Take It. Good evening, and a very warm welcome to everyone present on the call.

Along with me, I have Mr. Premchand Devarakonda, our Chief Financial Officer.

We have uploaded our result and investor presentation for the quarter and nine months ended 31st December 2025 on the stock exchanges and the company's website. Hope everyone has a chance to go through it.

The quarter began on a positive note with the festive season with Diwali falling in October, alongside the implementation of the GST rate cut during the period. While our sales mix remained broadly in the same line with the same period last year, demand across categories, particularly large appliances, was supported by the GST reduction and further aided by festival-led consumption.

Importantly, on festival-to-festival comparison, we delivered a robust growth of approximately 25%, indicating a strong underlying demand. At the same time, we saw operating leverage play out, resulting in an improvement in operating margins.

Despite the continued additions of new stores, overall, the absence of a prolonged festive season, we delivered a steady growth performance with the GST cut providing an additional tailwind to consumption trends. During Q3 FY26, we added four new stores, two in NCR region and two in Andhra Pradesh.

I would like to highlight that our Andhra Pradesh market has seen a strong recovery, delivering approximately 14% growth in Q3, and we continue to grow our market share. Over the last two years, we have added nearly 100 stores, which now account for approximately 50% of our total store portfolio.

As a result, a significant portion of our network is relatively young and still in the early stages of maturing, yet to reach optimal throughput. Consequently, fixed costs such as manpower, marketing, and promotional spend are not yet fully absorbed, while finance costs and depreciation remains elevated, partly due to IND-AS 116 adjustments.

This has had a short-term impact on our overall profitability. As these stores continue to ramp up and move up the maturity curve, we expect operating leverages to play out, leading to a gradual improvement in profitability and ROCE as they mature.

To give a clear perspective on our store portfolio for nine months FY26, we operate 219 stores, out of which 83 stores are over 4 years old, and 136 stores are less than 4 years old. In the first nine months of FY26, the mature store base generated product revenue of approximately ₹3,523 crores, while the newer store contributed to around ₹1,528 crores.

From a profitability standpoint, the mature stores continue to demonstrate strong performance with an EBITDA margin of 7%, whereas the new stores are currently operating at EBITDA margin of 3%. I would like to highlight our geographical performance.

We witnessed a broad-based recovery in demand across our key clusters during this quarter. In Q3 FY26, our core market of Hyderabad delivered a year-on-year revenue growth of 6.4% with SSG of 3.3%, supported by the revival of real estate projects across Hyderabad, which had impacted performance in FY25.

In the Telangana upcountry market, revenue grew by 2%. Andhra Pradesh reported a strong performance with a revenue growth of 18.2% and an SSG of 4.9%.

Lastly, our NCR cluster continued to scale up well, recording a revenue growth of 30%, along with an SSG of 7.1%. Turning to cluster-wise profitability, we continue to maintain a healthy EBITDA margin of around 6% in our southern cluster despite 70% of our new stores being added across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the past 2 years.

We're also pleased to share that our NCR operations remained EBITDA positive on a nine-month basis, delivering an EBITDA margin of around 0.5%, translating to around ₹2 crore. This performance would have been stronger for the nine months ended that if we had experienced normal summer season up north.

We expect margins in the region to improve further as we continue to enhance store-level throughput, which will drive better absorption of fixed costs such as manpower, marketing, rentals. Moving to category-specific performance, in terms of contribution, large appliances accounted for around 42% revenue in Q3 FY26 and around 43% in the nine months FY26.

A positive trend we are observing at the store level following the GST deduction is a gradual shift in consumer preferences toward large televisions and high-value appliances such as front-loading washing machines and dishwashers. Notably, washing machines where demand had remained stagnant over the last four quarters registered a growth of approximately 11% during the current quarter.

We're also seeing an increased traction in new categories such as dishwashers, air coolers, and other categories. This growing presence of premium products has helped us sustain our average selling price during Q3 FY26.

Coming to the mobile categories, mobiles contributed to around 44% of our total revenue in both Q3 FY26 and the nine months of FY26. The mobile phone segment recorded a growth of approximately 10% in Q3 FY26.

Looking ahead, we believe that the category is entering the next phase of demand, driven by upcoming technologies, upgrades, and feature enhancements. Several OEMs are actively working on the next generation AI-enabled devices, which we expect will further stimulate consumer interest and support growth in both ASPs and volumes.

This positions us well to benefit as the replacement and upgrade cycle gains momentum. We believe the broader environment remains supportive.

