On the behalf of Ambit Capital, I would like to welcome you to the Pidilite Industries Quarter Three FY 2020 earnings call. From the management, we have with us Mr. Apurva Parekh, the Executive Director, and Mr. Pradip Menon, the Chief Financial Officer. We will now begin this call with the opening remarks from the management, and then we will have the floor open for a Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Apurva.
Good evening, everyone. This is Pradip Menon here. Amidst a challenging market environment, Pidilite has delivered a resilient performance. While top-line growth remains subdued, earnings have improved substantially, primarily as a result of softer input cost. We remain focused on driving volume growth enabled by investments in brand building, growth categories, capabilities, and sales and distribution. I'll begin with a summary of the financial performance for the quarter and nine months period ended 31st December 2019 for the standalone business. Net sales for the standalone business at INR 1,652 crore grew by 5% over the same quarter last year, with underlying sales volume and mix growth of 3%. This was driven by a 13% growth in sales volume and mix of Industrial Products and 2% growth in sales volume and mix of Consumer and Bazaar products.
Net sales for the nine months ended stood at INR 4,982 crore and grew by 6% over the same period last year. Lower growth was on account of the higher base of the prior year. For the quarter ended 31st December 2018, we have delivered a double-digit volume growth predominantly on account of price increase announcement from January 2019. Material cost as a percentage to net sales is lower by 629 basis points over the same period last year, and 25 basis points versus prior quarter. The same was also lower by 385 basis points in terms of compared with the nine-month period. The current spot price of our major raw material, VAM or vinyl acetate monomer, is around $850-$900, while consumption cost for this quarter has been at $875. This is comparable to quarter three consumption cost of $1,300.
EBITDA before non-operating income stood at INR 430 crore and grew by 32%. EBITDA for YTD December 2019 stood at INR 1,200 crore and grew by 16% over the same period last year. PAT at INR 330 crore grew by 47% over the same quarter last year. Effective tax rate for the quarter has been reduced from 32.3% to 23.8% due to reduction in corporate tax rate and remeasurement of deferred tax liability. For the nine months ended, PAT at INR 942 crore grew by 28%, and on an underlying basis after excluding exceptional items, at 38%. Now coming to consolidated performance. Net sales at INR 1,916 crore for the quarter grew by 4% year-on-year. Material cost as a percentage to net sales is lower by 661 basis points versus the same period last year and 41 basis points versus the prior quarter.
EBITDA before non-operating income stood at INR 464 crore, a growth of 36% over the same quarter last year. Profit after tax at INR 346 crore grew by 58% over the same quarter last year. Moving on to our subsidiaries' performance. Domestic subsidiaries have had challenges on growth and profitability on account of direct exposure to ailing real estate and auto segments, resulting in adverse demand and liquidity conditions. We have significant focus on cash flow, customer credit assessment, and tight management of receivables and expect things to improve further. Nina Percept and CIPY, our two subsidiaries, have improved their performance as compared to the first half of the year. They continue to operate in challenging market conditions in the wake of slowdowns in their respective sectors.
Total EBITDA growth of 37.7% is primarily driven through ICA Pidilite due to scaled-up local manufacturing and CIPY due to efficient sales mix and lower input costs. Moving on to our international subsidiaries. Subsidiaries in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Egypt have reported a good growth in sales. EBITDA is lower in Bangladesh due to investment in additional manufacturing facilities. Sargent Art, a division of Pidilite USA, and Pulvitec do Brasil reported sales and EBITDA growth for consecutive quarters, mainly due to growth in key products and customers. The subsidiaries in Thailand reported a decline in sales and EBITDA growth for the quarter due to the one-off large project executed in the same period last year. That is all in terms of the opening remarks, and we would like to hand it over back to the host for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Anyone wishing to ask a question, may please press star and one on your 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 Abneesh Roy from Edelweiss. Please go ahead.
Sir, good expansion on margins. That's my question. In the past, when we have seen such a sharp expansion, after that the next three, four quarters, there is a strong erosion in margins also. Because these margins are very high, so fair to expect that you are taking some price cuts so that volume growth can also be healthy? Any comment on the pricing which you are taking currently?
