Hindware Home Innovation Q3 FY26 Earnings Call: Growth, Strategy, and Outlook

Ladies and gentlemen, kri and welcome to Q3 and 9 month FI26 earnings conference call of Hindware Home Innovation Limited

hosted by Dollar Capital Private Limited. As a reminder, all participants will be in the listen only mode and

there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance

during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on a dash on phone. Please note

that this conference is being recorded. I would now hand the conference over to Miss Nikkat Capital Private Limited.

Thank you and over to you ma'am. >> Thank you. Good evening and welcome everyone. On behalf of Dollar Capital,

we invite you to Henware Home Innovation Limited Q3 and 9M FY26 earnings conference calls. From the management

side, we have Mr. Nutamah CEO of BA and consumer appliance business Mr. Rajesh Pnu CEO of PI

business and Mr. Sepit Sikka the group CFO kindly note that some of the remarks or observations made during today's call

might be forward-looking such as financial projection or statements regarding the company's plans,

objectives, expectations or intentions. The company does not have any obligation to revise these forward-looking

statements to reflect any future events or developments. For a comprehensive disclaimer, please refer to slide two of

the result presentation. With that, I would now like to hand over the call to the management for the opening remarks

post which we'll open for the question and answer session. Thank you and over to you Mr. Nupam Sah.

Uh good evening everyone and welcome to Hindu Home Innovation Limited's Q3 FY26 earnings call. Kindly note that some

remarks and observations made during today's call might be forward-looking. These may include but are not limited to

financial projections and statements regarding the company's plans, objectives, expectations, or intentions.

The company does not have any obligation to revise these forward-looking statements to reflect any future events

or developments. For a comprehensive disclaimer, please refer to slide number two of the results presentation.

I will start with a brief summary of our performance for 9 months and quarter 3 of FI26.

For 9 months FI26, the company reported consolidated revenue of 1,848 crores compared to 1,824

crores in 9 months of FI25, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 1%. IBITA stood at 170 Kores against 132

Kores in the same period last year, registering a year-on-year growth of 28%. with IITA margins at 9 9% compared

to 7% in the corresponding period last year. PBT before exceptional items was 30 crores compared to negative 30 crores

in 9 months of FI25. For quarter 3 FI26, the company reported a consolidated revenue of 640 crores

compared to 594 crores in Q3 FI25 representing a year-on-year growth of 8%.

Iita for the quarter stood at 52 crores versus 37 crores last year up 38% yearonear with margins at 8 8% compared

to 6% in Q3 of FI25. Profit before tax before exceptional items for the quarter was 6 kores as

against negative6 kores in the corresponding quarter last year. As communicated in our previous investor

calls in a strategic move to sharpen our focus on the kitchen appliances segment including chimneys, hobs, cooktops uh

and sinks. The board has approved the discontinuation of high loss waking product categories such as air coolers

other than through the e-commerce channel, ceiling and other fans, air purifiers, water fiers and furniture

fittings. Please refer to note number two of the published financials for further details.

Now I will cover the bathware and consumer appliance uh businesses. For 9 months FI26, the Bathway business

reported a revenue of 1,123 crores compared to 1,024 crores in 9 months of FI25, reflecting a

year-on-year growth of 10%. IBITA stood at 126 crores as against 110 crores last year, registering a growth

of 14%. With IBITA margins of 11%. BBT was 43 crores compared to 18 Kores in 9 months of FI25, a year-on-year

increase of 146%. While for quarter 3 FI26, the business reported a revenue of 386 crores

compared to 338 crores in Q3 FI25, representing a year-on-year growth of 14%.

IBITA for the quarter stood at 40 crores versus 35 crores last year up 16% yearon year with margins of 10%.

PBT for the quarter was 13 crores as against 4 crores in the corresponding uh quarter last year.

