Future plans. I exactly remember this is my 20th analyst meet, 20 years have passed since we have been coming and meeting you.

One person is not present who was present for 19 of my analyst meet, Mr. Kejriwalsab.

He always used to sit in the first row and ask the first question, I am missing his presence in this meet. Exactly those 20 years when we got first listed, and when we see this journey, Now, I have little political switch-like speeches, I'll be speaking about more our vision, our journey, where we changed our roots, why we acquired certain companies, and what are our future thought process of these acquisitions.

Numbers sahab will talk. Business on pipe and faucets, Kairav will talk.

First when we were just a ₹50 crore company, and when we first got listed, and when we were in the first of the analyst meet, and then the journey of Astral started with a new story in the plumbing in history. First to bring CPVC, first to bring PVC lead-free, and first to do many, many, many things, and still first to do many things in the coming years.

Exactly at that level, Kairav has just entered the college, and my younger son Saumya was in the 10th. Today, they both are in business.

He's more than 13, 14 years, he's more than 10 years in the business, and taking care of things, assisting me. Hiranand Bhai has been even more than them in this business in my whole journey together.

One thing I would like to tell you is Saumya was going to give a presentation on adhesive and paints, and remain present, but he has a viral fever from last two days, he had to drop out at the last moment. If some of you want to meet him after first quarter, we would be happy to come to Mumbai and have one-to-one meeting with you in his presence on the plans he has for adhesives and paints, and how he runs that business.

When we came in CPVC in our journey with at that time BFGoodrich, and then Lubrizol, there were a moment when the whole market also supported me and my first key decision was to leave Lubrizol and start our own CPVC PRO product line. It was a great decision when I think today and go backward, but at the same time, at that moment, the market had questions that, "How could you leave a global giant in CPVC and go and start your own product?"

When at that time, that product was 70% to 80% revenue giver of Astral. We took that bold decision.

We succeeded, and today, we are the first piping company in CPVC globally to go backward and make our own CPVC. Now today also, there are questions in the market.

We answered a few in our meetings that, "Are you sure of your technology?" Because there are a lot of things.

In my 25 years of Astral, more than 25, and especially the 20 years with the market, the highest headwinds have come to us. When we are doing something different, we have more headwinds because our competitor or our other manufacturer comes and briefs that Astral will not have the technology, will not make the product stable, will not be able to deliver, will not be able to make CPVC.

Let me clarify that CPVC R&D started four years back, exactly three years back. We have tried all the resins of the world to make CPVC.

We succeeded, we failed. We succeeded, we failed.

We are not magicians. We kept on doing our R&D at a pilot plant at a undisclosed location.

We put up this plant. Very few people had the access to this plant.

The whole project went on, and we stabilized the product of CPVC. We used it in tons, and we have marketed the same product to the market using our own CPVC from the pilot plant.

Today, if you see the facilities to test CPVC or a polymer, Astral has a state-of-the-art QC at its Santej plant, which is equal to any big polymer manufacturers of the globe. Because when you make a resin or a polymer, the key factor of a polymer is its stability on the long-term pressure tests.

These are the machines which give you all these reports and results. When we even made our own compound using the Japanese CPVC, we assured that we give the best of the best pipe equal to the global giant's compound.

We could make the plumbing products equal or better than that. We make the industrial CPVC equal or better than that.

We were the first one in India and a few in global level who made their own compound of fire product protection and got all the international approvals for that compound, which then we converted into pipes. The pipes got all the international approvals, and then we made the fittings.

Fittings got all the international approvals. Today, Astral has every product used in fire application internationally UL certified.

Our brass fittings took almost 10 years to be certified by the UL for the use of fire sprinkler. In this journey, we had lot of this ups and downs in our polymer business.

When it comes to new products and the vision which we have now for 2050, I would not go into all these new products which have been developed in last two to three years and now which are with the market because Kairav is going to speak on it in depth. One thing I would like to proudly say is we have brought a revolution in many of these products which are used in water.

Water, why I am saying water is that it's the building industry which has water, it's the sewage industry which has water, is the recharge of wells which has water, treatment of waste is also water. We are now also coming in products where you have subsurface drainages.

We will be the biggest in that. We have water recharge products also coming in a short time.

When it comes to this subject water, we have gone much deeper in it. If you see, there were people who were before us 20 years, 25 years.

None of them had revolutionized the plumbing industry with the modern products and with the latest products, and I kept on developing the products at new level which suits India, which suits Indian market, which suits in the pricing level where India needs it, and which suits how the Indian plumber or applicator can use it. All these products are under development, are developed, or are under the production level.

We have a very state-of-the-art product just introduced and which is actually developed jointly by us with a vision at Alesis. There are PPP products taking over high-rise buildings today in India.

Companies from Europe are coming, selling this product, and even giving the advice of laying the products. We have never copied their product.

We have, first time in the globe, developed this product, which suits how Indian plumber can use it very easily. By just giving him a proper training, we don't have to go next time and supervise the site.

Consultant and plumber both can easily subscribe and use. This is a state-of-the-art product just launched in the market, and it is a global patent which now Astral holds.

In this journey, when we are continuously developing plants, putting capacities, putting new products, we also ventured into acquiring adhesive company 13 years back. This 13 years back, the same question came to us, "Why you are?"

Today is the same question, "Why paint? Why paint?

Why paint? Why paint?

Why adhesive? Why adhesive?

Why adhesive?" multiple questions were asked.

At that time, I respect a few foreign investors who were with us. Miten Bhai, I cannot forget.

He's there from the very first meet with us. Sorry, Miten Bhai.

A few foreign investors came and gave us the strength that this is the right thing, you go ahead. We are with you because you must have some diversification.

It's a good call which you have taken because there is nobody there at level two in this business, and you have the chance of keep growing in this business. Adhesive joined us.

We kept on working on it, kept on developing it. Hiranand Bhai will share the slides that Saumya has prepared, what is our vision there.

I'll give you two vision statements there. We have always been growing in adhesives.

We have lot of headwinds there also. We are working like our pipe polymer business to go backward in this business.

Lot of work has been done. At the right moment in this year, we will be sharing all these things as they materialize.

Going backward two steps, three steps, four steps level, we will be also adding the margins. We will be self-sufficient and not dependent on the imports or not dependent on buying from somebody.

This all homework is going on at a very high level at our R&D centers. Wherever we are in the business, we are deeply involved and working on it.

Now, when you go in the adhesive business, when we bought, it was a 6%, 7% EBITDA business. In multiple or two or three years, we had kept on promising that we'll get into double digits.

We delivered that. In between, we had some tough times also.

We made certain mistakes in our networking, in our selling patterns, in doing a Varun Dhawan We were very early for that, but one campaign. In those same years, we had a dip also here in the margins.

I remember at that time also, we were very transparent and conveyed every investor, every market, every analyst that, "These are the things, and you give us three quarters, four quarters, five quarters, and things would be back to normal." My idea before this is that we have always been very, very transparent in our way of working, communicating, and not overdelivering or not overcommitting also.

Today, adhesive is growing at a good pace. The vision is to touch 2,000 as fast as we can.

We are sure that in next three to four years, we will be touching 2,000-plus in Indian revenue. UK will be separate.

Secondly, UK had its own issues. We had been communicating.

Our promoter who was with us cashed out most of it, and then there was a bit of mismanagement done. As we committed in last two calls, UK is back on track.

It is in positive EBITDA from last two quarters. This quarter, it is excellently doing well.

The US is also, last four months, giving a very good result on sale and bottom line. This year, UK business will be growing, giving 8% to 10%-plus EBITDA, and at the same time, adding more products and technology to the portfolio.

Faucets, I think Kairav will discuss much detail, but one thing I would say that faucet is growing at 25%, 30%. Faucet, we are establishing ourselves.

All our sales are going to actual projects. We have a huge order book of projects, and we are much on track in delivering growth in this segment.

It is giving a good brand extension to Astral. Paint had two rationals.

One rational was paint goes with construction chemicals. This is the first year after our acquisition of Resinova, we have crossed ₹100 crores in construction chemicals.

Around ₹40 crores-plus has come from the paint segment, distributor, dealers, and painters. That rational is working.

Our focus this year in paint is delivering a top line, which has happened. We had a few corrections because our promoter who was with us was there with us in last fiscal up till the middle of the fiscal.

A lot of decisions on the south he and his team were taking, so that also we have taken over. We have added new pockets: Gujarat, Rajasthan, part of Maharashtra, and slowly opening part of MP.

There also, we had depots, stocks, and many of these costs were added, which now we know we are in control, we will be in control. We will be actually delivering a growth number, and we are targeting to reach ₹1,000 crores in next three to four years and even cross that.

That's our focus area of paints: to deliver a growth as fast as we can, and that is happening actually, and to be the EBITDA positive. Paint is something similar which gives us pains.

It gives us pains in discussion. It gives us pain equally in seeing how to grow it.

