Thank you. Good morning to all and I welcome to the quarter one FY27 earnings call of Greenlam Industries.

I am joined by Samarth Agarwal, our VP Finance, and SGA team, our investor relation advisor. I'm sure you had the opportunity to look at the results and the investor presentation, which are available on the stock exchanges and on the company website.

I'll gives you business update of Q1 before I hand over the call to Samarth. We are pleased to report that we have started the year with a revenue growth of 18% on year-on-year year basis and taking our consolidate revenue for the quarter to nearly 800 crore, with a EBITDA of 81 crore before forex while maintaining the gross margin at 53% level.

The performance was broad-based, with most of the business segment reporting revenue growth during the quarter and with continuing growth momentum both for the domestic and the international market. Few of the major development during the quarters are worth highlighting.

Our chipboard business turned EBITDA-positive for the first time with an operating profit of 3.4 crore before forex and losses in plywood and allied segment is continued to narrow. Moving on to West Asia conflicts, the ongoing West Asia conflicts continue to keep input prices, currency rates, and freight cost volatile during this quarter.

This has also led to delay in container and vessel availability and significant hike in the freight cost. As a direct consequence relates to this, nearly 27 worth crore of export shipment got postponed out of this quarter.

This is purely a timing matter and the revenue is not lost, it is simply moving into the current quarter. Also, the shipment in sea are taking more time to reach destination leading to overall long lead time.

To maintain the fiscal discipline and mitigate the impact of price rise, we have passed on the increase in the raw material prices to the customer. As communicated earlier, we have done the price hike twice at the beginning of April and May, and when the prices are started softening, we have reduced some prices at the beginning of June and again at the beginning of quarter two.

Overall on a net basis, we have passed on 7% to 8% of the price hikes. This is mainly the price hike in the chemical, which constitutes nearly 1/3 of our raw material prices, while the prices of other raw material remain constant.

On the logistics side, I would like to highlight that the Middle East market is around 6%, 7% of our total business, we don't foresee any material impact on our topline, rather it should grow. The domestic demand remain stable during the quarter.

Retail and distribution-led business held up well, while there was some challenges in the project business due to overall cost of increase in the entire building material industry. Moving on to the segment-wise details, in the laminate, our revenue for the quarter stood at 596 crore, a growth of 7% on year-on-year basis.

Sales volume for the quarter was at 4.62 million sheets with a capacity utilization of 80%. Softness in the volume and the revenue is due to the export shipment which got postponed out of the quarter.

Adjusted for this, the underlying demand trend in this business remains healthy. International business performed particularly well during the quarter, reinforcing the benefit of strong global footprint which we have built over the years.

On the capacity expansion side, we are adding two new press line of the laminate, which are on track and which are expected to start commercial production by Q4 of this year. With the addition of this new capacity, we will be able to increase the capacity of specific category of laminate, which are reaching near to optimum capacity utilization.

I'll move on to the other plywood and allied segment. Revenue from operation during the quarter grew by 20% on year-on-year to 106 crore, and EBITDA loss for the forex fluctuation narrowed to 5 crore from 9 crore in the previous quarter previous in the quarter one of last year.

The plywood business on the other hand continued to ramp up, with sales volume growing 19% on year-on-year basis and capacity utilization of 39%. Our distribution network is expanding and we have taken some price hike at the start of April in phased manner.

We continue to We expect that plywood segment will break even in this year. Moving on to panel and allied segment, this has been the standout performer of the quarter.

Revenue stood at 95 crore, a growth of nearly 200% on year-on-year basis. Capacity utilization is improving every quarter and moved to 61% from 30% in the Q1 last year.

Average realization has also increased, driven by price increase taken and the product mix. Happy to share that this business turned positive during this quarter with a profit of 3.4 crore before forex fluctuation, as against loss of 10 crore in Q1 last year.

Our newly introduced HMR category, which was introduced in quarter quarter four of last year, continue to get gain good traction, and we will introduce more premium product in this category going forward. We'll continue to scale this business and improve the share of melamine-faced chipboard in the overall sale of chipboard.

