Welcome to Pidilite Industries Ltd. Q2 FY 2026 results conference call, hosted by Equirus Securities Pvt. Ltd. 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 the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pranav Mehta from Equirus Securities. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Equirus Securities, I welcome you to the 2Q FY 2026, 1H FY 2026 Post-Result Conference with Management of Pidilite Industries . From the management side, we have Mr. Sudhanshu Vats, Managing Director; Mr. Kavinder Singh, Joint Managing Director; and Mr. Sandeep Batra, Executive Director and CFO. I will straight away hand over the call to Mr. Batra for his opening remarks, post which will be the Q&A session. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you, Pranav. Good evening and welcome to everybody on the call. I'll quickly give you my opening remarks and then open the floor for Q&A. I'll take you through the second quarter and half-year FY 2026 results, which were approved by our board yesterday. As you will see, the current quarter's standalone revenue of INR 3,272 crore had good growth from the consumer and bazaar segment, which grew with a UVG of 10.4%. The B2B business UVG was 9.9%. Total standalone UVG was 10.3%, which translated into a value growth of 10.4%. As you will note, the consumer and bazaar business went into double-digit UVG after five quarters. As you would recall, in the previous quarters, it was all in very high single digits. One part of our business that did get impacted was exports, largely due to geopolitical uncertainty as well as tariffs in some markets.
The export business in the quarter did decline. Our standalone gross margins continued to improve, and in this quarter, were up by nearly half a percent due to benign input prices. VAM, which is the vinyl acetate monomer, which is our single biggest raw material, the consumption rate in the second quarter was $883 compared to $980 in the second quarter last year. This expansion in margins was used to step up our expenditure behind advertising and sales promotion, which in absolute terms was nearly 80% higher than second quarter last year, and as a percentage to sales, was up by nearly 150, 160 basis points. Obviously, part of that was offset by higher margins, and part of it was offset by better operating leverages across all our cost areas. As a result, our EBITDA margins in this quarter were the same as Q2 last year.
We did see, in terms of percentage to sale, lower non-operating income. There were two reasons for it. One, of course, was the fact that in this quarter, we had paid out not only the final dividend, but also an interim dividend. Also, as you would know, yields on such treasury investments have been coming down as interest rates have corrected. We had some amount of that impact as interest rate resets happened. Our non-operating income, both in absolute terms and in percentage terms, would have corrected in line with yields on similar instruments. If I look at the subsidiaries, the domestic subsidiaries reported revenue growth of 10.7%, with significant improvement in EBITDA, as EBITDA grew by 22.6%. In the case of international subsidiaries, top line was a bit subdued. Revenues grew 4.5%, and EBITDA growth was similar.
Consolidated revenues at INR 3,540 crores grew by 9.8% in the quarter, and EBITDA margins were similar as the same period last year. With that, I conclude my opening comments and open the floor for Q&A.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Pranav Mehta from Equirus Securities Pvt. Ltd. Please go ahead, sir.
Yes, thank you. Sir, I wanted to understand on the rural and urban demand recovery. How are you looking at things, let's say, going forward, and whether rural continues to outreach the urban? You started seeing some green shoots in the urban recovery as well.
Yeah, Pranav, thanks for the question. As always, good to hear from you. I think very specifically and very quickly to answer both this. For us, rural still continues to do better than urban, and this has been a trend now over five years, if I'm not mistaken, maybe 16- 20 quarters, if not longer. Rural continues to do better than urban. In the quarter that's gone by, Q2 FY 2026, urban performance has also been very good. Urban, if I can use the word, is inching up. Urban performance has been very good. I think we've also, our growth drivers in quarter two have been our construction sector growth brands, which have had a strong urban listing as well. Urban overall is improving. To answer your question, which you asked towards the end, there are green shoots, and it's improving.
We think that momentum will continue, and rural will continue to perform from the point of view of penetration and all the work which we need to do. I think that's the piece. We feel optimistic about both of them. For us, rural continues to be higher than urban, but urban has caught up quite a lot, if I can use the word.