During quarter 3 business faced headwinds from global commodity inflation. To manage this, we

implemented calibrated price hikes during quarter three and have implemented another price increase in

quarter 4 to fully offset the ongoing rise in raw material costs. As shared in our previous call, we have

undertaken several strategic initiatives in the pathway segment, including refining our go-to market approach,

accelerating premiumization and sanryware and fits and implementing a zerobased budgeting framework to

structurally improve margins. These initiatives are now delivering tangible results reflecting an improved

operating performance, better product mix and stronger momentum across key markets.

We continue to strengthen engagement with the influencer community through onground programs for the plumber

network while deepening collaborations with architecture and tier designers. These efforts aim to expand market

reach, reinforce brand advocacy, and we will continue to invest in brand building as well as comprehensive

customer and influencer engagement programs. Premiumization remains a key growth lever. The

introduction of premium sanitaryware and faucet ranges and new product developments which carry higher average

selling prices and stronger margins has positively contributed to both revenue mix and profitability.

Premium product segment constitutes approximately 40% of quarter 3 revenues. From a channel perspective, retail sales

accounted for 76% of revenue while institutional and project sales made up 24%.

Demand trends remain steady, supported by a stable real estate environment and improving traction in the mid to premium

housing segments. We have also initiated focused working capital improvement measures including

tighter receivables management, inventory optimization and improved supply chain efficiencies. As a result,

working capital days improved by 5 days from 90 uh from 100 days to 95 days. Uh turning to uh consumer appliances

business the quarter 3 FI26 revenue stood at 81 crores a growth of 21% with IITA of.58 crores. Uh for 9 months FI26

revenue was 237 crores with IBITA of 17 crores at a 7% margin. Strategic portfolio rationalization and focusing

on high demand and higher margin categories such as kitchen appliances is now driving an improved product mix and

stronger profitability. With that I now hand over to Mr. Rajesh Pajnu to take you through the pipes.

Over to you Rajes. >> Thank you Navam. Good evening everyone and welcome to our investors call. It's

a pleasure to be speaking with you today. For 9 months FY 26, the company reported revenue of 488 crores, a bida

of 32 crores and PBT of9 crores. In quarter 3 of 26, our revenue stood at 173 crores with an aida of 12 crores and

PBT of 5 crores. During the year, the industry witnessed significant volatility in resin prices which

impacted realizations and channel sentiment. However, after a lengthy period of fluctuations, resin prices

seems to have stabilized in quarter 4. This is a positive development for the industry and we expect quarter 4 to be

relatively better, supported by improved pricing stability and gradually strengthening demand. In response to the

volatile environment earlier this year, we took several calibrated steps to manage the situation effectively. We

strengthened our procurement strategy through tighter inventory controls and sharper pricing cycles to reduce

exposure to resin volatility. We implemented timely price adjustments to protect margins while ensuring channel

competition. In addition, we aim to improve our product mix by increasing the share of value added segments such

as CPVC and specialized fittings which offer better margin stability. We also intensified engagement with our

distribution network to normalize channel inventory and drive secondary sales. Despite these initiatives, the

sharp and prolonged correction in prices coupled with cautious channel behavior did impact our realization and volumes

during the period and consequently our reported performance. However, these measures helped us mitigate the impact

trigger margins to the extent possible and maintain operational stability. I am pleased to share that Rudi plant

commenced to commercial production at the end of January 26. This facility enhances our cost competitiveness by

rationalizing freight costs, improving service levels in North India and increasing our responsiveness to market

demand. We plan to ramp up ramp up capacity over the next three quarters and once stabilized we expect to

generate incremental annual revenue of approximately 200 crores with region prices stabilizing early signs of

channel stock restocking emerges and infrastructure and housing demand gradually improve. We are beginning to

see better momentum in order flows. As this normalization continues and channel inventories rebuilds, we expect working

capital levels to improve progressively over the coming quarters. Going forward, our focus remains on disciplined working

capital management, deeper penetration in high growth region, expansion of our dealer network and accelerating our

share in high margin categories. With improved market conditions and the rampant operation facility, we are

confident of driving margin improvement and delivering sustainable growth over the medium term. We are now ready to

take your questions. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and

answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to

remove yourself from question Q, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handles while asking a

question. Ladies and gentlemen, we wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.