Abneesh, as you know, we have been taking price adjustment from time to time, be it increased discounts in some product, and also we have done some price adjustments in all quarters of this year. We will continue to do so purely on a need basis. Wherever we believe there is a need, and where we believe that some price adjustment would help us improve sales growth, we will do that.
Are you quantifying till now YoY basis, say, in December quarter, what was the price growth, the price dip? Some comment on that?
The price reduction was in few product categories. Overall impact at the company level would not be very high. In few product categories, we did some price adjustment. We do not believe that any significant price adjustment right now would help us grow volume. As we have said in the past, we need to be very judicious and careful about it. Price reduction were done in few product categories where we felt it was necessary to do so, but have not done it across the board.
Sir, second question is on industrials and your overseas businesses. One is in industrials; how much is export? Second is, most of your overseas geographies have really done well this quarter also and nine months also. Was that a conscious strategy that because India was slowing, so you're a bit more aggressive on pricing in those geographies to get market share gain? Is that the reason?
See, our international subsidiaries, I'll answer first. Our international subsidiaries, as you know, the performance of some of the subsidiaries had been uneven. We have been taking steps to improve their performance, and some of that is showing results. In addition to that, focus markets like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have been now doing consistently well. International, it is not because there is some slowdown in India that we are putting greater focus. We have set of international subsidiaries, and we have been working towards improving performance of them. Some of them have performed well, or many of them have performed well in this quarter. Your other question in terms of Industrial Product business, we have a mix of domestic and export.
I would not like to give the exact breakup, but we have substantial amount of export business, especially for products like pigment and some of the industrial specialty chemicals. Our product range is very well accepted by leading customers in both Europe and U.S. Some benefit we may have got because of China impact where some of the products manufacturing has reduced there. Overall, we have a very good specialty chemical portfolio, and we have been working with key customers around the world, and that has helped us grow our Industrial Product business in export.
Sir, you're not giving numbers, but exports will be bigger than the domestic business in industrial?
Overall, no. Overall, I think it is less than domestic. It is substantial.
Sir, next question is on HomeLane. Interior company, you have put in INR 49 crore. Why take a stake in these kind of companies? If you want to do learnings, you can do tie-ups, and that's what you do for your normal business wherein you tie up with the carpenters. Why take equity stake? I don't understand, why should a Pidilite kind of company take a stake in an interior design company?
No, it is not a learning alone. See, basically, today in lot of fields, lot of changes are happening. This is a company which is a very strong technology-enabled company, and it is growing very fast. As the changes happen in interior decor space, we want to have a very close look at them. We want to partner with them, collaborate with them for mutual benefit. First of all, they are participating in a space with high growth. They are doing a business in a little different manner. Working very closely with them, collaborating them, and getting a very close look at that, we believe is beneficial. Hence we have made a small investment, but which allows us to work with them in a very close manner and just not on a transactional partnership basis.
For your existing products, right? This will help the existing products?
Mainly for our existing product, yes. In terms of there are many other ways to collaborate because we have similar influencer, end user, et cetera. There are number of ways in which we are working together. As some of these things develop further, we will share the details. Essentially, as we all know, things are changing and we want to have a close look at that and we want to participate with that. That is a step in that direction. As we have said, we intend to make strategic financial investment in relevant startups and support and collaborate with the startups for mutual benefit. It's part of that strategy.
Any amount you want to share for startup investment?
We have not allocated any particular amount. We will be careful. As you saw, our first investment is also modest. It's that we will be very careful about making this investment. We have not allocated a particular amount. We will carefully do it as and when right opportunities come up.
Okay, sir. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Avi Mehta from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Just wanted to understand a little bit on the input cost environment. As you highlighted that VAM has been more or less stable, kind of moderating at INR 8,500. Is there any impact of, or are there expected to be any shutdowns, especially because some of the manufacturing locations in Chongqing are close to the province where this coronavirus is coming in? If you could give us a sense on how the VAM environment is.
Yeah, thanks. I think the way we see the numbers, obviously, the current prices that are in the range of $850 - $900, we see that actually at similar levels for the quarter that we are in. However, it's a fact that typically we end up anyway having stocks up between a certain period of time, a few weeks of stocks anyway we have. At this point of time, we don't see any significant change in the range of $850 - $900. Having said that, in today's VUCA world there are so many uncertainties, whether it is currency or any of the geopolitical risks which can emerge. Fingers crossed, we expect the current trend to continue into the following quarter.