Okay. How are you looking at things from the input cost side? Since the crude is actually now moving in a narrow range, do you think that for next, let's say, two, three quarters, it should be in our favor?
Yes, Sandeep just told you about our VAM numbers. VAM is now below $900. I think basically what we are seeing for the next three to six months, specifically VAM, we see for it to remain in that range and remain benign.
Okay. Okay. Sure, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, before I take the next question, I would like to remind the participants to press star and one to ask more questions. The next question is from the line of Mohit Jain from Dr. [Chokshu] PMS. Please go ahead.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, yes, we can hear you.
Yeah.
Yes, Mohit, we can hear you.
Thank you for taking my question. Given that, sir, buy-blue demand is closing into renovation and interior fit-outs, are you seeing the share of renovation demand rising compared to new construction?
In terms of very specific data points, if I was to say, have we done any? We haven't done very specific recent studies to be able to quantify it one way or the other. From what we are observing and when we travel and all that, I think there is no reason to believe that the share of renovation will go over new construction. If at all, I think the share of new construction is going to creep up vis-à-vis renovation. Good news, as you know, for Pidilite is that we are very well poised in both spaces. We haven't done any specific recent study to quantitatively answer your question. Our observation is that new construction is slightly on the rise. I must have relatively is going up.
All right. Thank you, sir. My second question, sir, are you observing any regional shifts in growth? For example, I may be wrong, but strong momentum in northern or southern markets compared to western. Is the carpenter activity uniformly strong across regions? I mean, I want to know the regional overview in my position.
I won't say any such pattern over, especially for white glues. No specific clear pattern.
Okay. I mean, it's distributed evenly across regions. We don't see any patterns of good growth in southern and northern regions. Okay. All right, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Tejash Shah from Avendus Park Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity, Sir. Sir, a couple of questions. Given that we are in a very comfortable raw material cost environment, do you plan to step up investments behind new product launches or will spending remain at the normal level?
I think, as Sandeep just told you on our commentary for the quarter two as well, and where, of course, because of competitors, the numbers were looking even more accentuated at percentage growth or percentage turnover. I think we maintain that our ANSP will be in the band of 3%- 5%. This quarter, we've come in at about 4.2%. To answer your question, would we be deploying the expansion, if at all, in gross margin for investments? The answer is yes. We will be deploying them judiciously in ANSP, in GTM capability building. As you are aware, we are building a full-fledged architect interior design program. That itself will require a—that's a newer GTM or GTM that requires much greater focus from our end.
You're also aware, Kavinder, last time spoke to you about it, on the Pidilite Professional Solutions, how we are gearing up and getting ready to capture the entire construction sector growth. Here, when I say construction sector, there are multiple segments, as he explained to you, and all that. To answer, one-word answer to you on this thing is yes. I think we will continue to deploy this to build. We stay committed to our corridor of 20%- 24%. As you saw in first half, we are at the higher end of that corridor. We are actually at about 24%. If the raw material prices remain benign for the year, will we remain? First of all, we will definitely be within the corridor. Will we remain a little bit on the higher end of the corridor? The answer is yes. I think that's how it will be.
We'll judiciously deploy. I think that's how it is. That's the way to go.
Just one follow-up on that. Using this tailwind of the cycle, would it be the right time to kind of dial up on Haisha? I just noticed that you spoke about all the initiatives, but did not call up Haisha. Is it part of many initiatives, or is it one of the initiatives that we want to focus on?
It's an important initiative. That's a great observation, and for your observation. On Haisha, I think this got asked earlier also in some of the interactions in the morning today, media interactions. The status is very similar to what I shared last time, although I may want to add a bit of color. You are saying so much time is passing, so I do want to add a bit of color. What is happening is that in Haisha, we continue to grow in the pilots where we are. We are growing, absolutely growing well. We are growing sequentially as well. In September, better than August, quarter two better than quarter one. All that is happening. That's correct. I think we've also taken the baby step of now looking at a few eastern geographies.
