Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Limited (NSE: CROMPTON) Q2 2025 Earnings Call dated Nov. 14, 2024
Corporate Participants:
Promeet Ghosh — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam — Chief Financial Officer
Swetha Sagar — Manager & Chief Business Officer
Analysts:
Kunal Sheth — Analyst
Siddhartha Bera — Analyst
Aditya Bhartia — Analyst
Bhoomika Nair — Analyst
Umang Mehta — Analyst
Achal Lohade — Analyst
Latika Chopra — Analyst
Praveen Sahay — Analyst
Harshit Kapadia — Analyst
Indrajit Agarwal — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
I welcome you all to Quarter 2 of FY ’25 results conference Call of Crompton Greaves Consumer Limited. We have a Senior Management team from Crompton, represented by Mr. Promeet Ghosh, Managing Director, and CEO; Mr. Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, CFO; Ms. Swetha Sagar, Chief Business Officer of Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances Limited; and Ms. Natasha Kedia, Head of Investor Relations.
I will request management to start with their opening remarks and following which we can start with the Q&A as well. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Promeet Ghosh — Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Thanks. Thanks also to the people who are on the call for joining this earnings call. As you know, a short while ago, we announced our Q2 financials. I will make some preliminary remarks and then we can get to question-answers. I’m being joined, as you already know by Kalees, Swetha, and Natasha.
I’m pleased to share that we have been able to continue our growth trajectory, recording double-digit growth during this quarter for the fifth consecutive time. We clocked standalone revenues of INR1645 crores in Q2 FY ’25, a growth of 11%. In our ECD business, we witnessed robust growth overall with revenue growing at 13% YoY to INR1,393 crores this quarter.
Our overall — our performance across categories has been broad-based with many of the businesses continuing to fire. Our appliances with appliances and pumps taking the lead in what is otherwise a non-seasonal quarter. We have appliances growing at 26% YoY this quarter, followed by pumps, which is growing at 20% YoY. Our largest portfolio of Fans also continued to grow at 5% this quarter, more about that — more about the details of all of these in a moment.
I would like to also remind you that one of the key strategic initiatives that we had called out when we unveiled Crompton 2.0 was to put the Lighting business back on a growth trajectory. Something that we have delivered over the last couple of quarters. We initially saw some green shoots through improved margins quarter-on-quarter. And now in Q2, we have a combination of both growth and margin strengthening. The lighting trajectory, as I said, has been strengthened and we have picked up pace in our revenue growth. It was 1% YoY in Q4 FY ’24, 2% YoY in Q1 FY ’25, and is now 6% YoY in Q2 FY ’25. This has led to our delivering industry-leading revenue growth led by our B2C business, particularly our outdoor and accessories and non-conventional lighting products.
Moving to the specifics. In Fans as industry leaders, we continue to suits to sustainably strengthen both our revenues as well as our profits in their growth trajectory. Over the last several quarters, not only have we grown faster than the market, but we have taken consistent pricing increases ahead of the competition. Particularly in this quarter, we have seen a consistent lag in pricing actions by the competition. We have remained steadfast in our own actions and will continue to leverage the considerable strengths of our business.
As you can see, we are conscious about how we drive this business and view it holistically. For instance, you would have observed how we have steadily built our premium offering through new launches and how we are building our brand equity through aesthetics and style. This quarter, we introduced, albeit towards the later end of the quarter, new premium induction models such as Avancer Swirl, Santos, Aura 2, 4 Blade which are already contributing to sales and we expect sales from NPD to materially improve going forward.
Similarly, to scale our BLDC portfolio, we are working towards increasing our in-house manufacturing so as to have more control on important aspects of the business as well as further enhance the quality of our products. This quarter in particular, our non-ceiling portfolio has also shown strong growth. In the Fans industry, as we are front-runners, we endeavor to lead the way through world-class green products. We are the first to receive the Green Port — Pro certification in the consumer products category for ceiling fans.
I should also highlight that our business in the mid — is in the midst of various regulatory changes and we have planned ahead and completed in a timely manner the various DIS transitions in our Fans business. In pumps, we witnessed robust growth across solar and residential pumps. In solar, we executed orders of INR42 crores last quarter. And as we speak, as Kalees reminds me just before I came in, we have crossed INR100 crores of sales in perhaps a little bit more than crossed INR100 crores of sales in solar and we have in that business a pretty strong pipeline as well.