>> The first question is from the line of Madurati from Counter Cyclical Investments. Please go ahead.

>> So, thank you for the opportunity. Sure. Home innovation segment has seen a decent growth uh if I compare Y but sir

if I remove the products that we have discontinued so what would be the growth and do we expect this growth to sustain

going forward? >> Yeah. Uh so there is an impact of approximately uh 8 to 9 crores of uh

products that have been discontinued which still appears in the base uh for the previous year. Uh

so there is a marginal impact there but on the growth uh momentum we are confident now that with our strategy of

focusing on a few categories which is basically kitchen appliances so chimneys cooktops hobs sinks built-in microwaves

and ovens etc. uh and uh coolers only through the e-commerce channel and water heaters. So with that very clear

strategy to focus on these products uh we have a clear path forward to growth both in topline and profitability.

Our kitchen appliances business u overall we expect a caggr of 15 to 20% over the coming two to three years in

this business. So we expect steady growth uh going forward in in the quarters to come. uh and we're confident

that with this targeted strategy we will get there >> right and sir on the margin where can we

expect sir can we expect a uh low low or low singledigit margin or 10 uh low double digit margin side of that scenar

>> uh so for this year we are at about 7% for the 9 months in terms of margin uh we believe that very clearly as we scale

up the business with the kind of CG that we are talking about we start getting operating leverage

uh we're targeting a revenue milestone of about 650 to 700 crores by FI31 and as we drive uh the top line up we

expect significant operating leverage to drive margin expansion. Uh so we will transition to doubledigit profitability

over this period. >> Got it. And so this segment is asset light right? We don't manufacture, we

just uh source and use our distribution network to uh sell these products. Is that understanding correct?

>> Uh absolutely. So it is a outsource model deliberately kept asset light. Uh we leverage our distribution our go to

market and marketing spends to build the brand. Uh and those will help us to drive growth.

Uh sir just a final question from mine sir is there due to the uh Chinese BIS and quality control norms on chimneys

and uh the the ones that is expected on hogs uh do we expect uh to further gain market share and s what would be the in

market size because of this BIS norms and quality control getting in? >> Yeah. So uh since this was already in

play for some time I think the localization has happened over a period of time for the indust for us as well as

the industry. Uh so the overall impact will not be very large on the industry or on us.

>> Got it. Sir can you just help us understand what is the current volumes that we do?

>> Uh we don't normally share the volume number. >> Got it. Sir uh that was from Mir. Thank

you so much and all the best. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. The next question is from the

line of Parish Gupta from Fair Value Capital. Please go ahead. >> Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Uh my questions are for Rajes sir. Uh sir uh what was the share of faucet wear in our pipes and fitting segment for the

quarter? >> Which faucets you are talking about? Hello

>> sir, can you hear me? >> Yeah, I can hear you. You're talking about talking about the share of faucet

wear in the pipes and fitting segment. >> Faucets here. >> Yeah, faucets is a part of

>> faucets is part of the bathware business. Uh, and it is about 43% of our sales in the bathware business.

Unders sorry about that uh mistake. Uh second question sir uh in terms of the uh you know pipes business in terms of

the volume we have done a lower number as compared with the industry uh while competition has grown like a high single

digit or early double digits we have actually come down in terms of our volumes. Can you please articulate why

was that? Yeah, actually we were expecting because from uh see if you talk about the

competition they are they are into this field for a long time and they have various manufacturing capacities across

the nation. We are just operating with uh one facility at uh our Hyderabad plant. We are expecting that in the last

quarter we would uh uh come up with our facility in Guri. It is not we are not able to sell agricultural pipes and SWR

pipes because of their uh fate factor. But what happened is because uh due to certain uh statutory obligations and

approvals it got delayed. So we were not able to hold on to that market the north market. In any case the competition is

very high but we were not able to sustain that as we could not supply those items from Hyderabad. So that was

the particular reason that we have not done well in north as far as the uh operations are concerned. But since now

this will not be there because we have uh the end of uh last month we have commercialized our key operations. All

approvals are in place and we expect better things to happen in future. >> Understood sir. Uh in terms of the uh

