Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd (NSE: JISLJALEQS) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 15, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Anil Jain — Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Analysts:
Bhavya Sharma — Analyst
Praneet — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to gen Irrigation Systems Q4 and FY26 earning conference call hosted by Dr. Chalksee Finso Private Limited. As a reminder, all participant line will win 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 touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mahirmani.
Thank you. And over to you.
Bhavya Sharma — Analyst
Thank you Danish. Good evening everyone and welcome to Jain Irrigation System Ltd. Earnings call to discuss the Q4FY26 results. Today we have on call Mr. Amir Jain, CEO and MD and Mr. Dipin Vallamy, CFO. We must remind you that the discussion on today’s call may include certain forward looking statements that may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors and must therefore be viewed in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. Future results, performance or achievements may differ significantly from what is expressed and implied by such forward looking statements.
Please note the results and presentation are available on the Exchange and the company’s website. Now I request Mr. Anil Jain to take us through the company’s business outlook and financial highlights subsequent to which we will open the floor for questions. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Anil Jain — Vice Chairman and Managing Director
Good evening to all the participants and the listeners for the call. Thank you for joining companies conference call for the fourth quarter results and overall year review. So as we circulated, we had a board meeting earlier today and we have circulated the results. You know you might have seen that overall, you know when you look at it we were able to manage approximately a revenue of about 1800 crore this quarter as the entire company as against same period last year at about 1750 so registering about a nominal growth of about 4.3%.
Within that the hitech business which primarily means drip irrigation tissue culture grew in fact about 8%. There is small amount of degrowth in plastic business because of slow quarter for the piping in the first quarter and the impact we had because of very high prices of raw materials in month of March. And agro processing also did about 6% growth during this quarter. And in terms of overall EBITDA, EBITDA grew about 7% so revenue grew 4%. EBITDA grew about 7%. Within Hitech the EBITDA had a really good growth at about 22% compared to the same period last year.
The plastics grew also 3.3 but agro processing had a negative EBITDA growth for this quarter, while for the whole year they had a positive EBITDA growth, we have been able to improve the margin. Overall margin came at 13.2% as against 12.8% across all the divisions within individual businesses. Hitech came out at 19.8% as against last year, 17.5. So that’s a substantial improvement. Even plastic was at little bit higher at 10.2 versus 9.7. So this has been in that context and background, we have been able to hold our margins even though revenue growth was lower than what we were expecting or we were anticipating in the quarter.
If I look at the whole year, now that we are aggregating all the four quarters, revenue has grown for about 11% for the whole year. That includes the console business, that is business in India, the food business, the overseas plastic business, all put together. But within that 11% you would see that high tech business grew more than 20%. So that has been really heartening to see that the business which is most profitable grew at the best rate. The plastics grew only at 2.4 and the food managed to cross 2000 crore revenue by growing 9%.
So again, overall positive revenue growth and especially in high tech it was 20%. So that August wealth going forward in terms of EBITDA, while revenue growth for Hitech was about 20% EBITDA for the whole year grew to 26%. We had a negative growth in plastics EBITDA because revenue was also did not grow. And food managed about 9% growth in EBITDA compared to the last year time period in line with its revenue expansion. But if we look at the kind of India side of the food business did very well during the whole year.
While we had some challenges in our European and US business, those are being addressed. And I think we expect current fiscal year that is a 527, they will not remain so next year looks then quite good for the food business in totality. In general, in terms of the market. What we have seen that the pricing shocks which we saw in March, where some of our polymer, you know, we use PVC and polyethylene for piping business and linear low density polycryn business. And we saw that between the 20th of February to, you know, sometimes in 25th of March, prices had gone up substantially, you know, resulting into almost at one point there was more than 50% increase in the raw material prices within a space of about 20 days.
And on polytechnic side, it was in fact 60% increase. And so that was a kind of a shock to the system. This was unprecedented. Not seen anything like that even during COVID period. And in fact over the last 40 years this was in such a short period, such an amount of increase which took place. And since then, if I talk about late April, early May, PVC prices have come down because part of PVC gets supplied from China which is coal based and that comes at a lower cost and it is not because it is coal based.
It does not have to be a derivative of the crude. Well, Polytherine, HDP or LLDP continues to remain still quite high because it is direct derivative of the crude. So those prices are about 40% up. They had gone up to 60% up, but they are now at around 40% level and PVC is down to about 10% compared to where it was in February. So we have seen since these prices have come down, you know, we have seen demand for PVC pipe already come back and things while March and April we lost some business due to uncertainty in the market.
Customers decide to postpone their demand for their orders, especially the farmers. But PVC has come back and we expect that over next few months as this is expected also to be monsoon is expected to be lower than normal. We expect stronger demand for water management products from farmers. So we expect next few months to be better unless there is another big price shock which one cannot predict and one is not aware. But as things stand, I think what we saw the worst between first three weeks of March and through April, things have stabilized and business is coming back to normal.
So the second half of this quarter looks better than the first half and then onwards, July onwards also should be better is our overall sense in terms of where we are going in our food business. We had planned also new business where we had talked about that we are getting into beverage manufacturing. And so I’m happy to report that in the quarter the two beverage lines started, one for juice and one for CAC and there is a discussion ongoing to also put additional three more lines during May5,27 and we are looking forward to closure of those discussions soon and then move forward with that additional investment.
