Galaxy Surfactants Limited (NSE: GALAXYSURF) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Aug. 14, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
K. Natarajan — Managing Director
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Harshil Parekh — Analyst
Arun Prasath — Analyst
Sanjesh Jain — Analyst
Rohit Nagraj — Analyst
Aditya Khetan — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Galaxy Surfactants Limited Q1FY26 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero or your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. K. Natarajan, Managing Director of Galaxy Surfactants Limited. Thank you. And over to you, sir.
K. Natarajan — Managing Director
Thank you. Very good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining our first earnings call of financial year 2025- 26. I am pleased to share our results and business performance for the first quarter of this financial year. Today’s narrative carries the same cadence we left you with in the call that we had for Q4 ’24-’25. Resilience laced with Optimism Let me begin with a headline. Our consolidated volumes rose 5% year on year and 9% quarter on quarter, an outcome that was evenly distributed between our performance and specialty segments. Our EBITDA grew at same levels as volumes by close to 4.5% year on year at Rupees 135 crores versus 129 crores in Q1FY 2425.
EBITDA per metric ton though has been maintained at same levels as last year at Rupees 20,000 per metric ton versus 20,200 per metric ton levels. Despite the various challenges that we had during the quarter, India, our domestic engine, posted a volume growth flattish at 3% year on year but however grew 15% quarter on quarter. Far from being spectacular but very promising, we have been seeing an increasing trend towards re engineering formulations within the performance segment due to the persistently high feedstock prices and we are preparing ourselves for the same. On the positive side, the monsoon has been kind, RBI has cut repo rates and the government’s rural stimulus is flowing.
All of which keep the domestic sentiment cautiously optimistic for the second half of this financial year. Across the AMIT region, volumes remained flat year on year but recorded a modest 5% sequential increase. Egypt and Turkey market continues to remain subdued. Shortfall in the Egypt and Turkey business was effectively offset by resilient performance in other countries. In the Ament region, our supply chain teams have demonstrated remarkable agility, seamlessly adapting to the evolving landscape. Even amid the geopolitical uncertainties, the rest of the world segment continues to be our brightest patch logging close to 16% year on year growth.
Latamina packs drove the charge while the Americas kept pace close to double digits. The only cloud in this horizon is the evolving tariff rhetoric. Premium specialty customers in North America have adopted a cautious and a wait and watch stands. While our current order book remains healthy. We are evaluating the potential impact of these tariffs and working on mitigation plans. Europe stayed flattish in Tanesh terms yet delivered a richer product mix. The premium specialty segment is gaining the very traction our Vision 2030 roadmap has envisaged. Supply sales has been a reality check for us even though freight rates had eased compared to the previous quarter.
But longer lead times are crept in with congestion in Europe, China and Southeast Asia, thereby also affecting our export and import shipments, exacerbating delays and increasing lead times. Raw material availability remained tight in Q1 after the sudden and prolonged disruption at one of our key supplier in Southeast Asia which has now started to ease, but the feedstock prices remain buoyant and could stay elevated through the next quarter as well. We anticipate feedstock prices to correct and are hence managing our raw material price risk in a very calibrated manner. On the innovation front, I’m glad to share that Galaxy Earth biosurf got awarded the Best Innovation in Home Care Segment Platinum Award at CIE Event Chennai.
It is a patented fabric care technology that integrates the power of enzymes and surfactants for effective stain removal and cleaning in detergents. It is biodegradable, safe to handle and provides quick enzyme release for better cleaning performance. As we move forward, we remain focused on navigating near term challenges while executing on strategy 2030 with continued and enhanced focus on innovation, operational agility and sustainability. We recognize that the current environment presents a mix of opportunities and advance from geopolitical uncertainties and supply chain disruptions to evolving customer expectations and regulatory landscapes. In response, we are doubling down our efforts in each and every aspect, not just in product development, but in how we serve our customers, optimize our processes and future proof our portfolio.
We remain confident in our ability to navigate the present and shape a future that is resilient, responsible, and rewarding for all stakeholders. Thank you ladies and gentlemen, for your continued trust. I now open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use Hand threads 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 Harshil Parekh from Acuitas Capital. Please go ahead.
Harshil Parekh
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is with respect to your comments in the presentation about some strategic product alignment in response to multinational shifts in domestic market. So I just wanted to understand this adjustment as…
K. Natarajan
Yeah, so as I said during my opening remarks that given the continued and very high prices of feedstock, there are some customers trying to reject formulations. But we see this temporary, but we are still preparing ourselves to be able to serve that requirement as well and have the flexibility into our product portfolio.