PVC prices, you already mentioned that uh it has already bottomed out and we are seeing an upward trend. We see that

in the Reliance PVC prices as well. But uh there is I believe an export restriction from the Chinese

manufacturers from 1st of April. Do you anticipate that to be uh significant support to the prices and if that is

sustainable for us? No, that is success from 1st of April. It is a it is just a proposal. Uh this

is there is no government. There is no any uh thing which has come up for this. It's a proposal. It may take some more

time. I don't see any uh thing coming up. It looks like that uh the market the secondaries has started taking place

because there was no material in the secondaries and the market has started growing. You see after uh it is after a

long long time that is uh if you uh say July 24 the rates the PBC rates were 94 rupees and they bottomed out to in 2

years time to 68 rupees. Now for the first time we are seeing a price hike for almost around 72 rupees in just 15

days time. So things look positive. >> Okay. So just my final question before I join back the queue. uh how are the

channel inventory levels for the uh you know pipes dealers now and how was January month in terms of the volume

flow into the market. H so now things have started picking up January we have done very very well and we have almost

uh resisted even a growth in our value that is around 23% of value so you can understand that all this stocking which

had happened has started taking place people have started stocking and there is a volume growth of 30% also in

>> understood sir this is helpful I'll regen the queue thank you very much >> thank

Thank you. The next question is from the line of female Dhabat from Choice Institutional

Equities. Please go ahead. >> Hello. Uh yeah, thank you for this opportunity. So, uh I have some busy

questions. So uh I want to know is there any capacity expansion plan in the shorter term other than the ruri which

already we have started in January. So and uh how we will strategically manage this new supply considering the current

market and competition and all. >> This is uh the question to pipes pipes division sir.

>> Yeah pipes pipes. So >> yeah no we we don't have any yeah yeah we don't have any plans of uh any

expansions further the capex which has been incurred at uh ruri is already over we have commissioned the plant we expect

the north market to pick up from this facility which has already started taking place in future

the near 2 three years we don't have any plans of uh putting up any further capacities we believe as such we have a

huge capacity in Hyderabad and we have installed a capacity of 12,000 00 metric terms in Guri and we can ramp it up. So

uh we don't see any uh reason why we should go for some new facilities and including in capex here.

>> Okay. Okay. And uh regarding the piping segment itself uh the volume decline on a YA and Q during the quarter to 10,327

MT. So uh what is the management guidance or outlook on the same for upcoming period? So do we have any uh

guidance or any any uh s sustainable level for the >> yes the way uh we are we are seeing it

now and the way things are happening we are just we can give you a guideline of around 12 to 15% of volume growth in

future. >> Okay. And uh what is the sustainable I bida

margin uh for our consumer appliances because it's too much volatile from last two to three quarter. So what what what

is the government uh I what is the like guidance on this like sustainable margin for consumer appliances?

uh so in terms of the strategy that we adopted to focus on a few categories if I look at the largest category that we

will play in uh going forward it's kitchen appliances where we have a significant market share

for chimneys already uh and are focusing on high growth in the other categories as well of cooktops

etc. The gross margins for the kitchen appliances business is in the 40s. Uh and we believe that as we grow that

business, I talked about a CG of 15 to 20% yearon-year for the next few years. Uh we get operating leverage there as

well. Uh so we believe that with that mix now in a relatively high margin uh category

uh we can sustain uh profitability at the level that we want to be hit for the 9 months this year and we look over a