Despite some headwinds on account of wealth — of weather disturbances and a delayed agricultural season, we continue to innovate and launch new products and further our premiumization agenda. In our appliance business, we saw again broad-based growth. High offtake water heaters, room heaters, and in particular air coolers, all of them grew even though it was off-season and lean season, if you will, for air coolers. Mixer grinders have had a very solid run supported by new launches in mass premium segment and further channel expansion.
Perhaps during the Q&A, I’ll talk a little bit more about how the — you know, we now believe we have a leadership position in the mixer grinders business. Large kitchen appliances recorded a revenue of INR19 crores. And while the business is growing, it is also reducing the EBITDA losses, which is showing in an indication that we are getting our arms around the business.
I also want to highlight, like I said earlier, the performance in Lighting. A segment that I have faced quite a few questions over the last several quarters from you all. We are seeing consistent improvements in that segment and growth continues to pick-up quarter-on-quarter. As I said earlier, this quarter, we have now recorded a 6% growth. Now especially if you factor the lack of conventional product sales, which was a part of the corresponding quarter last year, our revenue growth is industry-leading. And while we have had good growth in the B2B segment, B2C has also now joined in the momentum.
This growth that we are seeing is being particularly driven by non-conventional products. Revenue from ceiling and outdoor category have significantly improved post new product launches. In fact, now patterns and bulbs, which accounted for a share of business last — the previous quarter in close to about 70% now are account for about 50%, which should tell you how materially the business mix in our lighting business has evolved over the last several quarters.
On the B2C side, the industrial segment is performing well. This quarter we executed a marquee project at Bengaluru’s satellite — Satellite Town Ring Road of the NHAI with high-performance LED street lights. Our focus is on converting a strong order pipeline across categories and driving traction for new products. Additionally, we have seen a quarter-on-quarter improvement in EBIT margins. This is happening across the Board this in lighting despite a much higher A&P spends, but higher A&P spends are also a characteristic of the Company overall.
This quarter, our A&P spend stood at INR58 crore rupees, an increase of 69% over the previous quarter. We have in the past said that stepping up A&P spends to both bolster brand visibility and also help our visibility across various platforms and channels, we would be investing heavily in A&P and you can see that happen.
Similarly, we are also focusing on innovations. This has led to two more patents being granted to us this quarter. Alongside this, we have launched 20 more products in Q2 with meaningful contribution in NPD coming into our sales. Our focus on alternate channels is generating results. Alternate channels grew 37% YoY this quarter. Increasing saliency to 21% of sales versus what was 81% — 18% in the same quarter last year. Here again, this is our fifth consecutive quarter of delivering INR100 crore-plus revenues from the e-commerce channel. In fact, we more than delivered. We in fact delivered INR200 crore-plus revenues in the e-commerce channel this quarter.
Our strong revenue performance is also reflecting in our bottom line. Our standalone material margins were 31.9% were — this quarter versus 30.1% in Q2 FY ’24. EBIT for the quarter is INR160 crores, a growth of 18% YoY with an EBIT margin of 9.7%, a healthy improvement of 60 basis points despite like I said, a 70% increase in A&P spends this quarter.
This improvement is largely being driven by our ECD business, which had a margin of 14.8%, our lighting segment EBIT margins also witnessed expansion to 10.7%. Put together, we witnessed a PIT growth of 30% this quarter on a standalone basis significantly surpassing our peers.
Now a quick overview of our H1 performance. In H1, as you already know, our revenue growth rate has picked up pace. We generated revenues of INR3,605 crores, growing at 15%. Similar growth and profits was also visible. EBIT grew to INR362 crores, a growth of 26% YoY. EBIT margin for H1 was 10.1%, an expansion of 90 basis points and PAT grew 34%.
Moving on to Butterfly performance. Butterfly, as you know, we are on a trajectory of refreshing the business being led by Swetha and we are well on that track. Butterfly generated revenue of INR258 crores this quarter with a strong sequential growth of 42%, helped of course by the ongoing festive season. MOR and export channels are consistently delivering growth. We have successfully executed many pricing actions amidst heightened competitive intensity, which is showing up in the margin performance of the business.
