Electronics Mart India Limited (NSE: EMIL) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Feb. 09, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Pavan Kumar Bajaj — Chairman & Managing DirectorChairman & Managing Director
Premchand Devarakonda — Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Aditya Bhatia — Analyst
Siddharth S — Analyst
Devanshu Bansal — Analyst
Ankit Kedia — Analyst
Nimish Shah — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Sa. Foreign. Ladies and gentlemen, you are connected for Electronic Smart India Limited Q3FY earnings call. Please stay on the line the men the conference will begin shortly. Sam. Sa.
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Electronic Smart India Limited Q3NFY 26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participants line 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star and then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. This conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on the date of this call.
These statements are not the guarantees of the future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Karan Bajaj, CEO and promoter. Thank you and over to you sir.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj — Chairman & Managing DirectorChairman & Managing Director
Good evening and a very warm welcome to everyone present on the call along with me. I am Mr. Premier, our chief Financial Officer. We have uploaded our result and investor presentation for the quarter and nine months ended 31st December 25th on the stock exchanges and the company’s website. Hope everyone has a chance to go through it. The quarter began on a positive note with the festive season with Diwali falling in October alongside the implementation of the GST rate cut during the period, while our sales mix remained broadly in the same line with the same period last year, demand across categories, particularly large appliances, was supported by the GST deduction and further aided by festival led consumption.
Importantly, on festival to festive comparison, we delivered a robust growth of approximately 25% indicating a strong underlining demand. At the same time, we saw operating leverage play out resulting in an improvement in operating margins despite the continued additions of new stores. Overall, the absence of a prolonged festive season, we delivered a steady growth performance with the GST card providing an additional tailwind to consumption Trends. During quarter three FY26, we added four new stores, two in NCR region and two in Andhra Pradesh. I would like to highlight that our Andhra Pradesh market has seen a strong recovery, delivering approximately 14% growth in quarter three and we continue to grow our market share.
Over the last two years we have added nearly 100 stores which now accounts for approximately 50% of our total store portfolio. As a result, a significant portion of our network is relatively young and still in the early stages of maturing, yet to reach optimal throughput. Constantly fixed costs such as manpower, marketing and promotional spends are not yet fully absorbed. While finance cost and depreciation remains elevated Partly due to INDA’s 116th adjustment, this has had a short term impact on overall profitability. As these stores continue to ramp up and move up the maturity curve, we expect operating leverages to play out leading to more gradual improvement in profitability and ROIC as they mature.
To give a clear perspective on our store portfolio for 9 months FY26 we operate 219 stores out of which 83 stores are over 4 years old and 136 stores are less than 4 years old. In the first 9 months of FY26 the matured store base generated product revenue of approximately 3523 crores while the newer store contributed to around 1528 crores. From a profitability standpoint, the matured stores continue to demonstrate strong performance with an EBITDA margin of 7% whereas the new stores are currently operating at an ebitda margin of 3%. I would like to highlight our geographical performance.
We witnessed a broad based recovery in demand across our key clusters during this quarter. In quarter three FY26, our core market of Hyderabad delivered a year on year revenue growth of 6.4% with SSG of 3.3% supported by the revival of real estate projects across Hyderabad which had impacted performance in FY25. In the Telangana pantry market, revenue grew by 2%. Andhra Pradesh reported a strong performance with a revenue growth of 18.2% and an SHG of 4.9%. Lastly, our NCR cluster continued to scale up well recording a revenue growth of 30% along with an SSG of 7.1%.
Turning to cluster wise profitability, we continue to maintain a healthy EBITDA margin of around 6% in our southern cluster despite 70% of our new stores being added across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the past two years. We are also pleased to share that our NCR operations remain EBITDA positive on a nine month basis delivering an EBITDA margin of around 0.5% translating to around 2 crore rupees. This performance would have been stronger for the nine months ended that if we have experienced normal summer season up north, we expect margins in the region to improve further as we continue to enhance store level throughput which will drive better absorption of fixed costs such as land, power, marketing, rentals.
Moving to category specific performance in terms of contribution, large appliances accounted for about 42% revenue in quarter three FY26 and around 43% in the nine months FY26, a positive trend we are observing at the store level. Following the GST deduction is a gradual shift in consumer preferences toward large televisions and high value appliances such as front loading washing machine and dishwashers. Notably, washing machines were demand had remained stagnant over the last four quarters registered a growth of approximately 11% during the current quarter. We are also seeing an increased traction in newer categories such as dishwasher, air coolers and other categories.
This growing presence of premium products has helped us sustain our average selling price during quarter three FY26. Coming to the mobile categories mobile contributed to around 44% of our total revenue in both quarter three FY26 and the nine months of FY26. The mobile phone segment recorded a growth of approximately 10% in quarter three FY26. Looking ahead, we believe that the category is entering the next phase of demand driven by upcoming technologies, upgrades and feature enhancements. Several OEMs are actively working on the next generation AI enabled devices which we expect will further simulate consumer interest and support growth in both ASPs and volumes.
