on AC, because there are so many players, and how do you expect to garner the 10%-15% market share that Vikram sir was saying and you were also alluding last con call? So what is your strategy or the outline on where we are, and there are so many people. I do not know, maybe there are not many, but whenever we go and visit the channel, we see so many brands. So what is your strategy to go ahead and take the and what factors are helping us to really achieve that market share? Yeah. As you said, there are multiple players as far as RAC is concerned. However, our focus has been on strengthening our execution. Which is basically, as I said, getting more counters where our products are placed, getting the right displays in, ensuring that there is a promoter out there who is detailing our products and things like that. I think there is no substitute to that. No matter how many players are there, if you get all those acts right, then you will do well. To not comment on what others are doing and things like that, but we believe that in a multiplayer market, we should get our rightful share. Your comment, you will go to 10%. By when, sir, and what would be our current market share? It will be, as I said, market share, I cannot give you a number, but yeah, 7%-10% is what our aspiration is. How many years will it take, sir, for that? Oh, I wish I could tell you that. Second question. You are confident that you are seeing AC segment growing above the market growth. Yeah. Second question is on the-- Yeah. No, I was asking that you are confident our AC growth can be above the market growth. Yeah, that's right. Second question is on the cost, sir. See, there's a limit to the extent we can cut costs. If you can explain us at what point we'll be forced to increase the prices even. Is there a point where if this keeps increasing, do you think competition also will be forced or we have industry has not raised the point. How should we. We are not as competitive in cost with respect to our competition, so we will lose out the moment we start increasing prices. How should we look at this price increase, losing sales to competition because they are more cost competitive than us? No. If you look at cost, there will always be opportunities to debottleneck and look at your processes and make it tighter and things like that. So there are definitely. I don't think we can ever say that we are at 100% of optimal cost kind of a thing. There will always be opportunities for improving. We as a company have said that we will not reduce cost at the cost of the quality or customer experience. So we are not diluting our product. We continue to maintain the high standards that IFB is well-known for. We will not dilute that. Therefore, all our cost initiatives are to ensure that whatever debottlenecking or inefficiencies or leakages that are there, how do we work on that? That, I believe, is a constant process. Even when you look at your manufacturing processes, there are more and more technologies that are coming in. So with the same capacity, how can you deliver more? These are activities that we will continue to invest in. So answering your question, cost, I'm saying that we will continue to look at how is it that we can take that extra bit out of efficiencies being built. As far as prices are concerned, we could not pass on the entire thing. However, that has not stopped us from increasing our prices. We have taken price increases in the last quarter across all our categories. It is not enough to cover the commodity and forex, but wherever there is an opportunity, we have been able to take that. In certain cases, we have decided to lead that also and take a price increase even if the market is not taking that kind of a price increase. We have taken some bold steps wherever it is required also. You do not see because if this continues, the whole industry will be forced to pass on the price, right? No, nothing like that would happen. It will be. No, I am not too sure about others, but we do not want to be competitively disadvantaged. Therefore, we will have to constantly watch it. However, the good thing is that when all these things happen, you are forced to look inwards also and say that what is it that you can do. That is also making us work doubly on relooking at our processes and bringing in efficiency. While cost is negative, but it is also giving us an opportunity to look at all our processes with a magnifying glass and try and see whether there is any opportunity of improving efficiencies and cutting down our leakages. At least we can see same margins maintained, sir, because the sales growth rate is more or less, you are saying we can maintain sort of better or same margins at EBITDA level we can maintain in the next few quarters. Yeah. A lot of it depends on the revenue growth. That becomes important. If you look at our gross margin, our gross margin came down. But if you look at absolute value, it went up because of the revenue growth. But as