Electronics Mart India Limited (NSE: EMIL) Q4 2025 Earnings Call dated May. 20, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
Pavan Kumar Bajaj — Chairman & Managing Director
PREMCHAND DEVARAKONDA — CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Karan Bajaj — Chief Executive Officer
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Manoj Gori — Analyst
Percy Panthaki — Analyst
Devanshu Bansal — Analyst
Rajiv Bharati — Analyst
Yash Sonthaliya — Analyst
Aliya — Analyst
Sakshi Waikar — Analyst
Akhil Parekh — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q4FY25 earnings conference call of Electronic Smart India Limited. Before we begin, a short disclaimer. This conference call may contain forward looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of of the company is on date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.
Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on attached on phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Karan Bajaj, CEO of Electronic Smart India Limited. Thank you and over to you sir.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj — Chairman & Managing Director
Thank you. Good evening and a very warm welcome to everybody present on the call. Along with me I have Mr. Premchand Devarakonda, our Chief Financial Officer. We have uploaded our results and investor presentations for the quarter and full year ended FY25 on the stock exchanges and the company’s website. Hope everyone had a chance to go through the same despite the challenging environment. During FY25 our revenue stood at 6965 crores, a growth of 11%. EBITDA stood at rupees 451 crores with EBITDA margin of 6.6%. Pre India adjustment margin stood at 4.7%. We continue to invest in long term growth by expanding our retail footprint.
Over the course of the year we added 44 new stores. This rapid pace of expansion, while critical for strengthening our market presence, led to a higher operating cost. Since the new stores are still in the early stages of ramp up and have not yet stabilized, they have not contributed meaningfully to our revenue but have added to our fixed costs. As a result, this expansion impacted our EBITDA and EBITDA margins weighing over the profitability of the year. That said, we view this investment to strengthen our long term growth trajectory. As the newly added stores ramp up and start to stabilize over the coming quarters, we expect a gradual improvement in their throughput and contribution to overall revenue.
With scales and maturity, the unit economics of these stores should normalize leading to better cost absorption and improved operating leverage. This in turn is expected to support a recovery in margins and rebound in overall profitability. Let me touch upon category specific performance for the year. Large appliances contributed to our biggest revenue driver, contributing approximately 45.4% to our total revenue in FY25 with a year on growth, year on year growth of 12%. This growth was primarily led by strong demand for cooling products, especially air conditioners. Our second largest category, mobile phones, contributed to 42% to our total revenue and is now witnessing more stable growth, currently tracking at around 11%.
Moving on the regional store edition, during FY25 we opened 18 multi brand stores in Telangana, 18 in Andhra Pradesh and eight in the National Capital region. With these additions, we reached a significant milestone of 200 stores in FY25. This network comprises of 189 stores of multi brand 11 exclusive brand outlets spread across 82 cities in 4 states in the NCR region alone, we now operate 29 stores. India’s economic outlook remains optimistic with projected GDP growth in the range of approximately 6.2% to 6.8% for the upcoming fiscal year. This anticipated growth is supported by increased government capital spending and a rebound in demand driven by premarization alongside favorable demographic trends and expanding consumer financing.
Despite global uncertainty, these factors provide a strong foundation for sustained economic momentum. Further, the Union budget of 2025 has provided significant personal income tax relief by raising a taxable income threshold, effectively putting an estimated 1 lakh crores back into the hands of the middle class. This increase in disposable income is expected to boost consumer spending, especially in the consumer durable sector. With greater purchasing power, households are likely to upgrade or purchase new home appliances and electronics, driving overall demand growth. Looking ahead to the upcoming financial year, we plan to open around 25 to 30 stores in this financial year of FY26.
Our strategy focuses on optimizing supply chain operations and improving inventory management to sustain cost competitiveness. Additionally, we will expand our presence in the targeted geographies and strengthen our footprint in existing markets while continuing to build our nurture partnership with leading brands. With this, I request Mr. Premature Devrakonda, our CFO, to upgrade you on the financial performances. Thank you.