Perfect. The second bit was on the demand environment. We've seen some sort of a pickup in the volume growth rate from the last quarter levels. While it clearly is below what we have our medium-term target, there is clearly a sense of pickup. Also, in the Nina Percept business, there is a pickup. Just wanted to understand, how would you read this? With the base now becoming favorable for the Consumer and Bazaar segment, do you believe that the growth rates should logically inch up even if demand remains stable, or it's very uncertain?
It is uncertain. I would not like to read too much into the difference in growth rate between the second quarter and third quarter. Demand conditions continue to remain somewhat subdued, and we remain cautiously optimistic and see how things will shape out over the next few quarters.
The Nina Percept you think is the worst is behind us?
Nina Percept is a waterproofing services company. It also depends on a number of other factors like monsoon, availability of labor, construction-related activities. Some of these activities, as we had reported earlier, were very badly impacted in first and second quarter. That has clearly seen an improvement in environment, where some of these activities have started picking up, and some of the work which had stopped in first and second quarter, now has started in some parts of the country. In addition to that, we also have been taking effort to expand our customer mix, going after new customer segments like industrial and growing commercial and infra business. Broadening a customer base is also helping us get new customers and increase the business. First quarters for Nina Percept were very much impacted because of external factors that we had reported earlier.
One of the factors you also said is credit, too. T hat one you've not mentioned this time— s uggest that one is out of the door, probably.
No, it is not. We cannot ever say it is out of the door because we work with segments where credit is always very important. What Pradip had said earlier, we are very cautious about it. As we have also said before, we are careful, we are cautious, and if payment becomes a problem, we don't like to do the work. That continues. There is no change in our stance, and some amount of liquidity problems do continue.
Okay, sir. If I may, sir, just the ad spend bit. Would you be able to share how is the ad spend this quarter?
In our earlier conversations, I think we have shared with you that we typically operate in a range of ad spend. All we can really share is that that range of around 4% remains for the full year. There'll always be quarter-on-quarter variations, depending on the requirements of launches and other products, et cetera. We have continued to invest behind our brands. Year-on-year also, we have invested double digit behind our ad spend. In an environment where there is external uncertainty, we have not shied away from making the right set of investments. That continues.
We are consistent in terms of our spend, which is about 3.5%, 4%. What we had said was in the second quarter of this year, we had unusually higher spent because couple of campaigns came up together.
Correct.
That would normalize over the next two quarters. For the full year, our spend is always in 3.5%, 4%, and that would continue in this year as well.
Would you be able to share the number for the third quarter, just so that it helps us understand the remaining spend inflation, something that you typically share? That was the question.
Generally, we spread the figure is the percentage of same and the range, which is.
Yeah, that one.
3.5%-4%.
3.5%. Okay, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question, may please press star and one. The next question is on the line of Gaurav Jogani from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question, sir. Sir, it is regarding the acquisition that you have done. The investment is around 5%, and it values the company at around INR 1,000.
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Jogani. Sir, can you speak a bit louder? We are not able to hear you.
Hello. Is it better now?
Much better. Thank you.
My question is in regards to the acquisition that you have done, which values the acquired company at around INR 1,000 odd crore. Would you like to give some background in terms of the financials as to what's the growth rate of the company, what's the top line that they are doing? Anything, sir, more would be really helpful.
We have not acquired the company, we have just made an investment into the company. It does not value the company at INR 1,000 crore. It's less than that. The pre-money valuation of that. The fact is that it is operating in a space which is very high growth. Typically the growth rates of this company are very high, upwards of 100%. They have achieved good critical mass in this segment. It is in top 2 players in this particular segment and growing at good pace. Valuation is in line with the similar numbers in this field. For benefit for Pidilite, it's not just a financial investment, it's a financial cum strategic investment. As we have said, we plan to work very closely with them for mutual benefit.
Okay. Sir, the press release mentions that you have paid around INR 50- odd crore for 5%, hence the number I quoted.
That is pre-money and post-money valuation causing the difference because when a round is funded, this is based on the post-money valuation. We have said it's over 5%, so our equity stake is a bit more than 5%. Valuation, the pre-money valuation of this company was about $100 million.
Okay. Thank you, sir. That's all from me.