a percentage- Yes our gross margin came down. However, because of the other initiatives that are there, we have been able to keep the PBDIT at a slightly better level than what we were last year. I think a lot of it will depend upon the kind of revenue growth that we are able to bring. But currently we are running at the same rate, at least till date. Around- On PBDIT? No, no, on the sales growth. At least currently we are doing well. Like one and a half months- Yeah, 18% we have grown in Q1. That trend is continuing in this quarter also. Yeah. Mostly. Yes. If you look at it last year, we grew the entire year of last year, we grew only by about 9.8%, 10%. Yes, sir. Again, we are currently growing at 18%, and July has also been good. Got it. Second is on the question, engineering department has a target to reach INR 2,000 crore, which requires around 20%-25% growth. It is a high confidence. We have a very high confidence of reaching it over the next three, four years, sir? This is Arup. Sir, I will take your question. It is a two-prong attack. One is from our existing business growing at 20% or in that range. That is one. The other is on increase by CapEx. We are investing in stamping capacity enhancement in Gujarat, in Gurgaon, and in Bangalore. In these three places, actually, you might be knowing we have acquired land in Gujarat. Yes, sir. for EV project and stamping project. Okay. So parallelly, we are discussing with customers for new businesses because we want project and the business should be aligned. It cannot happen, we have the project ready, don't have the business. It doesn't make a business sense. So we are thinking both together in a manner that the business we are targeting around INR 1,000 crores, which are CapEx, overall CapEx for the stamping division around INR 400 crore. So that takes us because we are presently in the region of 1,000, 1,100. So what you are talking of the number should be reachable if all things fall in place and we get the businesses, we invest in the thing. So it should fall in place. You've already acquired the land, and you're saying that the plant is not built till the business. Can we understand that as well? We already have a business from the battery, as I told the earlier speaker, that we had the business in hand. But after yesterday's development, we are re-looking into it. It was a go ahead. But seeing what Tata Sons takes decision on the battery project, we are closely watching, interacting with them and then take a decision. So it depends on- Our side it. Yeah. Carry on. The INR 2,000 crore is contingent upon this project being successful. If it doesn't happen now also, there are other projects aligned which we are scouting for. Growth story will continue. 20% growth on INR 1,000 crore will continue. Yes. But from where it will come is what you are saying is not really outside. Yes. We already have a visibility of businesses from the OEMs. We are close to closing in businesses which is around INR 250 crore plus already. To augment this CapEx, we must have at least INR 1,000 crore. We are working in that direction. Hopefully we will be able to achieve that in due course of time. So 20% growth you are very confident over the next two, three years. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nityin Motia from NV Alpha Fund. Please go ahead. Hi. You are not clear. Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Nityin. Your voice is not clear. We will take the next participant. The next question is from the line of Lakshminarayan K G, Tunga Investments. Please go ahead. Yeah. My first question is related to the services business. Just want to understand what has been the growth in the services business for us, in general, for this quarter Q1 when compared to the Q1 of last year. The second question on the services business is that, does the service business that is mentioned in the annual report, does it include the services for the refrigerator business as well? The third question is that, in the services business in general, what is the unit of profitability and what kind of profitability is there in the services business? This is first on the services business for three questions. See, on the services we have three products. One is the essential sales, and then we have accessory sales. The service products we have. We are growing a good percentage in terms of this, and we have almost around a growth of around 17%. This quarter, okay. Yeah. Last quarter we have, yes. Okay. And, whether it includes services for refrigerator also comes in the annual report or is it done outside? Yeah. We also do the services for refrigerator. Correct. Okay. Is it 100% captured in this balance sheet or is it some proportionately, I mean, how is it captured? No, it is 100%. It is captured 100%. It is on a full basis. Okay. It is captured. Yeah. In general, what kind of profitability the services business could be, sir? What range of profitability, I mean, at a PBT level