PREMCHAND DEVARAKONDA — CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Thank you Karan sir. Good evening and warm welcome to all the participants. Let me begin with the Q4FY25 financial overview. Our revenues for the quarter stood at Rupees 1719 crores as against 1525 crores In Q4FY24, a growth of 13% year on year, EBITDA for Q4FY25 stood at Rs 114 crores as against Rs. 1,108 crores. A growth of 6% year on year. EBITDA margin for Q4FY25 stood at 6.6%. Pre Inde. EBITDA for Q4FY 25 stood at Rs. 80 crores with a margin of 4.7%. Pack for Q4FY25 stood atRs. 32 crores as against Rupees 41 crores. Like to like sales growth for Q4FY25 was 1.5%.
Moving on to FY25 financials. Our revenues for FY25 stood at Rs. 6965 crores as against Rupees 6285 crores. In. In FY24 a growth of 11% year on year. EBITda for FY25 stood at Rs. 451 crores which was flat on year. On year basis, EBITDA margin for FY25 stood at 6.5%. Pre Index EBITDA for FY25 stood at rupees 326 crores with a margin of 4.7%. PADD 4 FY25 stood at Rs. 161 crores as against rupees 184 crores of the previous year. For FY25 like to like growth rate stood at 6.1%. ROCE and ROE for FY25 stood at 13.2% and 10.5% respectively. The working capital dates as on 31st March 2025 stood at 80 days. The gross and net debt to Equity stood at 0.66.
And our net debt to EBITDA stood at 2.1×3 days. Cash flows from operations stood at rupees 56 crores. With this I open the floor for question and answer. Thank you everyone.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask question may press star and one on the touchdown telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from question Q, you May press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, wait for the moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Manoj Ghori from Aquiris. Please go ahead.
Manoj Gori
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir. Sir, I have two questions. One, if you can give some outlook. Because obviously what we are hearing at the ground level that there have been rains across the country especially in May and obviously there was some impact in the southern markets during the month of April. So probably how should we look at Q1 and probably how should this translate into inventory levels and probably should we see any more pricing pressure to liquidate this inventory? So probably brief outlook on Q1 and how we should look at things from Q2 onwards.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Hi, good evening, Manoji. So Manoji, as the whole country is witnessing rainfalls, you know, at different times of the day, especially south across the region here, this month has been a little muted in terms of the cooling product sale. But overall inventory that we would have usually during this period is in line with, you know, so there is no stress on the inventory and same thing with the pricing pressure. So there is no pressure per se or there will be no further discounting or extra additional discounting for liquidating these stocks. So instead of ending up the season by June where we’ll be left up with some inventory, probably it will continue for another two months or so, but till August probably.
For air conditioners, apart from their cooling products in refrigerators and air coolers, both are under control so that we’ve already corrected. So only little additional inventory for air conditioners will be carried forward for a couple of months. But that also is of no stress. It is a very nominal addition to it, plus we’ve added 40 plus two or so, you know, and some new stores have opened up this quarter also. So in line with what our expansion would be, the inventory levels for that particular category is in line. So not much of a stress and not much of this thing.
But definitely yes, this summer, you know, didn’t pan out the way, you know, usually you would expect because it started pouring quite early. And so once the cooling product category gets affected by rains or other external factors, then it becomes quite a difficult task to sell around that period. But no worries, everything is optimistic and positive now.
Manoj Gori
Correct. Thanks. My second question would be on Hyderabad in Delhi and sia. So Hyderabad, if you look at in the presentation we have mentioned like the SSD has been marginally negative, close to flattish during FY25. So probably how we are looking to probably the demand environment to remain so weak that at least in the near term there might be some pressure on Hyderabad and probably somewhere later we can expect some revival if you can throw. Because obviously Hyderabad, if I’m not wrong, will be close to around 65% of our total revenues.
