Good evening, everyone. A warm welcome on behalf of Investec India to Q3 FY26 earnings call of Aditya Vision.

We have with us the senior management team of Aditya Vision, represented by Mr. Yashovardhan Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director, Ms.

Yosham Vardhan, Whole-Time Director. I will hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, post which we can open the floor for Q&A session.

Thank you.

Thank you, Aditya, from Aditya Vision. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Aditya Vision Limited's earning conference call for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31st, 2025.

Our investor presentation has been uploaded on the stock exchanges, and we trust it has been reviewed by you by now. Before discussing Q3, it is important to briefly place the quarter in the context of the year so far.

The first quarter of FY26 was an outlier, impacted by unusually adverse weather conditions, including an extended monsoon and one of the weakest summers in several decades. This weighed on our on cooling-led demand across our core markets.

Despite these headwinds, we delivered positive EBITDA and PAT growth in Q1 FY26. From Q2 onwards, momentum began to normalize, aided by GST rebate and festive period falling in last 10 days of Q2.

Revenues recovered strongly, however, the extended monsoon resulted in a temporary shift in product mix, with relatively lower contribution from high-margin cooling categories. As a result, while EBITDA and PAT continued to grow year-on-year, EBITDA margins moderated by approximately 42 basis points, and PAT margins softened by around 47 basis points.

Q3 FY26 marked a clear step a step-up in performance, despite the quarter being challenging overall. We performed very well, with revenues growing by about 28% year-over-year, aided by strong festive demand, with the festive period from day one of Durga Puja to the last day of Chhath Puja registering 37% growth, out of which first 10 days fell in Q2.

EBITDA recorded 14% year-on-year growth in absolute terms, with EBITDA margins remaining broadly stable on a sequential basis. Profit before tax before exceptional items grew by 21% year-on-year.

However, PBT margins moderated by approximately 33 basis points, primarily due to higher operating expenses, that too primarily because of marketing and promotional activities carried out in UP, in stores like in bigger cities like Lucknow and other store big cities, and this led in higher to higher operating expenses related to store yet to mature. PAT grew by 18% year-on-year, excluding an exceptional expense of Rs 1.5 crore on account of additional provisioning pursuant to implementation of new labor codes, with PAT margin moderating by around 38 basis points compared to last year.

Demand trends during the quarter were mixed. October witnessed a strong festive-led demand, translating into healthy footfalls.

November and December saw some moderation once the festive season got over, but this was meaningfully offset by a strong recovery in late December, supported by improved customer sentiment. From a balance sheet perspective, inventory levels are moderately higher, primarily because OEMs offered attractive discounts on room air conditioners following changes in BEE energy efficiency norms, and we opportunistically built some inventory to position us well ahead of the upcoming summer season.

Overall, inventory levels remains well controlled and broadly stable. Store expansion continued in a disciplined, cluster-led manner.

During the quarter, we added four new stores, taking total store additions in nine months FY26 to 17 stores and keeping us on track to cross the milestone of 200 operational stores by FY26 and more. At the core of Aditya Vision is 26 years of consistent execution, geographical dominance, and a long-term approach to value creation.

While the year began with challenges, the improving trajectory from Q2 through Q3 enforces our confidence in the resilience of our business model and long growth runway ahead. With that, I will now hand over the floor to Mrs.

Yosham Vardhan to take you through the financial highlights for the quarter. Over to you, Yosham.

Thank you, sir. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

We are pleased to present the robust financial performance for Q3 FY26 and the nine months FY26. Here is a summary of our financial achievements.

For the nine months ended FY26, the revenue surged by 15% from INR 1,773 crore in nine months FY25 to 2,047 crore in nine months FY26. Gross margins were maintained at 15%, with EBITDA reaching 177 crore, registering a 10% year-on-year growth, and EBITDA margin at 8.7% during the nine months period.

Profit before tax before exceptional items grew 7.3% to 128 crore in nine months FY26, with PBT margin at 6.2%, moderating marginally by 47 basis points due to costs related to store additions. PAT grew by 8%, excluding exceptional expenses, rising from 90 crore in nine months FY25 to 96 crore in nine months FY26.

Same-store sales growth for nine months FY26 stood at 5%, while that for the third quarter stood at an impressive 17%, compared to 12% in the previous year. In Q3 FY26, revenues saw a year-on-year increase of 28%, reaching 649 crore, compared to 508 crore in Q3 FY25, driven by strong festive demand and expansion.

Gross margin increased to 15.8%, compared to 15.6% in the previous year. EBITDA for the quarter was 53 crore, with an EBITDA margin of 8.2%.