GST rates have become down, and the government has also reduced income tax slabs previously, which is expected to boost disposable income. Together, these factors are likely to create a compounding effect on consumption and drive long-term structural demand for consumer durables.

Several categories in our portfolio continue to remain unpenetrated, offering significant growth potential. As our newly opened stores mature and reach steady-state performance, we expect margins to progressively normalize, setting a strong foundation for sustained and profitable growth in the years to come.

With this, I request Mr. Premchand Devarakonda, our CFO, to update you on the financial performance.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Karan sir. Good evening and warm welcome to all the participants.

Now, moving on to the financial performance of Q3 and 9M of FY26. First, I would like to start with Q3 FY26 performance.

Our revenues for the quarter stood at ₹1,939.7 crores versus ₹1,805 crores in Q3 FY25, a growth of 8%. EBITDA for Q3 FY26 stood at ₹119 crore versus 102 crores in Q3 FY25, witnessing a growth of 17%.

EBITDA margin for Q3 FY26 stood at 6.1% versus 5.6% of the last year. Pre-Ind AS EBITDA for Q3 FY26 stood at ₹82 crores with a margin of 4.2%.

PAT, including exceptional items, for Q3 FY26 stood at ₹30 crore. Same-store sales growth for Q3 FY26 was 2.54%.

Now, moving on to nine months of FY26 financials. Our revenues for nine months of FY26 stood at ₹5,270 crores versus 5,067.1 crore in nine months FY25, a growth of 4%.

EBITDA for nine months FY26 stood at ₹311 crore. EBITDA margins for nine months FY26 stood at 5.9%.

Pre-Ind AS EBITDA for nine months FY26 stood at ₹204 crores with a rate of 3.9%. PAT, including exceptional items, for nine months FY26 stood at ₹67 crore.

For nine months FY26, SSSG stood at 0.19%. ROCE and ROE on an annualized basis for nine months FY26 stood at 11% and 5.8%, respectively.

The working capital days as on 31st December '25 stood at 60 days. Pre-Ind AS cash flows from operations as on 31st December for the nine months period stood at ₹500 crore.

With this, now I open the floor for questions. Thank you.

Hi, good evening, sir. My first question is on SSSG growth in upcountry Telangana, wherein it appears to be a little on the weaker side.

I think there's been a slight decline on an SSSG basis. Even from a slightly longer-term perspective, we are not really seeing that part of the business scaling up very sharply.

What's the outlook in that region? What do you attribute the SSSG decline to?

Right.

Hi. If you actually look at the number, when we look at category-wise sales, or if you look at the overall number, firstly the revenues are up, but with a marginal 2% up, including the new six, seven stores that we opened up, compared to last year quarter three.

If you look at the overall demand, there is a little slowdown. I would not attribute, or be at a spot where we want things are under control, we are not losing market share, how's the productivity per store going on.

If you look at the overall sentiment of the market is a little weaker compared to the other clusters that we're operating today. I would attribute that degrowth to that.

If you look at the overall number, there was a good positive sign in January as well, in that cluster. This is predominantly the other categories, the cooling products that is not started yet at the full-fledged.

Looking at the big days of January, looking at the other festival there of Sankranti, Pongal, and the 26th of January, it really performed well there. I think it is a matter of time.

We will definitely see a positive SSSG in the quarter four there.

Perfect. My next question was on the demand trends that you are seeing in January, pretty much across the country, and how things shaping up between north and south clusters in January.

So,

things look good for now, no complaints. I think, we've finished the bad quarters that we had in the last financial year, and I think we're really looking for the positive upside coming in the coming quarters.

Especially with the AC base being or the cooling product base being quite low, in the last quarter, last few quarters, I think the coming summer quarters are going to be good. No complaints on that.

We are already ready for it. We've started buying, and started, shelving our stores with, the newer inventory, for the new rating as well.

I think we are quite optimistic on the upcoming season.

Perfect. That's helpful, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, team. Thanks a lot for the opportunity here.

I would just like to understand that, this could be, previous, two, three quarters, I'm just taking you through the, previous two, three quarters back. It was said that, since there was a lot of, credit scrutiny going around, there was a lot of, issues on the sanctions of the credits that was, issued at a proportion of 100 was going lower because banks were rejecting a lot of, what do you say, the the the EMI eligibilities of customers due to strict underwriting policies.

Just wanted to understand how is the, how is the outlook on that or or how is it, going on right now? Because most of the credits most of the sales has been, done or, sanctioned by you is going to be a credit scale credit sales only, and this could be an important factor, impacting the same.

