Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Eveready Industries India Ltd (NSE: EVEREADY) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated Apr. 30, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Anirban Banerjee — Chief Executive Officer
Unidentified Speaker
Bibek Agarwala — Executive Director & Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Manasi Bodas — Analyst
Saket Kapoor — Analyst
Bhargav Buddhadev — Analyst
Vipul Shah — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen. Good day and welcome to the everady Industries India Limited Q4NFY 26 conference call hosted by AD Factors PR. As a reminder all participant line will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask question after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms.
Anishi Shah from Adfectors PR. Thank you. And over to you Hanishi.
Manasi Bodas — Analyst
Thank you Dhanush. Good evening everyone and welcome to Ever Ready Industries India Limited Q4FY26 earnings conference call. Today we are joined by senior members of the management team including Mr. Anirban Banerjee, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bibek Agarwal, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Anirban Bosh, GM Finance and Head of Industry Relations. Before we commence, let me share a standard disclaimer. Some of the statements that may be made on today’s conference call may be forward looking in nature and the actual results could vary from those forward looking statements.
A detailed communication in this regard is available in the earnings presentation that has been circulated to you earlier and also available on the stock exchange website. I would now like to invite Mr. Banerjee to share his perspective with you. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Anirban Banerjee — Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us for Everett Industries earnings call for the fourth quarter and full year FY26. I will focus my remarks today on the operating environment, our performance during the quarter and the full year, progress across our key business segments and commissioning of our Jammu Manufacturing facility and our outlook for FY27. So FY26 closed with a gradually improving demand environment supported by steady rural consumption and signs of recovery in urban demand.
Rural markets remained resilient through the year aided by better agricultural cash flows and demand across essential categories. Urban consumption also showed better momentum towards the latter part of the year, particularly across value, led and everyday use categories although discretionary spending remained selective. The ongoing West Asia crisis remains a key monitorable but with risks of higher crude linked inflation and supply chain disruption, the commodity costs intensified during the second half of the year with zinc prices witnessing a steep and sustained increase.
Given zinc remains a critical input for the battery business. This created significant cost pressures across the industry. We expect this trend to continue into the next quarters as well. To navigate cost headwinds, we undertook calibrated pricing actions in carbon, zinc and alkaline batteries while maintaining a disciplined approach towards cost control, procurement efficiency and working capital management. Our focus remained on protecting margins without disrupting market competitiveness. Overall, we close FY26 with stronger visibility on demand recovery, improved operating discipline, strategic investments that position us well for SY27.
For FY26 we delivered a revenue growth of 8.2% along with EBITDA growth of 8.9% on a full year basis. EBITDA margins stood at 11.5% reflecting disciplined cost management, improved product mix and pricing interventions. Despite elevated commodity cost pressures, the battery business continued to anchor overall performance and remain the primary growth driver for the company. The battery segment delivered growth of 9.3% in FY26 supported by strong demand across both alkaline and and carbon zinc categories.
Our alkaline portfolio continued to perform well with alkaline now accounting for nearly 10% of our battery business and continuing to deliver healthy volume growth. Consumer preference for high performance products, rising usage of power intensive devices and premiumization trends continue to shift. Support the shift. We had also launched lithium batteries earlier in the year, reinforcing alignment with these structural trends were increased during the year to partially offset the steep rise in zinc costs.
While pricing actions were necessary, our distribution strengthened brand trust helped us maintain category stability and market position. Mosquito rackets continue to scale up and now commands a leadership position within the segment in urban markets. In flashlight segment we delivered 3% growth for the full year. While the traditional BATSI operated flashlight category remains relatively mature, rechargeable formats continue to gain traction and remain a strategic focus area for us during the year.
We also expanded our adjacencies through new product launches such as power banks and chargers which are seeing encouraging initial traction and help strengthen our portable energy solutions portfolio. The recent mandate of a BIS standard mark being made mandatory for the flashlight category augurs well for us as we expect higher traction towards quality compliant branded offerings like ours. The lighting business delivered growth of around 8.1% during FY26 supported by good volume growth across consumer lighting categories.
