Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Voltas Limited Q4 and FY2025 earnings conference call hosted by Philips Capital India 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 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 Ms. Natasha Jain from Philips Capital. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm Natasha Jain on behalf of Philips Capital. Welcome all of you to the fourth quarter FY2025 earnings conference call of Voltas Limited. From the management today, we have Mr. Pradeep Bakshi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. K.V. Sridhar, the new Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Nikhil R. Chandrana, Head Corporate Finance, and Mr. Veba Vora, Head Treasury. I would request the management to give their opening remarks, post which we shall open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
This is Pradeep Bakshi here. Just to give you a heads-up, with me today has joined Mr. K.V. Sridhar, besides my colleagues Nikhil and Veba. K.V. Sridhar, just as an introduction, he's joined us recently as Chief Financial Officer, and he comes with a very, very rich experience, and he's dealt with board, and he's been in the system with us for the last few days. Now we will pass on the mic to Sridhar, who will give you the heads-up on the performance for the quarter and year-end.
Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, all. Glad to connect with you all as part of the call. First, I'll start with the overall global situation, what we see as we analyze it in India, and then to the results part of it. The global economic outlook, as you can see, links to multiple factors like U.S. tariffs and countermeasures of the trading partners. There is a high level of uncertainty. In addition to the risk of increased inflation, investment and consumer confidence are anticipated to decline during the prevailing uncertainties. While the direct impact on India is expected to be limited, the spillovers of global flow, especially the two key economies, U.S. and China, may exaggerate the scale of impact. Further, the Indo-Pak border tensions further add to the uncertainty of the last couple of days.
This will negatively impact economic activity with global growth now projected to drop to 2.8% in 2025 and 3% in 2026, down from the earlier forecast of 3.3% in the earlier years. This is significantly below the overall average of 3.7% earlier. In contrast, if you sort of look at India, for example, India is, I think, relatively well-insulated, supported by strong economic fundamentals, declining crude prices, and a proactive monetary policy. India's strategic position has the potential to provide additional benefits. It is reportedly close to becoming one of the first countries to finalize a trade deal with the U.S. IMF, in its latest release, expected that India is set to overtake Japan and become the fourth-largest economy in the world in 2025. This growth is likely to be fueled by the nation's private consumption growth.
Linked to the India story, the company has maintained its growth trajectory and increased its annual revenue driven by a strong summer season for the AC industry after two to three years and the growth in the projects business. Voltas achieved several key milestones during the year, becoming the first brand to surpass 2.5 million AC units in 2024-2025, the highest-ever air cooler sales in excess of 500,000, and commercial air conditioner business also delivered steady growth. During the year, Voltas Beko also recorded sales of over 1 million refrigerators and washing machines and established itself as the fastest-growing home appliances brand in the country. The company continued profitable growth in the domestic projects business and a stable international projects business. These accomplishments were made possible through strategic planning, extensive market research, a capable sales force, an expanded product range with enhanced attributes, and increased participation across channels.
For the year ended 31st March 2025, the company reported a 24% increase in consolidated total income reaching INR 15,737 crore, up from INR 12,734 crore in the same period last year. Profit before tax surged by 145%, amounting to INR 1,191 crore compared to INR 481 crore previously. Net profit also experienced a significant rise, standing at INR 834 crore, up from INR 248 crore in the corresponding period last year. This marks the highest-ever profit in the company's history. Earnings per share for the year ended 31st March 2025 was INR 25.43 compared to INR 7.62 in the same period last year, as you would have seen in the annual results published. For the quarter ending 31st March 2025, the consolidated total income grew by 14%, reaching INR 4,847 crore compared to INR 4,247 crore in the same quarter last year. Profit before tax soared by 97%, amounting to INR 343 crore from INR 175 crore.
Net profit after tax also saw a substantial increase, climbing from INR 236 crore from INR 111 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Earnings per share, not annualized, just to clarify, for the quarter ended 31 March was INR 7.28 compared to INR 3.52 in the same period previous year. The balance sheet also continues to be strong. Other details, I think, is already sort of snapshot is already been shared, so I will go into the specifics of each of the businesses just for a better understanding. Unitary cooling business. For the year ended March 2025, demand for the cooling products has remained strong, elevating the growth of the UCP vertical overall. For the year, all products in the air conditioner category experienced good demand driven by consumers' preference for advanced features and energy-efficient products.