I just want to understand, that note. And, how would the, since you since you guys have been on, and then, very good spree of, expansions and there has been lot of expansions that's been, going on, how would you give us give us an outlook in terms of, how the future expansions is going to be?

And, when are these stores, respectively, going to contribute to the, revenues respectively as majority of the stores right now are non-maturity stores. Yeah.

Right.

Hi. To answer your first question, usually every year, after the two big seasons of festival and the summer season, we would see a little slowdown in approval rate from the NBFCs.

That is a normal trend in the industry. Definitely after Diwali, we did see that trend going a little slower.

Then, usually once the Christmas days always starts off well, and now they already would get ready with the upcoming summer season. That is a trend that we see always where the approval rates go a little lower, not too low, but, I think, going back again to the summer upcoming season, we'll have a higher approval rates coming back on also all the NBFCs.

That is how it works for them. For your second question of future expansion, currently, we are looking at opening the set number of stores in NCR, AP, and Telangana that are lined up already in the pipeline yet to open up.

By 31st March or maximum second week of April, we'll have additions of new stores in this geography, which were already under construction or already for which we've signed up. As we stick to our plan of further expansion into a newer territory, probably after the quarter one is when we would venture out into the new geography that we are currently looking into.

Could be Odisha, could be western UP, and some of the newer markets that we're exploring right now. Between me and the teams, we are looking at a further newer cluster that we will definitely add up in probably the quarter two or the quarter three of FY27.

Okay. Got it.

I did get some clarity on this. I just have two follow-up questions on the same line.

The next thing would be a majority of the sales mix is made up of white goods and electronics. The thing is that when we look at AC as an good in terms of the sales, there is some reports or there is some study suggesting that this summer is not as hot as it is expected to be in the previous years going ahead.

How do you think that would impact the AC sales of the company in general? Or what is your outlook as an opinion of yours or something?

That's one question from my end. The next thing is that there is a lot of talk going around in terms of the increase in RAM prices which is going to translate into a higher, say, final sale price of the mobiles and other electronics.

Since electronics also makes up a huge mix of your sales books at the moment, what do you think is going to be the impact in general that can be attributed to the price increase in the electronics and the slower than expected summer this quarter, How can it have an impact on the AC sales as well?

Okay. I wish what you said is not true, that the summer season not going to be good.

Let's not hope for that. What we experienced last year in the quarter one, or say mid of March, we got the flavor of the weather not supporting us for the season.

That being a low point, I would still put in the base at that level and expect at least some growth from that number from thereon. I think that is also delivered at a higher number from the last year's space.

I think we are sorted. We don't need to look at a 70%, 80% kind of a jump, right?

We are still optimistic on the category because the penetration is still very low. The new rating has also come in.

We don't see a drastic increase in pricing from the AC brands. It is a nominal price increase, and that too it gets mitigated with the EMI offers and the cashbacks that the brands provide during the summer period.

I think we're looking at an optimistic sale, and we are ready to go ahead for the season, and we've aligned our inventory accordingly, so that we're not stuck.

Just to stop you there. You're also positive in terms of how the underwriting is going to be from the NBFCs and banks, right, coming up on the quarters as well?

Absolutely. The NBFCs are also ready.

Currently all the NBFCs that we work with: IDFC, Bajaj Finserv, HDB, all are lined up and geared up for the season as well. They're also looking forward because a cooling products on a whole contributes to a bigger book size for them as well.

Correct. You expect them to have some softer underwriting policies in general unlike how it was multiple quarters back?

Absolutely.

Got it. In general, you're also positive on how the AC's sales is going to roll out in general, considering the fact that they're not going to hopefully not see worse season in terms of the slowdown in the AC segment?

Correct. Correct.

Correct. Because in January was not high last year, but the January also seen a positive uptrend in that category.

Last year, if I actually attribute the AC sale in quarter four, it was majorly February and couple of weeks in the March month that did well. Then after that, after March 20th, we definitely saw a downfall up till May.

Usually that is the peak season for us for AC and cooling product sellout. Hopefully this year, though we might have a longer winter in place, but so we expect a longer summer going forward.

Or at least it runs with regular summer with no rains in between.

Got it. Got it.

Got it. Just a follow-up, I'd just like to reiterate on the question of how do you feel the RAM prices, which as an expectation they're saying the mobile and the electronic prices in general is expected to go by 8% to 10% percentage and there's a lot of proxy companies and the companies that can be impacted where the sales is expected to see some slowdown.

How do you view that? What is your outlook in general for how you're going to navigate or how the numbers are going to play out for the electronic segment in general?

Right now, we don't see a drastic change in the pricing from any OEMs right now. It could be a miniscule change going forward.