This positions us well to benefit as the replacement and upgrade cycle gains momentum. We believe the broader environment remains supportive. GST rates have come down and the government also reduced income tax lapse previously which is expected to boost disposable income. Together these factors are likely to create a compounding effect on consumption and drive long term structural demand for consumer durables. Several categories in our portfolio continue to remain unpenetrated offering significant growth potential. As our newly opened stores mature and reach steady state performance, we expect margins to progressively normalize, setting a strong foundation for sustained and profitable growth in the years to come.
With this I request Mr. Princess Devrakonda, our CFO to update you on the financial performance. Thank you all.
Premchand Devarakonda — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Karan Sir. Good evening and warm welcome to all the participants. Now moving on to the financial performance of Q3 and 9 months of FY26. First I would like to start with Q3FY26 performance. Our revenues for the quarter stood at Rupees 1939.7 crores versus Rupees 1805 crore in Q3FY25 a growth of 8%. EBITDA for Q3FY26 stood at Rupees 119 crore versus 102 crores in Q3FY25 witnessing a growth of 17%. EBITDA margin for Q3FY26 stood at 6.1% versus 5.6% of the last year. Pre index EBITDA for Q3FY22 stood at Rupees 82 crores. With a margin of 4.2% PAT.
Including exceptional items for Q3. FY26 stood at Rupees 30 crore. Same store sales growth for Q3FY26 was 2.54%. Now moving on to 9 months of FY26 financial. Our revenues for 9 months of FY26 stood at Rupees 5270 crores versus 5067.1 crore in 9 months. FY25 a growth of 4% EBITDA for 9 months. FY26 stood at Rs.311 crore. EBITDA margins for 9 months FY26 stood at 5.9% Pre index EBITDA for 9 months FY26 stood at Rupees 204 crores. With a rate of 3.9% PAT. Including exceptional items for 9 months FY26 stood at rupees 67 crore. For 9 months FY26 SSSV stood at 0.19%.
ROCE and ROE on an annualized basis for 9 months FY26 stood at 11% and 5.8% respectively. The working capital days as on 31st December 25th stood at 60 days. Pre indirect cash flows from operations as on 31st December for the 9 month period stood at Rupees 500 crore. With this now I open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch tone 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 is from the line of Aditya Bhatia from Investec. Please go ahead.
Aditya Bhatia
Hi. Good evening, sir. So my question is on SSSG growth in upcountry Telangana wherein it appears to. Be a little on the weaker side. I think there’s been a slight decline on an SSSG basis. And even I mean from a slightly longer term perspective we are not really seeing that business scaling up. That. That part of the business scaling up very sharply. So what’s the outlook in that region and what. What do you attribute the SSSG decline to?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Hi. So if you actually look at the number it is when we look at category wise sales or if you look at the overall number, firstly the revenues are up but with the marginal 2% up, including the new 6, 7 stores that we opened up compared to last year, quarter 3. But if you look at overall demand, there’s a little slowdown. So I would not attribute or, you know, be at, you know, a spot where, you know, we want things are under control, we are not losing market share. You know how the productivity portion is going on.
So if you look at the overall sentiment of the market, a little weaker compared to the other clusters that we’re operating in today. So I would attribute that degrowth to that. But if you look at overall number, there was a good positive sign in January as well in that cluster. And this is predominantly the other categories. The cooling product is not started yet at the full pledge. But looking at the big days of January, looking at the festival there of Sankrantri, Pongali and 26 January did really perform well there. So I think it is a matter of time.
So we will definitely see a positive SSG in the quarter four there. Perfect.
Aditya Bhatia
And my next question was on the demand trends that you are seeing in January pretty much across the country and how things shaping up between north and south clusters in January.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So things look good for now. No complaints. I think we have finished the bad quarter that we had in the last financial year and I think we’re only looking for the positive upside coming in the coming quarters, especially with the AC base being or the cooling product base being quite low in the last quarter, the last few quarters. I think the coming summer quarters are going to be good. So no complaints of that. We’re already ready for it. So we started buying and started shelving our stores with the newer inventory for the new rating as well.
So I think we are quite optimistic on the upcoming season.
Aditya Bhatia
Perfect. That’s helpful, sir. Thank you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one at this time to ask a question. Please press star and one. Now the next question is from the line of Siddharth s from Vitta Money. Please go ahead. Siddharth. You can go ahead.
Siddharth S
Thanks a lot for the opportunity here. So I would just like to understand that, you know, this could be in, you know, previous, you know, two, three quarters and I’m just taking you through the, you know, previous two, three quarters. But so it was said that, you know, since there was a lot of, you know, credit scrutiny going around, there was a lot of, you know, issues or the sanctions of the credits that was, you know, issued as a proportion of funded was going lower because banks were Rejecting a lot of, you know, what do you say the EMI eligibility of customers due to strict underwriting policies.