We expect this business to maintain a capacity utilization of around 70%, 70%. As far as the outlook for the FY27 will largely be the year in which we will be sweating our existing assets.

Apart from the laminate press line which is already announced, we do not have any plan for any large capacity addition, and our capex for the year is budgeted around 130, 135 crore, which includes 70 crores towards the laminate expansion. That's all from my side.

I'll be happy to take your question post our announcement of financial performance. I'll now hand over the call to Samarth.

Thank you, sir. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call.

I'll take you through the financial numbers. Coming first to the quarter one numbers, on a consol basis, the net revenue grew by 18% and stood at almost 800 crores, precisely at 797 crores, as compared to 674 crores of quarter one of last year.

On a sequential basis, revenues were lower by 7%, in line with the usual trend in which Q1 is usually lower as compared to the fourth quarter. Gross margins were largely flat at 52.9% in the quarter as compared to 53.1%, despite sharp increase in the input and the freight costs.

On a sequential basis, margins grew by 140 basis points on the back of price increase passed during the quarter. Gross profit in absolute terms grew by 18% on Y-o-Y basis to 421 crores in this quarter, as compared to 358 crores in Q1 of last year.

EBITDA margins before forex fluctuations grew by 210 basis points at 10.2% as compared to 8.1% of Q1 last year. This was mainly on account of revenue growth, cost controls, operating leverage in decorative veneer, engineered floor, and chipboard business.

EBITDA before forex fluctuations in absolute terms grew by 48% to 81 crores in this quarter, as compared to 55 crores in quarter one of last year. Forex losses were a small value of 1 crores as against 11 crores of Q1 in last year, and finance cost was down by 25% to 20 crores as compared to 26 crores of Q1 in last year.

This is largely because some part of the forex was accounted for as a finance cost in Q1 of last year to the extent of 3.5 crores. Net profit during the quarter stood at 21 crores as against a net loss of 15.5 crores in quarter one of last year.

In this quarter, the higher operating profit along with lower forex and interest costs led to the better flow-through to the bottom line. I'll now take you through to the segmental performance.

First on the laminate and allied, the laminate business saw a growth of 7% on Y-o-Y basis to 596 crores in this quarter, as compared to 555 crores in Q1 of last year. EBITDA margins before forex fluctuations were at 13.9%, growth of 70 basis point on Y-o-Y basis.

Production volumes were 4.9 million sheets and a utilization of 80%. Sales volumes were 4.62 million sheets, which were lower by 6% on Y-o-Y basis, and this is largely on account of export shipment which got postponed in the quarter.

The average realization for the quarter on the laminate business was 1240 per sheet, growth of 14% on Y-o-Y basis. Coming to the next segment, which is plywood and allied, the segment largely includes plywood business, decorative veneers, engineered floors, and engineered doors.

Revenue for the segment grew by

Apologies, the line I think somehow got dropped. I'll continue on the financial numbers.

From the plywood and allied segment, which included plywood, decorative veneers, engineered floor, and engineered doors, the revenue for the segment grew by 20% to 106 crores as against 88 crores in Q1 of last year. EBITDA losses before forex narrowed to 5 crores as against 9 crores in Q1 of last year.

The The production volumes for the plywood business was 1.83 million square meters and a capacity utilization of 39% as against 28% of Q1 in in Q1 of last year. Plywood sales volumes were 1.66 million square meters, a growth of 19%, and average realizations was up by 4% to ₹276 per square meter.

The next segment, which is panel and allied, and this is largely the chipboard business that we have. The chipboard revenue for the quarter grew, and it almost quadrupled, to 95 crores in this quarter.

EBITDA before forex fluctuations turned positive, so that's a good piece for the segment, at 3.4 crores as against a net loss of 10 crores in Q1 of last year. Production volumes were at 44,838 cubic meters and a utilization level of 61% as against 30% in Q1 of last year.

Sales volume for the quarter was 41,418 cubic meters, growth of 167% on Y-o-Y basis, and average realizations were 22,764 per CBM with the growth of 15% on Y-o-Y basis. On the balance sheet front, the working capital cycle improved by 3 days at 56 days as compared to 59 days in Q1 of last year, and net debt was at 934 crores as of the June.