As I told you earlier, EMI schemes are available up to 24 months. Brands are forwarding that.

They have cashback offers. There are one EMI off, two EMI off coming in from the OEMs as well.

Eventually, the price is going to be in line with what it is currently operating at. There would be a major jump there as well because a lot of these OEMs do absorb the cost as well.

Not necessary that they always keep on increasing the price to the end consumer.

Okay. Okay.

Okay. Understood.

In general, if it is also expected to have a good view. Just to catch you on the last point there, you're also saying that apart from the soft underwriting, there is also a lot of customer-friendly policies that's going to come up like cashback and a lot of offers in general to incentive the customers?

Absolutely. Until unless it's a new technology change, for example, if it is a like of 4K technology moving towards 8K, or something better in any phone devices with the AI coming in, if there is a new add-on on a technology, definitely the price goes up.

Apart from that, there is no price increase for a like-to-like product.

Sure, sir. No, I just asked it on the front of the memory and RAM price, which is the existing same technology of electronics just upgrading due to the RAM price hike in general, which was observed and which is a hot talks that's going around in market now.

I did get it. For the older products,

yeah, definitely, yes.

Sure, sir. Understood.

As a last question, I'd like to know which are the major NBFCs partners or major bank partners that you guys have tied up with and in terms of who basically, let's take a count of 100 and there is going to be credit sales of you guys in general, which NBFC or banks takes up the major portion of the customers of yours who have availed for the EMI services? As a mix, I'd like to understand that for some better clarity on that.

The NBFCs that are prevalent in our industry in consumer durables are Bajaj Finserv. After all, they're the biggest players.

Our share or any retailer share is in line with what they are as market leaders. Number one.

Number two would be IDFC. Then would be HDB, ICICI, and

TVS Finance,

specially for mobile phones, in a few of the markets. IDFC is not present in a lot of upcountry stores, for example.

Then it is where it is Bajaj and HDB, TVS. It all depends on the market reach of what these NBFCs would have.

Predominantly, these four, five companies that are prevalent in the market across all retailers.

Okay. Okay.

Understood. Can you just take me through who is that HDBs?

I'm unaware of all the other parties else.

HDB is a subsidiary of HDFC Bank.

Oh, okay, okay, okay. Got it.

Got it. Sure, sure.

Okay. Thanks a lot for the clarity provided from your end, and I'm looking forward for the upcoming business to go well, and, yeah, hopefully, it is expected to do so.

Thank you.

Thank you. Just pray for the summer to go well.

Sure, sure. Definitely.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thank you for taking my questions.

Am I audible?

Yes, please.

Sir, just first question on the pricing side, you mentioned that the new BEE pricing are in. What's the differential, sir, right now versus the earlier SKUs?

I think it's not much. It is 1 1% to 2% plus or minus, and not more than that.

Okay. Sir, just one follow-up here.

Given that the price differential is not much versus others, wouldn't it somewhere affect the sale of existing non-BEE products in our portfolio? What's your sense on that?

If the difference on pricing is not much, if you're comparing it, the lineup right now is still in a transition of having a complete range of the new BEE rating on the storefront because it's just hardly a month in because the production plus the stock are not completely available across all brands. Then we also are left with some older inventory, though we started buying the newer ones now.

We are left with some older inventories also. The summer season is not picked up yet.

If I look at second week of March, that is when we will have a complete transition of the newer models on the storefront. By then, it will be hardly left with some 10, 20,000 units that will sell through the summer period after that.

Okay. Sir, just one question here.

On the overall inventory, what would be the AC inventory right now in our system?

Right now, AC, we've already picked up for the season, right? We are already at the same current levels of usually what we would have for our beginning of summer season.

A little upwards of 300,000 units. No, no.

Sorry.

1

second. No, no.

1 second. 1 second.

In terms of unit, we are around 250,000 units ready for the summer season.

250,000 units. Got it.

This will be more or less the older non-BEE norms, right?

Sorry. Sorry.

I didn't get your question.

These 250,000 units, this will not be the new BEE norm ones, right? This will be the older ones.

No, no, this is almost 50% of this inventory is the newer rating ones

now. Okay.

Understood. Sir, just one more question.

In terms of discounting intensity this quarter, what was the status coming in from, say, the September quarter to December? Any changes there?

Sorry. I didn't hear you.

Can you repeat your question, please?

Sure. In terms of discounting intensity, September we had a higher instance of discounting, right, given the GST, etcetera?

Is that continued in December or that intensity had cooled off?

No, no. That was up till the Diwali would end up, probably the first week of October.