also? See, it's a profitable business for us. But I think, I can't disclose the number. That's because it's a part of the- No, by the range, sir. We only disclose the entire company as a part of the entire, the engineer, this IFB. Is it in double digits or single digits, sir, at a PBT level? That's the only question I have. Is it double digit or single digit? It's a double digit. Okay. Sir, and second, I'm coming to the margins. Sir, if you look at the margins there are three levels, right? One is the gross margin, second is the contribution margin, which is all your direct costs or the variable costs are there. Then comes the fixed cost. Right? If you just look at the three levels. Now, among the three, where have we kind of, the cost journey which we are in, where we have actually clawed back to our aspiration level. Is it at the gross margin level or at the contribution margin level, or is the lowering of the fixed cost? When you look at it, as I've been mentioning, our gross margin is down because of the material cost increase. When you look at it, our gross margin is down by about 160 basis points because of the material cost increase. However, as a percentage when you look at it because of the good revenue growth, all of the lines when you look at it as a percentage it is lower than your last year. While absolute value might be a bit this way, that way. But as a percentage because we have got a good 18% growth in revenue under a lot of the other lines, even if there is an increase, it has not increased at that kind of level. Therefore, as a percentage to net revenue, a lot of those lines are showing a decline. Therefore, when you look at the PBT level, last year we were at about 4 odd percentage. We are now at about 4 and a half odd percentage that is it. So from that point of view, while commodity and cost and commodity and all is slightly out of our sight. We have been working all the other ones, and not always a reduction, but as a percentage, it is coming down. Okay. No. Sir, and you mentioned in the earlier calls that you are working towards increasing the cost. One is rationalization of SKU, which you have actually achieved significantly in this quarter, and also pricing. Yeah. The entire cost program which you are in- Yeah that is to do with the variable cost outside the material cost, or it includes the material cost also? The cost- Cost has. Yeah. Cost has got all elements of it. But if you look at rationalization, more than a cost benefit, it is to try and simplify the portfolio. For example, in a front loader, we had some 55, 57 models. And what we have done is we've been able to bring it down to about 24, 25. So it reduces the complications at the counter. There are lesser models that need to be. The inventory becomes manageable, manufacturing becomes easier and things like that. And you have an opportunity to look at, within a particular category, picking up the models which are better in gross margin and things like that. So all those things were done. So it is more than a cost. I wouldn't say it's a cost initiative. It is a simplification thing that we felt that we didn't need that many number of models. For example, in the washer, we may have close to about 9,500 different SKUs. That's almost half now. Therefore, a lot of those complications which are there in the market has got simplified. The added benefit is manufacturing. The changeover time comes down, raw material becomes easier, the inventory becomes easier to manage. So all those benefits grow. Got it. Good. Sir, in general, what is the comfortable margin you aspire to have? Whether you talk about PBT level or whichever level you like to do on the home appliances business. How far you think we are in the journey? I mean, because we are actually talking somewhere between 1%-2.5% thereabout, right? So it's been little volatile. So just want to check what is the aspiration for the business and how far we are. Let's say that if all the commodity and everything is behind us. Yeah. Just want to understand that. I am saying that let us look at the gross margin itself. Currently, when you look at it, our gross margin is down by, as I said, 160 basis points in compared to last year. So if our raw materials are able to come down, then there is that 1.6 percentage which straightaway can get into the P&L. There are multiple of those lines that are there. I would not be able to comment on what would be a comfortable level. But obviously, the current PBDIT and all needs to be better now. No, I mean, if I just. I think you have been with MRF, and MRF always enjoys the highest margins, right? If you look at IFB, we have lot of things to claw back compared to an LG or a Whirlpool or others, right? So in general, what is the band, I think, I mean, I am not asking for an outlook, but what is that which the organization is geared up for? I mean, higher margin is always better, but what is an achievable one? Is it 3%, 4%, 5%? So some kind of a numbers. PBDIT should