Thank you, and that's all from my end. We can now open the floor for questions.

Sir, am I audible?

Please go ahead.

Sir, how is the container availability? Do we see weaker performance in Q2 FY27 due to container availability issues?

Container availability and vessel availability remains a challenge as of now. That is the reason which we have told that around 25, 30 crore of export moved on to this quarter.

Whether this will continue in this quarter for the full quarter or whether it will get resolved, it's a very difficult to comment as of now. If this continue for this entire quarter, then it may have impact on the export sales.

Understood, sir. Okay.

Thank you, sir. That is that from my side.

Thank you.

Hi, good morning, team, and thanks a lot for the opportunity. Just couple of questions from my end.

Firstly, with respect to you stated on the concall that you've already started reducing the prices. In this particular trade, do we see that when we are reducing prices substantially or when we are increasing, there is good amount of restocking or destocking takes place or generally 5% to 10% moves here and there doesn't really matter and the trade continues in a specific way?

That's the first one.

Yeah. Hi, Sneha.

In terms of price reduction, this is the reduction and increase, it's entirely depending upon the raw material. As I mentioned that on the April and May, we have increased the price, and since the price got softened towards the beginning of the June, so that's how we have reduced the prices at the beginning of the June and at the beginning of the July.

In terms of whether it will have a destocking or not, I believe it will not have much impact on this, because of the nature of the business, you need the stock on a continuous basis, and at any moment of time, we do not push the stock into the channel, it's entirely based on the requirement. We do not feel that it will have a negative impact.

Rather, I feel when the price is now becoming more affordable, it will have a good impact on the secondary movement.

Understood. What you mean is even the OEMs, the way they purchase, or even in the export sandal, whatever the purchases has been going on pre- or post-increases, the same way just continues.

We believe so.

Understood. My second question was related to your chipboard segment.

Where are we in terms of the percentage of pre-laminated business? We've, of course, seen the segment turning around positive at this point of time.

What's our year-end target here? What kind of pre-lamination can we do and what kind of utilization can be achieved, and, of course, margins?

Where can we take this forward?

We are fairly good stage at this the pre-lam in terms of that pre-lam I will not be able to tell you the percentage on the call, but we are fairly and it is going as per our plan in terms of whatever we have planned, it is moving on

as per the plan. We are hopeful that by the end by the year-end also, we will overachieve what we have targeted.

As I mentioned that we've introduced HMR category in the quarter four of last year, end of quarter three, which is also getting good traction in the market in terms of that. We will launch some more premium category in this segment also.

Going forward, also as a percent percentage of our overall product mix will be much better in comparison to what we are as of now.

Understood. Lastly, on your plywood business, I know we've launched the premium segment and it's been quite a while that we've launched this particular segment, but despite that, we continue to make losses here.

Any strategy of turning this around? Are we looking at mid-end segment which is what rest of the larger players have already done in this particular segment, eventually to have a sizable scale and start making money?

Any thoughts here?

Not as of now. Just to tell you, in terms of plywood also, it's growing every quarter on quarter, though the pace of growth could have been better in terms of that.

Even the EBITDA losses is also coming down. We are very hopeful that in this year, we will be do the EBITDA break-even in terms of that.

In terms of strategy, we want to focus right now as on the segment which we have, rather than moving on to the another segment. Right now we are focused on this and we are very hopeful that we will be able to break even in this year.

Got that, sir. Thanks.

Thanks a lot, team, and all the best.

Thank you.

Hello, sir. Overall, good numbers in a difficult environment.

Few questions. First on the price hikes, when you mentioned that there has been a price reduction in June as well as July, this is across all segments or particular?

Basically have three main segments like laminates, plywoods, and chipboard. Price hike and price decline has happened all across or did you mention a general price hike and reduction?

Hi Bhavin. In terms of this price hike was mainly necessitated on account of increase or fluctuation in the prices of chemical, which is predominantly used in the more uses in the laminate as well as in the chipboard segment.

