Grasim Industries Limited (NSE: GRASIM) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 11, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Ankit Panchmatia — Head, Investor Relations
Himanshu Kapania — Managing Director
Hemant Kumar Kadel — Chief Financial Officer
Sandeep Komaravelly — Chief Executive Officer
Jayant Dhobley — Business Head
Analysts:
Naveen Sahadev — Analyst
Rahul Gupta — Analyst
Nirav Jimudia — Analyst
Amit Purohit — Analyst
Pathanjali Srinivasan — Analyst
Prateek Kumar — Analyst
Shreya Banthia — Analyst
Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Qasim Industry Limited Q3FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines 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 your Touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ankit Panchmatia, head Investor Relations of Grassium Industries. Thank you. And over to you, Mr. Ankit.
Ankit Panchmatia — Head, Investor Relations
Good morning and thank you for joining Grassim’s third quarter financial year 2026 earnings call. The financial statements, press release and presentation are already uploaded on the websites of stock exchanges and our website. For your reference for safe harbor, kindly refer to cautionary statement highlighted in the last slide of our presentation. Our management team is present on this call to discuss our results and business performance. We have with us Mr. Himanshu Kampania, managing Director Grassium Industries and and Business Head Birla Opus paints Mr. Himan Kadil, Chief Financial Officer of Brassium Industries. Also joining them we have with us Mr.
Jayan Duble, business Heads of Chemicals, Cellulosic Fashion, Yarn and insulators, Mr. Vadi Raj Kulkarni, Business Head of Cellulosic fibers business and Mr. Sandeep Komravelli, CEO Birla Pivot, our B2B E commerce business. Let me now hand over the call to Himachu sir for his opening remarks. Over to you sir.
Himanshu Kapania — Managing Director
Good morning and a very warm welcome to everyone joining us today. At the outset, we wish all of you a Happy New Year 2026. We hope that the year has begun on a positive note for you and your families and it brings good health, continued progress and renewed optimism as we step into 2026. We do so with a sense of confidence and purpose. While the global environment continues to evolve. The underlying strength of our markets, the resilience of demand and our disciplined execution gives us optimism about the road ahead. The new year represents not just a change in calendar, but an opportunity to build on momentum and sharpen our focus and deepen the value we create for our stakeholders.
On that value creation, let me start sharing key updates on two of our latest growth engines. As announced earlier, our Paints business Billa Opus CEO Mr. Sachin Sahai shall join us from 16th February 2026. Despite the absence of CEO, the existing paint team delivered an extraordinary performance reaffirming the company is being built on rock solid foundation and has a long pipeline of leadership who can take on the baton when the need arises. During the quarter three of FY26, Villa Opus, the third largest decorative paints player, expanded its revenue market share by more than 300 basis points year on year based on internal estimates and announced results of listed paint smeathers on quarter.
On quarter basis, Billa Opus accelerated its market share gain with revenue growth of nearly three times the Indian decorative paint industry growth rate inclusive of Villa Opus. Further, the combined revenue of Birla Office and Birla White putti business in quarter three FY26, the revenue market share gap with existing number two paint player now reduced to around 300 basis points based on the guided decorative segment revenues which includes their Putti business as well. In quarter three FY26 Villa Opus sales volume has risen by 70% on year on year basis. Early this January, Villa Opus has crossed the milestone of 500 million litres of paint sales.
Cumulatively we believe that more than 6 million households are now experiencing superior quality of Villa Opus in a short period of 18 months. Bila uppers Exponential growth is underpinned by rising brand acceptance, rapid expansion of distribution network, strong sales throughput from dealer counters to contractors and consumers, consistent differentiation through superior quality, product quality and focused brand building efforts. Let me give you finer details of execution on the buff. First on brand reach, the presence of Birla opus has crossed 10,400 towns across 35 states and urine territories. We have covered all 50,000 population centers across India and more than 75% of the 10,000 to 50,000 population centers.
The company will continue its expansion effort deeper into Bharat. The active quarterly billing dealers has grown in double digit along with a single high single digit growth per dealer revenue throughput on month on bus when compared with last year same quarter. Additionally, Billa Opus is transforming the paint consumer retail experience with company exclusive franchise outlets nearing thousand Villa Opus paint galleries. These galleries uplift consumer experience by selecting a paint brand helping premiumization of the category. Institution sales continued to gain traction during the quarter supported by increasing project wins and specification approval among clients including governments, builders, factories, hospitals and cooperative housing.
The institution sales grew by 40% quarter on quarter as institution orders has a long gestation period. Happy to report more than 40,000 mid and large size projects are in various stages of negotiation with nearly 25% built thereby a strong project pipeline for future. Secondly below office remains focused on driving secondary sales from dealer counters to contractors and consumers. The 10% free paint promotion continues on 10 and 20 litre packages across all emulsion, topcoats, waterproofing range however excludes sub economy and other categories. The company is equally focused on building relationships with paint contractors, the key influencers for them.
