Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Voltas Limited Q2 FY26 Earning Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants' lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Natasha . Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you. I'm Natasha Jain on behalf of Phillip Capital. Welcome all of you to the Second Quarter FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call of Voltas Limited. From the management today, we have Mr. Mukundan Menon, Managing Director, Mr. K.V. Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Nikhil R. Chandarana, Head Corporate Finance, and Mr. Vaibhv Vora, Head Treasury. I request the management to give their opening commentary, post which we shall open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
This is Sridhar here, CFO of Voltas Group. To start off, I think Voltas is positioned for future growth with strong fundamentals and strategic clarity. Just to give a view on the overall global outlook, global economic growth has remained steady, though uneven across regions, with many advanced economies still facing inflationary pressures. India continues to stand out as one of the fastest-growing major economies, supported by public investment, strong domestic demand, and a resilient services sector. While global trade remains affected by geopolitical tensions, India's consumer and infrastructure momentum continues to create opportunities across industries. For the cooling and appliances sector, stable energy costs and improved consumer sentiment are expected to drive demand recovery in the coming quarters. The IMF has maintained its global growth outlook at around 3% for 2025, citing gradual stabilization in key economies. Emerging markets continue to anchor this growth, led by India and Southeast Asia.
In contrast, developed markets are adjusting to slower consumption and policy tightening. Voltas, through its diversified business presence, continues to manage these dynamics prudently, balancing exposure across markets and maintaining financial discipline. Voltas Limited, a Tata Enterprise and India's leading air-conditioning and engineering services company, announced financial results for the quarter and six months ended 30 June 2025. The quarter reflected a period of transition marked by external challenges such as extended monsoon and GST-related demand deferment. However, amidst these short-term headwinds, Voltas continues to demonstrate strategic focus and operational discipline. The company remains firmly anchored to its long-term growth agenda, unpinned by the robust investments in manufacturing, steady performance across projects and engineering, and the growing strength of its consumer brands. Voltas' diversified portfolio and strong governance foundation continue to reinforce its reputation as one of India's most trusted enterprises.
Just a brief on the financial performance overview for the quarter ended. Consolidated total income was INR 24.11 billion against INR 27.24 billion last year. Profit before tax was INR 0.54 billion versus INR 2.05 billion last year, while net profit was INR 0.315 billion compared to INR 1.3283 billion last year. For the six months ended 30 September, the consolidated income was INR 64.32 billion versus INR 77.25 billion for the same period last year. PBT was INR 2.56 billion against INR 6.5695 billion for the same period last year, while net profit was INR 1.72 billion as compared to INR 4.67 billion for the same period last year. While results were impacted by cyclical factors in the cooling segment, the company's diversified structure, balance sheet prudence, and operational positions it well for a rebound in H2 and sustained long-term value creation. Just a bit of depth on the different segments that we operate in, starting with segment A, which is the Unitary Cooling Products.
The UCP business experienced an atypical quarter with muted retail offtake caused by the lean season and delayed consumer purchases during the period mid-August to last week of September, owing to GST rate reduction leading to a higher channel inventory. Despite these temporary challenges, Voltas sustained its market leadership position and continued to reinforce its presence across India's cooling and comfort solution spectrum. Residential RAC segment remains the core of its segment. The quarter required higher marketing support to sustain retail momentum and to manage channel inventory, which impacted margins. However, the market share improved sequentially from 16% in Q4 FY2025 to 17.8% in Q1 and further to 18.5% in Q2, and maintained our market leadership with a widened gap over the next brand.
The reduction of GST from 28% to 18% will see a major traction in the coming quarters as channels start stocking up for the upcoming season and the impending BEE energy efficiency transition effective January 2026. The company is fully ready with the new table products for the upcoming transition. This change is expected to drive consumer upgrades in the second half, providing a positive flip to demand and product mix improvement. Strategically, Voltas has intensified its focus on refreshing and upgrading its product portfolio with enhanced features for a better consumer experience. Further, it is focusing on distribution network expansion, cost optimization, automation, and process efficiency across its manufacturing network. Production planning has been recalibrated to reflect real-time market demand and inventory dynamics.