PREMCHAND DEVARAKONDA
Correct. So if you see for the last few quarters Hyderabad was flattish or a little negative. But last quarter actually if you see the absolute Business value that we generated out of Hyderabad was positive by 4% so we are up across categories. If you see definitely February, the AC cooling products also did very well in the Feb of January. But overall number I think Hyderabad is doing good. So no complaints on Hyderabad. In fact we are opening few more stores as we move forward so that should be good enough for us. And we would see a positive growth coming forward as well.
Except the cooling product categories which definitely because of monsoon got affected a little bit. But the outlook across other categories also looks positive so there is no stress there as well. So I think overall Hyderabad should shape up and start performing really well. Thanks.
Manoj Gori
And sir, lastly on Delhi ncr so last year we were looking for somewhere around break even by exit of FY24 and this year if you look at probably we have been very close to that break even mark for the full year with Delhi ncr. So do you see that this progress is in line with expectations or probably there has been some delay. How should we look at Delhi NCR in FY26 if you can throw some light over there.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So Delhi is in line with our expectation and I would say the turnaround that we did in such a short period was remarkable by the team. So I think we’re doing quite a great job there compared to a lot of our peers operating out of that market. Definitely yes we are short in terms of the stores. We are expanding there with 29 stores right now. We are further adding a few more stores this year as well. So there will be six to eight stores addition. We just opened up Janakpuri this weekend, last weekend, so that performed really well again and I think overall numbers should be good For Delhi and 26, 27 should also be a great year for us in that coming period for that region.
So we’re quite happy with the things that are performing and definitely as it is a huge capital investment that we did. So depreciation cost or your finance cost will be little higher compared to the other regions that we would operate in. But the gross margin level that we would expect for that region or throughput that you would expect for that per store is in line with what we targeted for this year. EBITDA probably from year on should move in the northward trajectory.
Manoj Gori
Absolutely, absolutely. Okay sir. Thank you sir and wish you all the best.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you Manoji.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press STAR and one to ask question. The next question is from the line of Percy from IIFL securities. Please go ahead.
Percy Panthaki
Hi sir, just wanted to look at your Capex you have done about 350 crore of capex this year. If I look at the 40 stores which have been opened and roughly at let’s say 3000 rupees a square feet Capex for the lease stores that would come to somewhere around 80 to 100 crore of capex which means that around 250 crore of capex has gone into the land and building for the stores that you have purchased. So can you give some idea first of all whether this calculation is correct? Secondly where this 250 crore has been spent in which locations and given that our debt is now close to a thousand crore is this the same strategy that we want to adopt going into the future? It’s a very capital heavy strategy of expansion especially at a time when the EBITDA margins have gone down and the Capex has gone up it puts a lot of pressure on the sort of cash flows and the balance sheet both of the company.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Hi Prasiji, so your numbers the calculation more or less is correct Apart from the working capital sorry apart from the Capex for buying out properties there was a Capex done for the stores for the 45 plus stores in the stores that are in pipeline now but yes we invested big go on buying out properties and these were properties which were already given advances of the pipeline properties majorly in Delhi Jaamparamne advanced because the registrations happened in this financial year and this was as per the plan itself. So the strategy was to buy all these properties and we are quite happy with the position that we are in today in terms of the borrowing that we have on books which is approximately around 983 crores just may say property 230 to 40 crore or working at the lay which is in line with our seasonal purchase that we do usually and right now currently we are standing on that position which is much lesser to what it was on 31st March because we liquidated inventory and so everything got accumulated and then we sold out the stocks and all.
So I think we are in line with that so it’s not much of a stress there now today kind of current position is also much our current levels are from 679 crores of working capital loan it is at 450 crores so that also is reduced by almost 220 odd crores to 30 crores. So it is a part and parcel of our growth strategy where we wanted to acquire these properties, pay out advances to our vendors and play the game. So I think we are quite comfortable with that twice a year during Dasara Diwali also you will see the working capital requirement going up because we added 44 new stores.
So USKA display, inventory backup and especially tier 34 Townsman store, warehouse. So I think overall put together the number is under control that even the debt levels are under control of where we are standing today. Temporary properties, working capital, sorry term loan that eventually will come down in a couple of years. So that is where the plan is.
