Thank you, Sagar, and good evening, everyone. On behalf of PhillipCapital, I welcome all of you to the third quarter FY '26 earnings conference call of Voltas India Limited.

From the management today, we have Mr. Mukundan Menon, Managing Director; K.

V. Sridhar, Chief Financial Officer; Nikhil R.

Chandrana, Head Corporate Finance; Sumana Tripathi, Head FP&A; and Vaibhav Vohra, Head Commercial. I would request the management to give their opening remarks, post which we shall open the floor for Q&A.

Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Natasha. Good evening, all.

Glad to connect again for the quarter call. Just to give you a brief, Voltas strengthens leadership in Q3, backed by room air conditioners recovery and sustained performance from other verticals.

Global conditions in 2025 remained unsettled, with geopolitical tensions, new tariff actions, and periodic supply chain detours creating volatility across input categories such as energy, base metals, and select electrical components. At the same time, uneven global growth, currency and commodity fluctuation, and persistent policy uncertainty tempered sentiment across several markets, even as emerging economies, most notably India, continued to demonstrate relative resilience driven by steady consumption and sustained public investment.

This environment shaped a mixed demand backdrop for consumer-facing categories and infrastructure-linked sectors, forming the macro context in which Voltas' consumer and projects business operated during the quarter. Voltas Limited announced its financial results for the quarter and nine months ending 31st December 2025.

Through this quarter, the company's performance was anchored by the room air conditioning business, driven by healthier channel activity following the GST rate cut, and buying ahead of the BEE star label transition, as customers anticipated price hikes on the new table. The projects business continue to lend stability through consistent execution and a strong order pipeline, reinforcing the strength of Voltas' diversified portfolio.

Management remained focused on market leadership in the cooling segment, regulatory preparedness, and a disciplined performance across businesses. At an overall level for the quarter, total income was at ₹3,130 crores against ₹3,164 last year.

Profit before tax was ₹116 crores after factoring in the labor code impact, versus ₹191 crores in Q3 '25. Net profit was at ₹84 crores against ₹131 last year.

For the nine months ending December '25, the total income was ₹9,552 crores compared to ₹10,890 crores last year same period. Profit before tax was ₹373 crores versus ₹848 crores in the corresponding period last year.

Net profit was at ₹257 crores compared to ₹599 last year same period. In terms of the segment performance a bit in depth, in terms of segment A, unit cooling products, the segment delivered a relatively steady performance in both volume and revenue despite inherent seasonality and the impact of a shortened second summer.

The room air conditioner business continued to anchor segment A, maintaining Voltas' leadership position with 17.9% year-to-date market share, and benefiting from strong channel activity following the GST reduction and buying ahead of the upcoming BEE star label transition. Growth during the quarter was driven by structured network expansion with micro-level targeting, improved channel readiness, and sharper retail and digital activation across priority markets.

These changes are expected to drive consumer upgrades in the coming quarter, providing a positive fillip to demand and product mix improvement. Complementary categories, such as air coolers, water heaters, and fans, though facing some headwinds due to inventory overhang, continued to build relevance through refreshed lineups, wider retail reach, and sharper digital activation, reinforcing Voltas' comfort solution positioning and broadening the non-seasonal share of cooling products.

Together, these initiatives support brand preference and strengthen category resilience into the upcoming season. Within segment A, commercial air conditioning continued to act as a growth contributor supported by corporate, commercial, and industrial demand with healthy traction across product categories and AMC business.

Commercial refrigeration delivered a softer quarter amid slower product offtake and competitive intensity. The focus remained on sharpening the offer in priority segments and stabilizing the mix to support sequential improvement.

Together, CAC and CR reinforce the diversification within UCP and helps balance seasonal volatility in room cooling. Segment A margins in Q3 reflected the seasonal profile of the quarter and a competitive environment with profitability shaped by higher channel and customer support.

In the coming quarter, management remains focused on mix improvement, cost optimization, and structured network expansion to support sequential recovery. The company is fully ready and realigned for the new BEE efficiency table with refreshed lineups and calibrated pricing architecture in place, and is geared to meet seasonal demand with aligned production plans across Pantnagar and the new Chennai factory.