Just want to understand how is the, you know, how is the outlook on that or how is it, you know. Going on right now?
Siddharth S
Because most of the credit, most of the sales that’s being, you know, done or you know, sanctioned by you is going to be credit scale, credit sales only. And this could be an important factor, you know, impacting the same. We just want to understand that note. And how would the you know, since you, since you guys have been on, you know, very good the 3 of expansions and there has been a lot of expansion that’s been, you know, going on. How would you give us, give us an outlook in terms of you know, how the future expansions is going to be and when are these stores respectively you know going to contribute to the, you know, revenues respectively as majority of the stores right now are non maturity stores.
So yeah.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
To answer your first question, usually every year after the two big seasons of festival and the summer season we would see a little slowdown in approval rate from the NBFCs. That is a normal trend in the industry. So definitely after Diwali we did see that trend going a little slower. But then it usually once like the Christmas day always starts off well and now they are, you know, they already would get ready with the upcoming summer season. So that is a trend that we see always with approval rates go a little lower, not too low.
But you know, I think going back again to the summer coming upcoming season we’ll have a higher approval rate coming back on all through all the NBFCs. So that is how it works for them. And for your second question on future expansion, currently we are looking at opening the set number of stores in ncr, AP and Telangana that are lined up already in the pipeline yet to open up. So. So by the 31st of March or maximum second week of April, we’ll have additions of new stores in this geography which were already under construction or already for which we’ve signed up.
And as we stick to our plan of further expansion into a new territory that probably after the quarter one is when we would venture out into the new geography that we are currently looking into. Could be Orissa, could be western up and some of the newer markets are exploding right now. So between me and the teams we are looking at a further newer cluster that we will definitely add up in probably the quarter two or the quarter three of FY27.
Siddharth S
Okay. Okay, got it. So I just, I did get some clarity on this I just have two follow up questions on the mlcn. Right. So the next thing would be a majority of makes up, you know, it is made up of, you know, white goods and electronics. So the thing is that, you know, when we, you know, look at AC as in, you know, good in terms of the sales, they there is some reports or there is some studies suggesting that this summer is not as hot as it is expected to be in the, you know, previous years going ahead. How would you think, you know, that would impact the acts of the company in general? Or what is your outlook from, you know, on, you know, as an opinion of yours or something.
So that’s one question from my end. The next thing is that there is a lot of talks going around in terms of, you know, the increase in RAM prices is going to, which is going to translate into a higher say, you know, final sale price of the, you know, mobiles and other electronics. Since electronics also makes up a huge mix of your, you know, books at the moment sales books at the moment, what do you think is going to be the impact in general that that can be attributed to the price increase in the electronics and the slower than expected, you know, summer this quarter which will essentially how can it have an impact on the AP sales as well?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Okay, so I wish what you said is not true that the summer sales are not going to be good. Let’s not hope for that. But what we experienced last year in the quarter one or say mid of March, we got the flavor of the weather not supporting us for the season. But that being a low point, I would still put in the base at that level and expect at least some growth from that number from there on. I think that is also delivered at a higher number from the last year’s base. I think it’s sorted.
We don’t need to look at a 70, 80% kind of a jump. Right. So we are still optimistic on the category because the penetration is still very low. The new rating has also come in. We don’t see a drastic increase in pricing from the AC brand. It is a nominal price increase and that too gets mitigated with the EMI offers and the cashback that the brands provide during the summer period. So I think we’re looking at an optimistic sale and we are ready to go ahead for the season and we’ve aligned our inventory accordingly so that, you know, we are not.
Siddharth S
Sorry to interrupt just to start with that. So you’re also positive in terms of how the underwriting is going to be from the NBFCs and banks. Right. Coming up on the quarters as well.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Yeah, absolutely. So the NBFCs are also ready. So currently all the NBFCs that we work with, IDFC, Badaj, Finserv, HDB so all are lined up and geared up for the season as well. So you know, so they’re also looking forward because a cooling product on a whole contributes to a bigger book size for them as well. Yeah, yeah, correct.
Siddharth S
So you expect them to have some soft underwriting colleges in general unlike how it was, you know, multiple quarters done.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, got it.
Siddharth S
So I did get some. So in general you’re also positive on how the AC sales is going to roll out in general considering the fact that, you know, they’re not going to hopefully not see, you know, worse season in terms of the, you know, slow down in the AC segment.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Correct, correct, correct. Because last year but the January also seen a positive uptrend in the category, you know but last year if I actually attribute the AC sale in quarter four it was majorly February and couple of weeks in the March month that did well. But then after that after March 20th we definitely saw downfall up till May. So usually that is the peak season for us for AC sell out, AC and cooling product sellout. But hopefully this year we though might have a longer winter in place but so we expect a longer summer going forward or at least summer with no rains in between.