Percy Panthaki
So just two follow ups on this this year. Where have we bought these stores? Is it all north India? All the I think six stores you have bought. Right. So is it all north India? Secondly, is this the same kind of strategy we will follow in future where we might like spend 150 to 200 crore buying the stores every year. Or NCR region properties. So apart from that any other cluster that now we expand to it will be not this aggressive in terms of property. So that is the plan because I think it divided between a lot of long term lease agreements that you will be doing. But strategically Delhi is where you wanted to invest in buying out real estate as well to secure a long term strategy. But other cities and other geography that will be expanding in the next couple of quarters after next couple of quarters that will be majorly on the leasehold thing, lease the agreements.
So even in Delhi if you are expanding there will be only lease now no purchase. Is it majority?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Yes, majority of the prime location that you wanted to buy out, the stores are yet to open. Apart from that majority of the places now periphery that will be be expanding into NCR also would be majorly on lease only.
Percy Panthaki
Got it, Got it. Second question, can you just give some idea on what is the kind of EBITDA margin pre inde s that you are expecting for the north India cluster in FY26? Okay. North India cluster would be want to answer this?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Yeah. Yeah. We are expecting it to be around three and a half percent this year. Looking at the train.
Percy Panthaki
Okay. Okay, understood. And also wanted to understand your margins this year you mentioned were 4.7% right? Or was it this quarter? Sorry, Margins you have created margin overall as a company was 4.7. That was for this year or for this quarter? This for the year. It’s for the year. Right. So see basically we used to do somewhere closer to 5.3, 5.5% kind of margins. So it has come down maybe 50, 60 basis points from that. So one is what are the factors?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Yeah, so there’s a better recovery in quarter four than quarter two and quarter three.
Percy Panthaki
Got it, Got it. So at a full year level, what is the, what were the drivers which pushed down the margin and going ahead, if the margin is going to improve from here, what will be the drivers for that expansion?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So sir, there are the reasons I think are more organic with the business structure with a lot of other competition scenarios. So there’s not fundamental changes, are not there. So there’s no change in product mix. The product mix between large appliances, mobiles, low margin product categories remain the same. There’s not much of a change there. But I think going forward, what we used to do earlier, it will remain the same way. So there’ll be that change of 0.2, 0.3%, not more than that. Baki will definitely try to improve it like we did in quarter four as well.
But apart from that, you know, I don’t see any fundamental flaw or any other reason for it to change from here on.
Percy Panthaki
Okay, got it. Okay sir, that’s all from me. Thank you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from MK Global. Please go ahead.
Devanshu Bansal
Hi Karan, thanks for the opportunity. You did mention that there is no margin risk from liquidation perspective. However, based on our understanding there are significant incentives that we get on meeting the targets. Right? So now that the category sales have been impacted and brands are also under good amount of pressure, do you see some chance of margin loss in the current year because of that? I wanted to check on that.
Karan Bajaj
Okay, so most of our targets or most of our contracts that we have with our respective vendors for our incentive income are directly not linked to, you know, our targets. So few of them are, but those are all fulfilled. So it is not that they are not fulfilled. They say single product category. This is a cooler AC Ogya USPE target. It’s majorly for televisions and mobile phones and all which we sell throughout the year. What happens is sometimes wherever we get stuck, not necessary at this period. But any time of our journey, whenever we get stuck, it is usually, you know, the timelines are increased.
If it’s a quarter scheme then they give us additional 15, 20 days or a month to, you know, fulfill and complete those schemes. So usually we don’t see a lot of that incentive income. Historically we’ve never seen a loss or incentive income. So going forward also is not a big number. But at the same time it is all protected. So there’s nothing there that we would lose out at the end of the year. Understood. And Karan, from your ppt, I also noticed that there Are few brands in your top five which are seeing relatively muted growth trends versus the overall growth of the company. And my understanding is that we have historically and strategically worked with limited set of brands across categories. So can you help us understand why a couple of those top five brands are sort of seeing muted trends and which are the categories that these sort of brands are catering to. Or. Mobile volumes have gone up but the ASPS have dropped. Average asp dropped by 10% from last year to this year for example. But the volume has grown. Total contribution from this brand has, you know, been muted. Otherwise Samsung, overall televisions, lg, Samsung, that number is that ASP is dropped down. Volumes are up positive by 18%. But because of which the total contribution from these brands have not increased much.