That's when Diwali ended up. Then after that, we did see increase in pricing again or the discounting was reduced to the minimal during that period again.

Understood, sir. Those were the questions from my end.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Hi, Karan.

Thanks for the opportunity. Karan, Hyderabad cluster has seen a good pickup over last couple of quarters.

Wanted to check, what is the confidence on sustainability of this growth for this cluster? You did mention that some of the real estate projects are picking up, but if you could give some confidence on the sustainability of this trend.

Hi. If you look at, definitely, there is no store addition in this cluster market, we've already captured the market here.

The market would organically grow from here on. The new product categories, like dishwashers, audios picked up here, accessories are doing really well.

The attachment has definitely gone up, especially in mobile phones and televisions. Post the cutdown on GST, we've definitely seen an uptrend on the sellout on televisions.

Looking at that number, I think going forward, but not a big jump from here on. I think it will be in line with what the numbers are for this cluster.

SSSG would remain under 3%, 4% kind of a number. I think that on such a big base, that kind of an SSSG without new store opening, all mature stores, I think it is a good sign that it is sustainable for the coming quarters as well.

Fair enough. Fair enough.

From Delhi perspective, sir, the growth is a tad lower, right, 7%, 8% SSSG, while this cluster particularly should see very high SSSGs, right, just because the maturity of stores is relatively lower. What's your expectation from this cluster, maybe going into FY27?

What is the kind of growth minimum we should see in this cluster?

If you actually see Delhi would also have an extended cooling product sale, which we didn't see this year at the level that we would see in the previous year. You would attribute a little SSSG growth slowdown to that as well.

Overall, if you see, our contribution in the premium is definitely increasing there. The ASPs are going up.

The ticket sizes are going up Y-o-Y. Especially for the new stores that we opened up are in the major clusters like Janakpuri, Pitampura, and Golf Course Road.

I think even Faridabad, we opened a store recently. The new stores that are there actually are more prevalent and more bigger clusters.

The SSSG that you see a drop in are especially for older markets like Daryaganj, Karol Bagh, or in Punjabi Bagh, where the market sizes do not increase much, because there's no new construction in that area. The market size remains muted there, the growth in the market size.

Overall, I think if you look at the number, it is up by 30%. I think in the coming quarters, you will definitely see a higher growth coming in from this region because on a daily level when we look at the sales, say January also did very well for us in that cluster.

Or every weekend that we look at the sales from every productive store, it's growing Y-o-Y. We're quite impressed on the growth coming in.

Definitely, Delhi would need another year or so to stabilize further. At the same time, a good summer season would boost the sales from there on because it will create a huge customer base for us during the summer period as well.

Just to better understand, are you indicating that maybe FY27 would also be a break-even kind of a year for Delhi market or we will see some kind of a profitability in

No, we will Definitely, we will definitely see a profitable FY27 in Delhi. What I was suggesting was that if we have a great summer in that region, then you will see a better profitable margin for that cluster.

Fair enough. Fair enough.

Sir, lastly, I noticed that the inventory levels are about 15 days higher versus last year. You did mention that you're stocked up for the upcoming season, but that would be the case last year as well, right?

I wanted to check because in the channel also, every player would be having higher inventory this time around. Any opinion in terms of, say, competitive intensity from sale of these cooling products in the upcoming season?

Can that impact our margins to some extent?

The margins, Just to answer your first question, yes, you would definitely see an increase in number of days of inventory. But, that is in line with what we have planned, especially with the television stocks because we picked up a lot of, television stocks, post-Diwali as well because the sellout was good.

And, we were seeing, post the drop in GST, there was a shortage of the stock. We had to pick up a little more stocks there.

Definitely, yes, we were sitting on a higher inventory of, air conditioners, but compared to that particular year quarter on the, in FY25, we would not see, the inventory of ACs at that level. ACs of inventory were lower, but the purchase would start off in January or so.

That is why you would see, that number coming in quarter four rather than quarter one for cooling products. So, this would include a little bit of, ACs that were still stuck from the summer of FY25 quarter one.

Anything on the competitive intensity, sir? Do you foresee there may be some extra discounts that we may have to offer to liquidate Not

really. Not really.

That is in line. Wherever it is needed to discount, especially to liquidate the stocks of ACs Whatever support we got additionally from the brands is what were passed on.

We didn't go ahead and discounting a lot from our end, 1% here or there in terms of gross margins for that product category. Everything else remains intact.

Fair enough. Just to summarize, FY27, ideally, if summer goes well, should see return of double-digit growth in the business, right?