Below Opus has built an end to end first of its kind digital platform to engage with contractors online on Pan India basis for product information, incentives and schemes, sharing consumer leads, Opus assurance registration, complaint handling and much more. This platform is integrated with our unique track and trace system to monitor consumption by customers at pin code and dealer level. We are implementing AI based projects to improve contractor connect and analytics. I’m happy to share that over 7.5 lakh contractors and painters have applied and experienced bill of a superior range of products on Pan India basis.
This online platform allows us to remain always in touch digitally with the unorganized painter community and instantly transfer accrued benefits to their banks on a click of a button from their app anywhere, anytime and experience like upi. Additionally, the centrally controlled tinting machine analytics shows strong color and consumption across geographies. With over 35,000 active tinting machines in operation during quarter three, the tinting data shows interesting consumer insights. The top two Opus colors unifying the country include Port Kochi, a dark bluish gray color and a Morning Bird Song, a light bluish gray shade which are tinted by more than 30,000 dealers in the last one year.
Thirdly, the foundation of our product strategy is built on R and D excellence. With a portfolio designed for performance, durability and unmatched finish. Below Opus has achieved what we believe is the fastest portfolio expansion by any brand in the industry today. Below Opus proudly offers one of the widest product ranges of more than 216 products, 1848 SKUs across emulsions, enamels, waterproofing, wood finish, wallpaper and others this year itself. Till now we have introduced 40 new products including the completion of retail waterproofing lines, launch of painting tools and indigenously developed Italian Pew alkyde range and many more.
These innovations are not just additions, they are accelerators of growth which is creating clear product differentiation, winning the trust of dealers and delighting consumers. The fourth powerful driver of Billa Opus is creating consumer pull via sustained brand salience and differentiated marketing. According to Opus commissioned brand track study, the top of Mind brand recall for Birla Office has surged into double digits positioning us as the second most recalled paints brand in urban markets. With over 6 million satisfied home users acquired in a very short period, Bilaopa’s brand acceptance will continue to accelerate providing solid impetus to growth from builders and government bodies to industries, hotels education institutions and MSMEs in the project segment to individual homeowners and housing cooperatives.
Villa Office Brand Trust is on the rise With a strong media presence in quarter four and high engagement campaign, our brand salience is set to soar even higher. Watch out for our latest Opus Boy campaign, Color of Togetherness in the ongoing T20 World cup and upcoming IPL 2026 and many other regional and national impact properties on television, digital and outdoor media. Our premiumization effort continue with Paintcraft, the recently launched Bila Opus Professional Painting Services fully GST compliant, transparent pricing, attractive EMI options, end to end platforms from lead management to quotation to monitoring of services and quality approval managed jointly by central and field team, this service has expanded to over 5,000 pin codes and we target to offer pain craft on Pan India basis through the 1,000 pain guarantees at the earliest separately on Opus Assurance Services where the company has given additional guarantee besides the standard warranty clause to redo the painting including labor if need arises.
More than 60,000 consumer sites have been registered through nearly 30,000 contractors under this first of its kind program. The combination of Paintcraft and Opus Assurance will improve consumer experience allowing us to sell higher end products and Premium Services. The fifth powerhouse behind BILA, Opus Momentum is the second largest manufacturing capacity holder in the industry, a formidable 24% capacity share. With the launch of Kharagpur and a steady ramp up of capacity utilization across each of our six plants, the company has executed the natural production strategy by producing fast moving category products closer to their market, cutting down the drag of logistics, cost and inventory and sharpening its service edge.
With the completion of project on time and within budgeted capex, the focus of the company now has shifted to improve productivity, efficiency, operations and bring down significant variable costs through optimization. At the heart of our manufacturing journey lies a bold embrace of Industry 4.0 with IoT driven automation helping standardization and consistency of quality. This excellence is now officially validated. We are proud and excited to share that Birla Office has received Integrated Management system certificate encompassing ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 for all the six plants in one go. Achieving these certifications strengthens our organizational framework and reinforces confidence of our customers, partners, stakeholders in our capabilities.
Securing IMS certification in less than 18 months of full scale operation is an unprecedented milestone. It underscores our deep commitment to the highest standards of quality, safety, environmental stewardship, compliance and operational excellence and marks a powerful step forward in an ongoing sustainability evolution. Before I move on to the next business, I wish to address the narratives about sluggish industry growth based on announced results of four listed paint majors and guidance on their decorative business, it appears the decorative paints excluding Billa Opus has grown by 1 to 2% by revenue but 7 to 8% by volume in quarter three FY26 versus quarter three FY25.
Now when we add below quarter three performance to these four players decorative paints business industry revenue growth including opus rises to 5 to 6% and volume growth jumps to 11 to 12%. In my economic understanding a double digit volume growth reflects a good to strong consumer demand. However, the pain of the industry is rate realization which we believe is lower due to combination of higher discounting and incumbent players tendency to focus on low value economy, sub economy category and deep discounted putty business Villa offers revenue is without putti and our growth remains balanced across all categories of paint with premium and luxury segment continues to contribute steady 65% in our overall revenue.