Production capacity utilization, operational efficiency improvements, and supply chain actions have been tuned to support faster ramp-up into the season and improve availability of priority SKUs. Voltbek Home Appliances: Voltbek delivered a solid Q3, sustaining broad-based momentum across washing machines and refrigerators, led by dominant semi-automatic segment and a clear step up in fully automatic top load, alongside a stronger showing in the frost-free segment in an expanded, energy-efficient, locally manufactured lineup.

In refrigerators, Voltbek's overall market share stands at 6.2% year-to-date, and in washing machines at 8.2% year-to-date, reflecting improved portfolio relevance and tighter in-store execution. Voltbek will sustain momentum through a focused, brand-led premiumization strategy, combining high-impact consumer engagement and an expanded energy-efficient portfolio across categories to deepen preference and conversion across priority channels while steadily broadening the franchise towards a full-scale home appliance platform that complements Voltas' end-to-end home solutions.

In parallel, ongoing pricing and cost optimization initiatives across the portfolio are intended to support margin resilience as scale builds through this season. Together, these developments reinforce Voltas' progression from a predominantly seasonal cooling business to a year-round, full-stack consumer durables enterprise, supported by a broader, innovation-led portfolio and disciplined operational execution.

Segment B: Electro-mechanical projects and services. The domestic projects business continued to book and execute orders across all verticals, underscoring engineering depth and multi-vertical presence.

Prudent selection of projects, backed by on-time handovers, tighter project governance, and cash conversion, facilitated the margin expansion. The international environment remains competitive for fresh wins, but delivery momentum supported by a mix of ongoing projects and disciplined project engagement.

During CY '25 year-to-date, Voltas secured new orders and lifted the order pad, and the international project business reported sequential exposure reduction, reflecting tighter commercial controls and collection. With a robust consolidated order book of around ₹6,100 crores and a healthy order pipeline, the segment is well-positioned to drive steady growth and deliver consistent performance over the medium term.

Segment C: Engineering products and services. The mining and construction equipment division delivered steady top-line growth supported by continuity in operations and maintenance contracts, and sustained demand for crushing and screening machinery.

Going ahead, the mining and construction equipment service annuities and a healthy inquiry funnel provide performance visibility. The textile machinery division business was adversely impacted by macro backdrop, notably the 50% US tariff imposition on certain textile products, which weighed on MSMEs and led to production cuts and softer domestic demand for yarns and fabrics.

Execution of pending orders, strong after-sales run rate, and post-spinning momentum helped cushion the effect. Looking ahead, TMD remains focused on after-sales, post-spinning mix, and disciplined delivery, while looking forward for a recovery in the core spinning category.

Balance sheet and working capital: Working capital was tightly managed in Q3, with improved inventory and receivables ahead of upcoming season, supported by availability of priority SKUs and steady project billings and collections. Commercial controls, selective order intake, and exposure reduction further supported a stable position despite uneven demand pockets and a competitive environment.

Overall, the company exited the quarter with a balanced working capital profile. As Voltas enters Q4 focused on execution and seasonal readiness, the company is fully aligned to the new BEE efficiency table with a refreshed RAC lineup and calibrated pricing, and is geared to meet peak season demand with aligned production plans across factories, including the new capacity ramp-up at Pantnagar and Chennai.

The priority is to boost all demand sources: core retail, organized trade, and institutional, while optimizing resources across manufacturing, supply chain, and channel. The projects business will continue to selectively book and execute across all verticals in which we are present, supported by a healthy bid pipeline and a stronger project governance.

Overall, the strategy remains simple and focused: be regulatory ready, scale efficient into the season using the expanded manufacturing footprint, and convert demand with sharper in-market activation and disciplined delivery across businesses. In terms of margin, we are committed to further optimize costs through value engineering, better inventory planning, while being cautious about the impact of commodity and currency fluctuations.

Thank you.

Yes, please.

Hi. Good evening, sir.