Harshil Parekh
Skay. sir, second question is on the Tri K business in the us how is the traction there since you have added capacities recently? So what has been the volume growth and overall traction there?
K. Natarajan
So Trike business last quarter was a little bit challenging because of the customers were holding back their ordering because of the tariff uncertainty. So there have been. Customers are cautious in North America. That’s something that all of us know. So I think hopefully things will settle down from H2 once it is clear in terms of what the tariffs are going to be because customers are looking at various options that are at their disposal because the tariff suddenly is going to be inflationary for the economy and customers are being guarded in terms of placing orders.
Harshil Parekh
Okay sir, my final question was on the EPC services which we are doing in Mexico. Just wanted to understand how would the revenues flow in and what is the margin profile there, etc.
K. Natarajan
Right now we just started work on the project two months back. So team is focused on ensuring that we execute the project well and in a very safe way. So that’s as of now. As you move forward and the project takes a pace, I think we will have, we’ll be able to give more clarity on the other questions that you just post.
Harshil Parekh
Okay sir, thank you. That’s it.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Arun Prasath from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead. Mr. Arun, are you there?
Arun Prasath
Yes, I am there. Sorry, I was on mute.
operator
Please continue.
Arun Prasath
Thanks for the opportunity. Good morning, Natarajan ji.
K. Natarajan
Very good morning.
Arun Prasath
I just joined. Sorry if you have already present opening remarks, can you just repeat? Three, I mean couple of questions. One, what is happening on the gross margin front on a per kg basis? We are seeing sequential reduction. We know that the fatty oil prices are increasing, fatty alcohol sprays are increasing. But that’s been happening for last six months at some point of time we would be assuming. One would be assuming we will be completely passing on to the customers.
So we thought it would sustain at this level. But on a quarter on quarter basis there is a reduction on a per kg basis around 5 rupees. So how should we read this? Second, in the last six months our revenue growth has been consistently 2025 percentage on a YoY basis. But again this is not translating on a bottom line growth. Is it more because some somewhere you are seeing seeing the competitive pressures on an overall basis. And that’s why we are not able to see pass it on the completely. Once you answer this problem, I’ll come back with a second question.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, so see first of all, you know in increasing price scenario it’s not about ability to pass on. But then you also have time period after which you can pass on. And it has been continuously increasing. So obviously it is not a good ability to pass on. But in just a timing difference. So that continues. That’s why I said in the opening remarks that the biggest challenge for us is because we do expect prices are so elevated that a correction should happen. We have been expecting that for last one year but when it happens it can be quite dramatic.
And that’s why important to manage your raw material price risk which is what we are extremely focused on and we have a robust risk management system in place. Coming to other question in terms of sequentially why is it that the EBITDA metric trend has reduced? There’s nothing that is very structurally you know, not okay. It’s only that the products mix change in this quarter because the tariff scenario has created some uncertainties across geographies more so in the U.S. so the ordering, you know, was suspended. Every one of them was waiting to see what will be the.
It started with 10 plus 26, then they said they suspended. Then they expected that there will be a clarity in 45 days. So all of them are waiting and watching and reassessing as to what should be the supply chains. And that’s what led to our special premium specialties not doing so well. Okay. In the North America.
Arun Prasath
Understood sir. Just to follow up to that question, you said when the current overall raw material prices. correct. And when that scenario happens we will also we will. We will be able to retain the prices or once again we will pass on because then it will happen during the increasing cycle we are not able to pass on. But on the decreasing raw material price scenario we are immediately passing on or we will be able to hold the prices steady and and show margins. How should we look at in that say in the future scenario where the raw material prices increases?
K. Natarajan
Arun, first thing is I’d like to correct, it’s not that we are unable to pass on any increasing price scenario. We are passing on, okay? Because if you see the price have gone up by 100% so if you have not passed on, we would be in absolute dramatically bad situation. I only told you that when the prices are increasing week after week, month after month, you will have a timing difference. You can’t keep changing prices every day. Correct. So that is what I said. So similarly, when the prices go down, the customers would expect okay, that you would pass on immediately.
But they also know that there is going to be a timing difference there as well. But what is important is that if you do not manage your positions well in terms of raw material and you have a bloated inventory and order pipeline of incoming material, okay. That can similarly impinge on your profitability because customers are not going to pay for a bloated inventory that you retain in a reducing price scenario. That’s what I clarified. So we need to be prepared to be able to ride the wave either when it’s going up or when it is coming down.
So we need to manage the risk in a very very calibrated manner to ensure that we don’t get saddled with high price inventory when the prices start going down. That’s what I mentioned.