The strong demand for the premium products, particularly five-star rated units, continued, enhancing the overall sales mix for Voltas. Voltas maintains its leadership positions with a year-on-year market share of almost 19% as of March 2025. Overall, primary volume growth for the UCP category for the year was recorded at almost 36%. Market reports indicate that Voltas achieved a growth in line with the industry. Anticipated strong summer demand and support from our in-stock demonstrators helped us achieve better performance for all products with the room air conditioner category experiencing good demand. Both window and split air conditioners saw reasonable growth during the quarter. The company's ramp-up of its manufacturing capacity is on track, with commercial production from the room air conditioner facility in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, progressing as planned.
This factory has helped cater to increased demand and balance the supply chain, particularly in the southern and western markets of India. Our overall growth was owing to a combination of 24/7 operations at our factory in Pantnagar and a steady ramp-up of our newly established Chennai factory. With our proposed growth plans and vision of leading industry growth in the air conditioner market, we are planning to further scale up our capacity, especially at our fully backward integrated room air conditioner factory in Chennai. The commercial refrigeration segment encountered challenges during the year linked to inventory liquidation and lower customer capital expenditures effective margins during the year. With the slowdown during the year, production ramp-up in our new factory was not as planned, and this further added to the costs. Despite this, growth has been seen across all product categories.
However, with orders in pipeline for our CR products and our commitment to provide our consumers with enhanced product experience from our new factory, we envisage a favorable outcome of our factory ramp-up and overall growth from this category in the next few months. The air cooler segment experienced significant growth of over 70% this year. Certain strategic initiatives taken during the year facilitated the successful distribution of both air coolers and water heaters. For year-to-date March, Voltas has achieved an 8.5% market share in the air cooler category, establishing itself as one of the top three brands. Additionally, in the water heater segment, collaboration with distributors and sub-dealers have contributed to robust performance, which has been positively received. The commercial air conditioning vertical recorded steady performance during the year, driven by higher sales of chillers, VRF, commercial ACs, ducted, and packaged ACs.
The higher volume of margin-accretive product sales, value engineering initiatives, improved labor productivity, and the current mix of AMC jobs positively affected our bottom line. With the positive conversion of product sales to AMC jobs and a high-order pipeline to retrofit jobs, the vertical is expected to achieve consistent growth. Overall, for UCP, increase in commodity prices and the volatility of foreign exchange continue to remain a challenge. Our planned consistent investments in advertising continued to deliver anticipated results. Consumer-centric financing schemes significantly contributed to sales growth this season. Simultaneously, various value engineering initiatives and cost control measures have contributed to stable margins. In conclusion, UCP segment grew by 30%, reaching INR 10,614 crore, up from INR 8,160 crore in the same period last year.
Segment also reported an increase of 29% in results in line with revenue growth, amounting to INR 892 crores compared to INR 693 crores in the corresponding period last year. For the quarter ending March 2025, segment revenue grew by 17%, totaling INR 3,458 crores compared to INR 2,955 crores in the same quarter last year. Segment result for the quarter was INR 345 crores, again INR 270 crores for the same quarter last year. Segment B, the electrical mechanical projects and services. For the year ended March 2025, segment revenue increased by 13%, reaching INR 4,157 crores compared to INR 3,683 crores in the same period last year. The segment results were a positive INR 169 crores, a significant turnaround from a loss of INR 328 crores last year. For the quarter, segment revenue was INR 1,138 crores compared to INR 1,098 crores in the same quarter.