Siddharth S
Got it, got it, got it. Just a follow up as I you know already I just like to reiterate on the question of how do you feel the RAM prices which as an expectation they’re saying the mobile and the electronic price in general is expected to go by 8 to 10 percentage and there’s a lot of, you know, proxy companies and the companies which is, you know, directly, you know that can be impacted by the, you know, sales is expected to see some slowdown. How do you view that and what is your outlook in general, how we are going to navigate or how the numbers are going to play out for the electronics segment in general?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Right now we don’t see a drastic change in the pricing from any OEMs right now. It could be a minuscule change going forward but as I told you earlier, EMI schemes are available up to 24 months. Brands are forwarding that there cashback offers. There are one EMI off, two EMI off coming in from the OEMs as well. So eventually the price is going to be in line with what it is currently operating at. So there would be a major jump there as well because a lot of these OEMs do absorb the cost as well so not necessary that they always keep on increasing the price to the end consumer.
Siddharth S
Okay, okay, okay, understood. So in general it is also expected to have a good view and just to catch you on the last point that you’re also saying that apart from the soft underwriting there is also a lot of you know, customer friendly policies that are going to come up like cash back and lot of you know, offers in general to incentivize the customers.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So until unless there is a new technology change, for example if it is like a 4k technology moving towards 8k you know or something better in any phone devices with the AI coming in. So if there is a new add on a technology, definitely the price goes up. But apart from that there is no price increase for like to like product.
Siddharth S
No, I just asked it on the front of the memory and RAM which is the existing same technology of you know, electronics just upgrading due to the ramp price hike in general which was observed and which is a hot talk that’s going on in market.
Siddharth S
So yeah I did get it definitely. As a last question I’d like to know which are the major NBFC’s partners or you know, major bank partners that you guys have tied up with and in terms of who basically you know, let’s take account of funded and you know there is going to be critic sales of you guys in general with nbfc your banks takes up the major, you know, major portion of the customers of yours who have availed for the EMI service engine as a mix. I would like to understand that for some better clarity.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So the NBFCs that are prevalent in our industry, consumer durables are badass fincell, they’re the biggest players. So our share or any retailer share is in line with what they are as market leaders number one. Number two would be IDFC then would be sdb, ICICI and you know, TVS Finance especially for mobile phones in a few of the market. So that IDFC is not present in a lot of upcountry stores for example. So then it is there it is Bajaj and HDB tvs, you know. So it all depends on the market reach of these NBFCs would have but predominantly the four or five companies that are prevalent in the market across all retailers.
Siddharth S
Okay, can you just take me through who that SDB is? I’m unaware, I’m unaware of all the.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Other parties Bank HDB is a subsidiary of HDFC Bank.
Siddharth S
Oh, okay, okay, okay. Got it, got it.
Siddharth S
Sure, sure. Okay, so yeah. So thanks a lot of. Thanks a lot for the clarity product from your end and I’m looking forward, you know, for the upcoming, I mean, you know, business to go well and yeah, hopefully it is expected to do so. Thank you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you. Just pray for. Pray for the summer to go well. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Avez Bakshi from Sundaram Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi sir. Thank you for taking my questions. Am I audible? Yes, please. So just first question on the pricing side. You mentioned that the new BE pricing are in. So what’s the differential sir, right now versus the earlier skills? I think, I think it’s not much. It is, it is like 11 2% plus or minus and not more than that. Okay, so just one, you know, follow up here. Given that the price differential is not much versus others, wouldn’t it somewhere affect the sale of existing, you know, non BE products in our portfolio? What’s your sense of that?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So like, so if the difference on pricing is not but the rating and you know, so if you’re comparing it, the lineup right now is still in the transition of having a complete range of the new BE rating on the storefront because it is hardly a month in because the production plus the stock are not completely available across all brands. So and then we also are left with some older inventory though we started buying the newer ones now, but we are left with some older inventories also. So by say in the summer season is not picked up yet.
So if I look at second week of March, that is when we’ll have a complete transition of the newer models on the floor store front. So by then it will be hardly, you know, left with some 10, 20,000 units that will sell through the summer period after that.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, and so just one question here. On the overall inventory, what would be. The AC inventory right now? In our system right now, AC we’ve. Already picked up for the season, right? So we are already at the same current levels of usually what we would have for our beginning of summer season. Reason. So a little upwards of 300,000 units. No, no, no. One second, one second. Yeah. So in terms of units, we are around 250000 units ready for the summer season. 250000 units. Got it. And this will be more or less norms, right?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Sorry, sorry, I didn’t get your question.