The similar pains we took in past when we changed the CPVC from a reputed compound supplier to our own, we had taken enough pains. We had taken pains in launching and delivering in our adhesive business, and we committed and we grew.

We have taken enough pains and going more deeper in faucets. We are here also very consciously understanding and moving forward.

My submission is that as a promoter, you may not be wrong in your angles of seeing numbers, bottom line, growth, non-growth, everything. Because Kairav goes in deep and explains me that you have to see this, you have to see this, and I say, "I see as a promoter.

I see the future after five years, and I see the future after 10 years." As a promoter, we are understanding to keep Astral afloat and keep all the Astral businesses afloat.

We are having a vision in five years where Astral should reach in every business in its all its commitment and keep the growth process on. At the same time, we also are not looking at any other segments now than whatever the four segments we are in.

The lastly, the water tank also is giving good business, growing at a very fast pace. I think Kairav will talk on that also.

Thank you, everyone, to be with us. I think the screen is quite big and looks like a big function, but I assure you that the journey of Astral will continue at the same pace with same confidence and the same future perspectives as it has happened over the 20 years of Astral's journey with this market and almost 27 years since its inception.

Thank you very much, all of you. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. Basically, I'm going to talk about something that we've developed internally that is known as Vision 2050.

Now, what is Vision 2050 is basically, we are going to talk about products that are first in India, relatively low competition, predominantly imported and sold in India, and products that have a good future considering how the Indian construction industry is evolving, especially in the metros and the tier 1 cities. These are some of the products I'm going to cover.

In the water business, in piping and bathware, basically, in piping side, we've launched eight products largely. Eight products are in active R&D.

We are focusing on PP drainage systems, advanced plumbing, which is the PEX, aluminum PEX, composite pipes, infrastructure products like HDPE along with our Alesis fittings, EF drain, which is electrofusion drainage system, HDPE drainage system. We are also going to focus on CPVC backward integration this year.

Because we've launched these products, export momentum's been really good for us. We've doubled our export volumes YoY, and we now export to 40-odd countries.

We have the highest quality certifications amongst any piping player in the country. We have more than 70 QC certifications, and we have the largest product portfolio as of today in the piping side with more than 56 products.

On the bathware side, we are growing at 25%, 30% sort of a CAGR. Quality has been proven.

We've had no major complaints, no material returned from the market. Repeat demand is there.

Brand acceptance is growing. We'll focus more on brand activities for this product once we reach a certain scale.

We have more than 100 exclusive stores nationwide now that focus on selling our bathware product. Project pipeline is more than ₹100 crores as of today.

We have three new premium items that we launched this year that I'm going to cover. When I talk about Vision 2050, what I want to largely talk about is the shift of polymer from vinyl chlorides to polyolefins.

It does not mean that vinyl chlorides are going to go away. Vinyl chlorides form a massive chunk of the market and are more affordable and will continue to remain.

Considering the fact that plumbing requirements are changing, especially in high-rises, new systems are coming up. From your standard SWR pipes, the shift is happening to the PP drainage pipes.

For that, we have three drainage systems now. We have Silencio, DrainPro, and SWR PRO.

Then for your conventional infrastructure systems, especially in water supply, it's moving from metal to HDPE and OPVC systems. Your concealed plumbing, CPVC is not going anywhere, but there's a lot of consultants who are recommending the use of PEX composite pipes in the concealed plumbing side.

Why we feel that PP drainage will be the next game-changer for Astral? All PP products have a certain acoustic performance as compared to PVC.

They have active noise-dampening properties. Then, PP can handle hot water up to 90 degrees, whereas PVC can only handle up to 60 degrees.

PP products have structural longevity as compared to PVC, almost double. Impact strength of a polypropylene drainage pipe is four times that of PVC pipe.

The breakage at sites or the breakage in transport is a lot less. This war is a one-off scenario, but overall, PP remains stable when it comes to pricing as compared to PVC.

At the project level, it is very widely accepted because the price changes are infrequent, and we can give a price support to a project for 12-month validity or 15-month validity also. The dealers, distributors are also liking to stock this product because they know that the volatility is not there.

Even if they're keeping ₹10 lakhs, ₹15 lakhs, ₹20 lakhs of extra material, they're not going to face any losses. These are the three products that we have for our PP drainage: Silencio is our oldest product, which is 1.9 density product.

It is a high-spec product. It is mainly used for cast iron pipe replacement in buildings.

Then we have DrainPro, which is our mid-tier product, 1.4 density. It is also a three-layer PP pipe, slightly more affordable than Silencio, also widely used in projects.

The low-spec product, which is SWR PRO, is 1.1 density PP piping system. It has been designed keeping in mind that we want to make this a retail product.

We are thinking of replacing the traditional PVC SWR pipes that are being sold in the retail market with our SWR PRO pipes, which are the PP SWR pipes. That product has been designed specifically keeping the retail trade in mind.

When we talk about innovations, in PP drainage, we've got three products. In the plumbing, we've got the PEX, aluminum PEX product.

Our PEX line is one of the most advanced lines in India. We just got the machines in last week.

By September, we should be up and running. The line should be in production.

It's a fully automated line, very high-speed line, and a single line can take care of about ₹350 to ₹400-odd crores of top line. On the infrastructure side, we've got OPVC.

We've got HDPE along with our Alesis Presto fittings. We've got channel drains under the brand name of Channel Pro.

Then we've got Power Drain, which is our subsurface drainage system. We are one of the largest subsurface drainage system providers in India, and this particular system has been installed in a lot of landmark stadiums as well, like Dharamshala Stadium has it for ground drainage, the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad has it for ground drainage.

It's also used in projects where you have a very high water table, it's also used there in case of any leaks or any water or moisture coming into the basement side. Lastly, on the fire side, we've got Fire Pro, which is again our old product, but it's getting massive traction now.

Last year, we've doubled our sale in fire pipes, and we are looking to double that sale this year as well. Acceptance has come in, all the certifications are in place, and fire pipes are also now picking up traction.

These are the two products that we are very bullish on. One is the EF drain product, which is the electrofusion drainage system, which competes directly with the Geberit system that is being sold in metros right now.

We've had some innovations done on the fitting side. We've got patents applied for it.

We are India's first and globe's first for this particular system the way we've designed it, especially on the fitting side. PEX, again, not many local players have PEX except for a couple of them.

No one makes PEX, aluminum PEX in India. We've got an early mover advantage with our PEX piping system as well.

These are the latest site photos of our CPVC plant. Structures are coming up.

Machineries have been ordered. Machineries have also started arriving in.

I think, Hiranand Bhai, everything should be installed around September?

By December, we'll be ready for the

By December, trials will start. Like I said, 70-plus quality certifications, 56 products, eight products in R&D, we've got we've got a lot of things in the pipeline, lot of innovations coming up.

That is the reason why we've expanded our distribution last year and the year before that. Last year itself, we've added 20% more channel partners.

It has been the largest increase. We've been taking channel partners from all of our competitors only on the fact that, we are innovating at a pace which our competitors aren't, and the distributors are well aware that if they want to sustain in this changing environment, especially with these new technologies coming in, they have to align with brands that are ready to provide this to them.

We've added 300 new distributors last year, 7,000 retailers, 100-plus geographies were covered which were not under the coverage of our network, 20% channel partner growth. Like I said, export volumes have been doubled YoY.

Export now exporting to more than 40-plus countries. We've got a local office also in the UAE now.

We've been actively participating in a lot of prestigious international shows. We've been doing last year, we did ISH Frankfurt, Big 5 Dubai, Big 5 Saudi, Big 5 South Africa.

This year, we did IFAT in Munich a couple of weeks back. We'll be doing a lot more of these exhibitions this year as well.

One more innovation that we did last year: we had a we did our R&D, and then we've set up a system and an app where we're printing two unique codes on every pipe, on every CPVC pipe that can be verified at the market level by a layman to ensure whether this is a real product or a counterfeit product. Not only does it show whether it's a real product or a counterfeit product, but it also shows the batch number, which plant it was manufactured, and from which distributor the materials came.

It makes us very it makes it very easy for us to track, any sort of product complaints also, any sort of market infringement between our distributors, any sort of territorial infringement, very easy for us to track. This is something which none of our competitors have.

It took us about 2, 2.5 years to develop this, but it's been running successfully now. Like I said, on the bathware side, we've got 25% channel partner growth, 80 new distributors have been added, about 2,500 new retailers.

We've expanded into 375 geographies that we were not present in. We've added three new premium products that are on display, and we've got about ₹100 crores of orders in the project pipeline.

We just recently in April upgraded to SAP HANA, and because of that, these are some of the innovations that we're bringing in for our channel partners as well. We're bringing in a net price transparency.

We're bringing in a portal sync from 4 hours to 15 minutes. Suppose a distributor earlier used to transfer the money, the payment used to take some time to be reflected, and then once it got reflected into the system, he would be able to place the order accordingly.