Losses have reduced from INR 108 crore to INR 2 crore mainly due to improved order booking, better project execution, and working capital management. During the current quarter and the year, project execution across verticals and geographies is more sturdy. Focus on completion certificates and various management initiatives continues to boost bottom-line growth. However, in domestic business, we face challenges in collections in certain projects. We are relatively optimistic of recovery in the subsequent quarters. In the international business, performance is driven by projects in UAE and Saudi Arabia. For the projects business, we continue to focus on efficient execution of existing ongoing projects, including the collection of due receivables within the contractual timelines to minimize the company's exposure. As of 31st March 2025, the total carryforward order book for the segment is in excess of INR 6,500 crore. Segment C, engineering products and services.
The segment faced certain headwinds in its performance owing to macroeconomic factors and likewise the challenges faced by industry. Revenue reported for current year was INR 569 crore as against INR 588 crore in the previous year, and the segment results were INR 155 crore versus INR 206 crore for the same period last year. For the quarter, the segment revenue was INR 132 crore compared to INR 156 crore last year, and the results were INR 34 crore versus INR 48 crore last year. The mining and construction equipment vertical showed positive momentum on the top line, ensuring continuity in operations and maintenance jobs as well as sales of power skin machines. However, the revenue mix and challenges in job renewals at sustained margins limited the ability to translate top-line growth into bottom-line growth. Going forward, the expected increase in coal production in both Mozambique and India is expected to enhance business opportunities with existing contracts.
In the textile machinery division, geopolitics in Europe and China, political interest in Bangladesh, and supply chain disruptions in the textiles business caused major challenges globally for the industry. Standard yarn prices also impacted the business. These dynamics led to a lower capital expenditure across the sector during the year, resulting in underperformance and a revenue decline for the vertical. Demand and margins for our agency business remained under pressure throughout the year. However, after-sales and post-spinning business showed positive performance. With a focus on growing our presence and reach in the spinning machinery, post-spinning and after-sales division, and enhancing our service delivery, we are putting efforts into navigating the headwinds in the business. Voltas Beko, our home appliances brand, continued to excel with consistent month-on-month growth.
During the financial year ended March 2025, the industry reported only single-digit growth in washing machines and negligible growth in refrigerators. However, Voltas Beko performed remarkably well with a volume growth of 57%. This growth was further complemented by a significant increase in market share during the quarter. As of year-to-date February 2025, our market share improved to 8.7% for washing machines and 5.3% for refrigerators. We are delighted to share that our performance in semi-automatic washing machines exceeded expectations, making us the second largest player in the product category with a year-to-date market share of 15.3%. Leveraging our manufacturing prowess, we aim to localize all refrigerator manufacturing in India and become a fully made-in-India brand. By elevating technology across all product categories, we plan to drive future growth. Our extensive and attractive range of appliances will help us increase our market share further.
In terms of profitability, increased volume and various value engineering measures helped us improve our margins and minimize losses. While our business continued to grow across categories, category growth per se limited the overall profitability of the business. Voltas continues to work on bringing in efficiencies for leveraged profitability. To summarize, how does the season? With the ongoing season, we remain optimistic for all our product categories, and we hope that the demand will remain strong and positive. Consumer sentiments will support volume despite strong comparable quarter. The various strategic initiatives and new product launches planned for the season across categories, our distribution reach will help us further improve our performance in the market and support us in strengthening market share in a more sustainable and profitable manner. Optimization of our manufacturing facilities and cost efficiencies will remain key drivers of profitability during the period.
For projects business, we will continue to remain diligent and cautious for tendering the jobs. Overall, we continue to monitor the market cautiously and are optimistic in our performance across the businesses we operate in. Thank you. Hello. Natasha.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address the questions from all the participants in the conference, please limit your questions to one per participant. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Ankur from HDFC.
Please proceed.
Yeah, hi. So good afternoon. Thanks for your time. My first question was on the UCP margins, which are fairly strong at about 10% for the quarter, and also about 80 basis points higher year over year. Just trying to understand what led to the strong margins, given the fact that I believe you said you have not really taken any price hikes on the room AC side, plus given RM cost increases, and I am assuming even compressor costs would have gone up. Just if you could help us understand what is driving that increase, are there any one-offs that we should be aware of?
Yeah. Let me answer you on this particular one. There are a couple of things which have helped us increase our margins in this category. UCP, as you know, is consisting of air conditioners, commercial refrigeration, commercial air conditioning, and air coolers.