While margins were temporarily impacted by underabsorption in the new Chennai and Vaghodia facilities, these are strategic investments that will deliver economies of scale and long-term competitiveness as utilization improves. Complementary categories such as air coolers, water heaters, and fans continue to show promise, supported by ongoing product upgrades, channel expansion, and digital reach. Together, these initiatives strengthen Voltas' position as a preferred choice in the cooling and comfort products. Within the broader UCP portfolio, commercial air conditioning continues to act as a strong growth lever, supported by rising demand from institutional, retail, and light commercial segments. Commercial refrigeration is expanding across food service, retail, and healthcare applications, further diversifying the portfolio and providing steady year-round business. Together, these developments reinforce Voltas' strategy of evolving from a seasonal cooling brand into a year-round consumer durable enterprise with a comprehensive product portfolio combining scale, innovation, and operational excellence. Voltas Home Appliances.
Voltas continues to be one of India's fastest-growing appliances, demonstrating sustained momentum across key categories. The business delivered growth across H1, gaining market share driven by consumer preference for higher quality, energy-efficient, and locally manufactured products. This performance was accompanied by a gain in market share across key categories, underscoring Voltas' growing competitiveness and brand acceptance. Performance was broad-based across washing machines, refrigerators, and small domestic appliances. Voltas' advanced manufacturing footprint, coupled with an expanding product roadmap and deep retail network, has enabled it to combine scale with innovation agility. The brand's marketing investments and growing digital presence have further enhanced consumer engagement and visibility. Voltas remains an integral part of Voltas' long-term strategy for diversification, premiumization, and transition to a full-scale home appliances company, enabling Voltas to provide end-to-end cooling and home solutions to Indian consumers. Segment B, Electromechanical Products and Services.
Segment B continues to be a strategic stabilizer for Voltas, mitigating the effects of seasonality in the cooling business. The domestic infra solution business, its advanced project execution across MEP, Water, Electrical, and Solar Verticals, underscores its engineering leadership. The business focused on timely completion of multiple projects, enhancing cash flows, and optimizing execution timelines to drive efficiency and profitability. The international business continues its disciplined approach to project management, achieving progressive execution and delivering high-quality projects. With a robust consolidated order book exceeding INR 62 billion and a healthy bid pipeline, the segment is well-positioned to drive steady counter-cyclical growth and deliver consistent performance over the medium term. The engineering products and services segment maintained operational resilience despite macroeconomic uncertainty. The mining and construction equipment division saw stable performances across Africa and Indian markets, supported by sustained after-sales growth and innovation in hybrid machinery.
The textile machinery division delivered on revenue and collection targets, with after-sales services emerging as a strong contributor to profitability. We are also focusing on adjacencies in post-spinning to drive the newer growth opportunities. With continued localization initiatives and policy support from GST rationalization, the segment is strategically positioned to capitalize on industrial demand recovery and strengthen its technology-led portfolio. Voltas managed its working capital judiciously in a quarter marked by delayed secondary movement, with retail momentum expected to pick up during the upcoming quarter and production normalization across facilities. Inventory levels and cash cycles are anticipated to revert to healthier levels in H2 FY2026. Just to give a summarization on the outlook to strategic direction, Voltas enters the second half of FY2026 with renewed optimism and strong strategic alignment. The GST reduction and the BE efficiency transition are expected to unlock pent-up consumer demand.
The company's integrated strategy, combining product innovation, manufacturing excellence, channel revitalization, and operational efficiency, positions it to capitalize on emerging opportunities across markets. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. A reminder to all the participants, please restrict yourselves to only one question. The first question is from the line of Balasubramanian from Arihant Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunities. Sir, elevated inventory is a sector-wide issue, and what is our current inventory levels on the channel side? What specific support are you providing to channel partners to prevent distress selling and maintain brand equities? Specific support in terms of extended credit, higher margins. Could you share some light on that?