period of time to getting to double digits over the next few years. >> Okay. Okay. And the last question I I

read somewhere like uh the company completed the sale of its manufacturing assets in Telangana to Arristan uh for

almost uh 115 uh cr on de 11th December something. So can you can you share some color on this and

uh the impact of this in our on our financials? >> So uh this is not a part of HHI. Um this

factory sale was part of our joint venture uh with the group a Atlantic. Um we have set up a water heater factory

there. Uh but as you can see from the results, initially we could not load the factory uh the way we anticipated the

market would behave. So a joint decision was taken to dispose of uh the manufacturing operations and which was

successfully done and we use that money to pay off the entire debt of HPL in December. uh going forward uh this will

be a trading module and as an opportunity exist you know we can source uh from vendors from the manufacturing

uh facility we can we have sold but definitely the whole idea of u doing all these activities to have a healthy

bottom line you know but if you see you know number of initiatives we have done over the last 12 to 18 months uh you

know to take step-by-step improvement and improving the bottom line uh as well as maintaining the growth at the same

So these are the steps towards that direction. >> Okay. Noted. Not it. Thanks. Thanks for

the thanks for your answer. >> This is all from my s. >> Thank you. A reminder to all the

participants. You may press star and one to ask question. The next question is from the line of

Ronach from Capital Market Limited. Please go ahead. >> Thank you for the opportunity sir. Sir I

just wanted to know what is the amount of inventory loss in p five segment >> sir in this whole year it's uh 4 cr

rupees >> 4 cr for current quarter and what is for 9 months

>> no for the whole for the whole year >> 4 cr for whole year and for the quarter >> if you see our inventory level it's it's

around 1.2 two cores for the whole year we have maintained very less inventories we are managing with very less

inventories this year >> okay sir got it and my next question is on kitten segment part earlier you

mentioned that you will you were targeting of quarterly run of 100 ks by quarter 4 so when we can expect that run

going >> uh so in quarter 4 we'll be close to that number uh And by quarter 1 of next

year, we will hit that number. So we'll get uh 90 plus in quarter 4 is what we're looking at and uh hitting the 100

number in the next quarter. >> Yeah. So on a run rate basis we'll we'll we should get to 100 by early next year

or the next this financial year. >> Okay. Okay. >> And sir on in pipe segment on J side

like are we seeing any improvement in gel driven mission? >> Please come back again. I couldn't hear

sir. >> Uh sir on gel even mission side just wanted to know that we are seeing any we

are seeing any improvement. >> We we are not in gel the specified product mainly is high density

polyethylene and uh we are not into that uh segment at all. Sir. Uh okay s I got it. Thank you.

>> Thank you. >> The next question is from the line of Rah from Safire Captain. Please go

ahead. >> Hi. Uh good good evening. Can you hear me?

>> Uh yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So uh the way you explained you know for

the consumer product business that your uh focus is mainly on the higher margin in kitchen appliances and all.

Similarly, uh what is your plan for the bathway segment? What kind of growth do you see there and what uh products

you're focusing on and what kind of margins are sustainable in that uh segment?

>> Uh so uh in this quarter uh we in quarter 3 we grew at 14.3%.

So it was a healthy double-digit growth in quarter 3. uh we expect to continue that momentum

in quarter four of this financial year and going forward the ambition is to stay in uh the mid teens in terms of

growth uh in the bathware business uh and the profitability. So what we are working on is a couple of things to

improve profitability further. One is really focusing on the product mix. So I mentioned that all the new products that

we are launching are higher ASP average selling price as well as higher margin than existing uh the existing range that

we have. Uh so we're focused a lot on new products at higher margins. We're also focused on improving productivity

and efficiency at our plants. So the two sand plants and uh our faucet plant and we believe that that can also give us a

good impact in terms of profitability. Uh so we are looking at both topline increase that's obviously one primary

driver. The second is working systematically on improving gross margin through mix and cogs uh improvement and

then looking at all levers in terms of cost below gross margin. Uh so I think all actions in place already uh results

starting to show uh both in terms of topline growth. Uh we've now had four months in a row of double digit growth.