In each of these verticals, except for the commercial refrigeration segment, we have done better than the previous quarters and the previous year in terms of our profitability for several reasons. One, of course, the better product mix has happened. Like in air coolers, there is a better demand for the larger capacity industrial kind of coolers, which is more than 100-120 liters, etc., and which is slightly better margin fetching products. Similarly, even in the room AC category, also, there is a demand for higher energy efficient products, which is also helping us improve our profitability. Even on the commercial air conditioning front, also, the overall revenue and profitability has gone up in quarter four, and this has all helped us in improving our margins.
Okay.
If you could just spell out the RAC margins like you normally do, how much was it this quarter versus last year?
Yeah. RAC margin, if you've seen the balance sheet, it is about the same range as what we had achieved in the previous quarters. It's been all the last year. It's been hovering around the same.
I got it. Okay. Just a second question on the project business.
If you recollect my previous discussion with you also and the guidance which I had given you, it's been hovering around 9-10% all along in the room AC category.
Fair. Okay. Just a second question on the project business, where we once again see a loss this quarter. I think one of the comments in your press release is of some difficulties in domestic projects.
If you could just help us understand what's driving that loss, is it provided for completely and hopefully doesn't come back in the coming quarter?
Yeah.
Ankur, I'm not too sure where have you read from. Actually, we haven't mentioned any challenges in the domestic project business. Yes, there are some provisioning which we have made in the international projects business, and that is on account of our prudence because some payments have got a bit delayed. Although the team is putting in effort to collect those monies also, and we are hopeful that in subsequent quarters, those payments will come up. We have been able to provide them in advance to avoid any difficulties.
Okay. Got it. Okay, sir. That's all from my side.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Siddharta from Nomura. You may proceed.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, sir.
Sir, first question on the demand outlook for this year on the RAC side, given that near-term we have seen some softness given the seasonal rains, will it be possible to indicate how much are we budgeting in terms of outlook volume growth for the coming year? Second, on the market share as well, I mean, we did maintain market share on a year-over-year basis, but every quarter we have seen some moderation. Do you think market share gains will be a priority now given the outlook? That will be the first question.
Yeah. One is, of course, as you said rightly, while the calendar year went January, we ushered into the new year. January, February period was good.
As the season moved into the summer season, there have been some unwarranted rains and thunderstorms in some parts of the country, which has brought down the consumer sentiments. The initial few days have not been good. However, lately, the summers have begun. They are a bit late, but I believe that it is going to be an extended one. Hopefully, we should be able to make up for whatever we have not been able to encash upon as an opportunity during the initial few days of the summers. We are quite buoyant that hopefully the summers will be longer and we will be able to encash. That is one. It will all depend on the summers. It is very difficult to give you any kind of guidance as to what kind of % growth we will be able to assure. Of course, we have got plans.
We intend to grow, and that's our ambition also. It will all depend on the summer season. However, as you know, these days, actually, the ACs, air coolers, and all these products, whatever verticals we are into, around the year, there's been movement happening because somewhere, and we have got larger basket, and they keep complementing. If by chance one particular category doesn't show up, then the second category makes up for that. We are quite confident that we'll continue to produce good results and we'll continue to give you good returns.
Second question on the market share, if you—
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Siddharta. We may request you to return to the question queue for the follow-up question as there are several participants waiting for their turn.
Okay.
On the market share front, I remember that you asked for that also.
On the year-on-year basis, you'll see that our market share has been hovering around about 19%, and we have been able to maintain our leadership position. Yeah. One month or so here and there, probably at times, for some reasons, the market share, as per the syndicated research, may go up and down because it is at the—they are all indicative ones, and the research happens with a very limited kind of network. So many times, we have performed in a particular territory better, and that particular territory is not well covered by this research agency. Therefore, I don't think we should take it very seriously. However, we have maintained and will continue to maintain our leadership position in the category.
Got it, sir. Thanks a lot. I'll come back with it.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aniruddha Joshi from ICICI Securities.
You may proceed.