Yeah. As all of you know, this has been a very difficult H1 in the cooling products category. This has come on the back of a very strong summer last year. Everybody had planned a larger inventory for the brand as well as the channel partners. The season did not go well, obviously, there was a little higher stock. The way we see it is currently, the channel partners have roughly around, between us and the channel partners, there's roughly two months of inventory. The season is going to pick up now. I think things will start easing out over a period of time now. In terms of support, we strongly believe that our channel partners are very critical to our success.
We have done everything possible to ensure by giving better sellout schemes, like sometimes subsidized installation, better consumer finance schemes to them to help them sell out so that in no way they get stuck with the stock. Everything that is possible from our side, we have been supporting our channel partners to make this happen.
Got it, sir. Thank you.
Thank you, Bala. Yeah.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Mr. Achal from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, first question is with respect to market share. You mentioned about 18.6% in 2Q FY2026. Could you help us with 2Q FY2025 market share on the similar line, sir, please?
Yeah. If you see that the sequential market share numbers have been moving up very strongly. For example, I won't exactly remember the Q2, Q3 numbers of last year, but from the calendar year this year, that is from Q4 of this year, it was around 16% in quarter one. In quarter four of the last financial year, 16%. In quarter one of this year, we hit 17.8%. In quarter two, it further improved to 18.5%. In a span of just six months, that means I think, no, not six months, I think quarter, yeah, it's gone up from 16% to 18.5%. That is a delta of roughly 2.5% has happened over these two quarters. Now, between these three quarters, another important thing to note here is the lead between us. We are the market leader, the number one brand.
The lead between us and the number two brand has also widened significantly. The gap is now as high as closer to 3%, 2.9% to be precise. That is a very strong indicator of the direction this is taking, actually. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. The second question I have.
Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Achal, sorry to interrupt. You have to return to the queue for follow-up question as there are several participants waiting for their turn.
No problem.
Thank you, Achal. Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Siddhartha from Nomura Holdings. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, first question on the quarter near term, how have you seen in terms of the pickup? Have you sort of started seeing some growth coming back, given that we are sort of close to halfway through the quarter now? Some of these schemes which you have talked about in quarter two, are they still sort of in some way there, or have they been fully withdrawn? Second is, sir, on the commercial refrigeration and CAC segment, if you can just highlight how that performance has been also in the quarter?
Yeah. Siddhartha, essentially, the GST announcement which happened on 22nd of September. So we had a playoff of a month and a half now, I would say. We are seeing there is certainly a secondary sale improvement, uptick in the sales of air conditioners, where the GST rate is reduced from 28% to 18%. However, we must remember that this is a category which is highly like a summer-driven product. The amount of sales, even though the seasonality of this category has evened out over the last many years, it still remains a seasonal product. I strongly believe that the real spur in demand, the spurt in demand will happen during the season. That means from the quarter four, you'll see some seriously big number happening because of the GST reduction.
Both all the brands as well as the channel partners are eagerly looking forward to the coming summer season. Of course, keeping our fingers crossed that the summer season is not interrupted with pre-monsoon rains like it was last year. From a GST cost perspective, a reduction perspective, it is a very positive trend. On the second thing, on your other two businesses, our commercial air conditioning business is doing very well. This is a category where we currently have a little lower market share compared to our competitors. We are adding our channel partners very aggressively across the country. We are also adding new product portfolios, including centrifugal chillers and VRF systems into our product portfolio. This is probably going to be the next growth engine for Voltas.
Got it, sir. Thanks a lot.
Thanks, Siddhartha.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Naushad Chaudhary from Aditya Birla. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you. Two, three clarification. Firstly, on the project business order book, which is INR 62 billion, how much of this within this, how much is from the international market?
Yeah. Essentially, the INR 62 billion is divided as domestic projects is INR 48 billion, and around INR 14 billion is from the international business group, actually.