Sir, you kind of referred about raw material inflation and rupee depreciation impact. My question is, what kind of price increases do you think are warranted, and given that we are coming from a fairly weak season, do you think that the industry would be in a position to pass on these price hikes or part of that may need to be absorbed by the company?

You also mentioned about cost optimization, what are the measures that you can undertake to kind of partly offset this impact? Thank you.

Thanks for the question. I think it's a valid one, given the environment that we are in.

See, this quarter will be a slightly mixed one in terms of navigating the old table sales and also the new table sales, right? We sort of be having a very balanced approach in terms of trying to navigate the pricing.

Will the commodity and the currency fluctuation have an impact on the pricing? Definitely, yes.

There will be an impact on the pricing, but how much and when to sort of pass on is something it's a very dynamic decision that we'll have to sort of look at it fairly almost on a daily basis. I think the pricing decisions will have to be fairly dynamic.

To put a number would be difficult, but is there an impact on the pricing? There is an impact on the pricing.

We are looking at it ongoing basis and we'll take a call accordingly. I think the new table also I think will take some time for also the pricing also to stabilize on that front, and that I think will also take a few months given that this quarter is likely to be a mix between old table and the new table sales.

Understood, sir. Thank you so much.

Hello?

Yes, we can hear you.

Yeah. Yeah.

This is Aniruddha Joshi here. My question is, what was the exit market share at the end of either November or December if you can share, you have shared YTD market share.

Secondly, was there any excess trade discount given to clear the inventory at the end of December? Last point, Voltas Beko now, there is a very strong market shares across both categories, refs and washers, but despite that, the profitability still remains in a way still in red.

How do you see the profitability? Earlier, there was a indication by end of FY '26 it should be profitable.

How should we read about Voltas Beko? That's it from my side.

Thanks Aniruddha. This is Mukundan Menon here.

On the market share, our exit market share for the month of December is also at 17.9%, which coincidentally coincides with our YTD market share also, which is at 17.9%. If you recall when we began this calendar year, that is the Jan to March quarter, we had a market share of 15.8% and that has grown to 17.9%.

Over the last 12 months, we've gained market share of roughly 2.1%. I think it holds us in good stead.

In terms of schemes, yes, most of the channel partners had a lot of inventory with them and it is imperative for us to help them to clear the stock. The schemes were progressively being given to them during the quarter three.

As we approach summer, these schemes will start becoming a little more market demand related. Indeed to facilitate the secondary sales, schemes and discounts were offered in quarter three, which is reflecting in our margin profile also, if you see.

Going back to Voltas Beko, the story is a little different. Here the primary focus is to gain market share, which we are doing consistently.

Refrigerators, we're at a market share of 6.2% and this is a gain of roughly 1.1% over 6. yeah, 6.2% for the YTD number.

However, the exit November number, the December number we haven't seen as yet, is a better number at 6.8%. The washing machine market share YTD is 8.2, but the exit November number is again a very healthy 10.2%.

Here the focus is about gaining market share, about making our presence felt, and the scale is slowly getting us to a place where in the very near future, we will see this get into at least a break-even kind of situation.

Sure sir. This is very helpful.

Many thanks.

Thank you, Aniruddha. Yeah.

Thank you. Just one question.

Given that we have one of the highest assembly capabilities and the season for calendar '25 was bad, I assume that we were also left with higher number of inventory. Given that sequential growth for Voltas in UCP has been quite high, is it fair to assume that channel is sitting with larger inventory of Voltas?

By that logic, is it again fair to assume that if and when summer picks up, market share growth for Voltas in 4Q will be sharper than peers? That's it.

Thank you, sir.

Natasha, very well said. The second point is the market share will see a very positive trend because the primary billings that we have done is also significant.

The market share gains will be visible in quarter four, for sure. Inventory of Voltas, my sense is that we're talking about a few weeks, 5 to 6 weeks of inventory is there in the channel, and it's just a matter of time by March middle I suppose the entire inventory will get finished.

That's the way we see it. It's not a very high number because the summer season is going to pick up.