While pricing remain competitive in the LED segment, our focus on higher value SKUs portfolio upgradation and disciplined channel execution supported both growth and profitability. Electrical accessories momentum remains encouraging as we expand our presence increase penetration aided by our vast reach across the general trade channel. A major highlight during the quarter was the commissioning of our Jammu manufacturing facility, India’s only operating alkaline battery facility. This was inaugurated by Sri Manoj Sinha, the Honorable Latin Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April 2026.
This marks a significant strategic milestone for Emiraddy and represents an important step forward in strengthening our manufacturing self reliance and expanding our premium portfolio. With an investment of approximately 200 crores, the facility has a peak capacity of up to 360 million alkaline batteries annually with a phased ramp up planned over the coming years. We expect production of more than 100 million units in the first year of operations. The plant significantly enhances supply resilience as we transition from fully imported alkaline batteries to domestic production.
Over time this is expected to improve cost efficiencies, support margin expansion and strengthen our competitiveness in the fast growing alkaline segment. In addition to alkaline batteries, the Jammu facility will also support manufacturing lines for batteries, flashlights and lighting products, creating stronger backward and forward integration across our portfolio. Commercial production is expected to commence shortly in the next couple of weeks and we remain optimistic that this facility will contribute meaningfully to growth margins and market share over FY27 and beyond.
Strengthening the balance sheet remained a key priority through FY26. We continued to maintain disciplined working capital management despite elevated input cost pressures supported by calibrated procurement, inventory optimization and tight cash flow control, debt reduction remains a clear priority. Having reduced debt by more than 100 crore in the current fiscal year, our objective remains to improve financial flexibility while funding strategic growth initiatives. Internally. During the quarter, the company entered into two separate agreements for the sale and transfer of its leasehold rights in respect of Plot B1 and Plot B2 located at its Noida plant.
On 30 March, the transfer of leasehold rights, including built up structures and attached fittings pertaining to Plot B1 was formally completed. As we move into FY27, we remain optimistic. While commodity volatility, particularly zinc prices may continue in the near term, the pricing actions already undertaken combined with improving internal efficiencies provide confidence in our operating outlook. We see FY27 as an important tier of optimization. With the Jammu plant ramp up stronger alkaline penetration, premiumization across batteries and lighting, and continued expansion in nufficiencies such as mosquito rackets and power banks.
Our broader focus remains clear. Sustainable growth, double digit operating margins, stronger manufacturing integration and disciplined capital allocation. We believe the foundations built during FY26 position us strongly not just for FY27, but for the next phase of value creation. To summarize, FY26 reflects steady execution across all our strategic priorities. Growth, consistency, margin discipline, manufacturing capability and balance sheet strength. We are confident that emiradi is entering FY27 in a stronger position with better operational readiness, greater strategic clarity and improved long term competitiveness.
With that, I will now hand over to the moderator to open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star N2 participants are request to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Reminder to all the participants if you wish to ask a question may press star and one.
Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Ravi Kapoor from a security. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Speaker
Hi. Hi sir. Thank you for the introduction.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
I’m sorry but the participant has left the queue. We’ll move forward to the next participant. The next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor and company. Please go ahead.
Saket Kapoor
Yeah, Namaskar sir. Hope I’m audible.
Bibek Agarwala
Yes sir, you are.
Saket Kapoor
Yeah. Thank you sir for. For the opening remark. I missed a bit of it. But sir, if you take the press release part, I think you have mentioned that I just read out calibrated pricing action, strong cost governance supported by effective forex hedging and manufacturing footprint efficiencies help mitigate cost headwinds. So if you could just give us some more color. How well are we prepared with now rupee at closer to 94 half 95 levels and crude prices hovering above hundred dollar plus. So how is our business model aligned?
And if you would just give. How should the. How should we look forward for the EBITDA margins going ahead? The trajectory is on.
Bibek Agarwala
Thank you Saketji. So first of all these comments are for the FY26. So if you see during the current year also the dollar has a lot of volatility, right? So starting from 80 ranges between 83 to 91 plus. So we did an appropriate time of aging try to see that what are the opportunity possible. So that is the part we did. And our focus is that whenever we saw and in fact our dink positioning also you know, during the year zinc has moved from the 20% plus minus pricing has happened. So with our data and our procurement team has been able to secure our positioning.