Hopefully. Hopefully.

Okay. Okay.

Fair enough, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.

Karan, you mentioned that festive saw 25% growth, but ex-festive, the growth would have been very much flat or low single-digit. What happened in ex-festive days that the growth was so dismal, while in festive you saw 25% growth, if I add quarter two, quarter three together?

Ankit, firstly, there was 9, 10 days of split between quarter two and quarter three in terms of the festival sale. Navratri and all went up to the quarter two, whereas beginning of Dussehra till Diwali was in quarter three.

By the first week of November, we were done with the season. Post that, November definitely saw a huge drop, which we usually see.

It was no surprise to us. The recovery which was say 2 weeks or 3 weeks down of slowdown of sale went up to almost second week of December.

That's when we started seeing an uptrend coming back again, and then the Christmas and new year sales were really fantastic. That is what you would see usually as a trend.

There were no external factors for us to push the sales back, especially after the festive period when they grew at 25%. The offers were really great.

There were really on the televisions and appliances as a category, they were a huge discounts, cashbacks, freebies, offers from the manufacturers, which ended up by the first week of November, right? Definitely, you would see a lot of preponed sale also getting booked during that period for the offers that were on the floor for the manufacturers.

These are normal trends. I think the recovery was a week later, 10 days later in November, December transition, and picked up after second week of December.

That's when we saw the uptrend in all categories pushing up to the first week of January.

Karan, but even quarter two, quarter three together is just 12% growth, right? If festive is 25% growth, that too because of the GST push, which came in.

Going forward, if summers is just normal and not very harsh, do you think double-digit growth rates can come back?

See, if you look at the trend that is going on right now, there is nothing that is going to stop us from that. The market trends that would have seen for quarter one, quarter two, quarter three, FY25 versus what we anticipate going forward is quite positive than what has happened in the past.

As if I look at the base on the cooling product categories, Feb and March last year was very normal sale that I would look at. That is very organic that we would do, rather than not attributing to a double-digit or a higher number of growth, because if I break up and give you that number, January last year we did 38 crores, February was 104 crores, March was 168 crores.

It was around 340, 50-odd crores in quarter four, which we see that that's going to definitely grow on in the quarter four this year. Going forward, April was really bad again, and there was no sale practically in May and June again in quarter one last year.

I think we're quite positive. Same thing with refrigerators or air coolers, they were practically next to zero in terms of what we would deliver during that period.

We're quite optimistic on how the season's going to pan out. This time, we're a little cautious on inventory pile-up so that even if the season goes at a double-digit growth, we still don't need to suffice our need for high inventory risk that we had throughout the FY25 year.

My second question is on the Delhi market. It's been 3 years for the first six stores, which we opened, right, or we will complete 3 years now.

When do you think would be the right trajectory for us to achieve company-level margins from a Delhi market perspective? I'm not looking at the full break-even because obviously you're continuing to expand stores in the region.

At least the earlier stores which we have opened, the first 10, 12 stores, when do you think they can break

even? See, if I look at those numbers, they are quite optimistic and quite positive on the throughput that you would expect from them.

I think if we do the same question at the end of quarter one, I think we'll have a better answer for this because we'll have a good summer and hoping that Delhi is going to have a good summer this year. Then you will understand how the contribution of cooling products in Delhi as a market can change the whole game compared to what it happens in the southern market.

The throughput is going to be sufficing the need for a few quarters there. That is how it's going to be.

Hopefully by quarter two, FY27, we should see that numbers going up in terms of profitability from that region.

From a store economics perspective, earlier you had clearly mentioned that it takes 3 years for the store to break even, right, and more than that actually to achieve company-level margins. Now, do you think as a unit economics, given the competitive intensity and the season change, which is more frequent now, and dependence on season changes is much higher, do you think that unit economics doesn't hold true today for the new stores opening, or you will still stick your neck out and say, no, in 3 years for the new stores, we can break even or achieve company-level margins?

No, we stick

We stick to the same concept and the same numbers. They're still prevalent if you look at the numbers.

If I break down, Delhi in terms of the first six to eight stores that we opened up, in August '22, they are in line with, the same numbers. Then the attribution majorly in Delhi as a region if you look at comes, at the depreciation and interest level because the cost is a little higher because we did a lot of capital investment in buying our properties there.

If I look at the store-level EBITDA or if I look at the store-level performance for these stores, the store economics for the set set of eight stores In fact, the other ones that we opened up also are showing up results much sooner than expected. You know, the burn is much lesser, the marketing cost is all divided, absorbed between all the stores.