Arun Prasath
Understood sir. Is — for the last three, four quarters rest of the world has been. That portfolio has been helping us into delivering reasonable volume growth. Is there a scenario where now the tariffs uncertainty is also there. This rest of the world will also run out of the same and probably will at some point of time will remain flat or will be difficult to scale up the portfolio. Is that the risk that we should account for in our estimates?
K. Natarajan
So rest of the world I am not. Because rest of the world has. It has Europe it has. So it’s quite possible that there can be some opportunities that also can emerge. We are just assessing the situation. But my concern is that’s why we are assessing the risk with regard to our North America business. Because we need to find ways to be able to mitigate. Okay. If the current tariff levels that have been announced tick, say it is effective 27th of August. Okay. So we have flags because we have ways to be able to manage that and take care of that.
But if that leads to because the inflation in North America leads to reformulations because our people consumers down trading, then there is A bigger risk for us because of the tariff scenario.
Arun Prasath
Understood. One bookkeeping sir, US is our overall portfolio. What is the exposure in terms of revenues?
K. Natarajan
US as a portfolio, it is not an exposure I would say, because it’s all about. In the current tariff scenario it’s about what I sell within us. What I have to export from India is what can be an issue. And that also we have plans to mitigate a good portion of that. But us contributes to about 8% to 10% of our portfolio.
Arun Prasath
And of that manufactured portion is how much and exported from say either India or our Egypt facilities would be how much, that breakable there?
K. Natarajan
Exported from India will be more of specialties in terms of volume can be lower. Okay. But there are a good amount of specialties we make in the. In the Egypt plant as well. Okay. So that’s what we are working on. Okay. In terms of singing Saudi Reijk a lot of our portfolio into what we supply to North America.
Arun Prasath
Understood sir. Thank you very much.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sanjesh Jain from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Sanjesh Jain
Thank you, sir. Good afternoon.
K. Natarajan
Good afternoon.
Sanjesh Jain
I got few questions first on India Unilever actually reported a 4% volume growth. And we have seen other FMCs actually doing better than that. While we have done only sluggish yoy. How should we see we are losing market share to somebody or alternatives they are going into fruit base. What’s really happening there.
K. Natarajan
So no, what we are saying is that we grew 3% as against 4%. Okay. So that’s, that’s. It’s not that we were flat. We in India we grew by 3%. Okay?
Sanjesh Jain
Your presentation say flattish Y-o-Y.
K. Natarajan
We said flattish Y-o-Y but 3% obviously, we said 3% looks to be flat. But it’s not that they are flattish. We are. We have grown 3% on volume terms in India. Okay. So it’s. It’s not that we. We had to. We call it flattish because it was nothing very dramatic. That’s the only reason. Whereas sequentially if you see we grew by 15% in India. So there is as I said that there are some customers are looking at how do they manage the current pricing scenario because the demand also is really not picking up. So they need to manage the cost front. So some of them are doing it. And we do see that we also need to be prepared. And that’s how we are getting prepared. And we should be ready. Okay. Sometimes by in the next three to four months in terms of having this flexibility as well. Because we need to be ready, you know, there’s no way that we can not be ready.
Sanjesh Jain
So for the full year we should be doing better than this in the India market.
K. Natarajan
For full year, provided the India market really grows. The question here is if you see the commentary of all my customers, they’re all cautiously optimistic. They’re saying S2 should be giving them the required indication. The current festive season is going to be determined because the last festive season was obviously a washout. So this current festive season will give us a good idea about whether demand really has come back and it will sustain.
Sanjesh Jain
Got it. Got it. Second, on the Egypt side, you mentioned that Egypt was a little drag on the overall performance to remain at flattish. What’s really happening in Egypt.
K. Natarajan
So first is Egypt as a country. Okay. It’s not my Egypt operation. So I’m clarify Egypt as a market for us. Okay. It’s because Egypt because of what has happened over the last three years in terms of the significant currency depreciation in terms of. For a good portion of. Till say Priya, till last April, okay, you didn’t have much even availability of foreign currency. So the landscape in Egypt has got terribly changed to a disarming because we see that an integrated player who is into the final product as well as reverse the tables and has started gaining significant market share which is keeping it out of a good portion of the local market in Egypt. Okay, so that’s the only…
Sanjesh Jain
We want to revisit not selling to the local player. Is that on the card, or we are completely averse. And why. Why we are not selling to the local player? What’s the problem there?