We have taken 2 to 6% price rise in January and February against standard dealer price list across the range of products to test the channel and consumer reaction coming to birla pivot. The B2B E commerce business crossed the 8,500 crores annualized revenue run rate ARR mark and remains on track to surpass the annual revenue of Rupees 8,500 crores ahead of FY27 guidance. In a country as dynamic and fast growing as India, the next great leap in commerce won’t come from building another marketplace. It will come from digitizing and organizing B2B procurement at a scale and complexity few have ever dared to tackle.
That is exactly what Birla Pivot is doing and we are taking one of the largest, most fragmented, operationally intense spaces in the economy and turning it into a trusted tech enabled outcome driven platform. Our vision is bold and unambiguous to become the most trusted B2B E commerce platform in India and we’re building it the right way by scaling a powerful buyer seller network and compounding our advantage across the three pillars that truly matter in E Commerce price, assortment and experience. Let’s start with price because in B2B pricing isn’t only about competitive parity, it’s about removing friction from the system.
India’s raw material ecosystem is full of inefficiencies, discovery gaps, opaque comparisons, fragmented sourcing and complex multi vendor procurement. Bill of Pivot doesn’t merely negotiate price, we re engineer the economics of procurement. We align suppliers inefficiencies with buyers needs enabling transparent discovery and comparisons helping suppliers reach demand more efficiently and absorbing the operational complexity of procurement at scale. In other words, we convert fragmentation into efficiency and we pass that value back to consumers on assortment. This is where Billa Pivot is fundamentally changing how business and individuals buy project materials. We are building a true one stop procurement engine, 35 plus categories, 40,000 plus SPU’s and solution aggregated from 300 plus top brands.
The product category is covering everything from steel to tiles, cement to chemicals. This breadth isn’t just impressive, it’s transformational. It consolidates vendors, compresses procurement cycles, standardize buying decisions and stimulizes approvals and purchase planning. We’re going to step further because in B2B the ability to buy is often tied to working capital. And that’s why Billa Pivot is enabling fast, easy customized financing designed around real procurement needs so businesses can purchase with confidence, flexibility and speed. And then comes our biggest differentiator experience. Because B2B is not just digital, it’s physical, operational and relentlessly service driven villa pivot delivers B2C like simplicity in a B2B world powered by digital tools for order, enablement and fulfillment, nationwide support backbone and consistent trusted buyer experience.
We are not simply building a website, we are building a reliability at scale. We are making complex procurement feel effortless, dependable and repeatable. That’s the moment when a platform stops being a channel and becomes a habit. This momentum is not episodal, it’s network led, value led and scalable. As categories expand, network effects deepen and digital adoption accelerate. Billa Pivot is uniquely positioned to play a defining role in shaping and leading India’s B2B procurement digitization growth Story this isn’t just about growth, it’s creation of a new infrastructure layer for Indian commerce. Moving on from new businesses and focusing on macros, India continues to stand out on a global growth map.
India’s domestic demand is resilient. Investment cycle strength and policy support have kept growth momentum intact. The most recent union budget reinforced this momentum with several strategic themes. First theme is government’s continued focus on infrastructure. Housing and urban development would drive growth for grass film cement business. India’s push towards self reliant manufacturing scale and dual supply chain integration would drive growth for our chemicals business. The recent GST rationalization focus on improving India’s per capita driven by higher disposable incomes, better quality housing and aspiration in consumption would drive growth for decorative paints and premium textiles. Support for MSMEs by increasing finance democratization and integrating into organized supply chain would drive growth for Billa Aditya Birla Capital and Billa Pivot.
Lastly, a balanced focus on renewable energy and energy security will drive growth for our renewable and insulator business. For investors seeking a single scalable entry into India’s structural growth, grassfim represents a credible and well diversified proxy. As India’s growth story unfolds through these diverse themes, grassfim businesses remain deeply interweight with each of these structural pillars presenting long Runway of growth and value creation. Reflecting on this growth, I’m happy to share that Grassium Consolidated revenue for the current quarter stood highest at rupees 44,312 crores, an impressive improvement by 25% year on year with building materials, financial services, cellulose, fibers, chemicals and even premium textiles and insulators firing on all cylinders.
The nine month revenue stood at 1 24,330 crores up 19% year on year demonstrating consistency of performance. Stand on Revenue grew at even faster rate reaching highest ever at rupees 10,432 crores up by 28% year on year with strong contribution from both core and new businesses. I would now like to hand over the call to Hemant CFO to further discuss financials and key business highlights of other businesses.
Hemant Kumar Kadel — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you sir. Good morning everyone. It’s my pleasure to interact with you all again. Happy 2026 to all present on this call, I am very proud to say that we have closed the calendar year 2025 on a high note with two of our new businesses on track to achieve their stated goals. As on 31st December 2025 the TTM consolidated revenue is nearly 1 70,000 crore, growth of 14% compared to FY25 revenue. Currently standalone revenue on TTM basis stands at 38,191 crore up 21% compared to FY25. Based on the current quarter revenue, standalone businesses are now at annualized revenue run rate of higher than rupees 40,000 crore.