Devanshu Bansal
I’m speaking specifically for brand 2 and brand 5. Even if we see 3 year CAGR perspective, these brands are flattish, right? So ASP could be 1 year bioi growth. But even if we see from a three year CAGR perspective, Brand 2 and Brand 5 have not seen any material growth. Right. So I was checking for these two brands specifically.
Karan Bajaj
So basically it is a mix of everything. So the like for example brand two would have appliances, would have larger appliances, would have televisions, air conditioners, washing machine, dress, you know. So her category price mute. Especially top five brand, television heavy. So your heavy television brand.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay. And there is one brand, this is brand 3 which is continuously doing well. Which category would this be catering to?
Karan Bajaj
This is mobile specific. A mobile brand.
Devanshu Bansal
Understood. Got it. Karan, thanks for taking the question.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajiv Bharti from Noama Wealth. Please go ahead.
Rajiv Bharati
Thanks for the opportunity. So with regard to slide number 9 where you have shown SSGs for the quarter and full year. The universe which you use for quarter and full year is different. Is it? Let’s say for Delhi ncr.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Yeah. For example Delhi NCR you have reported for the quarter 33.8% SSG. Right. And for the full year it’s 50%. The stores which you consider in SSG calculations are different. Yes, Yes. I think Prem sir will elaborate on this. Sir.
Rajiv Bharati
Sir, one is like to like comparison. Hello.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Yes. Yes, I can hear you. I can hear you. Yeah, see for Delhi. Can you repeat the question once again?
Rajiv Bharati
No. So. So the question is the 33.8% number for Delhi NCR, that SSG and the full year SSG 50%. So the stores you see which you consider for this calculation are the different. Why I’m asking this because YTD number till 9 months SSG was for the Delhi was 22.4 which let’s say for the quarter Q4 it has added 33.8 further but the cumulative number has gone to 50%. So I mean it is only possible.
PREMCHAND DEVARAKONDA
We calculate this ssg we consider only those stores which were operational throughout the year in the last year in the previous. I meant to say in the previous year. If a store is fully operational throughout the year, only those stores will be considered for the purpose of calculating triple S G.
Rajiv Bharati
I get it. But I’m saying the universe which you use for quarterly and full year are the different.
PREMCHAND DEVARAKONDA
Number of stores used for quarter four and full year are different. Yes. Okay. Only we consider that the quarter four number two stores we consider because in that we consider only two stores which were operational throughout the year in the previous year.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So sir, just to answer, elaborate on your question. FY25, the 50% number that you see for SSG will have more number of stores which were operational throughout the year for delivering a 50% SSG because they had some additional stores there. Whereas quarter four FY25 would have few stores from Gurgaon cluster which were not added in that number in 33.8%.
Rajiv Bharati
Sure, sure. That’s all from HRM. Thanks a lot.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash Sonathia from Idolus Public. Please go ahead.
Yash Sonthaliya
Hi team, thanks for taking my question. I have two macro questions. First, you already alluded on the uncertain range on demand and inventory. But can you please help me out with the region like how it is impacting the inventory and demand in south and specifically north if you can help me.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Right. So actually south. Now we start our summer little early, as early as march second week. So and we usually end up by, you know, may second week. So usually by now we would be at the closure of our summer season. So you know, we usually preempt our sales and then the throughput and then the whole purchase and management of inventory. And they say but the advantage that we had this year again was that summers were still a little more stronger in Delhi. So we moved out our little inventory up north. Rather than buying few stocks there, we moved out of inventory from down south.