Now, we are reducing that lead time. We're also we are going to be the first company in our segment to give a real-time stock detail to our distributors.

A distributor can now see whether my factory has 1 lakh elbows or 2 lakh couplings before he takes a big project order. If he has some urgent requirement, he can check at his end and tell the project people that, he would be able to supply or it would take some time for him to supply.

We're also doing live order tracking, and we are also doing we are also increasing the time to process credit notes to our distributors. The faster we process credit notes, the better it is for our channel partners.

Within our loyalty program app, we're adding QR code-style redemption instead of a manual entry. We're improving the redemption time.

We are giving a real-time DMS visibility to our partners. We're also upgrading our ALP portal and the app.

We're trying to make it more user-friendly, trying to add some more localized schemes, something we can tweak at a local level if we want to give some bonus during, say, Durga Puja in West Bengal or during Ganesh in Bombay. We can tweak schemes and promotions accordingly.

Largely, this is what we are focusing on: innovation, backward integration, expansion for the export geographies, distribution depth, and we're focusing on continuing the momentum that we've built up on the bathware side. I think that that covers my presentation.

Hiranand Bhai.

Good afternoon, everyone. This presentation actually belongs to Saumya, but unfortunately, Saumya is suffering from the viral infection, he communicated today morning that, "You have to do this presentation."

I might be missing something which his vision was there for the chemical division of Astral on this adhesive and the paint business. Far, we have seen that we started our journey with the plumbing.

Our first focus was to the plumbing side of the business. Then, we started the second inning, that is our building the chemical division.

We started with adhesive and the sealant, and then we entered into the paint business. Last decade, you are seeing that consistently we are delivering the double-digit growth in the adhesive and the sealant business, including UK and the India both put together.

In fact, India CAGR will be more than 15%. That is because of UK we have returned a double digit, otherwise, the India operation is doing much, much better than what is delivered all put together.

We have introduced multiple categories into that. We started with the silicones, epoxy, and then building chemical this Truefill products.

Then, multiple new products we introduced into this adhesive category. Today, we are working close to about nine different, different chemistry.

Then, we started with this M&A activity also. We acquired this Seal It and the Gem Paints to make it a complete portfolio of our adhesive and sealant and the paint build, all put together.

Now, our focus is to expand the more geographies. Now, we have entered into the Middle East market.

You'll be surprised to know that today in the Middle East market also, our products are selling on online portal also as well offline also. We appointed lot of distributors over there in Dubai and the neighboring UAE cities, and they are selling our adhesive products.

Then, not only that, but we have started focusing on the R&D side also, and now to the backward integration. Also shortly we are going to enter into the lot of products which are backward integration, particularly in UK, we have acquired one technology from Switzerland, and there we are focusing onto the hybrid sealant and all and that raw material into the backward integration, which are going to help us to the new technology as well as better products what is available in the market.

At least in Indian market, very few products are available. That is going to be unlocked shortly in India.

Far, we have not introduced these products into the Indian market, but we are going to shortly open up into that also. Our focus will be on R&D, manufacturing, and the distribution side.

All put together, we are targeting into that division. You all know that India is continuously growing into this segment, and this segment is the flagship segment.

Very few credential players are there which are into B2C kind of businesses, and in which our businesses are there. We have a high, high expectation into that.

We have a different, different vertical like we are into the construction site cycle also, we are into high-performance material side also, we are into repair and renovations also, and similar into adhesive and the sealant segment. These are the four different, different vertical in which that is covering most of the geographies in which our focus is there.

How we are driving to growth into this category? First is the brand equity.

We all know that the Astral brand is very well-known brand in the country. I need not to say, but we have got multiple awards for the best quality brand, best brand of the India, best fast-growing brand of the India, multiple awards Astral branded.

That loyalty is going to help to grow this chemical business also. That is what we are banging on, and we are trying to see that how best way we can encash the brand equity of Astral to this business vertical and grow this business vertical.

We are adding up the specialized divisions into that. Multiple divisions we are targeting into this, and which will come into the later slides, I'm not discussing now.

Then, the backward integration, which I said that now we are giving more and more focus into the backward integration, because we also know that in future also any challenges will come, you are into the backward side of the business, your margins will be protected, and your growth will be assured. That is what we are targeting into the CPVC also.

That is what Sandeep Bhai discussed in detail, I'm not going to discuss much. Same philosophy, we are working into the chemical divisions also, and we are focusing into the backward integration.

Digital, that is the future of India. Everyone is talking about AI and all.

We have already started working on that. We have spent a sizable money into the digitalization for all our vertical.

It is not restricted to chemical, but what Kairav discussed into the piping vertical also. We are spending lot of money into the digitalization.

More and more transparency will be there. You will be surprised to know Astral is the first company, I can say the fastest company in the country which is giving and processing the credit note for the distributor.

If you ask any pipe company, the normal timeline of credit note will be 3 months, 4 months, 5 months many time. For different, different schemes, quarterly scheme, monthly scheme, maybe a specific event schemes also.

We are the company which is giving the fastest credit note to our distributor, because we understand that for any distributor, the working capital is the key. If they are not getting the right working capital, they can't grow.

We always take care of our partner, and we are trying to see that whatever best we can help them out so that they should not face any problem into the working capital side, and that is why this technology play very, very important role. This digital side, we have just recently completed the implementation of HANA.

There we have spent a lot of money and with the highest version of SAP that we have recently implemented. Of course, any new software, challenging time will be there for the beginning of the period.

We are also having lot of teething problem at the beginning of the journey, but we are confident by June everything will be set, and all distributor will be up and live, and they can take the advantage of this digitalization. Plus, M&A side activity will continue.

In the coming time also, we will be doing that kind of activity if we get a good opportunity or right opportunity at a right valuation. We are always ready to take and grab that opportunity.

These are the scale from where we started our journey in 2014, and today, you can see the scale what we have achieved in this chemical division. We have a more than 3,000 distributor.

When we acquired Resinova, we were hardly 200 distributor. Today, we are having the corpus of 3,000 distributor working across the country, more than 2 lakh retailer, which is a huge number in a span of 10 years or 12 year.

More than 70,000 active professionals are associated with our ecosystem. We are having 34 warehouses, and continuously which we discussed we are growing at a double-digit mark.

We are having the highest certification of our plant, which is the giving the confidence of the customer, or maybe you can say our dealer, distributor that we are having the highest certification of our product, our plant. ISO 9001, 14001, 45001, all this certification we are having for our all the chemical products.

So, 2000 1996 to 2014 was the plumbing era where the focus was on the plumbing side of the business. 2014 to 2024 was the diversification into the chemical division.

It may be a sealant, adhesive, and the you can say paint. Now, we can proudly say that our platform is ready.

Now, we are going to take a big leap from here on, and you will see in the coming next 3 to 5 year, our this chemical division is going to give you a one of the fantastic growth, which we have originally planned. Any new acquisition or any new vertical take its own time to set the platform.

Now, we can say that we are ready to take a next level of leap, and which you will be seeing in the coming time, in the coming quarter or coming years, the number will be reflected into that. All these presentations are available on our website, do you need not to worry, you need not to take photographs.

All are available on our website as well as stock exchange website. We are going to shortly put up.

There might be my team have already uploaded on the website. These are the main focus area into you can say adhesive and the sealant side.

The first is the bonding and the gap filling. Secondly is the waterproofing.

Waterproofing is the area which is growing very fast in our country, and that is where our focus has increased, and you can see the product here live also. Then tiling and flooring, that is also the fast-growing product in the country, which is moving very, very fast at a very, very rapid speed it is growing.

Coating and finisher, and then the plumbing and drainage, because we are selling lot of solvent into our chemical division also beside what we are selling into the piping division also. Because pipe division is also selling the solvent for joining the pipes.

Here, we are selling the solvent and epoxy for the joining purpose. Repair and DIY.

These are the broader category in which we are right now there. This is the snapshot where you can see clearly that these are the 15 place in your home, every home, I can say, or every building, whether it is a hotel, whether it is a hospital, whether it is a home, whether it is a you can say villa or flat, everywhere these kind of products are required.

These are the 15 categories of product where it is going to be used. We have put up in 3D picture whereby you can see that where these products are going to be applied.

Hiranand Bhai, a lot of you are taking pictures and writing stuff down, but don't worry, we'll upload this.

That is what I said that we already upload. Don't worry.

Because picture may not be coming right also, but you can download from our website. Now, we have taken a further one step ahead, because end of the day, initial journey will be a different level of journey, and once you reach at a certain scale, the brand play its role.

That is where the role of the brand ambassador come. We are happy to say that we have recently appointed Mr.

Ranbir Kapoor as our brand ambassador for our Bondtite brand. I am sure you must have seen the film of which we have recently released for white glue.

That is how we are targeting to reach to the now end user. Far, major chunk contributor were the intermediary, maybe distributor, maybe dealer, or maybe influencer.

Now, our target is to reach to the direct consumer. That is why we have signed Mr.