There has been a strong underlying growth across all the businesses. Consolidated EBITDA grew by 33% year on year to 6,215 crore. Standalone EBITDA grew at a faster pace with growth of 57% year on year to 585 crore. Starting with key business building material revenue for the Segment grew by 30% year on year driven by all round performance across Cement Paints and B2B. Led by the sector’s strong outlook, Ultratech is steadily expanding both size and scale. Ultratech’s clear vision and disciplined action execution have led current capacity to reach 194.06 million metric ton with clear sight of reaching a capacity of 240.8 million metric ton by March 2028 which is a CAGR of more than 10%.
The capacity expansion is clear from critical from three or four perspectives. Firstly, it reinforces our role in as a key enabler of India’s infrastructure and development journey. Secondly, it enables us to grow ahead of industry curve. Third, it narrows demand and supply gap across critical markets nationwide and lastly it further strengthens its ultra tax leadership position. While capacity expansion remains core to our growth, we have embedded a culture of efficiency to ensure that our growth is resilient, sustainable and cost effective. Underpinning this strength is our EBITDA growth which grew by 29% year on year with a EBITDA per turn of rupees 1051.
Our MD has already covered paints and B2B E commerce business. Hence let me now directly come to our core businesses of cellulose, fiber and chemicals. Highlight for these core businesses is that while we can keep on discussing them individually irrespective of commodity cycles, both the businesses combined had deliver consistent EBITDA leadership. Innovation, sustainability, capital allocation and cost effectiveness are key tenant to such consistency which are an integral part of Grassim’s growth strategy. Starting with cellulose fiber, the business has delivered EBITDA of Rs491 crore growth of 48% year on year. This is driven by three factors.
First, improved realization due to favorable product mix led by exports. Second, operational efficiency due to volume growth. Third, declining input prices mainly pulp and caustic. The demand for cellulose fiber in China continues to exhibit stability due to global tightness in supply. In India we have seen similar strength despite removal of quality control order. Due to this inherent strength we have seen prices for cellulose fiber decoupling with other competing fibers which are on a declining trend over the past few quarters. Unlike cellulosic fiber which are largely stable have started to recover. Cerulosic fiber segment also includes cellulosic fashion yarn business.
The business performance for the quarter was subdued due to cheaper imports from China which has created oversupply and lower downstream demand. Secondly, chemical business the revenue growth of 5% year on year was largely driven by volume. Caustic soda sales volume for the quarter three FY26 stood at highest ever 313,000 tonnes up by 4% year on year. While CFR sea prices are down on yoy basis, domestic caustic prices are showing some resilience led by stable demand and rupee depreciation EBITDA in chemical business was lower by 4% year on year due to higher equal realization and lower profitability in specialty chemical business.
Higher ACH price resulted in lower profitability and specialty chemical business which was partially offset by lower BPA prices. Coming back to the consolidated business in the financial services, it is one of the fastest growing businesses in our portfolio. This is driven by their multichannel approach aimed at providing customer with seamless experience across channels of interaction. The revenue was up by 29% year on year led by all round performance across lending, asset management, insurance and advisory services business. Total lending portfolio which includes NPFC and Housing Finance grew by 30% year on year to over rupees 1 90,000 crore.
On a strategic front, we would like to highlight the recent announced partnership with Advent International which also marks an important milestone for Ajit Birla Capital. During the quarter Ajit Birla Capital Board approved a primary capital infusion of 2,750 crore into Ajit Birla Housing valuing the business at approximately 19,250 crore on a host money basis, Advent will hold roughly 14.3% of housing finance with Ajit Birla Capital retaining about 85.7 subject to customary shareholder and regulatory approvals in other businesses. Starting with Enable Business, Aditi Birla Renewable grew by 82% year on year largely led by higher capacities which now stands at nearly 2% peak capacity compared to 1.2 gigawatt Quarter 3 FY25 Aditi Birla Renewable has announced a strategic investment by Global Infrastructure Partners which is a part of BlackRock.
This deal marks one of the largest primary private equity commitment into an Indian renewable company. EIP will invest up to rupees 3000 crore comprising of an initial 2000 crore commitment with a green shoe option of 1000 crore subject to customary regulatory and closing conditions. Post this deal, the renewable business is valued at an EV of 14,600 crore. I am happy to say that this partnership is expected to accelerate Aditya Birla Renovo’s growth trajectory as it builds on its operational and contracted capacity of nearly 4.3 gigawatt of peak capacity portfolio across solar, hybrid, floating solar and RTC assets and targeting scaling capacity beyond 10 gigawatt of peak capacity in coming years.
This transaction brings not only capital but also the GIP’s Global Infrastructure Operating experience to support disciplined expansion and contribute meaningfully to India’s energy transition goal. As regard capex post commissioning of Padakpur plant, we have completed majority of the planned expenditure Capital expenditure in decorative paint business the capital expenditure spent on YTT basis is 1310 crore. Focus now remains on phase one of Harrier Lyocil Project for additional 55 metric tons per annum capacity of specialty fibers. As on 31st December 2025, net debt of the company stood lower at 6882 crore compared to 8277 crore in the same period last year.