So usually by end of June when we exit, we usually have a certain number of inventory left with us. By the end of season this year, because of the uncertain rains and all, we might end up with little more inventory which will liquidate in couple of months. So that is, you know, a part and parcel of how this category especially cooling products would pan out. So that is how it is. But there is no pile up on inventory north as well. So whatever north requires will sufficing the need from south rather than buying new stocks up North.
That is how we would liquidate and manage inventory for the next couple of months here.
Yash Sonthaliya
Understood. So no discounting also expected in north also, right?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
No, not required. Not required.
Yash Sonthaliya
And second, my second question is like you have grown pretty well in Andhra Pradesh in Telangana. Your SSSG in Andhra Pradesh is also 5%. But when I look other consumer facing companies, their results specifically to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have not been very well in Q4. So what’s your read on the market and how we have outperformed other categories?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So how we outperform other retailers would be majorly that our expansion that happened in the last 2024 months. Most of our stores are yet to get matured. If you see the stores that we are adding up in Andhra also in tier 34 markets versus what we are doing here as well in the current quarters, the stores are yet to mature. Up markets are very new for us as well. So you would definitely see the throughput of the stores in upcountry both in Telangana and Andhra outperforming and performing really well across the group for the next couple of years.
Because the stores that we added in the last 2024 months versus last year, this year are all newer markets for us as well, which we expect the throughput to be much higher there. So basically it is much easier to look at a better SSG look at grasping higher market share in those regions because the product mix that we would have or the range that we would have compared to our competition with a mom and pop store or you know, unorganized retail players becomes much easier to compete with them in these pockets.
Yash Sonthaliya
Understood, understood. And just any outlook why there is a overall slowdown in this two, specifically these two states and what’s your outlook for upcoming 12 to 24 months?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So like this particular quarter that we are in, I would say that you know the cooling sale would be little muted because majority of the weather and no other reason because you know you’re selling other product categories, the bigger days or the festive days are doing good. You know, so you see that momentum coming through like Ugadi was the biggest last festival that we faced in Andhra Pradesh. That is exceptionally great. So you definitely see a demand there. It is not that the demand is slowing down but yes said that any change in say weather or you know, seasonal product categories that would definitely, you know, change the whole game for you in that particular region.
But overall I feel it is still, you know, optimistic in that region. We’re still optimistic in that region for the growth to come in this year as well.
Yash Sonthaliya
Understood. Pretty helpful. That’s all from my side.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask questions. The next question is from the line of rupees Tata Aliya from Intelsense Capital. Please go ahead.
Aliya
Hi. Hi Karan, nice to connect with you.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Hello sir.
Aliya
Yeah, my whole question sir is 200 stores. You have how many are, you know, mature and how many are you know, still, still not mature.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Okay. So sir, 155 store stores, 156 stores and 24 month to 36 month period for it to get matured. So you could say that 50% of a store out of 200 stores are under 24 months.
Aliya
Okay. Okay. So that is one. Okay. This 104 number of stores you have given for Telangana, can you split that between Hyderabad and UP country Telangana?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
So sir, totally Hyderabad city, we have around 72 stores.
Karan Bajaj
Okay. Around 40 odd stores are in upcountry market of Telangana. This would include NBOS and EBOs both.
Aliya
Okay. Okay, I see. So another, another I think to an earlier participant Karan you said that Hyderabad now you, you said There was a 4% growth and now you, you expect Hyderabad, the city market to do well. But ASP is dropped, you know, 5 to 10% every year. So did I hear that right? And can you maybe expand on that a little bit?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Right. So sir, like quarter two and quarter three in FY25 were little negative for our cluster in Hyderabad because that is the largest cluster for us. So if that cluster doesn’t perform or doesn’t become 2, 3% positive for us then you see that whole impact on the balance sheet or the P and L. But last quarter was good. So January did quite well, especially February started performing quite well for cooling products for summer. That’s why you would see a change in the cooling products selling better during a certain period. Right now say for example the monsoon is already set in.