Okay. Can we be more specific in terms of what exactly is now started to drive this order book? Which specific area is helping us here?
Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk about the domestic project book, which is the larger order book, INR 48 billion. It is sort of evenly divided between the three verticals which we have within the domestic projects group, which is essentially the, we have sort of diversified this portfolio. Earlier, we had only a plain MEP business. Now we have an equal plain MEP, which is the Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Business. We have got an Electrical and Solar Business. The third one is the Water Business. The order book is almost evenly distributed between the three. Some quarters, it goes up a little by 5% here and there, but a very diversified portfolio of project business now. MEP, Electrical and Solar, second bucket, and the third bucket being Water.
The MEP primarily comes from the private sector, whereas the other two is driven largely by the government infrastructure spending.
Mr. Naushad, please return to the question queue for follow-up questions as there are several participants waiting for their turn.
Yeah. Thanks.
The next question comes from the line of Renu from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon, team. Just wanting to understand while this quarter, we had the double value impact of inventory under overhead recoveries as well as margin pressures in UCP. How do we look at the margins going forward? For the RAC and UCP portfolio, do you think we could end up the year with flattish numbers? Or given the first-half decline, there could be a double-digit drop in revenues for fiscal 2026 as we are heading into the second half?
Renu, the way, the second half is actually promising. There are a couple of positive signals here. One is as people start buying air conditioners for the summer season, further sort of aided with the reduction in prices because of the GST reduction, the channel will start stocking up for the season. That's point number one. Point number two, there is a table change which is happening from 1st January, which is the most of the table, most of the dealers tend to do some stocking up of the old table SKUs because the government, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, which governs this, allows the channel partners and the trade to sell this for a period of three to six months. They do not sort of have a hard stop.
There will be a pre, there will be some reasonable good buying in the last month of this quarter. Of course, for the next and in quarter four of this year, there will be a good stocking up by the channel to ensure that they do not miss this large opportunity that they see because of this cost reduction, the GST reduction for the AC category. I think things will only sort of ease up now. It will improve as we progress. The timeline over the next five months, it will play out over the next five months. We really do not have a number against the quarter three. It is more like a five-month play going forward.
Sure. On the cost.
Please return to the question queue for follow-up question as there are participants waiting.
Renu, did I not answer your question? I can continue, Renu, if you have something.
Yeah. Just the second part of the question was, while volume growth may bounce back in second half, we saw under recoveries on fixed overheads in 2Q. That should be broadly addressed. As we go in second half, probably 3Q may continue to see a lingering impact of lower under fixed overhead absorption.
Generally, as the overall numbers start going up, again, a milestone of Q3 may be difficult to sort of figure out. Between now and H2, I would say, that is the entire H2, this absorption will certainly ease up. That's our feeling, actually. Yeah.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you, Renu. Yeah.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Umang Mehta from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. My question was on MEP work for data centers. How big is it currently in your MEP revenues? How are you looking at the opportunity considering one of the group companies has announced a large plan over there?
Yeah. Among these two large opportunities in the MEP segment is data centers and district cooling. These are large capacity, large opportunities for us. In any requirement like data cooling, district cooling, there are two parts to the thing. There is a chiller which goes into the data centers, which gives the cooling water for the data center. There is another piece which is to do with the entire MEP work, which is your piping, your ducting, all those things which go into the, we call it the low side of the thing. We have two parts of our business: the commercial air conditioning business, which currently resides in our UCP, and we have got the domestic project business, which comes in the segment C, segment C of segment B.
Now, both of them will have great opportunities because in the first category, centrifugal chillers, we have started manufacturing them. Some of the best sort of energy-efficient centrifugal chillers are coming out from our factories. We see this as a very good opportunity over the next few years. Even on the MEP side, we see this as a very positive development. It is worthwhile to mention here that this entire project business of ours, including the commercial air conditioning play, helps us to diversify our overall product portfolio and not limit it to only the room air conditioner and the unitary products group. This is a very positive development among us.