With net debt to TTM EBITDA healthy at 2.1 level. Let me now open the floor for Q and A.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press STAR and two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question comes from the line of Naveen Sahadev ICIC securities. Please go ahead.
Naveen Sahadev
Yeah, good morning sir. I hope I’m audible.
Himanshu Kapania
Yes, yes.
Naveen Sahadev
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity and also thank you for the detailed initial comments. Two questions. First of course on the paints business. So needless to say the company has done a commendable job I believe for the quarter. The revenues given like you know, 8,500 crore run rate for the Birla pivot and numbers that are published for Ultratech. Our sense is paints would have done roughly 1200 crore kind of revenue in this particular quarter which of course is great from the start that we have had. My question is the growth is seen maturing in the sense in Q1 a similar sort of a very rough cut working suggested 1100 kind of a growth in the June quarter, similar flattish in September and now we are at 1200 give or take some margins there, I mean some buffer there.
Now to reach the scale of 10,000 crore exit by Q4 28 which is a run rate, I mean which is around 2500 crore revenue over the next nine quarters we need to grow at 40% CAGR year on year for us. So I’m just trying to understand first of all what different than now the company will do or what convinces us now given that the growth is maturing in the last 1 2/4 how should one look at this target realistically being achieved and in that what is also the industry value growth into consideration? That’s my first question.
Himanshu Kapania
Okay, thank you Naveen. So while you have done your internal calculations, I’m not going to either accept or deny it but all I can say both on quarter on quarter basis we had a robust more than double digit levels of growth closer to between 18 to 20% on a quarter on quarter basis. On an annualized basis these numbers are tending towards the three digit growth. So I don’t know what numbers you have in your calculations and using words called mature when we have grown on a year on year basis by 300 basis points in the paint industry and we see a similar kind of consumer uptake in the current quarter on overall basis we are seeing across geographies very strong demand for Billa of Spains and a large number of existing dealers who have joined us have increased their throughput and they continue to grow at levels of strong single digit on a quarter on quarter basis.
And we continue to add new dealers at a double digit level on a quarter on quarter basis and are on H1 and H1/2 year or half year basis. So that is the part 1 second part which is beside consumer and dealer. We’re also getting very good attraction from the contractor and as I mentioned in my opening speech More than 7.5 lakh contractors have joined hands and these volume, this number of contractors give us confidence that the growth will continue. We are still a single digit market share. We have a large capacity. Our presence is now on a pan India basis.
We’ve reached every 50,000 population town. We are reached more than 75 a percent of 10 to 50,000 population down. So the growth are happening. We have a large portfolio of businesses. Consumer demand is building up and we remain confident and remain, we continue to guide that. We will deliver the 10,000 crore in the third year in third full year of operation.
Naveen Sahadev
Understood. So despite the price increase that we have taken as you said across 2 to 6% despite that you are saying we are confident to achieve the revenue target.
Himanshu Kapania
So if you understand the philosophy of price increase we always want to maintain a particular distance from the market leader and we felt the distance was slightly more than that was necessary and we’re bridging that gap. That is the objective of price increase and there is no other objective. And obviously you also want to test at what is the. What demand of consumer and contractor remains at the revised price.
Naveen Sahadev
Yeah, go ahead please. Okay, okay, thank you. My second question then was on your birla pivot business and of course extremely fast execution, much much ahead of expectation. But we had also I think hinted the first time we gave this target the road to profitability or breakeven for this business was also like you know a billion dollar kind of revenue run rate. So is it now fair that since we have achieved almost we are there, this business is breaking even or will start making positive contribution. How should one look at profitability for Birla pivot from now going ahead. Thank you. These are my questions.
Sandeep Komaravelly
Thanks Ramin. This is Sandeep here. On the profitability front we are making progress similar to how we have done how we have executed on the revenue side. And the growth has been excellent over the last few quarters. We’ve been making good progress on bridging the gap so that we can get to breakeven as well. I think from our current estimates we will exit FY27 at a breakeven level. That is our current estimate.
Naveen Sahadev
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Rahul Gupta with Morgan Sandy, please go ahead.
Rahul Gupta
Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. Two questions. One, continuing on the pivot point. I remember earlier you had made a point to earlier you had guided to break cash break even by 2030. So you are now front loading it, accelerating IT to fiscal 27 end. Right?
Sandeep Komaravelly
Rahul, I don’t think we gave the guidance of 2030 earlier. But you know, as I mentioned in response to the earlier question, FY27 exit, we should be exiting the year at breakeven. Yes.
Rahul Gupta
Okay. That’s great. My second question is on the continuation of the point you made on the paints. You are testing waters with 2 to 6% hikes in January. Now it’s early days. Can you please help us understand how the acceptance has been? And if we look at the industry which has been struggling with discounting, how should we look at the overall industry from here on? Or let me put it this way, how volume versus value gap should move over the next year for industry and you. Thank you.