You know that we started out in five southern geographies in small towns, and we are now there in a couple of eastern geographies. It is a sign of our confidence in the way we are moving ahead. Having said that, have we got the business model fully right? There again, if I was to be absolutely candid with you, the answer is no. It's still work in progress. We are working on it. In the smaller urban and small-town India where we want to play, we had said from the beginning that in these geographies, we want to be in the top three. We have a stated market share ambition, of course, varies from town to town and all that, but we need to have a reasonable market share in the top three. In that quest, especially that, we are a little bit behind that share piece.
It is taking time. We are reiterating. When I responded to your question for the second half of the year, my own assumption is we'll be fine-tuning this model through this year to the second half of the year. When we speak at the end of maybe quarter four call or whatever, let's see, basically, you will see that, yes, you will see we're going to talk about that we're going to put much more money behind this. I think our pains, initiatives, we are at it. Our approach is similar. We are seeing good growth. We remain confident of being able to do it the way we want to do it. We have not reached the internal milestones we had set for ourselves. We think we should continue to fine-tune the model before we sort of expand everywhere and before we put big dollars or additional investments behind it.
Yeah. Thanks, sir. Last one from my side. Sir, one hallmark of our performance for the last many years or many quarters has been rural actually doing very well. Now, if I have to look rural from the lens of retail player, is it more distribution expansion that is driving this growth, or is there a very robust repeat demand or SSSG also, which is coming from rural as we are going deeper?
No, it is more latter stages. Basically, we don't repeat. While you used repeat demand and what you called SSSG, whatever, same sale growth, same store sales growth kind of concept, I think you used in your acronym, if I'm right. We focus a lot on how we are doing where we are. Expansion is there, but it's not. The growths are coming more from doing well where you are, more from depth, and less from increasing width. Having said that, continuously in rural, do we want to go to more direct places to improve our distribution? Further, the answer is yes. I would say focus is on growing where you are as well, if not more.
Perfect. That's all from my side, and all the best for the coming quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Himanshu Singh from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah, hi, Himanshu.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, congratulations for sustaining 10% growth in the consumer and bazaar segment. I would like to, sir, know if you could talk, give us some flavor on various subsegments in the B2C segment business like the aisle diet, waterproofing, and though they have some other core categories, as well as the growth and pioneer categories like RAF and electronic adhesives. If you could give us some flavor on various categories, how the growth they have trended in this quarter.
Yeah, so I may not get granular into each of those because I'm saying we report this as one segment. Just to tell you, basically, our growth segments in consumer and bazaar have done very well. If you will remember, and I think many of you on this virtual table, I'm sure, now don't know it fully, that we say that we'll deliver core between 1X to 2X of GDP, growth between 2X to 4X of GDP, and pioneering categories are there. First of all, RAF is well beyond pioneering now. It's one of our important growth categories. Pioneer, we define as once we cross INR 100 crore. I think our growth categories have done very well.
They are in the band, which we say, and maybe arguably some of the brands in that are well on the outer end of the band as we speak to you in the quarter that's gone by. I think some of these have done very well. I think a few of the pioneering categories, we've started taking baby steps. We are also seeing growth there. We are seeing some numbers. We are seeing some accounts coming up. That's where it is. Overall, on some of these, Dr. Fixit, RAF, we have done really well. I think these are our growth categories which have delivered very well to their promise.
Great to hear, sir. If you could give us some flavor on the pricing, how it has been in this quarter. Pricing growth?
As I mentioned in my opening comments, the input cost regime is quite benign. If anything, prices of inputs are lower than what they were in the second quarter last year. There has been no occasion to take any or any rationale to take any pricing action. Obviously, whatever price adjustments we have done earlier have all anniversarized. That is why you see that the value growth for the last now three quarters leads the volume growth. Our UVG was 10.3%, and our revenue growth was 10.4%. No specific pricing increases, etc., we would have taken in this quarter.