Unidentified Participant
At these, these 250000 units, this will not be the new be normal, right?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
This will be almost 50% of this inventory is the Newer rating.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Yeah, understood. Also just one more question. In terms of discounting intensity this quarter, what was the status coming in from say the September quarter to December? Any changes there?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Sorry, I didn’t hear you. Can you repeat your question please? Sure.
Unidentified Participant
In terms of discounting intensity, September we had a higher incident of discounting, right. Given the GST etc. So is that continued in December or that intensity has cool off?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Not. No, no. So that was up till the Diwali would end up probably the first week of October. That’s when Diwali ended up. And then after that we did see increase in pricing again. Or the discounting was reduced to the minimum during that period again.
Unidentified Participant
Understood sir, those are the questions from my end. Thank you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1. The next question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from MK Global. Please go ahead.
Devanshu Bansal
Hi Karan, thanks for the opportunity. Karan. Hyderabad cluster has seen a good pickup over the last couple of quarters. So wanted to check what is the confidence on sustainability of this growth for this cluster. You did mention that some of the real estate projects are picking up. But if you could give some confidence on the sustainability of this trend.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Hi. So if you look at definitely there’s no store addition in this cluster, you know we already captured the market here. The market would organically grow from year on. But the newer product categories like dishwashers, you know audio is picked up here. Axis are doing really well. The attachment has definitely gone out especially in mobile phones and televisions. And post the cut down on GST we have definitely seen an uptrend on the sellout on televisions. So looking at that number I think going forward but not a big jump from here on I think it will be in line with what the numbers are for this clusters SSG would remain under 3, 4% kind of a number.
So I think that on such a big base that kind of an SSG without new store opening, all mature stores, I think it is a good sign that you know it is sustainable for the coming quarters as well.
Devanshu Bansal
Fair enough, fair enough. And from Delhi perspective sir, the growth is a tad lower. Right? 7,8% SSG. While this cluster particularly should see very high SSG just because the majority of sources relatively lower. What’s your expectation from this cluster? Maybe going into FY27. What is the kind of growth minimum we should see in this cluster?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So if you actually see Delhi would also have an extended, you know, cooling product sale which we didn’t see this Year at the level that we would see in the previous year would actually put a little sig growth slowdown to that as well. But overall, if you see our contribution on the premium is definitely increasing there. The ASPs are going up, the ticket sizes are going up buy and wide. And especially for the new stores that we opened up are in the major classes like Janakpuri, Pitampura and Gulf Coast Road. So I think in Faridabad we opened a store recently.
So the new stores that are there actually are more prevalent in more bigger clusters. So the SAG that you see a drop in, especially for older markets like you know, Daria Gans, Karol Bagh or in Punjabi Bagh, where the market size has not increased much, you know, because there are no new construction in that area. So the market size demands muted there, the growth in the market size. So overall I think if you look at the number, it is up by 30%. But I think in the coming quarters you will definitely see a higher growth coming in from this region.
Because on a daily level when we look at the sales, January also did very well for us in that cluster or every weekend that we look at the sales from every productive store, it’s growing by and by. So we are quite impressed on the growth coming in. But definitely Delhi would need another year or so to stabilize further. And at the same time a good summer season would boost the sales from there on because it would create a huge customer base for us during the summer period as well.
Devanshu Bansal
So just to better understand, are you indicating that maybe FY27 would also be like a breakeven kind of year for Delhi market or we will see some kind of profitability?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
We will definitely see a profitable FY27 in Delhi. But what I was suggesting was that if we have a great summer in that region, then you will see a better profitable margin for that cluster.
Unidentified Participant
And sir, lastly I noticed that the mental levels are about 15 days higher versus last year. You did mention that you’re stocked up for the upcoming season, but that would be the case last year as well. Right. So I wanted to check as in. Because in the channel also every player would be having higher inventory this time around. So any opinion in terms of say competitive intensity from sale of these cooling products in the upcoming season, can that impact our margins to some extent?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
The margins, just to answer your first question, yes, you will definitely see an increase in number of days of inventory. But that is in line with what we had planned, especially with the television stocks because we picked up a lot of television Stocks post Diwali as well because the sellout was good and we were seeing of course a drop in gst. There were shortage on the stock so we had to pick up a little more stocks there and definitely as we were sitting on a higher inventory of air conditioners but compared to that particular year quarter on the in FY25 we would not see you know the inventory of ACs at that level.
So ACs of inventory were lower but the purchase would start off in January or so. So that is why you would see that number coming in quarter four rather than quarter one for cooling products. So this would include a little bit of ACs that were still stuck from the summer of FY25. Q1.
Devanshu Bansal
No. Anything on the competitive intensity? Sir, do you foresee there may be some extra discounts that we may have to offer.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
That is in line. So that is in line. So whatever wherever it is needed to discount especially to liquidate the stocks of AC that we, whatever support we got additionally from the brand is what was passed on. So we didn’t go ahead and discounting a lot from our end. 1% here or there in terms of gross margins for that product category. But everything else remains intact.