So usually the monsoon year will set in the next month onwards will set in a month early. So you would see a little impact there as well for cooling products not selling during quarter one in a higher number. And then apart from that what happens is that our technology category, especially in the premium category that we are in or the brand that we deal with, what happens is that every year there would be a change in the pricing. So ours would be more like a depreciating asset where you know, new technology comes in, goes a little bigger and then the pricing that a subsequent year would come down for that particular product category.
So especially say like a 75 inch, 85 inch, 98 inches television, you know, some of the 98 inches was sold at 10 lakh last year. It’s now selling at 8 lakh rupees this year for example. You know, so there are always with more volume coming in through a high end premium categories, the pricing from the manufacturers would keep coming down on that. And post that major manufacturing hubs have now started in India especially for iPhones for example or a lot of these AC companies. So you would not see a price increase in air condition for the last three years now.
So usually when the ASPs don’t go up, you need to suffice it with a major growth in the volume. And if the volume becomes single digit growth then you will not see a complete category grow at the level where value volume together would, you know, help you give you a higher value growth overall.
Aliya
So then these, I mean is it fair to assume that Hyderabad will continue to do like this for Next, let’s say two years? It’ll be around this 4,000 crore, 4,200 crore range for next two years.
Karan Bajaj
No, no, it will be definitely much bigger than that because we’ll be adding up new stores here, newer categories started performing quite well here. So their overall sentiment is positive. So that is where you know we would emphasize more on that. The sentiment which was a little poor last year, the sentiment has become positive and you know we would see that changing, you know, in the coming quarters.
Aliya
So okay, so what you’re saying is higher volume growth will make up for the ASPD growth in Hyderabad and we can expect 5 to 10% growth. Okay, okay. And then another, another question. Structurally, I mean at least I, I thought that the NCR market has a better gross margin because of the higher AC sales. Obviously the competition is more so over next two years. Do you, do you see, you know the gross margin going from whatever 14.2 to let’s say 15, 15.5 like years, not really Rupesh.
Karan Bajaj
So usually GP is no. But remain in, you know, a similar range because the competitive scenario therefore air condition is very different than any other part of the country. So in fact the other AC dealers make the least margin there compared to what other LFRs or retailers would make because it is a very heavy distribution driven product category there up north. So you know, so every category would play out differently. But we don’t expect that number to jump or you know, be over that 15, 16% range. It will be in line with what we do back home in Hyderabad.
Aliya
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for answering my questions.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and run to ask question. The next question is from the line of Shakshi Parap from Para Capital. Please go ahead.
Sakshi Waikar
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Can you post some color within categories in terms of volume growth and value growth in terms of panels, refrigerators, ETs.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Sure. So for the whole of FY25, the major categories that we deal with. Mobile phone. Mobile phones, it was up by 10% in terms of value. First I’ll go through the value numbers with you so that it becomes easier. And air conditioners were up by around 34, 35%. Televisions categories up by five and a half percent. Refrigerators and washing machine both around 4, 4.5%. And kitchen appliances built in and all put together were around 11%. So that was the major growth that came in last year.
Sakshi Waikar
Okay. And this new pilot of Chapul project, can you explain that?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Yeah. There’s a new venture that we have partnered with Suzanne Khan as a primary principal designer there. So basically the tie up is that we do sell our categories like that categories we are into audio, automation, networking, cinema, televisions, built in appliances for their projects and they would end up designing and furniture would be from their side. So that is a collaboration that we’ve done. And our local partner here again also would be Gauri Khan for this particular region and Suzanne Khan would be a principal partner there. So they design, they take the contract, they design, they supply the furniture and then we supply the other goods of product category that we are into.
So as a collaboration or turnkey project for a customer becomes one stop solution. That was the whole idea of doing that.
Sakshi Waikar
Understood. And lastly we only witnessed a positive EBITDA during Q1, FY25 and the rest of the quarter we’ve been negative. So when can we expect to stabilize?
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
I think in the coming time definitely that will also shape up well. But then said that cooling product categories is what drived it last year majorly if you see, because that was the maximum growth that came in FY25, Q1, whereas this year that being little muted because of the monsoons. So overall number you see that that will also perform in the next quarter. We will definitely see that number going up from this next quarter onwards.