Okay, sir. Yes. Sir, what would be the margin outlook for the second half, as you have mentioned that the commodity prices are expected to be benign? What is the expectations for margins in the second half?
As you know, we don't give any guidance. We have always called out that we are very comfortable to operate within an EBITDA corridor of 20%- 24%. Obviously, we are at the top end of that corridor. In this quarter, you would have seen that we had stepped up our advertising and sales promotion expenses. We don't really see any major shift happening in EBITDA. Obviously, one thing, and maybe this may not be the right quarter to call out, when you go to the fourth quarter, you will find that our overall revenues in that quarter are much lower than the previous three quarters. There could be some negative operating leverage in the fourth quarter. Other than that, there would be no event that may cause the EBITDA margins to swing.
Okay, sir. Thank you so much, sir. That clarifies. Thanks for taking my question.
Thank you. Thank you, Himanshu.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. A reminder for you to press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Jinesh Kothari from Equirus Securities Pvt. Ltd. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. I wanted to ask, your sales behind investments that you're doing in Pidilite Ventures, anything that you want to highlight specifically on the investments you're making on that part?
Pidilite Ventures. I mean, nothing really in that sense to highlight. We did some investment in Pidilite Ventures. Pidilite Ventures, as part of its portfolio, continuously is evaluating either new investments or investments in companies in which they want to increase the stake. As and when that happens, we will obviously share with you. At this moment, there is nothing really to report regarding the investments made by Pidilite Ventures.
All right. Sir, any specific case types or anything that you're looking at from the incremental cash lines that you are having, or any such opportunity or expansion plans, anything in any segment that you are looking at, organic and inorganic, anything you would help highlight?
We keep looking at all the time. I think just building from what Sandeep just said, I think, see, first of all, even from the Pidilite Ventures, you will see that depending on which startups we've invested in and all that from time to time, there are some startups which tend to do well and all that. We may increase our stake into a few of them, whichever work which we have done and all that. That's why you see some of these what you spoke about in the previous one. Overall, I think, of course, we are sitting on, whatever, roughly close to INR 3,000 crores in cash now. I think the thing is we keep evaluating options from time to time. I think depending on when it comes, you can never time it.
I think we will keep looking at opportunities which are in our areas and in the ancillary space in and around our areas. I think that's the space which we will keep scouting. I think, as I speak to you, we were evaluating many, but nothing is in something which can be shared or nothing in that concrete sense as of now.
No major organic capacity expansion targets on the line?
See, I don't know what you mean by major, but we have always said that our capex will be anywhere between 3%- 5% of sales. That is what we are currently moving at. It will be in that.
In some specific categories, we are witnessing some high growth. Specifically, you're more inclining to do more capex towards RAF or Dr. Fixit or anything of that part or as a part of your portfolio?
That is, in any case, part of that 3%- 5%. Obviously, categories which are growing faster will require more capacity, and categories which may not be growing that fast may not need capacity addition at the moment. That's the way internally we decide which areas we wish to invest behind.
Sure. Sure. That helps. Thanks.
Thank you very much. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time. I repeat, participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Umang Mehta from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good set of numbers. First question was on your woodworking adhesives. You'd already started to see mid-stage construction products like waterproofing, sealants, acceleration some time back. Have you started to see even white glue see some acceleration because of the real estate upcycle?
Yeah. I think the answer is yes. I think in terms of now the white glue acceleration, we are seeing it. Therefore, what is happening is if you look at new construction cycles, one phenomenon you are seeing particularly in the big cities is that there is both onsite and a little bit of offsite, which is if you were to look at, I'm saying even amongst all of us on this virtual table again, if you were to ask and wherever you are doing any of the new projects or whatever, kitchens tend to be nowadays and kitchens and a little bit of cupboards are like a lot of them are basically offsite, not necessarily onsite. If you were to see my joinery's work, which is happening and the numbers there, I can see a clear uptick.