While the cost is of course the higher than the last year. But we are much better than the market position. And the third comes to the pricing action. Of course when the material price goes. Our sales marketing team and business leadership team has initiated the pricing. So wherever the price increases or the margin improvement is possible. So all three actions have been affected in the current FY26 which has helped us to deliver this financial result. Now with respect to FY27, you know, dollar has already shown a journey of 94, 95.
But it is very difficult to predict for the people that whether this will be a short term and long term. We are keeping a very close track of this development and try to see what impact could have in our product. Because crude is such a product which is a across use for everybody. So if there are challenges, we will take a calibrated call in future as well. But at this point of time we are very closely monitoring the delivery on the part of either on the forex part or in the gym prices.
Saket Kapoor
Okay, sir, correct me here. Quarter one generally represents the the best quarter in terms of the the revenue or the probability or the quarter two just before the monsoon quarter taking into account the blended H1 and H2 contribution to the bottom line.
Bibek Agarwala
Actually H1 generally sometime during the because of the festival there is fully plus minus. But H1 is definitely few percentile better than the H2 in terms of the revenue.
Saket Kapoor
Okay, and. And this this year. Sir, how what is our expectation in terms of. I’m. I’m just trying to understand what should be the EBITDA margin trajectory that we can anticipate on 11.5 what we posted for the previous year. And taking into account the wages that we are facing currently, how confident are we that we will defend this number and also may look forward for improving on the trend.
Anirban Banerjee
So the headwinds are definitely strong and they are certainly more than what we had taken on board last year. But given that we delivered 11.5 with all the headwinds of last year, my sense is that, you know, we should be able to hold around the same region. But yes, these are turbulent times. It is some parts of it are in the unknown. But going into the new year we are looking towards maintaining similar kinds as last year.
Saket Kapoor
Just a small part on the Jammu facility contribution now. Congratulations to the team for the inauguration on 22nd of April. As mentioned earlier by Vivekji also that we will be anticipating at least 30% utilization level to end the year and lot of preparation has been done for some job work to also pertain to the same. So if you could just give us some color how this facility is going to contribute to the top line and whether we will break even on the same. And the third question would be on the debt part.
I think so. It was mentioned that we are looking forward for reducing the debt by further 100 crores. So if you could just give us some color how are we going to guide this path towards the debt reduction exercise? That would suffice.
Anirban Banerjee
See on the setting up of the Jammu plant I think it is a very strategic decision something that we had taken almost about a year and a half back. And the growth in the alkaline segment within the batteries is clocking over 20% CAGR in volume terms and thus over the next 5 to 10 years the sense is that that the alkaline segment would easily become one third of the overall battery segment in India. Now with that it made immense sense to have a plant and thus you are moving from importing batteries to now locally producing it at a completely made in India alkaline battery.
The very movement allows some amount of margin decompression to happen. And as the plant starts improving in its overall production and absorbs those overheads the margins will continue to improve over the next few years. So our sense is that you know from a breakeven point of view I think between five to six years should be an ideal breakeven point for this plant going forward.
Bibek Agarwala
So I’m sure you know Saketji, what when you. You know what Anirban spoke here and give a right perspective. I think when he said break even is talking about the payback of the plant but operational break even if you see in 100 plus millions of alkaline and plus as you know along with that we have also put up carbon zinc plant. So at the full annualization basis. Also if you run I think year one always as operating level we be a break even. But the payback perspective definitely five to six years.
And with respect to the debt reduction I think what we have mentioned in the current year we have done the hundred plus crores of debt reduction. But if you ask us our expiration we continue the journey of further debt reduction in the FY27.
Operator
So have you done with your question? Okay, we’ll move forward to the next participant. And next before that I’ll make an announcement. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. The next question come from the line of Manojarajani. Manoj has left the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Bhargo Buddha Dev from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Bhargav Buddhadev
Yeah, good evening team and congratulations on a good set of performance. So my first question is that now that the alkaline factory has got commissioned and maybe it will ramp up maybe in the next six to nine months, how should we look at sort of is it going to cannibalize our carbon zinc sort of battery sales? And if it does, it’s actually better given that basically the margins in alkaline would be far better. So how should we look at the journey over the next two to three years in terms of carbon zinc versus alkaline?