Devanshu Bansal
So just to summarize so FY27 Ideally if summer goes well should see return of double digit growth in the business. Hopefully.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Hopefully.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay. Okay, fair enough. Thank you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankit Kedia from Philip Capital. Please go ahead.
Ankit Kedia
You mentioned that you know festive saw 25 growth but X festive the growth would have been pretty much flat or low single digit. So what happened in expressive days that the growth was so dismal While investive it’s a 25 growth if I add quarter to quarter three together.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So Sanket, firstly there was see there was nine, 10 days of split between quarter two and quarter three in terms of the festival sale Dasera up to Navaratri and all went up to the quarter two. Whereas beginning of Dasera till Diwali was in quarter three and by the first week of November we were done with the season. So post that November definitely saw a huge drop you know between usually see so it was no surprise to us but the recovery which was say two weeks or three weeks down of slowdown of sale went up to almost second week of December.
That’s when we started seeing an uptrend coming back again and then the Christmas and newer sales were really fantastic. So that is what you would see usually as a trend. But there were no external Factors for us to push the sales back, especially after the festival period when they grew at 25% and the offers were really great. So they were really on the televisions and appliances as a category. They were huge discounts, cashbacks, freebies, offers from the manufacturers which ended up by the first week of November. Right. So definitely you would see a lot of free point sale also getting booked during that period for the offers that were on the floor for the manufacturers.
So these are normal trends. But I think the recovery was a week later, 10 days later in November, December transition and picked up after second week of December. That’s when we saw the uptrend in all categories pushing up to the first week of January.
Ankit Kedia
But even quarter to quarter three together is just 12% growth. Right. And if festive is 25% growth, that too because of the GST push which came in. And you know, going forward, if summer is just normal and not very harsh, do you think double digit growth rate can come back?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So if you look at the trend that is going on right now, there is nothing that is going to stop us from that or the market trends that would have seen for quarter one, quarter two, quarter three, FY25 versus what we anticipate going forward is quite positive than what has happened in the past. And if I look at the base on the cooling product categories, Feb and March last year was, you know, very normal sale that I would look at that is very organic that we would do rather than, you know, not attributing it to a double digit or a higher number of growth.
Because if I break up and give you that number, January last year we did 38 crores, February was 104 crores, March was 168 crores. So it was around 340, 350 odd crores in quarter four which we see that that’s going to definitely grow on in the quarter four this year. And going forward, April was really bad again and there was no sale practically in May and June again in quarter one last year. So I think we’re quite positive. Same thing with refillators or air coolers. They were practically next to zero in terms of what we would deliver during that period.
So we’re quite optimistic on how the season is going to pan out. But this time we’re a little cautious on inventory pile up so that even if the season goes at a double digit growth, we still don’t need to suffice our need for high inventory risk that we had throughout the FY25 year.
Ankit Kedia
My second question is on the Delhi market, it’s been three years for the first six stores which we opened. Right. We will complete three years. Now when do you think would be the right trajectory for us to achieve company level margins from a Delhi market perspective? I’m not looking at the full break even because obviously you’re continuing to expand stores in the region, but at least the earlier stores which we have opened, the first 10, 12 stores, where do you think they can break even?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So the. If I look at those numbers, they’re quite, quite optimistic and quite positive on the throughput that you would expect from them. So I think if you look at, I think if we do this same question at the end of quarter one, I think we’ll have a better answer for this because we’ll have a good summer and hoping that Delhi is going to have a good summer this year. Then we’ll have a. We’ll understand how the contribution of cooling products in Delhi as a market can change the whole game compared to what it happens in the southern market.
So the throughput is going to be surprising, the need for a few quarters there. So that is how it’s going to be. And hopefully by quarter two, FY27, we should see that numbers going up in terms of profitability from that region.
Premchand Devarakonda
So from a store economics perspective earlier you had clearly mentioned that it takes three years for the store to break even. Right. And more than that actually to achieve company level margins. Now, do you think as a unit economic, given the competitive intensity and the season change which is more frequent now and dependence on season change is much higher, do you think that unit economics doesn’t hold true today for the new stores opening or you still stick your neck out and say no, in three years for the new stores we can retrieve or achieve company level margin.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
We stick to the same concept and the same numbers. They’re still prevalent. If you look at the numbers, if I break down Delhi in terms of the first six to eight stores that we opened up in August 22, they are in line with the same number. But then the attribution majorly in Delhi as a region, if you look at comes at the depreciation and interest level because the cost is a little higher because we did a lot of capital investment in buying a property there. But if I look at the store level EBITDA or if I look at the store level performance for these stores, the store economics for the set of eight stores, in fact the other ones that we opened up also are showing up results much sooner than expected.