I think which is almost directly correlated to the point you were making. If I was to see my growths in my white glue, which is basically onsite, there I'm seeing momentum. Is this very distinctive as of now? Maybe not. I think that's the piece which is there. That's the place which I'm in in this area. That's how it's playing out.
Understood, sir. Makes sense. The second question was on B2B. We've seen some companies call out that 3Q would be worse off than 2Q because of tariff-related issues. For your B2B and export-related products, is that the case? How would you look at near-term?
B2B, I think this is a question which keeps getting asked often. For our B2B, we have different businesses within business segments, if I could say, or businesses within that which we look at. For one, which is there is basically, if I was first, let me break up B2B into domestic B2B. We have delivered mid-teens underlying volume growth even in the quarter that has gone by, in quarter two, by the way. This 9.9% is composed of a mid-teens domestic B2B. There is, of course, pressure on exports, and that's the reason you are seeing 9.9%. What we are saying is that this momentum of mid-teens domestic B2B, which also has projects and some of those things which we look at very well and we've been talking about, we are confident that that momentum will continue.
As far as tariff is concerned, when and how quickly it will get resolved is hard to say. If you were to see last one month or last 10, 15 days movements, there seems to be a little bit of semblance in this entire VUCA piece as well. There is a little bit of stability in this instability, if I can use this paradoxical phrase. What I'm saying is that therefore for us, are we confident that this kind of momentum will maintain? The answer is yes. Is there a slight upside possible if there was to be a correction in tariffs and all that? Again, the answer is yes. That you can't budget is the point you made. The companies that have talked to you may have too much dependence on tariffs and may have a different point of view.
As you know, we delivered a nearly double-digit, actually a double-digit underlying volume growth despite this.
Yes, sir. That's correct. Thank you so much and all the best.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Amit Sachdeva from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening and thank you for taking my question. Sir, just one small question on the input price cycle. Sir, we think that it seems like the benign input prices obviously result in gross margins. Seems to be in a very benign super cycle now. It's got extended and probably seems like it continues to be benign. Is there a way you can give some outlook on how you see demand-supply situation panning out over, say, next 12 months? I also hear that there was some Chinese capacity was also evidently coming, but it's not coming because the supply situation is very benign. Do you have a 12-month view on how things are evolving and your outlook on input prices?
Input prices, I think we've spoken about it a little bit back, Amit. As far as six months is concerned, we see it to be benign. In today's day and age, to your predecessor's question, Ubang, to be able to look beyond that and with all the. It may not be prudent for me to get beyond this. Your point that there is a little bit of demand softness in the big market of China, that's correct. That is correct again. Is there a little bit of demand softness in that big market? The answer is yes. Do we see it benign for the next six odd months? Clearly, the answer is yes. Twelve months, do I have a clear view that it will be like this? I'm saying cannot comment.
Got it. Got it. Sir, that's very helpful. I just wanted to check how imminent this situation could be because there is obviously a cycle of demand and supply that runs into at least two to three years, and we are way past that period. I don't know how this is evolving now. I thought this is fair enough. This definitely answers the question. Thanks a lot.
Good point. I think this is something which we keep talking ourselves as well. I think, Amit, to you and to everyone on the table, just to reassure that I think we are always very well-poised to manage these cycles reasonably well. I think our ability to pass on some of these prices judiciously is very well established. We are well-poised in that space. That's not an issue.
Great. Thanks so much, Sudhanshu, and all the best. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Saurabh Kundan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity. If you could give us any update on the electronics at SFOD, the Caltech partnership, what stage is it at? At what point will we see it reasonably contributing to sales? Any update on that would be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. I just want to tell you that basically our specifications to most customers is on. Our sales to a couple of customers has started. I think there is work happening on that space. It's a tricky space, though. The point is that it is also, as I explained maybe in a call before this or earlier, there are multiple areas where basically there is this application space and so on and so forth. When we have some partnership, it is not that we will be able to tap into all of them. We will be able to tap into few of them. I think in the areas where we will be able to tap into and we have the potential, there is good work happening. There is also work happening in trying to develop some of these things. We've also started work at an R&D place.