K. Natarajan
We are selling to all the local players. But this local player is an integrated manufacturer. He makes his own. Yeah, he’s backward integrated. So that’s why we run. We do sell to that customer as well, but not everything that he requires. Because a major portion of what is required for the formulation, he makes it himself. So that’s what it is. And that you would wait for things to change because things have become conducive for the other players to be able to come back with some good strength to be able to regain.
Sanjesh Jain
Got it. And from the US market perspective, assuming that we have a 50% tariff, does it make sense for us to move some of these North America sales from Egypt and not from India and thereby remain competitive? Are we exploring that counter tariffs measure for ourselves? Because that option we have, we have a good facilitated exit.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, correct. So you’re talking as if you’re there into the boardroom itself. So you’re right. So we are looking at. It’s only that Sanjay, we don’t make you think good portion of our products that we make in India there as well, but not all. So that’s what we’re assessing. So the logical thing is whatever we can do from Egypt, we’ll be root from Egypt. That’s very clear.
Sanjesh Jain
Got it. Got it. From a new hiring perspective and new entity, what we have done in US what are the initial thought processes or this tariff thing has taken the shine and effort what we were doing in US and Europe market.
K. Natarajan
No, but US is a big market. So we don’t see this tariff as something that’s going to be structurally remaining. We need to find ways to be competing and with what we’re doing in Mexico as well, Americas continues to remain a very key market. We have got a team that is very fully set and America as a market presents huge opportunities to us. The uncertainty is something that we have to try to, we have to find a way. But that’s not in any way changing our outlook as to how we want to be growing in the Americas.
Sanjesh Jain
Got it. Got it. One question on the customer data, what we have provided in the presentation. If I see our tier 3 has grown what like 45% plus Y-o-Y in terms of revenue, I know we don’t have volumes. I’m comparing revenue, it also include price inflation. Then tier one has grown 25% and the regional tier has grown in a high single digit. Now where are we missing in this middle part? And tier three I understand it’s because row where we cater to a lot of smaller customers as well and the market itself is fragmented. But what’s happening with the regional players?
K. Natarajan
Regional players again, you know, if you see this is again regional players across India and the globe. So what we are essentially seeing is that the regional players essentially are the people who are also looking at how do they rejig their product portfolio. They are also now are the people who are sandwiched between the global multinationals and the very agile tier 3 customers which includes even the D2C brands. Okay. So they are trying to get their act together. They are also trying to come up with new SKUs, new formulations. Okay, so like in India itself, we are able to see very clearly there are certain type of customers who are doing pretty well.
Certain of them are now having challenges. They are working on certain plans to be able to get their mojo back. So this is something more in terms of the way that the tier 2 regional players are reconfiguring their product portfolio to be able to be relevant, to be able to compete and be of relevance compared to the global multinationals product portfolio. Also with regard to the D2C and the agile Tier 3 customers’ product portfolio.
Sanjesh Jain
Okay, one last question from my side before I join the queue back. We are anticipating prices to drop, right? I think our customer would have also been anticipating. Have you seen a scenario or a case where everybody is destocking in the anticipation of drop in LA prices?
K. Natarajan
See what I’m seeing is that Sanjay, if the demand scenario was very robust, we have also seen increasing per scenario demand being robust. The customers don’t do destocking. Today we have a situation where increasing prices and the demand really is not so robust. So the only alternative they have is in terms of ensuring that your pipeline is having just enough material to be able to serve the consumers. And typically someone would take a call for six months. Now they may take call only for three months. So that’s also one of the reason why you have to manage this particular aspect of business in a very, you know, tactful manner. Okay?
That means it also means that we need to manage our risk positions pretty well in terms of the way the customers are looking at how they want to buy, what their buying patterns are and it’s also in terms of how what is the risk bearing ability of these. Some of them are able to take more risk, some of them are not able to take any risk. So that also. So the buying patterns are not same for a particular segment of within the segment. Okay. You will have some customers who are more discomforted, some of them who do not have.
Sanjesh Jain
Got it. Got it. One last question. Sorry, before I rejoin.
operator
Sorry to interrupt Mr. Jain, sorry to interrupt, but I request you to rejoin the queue for the follow up question as there are many participants left in the queue.
Sanjesh Jain
Fair enough. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Natarajan sir . Good day.
K. Natarajan
Thank you, Sanjesh.
operator
The next question is on the line of Rohit Nagraj from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Rohit Nagraj
Thanks for the opportunity and congrats that we now coming back. So the first question is on the India. So we have seen a strong sequential volume growth. So just wanted to understand whether part of it was because of the lower inventories in the system and maybe the favorable monsoon that was like. I mean that started…
operator
Mr. Nagraj, can you please be little louder? We can’t hear you properly.