What's the mix today?
The mix between the chiller versus the low side is what you're saying, Umang?
Contribution of data centers in your MEP and.
The current mix is very small. It is less than 5% of our MEP play. It's just one or two projects at a time. The way going forward, these data centers can constitute as high as 30%, actually.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Yeah. Yeah.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Sonali Salgaonkar from Jefferies India. Please go ahead.
Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, two parts to one question. What is the demand scenario right now with the near-term triggers? If I may ask, is there any quantification of the outlook in terms of margins or revenue, especially in the UCP you are giving for this year?
Yeah. The demand thing I mentioned, that certainly there will be an uptick in demand. Whenever we see that the first half of the year, the purchases have not been made, we see that the demand is not destroyed or destructed. We believe that the demand is deferred. Now, when that is coupled with the fact that there is a lower GST coming in going forward, I think this only will add, it will only benefit demand. Demand trajectory certainly very, very positive back with the GST reduction and also probably the pent-up demand of what could have been a sale during the period, during the summer months of April, May, and June. In terms of quantification on revenue stroke, profitability, a little too early to take a guess on this. It will play out as the demand picks up and we see attraction in that.
A little early to give a fix on that, Sonali.
In terms of demand, I meant October and probably the prolonged monsoons. If you could share how has been the number in October, if that is something you can disclose in here.
Yeah. On the number front, no. The point is that it's certainly a positive. There is certainly a positive uptick and there is a growth over a similar period last year. That certainly can be confirmed. Yeah.
Got it, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Sonali.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Natasha Jain from Phillip Capital. Please go ahead. Ms. Natasha, kindly unmute yourself and proceed with your question.
Yeah. Hi, sir. My question is more from the channel perspective. What we understand is there is a huge inventory carrying cost right now borne, especially by the general trade channel. Given that winters have also onset early and it is expected to be longer, and that coupled with the GST sizzling out post-Diwali. I just want to understand, could there be a possibility that the channel might not actually stock aggressively in 3Q, and would that result in a sticker downgrade and further discount in 4Q? That's it. Thank you.
Yeah. Natasha, so what the approach that we have been doing, as I mentioned, that whatever the channel sort of is able to sort of we want the channel to push out the stocks as early as possible so that they can start buying for the season. Whatever necessary things are being done in terms of helping sell out, most of the money that we are spending is towards that. I think that is progressing very well, and that is giving us the confidence that there are two things which will happen. They'll be ready for more buying, and there's also stickiness of theirs to us in terms of our support that we are giving. Going forward, as the season picks up, the amount of support or the schemes that we need to give for this will start petering down.
The natural demand for products will start picking up. It is just a three- to four-month play before things will sort of settle back into a very steady thing in terms of the margin stuff.
Got it. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Natasha.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Aniruddha Joshi from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks. I'm from ICICI Securities. Just one question. Sir, FY2026 is a weak year now that is done and dusted. How do you look at FY2027? Because now exactly reverse situation will pan out in FY2027. We will see material growth. I mean, almost 50-odd % revenue growth is also technically possible on a very low base of FY2026. Exactly reverse situation will play out because operating leverage will kick in, the support that you are giving to the trade, excess support to the trade, that will also shrink. One is, is Voltas also internally looking at 50-odd % revenue growth in UCP segment and can even the margins touch around 9%-10%+ levels. Yeah. Just your thoughts on internal goes on the same.
Understood, Aniruddha. What you said about the thing playing out in a harmonic form like last year, the previous year, then seeing a huge growth and then a sharp dip this time, and the next year again a similar kind of rebound and that. We are not sure that over the last decade or so, I do not remember something happening like this up and down uniform harmonic moment of the demand. It has been erratic. There have been some times where the year after that, of course, is a growth, but whether it has to be such a large number, we really do not know. This is a pure function of the intensity of the summer. There will certainly be an uptick, as you mentioned, Aniruddha, because the base has dropped significantly. I completely agree with you.