I think your question as to will it be substantial and when will it be substantial, rather than saying when will it be substantial, I will say that in the immediate or medium term, defined as, let's say, six months or 12 months, some of these initiatives which we are sowing now are not going to be material to the size of Pidilite. Having said that, the work needs to be done because if we do the right work now, then some of these will be meaningful and arguably material in three to five years out. A lot of work is happening, and because it is at that work stage, beyond a point in time, it's not prudent to share.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Prashanth from Mehta Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. As the government is giving a lot of priority to electronics manufacturing in the country, can you share the opportunity size that we can see in the adhesive segment which is used in the electronic assemblies? Thank you, sir.
Yeah. Prashanth, this is very similar to the previous guy that Sudhanshu asked this question again. I think the point is that.
Very late.
Hello?
I'm so sorry, sir. I just connected the line.
Yeah, yeah. No, no. Just to tell you that we just responded to Himanshu. This is a space which is evolving as we speak. We are mapping area by area. This is quite complex and complicated. There are two things. First of all, on any instrument or anything which you look at, there are multiple areas of adhesion and thermal conduction and so on and so forth which are there. Multiple money, it could run into hundreds easily. Now, the question is that within that, what are the areas where we will be having a right to play? First of all, what are these, mapping them? Theoretically, mapping them is possible. When you see these headlines which come in the newspapers, those are big headline numbers. Theoretically, you can do that.
If you were to deep down into that, the issue is that some of it will not be done in India. I'm saying a lot of when you say manufacturing is perhaps assembly and last point, assembly as well. It is also evolving, to be fair. I don't want to comment. Therefore, what we are doing is we are mapping it by each of these, seeing what of it is done in India, what comes from outside. Within what is done in India, where do we have the license to play and where do we have a right to win? As I said to Himanshu's response, wherever the products are available, we have specified our products in many places. We have started, we have sampled in quite a few of them as well.
I'm happy to share that in a couple of places, we have also started commercial orders which are repeat orders as well.
Right.
Thank you very much. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time. I repeat, participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time. The next question is from the line of Himanshu Singh from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for taking my question again. Many SMCG peers have called out the impact of monsoons during this quarter. Have you also witnessed an impact of monsoon extended rains because as we are involved in the construction business, have you also seen any impact of monsoons during this quarter?
Of course, the monsoon is for everyone, Himanshu. It's not that it's for Pidilite. The monsoon won't say that it won't rain because it's Pidilite. What is good about our company, and I want to reiterate that, and I think that's what makes Pidilite what Pidilite is, is that our focus on demand generation is extremely high. Therefore, our model focuses a lot, our business model and our go-to-market strategy is focused on generating demand. As you are aware, we have two field forces going out, and therefore, people are continuously focused on generating demand. I think this uniqueness of our model, coupled with the strength of our growing portfolio and the richness of our portfolio, allows us to weather some of these things better. If you look at some of the other guys, they will say there is monsoon, extended monsoon, GST 2.0 impact, this, that, and all.
Everything sort of impacts us also in some form or the other. I think in the quarter that's gone by, we've delivered double-digit underlying volume growth because of our model. There has been extended monsoon. You're absolutely right. I think as a country, one watch out for all of us is, does this extended monsoon harm the kharif crop, where the answers are not out as of now. If it is going to continue to rain the way it's raining, I don't know whether the Bombay rains are there everywhere else. Will it begin to impact other areas? That is something which has to be, we need to, first of all, get more data on it, and then that needs to be evaluated. That may have a bearing on rural.
Yes. Thank you, sir, that it's really good to hear that. Sir, since you mentioned, you seemed confident on continuing this double-digit underlying volume growth for the second half as well because of the strength of the model that you follow. Is my understanding correct?
Yeah. We've demonstrated that we've delivered double-digit underlying volume growth for some quarters, and we are confident that we can do it in the future. You are absolutely right.