EBIT margins saw significant improvement sequentially with expansion of 380 basis points to 8.9%. You will remember last quarter also, our margins improved materially over the previous quarter sequentially, and now they have further strengthened bolstering what we believe is the — is the overall financial position of this Company and its ability to compete in the market. This was primarily due to pricing actions, price laddering, stronger management of trade spends, process intervention, and reduction in operating costs.
We are happy that our Crompton 2.0 strategy is aiding us to deliver consistently superior results with double-digit revenue growth for the fifth — fifth consecutive quarter and strong EBIT margins. With this, we are exiting the second quarter of the financial year on a solid footing, we continue to expect consistent progress through the remainder of the year.
Thank you for your patience listening and now we are open for Q&A.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you, Promeet, sir, for the detailed presentation. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions].
Promeet Ghosh
Yeah, I mean, just one more point for the benefit of the people who are on the call. We — the investor presentation which got delayed for some reason is also on — is also on our website. So if you want to simultaneously access that, please feel free to do so.
Operator
The first question is from the line of Kunal Sheth. Kunal, go ahead.
Kunal Sheth
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations for a great set of numbers. Sir, my first question is pertaining to fans. You have mentioned that we have done well in fans, including a margin improvement. So I just wanted to check this margin improvement is driven by improvement in share of premium of fans. And if yes, what would be the share of premium fans currently in the overall portfolio?
Promeet Ghosh
The share of premium, yeah, share of premium is at a similar level. This you know, this is an improvement that we’ve seen both at gross as well as at EBIT margin levels at our fans’ business. As you are aware, you know, we do believe in growing this business sustainably and we have taken a regular price increase in the fans’ business. We have seen sometimes that particularly last quarter, we did think that there was a significant lag in several competitors taking these prices increases. We don’t really think these are sustainable and you know, but you know it’s a mix of price increases a stepped-up — stepped-up NPD as well as premium.
Kunal Sheth
And sir, though you mentioned that lot of competitors you know are delaying price hikes. So is that because of any slackness in demand or it’s just a strategy — aggressive pricing strategy that they are trying to follow?
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
I think it’s pretty difficult for us to comment what is the stand the competitor is taking on for their pricing strategy here. From our perspective, as a market leader, we want to drive the market to behave in a particular manner in terms of our portfolio and how we own the prices.
Kunal Sheth
Got it.
Promeet Ghosh
These are — these — these situations come and go. So you got to — you’ve got to be watchful. I can imagine that our peers have also been seeing us grow consistently with the kind of strategy growth on taking price increases as well as industry-leading growth. So sometimes that can have some reaction, but these are kind of stuff that you know, they don’t sustainably change the business.
Kunal Sheth
Sure. Sir, my second question is pertaining to pumps. We mentioned that we have grown 20% in the pump business. How much would have market grown and would we have gained market share in the pumps business?
Promeet Ghosh
See, our pumps business is — in each all of our businesses, what we have — what we are doing is there is the regular market growth and there are a few segments which are growing disproportionately, correct, well-ahead of what the market may be growing at. So in our solar pumps business, as I said earlier, we kind of, I think did about INR42 crores and we’ve already done more than INR100 crores this year itself. But clearly, we are growing quite fast. In — in residential pumps business as well, I would have — I would imagine that we’ve probably gained market share in that business. So yes, is it a dramatic increase in market share? No, but yes, we would be incrementally gaining market share in our core business, which is [Phonetic] and growth has been driven by adding newer areas, which is solar.
Kunal Sheth
Sure. Sir. And my last question…
Operator
[Indecipherable] I think there are too many people on the queue.
Kunal Sheth
Sure, sure. No problem. Thank you so much.
Operator
Then you can come back in the queue.
Kunal Sheth
Sure. Thank you, sir.
Operator
Next question is from the line of Siddhartha Bera. Siddharth, you can go ahead, please just announce your organization name as well.
Siddhartha Bera
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. This is Siddhartha from Nomura. Sir, first question again on the fans’ side, now we have consistently seen healthy double-digit growth for the last many quarters. Some color on this quarter, what is — is the industry growth in line with our or have we grown ahead? And how do you see the remaining part of the year for the fans going ahead?