Ranbir Kapoor for our branding activity, and that is what one of the expenditure which we have spent ₹16 crore in last quarter. That is why many people were worried about what happened to the margins of adhesive.

Actually, nothing has happened. That is one of the special event we did.

That is why we have spent ₹16 crore. Secondly, we are seeing the big-bang expansion is going to come into our this waterproofing side.

Truelbuild, we have relaunched with completely a revised new packagings and all this thing, and we have given a very aesthetic look also to this kind of packaging and on. That is how we are going to relaunch this product into the market, which our expectation of graph from this CC product, construction chemical, is very, very high, and which is going to deliver in the coming time.

Paint, I think now we are set. A couple of year challenging time were there, because you have to clean up the books of account of the previous company, you have to set your system, you have to implement the SAPs.

All these things, whatever needed, we have completed now. Not only that, we have now opened up the five new states also where we spent a lot money into the you can say the branding activity, particularly calling the dealers to the five-star hotels and doing the lot of presentation of the paint product, how we are differentiating ourselves in the paint.

It is very difficult for a new brand to convince the legacy brand. Challenging the legacy brand is always a big, big challenge, but we are lucky that we are now getting into the right direction, and that is why you can see, first time after acquisition, we have delivered 23% growth into the paint industry for the full year.

The last quarter, it was 31%. Next year, we are expecting more than 25% growth into the paint, because now all set, because we have appointed dealers, we have appointed our team, we have opened up our distributor, dealers.

Now, everything platform is ready. Now, we have to see that how fast we can grow, because market opportunity is very big, and our expectation graph is also very high, and that is why we have entered into the paint business.

The coming time will prove that how success we are there. We are confident that we are going to deliver one of the best number in the coming time into this category also.

Secondly, now we all know that the modern trade is the needed in this environment, because without that you can't grow, because online e-commerce businesses and all are growing very fast. We have first time taken the entry.

We have appointed a separate division. We have appointed the people over there to focus into the online sale, and that is why you can see now in morning many platform you will see the adhesive products are available online for also, and we are getting a very, very good response into that.

UK, Sandeep Bhai already discussed. Again, I am repeating that lot of challenges were there for last 1, 1.5 year, particularly with the exit of our old partner.

He was with us for more than 10 year. Now, I think new CEO has taken charge from the old partner, and things have started moving into the right direction.

Which I think we communicated in the previous concall, Q3 concall, also to all of you that now we are almost set. From here on, you will see some improvement.

Which I can very proudly say that last quarter we have delivered 22.9% growth in Bond It product in UK. Not only that, but we were into the negative zone of EBITDA.

We have converted into 6.5% positive EBITDA. That side also, I think things are moving into the right direction.

We are confident that now in the coming year, FY '27, we will be growing at least minimum double-digit kind of growth in a economy like UK. Growing double digit is a big number, but we are confident that now we will be able to do that also.

These are the five pillars on which we are working, it's not that things to discuss much into this size. This, I think I have covered up.

Yeah. Next 5 year, what we are thinking?

We are thinking that the foundation is already built. Now, no need to do anything extra, whatever we wanted to do into the adhesive or maybe sealant business or maybe paint business, whatever needed to be done, we have done everything.

Now, I can say the foundation is ready, platform is ready. Now, the time has come to scale.

That is where our focus will be there in the next 5 year. Now, we will be scaling very fast from here on into this vertical, and which you will be seeing in the coming time.

Thank you so much. Basically, in the piping vertical, what we are seeing the industry outlook for the next year?

We are expecting that the industry should be growing somewhere around 8% kind of volume in FY '27, unless something abnormal happen in the country, or maybe at the global level, or maybe on the war front. It's a difficult thing to predict, but otherwise, we are expecting because last year was weak, and so that's why we are expecting that this year should be better year, and at least we are expecting that industry should grow 8% kind of volume.

If industry is going to grow 8%, then I think in value terms, minimum 10% kind of gap will be there, 18%, 10%-plus, I am telling you. The reason is that the polymer did the bottom in the last year, and from there to today, the gap is between 12% to 13% kind of level, but I am not considering 10% to 13% for the full year.

At least whatever our limited understanding is that at least for this full year, 10% kind of gap will be there, value and volume gap will be 10%. If the volume growth will be 8%, then the value will be 18%.

That kind of gap is going to be there in the coming year, that is in FY '27, which is a very, very big number. I'm sure you all know that what kind of problem piping industry was facing for last 3 year.

The biggest challenge piping industry was facing that they were missing the top line. Volume growth was there.

In our press release also, we have delivered that last 6 year our volume growth was 14% CAGR, but the missing part was the top-line growth because polymer was continuously last 3 year coming down, down, down, and last year was the bottom. Because of that, all our overheads were going up, because you can't control the overhead beyond the point.

Because in our country, inflation is there. It is unfortunate that in the polymer there was a deflation, otherwise, all other costs were on the inflationary trend.

Because of that, always there was a challenge that your overheads are going up. Many time analysts were complaining, many time funds people were complaining that your top-line growth is not coming, but your overheads are going fast.

The reason was deflation into the polymer cycle. Now, this is the first time after 3 year, we are seeing that now there is a regularly inflationary trend will start, and this year, we are expecting at least 10% kind of inflation will be there.

That is going to give us a big advantage because our top line will be high, and the overhead will be increasing at a limited level, but the top line will be growing faster level. That is going to contribute a big in the FY '27.

Polymer cycle, still we are not expecting to be a stable kind of cycle. Still volatility is going to be there till the war kind of situation is not going to be completely settled down.

We are of the view that polymer is going to be remain on a volatile side, and more on the upward side than the downward side. Whatever today the price is there, we are expecting even yesterday's my interview also on the NDTV, I communicated that we are expecting the polymer price to go up, and luckily yesterday evening only, Reliance announced ₹2 price rise.

It was a coincident, but we are expecting from here on also polymer price has to go up only, and particularly post this 30th June on 1st of July, that duty effect will go away from the system, so that 7.5%, 8% kind of duty is there, which is going to come back again on the polymer, which temporarily government has withdrawn for 3 months, so that will also increase the polymer price. Because of that, polymer is going to be more costly.

Today also, I'm sure all public domain companies are there, whether Reliance is there, whether DCW is there, or Chemplast is there, you talk to them, all are the listed player, all are bleeding. No one is making money in this environment at ₹80 ₹82, ₹83 price what they are selling.

Everyone is making losses. This losses kind of scenario cannot sustain for a longer period.

Temporary, that is fine, but long term, it is not going to be viable for any industry. Definitely, they have no choice but to increase the price, and that is what exactly happening on the ground, prices have started increasing.

This volatility will be still there, but ultimately on the upward side, so that is good for the industry. Government spending, of course, right now lot of announcement is there, lot of infrastructure spending announcement government has done, but all are subject to very difficult time for the government also in this our kind of environment how much they are able to spend money into all this kind of infrastructure project, or maybe Jal Jeevan Mission, or maybe Pradhan Mantri Awas scheme.

Multiple project construction-related announcement government has done, but that is subject to how much they are going to spend. Budgetary allocation is very, very high, but actual spending, we have to see how they are going to spend.

Based on that, it will be decided. The big thing which we are seeing on the ground that bigger players are going to get more and more bigger, and that you can clearly see in this number of the last year that the smaller companies are getting butchered in this environment.

Because if the polymer prices are going to go up from here on, then there is going to be a big challenge of working capital to the smaller company, and that is going to be a pain for the smaller company to fight against the bigger player, and particularly when there is a two-way volatility, up and down, up and down. In that kind of environment, it is going to be a more challenging for a smaller company to survive.

We are clearly seeing there is a shift taking place, and that is why you see the bigger players are growing very fast. Last quarter, you can see Reliance had declared in their presentation that polymer PVC was down by -10%.

Against that, you see the numbers of all the organized good companies. Everybody has given a fantastic number.

Smaller players are losing the share, and bigger players are getting the advantage out of that. What will be the revenue driver for next 5 year for Astral?

Number one biggest thing on our list is the backward integration of CPVC, which is going to be a game-changer for Astral, and I am repeating this word game-changer for last almost 6 months, that this is going to change the parameter of Astral. If you remember, go back to 2014, '15, at that time, we came out from the Lubrizol from the compounding, and we went one step backward, and we did our own compounding.

At that time, our margins were 12% EBITDA. We increased from 12% today to 16% to 18% zone, almost 4%, 5% improvement in the margin we did because of that backward integration.

Now, we are going further backward integration, which is more better backward integration, because resin manufacturer, all the listed player again, whether it is a Epigral, whether it is a DCW, you look at that number, they all are working between 20% to 30% kind of EBITDA margin. Now, if that kind of margin will be there, definitely, it is going to help Astral in a big way.

The best part for Astral is that we are not committing too much money into the CapEx, because our technology cost perhaps the cheapest in the country. I'm using the word cheapest.