Himanshu Kapania
First and foremost, as I mentioned in the previous answer, the gap between the leader and us was high and we’ve used this price increase primarily to bridge the gap. We obviously still are a single digit player and our aim is to bridge the gap between our capacity which is at 24% to our current revenue market share. So that is part one. It’s early time to be able to say what is the response to the price increase. Because we’ve had certain of a range of products where we took price increase on 28th of January January and the remaining range of products is happening on 25th of February.
So it will be better. I respond to the consumer and contractor response after the quarter four results are there because we are still in the process of executing the price but on a mid to long term basis, what is our view about the industry? We remain very bullish. There has been, as I mentioned in my opening speech, the industry in quarter three has grown by 10 to 11% or probably even 12% by volume. The challenges have been over focus on economy, sub economy and putty based business. So if we stop the down trading and if you notice Billa Opus wants to operate a more balanced approach.
It is making every effort to premiumize the service with the launch of its paint galleries and where obviously the ratio of premium and luxury is significantly higher. And same is true for our painting services. We are making every effort to premiumize and ensure that in the mix our rate realization remains at a similar levels to the volume and our attempt is volume and value to both move in tandem. As for the industry is concerned, we believe that this year the industry may including below office may grow by 5 to 6%. FY25 it has grown by almost, it was nil and about 27.
We are hopeful that it will come back to a 8 to 10% growth levels.
Rahul Gupta
Great, thank you so much. Wish you all the best.
operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Nirav Jamudia with annual wealth. Please go ahead.
Nirav Jimudia
Yes sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, just one question on the chemical side. So for the epoxy business, just wanted to have your thoughts. A With the trade deal done with the USA now and Chinese currency also appreciating by close to around 8 to 9%, how do we see our exports to the USA market in the medium term and on a longer term basis? With now EUFT also in place, how do we see our volumes in terms of exports to that region as well?
Jayant Dhobley
Thanks. Neera. Hi, thanks for your question. Can you hear me?
Nirav Jimudia
Yeah. Yes, loud and clear.
Jayant Dhobley
Both. Both are positive for us in a way. So as you know that in epoxy, particularly in liquid epoxy resins, the Koreans have been available in India due to their fta. You know, they get a certain advantage where they can bring in product without the duty. And also they had preferential access to US as well as Europe. Now clearly that advantage is going to go away. If you look in terms of timing, then the US deal probably will get actioned before the American deal. So I am seeing a positive upside on export of epoxy from India to the U.S.
now, how much quantity that will be, how that will ramp up, etc is a matter of individual customer qualifications and those kind of things. That’s a little bit too much detail to get into Right now, but we do see a positive impact on that side. Similarly, if you look at Europe, as you know very well, nirav, the European chemical industry is struggling with high costs, both from perspective of energy, but also from perspective of extremely high labor costs. As you know, a lot of restructuring has been announced in Europe. You know, equally that Westlake has, you know, stopped operations on their, on their Rotterdam side.
I think the India Europe FTA in the longer term will have a much more significant impact on the Indian chemical industry, probably in my personal opinion, more than the U.S. of course, the speed at which Europe will ratify all this will get down into law, etc. Will be a little bit slower, but I believe that will be more sticky. So both these agreements, nirav, are I think, positive for the industry.
Nirav Jimudia
Got it, sir. Yeah. So just two clarifications here. Do we import any raw material from EU which were earlier subject to taxes and now with this deal could help us from the chemical business point of view also and from an overall business point of view and B any volume guidance which you would like to share from the epoxy business point of view for FY27. Thank you so much.
Jayant Dhobley
If I look at imports from Europe, yes, we have some. I would not like to get into the details of what that is, but those are like, you know, they’re not a large part of our basket. So I don’t see really a large benefit from that. What I may think of is if glycerin prices continue to remain high, then the propylene route to ECH has its own competitive advantage and several of the propylene based producers are western based. But there is a logistic cost hurdle. So let’s see how this plays out in the long term.
If you look at volume growth, then if I look year on year, our overall, you know, epoxy business, liquid epoxy plus formulations this year has grown, or at least, you know, for the year over year we have grown by about 6%. I expect this rate to ramp up next year. Now how much it will ramp up by is a matter of matter of speculation, but I expect that rate to ramp up further.
Nirav Jimudia
Got it.
Jayant Dhobley
None of the fundamentals change.
Nirav Jimudia
And safe to assume that this ECH price corrections which have happened on the upside would translate into a similar increase in the prices of epoxy, which generally gets passed on a lag basis.
Jayant Dhobley
Yeah, there is usually a time lag associated with that. As I mentioned, in the epoxy value chain there are competing routes, glycerin based ECH and propylene based ech. So what may be a pass through for me may not necessarily be a pass through for somebody else. Maybe globally who may be properly integrated. So depending on where crude prices, propylene prices, glycerin prices. The pass through mechanism has a different cyclicality but in the longer term it always passes on. It’s always a matter of time. But the exact speed by which it passes on depends upon upon these three, four factors.