Promeet Ghosh
Yeah. As you said, we’ve had robust growth in fans. And for the — for the rest of the year, it’s not easy always to say in our business, but I’d say we — we expect to see moderate growth going forward as well, not a big change in the demand scenario between now and the rest of the year is the way we see it. The important thing in these situations is to continue to build on your strengths. This is the key thing that you have to do in our businesses.
So what you will see us do is introduce NPDs. Some of these NPDs we’ve introduced towards the end of last quarter, they are doing very well. So in fact, one of the NPDs that we introduced sold out the — I’m not getting into the details even in the presentations. So these are — these are NPDs that we are finding, which are finding — which are being very well received by the market.
It’s also to simultaneously bolster our non-ceiling fans category where we believe they will be continuing both industry growth and industry-leading growth from our side. So — and while we are doing that, our Unnati project continues a pace. So we will have growth, sustainable growth, leading growth as well as strong profits.
Siddhartha Bera
Got it, sir. Sir, second question on the Light side, you indicated that outdoor and accessory segments has led to the growth picking-up for lights. Did you mention that these were 50% of the light portfolio for us right now? And here also, should we see further step-up given the new products you have launched recently?
Promeet Ghosh
Yes, I would certainly hope so you know, even as we speak you know decorative panels are now our single largest segment. That’s saying says some point for a Company where we’ve been saying that we wanted to increase our ceiling lights portfolio, even as we speak, like I said, they are now the largest segment, which kind of tells you about how fast that business has been growing. And so that’s not to say that we are deemphasizing, but obviously, this is growing at a faster rate than our lamps and patterns business. And similarly, of course, in the outdoor floodlight accessories business, there is again disproportionate growth, right, that is not enough that is not in any way linked to how the market is growing, the significant growth that we are seeing there. I’m very glad to see that the NPD pipeline and our NPD introduction pipeline in lighting has already in fact come into play in the first quarter substantially already. Also, see more of this first and second quarter already, we will also see more in H2, but these are profitable products and these are profit products that are selling.
Siddhartha Bera
Thanks, sir. Lastly, sir, can you share?
Operator
Siddhartha, I would request you to get back in the queue.
Siddhartha Bera
Okay, sure.
Operator
Next question is from the line of Aditya Bhartia. Aditya, you can go ahead.
Aditya Bhartia
My first question is on the Kitchen Appliances segment, wherein you mentioned that on the mixer grinder side, we are now having market dominance. It would be very helpful if you could further build some light on that. And how are we looking at this segment in particular, is it Crompton Plus Butterfly combined? What kind of synergies are we enjoying at this stage between the two entities? That is also something that I’d like to understand.
Promeet Ghosh
Yeah. Our belief is that as we speak, we have a combination of Crompton and Butterfly, the market leadership position in mixer grinders. So — and I believe in some distance, but look, I don’t want to talk too much about what’s happening as we speak because we are now talking about the previous quarter where the strength of the previous quarter in mixer grinders we are — is clearly sustaining. So you know a combination of numbers between Butterfly and Crompton that is going very well. We’ve spoken about this in the past.
The way that we are leveraging of the strengths of each other is Crompton and Butterfly are insofar as the front-end is concerned, we have an independent channel which is how the Butterfly is working differently from Crompton. So Butterfly is doing — is, as you know, a very, very strong brand in South. In the small domestic appliances in the Crompton, we are a much more national brand, particularly strong and also in the West. How we are leveraging off the strengths of each other is [Indecipherable] all its products per se in SDA is now already insourcing it from the Butterfly manufacturing system, which is helping both Butterfly as well as Crompton.
So the back-end is being integrated and helping us. And on the front end, they are [Indecipherable].
Aditya Bhartia
Sir, does that mean that the sales team for the two entities are different at this stage for sitting — for selling kitchen appliances or is there some synergy around that as well?
Promeet Ghosh
No. So we are today continuing to operate at the operate — at the operational level in the sales team in South with a separate Butterfly channel and with a separate Crompton channel, there is — Butterflies don’t have a very much presence outside of the South, there is some combined selling efforts. But substantively these two businesses operate substantially at the front-end.
Aditya Bhartia
Understood. Understood. And sir, my second question is on the pumps business, wherein solar is certainly a growth area for us. If you could just explain to us how — how we positioned versus competition on the solar side? Is it largely bidding-based? How exactly are we getting these tenders? And what kind of opportunity are you seeing in front of you from a two-year, three-year perspective? Is KUSUM scheme also something that you’re excited about?