Profit before tax before exceptional items increased by 21% year-on-year and stood at 38 crore versus 31 crore in Q3 FY25. PAT grew by 13% year-on-year to 27 crore after accounting for an exceptional expense of 1.5 crore on account of additional provisioning under the new labor codes.

In Q3 FY26, Bihar contributed 75% of revenues, followed by UP at 13% and Jharkhand at 13%. In nine months FY26, Bihar remained dominant with 76% revenue contribution, while Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand contributed 12% respectively.

Our store count stood at 192 as on 31st December, 2025. We can now open the floor for questions.

Thanks for the opportunity and congrats for strong revenue growth. Just getting more color on revenue growth, which products would have done well?

I guess washing machine has done very well for us. How is the growth in mobiles and laptops considering the semiconductor issues, especially memory chips?

We are hearing that there might be weakness in the market or there is already some weakness in the market. How was it in this quarter and what is the outlook for these two products over next two, three quarters?

That is question number one. Question number two, in terms of the summer products, what is the current inventory?

I guess some of the brands have given higher discounts to clear the inventory from their books, and Aditya Vision would have also uploaded the inventory a bit more. One, what is the current inventory if you can point out, and secondly, what was the additional discount that we were able to get?

Thanks.

Thank you, Aniruddha. Category-wise growth, as you said that the washing machine category did very well.

It's more than 30%, growing by more than 30%, very closely followed by panel televisions also, by 30%. As in this quarter it grew to 22%.

However, for nine months, it grew by only 2%. As far as mobile is concerned, it grew by 20%.

This is how the categories moved. Coming to your second question, AC of course we did in fact stock down lot of ACs, whatever we could get, because it was beneficial for the company.

Exact amount will not be proper for me to tell you, but then yes, we have got a sizable number of ACs stocked.

Okay. Sure, sir.

Outlook for mobile and laptop considering the memory chip issue across the globe?

I will say that it won't come down and it won't be significant. Of course, we expect that it will go up by 4% to 6% from January onwards.

Despite that, demand is very robust and I do not think that it is going to come down.

Availability from the brands is not an issue, means

Absolutely not an issue as of now.

Sure, sir. That's very helpful.

Lastly, the store count, do you see reaching to 200 or we should be crossing 200 by end of this year?

We'll be definitely crossing 200 stores by end of this financial year, but if not more, I'll say. As we always remain conservative in our guidance.

The 200 is definitely on, but we hope that we will be bettering on it.

Sure, sir. Last question from my side, there is a higher other expenditure as percentage of net sales in this quarter.

Is it related to more store openings or any one-offs there or any other item if you can highlight? That's all.

Some are of one-time also. As you know that this quarter we were mostly opening in Uttar Pradesh bigger stores, our opex was higher.

Of course, we were entering into new areas, our marketing and promotional costs were much higher. These are one-time expenses, but it gives us a lot of depth in market for other places where we are deciding to go.

Okay. Sure, sir.

This is very helpful and many thanks.

Thank you, Aniruddha.

Hello?

Yes, Yash. Please go on.

Hi, team. Thank you for taking my questions.

First, following up on the previous participant questions. On the other expense part, for last two years, our other expense as a percentage of revenue has increased, too.

Should we see this quarter margins or other expense as a percentage of revenue structural, or what should be the consistent number excluding one-off for the quarter?

Actually, this quarter you also book bonuses for the employees. This quarter will definitely remain inflated, but I don't think that it will be similar in quarters to come.

No, I am talking YoY, like last year Q3 FY25, we saw 55% growth, and this year also 60% growth.

Right, operating costs will be bound to go up with the additions of stores. We have opened more than 30 stores during this period.

This is the reason opex goes up and salary expenses will also go up. Similarly, we were not having a good Q1, we concentrated on driving sales, for that we needed lot of incentives to pay and promotional activities were taken, which is giving us a very good result as far as top line is concerned.

Got it. Matlab it is nothing to worry about our longer-term fiscal year margins.

It should remain in line.

No, I think going forward, if market is now behaving very well and I think that it will more than offset whatever operating cost will come because of increase in top line.

Got it, sir. My second question is we announce our ambition to expand in MP, Chhattisgarh.

What led us to prepone our plan to expand in these cities? Is it something strategically we are getting something, or it was always planned for this year?

It was always planned. I have been giving this guidance since last my I think many quarters that we will be entering Chhattisgarh and later MP.

In this calendar year, we have assured to enter to both the states, if not before. Maybe in Chhattisgarh we may enter in this financial year, and but broadly speaking, with the entire current year, a calendar year, we will be definitely present in Chhattisgarh and MP.