Between February when the summer begins from Kerala and then moves on towards the Western Region and Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and comes into Maharashtra, I think we are talking about a clear 45 days, less than 45 days for the inventory of our channel partners to sort of deplete completely.

Thank you, sir. That's helpful.

Thanks, Natasha. Yeah.

Hi sir. Mr.

Mukundan, I had one question on the price hike that the system and you would need because of the copper being where it is, aluminum being where it is, and the rupee being where it is. Yeah.

My estimate says that it could be between 12 to 14% basis the commodity move, as well as the new norms that have kicked in, and also some e-waste rules, etc. If you can comment.

I know this is going to be a mixed quarter, some old inventory, some new inventory, but once the new inventory comes through, is that a fair assessment of price increases needed? How much has already been taken, if at all, in the month of January?

Thank you.

Thanks, Girish. Actually, Mr.

Sridhar will

Thanks, Girish, for the question. I think it's sort of comparable to the first question that sort of came up.

This quarter will be a mixed one between old table and new table. Obviously, the costs are different, as you know.

By the time the prices stabilize as part of the new table, I think it will take maybe a couple of months, I think, and that's likely to be the case, and that's what our sense is also. We'll have to sort of do a wait and watch.

To your primary question, is there an impact of commodity and currency? There is.

To that extent, there is. The exact quantum and how the price transition will happen, that I think we'll have to do a bit of wait and watch.

We are sort of monitoring it almost regularly, and any pricing decisions, we are linking it to the market requirements. There is an impact of currency and commodity hedging,

yeah. Sir, directionally, am I right in the ballpark for the new rules that have been applicable and the commodity, if they were to remain for the new inventory that you place in the system, is that fair?

Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Girish.

Sorry to interrupt,

Girish. I'm actually asking the same question only.

Yeah.

No, yeah. Sagar, we'll answer that.

Essentially Girish, the thing is that the table change impact on the pricing is a little different for the 3-star and it is a little different for the 5-star. 3-star is a little lesser, but 5-star is very, very significant increase.

The impact on the 5-star will be more. Now, the impact of the commodity, the copper and the dollar, these are the moving pieces in this entire thing.

The overall numbers will be a summation of these three things: table change increase for 3-star, plus the commodity and copper for the same, the table change impact for the 5-star, and the copper and the currency impact for the same. Typically 5-star will be a much higher number.

We are, as Sridhar said, it's still too many moving parts in the overall thing. We are unable to really quantify the number to whatever you mentioned.

The fact of the matter is these all will impact the sort of the pricing certainly, because these are not small impact. These are not small numbers by any stretch of imagination, yeah.

Best wishes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Girish.

Yeah.

Hi. Thanks.

One question on the projects business, sir. Order book consistently declining, though we are adjusting the domestic and international portfolio, but overall in a overall basis this business seems struggling.

Just wanted to understand by when the order book slide should stop, and from when we should start experiencing growth in the order book? Is this business has a potential to be a ₹8,000-₹10,000 crore of business, and if yes, how much time will it take to reach those scale?

Naushad, see this projects business has got two parts, as you rightly pointed out. There is a domestic and there is a international business.

The general thing is that across both these businesses, the domestic and the international, we have been very careful in terms of picking up projects over the last 12 months, or I would say. We've been very prudent in selection of the clients.

There are proper guidelines and frameworks for that, in terms of nature of client, the credentials of the client, the payment terms, the margin profile, and the exposure of bank guarantees, the liquidated damages. We work around multiple things.

If you ask the size of the order book might have diminished, but the health of the order book is very, very healthy compared to what it was a year ago. We've been very prudent, and we have been extremely prudent, especially in the international business where we have been very careful in selection of the clients, and essentially, we are going after projects where we get a sort of a preferred sort of vendor thing compared to others.

We are not really bothered about the overall size of the order book, because these are generally order books which sort of get billed over a period of 2, 2.5 years or so. In terms of the domestic projects, again, if you see, there are three different verticals.