Rohit Nagraj
Yeah. Better?
K. Natarajan
Yeah.
operator
Please continue.
Rohit Nagraj
Yes. So the first question is on the sequential growth in India market which is driven by volumes. So was there any element of the lower inventories in the channel, and the monsoon coming right on time and more or less across the board. So just your thoughts on this. Thank you.
K. Natarajan
I think this is continuing on what I answered to Sanjesh’s question. So what we one of the reason is all of them have been keeping their pipeline pretty tight because the demand obviously has not been robust. But all of them also want to be seeing as to how they are able to kick start demand at least for their portfolio. So if you see typically if anyone loses a good quarter like April, May, June, because that is preparing for the festive season, you obviously have no way of coming back. So all of them look at how do they start working on really generating demand, and then be ready to serve the demand in say April to September.
So that’s why the festivities will be a very decisive, you know, the first half will decide as to how the demand has really come back. So many customers obviously they will be filling up the pipeline in anticipation of the market development plans that they have so that they are ready with inventory when the consumer wants to pick that up from the shop shelf. So yes, it is also in terms of it’s not that the demand has gone up by 15%. We also know all the best growth there has been volume growth that has been reported by any of our customers in India is in the sudden deliver which reported a 4% volume growth.
Rohit Nagraj
Right. Sir, second question. I know it’s too early to understand what could be the impact of tariffs on the US volumes but given that 15 days have passed, how has been the dialogue with the US customers and maybe pre these incremental tariffs how the inquiries volumes were and in the last 15 days have those completely dried up and everyone has taken back seat. Your thoughts will be helpful. Thank you.
K. Natarajan
Not that. So we are looking at how are we able to rejig our supply chain for what all we can do between India and Egypt. Okay. Plus also meeting customers and reassuring them or commitment to stay on course with them and jointly working on how can be the mitigation plan. Because it is not that you know, we may have 50% tariff, someone else has 30%, someone else has 20%. Okay. Some of the products typically may not be available from the low tariff countries. Okay. So that is something that is being so important thing that we have been doing the last 15 days is engaging with customers and reassuring them. Now we need to find a way out either way in terms of keeping the first objective is very clear is that you keep the business on as to how you are able to do it between India and Egypt.
Because we also know that that’s why you call it tariff uncertainty. It’s not a if it was certain then Your plans could have been very different. So you have to have the ability to be able to understand and be flexible enough to be able to keep rejigging. And that is why being very close to customers and coming up with a joint way to address this is the key. And that’s what our team has been doing over the last two to three weeks. And it obviously the whole thing started when it first came out with the 26%. It’s only that it got suspended and people thought it will be business as usual. But now that we already have prepared our customers, we are looking at how do we retreat our commitment and start working out ways to jointly address.
Rohit Nagraj
Sure. Sir, just one clarification on this. So you said that probably some of the products there will not be any other alternatives. So in this case the tariffs which are relatively higher a part of that would it be absorbed by us and part of that will be taken care by the customer. How are we looking at this aspect?
K. Natarajan
Yeah, so as I told you very clearly, the first objective would be to retain the business because with the customers, because we don’t expect this tariff to be something that will structurally continue forever because we have spent many customers, we have worked with them for five years and seven years. So you don’t want to let them go out of their portfolio. So wherever we are able to manage with taking margin calls, we’ll do that where it doesn’t make any sense to take margin calls. We’ll have to work with customers to see as to how we can temporarily support them with certain alternatives. But then keep them engaged and keep them part of the conversations that they’re going to have in terms of alternate plans.
Rohit Nagraj
Yeah. Thanks for answering all the questions and all the best, sir.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Khetan from SMIFS. Please go ahead.
Aditya Khetan
Yeah. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. I joined us all — I joined the call a bit late. So sorry for repeating the similar question. The first question is as you had mentioned that in your presentation, that performance perfect and during the quarter has gone up. Is this one of the reason why our spreads have impacted on growth and EBITDA?
K. Natarajan
Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. Because I said that our specialty portfolio premium specialty portfolio business in North America, you know, was subdued mainly because of the uncertainty that the customers are having on the tariff front.
Aditya Khetan
Got it. Got it. Okay. And so this, so this jumping realization is. Is largely a pass on only which because of the higher LA pricing. And if I heard you correct that you are Expecting the prices to move down from here now.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, you can call it expectation or you can call it as prayer, whatever you want to put it. But then we need to be prepared because as is often said, whatever goes up and so swiftly and so high has to come back down. Okay. So how fast will happen, to what extent will happen is something that we can only hazard a guest. But it’s important that we prepare. So even if it falls significantly day after tomorrow, we should have a way to prepare ourselves to not have a significant impact in terms of mark to market.