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. The next question is from the line of Tejas Shah from Spark Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I know you don't share the numbers, would it be possible to share some qualitative comment on demand momentum in sub-segments, construction chemicals, adhesives, and are they materially different from the overall average that we are showing?
Overall, the top-line figure, as you said, we would not like to break it up into product-wise, because people may read too much into it. Overall, I would say demand scenario was not very different across our businesses. Geographically, we saw some parts of India were slower. For example, in west and some parts of north, the growth was lower than other parts of India. Across our product segments, it was not very significantly different. Also in our case, our smaller town and rural area grew faster than urban areas.
Okay. This is largely in the B2C segments, right? Totally.
What we call as Consumer and Bazaar segment, yes.
Sure. Sir, second, we are hearing a lot of stress in housing project segments, especially the new supply inventory which is coming, and that is creating a lot of stress in the total value chain in terms of demand and also in terms of rotation of money. We are not directly dealing with them in most of the product line, but are we seeing any stress points being shared by our channel partners on discount?
Overall, as you know, and we have been talking about, there has been some challenges in the market and some of them are really related to construction segment. That is also one of the reasons for slowdown in growth.
Okay.
Nothing new or no significant change that we see, as you mentioned recently.
Okay. Sequentially, things have not deteriorated further.
See, I would not like to comment whether they have deteriorated or not or how they are. We have not seen any material change. That is reflecting in our numbers.
Sure. Sir, lastly, one bookkeeping question, if I may. Tax rate for this year and next year?
When you see the numbers, you're already able to make out that the tax rate is slightly shy of 22% at the moment. We see the rates for the next quarter in and around between 23%, as far as the next quarter is concerned. Next year, I think we will be in a position to share you the information when we come in for the call in the month of May.
Thanks, sir. That's all from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipan Mehta from Elixir Equities Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yes, I just wanted an overview of any new products you may have launched on the adhesives side or any of the other divisions?
We always add new products in all our segments. Within adhesives segment also we have introduced some new adhesives for interior decor. We have introduced some new construction chemicals and coatings. New product is a continuous process, and in each of our business segment, we do introduce new products from time to time. What we have introduced is part of our core segments and as a part of our regular activity. We've introduced some new sealant, some new adhesive, some new construction chemicals and coatings.
Any sort of number you can provide to us as to new products say launched one year ago or three years ago? What is the sales contribution? Just to understand whether the sales growth, whatever is coming, is it coming from product launched several decades ago, or the contribution of all the efforts to launch new products has also driven sales and going forward that is the trend?
No, in our case, the product introduced in last one year will not have a significant impact because in our categories, the gestation periods are longer. In our category, people are used to a particular product, and to upgrade or to adopt to new products take time. The gestation periods are longer. I can tell you that the product introduced in last one year will not have significant impact. However, the same is not the case. It is not that all the sale is happening from products which were launched decades ago. We continuously introduce new product, we refresh old products. A significant sale will come from product which have been launched in last five to seven years.
Generally, we would not like to share the figure because it again confuses because some of the products may be overlapping or replacing an existing product. However, in case of Pidilite, as we have reported and shared number of examples, we regularly introduce new product both in terms of premiumization as well as some of the new usages.
Okay, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Hitesh Taunk from ICICI Direct. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Sir, my first question is related to your exceptional losses, what we made in Q2. Sir, just wanted to know whether have we booked all impairment losses from the Elastomer Project, or is there any remains in the coming quarters?
I think we had updated in the last call around where we see the realization in terms of the impairment. There is no change at this moment. We continue to look at opportunities on realization of the values that are there in the books. That's where we are. There is no change in position at the end of the quarter.
Okay. Now my second question is pertain to our ICA Pidilite, sir. While other subsidiaries performance have remained subdued due to various reasons, our performance in ICA Pidilite has remained very strong. Is it because of just a lower base, or are you out looking a very strong growth or demand in the segment? Can you throw some light, a bit understanding on that segment?
I think there are two parts to ICA Pidilite. I think one is that we used to import products, and there is an angle of profitability also in this company. We have now switched to local manufacturing, and that has a substantial impact on profitability, and that is why you see the profitability significantly moving up. Obviously, the result of that is a quicker response to market requirements. That does have an impact on the top line. The segment is exposed to anything else that we are dealing in terms of demand from obviously linked in some cases to real estate, not directly. Those conditions remain. They have had a reasonable growth in the current quarter, and we see a similar trend as we speak.