And second question is that now that the BS has got rolled out on the flashlight segment, how should we look at improvement in terms of market share over there and also in terms of margins?
Anirban Banerjee
So the as I was mentioning earlier, the alkaline segment within batteries is definitely growing fast. I mean it’s maintaining about a greater than 20% CAGR on volume basis. Now we till the time the saliency of alkaline. Now if you go back about three or four years back, the overall saliency of alkaline within the battery industry was in single digits. And at that time while alkaline was growing aggressively, it did not materially impact zinc carbon batteries. But as we stand today over the last say three to four years today the saliency of the alkaline batteries are close to about 15% while the carbon sink is at 85.
And you ask the question that what should be the outlook three years from now? My sense is anywhere between, you know, 20 to 25% towards alkaline and 75% of zinc will be how the capacity category will reposition itself now in a fundamentally high saliency of alkali. There will be some amount of, you know, cannibalistic position on the zinc batteries. But yes, the alkalines are more premium to the zinc batteries. Will, you know, will there be a value extraction and all etc. Yes, there will be. And thus is alkaline something that is going to be the future?
Definitely. Because with India growing you have a lot of, you know, new devices from blood pressure machines to, you know, to, to smart remotes, to optical mouse, to, you know, electric toothbrushes, many devices whose penetrations are today, you know, low single digits are bound to go up over the decade in terms of penetration in India and they will require sustainable power which, you know, the alkaline batteries seem to be positioned well. So thus yes, alkaline saliency will go up. Some amount of compression in zinc is bound to happen.
But overall the battery industry category value should look good and most of it would be fueled in our sense from intense power consuming devices whose penetration over the decade in India should also increase.
Bhargav Buddhadev
And sir, just one, one thing on this front that is it fair to say that we may even take some price hikes in carbon zinc to sort of reduce the price difference between alkaline and carbon zinc? Obviously assuming that the post the commissioning of the Jammu factory, the alkaline pricing will become more and more competitive and lower compared to the current. So that would incentivize the consumer to move towards alkaline given that the difference between carbon zinc and alkaline would be fairly low.
Anirban Banerjee
As we stand today, there is not a very significant difference between carbon zinc and alkaline. And if you go to countries outside the alkaline is more, there’s a much stronger price gap between the zinc and the alkaline. So technically from an Indian standpoint, it is at a very sweet spot which is done to ensure that India, you know, starts moving towards alkaline quickly.
Saket Kapoor
And
Anirban Banerjee
So now that, that being said, let’s say the premium side of the zinc will be the aspiration for the alkaline segment. But the price sensitive India at economy and popular side of the batteries will still continue to hold forth for a long time to come. So it’s all in the premium side where the interplay between premium zinc and alkaline will happen. You had asked another question on the bis. Yes. Our sense is that the BIS on flashlights, right, got fully implemented by the end of January 2026.
Bhargav Buddhadev
Yes.
Anirban Banerjee
Now over the next few months, you know, the as per the law, etc. Everyone is needing to be fully compliant. Our sense is that sometime in the second half of this year the cost of compliance for some of the unorganized players, you know, players who were earlier simply importing it and selling it into the market will have to go up because you know, you would need them to either get SKD and you know, assemble it here and it will also potentially have question marks on quality.
Bhargav Buddhadev
In
Anirban Banerjee
A situation like that we should be Very well poised with the price cap reducing and definitely superior quality. Our outlook on some of the rechargical flash for the future taking away from the unbranded sector looks to be quite positive.
Bhargav Buddhadev
And also in the last 15 months rupee has depreciated or weakened against yuan by almost 15%. So that also basically impacts the Chinese imports. Is that understanding correct, sir?