Whether it will be to the tune of such a large number, I think we should sort of not guess that. The only other positive driver or trigger towards this much higher growth would be the GST reduction, whether the affordability part will make things much better. In a very broad sense, a very, very bullish and positive kind of sort of positive indication, I think, will do. I think other than the air conditioner category, we also are, you would have noticed, we have diversified our entire product portfolio. There are different parts of our business which are doing exceedingly well. We are doing the commercial air conditioning, as I mentioned, being a growth engine. We are also diversifying into new areas in project business.
We're also looking at different areas in post-spinning, in the textile machinery business that we have very less talked about in the investor calls, but these are all areas of huge potential. Over the next few years, all this will start playing out. You would have also noticed that we have become a large player in the—we have become the fastest-growing appliances company with our Voltas Beko appliances range. We have started hitting some nice numbers in terms of market share for semi; we have become the number two brand in the semi-automatic washing machines category. We are doing extremely well in the DC refrigerator category. All this will start playing out because the sales organization is common, and the other costs will start getting sort of absorbed over a larger scale of high-growth products, actually.
Again, the air conditioner thing, being the main play in this, will really add to the growth and the cost absorption story.
Yeah. Thanks. Part B, in case of any massive upsurging growth, will Voltas be ready? I mean to say in terms of, let's say, manufacturing capabilities, compressors, etc., or innovative solution also. Yeah. That's it.
Aniruddha, the good part about it is that what has happened is the supply chain that feeds into the overall product has become closer to India, closer within India now. A majority of the product, some three, four years ago, 70% of the products used to be imported. Currently, that product import content has come down to less than 30%. The supply chain length has become significantly lower, which helps us to sort of quick, we have consciously built it that way so that we are able to sort of react quickly in case there is that upsurge which, Aniruddha, you were mentioning. If something like that happens, we should be able to quickly take advantage of it and then meet the market requirements.
Sure, sir. Thank you.
Mr. Aniruddha? Yes.
Thank you, Aniruddha. Yeah.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Harshitha from UBS Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Hey, hi. Akshitha from UBS. Hi, sir. My question is regarding medium-term margin guidance. Like earlier, you used to guide between a high single-digit margin guidance. Do you stick to that and part to that? How do you see Voltas Beko reaching to EBITDA break-even?
Yeah. As I mentioned, the direction is very clear that it will improve certainly because the pressures of the stock reduce, the cost initiatives that we have worked on for the new table products start kicking in, and the demand picks up. Revenue growth, cost reduction initiatives, and the absorption of some of these fixed costs get up. Directionally, it is very positive. Putting a number on that becomes extremely difficult. In terms of the Voltas Beko appliances business, we are seeing a steady march towards a break-even. We still are not able to quantify which quarter of which year. There are months in certain quarters where we sort of get closer to that or near that. On a cumulative basis, to break even on an annualized basis, it is a little difficult for us to put a number on that.
That is again going very much in the right direction. As we start scaling up, you'll see a positive trend on that. Our focus currently is heavily driven towards gaining market share, being present and visible across all the 19,000-odd counters which stock up these appliances. The modern trade regional retailers are the areas which are revenues for growth for the appliances business. We have started making a mark in the online channel both on Amazon and Flipkart. The sales story is strong. The market share story is extremely strong. The margin EBIT break-even is a journey which will play out over the next few quarters of the year. Yeah.
Thank you, Harshitha. Please return to the question queue for follow-up questions. The next question comes from the line of Praveen Sahay from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. I have one question related to the project business. If you can give some color on how all three vertical, MEP, Electrical, and Solar and Water has a business margin, and also on the sustainability of a very high margin which we had reported for the second quarter. Thank you.
Yeah. We have been very selective in the choice of our projects in the infra segment. We call it the infra segment. There are three parts to that, as I mentioned: MEP, Electrical, and Solar, and the third one being Water. All of them play out in a very decent sort of margin range. It also depends on when some of these little better margin jobs come up for billing. Sometimes it is the quarters; it keeps moving. The very selective selection of these jobs has ensured that, and the speed at which we are executing most of these jobs is also helping us to maintain a very steady kind of margin profile and not have a very erratic kind of profile on the domestic projects business.