If you look at the revenue going up there, it is a matter of the delta coming through, which will which definitely you will see, not only for the set of eight stores, which are, 3 years old, but even for the newer ones that we've recently opened up in the coming quarters.

Sure. Karan, I don't know if you answered this question on store openings, I joined late, just wanted to know for this year and for next year, what is the store opening guidance we are giving?

This year, this quarter we've ended up opening another four more stores. The store count, definitely from 219, will by if I if I finish the making of the stores with summer is usually when we, if you if you remember every, 31st or 30th of March every year, we add up at least seven, eight stores.

That is in line. In case we finish, making the stores, both up north and down south, we will add up, another five to six stores, by the end of March.

That is the plan probably. If not, then first week of April.

Utna hi delay hoga, bas. But, once, the quarter ends, the first quarter ends in FY27, that's when we plan to venture out to a new geography.

Either could be Odisha, could be western UP, and we'll we are evaluating a couple of more areas there up north also. If things work out, we'll definitely, after a good summer season, we'll definitely venture out to a new geography as well.

This year the store opening is lower than last year, on gross basis also, if not net. Is this a conscious call because of summer being poor this year, or Yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

We have to we have to make sure that, it's just that, the store count, that were added last year, we were seeing, at the same time, see Delhi was a newer market for us. As you look at, Delhi ke saare naye store add ho gaye, tier 3, 4 towns add ho gaye AP, Telangana mein where we were not present.

Currently, we are all present in the markets that we will look at. Organically, if you look at, there are one, two markets left in AP and Telangana where we are adding up stores.

And, not it's not just to increase the store per se, this number, but we have to evaluate the market, make sure the markets are big enough. In fact, after a very long time, Hyderabad might see another two or three stores coming up in the next couple of quarters.

We're looking at areas in the peripheries of Hyderabad to add up new stores because that is where the market would demand them. And, right now, if you look at, the stores which are in pipeline, there'll be similar number of stores.

A lot of these stores, especially, the stores in Delhi took a longer time to finish because of the GRAP again there, which happens every year. We got delayed with the store.

If you see Faridabad second store and Budh Vihar is what we were able to end up, opening up. If I look at the pipeline there again, we have six to seven stores in the pipeline in Delhi, which are getting ready, which will open up in the coming time.

The overall expansion plan that we had is in line, with round say 20-odd stores that we opened up this year. Another 10, probably will add up, in the next couple of months.

I think banane mein delay ho gaya tha. Baki, definitely, we were cautious after the bad summer that went through.

We were cautious not to. Otherwise, by now, we would have been into a new geography, and automatically you would've seen a much higher, addition of store count with a new geography as well.

If the summer is poor this year, the new geography can get delayed further?

No, irrespective of how the summer pans out, we are ready to expand further.

Sure. No, because last year you delayed, I'm just thinking that this year again could you delay if the summer is bad?

No, irrespective of how the summer pans out, we are ready for it. We hope that all of you also pray that the summer goes well because an optimistic mindset will definitely change the weather for us.

From Odisha or Western UP between the two clusters which you would plan to add, where do you think is a bigger opportunity and where is the less competition for you?

Apart from this, we are definitely evaluating a lot of other regions in and around our southern markets, as well as some western and eastern markets as well. Because we have time on hand, we've got one more quarter to go.

See, because Western UP will be more organic because we already are present in Noida, Greater Noida, from thereon expanding into Western UP is much easier. Both Odisha and Western UP will not be more than a 10 store count that will increase our footprint in the geography.

Apart from that, because we'll be ready to expand further by the quarter three next year, we wanted to make sure that we at least enter one more new geography on a newer cluster altogether.

Obviously, they will not be ownership model like we went in Delhi, right, because I don't think they would have such flagship locations you need to invest on land?

Exactly. Most of the markets would have lower rentals, longer leases available, until and unless there is an opportunity for us, in fact, in Delhi as well also, if you see now, the peripheries, Budh Vihar, we opened, Faridabad, one more store, all are on rental only that we are planned to open, apart from the stores that we've already bricked for, which are under construction, like Saket is under construction, two stores in Golf Course, two stores in Gurgaon are under construction.

Those stores will take time because we're constructing from the scratch, we bought the land out. Apart from that, there is no new further acquisition up north as well.

My last question, if I may. On the average ASP and ticket size, do you think the price cuts taken or the discounting given is impacting our SSSG growth overall?

Or do you think volumes today are good enough us to sustain the drop or the promotions which have been offered by the brands?

Definitely, the volumes are good enough there. That's it.

More than the value trend, we definitely see a very constant volume growth as well across all categories. That is an upside, right?