Aditya Khetan
Okay. Okay. So this drop in LA prices, suppose if it comes down any change in our — so volume and the margin guidance will happen.
K. Natarajan
Yes. What will happen is that once the prices come down significantly, I think it gives a huge fillip to the demand to be revived in India. It can have a significant impact in the way the demand scenario can play out in India. Because today, if you see all of them are paddled with high prices so they are not able to come up with schemes and all that because there’s huge pressure on gross margins. So all of them are having no way to be able to fix that demand by enticing customers to buy more. So the prices come down. It certainly enables that, and that can be good in terms of the demand coming back in India.
Aditya Khetan
Got it. Sir, just one last question sir, if you can talk a bit more on this Vision 2030 which you have mentioned. So two times volume, two and a half times EBITDA I believe sir, like we were targeting around 7%, 8% volume growth. This 2 times volume will actually take around 20% volume growth per annum. Is there any change in strategy which has happened? And if you can throw some light on it, how this will work?
K. Natarajan
So there’s no change in strategy. In fact I covered quite a bit in the analyst. Probably you couldn’t attend our analyst meet. Okay. Analyst did call. So I think I covered it pretty detailed way. So it is not doing more of the same. It’s ensuring that we protect what we have and grow that organically and also ensure that we come up with newer ways to be accessing growth in key focus geographies. I think probably I may not be able to answer your question in a very thorough way in this conference call. I think probably if you’re we are able to have a separate discussion, I’d be able to answer it in a more.
Aditya Khetan
Got it. Got it, sir. Just a follow up. So we are targeting around 8% volume growth for FY26.
K. Natarajan
No, I’m not targeting as I said that is our range that we want to be at. But I said in the last call also the demand environment is not conducive for us. So I said that I’d be very happy even if I’m able to keep my last year growth of 4% continued in this year. Okay. That’s what I had said. And I would be very happy if I’m able to reach 6% with the lower guided range because that’s unless India really comes back in a significant way in terms of demand, getting to 6% to 8% is going to be difficult.
Aditya Khetan
Got it. Thank you, sir.
operator
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Praveen Kumar from Accultus Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hello. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question was on the strategic product adjustments in the India portfolio which you talked about. So just wanted a couple of clarifications around that. First is have you seen this happening in previous cycles such product readjustments and what is your competitive advantage equivalent to your existing products in the products which are readjusting? Thank you. That would be my first question.
K. Natarajan
First of all, it is not a strategic product. It’s tactical because I don’t see this as something that is structurally changing in terms of customers are doing it more as a response to managing the current high commodity inflation. Okay, so that’s one second is yes, we’re getting in because the flexibility is also going to be enabling us to continue to serve our customers. And obviously, yes, we also have the ability to be able to do well with that product. It’s not something we do not know and we have done it earlier also. So it has happened earlier and we also have the experience of doing this and we have also seen as to, you know, these are all things that don’t structurally change.
Unidentified Participant
And how would the EBITDA per turn in these products compared to what you’re doing currently in India?
K. Natarajan
So they’re similar.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. Next, next question was on your, on the US business you, you referred that on the Tricare part of the business that you know, because there was some due to this tariff regime, there was demand uncertainty. They just wanted to understand that because again there even for Tricare the end users will be this home and personal care companies. So is it that these companies, end user companies are seeing down trading for their premium products and that’s why they’re cautious about this or because you know your Tricare itself, the manufacturing itself happens in the US So except For raw material which they procure from outside, there should not be a huge tariff impact for the business itself right? So just wanted to understand that.
K. Natarajan
Yeah. So I’d say that if you had, if you had listened to Dr. Prcoter & Gamble’s call, investor call, they said that they had an impact of $1 billion per quarter because of, you know, the tariffs and they are looking at increasing prices. So the question in every customer’s mind is that they have increased prices. But if the increased prices leads to stagflation, where there is an increased price but the demand continues to stagnate, they don’t want to be getting loaded, okay. With inventory that they are unable to liquidate. So the cautiousness is some people want to understand how it settles down.
They probably want to have a better understanding because it’s also quite possible that the demand can really get impacted significantly once the prices, because the prices have to be increased. There is no way, you know, GM talks about increasing price of cars. Okay. Everyone is talking that. Amazon has already started putting it on their packages. So what is concerning for all our customers is how is the demand situation going to pan out? And that is why it’s making them postpone, taking, placing orders, place reduced orders. So all these other impact.