Promeet Ghosh
Yes, KUSUM scheme clearly is helping us. These are tender-based businesses what helps is that people understand that if a pump is at the heart of a solar pump and that’s made by Crompton then clearly [Indecipherable] consumer experience [Indecipherable]. Therefore, the Crompton brand is helping us grow the solar business we have a partner who helps us with these projects. [Indecipherable] how this business will grow over the next several years. Very often.
Aditya Bhartia
Perfect. That’s very, very helpful, sir. Thank you so much.
Operator
The question is from the line of Bhoomika Nair. Bhoomika, you can go ahead.
Bhoomika Nair
Hi, good evening, sir. Sir, just wanted to understand in terms of the demand trends and specifically from the festive market and also kitchen appliances and how is it really panning out.
And my second question is on Butterfly. We’ve — you were hoping for some improvement in the revenue numbers in the second half. When do we start seeing growth coming back? And is our GTM realignment in terms of the non-profitable aspect kind of now into the base or do we still continue to see that bit of a challenge continuing?
Promeet Ghosh
Well, maybe I’ll give a quick shot at it and then let Swetha answer that. See from our group perspective, it’s been very important for us that we set the fundamentals of the business on a solid — on a solid base, right? And therefore, what you’ve seen in the business is for us to take some tough calls let go even some revenue, if you will, because you can’t make an egg without breaking a few legs. So if you want to scramble an egg, you want to crack a few eggs. And I think the business has done that very well that they have worked on the price laddering, they worked on the terms of trade and that is showing, right, and it is showing that the Butterfly brand is strong because these have been now bigger accepted pretty much by the market.
And it’s certainly my expectation that as we’ve done this, this the revenue growth will also come. It’s not you know I didn’t want to before Swetha picks on this you know specifically, I want to tell you this is also symptomatic of how we’ve consistently dealt with businesses which have required a reset. Lighting is a very similar situation, right? I mean, some quarters ago, we weren’t seeing a strong growth momentum. We didn’t choose to go out and get that momentum suddenly, but we chose to strengthen the fundamentals of the business, build the profitability of the business, and believe that once you have that profitability, you will be able to drive revenues and you are seeing that right. So this is really — if you go about it the other way and don’t grow our business sustainably, then it doesn’t work out very well. So it’s something that we’ve — that is a pretty consistent approach of ours. Yes, Swetha.
Swetha Sagar
So just to elaborate on what just Promeet said. I think the first thing is that fundamentally, I think the approach that we are trying to take for Butterfly is brand first. So keeping brand at the center and the consumer at the center is what we are trying to work out. Our channel strategy, pricing, value chain mapping, you know the cost at which the business operations are happening, exactly like what we’ve been mentioning properly. That’s what is showing us what we have done in Q2.
Second thing is like we have resident [Phonetic] knowledge in Crompton in multiple other operations, also in terms of turning around producers. So that is also coming in hand for Butterfly to look forward for and see what we are — what we think [Indecipherable] I think that’s the way that we are looking at Butterfly.
Bhoomika Nair
Sure. And on the question on the demand train [Phonetic] specifically from a festive, how is it really panning out? Are we seeing green shoots in terms of demand and uptick across categories? Any specific comments where you say segments where you’re seeing a sharper growth, if you can kind of comment on that?
Promeet Ghosh
Why don’t you talk about kitchen appliances and I kind of talk about [Indecipherable].
Swetha Sagar
All right. In kitchen, I think the last few weeks of Diwali have been put in terms of consumer demand, I think they have been positively reassuring us in terms of our offtakes and how the consumer has been responding to the festive. We do see that categories like gas stoves and pressure cookers are doing good for us while we’ve been working very, very strongly in terms of non-electrical businesses have seen sharper demand from the consumer business.
Promeet Ghosh
I think it’s fair to say that the demand outlook or at a broader level is moderate. And as I said earlier, the key thing in these situations is continue to mine the demand strongly in these times and grow in segments, certain segments are disproportionately in order to be able to bolster the overall revenue growth of the Company. As you already heard in pumps, we’ve grown disproportionately in solar, in lighting, we’ve been able to grow our ceiling and our outdoor and accessories business.