There is a mechanical and electrical and plumbing, MEP vertical. The second one is the water vertical, and the third one is the electrical and solar vertical.

The electrical and solar, as well as the water verticals, predominantly operates in the government space, and these are long gestation projects with a fair amount of sort of working capital locked up for a larger period of time. We have been very prudent in picking up jobs in this category, and we've been very selective about it.

However, in the mechanical and electrical and plumbing, we have been picking up fairly good, healthy jobs in the manufacturing segment. We're also focusing on the data center segment, and the general industrial segment and data center are the segments which are very fast track, quick completion, a very low risk, and in terms of profitability also, it's a quick turnaround.

We've been prudent in this. The size of the order book less important compared to the health of the order book.

That's the way we see it, Naushad.

Hi sir. Congratulations on a good show on the market share.

Just wanted one clarity from you on how should we be thinking about margins in the unitary business? It's been a tough year right now.

We've been used to making 8 to 10% margins here. Given in terms of cost pressures, in terms of channel inventory, not in Q4, but just generally over the next year or two, what's the kind of margins should we be thinking about?

Do margins go back to 8 to 10%, or do you think we should first focus on getting top line right and then focus on getting the margins right? That's the only question.

Thank you.

Sridhar here again. I think fair question.

I think in terms of where we see whether it's market share or margins, I think it's never quite possible to sort of give a either/or answer, to be fair. I think both has to be sort of balanced.

While we don't want to lose out on the market leadership that we have, we want to sort of focus on. At the same time, we have to continue to focus on the margins also, right?

If you see, the intent is to sort of focus on the cost reduction initiatives very, very prudently in a very institutionalized manner, look at any pricing opportunities that we have. We're also looking at mix opportunities from a product portfolio point of view.

We're looking at all multiple aspects in terms of trying to see how we can sort of focus on the margin improvements also. It's not either/or, in all fairness.

It is an and, and the focus has to be there on both. Obviously, top line has to happen, and also in terms of market share growth.

At the same time, focus continues on margins also.

Sorry, just continuing that question. There is no doubt that incremental margins will sort of improve, and obviously, that's the right

Sorry, my question wasn't answered. I'm just seeking a clarification on the same question.

That's fine, Sagar. Yeah.

Tell me. Akshat, go ahead.

Sorry. Sorry, just sort of want to belabor on that point a little more, just when we think about margin.

You're saying incremental margins will move up with all the initiatives that you outlined, which is a fair summation and a good strategy. I'm just trying to understand the trajectory of that, because from where we are to, let's say, where normative margins were, is a decent gap.

I'm just trying to understand, should our expectations be towards 8-10% right away, or should it be over a period of time? That's the only clarification.

The recovery will be sequential, as we sort of discussed, right? Also there are too many moving parts unfortunately in this piece.

I think the commodity inflation, the currency depreciation. There are multiple moving parts, and also the table change impact also.

There are multiple moving parts in this. Intent is to sort of get better.

Will it be a sequential improvement? There will be a sequential improvement.

When and what we will reach, unfortunately, it will be maybe too soon to sort of quantify. That's the only point where we are, but intent is to sort of definitely get better and come closer to the expectations that you have.

Yes, it does. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Akshat.

Hi. I have only one question.

Sir, what would be your strategy for the domestic MEP portfolio? How is our market share stacked up, and what is our strategy of getting Voltas back on the mainstream with market leading share and margins from a medium-term perspective?

Renu, you're referring to the domestic MEP projects segment? No, overall domestic

Yeah. The domestic MEP or the HVAC portfolio that we are looking within the projects part of the business, not water, not electrical solar, core MEP.

Understood. As I said, we've decided that we will focus big time on the MEP part of the infra project, that is less of water, less of electrical, the way you have sounded.

Essentially within MEP also, there are two or three different customer categories. One is the industrial and data center category which we call it manufacturing and data centers, and the second one is the commercial buildings, which is to do with shopping malls and so on and so forth.

There's a third category, which is metros, airports, and so on and so forth. The focus currently is that we want to have a larger pie of the manufacturing and the data center market.