Anirban Banerjee
Uniformly across all of us. Right, but uniformly across. But the way the flashlight market is structured is, let’s say, you know, close to about 70% of the market is unbranded and very heavily dependent on China. So
Bhargav Buddhadev
That
Anirban Banerjee
Entire space will be uniformly, you know, getting either hit or you know, so that is a constant for all of us. But what’s going to change the theme is to be BIS compliant. And even if. Yes,
Bhargav Buddhadev
For
Anirban Banerjee
A moment, if, let’s say half of it is compliant with bis, some of the players like us should make much better gains from the unbranded segment in the flashlight category.
Bhargav Buddhadev
Sure. Great sir, thank you very much for your answers and all the very good.
Anirban Banerjee
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you so much. Our next question comes from the line of people Shah from RV Equity. Please go ahead.
Vipul Shah
Thank you sir for the opportunity. Am I audible, sir?
Anirban Banerjee
Yes, you are.
Vipul Shah
Yes. Thank you for this opportunity. Sir, this I had fundamentally two questions. One is, you know, on the provision for tags which you know we’ve read the note that the group has evaluated option under section 115B double A and intends to transition under once the benefits are sort of fully utilized of section 80 ie. So is the understanding correct that with regard to fiscal year 27 which is the coming financial year now, we will transition to a 22% full tax now or is that going to be one year after this year, sir?
Bibek Agarwala
No. So your understanding is right for the FY27 we will be transitioning to the new regime.
Vipul Shah
So just another clarity sir regarding tax is that since we’ve already recorded a sale of 105 crores for the normal Noida land, one portion of Noida land, you know, and in the notes we, in the provision we didn’t see any provision for tax. So is the understanding correct that you know, whatever Mac balances we’ve had was used and hence there was no tax payable on this land, sir.
Bibek Agarwala
So I think you know, there are two parts. One, during the current year we have taken a write off of around 500 crore of a old provisions of a ICD which has been given. So that is has allowed us a business loss. So that is why in the Current financial year when you sell asset. So in the current financial. The capital gain can be sort of against the business losses. So that is why there is no taxes. We have not started utilizing our mat.
Vipul Shah
Okay, got it. So then sir,
Bibek Agarwala
Maybe. Maybe after we finish the entire business loss and then subsequent year and now only 25% of the MAT adjustment will be allowed coming forward.
Vipul Shah
So for the financial year 27 sir, is it fair to assume that we should. We should factor in this 22% as a provision for tax normal in our estimates when we. When we sort of model the normal numbers
Bibek Agarwala
Subject to utilization of the carry forward business laws.
Vipul Shah
All right, sir. So then probably we’ll have to wait for the annual report to get more granularity on that.
Bibek Agarwala
If you need a specific something which we are in the preview we can share with you.
Vipul Shah
I’ll take this offline then with your investor relations team. Sir. So the one question sir, to the. You know, to Mr. Banerjee. You said, you mentioned that you know we. This although you know there was a press release and we’ve mentioned that we commercialized the plant on 22nd of April. But is it fair to assume that normal production of you know from this plant will only happen in the second quarter. From the second quarter of this year.
Bibek Agarwala
I’m just taking. So we have just inaugurated the plant. We have not started commercial production. Commercial production. We have mentioned in the note in the few weeks it will happen. So it is not the second quarter, just maybe now weeks, a few weeks the commercial production start and it will be in the current quarter only.
Vipul Shah
All right sir, so that, that explains this. So last question if I may sir. You know on the earlier call also sir, you know there was a question which we. Which I had on the. On the payment of you know remuneration or commission to a non executive, non independent director who has a promoter representative who has now sort of been appointed as the ED of another promoter company. So is the understanding correct that going forward this amount payable to that director will now stop?
Bibek Agarwala
So I can’t commit at this point of time. At this point of time the payment is going on and this person is very extensively working with us at this point of time. And in future we let you know any development on that because you will come to know any changes on that.
Vipul Shah
Yeah, because if he is appointed as an executive director in the other organization, sir, you know, then the question of time commitment will be there. But I take your point sir. We will await your clarity on this issue. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchstone telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Manoj Rajini from Rajini family. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello, Am I audible sir? No,
Bibek Agarwala
No, please carry on
Unidentified Participant
Sir, just a couple of questions. The first question is that the lighting actually reported good double digit quarter on quarter number. So sir just wanted to be sure. Is this going to be sustainable for us?