This what we have talked about, it was in the laminate and the chipboard segment. The other category, which doesn't have more percentage of chemical, there is no impact in those category, mainly the plywood and the wood category.

Okay. Plywood category has not seen either price hike nor a decline and realization

We did the price hike at the beginning of April because some of the prices has gone up, but in that the price hike was modest in comparison to laminate and the chipboard category. Since the chemical content in the laminate and chipboard is much higher, in laminate it is as high as 35% and similarly in the chipboard category also it ranges in that same ranges, the impact of cost increase was higher in these two category.

This were increased in the April and May both, and slight reduction has been done in June, July.

Sure. Next one is you said that plywood segment will do a EBITDA break-even this year.

When it turns positive, it would be EBITDA-positive or break-even for the entire fiscal or in that particular quarter exit?

Entire year will be difficult, it is for that quarter.

For that quarter. Obviously next year would be a positive one.

Third one, sir, you have also reclassified previous year volume numbers on the quarter basis, what has changed in across division?

This you're talking about which

I think laminates volume were also reclassified of the quarter four as well as

I think basically the

chipboard volume was also reclassified. Has a certain classification change?

No, we will touch base with this offline. This is more in terms of the laminate sheets and board category, so that we will touch base offline and explain it to you.

Sure. Last one, engineered wood flooring and doors, what was the revenue number and what was the loss number then?

For

the floors and doors?

Engineered wood flooring and engineered wood doors.

This revenue of both put together is around 29 crore and both put together the EBITDA loss of 1.2 crore.

Thank you, sir. Yeah.

Good morning, sir. Thank you for taking my question.

Sir, I wanted to understand on the debt repayment side. How is debt going to reduce over next let's say 2 to 3 years?

In this year, since we have the capex of this expansion capex for the laminate and as well as some of the past capex, we expect capex to be in the range of around 125, 130 crore. Obviously we don't expect debt to come down in a significant manner, however we expect that it should come down by close to around 100-odd crore.

From the next year onwards, since no major capex plan has been announced, majority of the cash flow will be used to reduce the debt. We see that debt to come down in next 2, 3 years in a significant manner.

Sure, sir. Sir, on the laminate capex front, the timelines remain the same, right?

Are you expecting any delays or

postponements

of the laminate capex city?

No, it's online only. As we have given in the results also, we have already placed the order for the equipments and we expect that since these all equipments are domestic in nature, we expect this commercial production by quarter four of this year.

Sure, sir. Sir, on the plywood side, you have mentioned that you'll be slowly taking this from South India towards west and Central India.

By when can we expect pan-India launch for the plywood business?

No, it has already started in the last year. Except north, which we do not intend to start as of now, our products are available into the west and east and part of Central India.

Okay. Sir, you'll be going more aggressive on these regions because I believe you were more focused on servicing the South Indian market, but incremental growth will be driven from these regions, right?

See this region will be new starting from zero, obviously the growth here will be better.

Okay. Sir, my last question was on chipboard.

In chipboard, how are you seeing things panning out? Since three capacities have come from organized players in span of 1 and 1/2 years, have you started seeing some unorganized to organized shift happening?

How are things panning out there?

I believe so, because if you see the companies are doing good. Since the product is good, we're reaching out to newer and newer segment.

Previously the unorganized segment, the product what we are offering was not there. Even the HMR category we've started for the first time only.

Product acceptability is quite high among the client wherever we are going as of now. We believe that this shift will happen because of the premium product category or the good product category, and overall all the organized company will take effort in terms of reaching out to customers.

Sure, sir. That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, sir. Thanks for the opportunity.

My question is regarding on the laminate side. As we have seen, almost 6% to 7% decline into sales volume of laminate, wanted to check still we are guiding 10% to 12% growth on the laminate side for the full year?

That growth was on the revenue side, and what you are telling is for the volume. If you see even in this last quarter also, there was a growth of 7.4% and we have already mentioned that nearly 30 crore worth of export has moved to quarter.

If you add that, then probably we are very much near to the figure what we have given. We still maintain that we will be able to grow in that range.

Okay. Sir, just last one question again on the laminate side.