Sakshi Waikar
Understood. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Pavan Kumar Bajaj
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next line is from. The next question is from the line of Devanshu Bansal from MK Global. Please go ahead.
Devanshu Bansal
Hi, thanks for the follow up. Karan, in line with the previous question, can you provide the volume growth across categories? You provided the value flow, what has been the volume growth?
Karan Bajaj
Right. I think I’ll ask Vishal. He’ll share the details with you after the call.
Devanshu Bansal
Okay. So broadly, sure. The reason why I was asking as you indicated that there has been muted sort of increase in build size in FY25. So based on the technology higher than.
Karan Bajaj
What numbers I gave you because automatically as I told you the AC didn’t go up much. Right. So the volume growth is going to be much higher than the number that I quoted for value growth.
Devanshu Bansal
No, that’s fair. I wanted to check what’s the expectation of realization growth in FY26. So based on the technology changes that you are noticing across categories. So what’s the expectation for ASP increase or realization growth for FY26?
Karan Bajaj
So definitely it is going to be much better than what we did in FY25. Because FY25 we definitely saw that was one of the years where we saw a few quarters didn’t perform the way we expected it to be. Especially quarter two and quarter three. But going forward, irrespective of how this summer season is going to pan out, we are quite optimistic and quite confident for the plans that we have for the category that we are expanding into all the store performance especially up north and in tier 3, four towns that we are expanding now in APH Telangana.
So I think it gives us quite an optimistic approach to the whole number going forward.
Devanshu Bansal
I’m asking only specifically for the ASP or bill size. Right. So last year you said that there has been some decline in prices of products. Right. So specifically based on the technology changes that are expected to be done in FY26, what’s your sense? As in from a pricing perspective as well as realization perspective, what kind of growth can we see?
Karan Bajaj
Definitely yes, this year especially going post quarter to quarter three, definitely large appliances and air conditions would definitely see an upside or ASP going up for sure. So that is there because the discussions are already on the pricing is going a little up. So that will definitely help us take the ASP is much higher than what it is today which will more or less flat for the last couple of years. And as you said newer technology additions to product categories like refrigerators, washing machines, especially air conditioners also now acs are Coming with AI as a technology, for example, you know, so all of those features are coming up.
It definitely take up the ASP’s up and automatically help us increase the value in that product category.
Devanshu Bansal
Any ballpark sense as in what we can sort of built in.
Karan Bajaj
I think manufacturers will help you better with that answer.
Devanshu Bansal
Understood. Fair enough.
Karan Bajaj
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akhil Parekh from BNK Securities. Please go ahead.
Akhil Parekh
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just have one question. This is regarding the Hydra regulation implemented by Telangana government over last year or so. I don’t think it’s coincidental because we are seeing quite a few listed brands especially retailers who have been impacted in Hyderabad and Telangana. If anything has to do with the regulation of government, basically. And do we see it going forward? Basically, yeah. That’s only question.
Karan Bajaj
Right. So Hydra, I don’t know much about it because it has majorly to do with real estate as a category. But it was. It was mainly meant for illegal structures in and around water bodies which anyway was prohibited. So for safety measures they’ve taken that action. And I think it’s a good action, you know, because tomorrow if any uncertainty or something goes bad or there are floods in the city so you know these properties would be under danger. So I think it’s a good initiative by the government to take it forward. But there is no loss to properties which are authorized or legal property.
Right. So it is for illegal construction in and around water bodies.
Akhil Parekh
No. But has it slowed down the progress in terms of retail footprint expansion.
Karan Bajaj
That area? I know a lot of builders doing projects in and around that area got affected. But not majorly anything to do with our industry or our category.
Akhil Parekh
Okay, that’s all from my. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. As that was the last question for the day I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Karan Bajaj
Thank you. I would like to thank you all for joining into the call. I hope that we were able to answer all your questions and for any other queries you may get in touch with sga, our investor relations advisor and we will be happy to address all your queries. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. On behalf of Electronic Smart India limited. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.