If you see the kind of CapEx commitment which the big players are doing, including Lubrizol, which is almost five times what we are spending. Our cost is going to be always lowest.

Not only CapEx will be lowest, but our cost of manufacturing will also be going to be lowest. That is going to us a big advantage in the coming time.

Of course, another two, three quarter, we have to wait, because our plant will be ready by December. Kairav has already showed you that our couple of sheds are getting ready, but the plant is very big, it will take some time.

Hopefully, by October, machines installation will be there, November, December, we are expecting trials should start. Q4, we should be ready for the commercial production, but end of the day, it is a chemical plant, maybe one or two months can be here and there, safely you can project in your number for the next full year.

I have given you the trajectory of the other players. From that, you can do the backward calculation what kind of profitability it is going to generate for us.

Second thing is that new product launch. Astral is the company where our tagline is where innovation flows.

We keep continuously investing into the R&D and try to see that how best way we can bring new products onto the table. People will follow Astral, people will do copy for Astral, but copy doesn't have a brain.

Most of the players have done lot of copy of Astral, but there they have miserably fail also, and there many project they have got blacklisted also. I need not to mention the name of any company, but this is what happening on the ground.

We always spend lot of money into the innovation, and that is where our winning strategy is that. That is where you will be always having question mark, "Why Astral margins are high?"

We spend lot of money into innovation and try to bring new products onto the table so that we can take the first-mover advantage and get the better margin compared to what the other players are there. Because we don't want to sell the product, we want to give the solution to the builder or maybe to the contractor.

When we approach to that builder or we approach to the contractor, we sit with them and ask them, "What is your problem? We are here to solve your problem."

PVC and CPVC, everybody can sell, but every product is not like that. If you are going to give the solution to your customer, definitely customer will not be minding giving you 2%, 3% or 5% extra premium, because he also want the solution out of the problem.

Astral team is working on that side. Third thing is the value-added product, because we continuously try to add in our basket the value-added product.

It can be a valve, it can be a you can say DrainPro, it can be a Silencio, it can be a Multi Pro, it can be a PEX, multiple products we are going to launch. I've already launched few of them, or now SWR PRO also.

All products are going to generate the better margin than what is our current margins are there. This all value-added product contribution is continuously going to help us to sustain our margin.

Fourth is the decentralization. I'm sure you all are aware that last year we commissioned the Kanpur plant and the Hyderabad also.

With that, we have taken the big-bang entry into that geographies, and today, we can say that we are getting a good market share into that geographies, which was missing earlier. Particularly in a product like PVC, if you are far away from the market, logistics is not going to help you to gain the market share.

Now because we are into the market, we are into the you can say near to our distributor or near to the project, so that is helping us to gain the market share. Brand Astral is very strong across the India, pan-India, but in a certain categories of product, you can get a premium up to certain level.

Beyond the point, it is going to be a pain. There, if you are near to the market, logistic cost help you in a big way, and that is what exactly helping us out.

That is why you can see the utilization of plant in the last quarter, Q4. Our capacity is 4 lakh-something, and we have sold 84,000 metric ton, almost more than 80% utilization.

That is what the benefit we are getting, and that is what we were continuously telling in every our communication that Astral is continuously spending money on CapEx, but the real fruit will come at a later stage once the utilization will start. Now, utilization has already started, you can see the number of Q4 how fast profitability is going to give us the benefit of what we have spent in last 3 years.

Then, SKU depth, I think we have published in the press release also that we have increased the SKU in a big way, because we also know that we want to be a complete solution company, we have to continuously add the SKU. We have added almost close to about 1,800 or something, sorry, 2,200 kind of SKUs in the last year.

So, 6,900-something SKUs were there, now we are at a 8,103. We have added a sizable SKU.

That benefit also you will see in the coming time, because now recently we have added last year, this benefit will be available in the coming time. Bathware, continuously growing at a fantastic run rate.

I have repeatedly said that bathware is a category which is not going to give you a big-bang growth immediately, because it's a aesthetic look product. There consumer has to take the decision.

Changing the mindset of the consumer always take time. We are very happy to say that consistently this was the last third year we completed, and we have reached close to about gross sale of more than ₹150 crore, which perhaps the very few brand have achieved in the 3 years' journey.

We are growing very fast, and this year also, we are expecting will continuously going to grow at this run rate, 25%-plus kind of run rate. We are going to grow very fast in the coming time into that category also.

FY '27, we are expecting that the volume should be in the range of 10% to 15%, and value, I'm sure, will be depend on the polymer. What I communicated earlier, the gap is very wide today volume and value-wise, 10% kind of gap.

Today is more than 10%, but we are expecting 10% kind of run rate will be there for the full year. If that is going to be there what we are right now seeing, then it can be even 25% also if 15% volume growth comes.

If 10% bottom even if come, then also value growth will be 20%. Next year, value growth is going to be very high, which is going to help us to improve our margins also.

Now coming to the adhesive side, I think majority we have discussed, I will quickly go through into that. We are expecting the industry to grow 8% to 10% kind of run rate, and in India we are targeting to grow minimum 15% to 20% kind of run rate.

UK, we are going to grow at a double digit. Paint, we are expecting to grow minimum 25% to 30% kind of run rate for the FY '27.

Industrial growth is slow, but our growth is going to be very, very high. The reason is very simple: our base is very, very tiny, very, very small, on that, growing 25%, 30% is not going to be challenge.

Not only growth, but we are going to be a positive EBITDA company next year. Whatever the spend we wanted to do, we have completed.

Next year will be a positive EBITDA with a 25% to 30% kind of growth. Construction chemical demand is picking up very fast, so that is going to contribute big way into our growth.

Same thing, UK, we already discussed that now change has taken place, we are expecting that UK is also going to give us the double-digit growth. Same thing with the export market, it can be a Middle East, Africa, and Europe, all the three geography we are going to export our product.

The best part is that we are working with our own company, Bond It UK company, and they are also working for Resinova, means our adhesive division's few product to market into the UK market. We are getting ready.

Hopefully, in a quarter or so, we are going to start exporting few of the flagship product of Astral adhesive division to the UK market, and that is going to help us in a big way. We know that that market are very, very mature market, we can get a very good growth from that geographies also.

What will be the revenue driver for our adhesive and the paint business? Brand investment, we already discussed, we have signed the brand ambassador.

Distribution expansion continuously going on. We are very happy to say that we have already reached at the 13,000 town, which is not a small number.

13,000 town we have already reached, and our vision is to cover 20,000 town. Another 7,000, we are going to shortly try to cover as fast as possible, distribution-wise, we will be present across the geography pan-India basis.

Rural penetration, we are increasing very fast under our new flagship launch of New Bharat initiative. That New Bharat initiative is giving us a very, very encouraging number in the beginning of the journey, and we are expecting that is going to help us in a big way in the coming time.

Truelbuild is the fastest-growing right now product, because this all waterproofing and all are growing very fast, so that is going to help us in a big way for the growth journey. UK, US, we already discussed.

FY '27, we are targeting at least 15% to 20% kind of growth into this category as a whole. UK, US, India adhesive, and paint, all put together, we are targeting minimum 15% to 20% kind of minimum growth, I'm telling you.

It can be high also. What will be the next year's option value?

One is the piping business. The biggest thing is the decentralization and the backward integration.

This is what we are targeting. Adhesive also, the pain of margin of UK is going to go away, so that is going to help us in this year.

This full year, we are expecting 8% to 10% kind of margin, so that is going to help us in improvement into the margin. The biggest of the biggest is the CPVC resin.

If our plant is going to settle down by December, it is going to completely change the dynamics of Astral. The growth parameter will be completely changed once this plant will be ready.

We are expecting by December. You can consider safest by January, February, March commercial production should be ready.

Next full year, you are going to get the big advantage. That is going to be 40,000 metric ton.

If everything goes right, and the result what we are expecting, we are going to increase from 40 to 1 lakh in the next phase, and that next phase will not take much time also. The reason is that we are having everything ready with us: utilities we have put up as per the 1 lakh metric ton, similarly, government approval is 1 lakh-plus, so that is not going to be a problem.

All infrastructure, whatever is needed for 1 lakh, we have developed everything with this 40,000. Only shed is going to be there, it is not going to take much time, maximum in a span of 9 months, we can do that part also.

That will be the second phase. Bathware, we already discussed.

The last is that the expansion into the Middle East geography where we have already put up our office in Dubai, and we are targeting to grow into the online platform also, e-commerce and online. All put together, we are very, very bullish on the next year number, and we are confident that next year we are going to deliver one of the best number which we are known for that.

Last year number also, if you can check number, we have delivered what we have guided. Across the board, I think whatever we have given the guidance, we have achieved that guidance, even piping also as well as the adhesives also.

These are the few financial number. I'm not going to take much time, because all these numbers are in front of you, no need to much discuss about this thing.

Balance sheet side, you can see the consistency is there. Working capital cycle is more or less stable.

We are not changing anything. On the contrary, we are trying to improve that side also.