How much we have degrown in the domestic market on the laminate side particularly? As you mentioned that real estate division, because of the high raw material, they have not taken the sales dispatches.

How much we have degrown?

The volume degrowth was 7.5%, 7 and 1/2%.

This is more on the domestic side, sir?

This is domestic side.

Okay. Okay.

Do you feel starting Q2 this quarter onwards that will also start growing as things have started normalizing at least on the geopolitical front also?

We believe the quarter one was quite a confusing one in terms of not only for us, the entire industry or let's say entire building material product category. There was price increase on continuous basis, like we did two.

Then because of the fluctuation in the raw material prices, we did pass on and we have reduced the prices. There is a lot of confusion in between.

We believe now with more clarity in the market, demand should improve. Okay.

Okay. Thank you so much, sir.

That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Thanks for the opportunity. My question is on the chipboard business.

Since it has become now EBITDA-positive, what is the sustainable margin that we should be looking at for the next 1 to 2 years, and what capacity utilization is required to achieve a normalized margin?

Roshan, we achieved around 61% capacity utilization in the quarter one, and of course, we would like to increase the capacity utilization which will happen going forward in quarters to come. The EBITDA margin will depend upon what capacity utilization, what product mix we able to achieve in terms of that.

I can say that on a full capacity utilization, on a better product mix, it can achieve a margin of 18%, 20%. That will happen over a period of time, we believe.

Understood. Thank you.

The second question is, what is the cumulative raw material inflation that has happened over the last two quarters, and what proportion has been already passed on to the customer?

In the raw material prices, most of the inflation happened or the fluctuation happened in the chemical prices. In the chemical also, it is depending upon which chemical it is.

It is ranging from let's say 30%, 40% to 70%, 80%. The prices did increase, and then it is got retracted also towards the beginning of June.

Again in July because of the war starting again, the prices was again started moving, but now again the price is coming. Picture is a bit hazy in terms of that.

To answer in terms of so we have passed on the entire impact of the price increase into the market of raw material price increase. Other than the chemical, which is wood and the paper, we're not seen much of fluctuation in that.

Understood. That's helpful.

That's all from my side. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. Good morning, sir.

My first question is regarding the laminate segment. Sir, if you can guide what would be the expected volume growth and the margin guidance for the remaining 9 months of FY27?

Utkarsh, it is difficult to give for the quarter-on-quarter guidance in terms of that. As we have already said that in the laminate, the overall revenue growth is in the range of around 10% to 12%.

We still stand by that, even though the first quarter growth was close to around 7%, but we still stand by that it can grow 10% to 12%.

Also, Utkarsh, because of some uncertainties in the raw material prices which has been prevailing, it is difficult to give a margin of outlook as of now. Margin, but

in the past we have already stated that laminate can grow at around 15%, 16% of the margin. Okay.

Sir, for particle board, you have guided that we are looking forward to operate at 70% utilization in FY27. Can you also please give some guidance for the plywood, what would be the expected utilization level in FY27 for plywood segment?

We're at around 40% in the quarter one. We believe it should be close to 50% for the year.

Okay.

Sir, you mentioned that the plywood segment is likely to break even in FY27, is it likely to happen towards the end of FY27 and by when it is likely to break even at PAT level, sir, the plywood segment?

I think it's again difficult to give, even though we want it to break even in the let's say quarter two itself, but it's difficult to tell whether it will happen in this quarter or some other quarter. In terms of PAT level, once it break even at the EBITDA level and then the next stop will be at PAT level, we are hopeful that let's see how this year goes by and then probably we can see that whether we will be able to break even at the PAT level in the same year or will it move to next year.

Okay. Sir, lastly, sir, if you can just help us understand what would be the current market rate of phenol, melamine, and urea, sir?

That's it from my side, sir.

I think we will come back to you offline. Samarth will come.

Sir.

Hi Ashok and Samarth. Two questions.

One on particle board capacity. At your current rate, you should be at 70% utilization by Q4 of this fiscal, and I guess in FY28, you'd perhaps average at about 75% to 80% for the year.