Yeah. Just on the provisioning in the international projects that you alluded earlier, if you can share more details on that. I mean, if the team is extremely confident of receiving the money, why are we taking the provision at this stage? In a way, is the entire provision already done, or there might be some extra provision in Q1, Q2 also? Which type of project, which country that we are referring to, and what is the total quantum of that project?
Yeah. See, these are actually the expected trade loss as per the timelines which we provide. While the team has been putting in effort, and they are likely to collect money, since the time is—as per the timelines we are supposed to provide, we have gone ahead and proactively provided for.
There are a couple of projects, three, four projects we have provided for. The geography, of course, is GCC countries.
What was the quantum in this quarter?
About INR 40 crore, approximately. Okay. We do not see that getting—
Sorry, Mr. Aniruddha Joshi, but as we have more participants in the question queue, you may join the question queue again.
Okay, sir.
Thanks. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to one per participant. The next question is from the line of Achal Lohade from Nuama Institutional Equities. You may proceed.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.
Sir, just wanted to understand in terms of the market volume for the year FY2025, and given what we have seen in the month of April, assuming that we see a normalcy from, let's say, second half of May onwards, how do you see the market growth, especially when we are hearing that South is seeing a decline of 25-30% year over year? If you could give some sense on the volume for FY2025 for the industry and the outlook in terms of the growth, especially taking into account the April month.
If you're talking about financial year 2025, you've seen our growth. We've grown by about 36-37% in volume and in revenue, about 30% we've grown. We've shown our growth as in UCP segment. If you're talking about industry, industry has been hovering around 1.14-1.15 million approximately. Yeah.
It is like that. I mean, actually, this is the general estimation only. Somewhere it is being said 13 million, somewhere it is said 14 million. Approximately, you can say 13-14 million is the industry size. I have already informed you, and in the previous question also, I shared about how the future is looking at this. Initial few days have been a bit challenging because summers set in a bit late in most parts of the country. However, we are confident now, last few days, summers are picking up, and probably we will gain from the extended summers.
That expectation of 15-20%, or 20-25% industry growth still remains, or is there a dent to that, sir?
Yeah. Double-digit growth is definitely going to be there, but it is difficult to say whether it is going to be 15 or 20.
It depends on the season. Yeah, overall, the industry is lesser penetrated. We have got everything positively moving in the direction of our growth. I have been informing you all along, all our conversations for the last several quarters, per capita income, GDP, penetration levels, hot and humid environment of our country, large consumption base and population base. Everything is there positively placed for us. The only thing is summers should support us. Otherwise, overall, by the time the year ends, actually, even if one quarter or a few months are lower over the previous quarters, it is made up in the subsequent quarters generally. By the end of the year, if you see our result for several years, we have been continuously growing, and we are faster growing than the industry growth.
Thank you. I feel like I interrupted you, sir.
Thank you so much for the answers.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Palaash Gandhi from Investech. You may proceed.
Hi, sir. This is Ajay from Investech. My first question is on market share, wherein earlier we used to have a 23-24% kind of market share, which then in a couple of years had fallen to 19-odd percent, and it appears to have settled around that level. Now, I just wanted to understand, how do you see the scenario? Is the aspiration to go back to the kind of market shares that we used to have, or do you think the industry competitive dynamics are such that we look to kind of protect the market shares at the current level?
While we would aspire to go back to higher market share, however, I think we need to bear in our mind the number of players which are continuously being increasing in the category. Because, as I said, India is poised for a big growth, and every geography is looking at entering into India. If you look at, we have got brands from America, Europe, Korea, China, Japan. From all geographies, people have entered into India. This has become quite cluttered, this particular segment, AC, if you look at. There are more than 60-65 brands which are fighting for getting their share into the pie. Therefore, it becomes very, very difficult to maintain a very high-level market share.
However, what we have been assuring you, and we are endeavor, has been to continue to remain a market leader and with a reasonable gap between number one and number two. That is what we will continue to do that.
Sure, sir. And sir, is there a possibility of—
Sorry, sir. Sorry, Mr. Palaash Gandhi, but we may request you to return to the question queue for a follow-up question as there are several participants waiting for their turn.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Agarwal from Ikigai Assets. You may proceed.