In kitchen appliances, we’ve had very strong growth in the mixer grinders. In actually LDA, large domestic appliances, we’ve had very strong non-seasonal growth in air coolers to supplement our — the regular growth that we are anyway getting and so on and so forth. And you know in fans, we’ve had a very robust growth in TPW. So yeah, so you kind of — those are the kinds of tools and levers that you use that you have to keep using.
Bhoomika Nair
Sure. Thank you so much, sir.
Operator
The next question is from the line of Umang Mehta [Phonetic]. Umang, you can go-ahead.
Umang Mehta
Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good quarter. Sir, just wanted to check on pumps. So this quarter, I believe solar pumps contributed a fair chunk of your overall pumps revenues. And still, we’ve seen ECD margins kind of hold up quite well. Also in terms of receivables and inventories, we’ve not seen any kind of build-up. So your initial, I would say, worry about going more aggressive on solar pumps, do you think that’s allayed and possibly you could do much more than what we’ve already seen?
Promeet Ghosh
See each one of these businesses, you have to learn to do the business. So I think we’ve scaled up pretty well in solar pumps. And so — and we’ve done that together with other things that we do well, right? So we continue to work at the back end quite aggressively to continue to work on costs, right, as you know Unnati, right? So we have a longstanding program.
Also, in solar, for instance, we’ve worked on how we bid, right? We’ve been — just because you’re seeing growth doesn’t mean that we’ve gone and bid randomly, right? So what that has translated into is a very good rotation of money in the — in the solar pumps business, so even though they may be government-backed orders, we are getting paid-in time for most part, etc. So that’s — those are the things that you know, we’ve kind of gained more and more confidence and that’s showing up in the way that we are doing the business.
Umang Mehta
Understood. And the second question is on Butterfly, it’s a more of a factual question. So in the base quarter starting 3Q, can we — can we assume that the channel correction which had happened in institutional will be over in the sense last year 3Q was after the channel correction, right? That would be the correct assumption.
Promeet Ghosh
Okay, let me take a shot at it. I’d say, I think we are substantively hurt through done with the journey.
Umang Mehta
Got it. Thanks a lot and all the best.
Operator
The next question is from the line of Achal Lohade. Achal, I will request you to announce your organization name as well.
Achal Lohade
Good evening, team. This is Achal from Nuvama. Thank you so much for the opportunity, sir. First, you know, with respect to Butterfly, since we are on that subject, if you look at 2Q performance, the gross margins is stable while you talked about the price corrections premiumization thing. And we have seen a substantial drop in employee cost and the other expenses. So if you could help us understand in second half because the third quarter will be a seasonally strong quarter, but given the drop-in sales focus on premium products. How do we see the second-half margins and the growth? Because if I do a rough math, I’m seeing a double-digit decline in terms of revenue for the full year and margins up maybe about 2%, 3% to 4%. If you could help us understand the journey from here on in terms of growth and the margins for Butterfly specifically?
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
Achal allows us not to comment on the margin model that we all created, but let us talk about what have we delivered and what are we looking at for the balance of the year. So fundamentally, I think consistently what we have been seeing over the last few quarters is get the unit economics right for Butterfly, which means that we have to ensure that channel priority is brought in place. We had to ensure that pricing actions, including price ups had to be brought in place. And at the same point of time, operating cost needs to be reduced. So what you see as a reduction — production in people cost is also part of some of the actions that we have taken to ensure for a business and size of Butterfly, what is the kind of manpower requirements that you need to handle.
So today, as we stand compared to last year, our EBITDA margins in Butterfly has improved even on a lower revenue base that we have delivered. So that ensures that the health of the business is the right place. I would like you to recollect and go back four quarters back, precisely the statement that we made in lighting, where we said the step one is to get the unit economics right, get the operating parameters right, and ensure that the business is in a healthy shape to invest. What is it going to do for us? The money that we have generated is going to help us to do a brand refresh and repositioning on Butterfly, invest behind NPD, and that will ensure that it will drive growth for the future.
And our priority, as we called out in lighting, here also is — step one is to address the decline and consistently deliver a steady margin and over a period of time, start delivering operating leverage and improvement in margin also.