Then as a technology seller that how do you upscale your product value as well in case the values remain constant or the values keep degrowing. That's what we always keep discussing, that we push customers to more premium, especially post-GST drop in the televisions.

Even in tier 3, 4 towns, cities, we've seen the penetration of 75 inches and above also growing drastically. Washing machine also have seen a drastic change from semi-automatic or automatic towards front-loading.

Dishwashers have become prominent. Dishwashers, though the category is small, but seen the drop in GST, month on month, we've seen 100% growth in that category.

Though the base was very small. Overall, we see a good volume demand setting up across all categories.

That is a good positive.

Sure, Karan. Thank you so much.

I'll come back in the queue.

Thank you,

Ankit.

Hi. This is Nimish Shah here.

I had a question which doesn't relate so much to the operations, but just a very quick one. About 18 months back 16 or 18 months back the family had offloaded equity at around ₹220, ₹230 to SBI and Mirai or some such fund.

The stock price has not reached that level then for a variety of reasons, and we won't go into that. At a price of ₹100, don't you think y'all should be doing some form of creeping acquisition at least for tokenism or for confidence-building measures for shareholders who are stuck on?

Nimish, good evening. I think you have raised the point where not only today, but every month, every investor meet, every quarter, CFO, me, the team, Dad, everybody keeps discussing it.

I don't know what is right or what is wrong because we get a mixed review on this of giving news out in the market that we would be picking up something or continue the same way. It is always a mixed review that we've got.

Just to answer your question, personally, I would say 65% of the company is still owned by us. That itself is a good

No, no, I appreciate 65% No, I understand. Sorry for butting in, but I understand where you're coming from.

I know 65% is a very, very robust and a very, very healthy equity stake. Your skin is completely in the game.

I'm not taking away anything from that. My only point is But

if you guarantee me that if I put some money on the table tomorrow if it's going to help somebody or give out a positive

Yeah, 101%, sir. 100 and 101%.

At 225, I will

no because I discussed that to a lot of other people. When I discuss that, I get mixed

feedback

on that.

Let me tell you one thing. No.

Karan, let's cut this chase. Tell me one thing.

How will it harm anybody if you buy your own shares? Maybe 2 lakh shares or 3 lakh shares at ₹100.

It just gives me confidence that the promoter I bought at 225. Okay.

The price has not reached that level. Today, the promoter sold at 225.

Today, the price is 100. Promoter feels that if promoter's buying at 100, obviously he sees some value at 100.

It just inspires me to buy more at 100. That's about it.

No, I do agree. No,

this cannot harm We can ask 100 analysts. I've been in this business since 40 years in investment banking at Fortune.

I see no reason how it can

If you let me complete, I'll answer your question. I would love to answer.

Please. Sorry.

Please go ahead. All yours.

No, it's

not that. If you let me answer

No. All yours.

Please.

See, after that, it is a number that we also have lost. It's been four quarters since the time we have discussed this with multiple investors.

That's what I also had an intent of picking up something, but then always a conclusion statement that I got that, sir, it would create a confusion out in the market. As you said correctly, if you feel that like you, a lot of other people have said yes, but a lot of the other ones that I spoke to also said no.

I always had a mixed review of whether to go ahead with that or not. See, because the money that we've raised is still lying with us.

It's not that I have invested in 10 other companies where I've lost money or doing something else or I'm into real estate. This is the only business that we do.

The money is lying with us. I can definitely pick up a stake back to give the confidence to the market.

If time permits, I will definitely take in once we finish a couple of more investor meetings in the coming months, I would definitely take a call. Much sooner than that, probably before the end of quarter one results, we would definitely have a positive views on this as well.

It's just tokenism. It's a confidence-building measure.

I I get your point. I get your point.

I get your point.

Yeah. See you sold it with And

it's strictly nothing to do with See, it is personal to me. It has nothing to do with what signals the market takes it positive or negative.

It is just a token of appreciation to the market that we are still there with you, and we are going to turn things around, definitely work harder from where we are today. We'll give a positive sign to the market,

Nimish. Absolutely.

Something the owners of this restaurant also eat here. It just helps us that, okay.

Promoter ne ye bhav me liya, to fir kya burai hai. It's just about that.

That's nothing else. It won't move the needle if you buy 4, 5 lakh shares.

That's it.

Definitely. Point taken on that.

All the best in your endeavors. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I would like to thank you all for joining the call. I hope that we were able to answer all your questions.

For any further queries, you may get in touch with us or our SGA team. We will be happy to address all your queries.

Thank you once again.