Hi, sir. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. Just one question on revenue growth outlook. You obviously talked about RACS. I just wanted to know your opinion about the commercial AC, commercial ref, and private business.
How do you see the next year panning out in terms of growth?
This looks very positive. Both the segments which you talked about, B to B, commercial ACs as well as commercial refresher product category. If we look back two, three years back, most of the industries had put on hold their CapEx investments during the COVID, etc. The businesses had gone down, and therefore, people were holding back. Now, if we look at it, it has started opening up. If you see our commercial air conditioning growth, we have continued to grow both in terms of revenue and profitability in this segment. It is definitely a very positive sign.
In commercial refrigeration also, if you look at, barring last few quarters in the previous year, fiscal year 2025, where we had some challenges in demand and also due to because QCO was coming up, and also there was commodity cost going up, which industry player could not pass on to the consumer, and therefore, there was a bit of a challenge in this category. However, in terms of revenue growth and all, both these segments are quite positively placed. There is a demand for cold chain products because cold chain is continuously growing, and similarly, a lot of new offices and buildings are coming up, all commercial buildings, all airports, metros.
This paves a lot of opportunities for us, including our group companies where a lot of new businesses are coming up, Tata Electronics and all, where we have got—we are beneficiary of large orders booked during the year which are going to get executed. Hopefully, this is going to be a good year going forward.
Does this look like a 15%-20% growth category or maybe more?
Very difficult to say on the % growth, boss. Yes, it will be more than double-digit growth, yes.
Perfect. Thank you so much, and all the best, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Daval Chimaya from Axis Mutual Funds. You may proceed.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Just one question. Just wanted to understand, for our Chennai factory, do we have any kind of state incentives that we will be receiving?
Yeah. Actually, there is a state benefit definitely there which is going to come as we produce, but it is over a longer period. Over the next 10-15 years, I think 15 years, we are going to get the dividends from this factory. However, we are quite upbeat because this factory has been largely set up, not keeping in mind only the benefits, what we want to get. The ultimate objective was we wanted to be closer to the market. If we went earlier on, we were sending products from North India to South India. One is the transit time, and secondly, the transportation cost was sort of eating into the profitability. However, by reaching out closer, we have cut short on the timings to reach out to the consumer faster. Secondly, we have been able to save some costs which we are investing into building the brand further.
Both ways, I think that was the objective of setting up this factory. Of course, in the process, we are going to get benefited from the state government, and we will make use of that in expanding the brand and the volume and the business. Will you be able to quantify the numbers or how is it structured? I mean, either way, some clarity on the—I think you can reach out to me or my office separately. It is a long calculation because it is spread over a long period, 15 years, sort of 14-15 years. I think I will have to explain that tabulation to you. I do not think I will be able to do justice over the phone.
Sure, sir. Thank you. Thank you very much for taking my question.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Natasha Jain from Philips Capital India Private Limited.
You may go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Some of my long-term questions you've pretty much answered. My question is more near-term. There has definitely been strong primary filling in the channel in anticipation of a stockout and supply chain issues. I mean, especially when I see the secondary sales, the movement has been very slow. I mean, the only legit data that we get is the GSK numbers, and basis that there is a decline in terms of Voltas's market share. How are you seeing your secondary sales at the point? That's it. Thank you.
I think Natasha has answered that there have been challenges in the secondary movement as well as tertiary movement during the last few days, about the last 30-40 days, because of summers onsetting has been delayed. There have been some rains playing this false sport.
That has been a little challenging for us. Yes, we get to see that some drip in the market share has also happened. Generally, we are not concerned on a month-to-month basis. Actually, we look at it on the quarterly basis and the annualized basis as to how our market shares are moving. Also, for us, this particular quarter, April, May, June, is the largest for our company. We are quite an AC-focused organization. Therefore, you'll get to see that we will cover up all that in this quarter. From now onwards, until the second and third quarter, we will make up for all this.
Perfect. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vumika Nayar from Dam Capital. You may proceed.
Yes, sir.