Okay, sir. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Bharat Seth from Quest Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. I have this question for Jowat. How do we see the progress of Jowat since? I believe the factory was already completed, and we were doing some project also. Can you give a little more current? How do we see over a couple of years?
Bharatbhai, first of all, always good to hear from you. Thank you. I think Bharatbhai, on the Jowat piece, I can tell you, and I was talking about it in the earlier part of the call in context of joinery. I think we are seeing clear traction when it comes to joineries. As you know, hotmelt adhesives, Bharatbhai, and hotmelt PURs and hotmelt adhesives have now extensive use in various areas. There is a lot of use of these even in industry. As I speak to you, what we are doing is we are also mapping this far more thoroughly. How do we take it well beyond woodworking and joineries? Woodworking and joineries, we are doing well, which was the first port of call. There is good traction. I think in other areas, we are also mapping and seeing how do we grow this.
This is an area which is, so two places is doing well. It's doing well here. It's also doing well in our advanced packaging and conversion, APC, that one of our business. One of the things we look at in our industrial business. I think advanced packaging conversion, we are seeing good traction in hotmelt adhesives. We are seeing good traction in joineries 100%. In this joineries part of the business, I think we continue to map it so that we grow this faster than what we have done and utilize the space even better.
Okay. Second piece on that. National level, sorry, this 4P, what we were talking, that brand, I'm sorry, I missed it. Nina Percet or?
No, no. Unofin, Group of Umaya. The brand is Unofin here.
Yeah. How we are thinking about it and what I understand, we were thinking of launching a pan-India basis. When we'll see, we started with regional presence.
I'll request Kavinder , also with us on the line, to talk about it and give you a little bit more color on this part.
Bharatbhai, good to hear you on the call. Just wanted to mention to you that while Unofin is the brand name for these sprayable glass, what we call as render, the game with Group of Uma is not just that. The game with Group of Uma extends into professional level of tile adhesives. Very recently, we have launched in September a brand called New by Roth, under the brand name of Roth. These are for premium tile dealers. This is a new launch which we are excited about. As we speak, we are sort of extending it into various markets. That has come from the Group of Uma technology. There are a few other products in offering. Let me come back now to your question on Unofin. Unofin has not delivered in line with our expectations so far.
Part of the reason is it's about changing the practice of the current practice where people are happy to do the primer, putti, paint, etc. We are looking to change the game by actually offering this solution to people who would want a water-resistant coating. Sprayable, therefore taking much lesser time, looking absolutely very good even after 10- 15 years. This will typically have to be focused on buildings where owners would like to save the future maintenance costs and also the architects who would like very beautiful-looking facades. This market, we have understood that this is the way to go about. We are beginning to see traction in the hotel industry, in some commercial complexes.
We have intentionally kept the team only in the northern region to perfect this whole business model because our factory is in Rajasthan and we do not want to transport this product all over the country because it affects the margins. Therefore, this is, as we call it in our language in Pidilite, the pilot is on. It has taken a little longer than what we would have ideally liked, but we are going in a very short-shot manner. We have made one more change. We have a large user business team, which is now the go-to-market. Earlier, we had a separate sales team, which was going independently. Now we have merged that sales team with a large user group. Therefore, we believe that this will lead to a better go-to-market strategy, these changes we have done in the last one or two months.
We remain clearly optimistic about creating the category. As you know, we are pioneers in creating categories, and that's the approach that we are taking in this category. On the other hand, NeoPro is not category creation. It is premiumization on our tile adhesive piece. Yeah.
Bharatbhai, very quickly, I think Kavinder was recently in Jaipur. One other good news I want to give you, one of the first early projects we did, Kavinder only was telling me two years back or something, is looking fabulous, Bharatbhai. I think therefore it's giving us confidence. I think two, two, two, two, three years now, which is what is the promise of these renders. They look good for very long. You know that makes that is the kind of thing. As we do this, it'll be good.