Nothing specific on the demand front that we are seeing different from the current trend at the moment in our Pidilite.
Okay, sir. Thank you for the answer.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arun Baid from BOB Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.
My question was, if I look at nine months, our volume growth in CIPY business is about 2.6%. Typically, we used to always say that we'll go at X rate of the GDP. Is there something a mismatch now we are seeing there?
Yes, we are saying that the market conditions have not been very favorable, and that has had an impact on growth. That has happened since last few quarters.
Is this a new norm, like the GDP, you used to always look at a multiple of the GDP, sir. What I'm seeing in the last nine months from a number perspective, we are 2.6%. What I'm trying to understand is, has the norm changed or this is just one-off?
The norm has not changed. The norm has absolutely not changed. Currently, we are seeing challenging market environment like many other companies. That has had an impact on the growth. However, we continue to take initiatives so that we revert back to our growth rate of around 15% in value. As a company, we are taking various initiatives as you can see and we are continuing to drive better growth. However, the demand conditions have been challenging in the market. The growth rates have slowed in India. As you can see also in performance of many other leading companies, the growth have been impacted.
Sir, personally, what do you expect this can happen in the next three, four quarters? You think that's possible or it's going to be much longer?
You see, it is very difficult to say on what will happen and how the macroeconomic conditions will improve. We would not like to comment on it, as has been our policy. We like to continue to work on the fundamentals, we like to continue to work on our initiatives. We believe that things should improve. As we said earlier, we are cautiously optimistic that things should start improving from next year and should help us improve the growth rates.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Bismith Nayak from RW Advisors. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, of the new categories and collaborations like WD-40, CIPY, ICA Pidilite and such, which one has the highest opportunity size in India?
All of them have very good opportunity. Nina Percept, CIPY, both have good size already, and they have very good potential in India. I would not like to compare one against other. WD-40 is a smaller business. However, here it is more like a Consumer and Bazaar business. They're also potentially large about educating people about new product and new usages. All three by themselves have very good opportunity. I would not like to compare one against other. All of them have a good growth runway ahead.
What I'm trying to understand is which of them could be the next Dr. Fixit or Fevicol or something like that.
Dr. Fixit and Fevicol are very large brands, so I don't want to say which one of them would be next into that category. They still have a long way to go before they can be the next Dr. Fixit or Fevicol. We don't work or plan in that manner, but we believe that all three of them have very good potential. Nina Percept already is sort of on the runway of INR 300 crore-INR 400 crore in size, so it's fairly sizable. In terms of size, that is the largest business. CIPY also has a good size.
Yes. One last question. Would you please care to share the total opportunity size and expected growth rate of construction paint chemicals?
As we said, this is a kind of category which should grow upwards of two times GDP growth. That's the kind of growth this category is possible. Last couple of years, the market conditions have been a bit different. Some segments like this have been impacted more than others. Overall, in terms of construction chemical, we believe both in terms of the consumption as well as penetration, there is a lot of headroom to grow. The growth rate should be higher than two times GDP. In short to medium-term, the growth rate may be impacted because of the overall macroeconomic situation.
Yes. Regarding our international subsidiaries, what we have seen over a period of time historically is that Americas and Middle East have not done as well as those closer to our home. The international strategy is the same for them, or are we planning to change them in some time in future?
The strategy is different largely for the countries near India like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal are focused markets. Those markets are very similar to India. Our focus is much more on that. We have manufacturing facility in those countries. Those countries have a lot of other dynamics which are similar to India. In case of Middle East, we have two business. One is an export of our core products to Middle East. That business has been doing well. In many of the products we are market leader in Middle East countries.
However, our construction chemical business in Middle East was a bit impacted and also because of the local slowdown and some of the other factors. Middle East, our core business has been doing well. U.S. has a different situation. Our focus is now much more on emerging markets, which is Middle East, Africa, and SAARC. While in U.S., we have a good business, but it's no longer a focus market for us.
Okay. Thanks, sir. That's all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question, may I please press star one. The next question is from the line of Jaykumar Doshi from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Just one quick question. How big is the unorganized market in the core adhesives category? Do you have products or are you planning to launch products to capture the lower end of the market? First of all, is that an opportunity and if so, then do you intend, does it align with your strategy?