Achal Lohade
Understood. And the second question I had, you know, with respect to fans, 5% revenue growth YoY. If you could guide us in last 12 months, how much price hike have we taken and also the volume growth, you know for the second quarter. Is it fair to say that volume has been fairly flattish and the most of the growth what you’re seeing is driven by the price hike?
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
No, it is partially volume growth and partially price increase has helped us to grow in Q2. Over the last four quarters almost a year, November last year is when we started taking the price increases. We have been taking bite-sized price increases of about 1.5% to 2% every quarter. At this point of time, between the large product or pricing action is done, unless and otherwise, we see any other reason for us to do with the commodity or other things.
Outlook, as we look at it from a gross margin perspective, the levers that we’re looking at is one, how do we improve further on mix? We called out our ambition in terms of premium brands a long time back. Also, we are looking at Unnati as a continuous lever to see how do we improve the margin model through that.
Achal Lohade
Got it. Thank you. I’ll fall back in the queue for more questions. Thank you so much.
Operator
The next question is from the line of Latika Chopra. Latika, I will request you to announce your organization name as well.
Latika Chopra
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. I’m Latika from J.P. Morgan. You know, a lot of my questions were answered. I wanted to just quickly check with you some color on the channel inventory levels because it seems in appliances, the water heater sales were pretty good for you. Infested this time was a little early as well in place it influences the small appliances business for you. And if you could also comment on how are you looking at the second half for ECD business from a growth perspective you had 13% revenue growth in this quarter. Is this a number that you’re comfortable and you believe all your initiatives on premiumization, channel expansion, new launches are going to sustain this kind of growth? So that was the first question.
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
So, Latika as you know we don’t give forward guidance on [Indecipherable]. But the way we would see it is, I’m answering your first question on-demand plus how are we looking at our business. See, we are a portfolio ECD business. We have fans, we have pumps, we have got large domestic appliances led by geysers and coolers. We have a portfolio of small domestic appliances and then there is large kitchen. And there are varied segments that we have within fans, which is ceiling, non-ceiling, and within ceiling, premium, non-premium, pumps, we are clearly forted into solar and that has been delivering consistent growth for us. As soon far as LDA and SDA are concerned, we have not even tapped the full potential of the geography and channel opportunities that we have.
So in the medium-term to long-run, we don’t have I would say from our perspective, a challenge that we see, we have opportunity to grow and we would expect that in the long-run, as we have been calling out, the business can double in about, say, five years time from now coupled with existing and new categories.
Latika Chopra
So my question was actually on, in this quarter, did you see any early festive-related demand benefit? And if you could also comment on the channel inventory trends? Actually, that was the key question. If you could comment on that, please?
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
See channel inventory, we are in line. We have leverage [Phonetic] channel inventory. We have not had any channel inventory issues as we speak across categories. In terms of festive momentum, it’s just a shift might be for some of our categories. For us, kitchen is the only category which we would see as a large beneficiary of festive momentum. Otherwise, it has got nothing to do with an early festive or a later festive driving a 13% ECD growth for us.
Latika Chopra
Understood. And the second bit was just on Butterfly. We did hear a lot of qualitative comments. And in one of the prior answers, is it right to assume that we are kind of done with this YoY dips [Phonetic] in revenue and now revenues should start to stabilize, or still a little early to call that out? That’s the last question.
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
Yeah. Page 2, we are looking to address [Phonetic] the decline in revenue. By and large, the channel issues that we have to solve for has been solved for.
Latika Chopra
Okay. So even if there is any decline, these will be marginal.
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
That’s right.
Latika Chopra
All right. Thank you so much.
Operator
Next question is from the line of Praveen Sahay. Praveen, I will request you to go-ahead with the question.
Praveen Sahay
Hi, I’m Praveen Sahay from Prabhudas. So I have only one question related to the BIAS transition. As you had already mentioned in the non-ceiling fan and the appliances, you had already transitioned to the BIAS.
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
Yes, we have.
Promeet Ghosh
Yes.
Praveen Sahay
So is there — is there any cost element also associated to that and which you had able to pass on to the prices? And is there a further segments also there where you have to transition yet?