be early double digit, in my opinion. Got it. Okay. Sir, moving on to your engineering business, right? In Q1 2026, I mean, Q1 last year, it was mentioned as INR 186 crore. But in the current PPT it is actually showing INR 176 crore on the fine blanking business. I just want to understand whether to take INR 176 crore or INR 186 crore for the fine blanking of Q1 2026. Rajiv. Rajiv. Yeah. Hi, this is Rajeev Mundhra. Can you please repeat your question? We are talking about Q1 of- Yeah. If you look at this quarter's presentation and look at last year's August presentation, which is I think August 25 presentation. In that Q1 2026 was mentioned as INR 185 crore. Whereas this year the same number has been mentioned as INR 176 crore. So I just want to understand whether there has been some change in the base. This number which you are talking about is PBDIT for Q1? No. It is revenues of fine blanking. To be precise, I am referring to the page 25 of 41 or 22. Okay. So we will look into it and we will come back to you separately on this, please. Okay. Sir, on the steel business, right? In the last 10 quarters, I think the current quarter- This is in the Hello? Hello? Hello. Yes, hello. Yeah, you can hear me? I think there is somebody here. Just some You can speak up here. Yeah. So on the steel business, sir, if I look at the last 10 quarters, this quarter has been a loss-making quarter. So, can you just help me understand why it was a loss-making quarter this quarter, and what are you trying to do to improve the performance from the steel division? Yeah, this is Rajiv. I will take this question. The loss is due to the increase in raw material prices. If you see the commodity price, which is the steel, which has increased in the last six months. In the current quarter itself, the prices have increased by around INR 4,125 per metric ton. So that is the way the industry works, is like this price increase gets passed on to the customers from the next quarter onwards. So it is like this the industry works. So we expect this price increase to be recovered from customers in the coming quarters. Okay. What kind of capital efficiency you aspire in steel division, sir, in terms of ROCE? Because rest of the business, we have a strong ROCE. What is the plan for this division? Here also the ROCE is in the similar line, what we have in other divisions, which is somewhere around 20 odd percentages. That's how we continue to look into this business. Got it, sir. Lastly, on the motor division, can you just help me understand, there also we have been, I think there was a little bit of profitability and again, there I see loss. Is it more a timing issue or is it also material related loss in the motor division? Mr. Lakshminarayan, Soumitra here. Regarding motor division, we'll be coming back to you separately. You can take this question to me offline, maybe on Monday, because there is no representative today from motor division in this call. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much for elaborate answer. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Varun from Equity Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. I just wanted one clarification on the IFB Refrigeration revenue growth this quarter because you have mentioned 2% in one of the slides and you have mentioned 14% in other slide. I just wanted to know how much was the growth in this segment. Mr. Varun, 14% growth is in IFB Industries, right? Yeah. That's right. 14% volume growth in IFB Industries. 2% growth is in the company, IFB Refrigeration Limited, but we will not be discussing the IFB Refrigeration Limited company performance here in this call. We have already discussed this earlier to another speaker. Okay. Could you throw some light on what is this battery project? Is it lithium-ion battery or which is on hold currently? If you could give some details. Yeah. That we cannot disclose now because confidentiality is there. Related to the project, we got the LOI, but you might have seen in the newspaper that Tata Sons has taken some decision not to support the battery business. We are in active discussion with the management of Tata Agratas to understand whether they are going ahead with the project or not. From our side, we were okay with the project, and we had acquired land both for the battery as well as for the stamping. So we have to hold a little as far as this project is concerned. Actually, this is the first time in India this sort of project is being undertaken. So let's see how things turn out. Understood. What will be the CapEx for the full year? The CapEx is about INR 110 crore. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shreyans Jain, Swan Investments. Please go ahead. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Hello. Yeah, we can hear you. Sir, my first question is, can you help us understand what was the volume growth in front load washing machines for us this quarter? Front load was about 9%-10%. 