We are also looking at a steady flow of these are generally fast-track projects which will quickly give turned around within less than 9 months to 12 months. We are also looking at the metro and such infrastructure projects, which are generally spread over a longer period of time, but come with a lot of comfort with respect to the price variation clauses and the risks are very limited in this.

A mix of these two and a little lesser focus on the commercial is what we're looking at. Of course, the electrical and the water segments are areas which we have been very careful now, and we are just cherry-picking the projects that we wish to do in this category.

Sir, what is our current market share and target market share? Sir,

In this area now, there is generally these market shares don't get tracked because, for example, MEP the overall size of the market and the overall sort of yeah, we don't capture that data. There are no external data things.

It is all depending on the orders that you quote and the orders that you win versus the orders that you lose. We have some internal yeah, which we

Assessments of the market share.

Very difficult to say because it could be even wrong because there are many projects which we would not even know that has been bid. It's possible.

Understand. Thank you so much, sir.

Thank you, Renu. Appreciate it.

Sir, thank you for taking my question. Sir, some of your peers have interpreted the BEE norm change slightly differently, i.e., that they can continue to sell those ACs for a slightly longer period of time, and in which case they have actually not liquidated that inventory.

Now, my question is, assuming all that's true, in the fourth quarter, which is the current quarter, is it fair to assume that whatever you sell in the primary market will be higher cost inventory, and compared to companies which have old inventory basically benefiting? I'm just trying to understand in the fourth quarter is there a possibility that on the primary side we may have slightly softer revenue, and as you rightly highlighted that by the time we get to summer, it will all normalize.

Is that a fair assumption?

Pulkit, yeah this is Mukundan. There is, I think, the the BEE norms, there was a gazette which came in a year ago, which none of us had even noticed, and it's we when we when we got closer to the end of the year, all the industry woke up to that and realized that the the it it prohibits you from manufacturing the new products from 1st of Decem- 1st of January 2026.

Both the brand, that is the the the manufacturing brands as well as the the channel partners, can sell this till June end, you know. That that most of us had a sense of this sometime by November end.

We got to know that this is the rule. Most of the brands have stocks of the old table product, and so do we have stocks of the old product.

Depending on when the stocks like, for example, there's a bunch of product SKUs in the 3-star bucket, there's a bunch of SKUs in the 5-star bucket. Depending on when these stock levels deplete to zero, the new table products will be introduced into the market.

Each brand All the brands are almost on a equal level play playing field with respect to availability of the old stock versus the new stock. All of them have started manufacturing new products right from November, but obviously the focus would be to liquidate the the old table stocks before you start selling the new table stocks.

Does that answer my your question, Pulkit?

Absolutely. That's very clear.

Effectively, you are at even keel with others when it comes to the fourth quarter channel inventory. Perfect.

Thank you for that answer.

Yeah.

Hi. Thanks for the opportunity.

Just building on to the last question, you mentioned about micro-targeting markets, also greater focus on modern trade, GT. In this performance which you've shown in 3Q, have you added any new accounts on MT, institutional?

You mentioned about some gaps you had in past, with your first interaction with us. Could you share any insights on this?

Umang, actually so what we embarked on is we have started tracking almost 29,000 counters across the country which sell these products spread over 19,000 pin codes, and we have a very structured network acquisition plan which we put in place. We have added a decent number of channel partners, either directly as a direct billing point, we have also added a fair amount of counters through our distribution network.

That's as far as the general trade is concerned. In terms of modern trade, we have a fair presence across all the three modern people.

We call the three big, the Reliance, the Croma, and the Vijay Sales, as modern trade in our terminology. We have got a presence across all this.

The focus now is to have a higher share of their wallet. That's the focus now.

There is this bunch of roughly 85 or so regional retailers where we see that our presence can be improved. There's a major focus in entering many of the regional retailers, especially in the South and the West markets, which are heavy on the regional retailers space.

We are making good progress on that as well, actually. That's as far as the channel partners is concerned.

Institutional sales is essentially we do a decent number in institutions. This comes from things like banks, it comes from builders.