You can see receivable days also improved, working capital cycle days from 37 to 24 days, substantial improvement into the working capital cycle also. This is the cash position, you can see.

A hefty cash position is there on the balance sheet, ₹790 crore are there. Basically, Piping is contributing 72%, and paint and adhesive is contributing 28%.

These are the plumbing number. Similarly, plumbing side also, you can see the working capital cycle is very well under the control.

All these numbers will be available with you, I'm not discussing much. Similarly, paint and adhesive is there.

Thank you so much. Now, we are opening the floor for Q&A.

Any questions?

Hi, sir. Praveen Sahay from PL Capital.

First question is related to the CPVC backward integration. How much is the CPVC current contribution?

With these backward integration, do you believe this contribution to increase in the piping segment?

The voice was not clear, but what I think you are telling us that how much percentage of CPVC will be in-house?

Yeah. Question is how much is a current CPVC contribution?

And

Total number we are not giving because we have lot of competitors eyeing on our quantity CPVC we use. This plant is around 40,000, 45,000 kt plant.

We'll be replacing almost 50% to 60%, around that, usage of CPVC in next fiscal. This plant can be upgraded to another 45,000 kt with just adding a few balance equipments.

Some of the equipments which we have bought are going to take care of the next expansion. Next expansion, we need not to change everything.

We just have to add a few equipments to ramp up the capacity to double level.

First phase, we have to still be dependent on outside, because first phase is not going to take care of our 100% requirement, because CPVC is 40,000, 15% to 17% compounding addition will be there, compound will be maybe 55 sorry, 15% more, almost you can say 46,000, 47,000 metric ton will be there. We have to also see how much utilization is taking place, because end of the day, it is a new plant for us.

First phase, we have to be dependent on outsider also, will not be taking care of our full requirement. Once the second phase will be there, we will be self-sufficient.

With this backward integration, do you believe this CPVC contribution in the piping segment to increase?

It is going to increase substantially.

Our CPVC is growing. In the piping segment, the contribution and our market share will increase substantially.

At the same time, the pricing advantage also will be there for us to grow and increase the market share.

Right. Second question is related to the export.

Definitely, not a near term, in the future, how much is the export contribution you are looking at in the next 3 to 4 years?

Export won't be so huge, the way we are growing, and the way the export is growing, but the contribution number level will be much lower than all other businesses.

Also, if you can give a CapEx number for a future FY '27?

This year, we are targeting somewhere around ₹300 crore. Last year, we spent, I think, ₹360 crore or something.

Thank you, sir.

Hello? Hi.

Sorry, can I go ahead? Hi, this is Rahul Agarwal from IKIGAI.

Sir, just one question. We talked about growth next 3 to 5 years, but in terms of capacity increase, both for adhesives and PVC and CPVC, I think given where we are right now, next year we should be utilizing 70% of our plastic plumbing capacity.

It also means that there are two things here. One is your EBITDA last year, fiscal '26, was about ₹1,000 crores, that turns into your net profit in 3 years is how I see it.

There's a lot more of free cash flow generation which is happening, almost ₹600, ₹700 crores a year. You already sitting on ₹800 crores of cash March '26.

Just in terms of thought process of can we accelerate growth here for both adhesives and plumbing businesses? How do we support it with capacity expansions?

Those were just the one question on capacity. See,

capacity is already we are having, capacity is not the constraint today. We have to see how the growth is coming, because one by one step we can go.

First time in the history, you have seen that Astral has put up so many plant in a shorter period. Otherwise, you see every year we were putting one plant, but first time it has happened that the three four plant has come in last 2, 2.5 year time.

We are aggressively putting the capacity. We don't want to unnecessary spend too much because we are having cash with us.

We are waiting for a even acquisition opportunities also, that if any good opportunity is available, we can park our cash over there also. Adhesive also, we have enough capacity.

Pipe also, we have enough capacity. The best part is that we have completed the construction of all the new plant, but the machine installation has not taken place fully.

We have still room to increase the capacity sizably. At least I can say 1 lakh metric ton we can increase by just adding the machine.

Capacity never going to be a constraint to us in the at least near term 2, 3 year. Then, of course, we have to add, looking to the growth projections which we are putting up, or maybe backward integration once will be ready, then we are going to be more aggressive into the CPVC side.

In spite of that also, today also, we don't see any problem. Machine installation will not take much time.

Maximum 3 months, you can get the machine delivery.

How do you think about capital allocation in terms of this cash in the balance sheet?

At present, for this fiscal, there are also surprises coming globally. It's better to keep some cash if certain opportunities come.

If polymer is on a higher cycle and we can get at a cheaper cycle, or there is another, as he said, there are investment opportunities coming by the way of M&A or certain things where it makes sense for these four portfolios, within this four, we are not going to surprise you with something different. There is something which can give value and add value to the top and bottom line.

These all can be explored. At present, this year, whatever the addition things are there, we'll be keeping the cash there on the books.

All right. Thank you so much.

Hello?

Yeah. Sir,

my name is Manish Ostwal from Nirmal Bang Securities. My question on the distribution and the marketing efforts of our new businesses.

First is what is our distribution depth right now, and 3 to 5 years where the distribution can increase so that we can utilize our capacity appropriately? Overall ad spends in those new

Pipe or the new businesses?

New businesses, sir, new business.

New businesses, especially the first is faucet. Faucet is covered by new distributors or new channel partners as well as our existing channel partners of plumbing.

At present, we cover most parts of India. Adhesive also, we cover most parts of India, and addition of distributor and dealer is a continuous process, which will go on for any company lifelong, and it's continuing.

For paints, we are focused on three major states in South: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and

Kerala.

In the West, we have opened Gujarat completely, Rajasthan completely, and now part of Maharashtra we have opened, and part of MP we'll be opening after two fiscals. At present, we'll be focusing for at least one, one and a half years on these regions, consolidate them, and then open other regions.

On a yearly basis, how much money we are spending on marketing for developing these businesses?

Every business has different spendings because

Roughly around average 1.5%, 2% maximum.

I'm talking about new businesses, sir.

New business also, we are not overspending on marketing.

The marketing of every business is done with a different channel. You don't follow the same channel which the pipe follows, the faucet follows, the adhesive follows, and the paint follows.

The expenses which are there coming on each channel is always a different ballgame.

Thank you, sir.

Hello. Hi, sir.

This is Keshav from HDFC Securities. As I understand, the channel inventory might be elevated at March end, surely the sales would have been impacted in Q1.

Can you give us some sense on channel inventory now and how has been the plumbing volume sales in Q1?

Channel inventory right now is all-time low. People who bought material in March have largely liquidated in April and in the first 15 days of May.

Now, as you see, there have been two price rises in PVC, and further PVC imports are being seen at a ₹10, ₹15 gap, also with the fact that duty is going to come back from the 1st of July. Restocking has started, and we are seeing a good traction since the last 7 to 10 days.

Hopefully, this continues, and we can try to deliver a decent volume number even in Q1.

Got it. Some bookkeeping question: how much was the inventory gain in Q4, and what was the paint loss in Q4?

I think inventory gain was not much.

Inventory gain was very negligible. The reason is that our company is more dependent on CPVC, and the CPVC price rise none of the player taken in the Q4.

Whatever Astral has taken place, that was on the 22nd of March we have taken some price rise, practically we were not getting any big benefit out of that. Yes, to some extent, some gain was there, but the amount will not be much, maybe ₹8, ₹10 crore kind of level was not a big number.

Sir, paint loss?

Paint loss, this quarter you want?

This quarter.

₹6 crore.

Okay. Thank you.

That's it.

If you see, I don't know how you analyzed it, it's your problem, but it is a historic high quarter sale Astral has done in the history since inception. Tonnage-wise, if you see, we have oversold the capacity which we have installed.

Our tonnage sale of this quarter has oversold the capacity installed. You can imagine how much inventory also lying in the stocks also have been liquidated.

This is, I don't know whether anyone has made a note of this or try to understand the whole way the things were present, maybe understand it properly or hastily. We are the highest amount of growth giver on installed capacity in the whole of the segment and selling every product.

We have sold Silencio at a level which is way high. We have sold our fire at a level which is way high.

All the products have been justified in sales per se in the last quarter. We have overdone the installed capacity sale in this quarter, and so for me, it's a great achievement.

I don't know, somehow it reflected in a wrong decision or wrong ways, something different, but I think it's a great achievement for Astral as a company.

Sir, Ramesh Bhojwani from Mehta & Vakil. I have to compliment you on acquiring and taking over Gem Paints.

I will go back little bit in time. Prior to coming to capital market, I was into industrial chemicals selling as a distributor.

I was catering to Gem Paints' requirement of pentaerythritol. That time, the gentleman scaled up consuming penta from 1 ton to 4 tons.

I think today when we are standing, the consumption may be 40 tons or even more. That is the scale and size, and the gentleman who was owning and running Gem Paints was the chief technical man from Asian Paints.