Nirav Jimudia
Sir, last clarification if you allow. This quarter we have seen a dip in our epoxy revenues. So was it more because of the volumes were lesser this quarter and that should start correcting next quarter onwards? Is this the right assumption to make?
Jayant Dhobley
So just let me quickly check the data. Yes. So volumes were slightly under pressure on the liquid epoxy resins. Actually maybe the better way to see. It is, you know, we decided not to take certain volumes where we thought the margin was getting too squeezed. That’s probably the better way to see it. If I look at the non ler business, you know, all the formulation specialties. So the specialties within the specialties there. Actually we have not had any volume issue. It’s on the margin where perhaps the lowest profitable part of our ler business we have been a little bit, you know, unwilling to allow our margins to get compressed too much.
operator
Thank you Mr. Jimodia. Please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Amit Purohit with Kalara. Please go ahead.
Amit Purohit
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity and thanks for the detailed data points on the field. Just to recheck sir, on the overall paint that we sold, we talked about 500 billion kiloliters. That was since the time we we have been into the market. Right. It’s a cumulative or did I know this correctly?
Himanshu Kapania
500 million liters, not 500 million.
Amit Purohit
Okay. That is since the time we have started operation.
Himanshu Kapania
Yeah.
Amit Purohit
Okay. And secondly, sir also wanted to understand when you talked about 300 pips lower than the second player, that includes putty and everything, right? At this point of time, market share, exit market share you were talking about.
Himanshu Kapania
Or I’m again what we said in the statement opening remark White for quarter and guidance given by number two players in our assessment internal estimates, the now the gap is 300 basis point. I hope it’s clear and it is only Billa White’s putty business. It does not include any of any other business.
Amit Purohit
Sure, sure. And sir, we talked about increase in new dealer addition. Just wanted to understand the typical profile of these Dealers if you could just qualitatively highlight these are large dealers or these are dealers largely from the market leaders. Or if you could just some highlight because typically there is different types of dealers and initially when we started off obviously there were challenges to reach out to the very, very large dealers. What is the state now in terms of excess?
Himanshu Kapania
We are getting blend from all category of dealers. In our internal assessment we broken the dealers into A category which are more than 3 crores. B category which is 1 to 3 crores. C category which is 30 lakhs to 1 crore and D category into less than 30 lakhs. Most of the dealers are coming in in the abc. The small number they also come come. In the D category. But our focus in the ABC category.
Amit Purohit
And lastly the price increase that we highlighted that is more from a testing perspective. Or is there any raw material pressure which kind of. Or do you think that from now on the brand is strong enough to kind of take pricing and still it adds value to the entire channel as well. Just wanted to know your outlook as you highlighted that next year FY27 the growth in the industry could be closer to about 8%. So the pricing volume graph should reduce in the FY27. That’s the last question.
Himanshu Kapania
First and foremost, there are no current raw material pressure. Second, we’ve been consistently maintaining that we are at a lower price than the market leader. And we felt the gap was higher and we reduced the gap. That has been the strategy around there. It is not a price increase strategy per se. As you are reading it. Please read it. That we would like to maintain a certain gap with market leader and that’s. And we want to test at that gap. What is the consumer response? There was an X gap that existed. We reduced that gap.
Amit Purohit
Sure. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Patanjali Srinivasan Patanjal with Sundaram Mutual funds. Please go ahead. Hello, Mr. Patanja. Please go ahead.
Pathanjali Srinivasan
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. A couple of questions. So firstly, could you explain a bit on our share of retail business and institutional business? Because I believe we’ve grown pretty fast in our institutional business. But I was just trying to figure out if the base there is lower or are we tilted more towards institutional business.
Himanshu Kapania
Okay, so to our understanding the industry retail institutional business mix is 85 15. We are not yet there on that mix. We are still a single digit on the institutional business. Retail is much faster to take off and institution has a much longer gestation period. The message That I was communicating is that we have a strong pipeline and hopefully by FY27 we should be able to come closer to the industry average between 12 to 15% on overall contribution from institution business.
Pathanjali Srinivasan
So could you give me some numbers for where we are in terms of range here?
Himanshu Kapania
As I explained, we were a single digit number and we. And we are. We have a strong pipeline of institutions but detail continues to be the stronger protein for us at this point of time.
Pathanjali Srinivasan
Sure. And just one more question I have so this number of saying that 18% we’ve grown last quarter and all of that. There’s just one part though where I’ve not been able to figure out like when I met couple of dealers from the time we started and more recently and I have seen some of them saying that they’ve either stopped doing business or they’re finding it difficult or something like that. While my sample size is very small, I want to know like what is the acceptable level of pushback or reduction in dealers when we expand dealership and what are our targets here and where are we?