We're making very good progress there as well.

Understood, sir. Thank you so much.

Hello. Hi, sir.

Hello.

Yeah. Sir, as per my calculation, due to commodity price rise, the cost as a percentage of BOM has actually increasing by 8 to 9%, and as a percentage of selling price of AC, it will be somewhere around 6%.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically, how does Voltas think to pass this on? Additionally, even BEE norm will also have around 5% cost increase.

Overall, how do we think on pricing going forward?

Yeah. Tavishi, what you said is the BEE norms, as I just explained a little while earlier to a question regarding the price increase which Girish had asked.

Essentially the price increase is also the 3-star has a different impact, the 5-star has a far more sharper increase impact. That obviously will get passed through.

The commodity and the dollar, actually both of them are on a upward trend, as you can imagine. Copper, it's essentially copper, aluminum to The impact of aluminum is not on the overall BOM is not that heavy, but copper is a big sort of item on the BOM.

Again, model-wise this changes because there is some amount of copper which goes into a 3-star, there's another amount of copper which goes into a 5-star. We are assessing the impact of all this along with the third dimension, which is the dollar impact.

As our CFO, Mr. Sridhar, mentioned, we are monitoring it very closely, and then closer to the time when the new table products start getting introduced into the market, we will take a call on this.

The direction is that actually there is going to be a price increase, and many of these will have to be passed through to the channel partner stroke consumers.

Just to add to what Mr. Menon said, as he mentioned, we also are working on a clear cost optimization program also.

That is also a set of that we will have to sort of factor in. It's a fairly dynamic situation, a mix of products being sold.

We are monitoring that, and we'll take the pricing decision appropriately, factoring all these variables.

Can we expect some price increase in coming quarter, or it will be

There would be an element of price increase. Definitely.

There would be, that much I think we've clarified. There would be.

How much is something we will have to sort of see depending on all the variables. The price increase is a reality, Tavishi, and the quantum amount, and when the exact time when the new products will come into the market are the moving pieces in this entire thing.

We also have some cost-down projects which we're doing. The overall price will increase.

Obviously, it will increase, actually. The number is a little early to say as of now.

Sure. Okay.

Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you, Tavishi. Yeah.

Good evening, sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

In MEP, our data center share is less than 5% and we are aiming to 30% in the medium term. What specific orders or tenders you are pursuing in this space, and how does district cooling fit into your MEP strategy, and your partnering with international players for technology side?

Thank you.

Yeah. MEP, the data center thing is just opening up.

We are doing a couple of projects now actually, and the sales funnel for the MEP for the data centers is also very healthy. We're bidding for quite a few projects, and as I've mentioned earlier, the focus is to win data center projects using a combination of two, three levers.

One is essentially a data center needs a cooling equipment, which is chillers, and it's mostly screw chillers or centrifugal chillers, where we have made significant progress with a new technology partner alliance, which I mentioned in the last meeting. We probably offer the best energy-efficient products in the screw category, and we also offer the best energy-efficient products in the centrifugal category.

Centrifugal has two variants: one is the regular centrifugal chillers and the second, oil-free chillers. Across these three segments, we have probably the most energy-efficient product, and energy is a big portion of the opex of a data center.

We are very confident of getting these chiller orders from the data center, and we have bidding this together with our MEP division, which is mechanical, electrical, and contracting that entire group. That makes us a single-source vendor to the data center.

This cross-divisional approach to this entire data center, we will move towards the overall share, whether it will go to 30% so soon, I'm not sure, but the direction is very clear, and we are seeing some fairly early, good sort of tailwinds for us in that thing. Also because of our presence in the centrifugal chillers, this district cooling essentially comes with a centrifugal kind of scope mostly, and a few of screw.

There again, because of the most energy-efficient chillers in both the categories, we have a fair chance of getting a higher share from this. This is normally dominated by the three American brands, which is York, Trane, and Johnson Controls, and we have a fair chance to compete with them in this space as well.

I think over the next 12 months, this entire story will pan out, Bala.