So I think it's good to get consistency in terms of double date growth as well. Uh and we believe going forward that all

the steps we're taking will lead to uh healthy topline growth as well as growth.

>> Can you uh give a certain minimum range for this segment particularly like where it can you know um sustain and then grow

ahead. >> Yeah. So what we're targeting is a 3 to 4% improvements in the IITA margin over

the next 18 to 24 months. >> Okay. And uh the 90 to 100 crate was you mentioning for a pipe business correct?

>> Uh no that was for the consumer appliance. >> Consumer. Okay.

Overall okay I'll get that in. Thank you. >> Thank you.

Thank you. >> The next question is from the line of Jasmine from VT Capital. Please go

ahead. >> Hi, my questions were answered. Thank you so much.

>> Thank you. >> The next question is from the line of Yeshu, an individual investor. Please go

ahead. >> Hi, good evening sir. Uh, thank you for taking my question. I have a couple of

questions uh regarding the bathware segment. Could you please tell me the capacity utilization for both sanitary

as well as faucetware? >> Yeah. So uh in quarter 3 we had a capacity utilization of over 80% in our

sanitaryware plants and over 90% in our faucet plant. >> Okay sir. And uh if I look at the uh the

revenue growth for the bathware segment um how much would you say is it an effect of outsourcing? So if you could

uh maybe give me the outsourcing versus manufacturer number for maybe the segment segment wise or the total bath.

>> Yeah. So uh in sanitary wear it's 70% inhouse manufacturing and roughly 30% which is outsourced. In the case of

faucets, it's about 50 odd%. So 50/50 in in house versus credit. >> Okay sir. Thank you so much. And sir uh

a couple of other questions as well. So now that we have grown at about 14% for the quarter, has the discount scenario

improved that we're not uh giving as much discount to our dealers or is that still the same?

Yeah. So the discounts uh have not changed majorly over the course of the last couple of years. We also are very

careful that we take a look at what is happening in the market as well. Uh so we are not out of whack with what is

happening in the market. We put in the inputs which will help us to drive both topline growth as well as profitability

improvements. So whether it's inbuilt discounts or CNS, all the schemes are basically targeted at topline and bottom

line growth. Uh so there's been no substantial change either upwards or downwards in terms of discounts.

>> Okay. Sorry. So just one last question. So over the years we have uh reduced our dependence uh from the Chinese imports.

uh has there been any uh important sorry uh has there been any change uh related to that or is it is it still in that 7

to 8% range? >> Yeah, it's it's probably a little less than that now. Uh we've consciously over

the last uh couple of years uh tried to indigenize wherever we can multiple benefits of that of course uh in terms

of flexibility in terms of time uh for supply etc. uh so now it would be in the very low single digits from China.

>> Okay sir. Uh so would you say that is the reason for uh the uh decrease in net working capital days for the segments?

>> Uh that's part of the reason for the inventory reduction. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you so much sir. Thank

you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. The next question is from the

line of bat an individual investor. Please go ahead. Hello, thanks for the opportunity. Uh

looking at the current uh raw material environment, do you plan to getting in long-term contracts with suppliers in

bathway segment? Uh so given our experience over the past few years and the volatility that has

been there in recent times uh we have contracts with them but we don't necessarily believe that long-term

contracts will benefit majorly. >> Uh next question would be uh could you throw some light on how you are going to

focus on increasing distribution network as you have mentioned that Yeah. So, uh there are a couple of

strategies that we're following uh in terms of go to market. One is increasing a number of brand

stores. Uh I'm talking right now about Bathway. In case you want consumer plans, I can cover that as well. But in