A very high amount of confidence in terms of the sustainability of the margins, as well as the sort of not like a yo-yo thing where margins go up and down. This is a very steady margin business. Even in terms of the revenue, this is being very predictable and positive, actually.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Praveen. Yeah.
The next question comes from the line of Manoj Gori from Equirus Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Sir, in your opening comments, you highlighted about two months of inventory, including channel as well as brand. In an ideal scenario, what would be the number of days or months that brand plus channel would be carrying? Should it be around 40-50 days or more or less?
We have seen typically in years where the summer has been like this, this is between two to three months has always been the kind of at this time of the season because this is like the summer season yet to pick up. A two to three-month inventory in terms of the quantum is not very large. This is very much all right now. I think things are easing out, and we will see it's not a worrisome thing at all, actually.
Somewhere we believe the worst is behind us, and inventory levels have largely normalized at the current juncture for Voltas and for the industry to some extent. Based on the discussions for the December billings, what is the sense that you are getting from the channel level, especially the organized players? They would be the ones who would be predominantly filling up the inventories in December. That is my question, sir. Thank you.
Yeah. Manoj, what you mentioned is right. Over the next few months, by December, things will start evening out in terms of everything inventory. I also see that, as you rightly mentioned, these big players with a little more capital, they are the ones who will start investing before the summer to ensure that they have the stocks thing and also some leverage on the cost front.
I suppose this year there will be the third trigger, which I had mentioned during one of the earlier questions, which is the energy label change. Many of these partners would like to stock up on the products of the old label because they are allowed to sell for the next many months without any issue. They will start doing some buying of that product portfolio also because where the price increase for the new label is a little significant. We will see selective channel partners taking selective calls on that. December is quite likely to be good on the revenue front. Yeah.
Thank you.
December can be a growth month for us?
Mr. Manoj?
Yeah. Yeah. I'll just answer that, actually. So the answer is indeed yes, Manoj. Yeah.
Sure, sir. Thank you and wish you all the best.
Thank you, Manoj. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we will take that as the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Natasha Jain for closing comments.
I would request the management to give their closing remarks, if any.
Yes. This is Sridhar again, CFO. I think in terms of, I think thanks for all the questions. I hope it sort of clarified some of many of the doubts that you had. In addition to the room air conditioning, which obviously had a lot of sort of in terms of the importance, we just wanted to clarify the diversification piece that the team is working on. The presence in the commercial air conditioning segment, the commercial refrigeration segment is actually broadening Voltas' cooling and the comfort offerings. The expanded portfolio, including refrigerators, washing machines, air coolers, water heaters, fans, and others, not only deepen market penetration, help dealer loyalty, but it is also sort of enhancing the year-round relevance and reinforcing the company's evolution into a comprehensive consumer durable center price.
In terms of margins, the quarter profitability, I think, was as elaborated, was influenced by the higher market support, software inventory pickup, and temporary unprofitabilities. These effects, we feel, are transitional and expected to normalize as the capacity utilization improves and product mix strengthens. Voltas continues to drive its cost optimization initiatives, especially with the new sort of B tables coming in, which will facilitate leveraged financials. In terms of market share, I think Voltas' incentive to strengthen its market further in a strong market leadership position as elaborated, 16% in Q4, 17.8% in Q1, and 18.5% in Q2. The accelerated growth of Voltas Beko also marks a decisive strategic shift towards complete integrated home solutions branding covering cooling, comfort, and appliances, establishing Voltas as one of the most diversified consumer durable players.
We feel that these initiatives collectively reaffirm Voltas' commitment to sustainable growth, value creation, and enduring leadership under the Tata ethos. Thank you very much.
Thank you. On behalf of Phillip Capital India Private Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.