Any thoughts on capacity augmentation ahead, greenfield or brownfield, or any rough plans that internally you guys are thinking about?

Not as of now this one. As of now the capacity utilization what we are telling this includes both the plain chipboard as well as the pre-lam chipboard.

Our intention is to sell more and more pre-lam chipboard, but since right now we are having enough capacity, so as of now we are selling even the plain chipboard also. Going forward, as and when we reach up to near to the full capacity utilization, we want to increase our pre-lam chipboard share.

Once we reach, then probably we will take a call. We are cognizant of this fact that we need to take at some moment of time, but we still want to because it's only four, five quarter, we want to see that how it progresses and then we will take a call.

Basically the current capacity should be sufficient for at least till FY29 end. You will just look at increasing the value-add mix once you reach that 80% to 90% capacity utilization, right?

That's how we're to look at it.

That's correct. Largely yes, yeah.

Largely yes.

That's correct.

Okay. Second question basically on debt reduction.

You said 100 crores will be reduced in FY27 despite the 130 crore-odd capex. What besides laminates, that's the only capex you're doing this year, right?

So 130 crores just for laminates?

No, 130 crores is not for laminates, Aasim. 70 crores is towards laminates, some part of it's towards the greenfield project payments that is still pending, some last tailwinds.

Then there are some regular capex that happens every year, about 70 plus 40-odd crores of my regular capex and then 10, 20 crores of the past payments. About 130, 135 crores of the net outflow on account of the capex.

You will cut debt by 100 crores also this year. That's what the plan

That's what the plan is, yes, right.

Okay. Next year broadly you said that debt will be the focus in terms of cutting debt over the next two fiscals, FY28 and '29.

Any rough number that you are targeting how much that will come down by?

Largely it will be as per the repayment schedules that we have for the debt. Next year it will be slightly upwards of 150-odd crores, which is FY28, but that will be largely following the repayment schedules.

Whatever will be the cash flow, apart from the regular capex or maintenance capex and the working capital, those will be used in reducing the debt.

Anyway, something is cash accumulated, on a net basis the debt will be lower. Whether I pay it or why I keep a cash on my books, net will be lower.

Sure, got it. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations for your chipboard positive margins in this tough time. I could see that just relative comparison our chipboard in the pre-lam segment is I think near about 65% to 70% if I'm not mistaken.

Just wanted to know in terms of this pre-lam what are our plans in order to at least maintaining that going forward? That would be the first question.

Secondly, on the plywood segment, when are we planning to reach near about ₹20 per SQM, more or less the average of the market, the listed peers? Those are my questions, sir.

In terms of sorry.

On the chipboard pre-lam mix, as we said earlier, currently capacity utilization stands at 61% and for the year, as sir already said, we may average out around 70%. The idea here remains that how you optimize your product mix, which is a higher share of the pre-lam, plus HMR that we launched, plus some of the new value add that we will launch going forward.

The entire plan is to really maximize on the value-add products, maximize on the pre-laminated boards, and then look for a good profitable business here. Does that answers you, Tushar?

Yeah. Basically we are near about I think 22,700 or so.

Is there any good headroom to grow from here till 2000 24,000 or so? That would be my question to the chipboard.

Also on the margin front, when are we seeing that 18% margin in the chipboard? So

18% will happen once we reach to close to the optimum capacity utilization. By that time, which we believe that it should happen in the FY29, and of course everything will depend upon the how the raw material prices also behave.

We believe that if everything goes as per the plan, we should see the optimum capacity utilization in FY29, and by that time the margin also should improve to that level. Also,

Tushar, from the headroom perspective on the realizations, yes, there is a lot of headrooms which is there, provided and if you look at all the large developed economies where chipboard is used, there's a lot of value add in the chipboard business which people are doing globally, which possibly right now is not there in the Indian markets. Obviously our endeavor being the leader in the markets to bring such a value products to the market.

We're very sure that, as we move ahead on the capacity utilization, improving the pre-lam mix, the realizations should improve as we go ahead.

Okay. Sir, on the plywood front, what are our targets in terms of EBITDA terms?