So you know the burn is much lesser. The marketing cost is all divided, absorbed between all the stores. So if I look at the revenue going up there it is a matter of the delta coming through which is definitely you will see not only for the set of eight stores which are three years old but even for the newer ones that we recently opened up in the coming quarters.
Aditya Bhatia
Sure. Karan, I don’t know if you answered this question on store opening. I joined late. Just wanted to know for this year and for next year what is the store opening guidance we are giving this year?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
This quarter we’ve ended up opening another four more stores. So the store count definitely from 219 will buy if I, if I finish the making of the stores which summer is usually when we, if you, if you remember every 31st or 30th of March every year we add up at least 7 inch stores so that is in line. So in case we finish making the stores both up north and down south we will add up another five to six stores by the end of March. That is the plan probably if not in first week of April but once the quarter ends, the first quarter ends in FY27.
That’s when we plan to venture out to a new geography. Either could be Odisha, could be western up and we are evaluating a couple of more areas there up north also. So if things work out we will definitely after the good summer season we’ll definitely venture out to a new geography as well.
Ankit Kedia
So this year the store opening is lower than last year on gross basis also if not net. Is this a conscious call because of summer being poor this year?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Absolutely. So we have to, we have to make sure that you know the store count that were added last year we were seeing. No at the same time see Delhi was a newer market for us. So if you look at Delhi store tier 3, four towns where we were not present currently we are all present in the markets that you look at so organically if you look at there are one two markets left in AP and Telanganas where we are adding up. So and it’s not just to increase the store per se this number but we have to evaluate the market, make sure the markets are big enough.
In fact after a very long time Hyderabad might see another two or three stores coming up in the next couple of quarters. So we are looking at areas in the peripheries of Hyderabad to add up new stores because that is where the market would demand them. And right now if you look at the stores which are in pipeline there will be similar number of stores But a lot of these stores, especially the stores in Delhi, took a longer time to finish because of the grab again there, which happened every year. So we got delayed with the stores.
So if you see Faridabad, second store and Budvihar is what we were able to end up opening up. But if I look at the pipeline there, again we have six to seven stores in the pipeline in Delhi which are getting ready, which will open up in the coming time. So the overall expansion plan that we had is in line with around say 20 or stores that we opened up this year. Another 10 probably will add up in the next couple of months. So I think definitely we were cautious after the bad summer that went through, we were cautious not to, otherwise by now we’d have been into a new geography.
And automatically you’ve seen a much higher additional store count with the new geography as well.
Ankit Kedia
So if the summer is poor this year, the new geography can get delayed for the.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
No, no, no. Irrespective of how the summer pans out, we are ready to expand further.
Ankit Kedia
The last year you delayed. So I’m just thinking that this year, again, could you believe the summer is bad?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
No, no. Irrespective of how the summer panels are, we are ready for it. And we, and we hope that all of you also pray that, you know, the summer goes well because, you know, an optimistic, you know, mindset. But it would definitely change the weather for us.
Ankit Kedia
And from Odisha or Western up, between the two clusters which you would plan to add, where do you think is the biggest opportunity and where is the less competition for you?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So apart from this, we are definitely evaluating a lot of other regions in and around southern markets as well as some Western and eastern markets as well. So because we have time on hand, we’ve got one more quarter to go. So we are. Because Western up will be more organic because we already are present in Noida, greater Noida. From there on, expanding into Western UP is much easier. But both Odisha and Western UP will not be more than a 10 store count. That will increase our footprint in the geography. So apart from that, because we’ll be ready to expand further by the quarter three next year.
So we wanted to make sure that we at least enter one more new geography on, on a newer cluster altogether.
Ankit Kedia
And obviously they will not be ownership model like we went in Delhi. Right. Because I don’t think they would have such flagship location. We would need to invest.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Exactly, exactly. And most of the market would have lower enters, longer leases available until. Unless, you know, there is an opportunity for us. But Majority of them are going to be in fact in Delhi as well. Also if you see now the periphery Buddh we are we opened Faridabad one more store all around rental only that we are trying to open apart from the stores that we already procured which are under construction like sake is under construction to stolen golf course are under construction scratch we bought the land out. Apart from that there’s no new further acquisition up north as well.
Ankit Kedia
My last question if I may. On the average, you know as ticket signs, do you think the price cuts taken or the discounting given is impacting SSSG growth overall or do you think volumes today are good enough to sustain the drop of the promotions which have been offered by the brands?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Definitely the volumes are good enough. That’s it. So more than the value trend, we definitely see a very constant volume growth as well across all categories. So that is an upside, right? But then as a technology seller that how do you upscale your product value as well in case the values remain constant or the values keep degrowing? That’s what we always keep discussing that we push customers to more premium especially after post GST drop in the televisions. Even in tier 34 town cities we’ve seen the penetration of 75 inches and above also growing drastically. Front loading.