Himanshu Kapania
So it’s a large dealer universe. There are overall hundred thousand dealers. On. An average in a quarter, about 50 to 60% of the dealers are active. We are also experiencing a similar levels. In fact our Sense is about 70 to 75% in a quarter are active around there. And we are satisfied with the number of people who onboarded with us with the number of people who are active in a given quarter. So from that perspective we are very satisfied both in the expansion of expansion pace of dealers, both in the existing towns and new towns as well as the throughput pace of improvement of dealers. We are most of the leaders who have joined us and have been consistently in market have continued to stay with us.
Okay. There’s obviously we are very focused on our collection and there are dealers who are poor. Pay pastors are the ones probably you may be referring to.
Pathanjali Srinivasan
Got it sir. Just to continue on that, I just wanted to know what is our policy with tinting machines that we have given to dealers and their dealers have not been doing as much business as we like to them. How are we dealing with them? And have we started collecting money for tinting machines that we’ve given to dealers?
Himanshu Kapania
No, we don’t collect money for as we already explained, we give the dealers free of charge tinting machines and that remains a consistent policy even in FY26 and going forward, only if a dealer does default on his payment for a long period of time are any actions that necessary. But the Few and far and probably not relevant for this national platform.
operator
Thank you Mr. Patanja. Please rejoin the queue for more questions. Next question comes from the line of Pratik Kumar with Jeffries. Please go ahead.
Prateek Kumar
Yeah, Dr. Sir, my question is on paints. Can you just confirm again the while you talked about your revenue expectation maintaining for F. On what. What do you think on profitability? Other related question. You have like seen some increase in. Interest expense during the quarter frequently and depreciation. Is this completely related to capitalization of 6 plant? Or also if there are any working capital changes which you expect because you’re also increasing.
Himanshu Kapania
I just want to be clear. Your question is you are referring to overall Grassim results and you’re saying that the interest and depreciation component gone up. Is that what you’re referring to?
Prateek Kumar
Yeah, that is right.
Himanshu Kapania
Okay.
Hemant Kumar Kadel
Yeah. So in Grassim, if you are referring with the last year the borrowing for the Q1 Q I mentioned setting up the new plants was being capitalized in the 15th of October. We have commissioned our last sixth plant. And now from quarter next quarter onwards there will be no capitalization and all the interest cost will be coming to PND Electric account. Did this answers your query?
Prateek Kumar
Yeah, sure. So there’s no material working capital changes because we’re shifting business same segment business to more institution. That doesn’t have no implication.
operator
Sorry for interrupting. Mr. Kumal, your voice is breaking. Can you just come a little closer to the mic and speak?
Hemant Kumar Kadel
In paints business we have capitalized over all the six plants and no major capex is pending.
Himanshu Kapania
Now if your question is on debtors, we are well in control as a debtors and working capital is not a challenge. We repeat again that the interest component in the past a portion of that was getting capitalized and now it will not. The portion is significantly fallen because from six plants now down to the 15th of October it’s only one plant. And that also a part of it was no more capitalized. And the same applies to depreciation. As now all the six plants are fully commissioned. There full depreciation is reflecting in the books.
Prateek Kumar
Thank you. And the other question was on paint segment profitability which you’re expecting for FY28. You maintain it as like turning positive by 28.
Himanshu Kapania
Yes, we maintain our guidance. I’ll repeat, within three years of full scale operation we will. We are targeting to be able to reach a profitable number two position.
Prateek Kumar
Thank you Ranaldme.
operator
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of Shriya Banthia with Oakland Capital Management llp. Please go Ahead.
Shreya Banthia
Yeah, thanks for the watch. Am I audible?
Jayant Dhobley
Yes, you are. Please go ahead.
Shreya Banthia
Yeah. So my question is regarding the chemical segment. So if you could share what is the current share of renewable energy in the chemical segment?
Jayant Dhobley
Just a second. It is around. Exit rate is around 22, 23% right now.
Shreya Banthia
Thank you.
Jayant Dhobley
And we expect, we actually are targeting. To reach an exit rate of over 40% by end of FY27. If you want to make a projection.
Shreya Banthia
Thank you very much. That was my question.
operator
Thank you. Next question comes on the line of Vipul Kumar Anupchancha with Sumangal Investments. Please go ahead.
Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. So when we will start sharing the revenue and EBITDA numbers of our paint business?
Himanshu Kapania
Shortly.
Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Shortly means
Himanshu Kapania
we are even today. Because that’s why there was. There is portion of the material that has been produced and was not sold and they are still reflecting revenues which are getting capitalized. We expecting to complete that. And we will move on to this. We will. We will share with you the exact dates when we do that. But there is still. So that’s why this gap between capitalization, that’s why the numbers, what market calculates is there is a gap and we want to finish all the material that we have produced before commissioning and consume it which remains in the capitalization.
Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
So should we assume that from next financial year you will start sharing those numbers? Sir,
Himanshu Kapania
we will definitely come back.
Vipul Kumar Anupchand Shah
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint. That was the last question for today. We have reached the end of question and answer session. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Himanshu Kapania
Thank you so much for participating on the Grassroots poll. We’re now going to close the call.
Hemant Kumar Kadel
Thank you.
operator
Thank you on behalf of Grassims Industries Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.