As you know near about ₹20 per SQM, when are we seeing that number in plywood segment? Sir, in the laminate the higher dimension laminates would be what percentage of our sales and also in the geographical contribution, what would be the Europe and US?

I'm asking from the point of the voyage taken for the sales. That would be my question, sir.

Sorry, Tushar, this in terms of geographical, continent, or country-wise we will not be able to give the details. We don't give that details in the public domain.

In terms of plywood, ₹20 per square meter, you are talking about the EBITDA or what?

EBITDA,

sir. So ₹20 which will be close to around 8%, 8 and 1/2% EBITDA, I believe.

We are at 270, ₹275 per square meter as of now, which means around 8% of EBITDA which we are talking. As I mentioned earlier on the call, we are expecting EBITDA break-even in this year and then going forward, but we believe what number you are talking is achievable.

Of course, this number can be achieved once the capacity utilization moves on from what level we are, at least 80%, 85% or 90% capacity utilization is needed to achieve that, which will happen over a period of time.

Sir, and sir, in the plywood you have not mentioned that the higher dimension or the larger laminates would be what percentage of our sales in the laminate business?

The higher dimension, it's not only the higher dimension, it's also the thickness and the board business which contribute, because we are into the both higher dimension laminate, which in terms of sheets, as well as board. It's a mix of everything which is there.

Okay. If I were to ask that the value-added segment would be what percentage of the laminate?

It is close to 50%.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

That was really helpful.

Hello, congratulations on a good set of numbers in a tough quarter, sir. My question is last quarter we had guided for 18% growth rate for this year and we have done that despite of a deferring of export of 27 crore.

One question, do we look on target to achieve that growth number and do you see it coming more from volume side? How much of volume and realization will contribute to this growth?

Kumar, we continue to believe that we will be able to achieve the target which we have given. You must appreciate that in this tough environment, it's a difficult to give that in terms of exactly volume and value difference.

We are hopeful that we will be able to achieve the target what we have given for the year.

Sure, sir. Sir, it's great to see in panel, we have really scaled the business.

However, at a gross margin level, despite of scaling the revenue, we didn't see any kind of margin improvement. Usually when capacity utilization improves, there is some operating leverage close at COGS level, EBITDA level.

Is it bulk of our margin improvement is expected to happen below the gross margin level, or this quarter things were tough in terms of chemical prices you suggested, and when market normalizes, we will see this kind of margin improvement at all the levels?

It should happen at all the level.

Okay. Sir, third question is, what is the peak capacity utilization across these businesses?

Is 80% the peak utilization in laminates or we can go 90%, 100%? Same for other businesses, despite of the mix change and all in a generic sense, what is the peak utilization these businesses can achieve?

In the laminate and chipboard, we can achieve 100%. Or in the laminate in the past, we have achieved more than 100% also.

In the plywood, yes, you can achieve 85%, 90% or maybe 100%, but since we are also in this journey, we will be able to see once we reach there. In the other category, which is primarily the decorative veneer, floors, and doors, there in the decorative veneer it's a more of a demand or the how much order you can generate, but we believe that we can reach up to 60%, 65%.

In some quarter, some month, we were very near to that also. We believe it's difficult to reach 100% because a lot of manual work is get involved, a lot of manual requirement are there.

We believe it's a difficult to reach 100%, but yeah, you can reach 50%, 60% or maybe 60%, 65%.

Got it. Sir, my last question is, some years could be good for one segment, bad, but on a long-term basis when you plan these projects and investments across these three, four segments, if you can explain from a ROI and payback perspective, how are the ROIs and payback in each of these segments and which is having your best ROI and if you can educate on each of these segments from a long-term perspective?

Probably this is a longer subject. We can touch base some other moment of time because we need to go segment to segment, product to product category.

Probably this is a subject which needs much longer time. We can touch base some other time.

Sure, sir. I'll reach out to the IR team for the same and wish you all the best for the coming quarters, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you all. Thanks for taking out the time and coming to this call.

Thank you, everyone. In case you have any more questions, do feel free to connect back to us or to SGA.

We'll be more than happy to answer.

Thank you.