Anirban Banerjee
Yeah Manoj, it looks to be sustainable. Ideally should be able to do a better.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Okay, so we can expect this to be sustainable, right?
Anirban Banerjee
Yes.
Unidentified Participant
Okay sir, and this. My second question is like. You know your expectation for this revival in the urban demand. So will it get impacted due to this, you know recent geopolitical sentiment?
Anirban Banerjee
Difficult to say Currently the trends for the last couple of months has been some amount of urban revivals. If the situation carries on more than quarter one then we could see challenges. Else my sense is it should continue the way it did in the last one or two quarters.
Unidentified Participant
Okay sir, rest of the questions have been covered from others. So. Yeah, I will leave it. Yeah. Thank you so much sir for the clarity.
Anirban Banerjee
Thank you.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you sir.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bharat Sheet from Quest Investment Advisors Private limited. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi sir, thanks for the opportunity. I have just one question. Do we have any tax incentive on this JNK plant? And if yes, what are the schedule brief give little color
Bibek Agarwala
So there is an incentive. But as of now the our plant has not yet got any approval under the incentive scheme. So there are some GST linked incentive there in the state. But we are awaiting the approval.
Unidentified Participant
So once we get what will be that. Can you give little more detail?
Bibek Agarwala
You know I can explain the scheme but you know what will be the unless until I get that registered. But this is a theoretical knowledge. There is a good incentive for the Jammu there. Because government want to promote Jammu and Kashmir as industrial belt. And we have not only gone for the incentive we are location things at the cost of operation Also to multiple factor while choosing this Jammu. So we are working very closely with the Jammu government authorities and industrial department. The email the moment we get any update on that.
We’ll keep the investor updated.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1. Our next question comes from the line of Mahindra A from Investco. Please go ahead. Ma’, am, your voice is very low.
Unidentified Participant
Is it better now?
Operator
Yes, please proceed. Ma’, am, please proceed with the question. I guess your Voice is again, what’s
Unidentified Participant
The target market share for the alkaline battery and dry cell?
Anirban Banerjee
We are currently holding about 16% market market share and about a year back it was less than 10%. So we will continue to grow in that direction.
Saket Kapoor
My
Anirban Banerjee
Sense is sometime, you know, exit of next year we should be looking at exiting with 20% share.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. And my follow up question would be like what’s the product and country are you going to target for Jammu facilities? And like you mentioned in your press release that you’ll be expanding the business through wide serve the domestic and various international market.
Anirban Banerjee
So the Jammu facility is today capable of producing alkaline batteries, zinc batteries, flashlights and lighting products. All of these will as we go ahead will be used for production and sales domestically. From a futuristic point of view, it will be a great option to explore, you know, white labeling of alkaline batteries for various markets across the world. And we’re certainly going to pitch for it in this entire global realignment of trade which puts this plant in a very uniquely unique place in India given it’s the only alkaline plant.
No Bhai Bhagavan answered your question.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. That was really helpful. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Vipin Mehra from ANK Securities. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Good evening sir. Sir, I have couple of questions. First was you mentioned that is going for new product launches that are lined up. Just throw some light on those. And what kind of products are you targeting? Minimization of products. Can you throw some light on that?
Anirban Banerjee
So we’ve already launched, as I said, we launched mosquito rackets about you know, a year and a half back and that it’s been scaling up rapidly. We’ve last year launched mobile accessories mainly through the E commerce channels. And that is something that we will also look at scaling up at the same time we’ve been premiumizing our portfolios. So within the battery business, while zinc is at the base level, alkali line is much more premium to zinc. And that is something that we are pushing hard. Sometime in the last quarter we had also launched lithium primary batteries.
These are lithium AA and AAA batteries. And if you use a pair of lithium batteries in your blood pressure machine, you may not need to change the batteries for close to five years. A pair of these batteries is about 500 rupees. So it is as premium as it gets. And even within our flashlight segments we’ve been pushing hard on the 500 rupee flashlights. And about which is the more premium segment in the flashlight category, a combination of all of these, I think is driving new as well as driving NPDs within the core is what is propelling us today.