Bathway, we're basically focusing on brand stores. So, roughly one/ird of our sale comes through our brand stores

across the country. We have 500 odd. Uh so really making sure that we set up brand stores in tier one, tier 2 and in

some cases even tier three towns uh and extract as much as we can. It's obviously great for the brand. It's a

good c uh customer experience that they get with Hindware and we obviously get sales out of that. Uh and normally we

sell the higher priced products from the brand stores. So there multiple advantages. The second is in terms of

increasing our penetration in tier one and tier two and tier three towns in terms of the number of dealers that we

have. Uh so we've been very conscious of making sure that we look at the quality of distributors and dealers that we have

rather than just looking at numbers because numbers can be misleading. So we're targeting growth from what we call

weighted dealers. So the more important dealers in each market really making sure that we increase counter share at

each one of these weighted dealers that we identified across the country. So setting up brand stores focus on

weighted dealers and increasing the number of uh dealers that we have in tier 1, tier 2 and tier three. I think

it's a three-prong strategy that we're following. >> Oh, that answers my question. Thank you.

>> Thank you. >> Thank you. A reminder to all the participants you

may press star and one to ask question. The next question is from the line of Kabir and individual investor. Please go

ahead. >> Thank you sir for the opportunity. Uh my first question is the 4.65 crime charge

for the labor code. Is this uh complete or should we expect the more provisions in the future?

So this is based on the fair assessment as we could do uh on the basis the current provisions which are there. Uh

there are still more regulations as we understand which regulation and some benchmarks which government may release.

So anything additional you know then we'll have to take at that particular time.

>> Okay. My next question is in the building products. How are you differentiating from the other

competitor like Sarah, Kazari and Sani? Are you gaining the market share or just growing with the industry?

>> Uh so I think in this financial year and particularly in the last couple of quarters we are growing ahead of the

market. So we are gaining market share. uh the strategy that we're following is I talked about new product uh

developments and launching premium uh faucets and sanitary wear ranges. So the focus has really been on creating

differentiated products uh across all of our brands. So we have Hindu which is mass, we have Hindu talent collection

which is mass premium and we have Kio which is premium. So across all three brands that we have we're making sure

that we have differentiated products as far as possible. So big focus in terms of design, aesthetics, performance. Uh

so that is really helping us to differentiate in the market and helping us to grow ahead of the market. Uh the

other thing that we've really focused a lot on uh is customer service and we believe that that is actually a big

differentiator. Uh so we now have invested uh so for example consumers can reach out to us on WhatsApp in nine

Indian languages. So we are the first in the industry to offer it not just in Hindi and English but consumers can

actually interact with us in nine Indian languages now. Uh so we're using automation, we're using technology

uh and making sure that the ability of consumers to reach out to us whether it's website, whether it's WhatsApp etc

becomes simpler and simpler and the interaction is better and better. Uh and we are measuring that constantly through

NPS. So we take the net promoter score from every consumer who interacts with us. I'm happy to say that the net

promoter score is high and has been increasing over the last focusing on that as a big differentiator as well.

>> Okay. Thank you. Let's answer my question. >> Thank you.

>> Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akshi from Karana Robikawa Mutual Fund.

Please go ahead. >> Yeah. So, thank you for the opportunity sir. Two questions. So, first is on this

uh plastic piping. So you hinted at a improvement. >> I'm sorry to interrupt sir. I just

request you to speak little louder. >> Yeah. Is it is it audible now? >> Yes sir.

>> Now it is. >> Yeah. So sir, first question is on the plastic piping piece. So you mentioned

that a better outlook for the Q4. So is it entirely to do with the restocking or even the secondary sales are equally

strong? Basically just wanted to understand is the end demand also improving or it will be largely driven

by restocking. So that was on the plastic piping piece. And sir, second question on the bther side obviously you

have posted a healthy number this time. So sir again here also is it that in anticipation of price hike and hence

there was an element of restocking or again even here the and demand per se is improving or is it that they completed

initiative that you spoke about and hence better numbers that we could show. Yeah, these are the two question. Thank

you. >> Okay, we'll answer first the price question. Yes, definitely there looks

like uh it's both both things are happening parallelly. The restocking is taking place and we are also seeing a

traction from the market. There are inquiries the uh projects which have got held up for a long time has started

taking off and uh we have also started now receiving you know continuous BQS from builders and other projects. So we

are seeing both the things happening parallelly looks very positive. >> Got it.