Going front loading and nothing to do with washing machine. Also I’ve seen a drastic change from semi automatic or automatic towards front loading. Dishwashers have become prominent dishwashers though the category is small. But since the drop in GST month on month we’ve seen 100% growth in the category. But the base was very small. But overall we see a good volume demand setting up across all categories. So that is a good positive.
Ankit Kedia
Sure. Karan, thank you so much. I’ll come back in the queue.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you Amit.
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, you are requested to limit your questions to two per participants. The next question is from the line of Nimish Shah from Fortune Finance. Please go ahead.
Nimish Shah
Hi, this is Nimisha here. I had a question which doesn’t relate so much to the operations but just a very quick one. You know about 18 months back you had 16 or 18 months back you had offloaded. The Sami had offloaded equity at around 220. 230 rupees to SBI and Mirai or some such fund. The stock price has not reached that level then for a variety of reasons and we won’t go into that at a price of 100. Don’t you think you all should be doing some form of creeping acquisition at Least for tokenism or for confidence building measures for shareholders who have stuck on.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Nimish. Good evening. And I think you have raised the point where we. Not only today, but every month, every investor meet, every quarter, cfo, me, the team, dad, everybody keeps discussing it. But I mean, I don’t know what is right or what is wrong because we get a mixed review on this of giving, you know, you know, news out in the market that we would be picking up something or, you know, continue the same way. It is always a mixed review that we’ve got. But just to answer your question, personally, I would say 65% of the company still owned by us.
So that itself is, you know, a good.
Nimish Shah
I understand, sorry for butting in, but I understand where you’re coming from. I know 65% is a very, very robust and a very, very healthy equity stakeholder. So your skin is completely in the game. I’m not taking away anything from that. You know, my only point, if you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Guarantee me that if I put some money in the table tomorrow, if it’s gonna, you know, help somebody or you know, give out a positive.
Nimish Shah
Yeah, yeah, 100, 101. You know, at 225.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
A lot of other people when I discuss that, I mean, like, tell me one thing.
Nimish Shah
No, no, no, no. Let’s cut this chase. You know, tell me one thing. How will it harm the anybody if you buy your own shares, maybe 2 lakh shares or 3 lakh shares at 100 rupees? It just gives me confidence that the promote I bought at 225, okay, the price has not reached that level. Today the promoter sold at 225. Today the price is 100. Promoter feels that if his promoter is buying at 100, so obviously he sees some value at 100. It just inspires me to buy more at 100, you know, that’s about it.
This cannot harm you. Can, we can ask 100 analysts. I’ve been in this business, business since 40 years, you know, in investment banking at Fortune, you know, so I.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Let me complete. I’ll answer your question. I would love.
Nimish Shah
Sorry, sorry. Please, go ahead. No, no, no, no. All yours. Yeah, please.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
After that thing, it is, it is a number that we also have lost. So whenever we. It’s been four quarters since the time, you know, we have discussed this with multiple investors. So I usually, it is like, you know, promoters, that’s what. I also had an intent of picking up something. But then always a confusion statement that I got that sir. It would create a confusion out in the market. But as you said correctly, if you feel that like you. A lot of other people have said yes, but a lot of other ones that I spoke to also said no.
So I always had a mixed review of whether to go ahead with that or not because the money that we’ve raised is still lying with us. You know, it’s not that I’ve invested in 10 other companies where I’ve lost money or doing something else or I’m into real estate. This is the only business that we do. The money is lying with us. I can definitely pick up a stake back to give the confidence to the market. And if time permits, I will definitely take in. Once we finish a couple of more investor rounds, investor meetings in the coming months, I would definitely take a call and much sooner than that, probably before the end of quarter one result, we would definitely have positive news on this as well.
Nimish Shah
Yeah, it’s just tokenism. It’s a confidence building budget. I get your point. I get your point. I get your point. Yeah. You know, and you know it’s you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Nothing to do with. So that too, see it is, it is personal to me but nothing to do with, you know, what signals the market takes it positive or negative. But it is a token of appreciation to the market that we are still there with you and we are gonna, you know, turn things around. Definitely work harder from where we are today. And you give a positive sign to the market.
Premchand Devarakonda
Absolutely something. The owners of this restaurant also eat here. You know, this helps us, You know, it won’t move the needle if you buy 4 or 5 lakh shares, you know, that’s it.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Definitely, definitely point taken on that.
Nimish Shah
And all the best in your endeavors, you know.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you. Thank you very much.
operator
Thank you. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. That was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
I would like to thank you all for joining the call. I hope that we were able to answer all your questions and for any further queries you may get in touch with us or our SGA team. We will be happy to address all your queries. Thank you once again.
operator
On behalf of Electronic Smart India limited that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.