I know, I know, I know. Thank you very much.

This is the first guy at least appreciating my this investment. I will be thank you and meeting you after that.

Definitely, definitely.

I think I have not called you also, otherwise, somebody will think that why he's praising. Thank you very much, I feel proud of you.

Gem Paints

Every business entrepreneur takes is a challenge.

Yes.

Every business entrepreneurs takes is a intuition. If he has taken it in the right way, you have to give the entrepreneur his time to see what level he reaches.

This time should be at least 4 to 5 years. We are continuously whatever businesses are taken, we are just focus, focus, focus.

We are assuring you that every business has the same focus. We are lucky that the whole family is there, and we are all contributing in our right way to take these things at a next level.

We are working on it. Thank you.

We'll meet afterwards.

Definitely. Thank you,

and

all the best.

Thank you, and meet. Hi, sir.

This is Varun from 360 ONE. I have a question.

Sir, on the adhesive side, what is the kind of cost inflation you are seeing right now, and is there a possibility of any margin pressure on the adhesive side?

I think that's not much pressure on that except white glue, and there the VAM prices have abnormally high, but otherwise, it's not that high. Whatever price rise we needed to take place, that we have taken the price rise, and few price rises we are planning to take in Q1 also.

I don't think whatever the price inflation is there, we are passing on to the market. That is the reason you can see our margins are still stable.

Our margins are not deteriorated in adhesive. Whatever you are seeing the margin drop, that is mainly because of the ₹16 crore, one of the event of brand ambassador.

Otherwise, if you add up, we are in the same zone what we used to be there in last 3 years. We normally working between 15% to 17% kind of zone.

Today, we have completed with 15.1% adhesive margin for the full year. We are in the very well trajectory, and whatever the price escalation had taken place, we are passing on to the market.

Sir, given that we are looking at 20% to 25% revenue growth, is it fair to assume that margin expansion on pipe segment is quite possible next year?

Pipe margins will expand next year.

Okay. Sir, last question: on the bathware side, like we did so much of brand campaign for the adhesive, is there any plan for the bathware as well, given that it's more of a B2C kind of product?

We are planning, but see, first, we are focusing on reach. First, we are ensuring that my exclusive dealers, my distributors, my showrooms, everything has to be in place.

My product launches have to be in place. I need to have my service whatever geographies I'm opening, I need to also have my service in place.

Because in this segment, if you're doing advertisement without penetrating the market, then your money will be wasted. We are just waiting for the right time to We already do some brand-building activities.

We have a lot of product displays. We've tied up with PVR, a lot of PVR cinemas have our product displays.

Then, we are doing a lot of in-theater ads. We are doing displays across certain airports in India.

We are doing some sort of brand-building activity and brand recognition activity. Today, for the first time, as we were sitting here, we just cracked a ₹4 crore order versus Kohler in Bangalore.

I just got the message from the team while we were sitting. That shows that we are getting good acceptance in the market, especially even against brands like Kohler.

Okay. That's it.

Thank you, sir.

Sir, Shravan here from Dolat Capital. Just to get a sense that now we are saying that FY '27, 10%, 15% plumbing volume growth, and obviously from the Q4, the CPVC backward integration will kick in.

Is it fair to say from going forward, FY '28, let's say now we are talking 5 year and maybe a 2000 30 target, this growth rate will keep on increasing because the backward integration, we have both the options, volume growth and the margin also. So Yes.

Yes,

yes. Once the backward expansion kicks in, we will have a accelerated market share gain as compared to our competitors, and margin expansion can also happen around 200 bps.

Okay. Sir, we have said that for entire adhesive, 15%, 20% kind of a revenue growth for FY '27, specifically India adhesive, what kind of a number one can look at for this year?

India adhesive, I think it will grow between 15% to 20% value terms.

India you can consider 20%, UK will be 10%.

In terms of the margin for plumbing would be close to a 20%?

Plumbing margin will be between 16% to 18%. Whatever margin guidance we've been giving, we'll follow the same guidance for this year.

Okay. Yeah.

Hi, sir. This is Het Choksey from Deven Choksey.

Thank you for a wonderful presentation on each of the individual businesses you have ploughed out. Congratulations for a good year in tough challenging times, and best wishes for the next 5 years.

Also, great presentation on the 2050 vision which you have put across. You have always been ahead of time as far as understanding the polymer and the chemistry is concerned.

Shift from vinyl chlorides to polyolefins or standard PVC to polypropylene, do you see this industry accelerating faster than normal in the PVC?

I will tell you what has happened is, PVC is not a bad polymer. The problem with PVC is that the type of processors that we have in this country who are processing PVC, the only downside to PVC is that you can add filler.

Okay? Considering the fact that you have 6,000, 5,000, 6,000 people who manufacture pipes in India from a single extruder to someone who has 200, 300 extruders, and this entire industry is to be blamed for the quality problems that have arose in this particular product, in PVC product.

Because of that, our consultants and contractors and developers started looking for alternates to PVC. That is where the polyolefins came in, and the beauty of polyolefins is that you cannot mix something like a calcium carbonate.

You cannot do any sort of mixing or any sort of play with the polymer. Back of the mind, when the contractor or the consultant buys this product, they know that they're buying quality.

If people continue playing with the quality of PVC, then this acceleration can be faster also. The move could be accelerated to the PP side of the business.

Do you see increasing pricing coming because you mentioned clearly in the presentation that there is less price volatility in the polypropylene product?

PP in general globally is a stable polymer. Even if the demand goes up, I don't think there will be any sort of a volatility.

This war was a one-off event where the PP prices shot up. If you look at the past 5, 6 years, there is hardly every 6 months maybe one small price rise here or there.

Wherever we want to do commitment for the project supply, we can do easily 12 to 15 months sort of a price commitment with our contractors or builders.

If this is the case, do you see a further reduction in the working capital because of the polypropylene as a product?

No, because polypropylene also it's easily available locally, and we are using the local grades only. There are a lot of local players, I think the payment terms and all don't change much.

Right. Thank you so much.

All the best.

Thank you.

Hi, Nitin here. Last 2.5 years, whatever CapEx we have done, that has not started fully reflecting.

Can you share what's the asset turn or what's the turnover which has come from those 2.5-year CapEx right now? What is the max potential out of that?

That's the first question. Second is to move from 40 to 1, you said there is lesser investment required.

Can you please quantify that? Thereafter, what will be the asset turnover at a full maximum potential?

Or best of the margins, if you can share those things. Thank you.

There were two reason where the asset turn was low in the last 3 year. Number one, that the polymer prices were continuously dropping.

Because of that, we were producing, but we were not converting into the value growth. That was one of the reason that the asset turn was low.

Otherwise, in our industry, mota-moti, you can consider 3, 3.25 time asset turn is easily doable. We were almost in the range of 2, 2.1, 2.2 kind of level, because the polymer were low.

Secondly, we are today also, we are continuously on a expansion path. What happened, that before you utilize your previous capacity, you are adding the new capacity.

The graph which we are showing for the capacity utilization will continuously showing you that it's a 60% utilization. If you see the previous year what was the capacity and the current year utilization, we can go up to 80 also, 85 also.

Many of plants are working at even 90% utilization also. The moment one point will come where the CapEx cycle will stop for couple of year, then the real asset turn will be known to all of you.

Normal circumstances, I can say, three time will not be a big challenge. Now because polymers are going up, and which is going to be a trend in the coming time, in that case, I think three time asset turn will not be a difficult task to achieve, and which you will see in the near future.

Because this year alone, I told you that right now the gap between the previous year base and the current year base is more than 10%. The PVC price of last year if you consider Q1 was somewhere around ₹73 kind of level, ₹73, ₹74 kind of level, and now this time, Yesterday Reliance price was ₹87.

You can see what is the difference. Almost 15% kind of gap is there, the base effect itself.

That will improve the asset turn also.

Let me also bring to notice everyone that what we were building 4 years back a plant, say in ₹50 crores, today, the same plant, same capacity, with the new land price, the new construction price, with the new machine price is almost coming to double or even more. The capacity remains the same, the output remains the same, and then you have to get the justification of the capital.

I was with somebody, I don't know, and I cannot make a statement, but says that whole mathematics will change in 4, 5 years of the payback period, the asset turn, because the cost of asset to create the same capacity, the costs have gone way higher. It's good also in some sense because the new competitor tomorrow pits in, he has to make huge investments to get the same capacity levels.

Secondly, our objective was not to increase the capacity, but our objective was to decentralize the things, because we wanted to gain the market share. There it was necessary to put up the plant in the new geography.

Though we were having the capacity, but in spite of that, we spend money to go into that geography to take the market share. We could have taken the market share from distant location also, but in that case, the viability was not there, because the kind of logistic cost is there.

Now, you see the way today also newspaper I was going through that we are expecting ₹17 price rise into the diesel. Now, the logistic cost is going to be more costly.