Got it. Sir, last question on the similar lines, entering this new state, does it change our store expansion guidance, or are we reducing some expansion in UP and those stores will be open in this states?

No, simultaneously we will be going. There won't be any slowdown on expansion of stores.

You will in coming period you will see much accelerated store store expansion and aggressive.

Which means ideally we are upgrading our store expansion guidance somewhere or the other with adding new states?

We won't give this as a guidance, but we'll definitely say that we will not be slowing down in UP. UP is giving us good market, and UP is some different market and Chhattisgarh and MP is different market, it will all go together simultaneously.

Got it. Thanks a lot, sir.

Best of luck for the summer.

Thank you, Yash.

Good set of numbers. Congratulations on that front.

How many stores out of 192 stores are in the first year first year of their operation?

It's around 30 stores.

Only 30 stores?

Yes, 30 stores are there, but maybe they are even 15 days old also, which we have opened in December.

Okay. How is the volume growth in the older stores as compared to the newer stores?

Can you give some light on that?

We have already guided that SSG has been around 15 17%.

For the quarter, right?

For the quarter, yes.

For the nine months it was? 15

5%.

Okay. Just wanted to know the margins have come down.

What would be the sustainable level of margins? Because you are doing good on the revenue front, but that is not translating into the profitability.

I don't think that it is going to come down from this level in this quarter. However, even for nine months if you will take for nine months, then we are at a comfortable 8.7% EBITDA margin.

For the full year, it would be 8.7%, you're talking?

I think it will be if not better, it will be similar to this figure.

Why I'm asking this question, because you are giving revenue growth of good numbers, when do you get operating leverage on that front then? See,

actually it is a continuous process if I can tell you, Onkar, that when you are opening branches, you are expanding also, let the base become larger. Like a pyramid, let the base become larger, then these are going to contribute more to your revenue as well as EBITDA front.

In time to come, when most of our stores start maturing, because if you'll see our history, though you will find that in last three years we have opened 96 stores, which is almost half of the stores what we are having right now. Typically these stores, they mature in three years by three years.

Most of the stores are still in nascent stage, this is the. But 50% we have opened which are not mature, but next year that number is going to go up.

It will act as a pyramid, more towards the bottom and less EBITDA margin will be smaller in number and more better profit-giving stores will be higher in number.

You mean in upcoming one, two years, there will be more contribution from the matured stores, right? We can contribute to the higher

Yes, this is what matlab investors will look after that in coming year more and more stores will get matured, and this will give us lot of leverage for opening new stores. Do not forget that this year Q1 was a total wash-out.

Matlab thinking matlab comparing that the biggest quarter of the company's history was a total wash-out. This year it has been very strange, but given the Q3 numbers, we are very confident that despite that we will be achieving good set of numbers at the financial year end.

As far as Chhattisgarh and MP is concerned, what is your long-term plan? Where do you want to take it to, to the level of Bihar, or UP, or where can we see that?

No, these are the states where the larger cities population is also concentrated towards larger cities. Eight to 10 cities will take in Chhattisgarh.

Similarly, in MP will be there in another 15 cities, and with more and more stores because there are larger cities will require number of stores in a single city.

Okay. These states are similar to what Bihar and UP are like, behavioral-wise, how the pattern is of spending?

This is the whole idea of Aditya Vision. With this geographical advantage, we are working on it.

We are continuing in our Hindi heartland where it is much better to in fact open your new stores and matlab aligning your employees to the policies of the company. Yes, we are very comfortable moving in this geography.

Maybe in next two, three years, you can see more and more stores coming from MP and Chhattisgarh, or that is too early to say? No, not more

I would say that all three all three states are going to grow in number of stores.

All three states, you mean the existing states or the new two ones? No,

I'll say that Bihar will not have that number of. Similarly, Jharkhand will also have very limited insignificant number of stores, whatever it is right now.

UP gives you a tremendous potential and opportunity to expand. We are just now knocking at Western UP, which is a hugely populated and very wealthier segment of society is there.

Most of the growth will be coming from UP and the two new states which you will be entering?

I beg your pardon?

I'm asking the most of the new growth which will be coming from Uttar Pradesh and the two new states you will be entering, right, in the upcoming years?

Yes. Because you will find that we are only present 24 districts of UP compared to 75 districts which is present in UP.

Lot of scope is there.

Okay. You did a fundraise last time, just wanted to know, you are comfortable with that, or you would be raising some funds or that is not required currently?

No, with our internal accruals and small I think bank lending is sufficient for us to cater to. Let us in near future, there won't be any requirement of funds.