Unidentified Participant
Sure. Secondly, sir, will there be some more price hikes involving your products in coming quarters? What search stands on that?
Anirban Banerjee
So we’ve from a judicious price point of view, you know, we look into inflationary price increases in this category over the last few months. We’ve already taken up our prices in both various segments of zinc and alkali. Now, as a category leader, we are very clearly setting the path for the category to take price increases and be sustainable given the kind of cost pushes that we are seeing and especially the last month of cost ambiguity. If this ambiguity continues over this quarter as well, we may then need to look at the pricing again somewhere in quarter two.
Hope that answers your question.
Unidentified Participant
Yes, sir, thank you so much. All the best to the management.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question of the star and one on their Touchstone telescope. Reminder to all the participants, in order to ask a question, you may press star and one on your touch. Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Saket Kapoor from Kapoor and company. Please proceed with the question.
Saket Kapoor
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Again, hope I’m audible, sir.
Bibek Agarwala
Yes, yes.
Saket Kapoor
Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Firstly, if you could just give us some understanding of what kind of volume growth are we expecting in the current year, especially for our batteries category and also how will the flashlight and the lightning segment contribution to the total mix will shape? Last year I think, sir, it was 12 and 23 for flashlights and light lightning. So how will the mix be for for the current year?
Anirban Banerjee
So from a volume standpoint, I think the alkaline volumes have being, you know, trying to sort of doubling itself, whereas the zinc volumes are much more flatter and tepid. But those differ from segment to segment in the zinc category and thus as alkaline grows. I was mentioning earlier that there will be cannibalistic impacts on the volumes of zinc. Now, that being said, price increases both in zinc and in alkali will be a part of the category evolution over the next couple of years. So yes, volume drivers will remain to be the alkali, whereas appreciation will potentially happen in both these segments as we speak today on batteries continue to contribute about two thirds of the business, whereas our flashlights and lighting and some of the other associated reducencies account for the balance one third of the business.
Saket Kapoor
In terms of the profitability part for the flashlight and the lightning business. What is our roadmap towards improvement in the margin and therefore thereby the contribution towards the bottom line also. And second point was sir, as you have mentioned that the Jammu facility was conceived with the fact that we will be having all verticals placed there as earlier spoken in the call also. So what kind of realignment of facilities the company may look forward going ahead. If you could just give us some color or a thought process which the management might be working on.
Anirban Banerjee
The Jammu facility comes in at a time when we are poised to grow and accelerate our alkaline portfolio. So it definitely helps in, you know, better margin profiles for our alkaline batteries compared to what we were importing. Will the plant also manufacture zinc and flashlights and lighting? Yes, it is fully poised for that in the last financial year. Specific specifically over the last quarter we’ve also been in the process of optimizing our manufacturing units. We’ve smoothly exited our Noida plant while having set up a complete future ready alkaline only alkaline plant in India in Jammu.
So we are also also continuously in the process of optimizing our manufacturing facilities. And in that stride I think the Jammu plant’s capability to singly integrate all facets of our key products makes it positioned very uniquely from a future optimizing and realignment in manufacturing.
Saket Kapoor
Right sir. So any. Any more non core assets sale that that we are contemplating? Have we. Have we shortlisted the same answer? Vivekni, if you could give me the sales proceed from the. What have the transaction being consummated at? I think the profit we have booked at 104 crores.
Bibek Agarwala
So as we said that you know we have started our journey in the month of November last third second quarter board meeting for the manufacturing realignment. And as a part of that we have initiated the Noida closure. So as of now our all the plants are operational. So once we get something chopped out for this definitely update with respect to this plant. The sale proceeds is around 116crore rupees. That plot which you have sold.
Saket Kapoor
Okay, so then 250 crore was the number. Sorry, sorry I’m. I interrupted you. Sir, you continue first.
Bibek Agarwala
Yeah, so. So this is 116 crore is a sales proceed. There are some WDV of the existing leasehold. Right. And the asset plus there are some charges associated with that. So net has been profit has been booked accordingly.