9%-10%. And ACs and top load, sir? Top load was much higher. Top load was close to in excess of 20%, and AC was about 6%-8%. Got it. Sir, my second question is, we spent about INR 1,800 odd crore on these trade schemes and discounts. This number looks obnoxiously high versus other durable players. Yeah. What are we doing here and why is this number so high, sir? Trade scheme, actually, a lot of it is this is how the industry works because at the end of the day, I am not too sure whether we are completely off when it comes to that. However, as you said, that is a number that we have to closely look at. We do not want to do anything which is detrimental. But at the same time, if there is any opportunity of plugging some leakages, we would definitely like to look at them and bring in efficiencies in what we are spending. Okay. And sir, last few quarters, Mr. Nag was guiding for, say, about INR 150 crore to INR 200 crore of cost savings. Yeah. I think somewhere in the call you mentioned INR 120 crore to INR 150 crore. So one part of the question is, are we lowering our cost-saving guidance from, say, INR 200 crore to INR 150 crore? The second bit is that now across product categories, you're reducing your SKUs as well, right? Shouldn't that lead to incremental benefits on, say, COGS or even lower the fixed cost side? When you also do the product SKU rationalization, shouldn't that also lead to additional cost savings that should come through to you? It should. If you look at our cost initiatives, last year, full year, we got about 67 odd crore. We are getting about 42 crore in Q1. So both put together, we are at, say, INR 112 crore, INR 115 crore we've already got. So we will continue to look at that. INR 120 crore to INR 150 crore is what we are looking at for the year. We already got 67 last year. So that way, if you look at it, 67 last year and about, say, INR 120 crore to INR 150 crore, about that is there. As you rightly said, we are constantly looking at newer ideas to bring on board this thing, and that's something that we'll continue to work on. So there are new ideas that are coming in. It goes through a process, and then after careful screening, we decide whether it can be productionalized or not. The team constantly works on ideas. If you look at the value of the ideas, it is significantly higher. But then some of those ideas don't go through our sieve, and we say that some of these ideas are not within the purview as far as our consumer benefits are concerned. So a lot of those ideas get shelved. So we constantly work on developing new ideas. It goes through a complete process of seeing whether we can actually go ahead with it before it is productionalized. Got it. Last question is, previous participant asked this as well, your ref sales, IFB Refrigeration sales are up 14%, but IFB Associate sales are up only 2%. Is it a fair understanding that this incremental 12% is what inventory you would already have in IFB Industries, and that's how you were able to sell more? Because ideally, I would have thought 14% sales growth here would also mean 14% sales growth in IFB Refrigeration. Where is the disconnect, sir? I mean, 14 and 2. Were you sitting on ref inventory earlier, which you were able to sell in this quarter? I don't know about IFB Refrigeration. I can't comment on that. When I'm talking about IFB Industries, the volume growth is 14%. I don't know Mr. Soumitra Goswami would be able to comment on the IFB ref sales. We will not comment anything on the IFB Refrigeration company as a whole, but materials, refrigeration, whatever refrigerator, whatever IFB branches have sold in the market and by virtue of that we have received a 14% growth, and their company growth is 2%, that is separately to be seen because it cannot be linked. Because there are branches of IFB Refrigeration also. Maybe they have sold lesser numbers as compared to IFB Industries branches. We should not discuss this point here in this call. Got it, sir. Thank you, and all the best. Thank you. Thank you. We take that as the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Sandeep here. As I said last time, it is wonderful to be able to attend this investor call and answer the questions that you have got. It gives a genuine feeling with the kind of questions that are coming. It makes us, that we have a set of investors who are genuinely concerned about our performance. I hope with that 18% growth that we have shown in quarter one, we are close to what we are saying that we will grow at 20%. We will continue to put our efforts out there. We welcome your questions. We look forward to these investor calls. We welcome your questions. That makes us also look inwards, and it makes us nimbler and look out for more opportunities. We really welcome these questions, and we look forward to the next quarter. We hope to be able to present to you equally exciting numbers. Thank you. On behalf of Nirmal Bang Equities Private Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.