Even if you have to build up the inventory level, you don't require that kind of funds? See,

it's not very important for that way, because we build inventories at such time when it is very easily liquidated. Before we have to pay to the company, it is almost liquidation is done.

That doesn't give us any unnecessary leverage.

Okay. Thank you very much, sir.

Thanks.

Thank you, Onkar.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

My first question is to understand the market in Chhattisgarh and MP. Previously, you've spoken that UP in terms of number of stores could be twice as big as Bihar.

Similarly, could you give some idea regarding how big a market Chhattisgarh and MP can be for us in terms of number of stores?

I would already just told that we will be operating in very limited number of cities, because mostly affluent people, they are limited to these bigger cities in Chhattisgarh also and in MP also. Things are getting better day by day because of huge dent in Naxalism.

That is going to give us a tremendous boost in time to come in. Whatever our honorable Home Minister said that by March it will be over.

That we are concentrating on that also that after that there will be huge potential to expand and freely.

Would these markets be maybe closer to Jharkhand kind of markets rather than a Bihar kind of a market?

It is mostly like Jharkhand because again Chhattisgarh is a neighboring state of Jharkhand, and MP also.

All right. My second question is regarding our stores in UP.

Could you give some commentary on how these are doing, because of course in UP, several of these cities would already have some of our competitors operating, it's not like a new space that we would have entered in these cities. Are we seeing similar unit economics, are we seeing similar time to maturity for these stores, and how are we really competing with existing players there, because some of the benefits that we were able to offer in smaller towns will not be possible in cities where the competition is already present, right?

Could you comment on this?

We always have been giving this guidance that it's not that competition was not present wherever we are present. Competition has always been there, and it is for us to beat them, and we have been beating them regularly.

Even when we are entering into new areas where competition is there, it doesn't matter, because we have got different policies, different schemes, and so many other things for the benefit of customer. These things require little promotional expenses, marketing expenses, but then it is very easy for us to overcome it.

Again by figure also you can understand that we have been gaining lot of ground in new states new areas. Now this time, it is around 26% of volume has come from these two states in Q3.

This is in itself presents a good picture of how we are dealing with our competitor. The

unit economics remains similar in UP? See, that's what.

It is a common thing that if you go to Lucknow or very big cities, of course rent will be higher. Then it is offset by the basket of branches you add.

Overall increase is limited.

Understood. My last question, sir, if we look at our mature stores, which are stores which are at least three years old, over there what sort of a growth are we seeing in terms of same-store sales growth for these mature stores?

In fact we take all these stores which do not classify it like mature and non-mature, because we give a guidance that in three years they are going to mature, but there are so many branches which gets profitable from the very first quarter of opening. It is all about matlab averaging it out, and that we have grown by 17% SSG in Q3, but it was only 5% for the entire nine months because of our bad Q1.

The idea behind asking this particular question is so that we are able to make out on a more steady basis what sort of a growth does a store have, once the initial maturity is completed. That's why I was asking.

Overall growth, I told you that because of Q1 being a total wash-out quarter for us, the biggest quarter, this year you are saying this is strange. Considering that next year everything will be normal, we are going to accelerate to very high levels of growth.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for the opportunity. This is Ali from Motilal.

Yes, Ali, how are you?

I'm fine, sir. Thank you so much.

Sir, just first if you can share, what was the SSG we achieved this quarter?

17% SSG.

Okay. With such a strong SSG, I understand you mentioned that your margin is impacted because of the new store that you have opened, I think in new geographies.

Despite that, if you have such a strong SSG of 17%, shouldn't that would have driven operating leverage and therefore be able to maintain your margin? I'm just trying to understand the margin which is contracted, what has led to this significant

You'll have to understand one thing, Ali, that we recently, in last six months only or eight months only, we started opening stores in Lucknow and all that. Q1 was total wash-out.

Second Q2 was also not very good because the Q1 has spilled into Q2 also. However, after the GST cut, the things became much better.

These things are now stabilizing, I'll say, in a gradual way. Market has been quite good, as I have already said, market has been quite good from December onwards, and still it is in January also sales are very robust.

I think it is going to do much better, and whatever we have seen, that is things of past.

Got it. I think what you are saying is that the stores which are new regions are taking slightly longer to, I think, stabilize or achieve breakeven or maybe reach your stable state.

Because of Q1 I've been telling you, because Q1 was a very bad Q1, of course even the new stores, they could not do that big business which normally all branches do.

I'm talking about Q3, not Q1. Q2, Q3 also they have not achieved?

No,

in Q3 they are achieving. Then only we have reached to 27% of top line.

The margin is lower, which implies that the new store maybe would be pulling down the margin slightly.