Yeah, on bathware uh what we've uh >> uh sorry could you just repeat the bathway question please? Sir in the

Bathway also the same question I mean there was anticipation of price hike right so is it that there was some

element of upstocking before the price hike typically that happens so is that the reason hence the numbers were good

or per say the end demand is also improving and hence we are looking at a strong numbers going ahead

>> so there are combination of a few things which have happened uh >> okay

>> I think one is that uh demand sentiment in general has improved Okay, I won't say it's, you know, brilliant at this

point of time, but it definitely improved quarter 3 versus quarter 1 and quarter two. So that's obviously led to

a little bit of an upside in terms of consumer sentiment. Having said that, I think a lot of the actions that we've

taken have led to this kind of growth. >> Got it. >> Uh I've talked about the go-to market.

The other thing which I talked in earlier investor calls also was that we are focusing very heavily on markets

where we have a relatively low market share. So putting in focused sales and marketing efforts to grow our market

share in uh areas where we have relatively low market share that is paying us good dividends and a lot of

the markets where over the last few years we had relatively low market share we are gaining market share so that is

helping uh then the other is in terms of the increase in the average selling price through the new products uh that

we are selling in the market that is also helping in terms of growth so I think a lot of the strategic actions

that we've taken over the last few quarter are paying paying off in terms of growth on uh pricing particularly we

had taken a price increase in November uh on faucets and uh a little bit in sanity wear. Uh the brass prices as you

probably know have really gone up over the last couple of weeks and months. Uh so in the month of January now across

the industry pretty much uh everyone's taken a price increase of what 14 to 16% in faucets uh and about four or five% in

in sanitary wear. Uh so the there's a minor uptick because of stocking before the price increase but that's not the

primary factor driving the growth. >> Got it. And so the pricing action that we have taken is it sufficient to

counter the RM inflation or some more will be needed assuming that the prices stay here.

>> So at this point of time the pricing fees that we've taken so we've taken about 15 to 17% in faucets and we've

taken about 5 to 6% in everywhere. So uh we believe that that's enough to cover uh whatever raw material impact there is

uh as of now. If it goes up substantially further then we'll have to look at another price increase but at

this point of time we don't believe in the short term we will need to do that but we'll keep an eye out.

>> Got it. This was very helpful. So thank you. >> Thank you.

>> Thank you. The next question is from the line of an individual investor. Please go ahead.

>> Uh no sir you have already answered all my questions. Thank you so much. Thank you. A reminder to all the

participants, you may press star and one to ask question. The next question is from the line of

Alles Gopani from Gopani Securities and Investment Limited. Please go ahead. >> Uh good evening sir. Thank you for

taking my question. uh I wanted to ask the what is the net debt as on 31st December and what will be the debt

allocation for bath business and that consumer business that we are demerging the company

so the total debt as on uh this is a bank debt which I'm talking is around 740 kores

and for bath it is around 265 and uh pipes is around 450 and balances for the hindware

Thank you sir. >> Thank you are in one to ask question.

As there are no further questions from the participants I would now hand the conference over to the management for

the closing comments. over to you. >> Uh thank you everybody who joined the today. Uh really appreciate all the

questions. Um uh there is a step-by-step improvement if you see over the last you know four five quarters which we are

demonstrating and still a good way to go go and we're just trying to target you know you know how we maximize our growth

how how to you know bring back the profitability numbers as you were there in the so um it's a keep walking stage

right now and uh we will very soon the trajectory is thanks again for joining Thank you on behalf of Private Limited.

That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect the lines. Thank you.