Overall, if you look at the core white glue market, overall, the premium category may be around 60% of the market. There is what they call economy and popular segment, and then comes absolutely unorganized. What we can say that the premium market could be around 60%-65% of the market and 35% is popular economy and unorganized. We have set of products for popular in economy segments. We have fairly good presence in those markets, but our market share and presence is much stronger in premium segment.
Right. My reading is that there is not a big opportunity out there at lower end in terms of price point also that you have left unattended.
As I said, our market shares are higher in premium, so in the lower end of the segment also we have an opportunity to grow. There is an opportunity to grow. In terms of scale, our focus is still much higher on the premium end of the segment. Even within the popular and economy segment, we have very good offering and we also are taking initiative and step to grow our presence in that. However, our focus continues to remain on the premium segment and to introduce new value-added products and to upgrade the users.
Understood. That's helpful. Second is, can you share some more light on HomeLane? What do they do? How it will be Pidilite's role there? Is it purely as a strategic investor or you work? I know you spoke about it a little bit earlier in the call, because it looks very interesting and there are quite a few well-respected venture capital funds who have also invested in the name.
HomeLane, it is started by a very good entrepreneur and it's backed by leading private equity players, and they've built a fairly good business in short period of time. They are a tech-enabled interior decor company. They do interior decor for houses but using technology in an effective manner. They have experience center where consumers can go and see the interior decor and then they can work with them to get it done. They manufacture furniture, they install furniture and do other interior related items. Essentially for Pidilite, interior decor is an area of significant interest and as interior decor evolves, it's important for us to also participate in that segment.
Here we have made an investment with them and then we are working with them for a number of initiatives where we collaborate for mutual benefits. This would take shape in the manner of supply and working together for market development and many other things. As this takes a greater shape, we will share more details. It's a good company, growing well, and it's creating a space for itself.
Are there similar companies globally that have scaled up meaningfully and become sizable players in any other markets?
A couple of companies have scaled up. Globally, I am not fully aware, but there must be. Indian interior decor and habits are very different. I do not have full information on the global market. In India, a couple of players have scaled up very well. There is another player called Livspace and a couple of other players who are doing well in this space. HomeLane is one of the leading player in this segment, and it is possibly the fastest growing player in this space.
That's helpful. Thank you so much, and good luck for the coming quarter.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question, may please press star and one. The next question is from the line of Avi Mehta from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Just a clarification. The 3.5%-4% of sales for ad spend is for the year, right, sir?
That's right. For the year.
Okay, sir.
Quarter- to- quarter, it can change.
Fair enough. Second, sir, just as you highlighted, the demand is uncertain, and you have said that we remain focused on volume growth. Just wanted to understand, in an environment where you gauge that price adjustments will not drive volume growth, would it be fair to look at this as a long wait for the economy to recover? The time it takes is what will define the volume growth recovery? Are they looking at some initiatives? I just wanted to understand your thought process on this, sir.
Avi, as I said earlier, in some of the product categories, we have done price adjustments. In most of our leading products, in one of the last three quarters, we have done some price adjustment. Not in all, but in many of our leading products, we have done some kind of price adjustment. What I'm trying to say, just we are very careful and we are very judicious about it, and we do price adjustment where we believe it's absolutely necessary, and we will do even more of it if it is necessary. Just cutting price automatically does not result into volume gain.
Okay.
If there is a slowdown in consumption, then there is a slowdown in consumption. We are very careful about it, but we have definitely done price adjustments in product categories where it was necessary. We will do more of it if we believe that would aid in volume growth.
Okay, sir.
Sorry, I just want to chip into what Apurva was saying on what are we doing as a response. As Apurva mentioned earlier on in his commentary, we are looking at growing our rural markets faster, and that we are seeing some traction there. That we see as an opportunity. It is also a fact that while we have deep penetration in many of the states in India, there are pockets where we can improve our distribution and reach, and that is also a set of action we are doing. While doing all this, we continue to invest behind our brand and behind our distribution and people. All of these factors, we believe will put us in a good space when there is some form of recovery in the market.