Just wanted to get a sense on if you've taken any price hikes and given the muted demand that we're seeing on the lead onset of summer, are we seeing any discounting by any of the peer set, etc.? Secondly, if you can also talk about the commercial refrigeration business. You spoke about margins being lower. What was the margin impact both for FOQ and for FI25? Also, if you can talk about the revenue growth for commercial refrigeration, both for the quarter and for the year.
Your first question is about the price hike. You see, we are evaluating continuously as to how the demand has been moving. We are also bearing in mind the commodity price movements and also the forex movement. Accordingly, a judgmental call will be taken as and when we feel it appropriate.
Immediately, I'm not looking at any price hike, to be honest. As the situation demands, we will take appropriate action. One, on account of discounting, right now, the channel as well as the brands are settled with the inventories. If the summer season is not setting in appropriately, and if the summers are delayed, and in case some brands resort to the discounting, I cannot say on that. It looks unlikely because at the end of the day, summers will be there. Maybe it is a bit delayed, and hopefully, it is going to be longer months. I do not think it is appropriate to talk discounting at this moment. As of now, nobody has resorted to that particular discounting element.
Commercial refrigeration, I have already talked about, I think, in detail as to profitability, and the growth last year has been a little muted one, both on account of the QCO stock liquidation. Also, there was a challenge on account of demand of certain categories. Therefore, while people, industry were settled with some inventory, they wanted to liquidate that. I think all in all, that was not a good year for the commercial refrigeration segment. Going forward, if you're talking about revenue for quarter four, we have grown by about overall 19-20% in the commercial refrigeration category. Profitability, we have not done well, to be honest, in this commercial refrigeration category. Overall, we have done reasonably well.
Sure, sir. We would have broken even on marginal profitability?
Marginal.
Okay. Okay.
As we move ahead, obviously, the growth—
Sorry to interrupt, ma'am. May we request you to return to the question queue for your follow-up questions as there are several participants waiting for their turn?
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Gajare from Hariton Securities India Private Limited. You may proceed.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just have one question, which is in the month of April, company reported that there was a custom duty demand of about INR 250,000,000. Can you talk about what products or component does this custom duty refer to? Because this can have impact not just for Holdaf, but other players and industry at large. Just if you can throw some light, maybe Mr. Sridhar can talk about this. Which products are these? Thank you.
Okay, let me answer, and if Sridhar needs to add to that, he can also add.
Sure, sir.
The demand notice was on copper as an element if you're talking about what particular item was it. Since we have been buying copper as well as the industry from some of the countries where the duty exemptions are there, FTAs have been signed up, we've been buying from there. Probably, in our opinion, it's a legitimate buy because they have declared, those countries have declared, and those manufacturers out there have declared, and they have showed up the documents also, submitted documents also to that effect. However, it is between them and the government which is settling. Because we got in the middle of the month, we are just evaluating that notice, and we are also consulting amongst ourselves, and we'll be responding to that suitably.
Yes. We just got it, I think, a couple of weeks back only. We're just evaluating it, and we'll be responding accordingly. This is copper tubes, basically?
Yes.
Yes.
Okay. Fine. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Umang Mehta from Protect Securities. You may proceed.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I just had a question on other income during the quarter. There was a sharp jump in both other income and other operating revenue income. What was it, and did it help QCP margin? If yes, by how much was the benefit because of this particular?
This is largely the interest and mark-to-mark income on our investments. This year, it has paid us good dividends. Therefore, you see a jump in that. That's the only thing.
How much was affected to UCP margin because of this? No, no. We do not take it in the divisional margins. This is unallocated. We show it as unallocated earnings.
Okay. Sure. Thank you.
All right. Right now, Natasha, we are done.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for the day. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Natasha Jain for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Yeah. I would request the management to give closing comments, if any.
Thank you very much. The company and the brand has done very well for itself during the course of fiscal year 2025. As we go forward, our endeavor would be to continue to do well, continue to exceed the expectations of our shareholders, and continue to perform.
We look forward to support from all of you.
Thank you, sir. That concludes the conference. Participants can now disconnect their lines.
On behalf of Philips Capital India Private Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.