Now that the entire year is Q1 was not good, what should we do as management? We have to drive sales and try to achieve at least we are trying very hard to achieve 20% at least 20% growth if possible in this financial year.

We are we have been spending a bit more in this exceptional financial year.

Sir, what is the average time that new stores are taking for breakeven versus your historical average in the existing regions? How different is the new regions breakeven?

We have been guiding actually all the stores they at least become profitable between six months to 18 months.

The new regions are taking slightly longer, right?

It's not that. I told you that because of bad Q1, lot of branches faced adverse situation.

It is things of past. This is what I'm trying to tell you that, yes, we had a bad quarter.

In decades, we had one of the worst quarter because of a certain season. Then we expect that if it is just normal, we don't want any harsh summer or anything.

Even things are normal, and it's quite good for us. It will be good for us.

Got it. The new regions where you are opening stores, that should not incrementally pull down your margin, right?

If you can just share, what is the margin that we are guiding EBITDA margin year-on? Should it come down to the base that we have seen in Q3, or we should be able to maintain the margins upwards of 9%?

We inherently see nine-month EBITDA, it is 8.7%. It is very marginally lower than last year.

What we have now in Q4 also, what I said that let's see. January has been very good for us, and we are expecting similar numbers for coming months also in this quarter, in the current quarter.

I think whatever will be, it will be within our guidance which we gave for EBITDA.

Got it. Just last question is on the number of store additions.

You mentioned incrementally your new stores will be in UP, MP, and Chhattisgarh, right? What is the annual store guidance, and between these three, should one assume 10 store each in each region, or it will be UP and MP heavy more?

We have been looking to Chhattisgarh and MP, and we told you that we'll be definitely, if not in this financial year, with this calendar year, we'll be definitely present in a lot of cities in Chhattisgarh and few cities of Madhya Pradesh. This is what I think.

Overall, we always give a guidance of 30 stores being opened in a year, and till now we have bettered every year. Let's see how it goes, but we give a guidance of 30 stores only.

Got it. All right, sir.

Thanks a lot. Very, very insightful.

Wish you all the best.

Thank you, Ali.

Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I have just one question.

In the initial remarks, you were highlighting that there were few attractive schemes for

Manoj, can you speak louder, please?

Is it better now? Better.

It is good, yeah. Yeah.

Sir, in the initial remarks, you highlighted that you got some better schemes for room air conditioners and accordingly you planned for higher inventories and you stocked up this material. Just want to understand that Q1 obviously is a very favorable base, but based on your planning and probably whatever your analysis would be from the past and for the future, what kind of growth should we expect in FY27 and more specifically for Q1 of FY27 that would help relatively better from a modeling point of view?

Very difficult for us to say, except that we definitely give a guidance of 20% to 25%, but we have been bettering this guidance always. We expect that with pent-up demand for last year Q1, the Q1 of next financial year should be absolutely very good.

This is what we are aiming at, and accordingly we are accumulating our inventories also. Right now we are sitting on inventories of 3-star BEE, and later on in this quarter we'll be accumulating inventories of post-BEE products also.

It will be around 5% to 7% costlier.

Correct. Sir, I will be repeating one more question, probably you answered it in a more qualitative manner.

If I look at the markets today, let's say Bihar, which is our core market, based on your current store count, you would have definitely identified areas in the market and probably you would be aware what could be our long-term store count in Bihar market itself. Similarly, for UP also, you would have done some analysis, and probably from a region-to-region, you would be definitely looking at from an opportunity point of view in terms of market.

Manoj, you can always understand that we are already having 117 stores in Bihar.

Correct.

Addition of new stores in Bihar will be very, very say strategic. Strategic in the sense that only at such places where we need to fortify our place, there only we are going to go there in Bihar.

Similarly in Jharkhand, we have already almost covered Jharkhand all districts, except for one or two. We are looking to open those in those districts also which we have so far not present in Jharkhand.

In UP, but you should understand that out of 75 districts, we are just present in 24 districts. We have covered 1/3 of UP.

Lot many stores definitely in time to come, more and more stores are going to come up in UP again strategically. Now that we have covered almost Central UP, we are moving towards Western UP.

Things will be definitely different again. Very good market we are getting, and we expect to enhance our store count in UP.

Similarly, in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh also, we expect very good business because of again lot of disposable income is there, but our competitors and nobody's are promoting their brand in such a way which is like Aditya Vision. We expect that Aditya Vision is going to have edge.

Sure, sir. Thank you, sir, and wish you all the best for future quarters.

Thank you so much, Manoj.

Thank you very much for sparing your valuable time, everybody. Thank you so very much.

See you in the next quarter.

Thank you, bye.