Okay, sir. Okay. Thanks a lot, sir. Thanks.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question, may please press star and one. Participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may please press star and one. The next question is on the line of Hiten Boricha from Sequent Investment. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening, sir. Sir, you mentioned margin improvement is mainly because of the raw material cost, right? Are these margins sustainable for next year?
Margins depend on number of factors, largely the raw material cost, and raw material prices can fluctuate a lot. It can go up, or it can go further down. It is very difficult to predict this. As you must have seen over the last several quarters, that the raw material prices and margins have fluctuated a lot. It's very difficult to say whether it will sustain or not. It depends on a number of external factors.
Any outlook for the current quarter, according to the current raw material prices?
We would not like to give any outlook, but you can look at the trend and you can guess based on that, but we would not like to give an output as because, as I said, it depends on a number of factors.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll move on to the next question that is on the line of Raghav from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Just one small question on Nina Percept Bangladesh. Any expectations you could share on this, if possible?
There is no expectation. There is some business that has come up there, so they have formed a subsidiary to facilitate getting that order and executing that order. There is no significant expectation or anything else that we would like to share. It's a normal course to expand their business activities to surrounding countries.
Okay. Sure, sir. Thank you very much.
Reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star and one. The next question is on the line of Nawaz Sarfaraz from Dalal & Broacha Portfolio Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Just one question. You mentioned that currently in the premium segment, the organized market stands at around 60%-65%. Over the next few years, where do you see it going up to?
It's difficult to say how it will go to, but we expect that premium segment will remain large, and it may improve from the current levels. We see number of products that premiumization is happening, and we are aiding that. We have introduced number of premium products like Fevicol Marine, Fevicol Hi-Per, Fevicol HeatX. What we are doing as a company are introducing several value-added premium product to premiumize the market and increase the share of the premium products market. Our efforts are to increase the share of premium products.
Okay. Can you give some idea how it has moved over the last three or five years?
There are no published data, so I would not like to quote something— [crosstalk]
Give us some broad numbers. Yeah.
—the market has moved up steadily.
Okay. What would be the price difference between a premium player product versus an organized player's product and a non-organized player's product in the premium segment?
It's a substantial price difference. First there is a premium and then there is popular economy and then unorganized. It would take a long conversation to explain all that, but there is substantial price difference at each stage.
Okay. Thank you. That's all from my side.
Thank you. The next question is on the line, Srinath V. from Bellwether Capital Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi. I just wanted to find out what is the opportunity in the tile adhesives market and what would be the kind of penetration tile adhesives have over cement and sand. If you could kind of just give a broad overview on the space and what is the basic USP for migrating from cement and sand to tile adhesive.
This would require a long conversation to really explain all the dynamics of tile adhesive. Just tile adhesive, the benefits are many compared to cement in terms of how we use. We can separately send you a video of our advertisement, which will explain various benefits of the product over cement. Increasingly, the market is migrating away, is moving from cement to tile adhesive for a number of applications. As bigger tiles come in, vertical tiling applications come in, the usage of this product is going up. The market is expanding across India. For us also, this is an important segment. It is one of our fastest-growing categories. We cannot share the product by sale for this particular product category.
Not our sale, but what would be kind of the industry opportunity size in a product like this?
Again, I don't have the market size figure which is accurately available. It's a fast-growing category, and it's likely to be fairly large in size. I don't have the exact figure available with us right now. If you want, we can separately send it to you.
Sure. One last question. Just wanted to understand the impact of ready-made furniture to our wood adhesive business. How does this affect our business?
Ready-made adhesive is not a new trend. Ready-made adhesive have been there for a very long period of time. Ready-made adhesive and custom-made furniture both have been coexisting for over 30, 40 years. We also have a business which manufactures adhesives for joineries. We are also a market leader in that particular segment. We'll be manufacturing supply product also for ready-made. These are both markets which coexist and have been there for many, many years.
Is ready-made furniture actually gaining significant share? Is there something like that where you can see from your standpoint?
No, we do not see that.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. A reminder to the participants, anyone wishing to ask a question may please press star and one. Participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may please press star and one. If there are no further questions, I now hand the conference over to the management for their closing comments.
Just want to thank you all for joining the call. Look forward to interacting with you during the quarter and next quarterly call that we will join together. Thank you very much.
Thank you all. Good evening.
Thank you.