It is not going to be only on the my final pipe price, but it is going to be effective to every my raw material also. Logistic cost is going to be very high only in the coming time.

In that case, decentralization was need of hour, and that's why we spend lot money to complete the CapEx. We are today happy what Sandeep Bhai say, that if I do today CapEx, my cost is much, much higher than what I have completed 2 year or 3 year before.

Everything is inflationary, whether land, building cost, all ancillary, everything is getting more costly.

Yeah. The other second question was on CPVC, 40,000, what is the total investment as on date?

To move to 1 lakh, what will be the total investment?

I'm not getting your question. Okay.

You are asking the second phase CapEx for the CPVC, which will be much, much lower than what we have, because land is already there, utilities already there, power connectivity is already there with us, all the approvals are ready with us, all plants are approved. Everything is ready.

I have to add only the shed and the reactor.

Only, for current 40,000, we've invested around ₹120 crores. The next 40 will be around you can say ₹50 crores, give or take.

Very low, very low.

Thank you.

Hi, sir. This side Utkarsh from Anand Rathi.

Sir, if we see in FY '26, our EBITDA margin for the pipe division was 19.6%. Okay?

We are seeing that we are expecting the revenue to grow at around 20%, 25%, and our overhead is not likely to grow at that pace. Why we are giving such conservative guidance of 16%, 18% for FY '27?

This is the standard guidance which we are giving for since last 4 year, that this is will be the trajectory, but continuously we are delivering more. You can account in your projection, I don't deny that part,

but company side

we are going to be conservative. The reason is very simple, that we are working on a highly volatile environment.

You can see the polymer prices are increasing ₹40, ₹40 in a single month and going down ₹40, ₹40 in a single month. In that volatile environment, maintaining that margin is always going to be a challenge.

That's why we don't want to unnecessary just for a sake of saying we say you that we can deliver 20. We will try.

We don't deny that we are not going to deliver. We will try, and particularly post-backward integration, definitely it is going to be high.

Unnecessary, we don't want to give you too much of guidance, then next year when we come, you say that, "You told you'll be 20, and you deliver 18 only."

Also, our focus is going to be the volume growth also. We will try to give the industry-leading volume growth this year also compared to the competition.

Now, sometimes, if you are sitting in such a volatile environment and you want to give that volume number and you want to increase your market share, sometimes the EBITDA level somewheres you have to sacrifice some sort of EBITDA. That is why we give such a range from 16% to 18%.

Doesn't mean that we'll only work within that range. We'll try to deliver more.

Sir, I have another question. The another question is on the return ratio side.

If we see our product mix is quite superior compared to any other listed plastic pipe company. We are also generating the highest EBITDA margin.

On the return ratio side, if we compare with the industry leader, it is consistently on a lower side. Can you please explain the rationale why our return ratio is consistently on a lower side compared to the industry leader?

Two things: one, we did lot of CapEx in last 4 year. Okay?

We have spent more than ₹1,500 crore into the CapEx side.

Sir, that is the case with the industry leader also. Their CapEx funded has gone up by 5x in the last 5 years.

Let me complete. We have spent a lot money into the CapEx side, but our utilization is low.

Because I told earlier also that our objective was to decentralize. We could have hold that CapEx also, because we were having the capacity.

In spite of that also, we spend money just to decentralize with a future vision that we want to grow the more market share. That is why we spend money to the CapEx, otherwise, it was not needed.

That was in a accounting say language, I can say it was an extra CapEx for us,

which

was not needed also. Also,

not all the CapEx goes into increasing the production in the plant. A lot of money also goes in R&D, and the type of innovations that we are delivering and the type of products we're working on also takes away some money every year from us.

We also have to focus that when we are saying that we are doing CapEx doesn't mean that all the CapEx is going after the fast-moving product or the product that is selling in the bulk. Sometimes that CapEx could be in the form of a PEX aluminum PEX machine or a machine for my polypropylene drainage pipes.

They are all ₹25 crore, ₹30 crore, ₹40 crore, ₹45 crore. These are very expensive machines.

If you look at the tonnage that is being generated from these machines is much lower. If I put in ₹25 crores, I can put in 25 extruders of PVC, then tonnage will look very good.

That is not our DNA.

Main aapko simple ek samjha doon, bhai. Dhandha hota hai na, usme office bhi chahiye.

Aaj office bhar gayi, woh bhi lena hai. Bombay ki office bhar gayi, woh bhi lena hai.

Building main aaj maine bataya ki aaj jo land main le raha tha ₹25 mein, uski ₹1,000 cost ho gayi. Jo land maine Hosur mein pehle li thi ₹25 lakh bigha, aaj wahan ₹5 crore bigha ho gayi.

Mujhe to dhandha karna hai. Mujhe yahan bhi plant, udhar bhi plant, udhar bhi plant, udhar bhi to nahi karna hai Hosur mein.

To the factors which are there prevailing have accelerated the amount of money which we need to invest. Abhi land hai, woh to maal bana ke nahi degi.

Building hai, woh maal nahi banayega, machine hi maal banayega. To equation to maal aur sale pe lagti hai.

To maal banane ke liye aur pipe business mein aapko zameen zyada chahiye. Agar mere ko adhesive dalna hai, to 1 bigha mein ho jata hai kaam.

Kyunki seedha storing bhi kam hai, chhoti tubes hai, woh hai. Pipe mein aapki tank bana di to tank ka storage, aap Hosur aaiye, kitna lamba storage pada hai.

We had to take that because we want to be in the business. Now you come to corrugated pipes, 40, 50 acre mein laga hua hai, kyunki uska storage bhi bada hai.

To the things which we do, and we are a 20 years old baby. 2004 mein hum khali ₹10 crore ki company the, 2007 mein public mein aaye, ₹50 crore ki company the.

To humne continuously efforts se to pahunche idhar. To yeh saari jo cycles hai, usme kafi alag-alag Aaj mere paas jo 40, 45 saal wali company hai, uske paas kafi cheezein hoti hai, usse old hai uske paas hoti hai.

Aaj humko bhi karte jaana hai. To we are consciously deploying.

Aaj kahin cheez hum debate karke deploy nahi kar rahe hain. Aur aap do-teen saal aur dijiye, yeh saare jo investments hue, this will give you excellent growth and results for sure.

Thanks a lot, sir.

I can give one example that in Ahmedabad land jo humne

last year

complete kiya

last jo

shed pada tha, woh complete kiya. Aaj main Ahmedabad land ki khali value ginoo na mere books pe, hardly ₹25 crore, ₹30 crore ki ya ₹40 crore ki land hogi books pe, uski value ₹1,000 crore hai.

₹1,200 crore. Abhi main le hi nahi sakta woh land, possibly nahi hai.

Santej plant mein bechne jao, ₹1,200 crore. Aur main naya plant banane jaunga to mera operating cost itna badh jayega na ki jo viability mein hi nahi aayega.

To kai baar land zyada leke rakh hi deni padti hai. Ek ya do last question, ek lete hain, 6:00 baje, fir 1-to-1 we can always.

Sure. Thank you, Sandeep Bhai.

This is Namit Arora from InCred Capital. I have one question for Kairav Bhai.

You shared about the win against Kohler, congratulations. Walk us through your vision for the bathware category in terms of product positioning, how you're competing, and what are some of the reasons you're succeeding so well.

Bathware basically, we have four categories. Gloria and Premia, these are our two lower-end categories, where we compete with the likes of Parryware.

Then, we have Imperia category, where we compare and compete with the likes of, say, Hindware or Cera or Jaquar. Then, we have the Celestia category, where we compare with the likes of Kohler.

We have four distinct categories in which we have a number of SKUs that are comparable to the brands we compete with. With regards to the vision for bathware, we will continue to grow at a 25% to 30% CAGR for the foreseeable future because our base is low.

After a certain point, we will start doing some sort of marketing and some sort of brand push and we will create some sort of a consumer demand for this product. There are a lot of plans for this product line.

Thank you very much. My final question is on the paints category.

When the new entrant came, there was a lot of aggression and maybe some degree of irrationality. Are you seeing things settling down in terms of competitor behavior in the paints market?

Definitely, last couple of year, the industry was passing through a big tough challenge. I think now to some extent it has improved, and I think the big player have also given some indication that they are also going to withdraw certain extra discount which they have offered to the market, and that is going to make the industry more healthy.

That is a very, very positive things for the industry per se, and particularly being a newcomer like Astral, which is a challenging brand for that category, for them it is going to be a really big bonanza. I think that is why we clearly said that the next year we are confident that we will be a positive EBITDA company, and once certain scale will pick up, it is going to generate a good return.

Because end of the day, historically you see last 20 year, this industry has given one of the best return. Last 3 year, you leave it, the challenges were there.

Prior to 3 year if you see, every industry player in this category has given the best return to the investor. We are very positive on that side.

Thanks a lot, Hiranand Bhai, and all the best to the entire team.

I think we can take a last question.

Okay. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

Thank you.