Saket Kapoor
Okay. We. We heard earlier in the, in your previous call that 250 crore was some ballpark number that the board has come up. So how are we going to align these numbers 250 and this waiting
Bibek Agarwala
For the plot B2. As Anirban mentioned in his opening remarks there are two separate agreement has been entered. So one first agreement transaction has been fully completed. We are waiting for the closure of the D2 plot completion.
Saket Kapoor
Then we’ll be realizing 150 crore. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bibek Agarwala
Total 251 crore. So this is. This is around 116 crore. Another is around 136 crore.
Saket Kapoor
Okay. And lastly sir, I’m just trying to make sense that taking into account the current considerations and the segments where we operate what kind of totality because revenue growth is slightly different, difficult to predict today. But going on a year on year basis and taking into account the current business environment what kind of growth should be positioning in as a ballpark for the company as a whole. Especially from the battery segment because the profitability aspect is much higher, contribution is much higher from that.
So what should investors hope or anticipate in that terms?
Bibek Agarwala
I think Nirvan has just now explained your point on the battery battery. He has explained that 20% plus the CAGR of the category alkaline going on where zinc is going to be going to a volume term flattish to a very low single digit type of number that is with respect to battery, flashlight and lighting product volume may not reflect because there are very varied price points are there? Right. The product could be 300 rupees also. Product could be 50 rupees also. So in these two product white while we track the respective category wise value.
But overall volume growth may not generate a right picture because sometimes value premiumization may have happened with the lower volume turn also.
Saket Kapoor
And lastly on the expenses, on the expenses front officer, what portion are we functioning in in terms of the ANC and I think so now with the route to market efficiency and the Bain capital contribution are we are those cost efficiencies being aligned and have passed through to the PNL or we will be witnessing more of the same going ahead.
Bibek Agarwala
Bain work has been finished. I think it’s more than almost two years so and today you could see the company which was almost flat for a decade now from a mid single digit has come to a high single digit and if you see last two quarter growth also 9 to 10% type of growth we are clocking. So definitely the company is now in the next step of acceleration and that is why despite of lot of volatility, lot of turbulence in the market in terms of the commodity pricing we are staying ahead in the curve and we have consistently delivered in all the front whether it is a top line whether it is a bottom line and the cash flow.
Saket Kapoor
Right. And last one on the borrowing front s. When we will be consuming the next plot B part and. And we will be realizing the sales I think so as per our balance sheet for the 31st of March we have already spent the amount on the Jammu facility. So on a. On a. On a net basis we will be. Our borrowings will go down significantly from the proceeds or what is the closing number as on today and what are we anticipating to close the next quarter with the proceeds from this plot B.
Bibek Agarwala
So your understanding is right. So it will come down significantly because we don’t anticipate at this point of time any additional capex beyond the routine capex. So you know know we have already received 44 crore rupees advance for the plot 2. So balance around 9590 odd crore money we will definitely get in the current year when the transition get executed. So accordingly our first preference will be the debt reduction which we are saying, you know and then if something comes up we will keep you posted.
Saket Kapoor
Okay sir. And lastly on the depreciation part sir if you could give some color on when we will be capitalizing the Jammu asset from the first quarter. So what would be the annual depreciation cost that will be debited to the payment?
Bibek Agarwala
You know that exact working. My team will be definitely in touch with you will tell you because it all depends on the date on the. On which I am capitalizing. So I have requested my team to specifically share the data with you.
Saket Kapoor
Okay. On the amp Costa you. I think so you missed that number. What are our advertisement and the promotion expenses as a percentage of sales? What should be translating in for the current financial year?
Anirban Banerjee
We’ve been holding on to about 10% ANP and that will go through even in the new financial year.
Saket Kapoor
Right sir. Thank you sir for all the answers in case of any further clarification. I’ll get back to the key teams and all the best for the new trajectory that journey where we have convinced. Thank you. Thank you sir.
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. That was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing remarks. Thank you. And over to you.
Anirban Banerjee
Thank you everyone for taking time out to join us on this call today. I hope we have adequately answered all your questions. If you still have more queries please reach out to our investor relations team and we will be happy to address those. Look forward to connecting with with you again in the next quarter. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. So much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Everid Industries India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.