I got it, sir. Thank you so much for the detailed answer.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

Sir, given Voltas now have decent in-house capacity, what will be your strategy for this upcoming season between insourcing and outsourcing for manufacturing? Do you expect the higher backward integration which is there in the Chennai plant will start to flow into better margins if the demand for upcoming season turn out the way you're forecasting?

Akshay, the backward integration of Chennai is already started playing out. As I had mentioned in the last I think meeting that we had, there are many things which we were not backward integrated in Pantnagar, which we are backward integrated in Chennai.

One is the entire sheet metal work, which is the outdoor body. Second is the powder coating and the painting of that outdoor thing, which is again a high value addition sort of process.

The third is the entire indoor unit plastic injection molding of that internal plastic parts, and a fully backward integrated coil and fin shop. We used to have partly the coil and fin shop in-house, and we used to do some sort of buying of the coils and fin assembly also in Pantnagar plant.

The entire play of the Chennai backward integration will play out fully. In terms of the outsourcing versus insourcing, Akshay, the thing is that our window air conditioners, as we have been doing all along, has always been outsourced from the local OEM manufacturers, and we continue with that sort of the same thing.

We are not making any change. However, the split air conditioners, which is essentially now predominantly the inverter splits, we are doing it in a way that there are two things: one is there's a steady sort of visibility about what will be certainly required, that is in-house, and some of the spikes and the ups and downs which come during a very good summer, those are generally being catered by the OEMs.

It's a blend of both, and we have taking a very judicious call in terms of picking up how much of these from the OEMs, and we've also been very judicious about picking up from the right OEMs in terms of geography. There are some products which are closer to the West market, some products which sell more in the South market.

We have been very selective in picking those OEMs which cater to the products in that market. Very, very carefully planned out this season, Akshay.

Got it, sir. This is very helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Akshay. Yeah.

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Dhruv Jain from Ambit Capital.

Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Just one data point, all my other questions have been answered.

If you could just spell out the capacity utilization of the current Chennai plant, and, in the upcoming season, what is the level at which you expect it to run?

Actually it is almost 90%. We have two plants: one in Pantnagar, which is operating at I think 100% thing because it's really has been used out like crazy.

The Chennai plant, we have built a capacity of 1 We built a capacity of 1 million units, which we expanded to 1.5 million units. In this we are in the process of doing that.

Another 1 or 2 months that 1.5 ton capacity 1.5 million capacity will be done. Our sense is that this summer season, we would have maximized the capacity utilization to almost between 85 to 90 90 90% or so, Mr.

Jain, yeah.

Sir, if you could just talk about the capex plans for the [unclear] as well? Just one line.

Essentially, Mr. Jain, you're saying as a organization or it is mainly for room air conditioners?

If you could break it into both, that will be great.

Can we take this offline, Mr. Jain, if you don't mind?

We can reach out to the team, yeah.

Sure.

Okay. Sure.

Thank you for understanding. Yeah.

Hello?

Mr. Gupta.

Sir, as you tell that there was a pre-buying in December quarter. Will this effect sale in first January month vis-a-vis January 2025?

Actually the pre-buying in December was in a way a very positive thing for us. We were very pleasantly happy with the result that we have done.

A little bit of this might bleed into January thing, but as of now, we are not seeing any decline in our numbers. It's probably laying a runway for a good January, and hopefully for a good February and March, Mr.

Gupta. Yeah.

Thank you.

We have our CFO, Mr. K.

V. Sridhar, making his closing remarks now.

Thanks all for the participation. Just maybe a few comments towards the end.

I think all these priorities position Voltas to enter the season with sharper readiness, stronger execution muscle, and a more efficient operating base. As cost optimization efforts take effect, the company expects to strengthen margin resilience and create a more leveraged financial profile.

With this foundation, Voltas remains well-placed to enhance its leadership in the cooling segment, while steadily expanding its portfolio as a comprehensive, diversified cooling, home appliances, and engineering project solutions provider. Thank you.

Natasha,

yeah. Participants can disconnect the lines.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Natasha. Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you.