Promeet Ghosh
Yeah, Praveen, actually BIAS transition now are a feature of our business, right? So in business after business and product after product, you will see BIAS transitions being required. The important thing is to get your organization ready to be able to do these in a timely manner. And remember, we are Crompton, right? So if the government shares 4th of September means 4th of September and every product, whether it is coming out of our own manufacturing facilities or out of some outsourced manufacturing facility, those transitions we’d like to see. It’s so far — so there is — it’s something that takes work is requires a fair amount of planning, but I’d say that it’s something that we’ve now got our arms around.
There are the — it’s not to say that there are no cost implications of it. But as you already know, our job is to keep — keep working on costs as we go along and be either able to pass on that you know those costs to the market or be able to optimize cost internally. So that’s how we’ve been dealing with it. We have seen the recent past some of the — some of our peers, the lag in some of these. I think that tends to show up in margins in many cases, but we’ll see how well they are able to sustain it. But from our perspective, we are leaders and we’d like to do what’s right for the business and we do see that paying off very well for us. So we do expect to combine market-leading growth, very strong profit margins, and profit growth.
Praveen Sahay
Fair to assume that you gained out of that as well in terms of market share?
Promeet Ghosh
Tough to say, I can’t. So with regulatory change, you’ve got to make sure that you are on the door [Phonetic], right, whether you gain from it or not depends on whether the government goes out inspecting everybody, whether everybody has changed and adhere to be a strong bunch of other things. But you got to do what you got to do.
Praveen Sahay
Got it, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Operator
The next question is from the line of Harshit Kapadia. Harshit, you can go ahead with your question.
Harshit Kapadia
Hi, thanks for the opportunity, and congrats for a good set of results. So my question is on solar pumps. Some of the competitors have highlighted that they are facing challenges in sourcing the solar panels because it requires a DCR requirement is there. So are you facing some challenges as well from your solar portfolio? That’s the first question.
And second is, on the new product development, would you be able to share how much contribution do you have in each of your product segments for the NPD? Earlier you used to give that data. So that would be of a you know value for us. Thank you.
Promeet Ghosh
The sourcing of solar panels so far hasn’t been a material impediment for us. I don’t know whether we’ve given out NPD numbers. So just.
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
Yeah, we have stopped calling that out in terms of what is our share of NPD are. I think what we believe is that as a part of premiumization and as part of existing replacements, it does come in. But the way we look at it, what is the kind of investments that we are making towards our R&D and innovation. Currently, we are spending about INR100 crores per annum and the aim is to further invest to bring in much more meaningful new products.
Harshit Kapadia
Understood, sir. Thank you and wish you all the best.
Promeet Ghosh
Thank you.
Operator
Due to time constraints, this will be the last question from the line of Indrajit Agarwal.
Indrajit Agarwal
Hey, thank you for the opportunity. I have one question on the solar pump side. Just want to understand, are you bidding it yourself or is it through a partner?
Promeet Ghosh
We bid together with a partner, but we are the lead partner.
Indrajit Agarwal
Sure. And which geographies or which states have you won most of the bids in?
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
Haryana and Maharashtra.
Indrajit Agarwal
Sure. And you’re only doing the pump side of things, right? Rest is all outsourced. In the sense of panel, the EPC, everything, nothing is that you are doing.
Promeet Ghosh
Look, we obviously contribute substantively to the — to the pumps component of the business, but we get a share of the entire paid. So we benefit from the entire size of the order?
Indrajit Agarwal
Sure. That’s all from my side. Thank you so much.
Operator
Yeah. I think sir that was the last question would request if you have any closing comments incrementally [Phonetic], then we can include the call.
Promeet Ghosh
No, well, that’s — thank you for joining. Like I said, I’m delighted with the results that we’ve had, and it’s — looking around the market, I don’t see many companies, whether in our businesses or others which are able to grow their profits at 20% year-on-year growth levels. So that’s you know, that speaks to the kind of leadership that Crompton has and got together with Butterfly across products and the kind of effort that we’ve been putting in solidifying our foundations and strengthening our brand.
And I think it’s also visible the — when we started out a question — there were a bunch of questions about how we were going to go get growth, how we were going to have — how we were going to turn around lighting, what we were going to do with Butterfly and I trust that some of those questions and as you — as we speak are being answered because I can say anything, but you want to see what we deliver and I think we are delivering.
And of course, if you guys have any other further questions do feel free to reach out to our teams. Thank you.
Kaleeswaran Arunachalam
Thank you, guys.