Unidentified Participant
So do you perceive this to be more of a transitionary period where they come to terms with the tariff regime, how it is evolving, etc, or do you, I mean are you preparing more for a structural downtrend in demand and you know, and hence especially demand for more premium products where Tricase products go into.
K. Natarajan
Yeah, so first of all, I don’t see this because anything success will take time to settle down. Because an initiative of this order and magnitude, and this has never happened before, is going to take some time to settle down. But then consumers have to adjust. But consumers adjusting to the high price scenario can only happen if their wages keep pace and everything falls in place well, then it’s a good situation for all of us, which is what we are expecting should happen. But we don’t know because these tariffs are not in a very linear way.
They don’t impact in linear way. There are a lot of moving parts, so we need to wait. So as of now we can only say that we don’t see it as structural issue. That’s what I said. North America, America as a market, continues to be a very strategic market for us. We will find ways to be able to mitigate the impact of this tariff uncertainty situation.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And the last question was on the Amit region again on Egypt and Turkey, both you have been facing headwinds for quite a while for the last few years. So I just wanted to understand in the, in the medium to long term, what. How do you see this emerging? Because these geopolitical uncertainties there and you know, the inflation, etc. Could continue for a while. So given your large exposure to that region, how do you, what are the internal plans to, you know, I mean you did mention earlier that whether to consider exporting from the US I mean to the US from Egypt, etc.
But what other levers do you have to pull to, you know, to at least, you know, because on, at least on a y-o-y basis to stabilize output from there and revenues and to emerge out of it. Yeah. Thank you.
K. Natarajan
You’re asking me this question with Egypt as a market or Egypt as an anti business entity, what is, what is your context?
Unidentified Participant
So I’m looking at Egypt, I mean AMIT region as a, you know, from a revenue perspective.
K. Natarajan
Okay. So you’re talking of Egypt as part of my AMIT region? As I said, yes, but then we’ve been working on getting it replaced with other countries. That is how we have been able to, despite Egypt and Turkey having significant headwinds. Okay. We have been able to find other markets within Africa, Middle East, Turkey to be able to compensate. Now we need to see how we resume our growth trajectory. That is what we’re looking at. How do we like rest of the world, if you see we have doing a very good job in terms of trying to get that momentum going.
So this is because we know that if some market is continuing to challenge, how do we access some other markets? And this essentially is a testimony to this sort of diverse product portfolio. We have diverse geography portfolio as well as diverse customer portfolio. So despite all these headwinds, you’ve been able to find markets and other regions. So which is good. But we only hope that all this good work that we’re doing also gets supported by our home markets coming back into good shape and that should happen. We are optimistic. The question is when?
Unidentified Participant
So for the Amet region to come back to growth, you come back to a reasonable amount of growth, you see that more as a, I mean, given all that you are trying to do, do you see that more as a three to five year kind of a thing or, you know, do you see it in a more immediate basis?
K. Natarajan
I don’t have a crystal ball ahead of me, but if I look at the current geopolitical situation that is there, I don’t even want to answer any guess because the whole issue has been caused by the geopolitical situation. Because even post Covid if you see when the countries were ravaged, all the economies once the lockdown got lifted, everything things came back okay. But the geopolitical situation has taken the wind out of the sales. So only when the geopolitical situation settles down can we hazard a guess. But till that time, we need to find ways to counter this particular impact in terms of looking at other geographies and the other countries within the AMET geography.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. Thanks for the response.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arun Prasath from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.
Arun Prasath
Thanks for the follow- up opportunity. Continuing our discussion earlier. So you…
operator
Mr. Prasath, we can’t hear you properly. Can you be little louder?
Arun Prasath
Yeah. Is it better now?
operator
Please continue.
Arun Prasath
Yeah. Thanks for the follow-up opportunities. When you were saying that there is a time lag effect in the because of the increase in prices. Is it okay to assume now that if the prices remain at the constant level at the current prices we should see the reversal of the same time lag in the Q2 and Q3? Or it will take more than that.
K. Natarajan
Reversal of timeline means. I didn’t get you, Arun.
Arun Prasath
Sir, you said between the increase in the raw material prices and product prices, you said there will be a time lag effect in passing on to the customer. That the lag effect.
K. Natarajan
If the prices continue to be where they are and flat. Okay. Then the lag effect will go away. Because my prices are adjusted to the current price and the prices continue to remain stable. See, that’s what I the problem. If it is high prices and stable scenario, it is much better than high prices and a volatile scenario. Okay. Because customers then adjust to the new situation. Consumers adjust and then there’s a steady state. So if the prices continue to remain where they are, okay. At least the time like effect will not be there. But its impact in terms of unable to revive demand. Okay. In the key markets is suddenly will be continued. Because at these high prices demand certainly gets impact.