Just to understand, I mean, from cost perspective, cost of ownership over a life of the project, I mean, how do one should think about it, benefit, as well as cost of ownership will be definitely a little costlier than the traditional way of doing a primer?
No, I think Bharatbhai, if I could quickly add, I think we need to do more math on it to give you a very specific answer. I can tell you.
Okay.
First-time cost is a bit of a premium, but maintenance, if it is going to be a 20-year shelf life, I'm just thinking aloud, we have a promise of whatever, at least in the European places, there is 25 plus and all that. The total cost of ownership or total cost of doing this, Bharatbhai, will be low. I'm saying that's what we are basically saying there. The total cost will be low.
Okay. Great. Thank you and all the best, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Tejash Shah from Avendus Park Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the follow-up opportunity. A couple of follow-ups. First, at a very broader level, government has taken several bets to revive consumption, and the recent one being GST rate cut. When you speak with your sales team, channel partners, have you seen any visible signs of recovery, which gives us some hint that consumption is better than what it was, let's say, six months back or nine months back?
As I was telling you, I think for GST 2.0, Tejash, it may be too early to call any verdict. Having said that, and I maintain this, and we've been saying this for some time, it is the right step. I want to congratulate the government, everyone involved, and all that. Making sure that all your staples and daily consumption items for common Indian, every Indian, are at 5% is exactly the step we should have taken and we have taken. That's a very good step. Now, as this releases some amount of income in the hands of all Indians, what is the impact of that? Which discretionary categories benefit? When do they benefit? Is at this moment a matter of conjecture. It will happen, but how it will happen, we'll have to see.
I think on the second part, there is also a GST change in some of the home improvement items or in general construction. Cement has come down from 28%- 18%, and some of our stone, marble, and all have come down to like 5%, if I'm not mistaken. I think that's the rate. Therefore, the impact of this on construction and further flip to construction, we stay very optimistic on this, which you can see in our commentary as well. I think that is a piece which will also help us. How it plays out, we have to see. Lastly, are we seeing urban demand recovering, at least at Pidilite level? The answer is yes, which I spoke about earlier in the call as well. Independent of everything.
Yeah. My question was also that there were a couple of interventions which were made six months, nine months back in terms of monetary policy easing and tax rate cut. There were a lot of hopes that they will also contribute to demand revival. I got the answer. When you look at the very broader consumption space, Pidilite seems like a silver lining in terms of what we are delivering for a while now. When you exchange notes with other industry leaders, not only in our sector but otherwise, what would you say that we are doing differently, what others are not? What I'm trying to understand, is it more of a category-specific thing, or is it like our own execution excellence, or a mix of both, which are actually helping us to deliver what we are doing?
No, I think very good question, Tejash. I think, and partly I alluded to this in the call earlier. I think I see two clear modes which are emerging for Pidilite, which have been there, but I think which is what sort of partly explains how we are sort of how we've done and we are consistently delivering. One is the way we go about doing things. I do want to reiterate, very few companies focus on demand generation the way Pidilite does. With our entire business model, also our business model is not only about, of course, you are aware that we've talked about it, that there are two feed forces, blah, blah, and all that. How do we review? What are the linkages? How do we keep improving that as we keep going forward?
Our entire demand generation business model is one thing, which we need to continuously keep improving, and I think that's an area. Second is, of course, the growth of our portfolio. As our portfolio gets more diversified, it gives us better ability to maneuver some of these things. To that extent, there is a little bit of the category play. You are right. If you are there, that's what portfolio play is. You have some part of your portfolio in categories that grow faster. They deliver better results. Therefore, when you look at a company like Pidilite, you are able to consistently deliver. I think in that sense, these are things which help Pidilite as we go forward.
Got it. Thanks.
Thank you very much. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
No, thank you very much. Thank you, everybody who joined the call for your continued interest in Pidilite. Wish each of you a very good evening, and we'll connect after the third-quarter earnings. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Equirus Securities Pvt. Ltd., that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.