Arun Prasath
Understood, sir. And so — okay. So that means so high prices, stable demand. We should see margin coming back to the previous levels. What we saw in the last year in the Q2 and Q3. That’s. That’s a fair understanding.
K. Natarajan
Yes. Yes.
Arun Prasath
Understood sir. Thank you. All the best.
K. Natarajan
Plus important thing is that the bit of a medictin has to have a listing in terms of our premium specialities coming back and more so with the tariff scenario, how North America is going to come back. That’s going to another…
Arun Prasath
Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Understood. Thank you very much.
K. Natarajan
Thank You.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harshil Parek from Acuitas Capital. Please go ahead.
Harshil Parekh
Thanks for the opportunity. So my question is with respect to our specialty business, which we are targeting in your US and Europe as a part of our Vision 2030, so what is your right to win against someone like BASF or CRODA considering their size and wide product range in specialty segment?
K. Natarajan
The right to win is what we have done earlier over the last 45 years. Okay? So we have won with they being in the market. So first is that we have had, we have the capability, and we have a team, okay. That is very clear that we need to be really growing in this market. So that’s the first one. It’s not that we have not competed with them and won against them. What is important is how we are preparing ourselves, okay? Against competition whom we really respect. Like a BS of the CRODA who have, you know, greater geographical footprint and also in terms of, you know, a superior part of portfolio innovation capabilities.
We are working in terms of how we are able to get better in terms of innovation portfolio and also in terms of our ability to be able to access demand, okay. In both these markets. For that what is critical is having your resources both in terms of your, you know, what do you say, any vehicle to be able to access the market, okay, which you have now formed two subsidiaries, one in Egypt, one in Europe and then we have in Latin America can in the US and the other is in terms of how well we are building the organization to be able to really deliver that for us.
On both these fronts, we are well prepared. We also have a sound innovation process and a good understanding of the consumer trends and a good innovation pipeline that we have to be addressing the demand in these markets.
Harshil Parekh
So typically who would be our target customer? Like will we be focusing more on the MNC companies there or will we be targeting some smaller local D2C players there? Because D2C also as a market has very huge scope in countries like US and Europe.
K. Natarajan
So in this market I’ll be very happy if I have the ability to pick and choose which customer I want to engage with. But if my our objective is to significantly announce a presence in the world’s two of the biggest markets in home and personal care, then I’m not going to be picking and choosing which customer I need to engage with. We’re going to be engaging with all the customer and seeing how we able to create demand with them.
Harshil Parekh
No sir, the question was from a context that some MNC companies would typically have these relationship with BSF or Croda. But for a small D2C player, BSF or CRON may be huge entities to you know, supply to these smaller D2C players. So for that particular segment it would have been easy for us to target. So just to wanted to understand these things.
K. Natarajan
But it’s also important that we work with MNC customers. Correct? So it’s not that. It’s not a question of whether this or that, it is this and that. That’s what I was trying to explain to you.
Harshil Parekh
Okay. Understood. T he last question was on the capex front we have announced some 2,000 crores of capex over next 5 years. Right?
K. Natarajan
I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Where did we announced? Where did we announced?
Harshil Parekh
In some TV interview you had announced this 2,000 crore capex over five years.
K. Natarajan
No, nothing like that. We had, when we had talked about our strategy for 2030 we had talked about what will be the sort of capital allocation which we can work on in terms of our new initiatives. Okay. We never said I announced 2,000 crore plan. No way.
Harshil Parekh
Okay, understood. So sir, can you just guide us about the CapEx for FY26 and 27?
K. Natarajan
FY26 and 27? Yeah, right now it’s true. So right now there is — given what situation that we are in where we are trying to address the current tariff uncertainty and geopolitical situation, we are not planning anything significant. It will take time for us to come to get things out of the drawing board and then start signing off on investments. But yeah, it will continue to be our regular debottle making projects and my you know, maintenance projects. So I think that will be in the zone of 120 to 150 crores.
Harshil Parekh
Okay sir, understood. Thank you.
K. Natarajan
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions from the participants I now hand the conference over to Mr. K. Natarajan for closing comments.
K. Natarajan
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It was a pleasure engaging with all of you. Thank you for being a huge support and look forward to being with all of you in the next conference call for Q2 FY’ 25-’26. Thank you, have a good weekend. Happy Independence Day to all of you.
operator
On behalf of Galaxy Surfactants Limited that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.