Overall, I think we had a small amount of revenue because of the initial trials, et cetera in late February and early March. But we did some amount of business already in March. So we expect current year to generate again the revenue and the margins into that new side of the business. The other business which we are working on collaboration with a Japanese company, it’s about tomato processing. That plant would start sometimes, I think January, that is the next mango season, sorry, tomato season, when that comes, comes through as we also speak right now, we are currently processing onions since January and that season has gone reasonably okay for us.
So that augurs well for the next year in terms of improving sales of onion etc. Dried onion. And the mango season is just starting as we speak. And this year onwards, 27, 28 onwards, we also expect that once all the rules are notified under India UAFTA earlier we used to pay 10% duty on onions while being importing. Now the duties are going to be zero. So that should be good to create demand for those type of products for us into European markets. And again that should help overall our food business.
In overall scene. You know, we are cautious right now, right. Because of this unpredictable scenario related to major raw materials which we have in terms of plastics which we use in driven pipe business. But overall as things stabilize, I think revenues will come back and kick in again. And in terms of the food business, as I said, there are two, three things which are happening which are positive for the food for the next year. One of the other things which happened during this period that the lower demand was not just linked to the higher raw material prices which was one of the important factors, but because of this war type scenario.
Some of the agriculture produce which farmers sell, like things like banana which goes into export markets, banana, onion, grapes and so on, which are our primary customers as farmers. You know, due to this whole war type scenario, the exports went down. So the price they were getting also went down and which was also a dampening reason for them at given point of time. But from what we hear from the market, things have stabilized even on that front now. And farmers are getting better prices for their produce now.
So that should help them to make those decisions, the purchase decisions they need to make in terms of coming to financials. Now. I think if we look at the overall year that whatever revenue and the EBITDA we generated, we were able to convert substantial amount of EBITDA into free cash flow. When I look at overall performance of the company and that’s important to know because that is what our really focus is going forward next year. Also that almost if we look at for the whole A5, 26, whatever EBITDA we generated almost about 76% was, you know, operating cash flow post working capital change was created in that to in north of about 600 crores.
And the idea in the current fiscal FY27 is to take this amount to four figures by recovering the old government receivables and project receivables. So there was some movement in this particular quarter where some 80 crore were reduced in January to March from the government project receivables and again in April we also received 30 crores. And we expect FY27 to be a year where substantial amount will come down. So that from FY onwards we don’t have to discuss about this issue because that would be behind us in totality.
So our focus has remained on cash flow and the fact that we could generate 600 crore rupees of operating cash flow after working everything always good. And we also focused on working capital cycle. And that working capital cycle has been reduced Almost about by 15 days in total across different businesses. Despite all the volatility and the changes which have been there in marketplace, including what happened in the March. So overall, when you look at business level, business level profitability, the ability to collect cash to honor the obligation 27 is important because while we last four years we have been repaying all our obligations on the debt and on time.
There are additional obligations in the current year, that is in FY27. Those are due in September and March. And we feel that company would be able to generate adequate internal accruals to be able to take care of that matter. And By March, almost 98% of the old debt which we had, which was interesting debt in terms of term loans and FITL, etc. That has all been fully repaid, about 1 or 2% remains, which is on ongoing basis. And now this year we repay 0% debt, the NCDs which we’re carrying in. So that’s where we are.
So all in all, you know, some good news and some difficult times we have gone through in March and April. But you know, I think structurally speaking business is in good place. Our ability to be cost competitive and make good margins is there, you know, and at least on drip irrigation business, et cetera, I think our margins are better than most of the companies because the fact that we sell system and we sell crop solutions rather than merely plastic products and that is what is helping us as a company.
Food is moving next year. I think domestically food was already very strong this year. Next year also looks good for domestic business. And with the addition of the beverage business, food should do very well. And the hit we have taken into couple of overseas businesses in food site should also not be there in FY27. So overall food should be okay. The plastic business, especially the piping part, which is domestic business, as things have stabilized, polymer prices now, PVC especially has come down to reasonable level, should create now sustained stable business environment.
Plastic Sheet business, which is overseas is already doing reasonably well. So all in all, despite some of these headwinds, we think companies should do better in FY27 compared to 26 on all parameters. By and large, the revenue, the margins, the cash flow, all three parameters and balance sheet should definitely become far better than what it is today with large chunk of retail. That’s what our focus is. And we think we need to prepare ourselves to face some of these uncertainty and challenges, mitigate some of these risks which are out there.
So, so one has to be a little bit cautious, right? You can’t go say hungo, I’m going to do things in a very different way. Another factor, the business which grew last year was also as a part of the high tech division has been the solar agri pump. That business grew nicely and we expect with also additional government initiative, solar agribusiness should grow also in 27. So there are some places where I see definite growth opportunity. As I said, solar pump will grow rerigation especially into the markets where farmers buy directly from us via dealers should continue to grow because it’s a good solution for farmers to improve productivity and prosperity.
And the food will do well. Plastic sheet overseas is already doing well. Pipe which did not grow this year, we expect to grow next year. In terms of different businesses, I think in the current year the domestic business grew about 12%, exports were lower, less by almost 10%. 10%, 11% and the retail business within that grew 13%. So our target is that the retail business should grow more than 15%. Right. And that was in the current quarter, also in the whole year. But we ended up at 13 because of lack of sales in March because of this shock.
But I think going forward our focus would remain that the domestic and the retail business should maintain that 15% plus growth. And export, you know, we have to be watchful this year because of whole geopolitical scenario, the tariff issues, you know, sometimes you can’t ship all kinds of issues. But even there, you know, this year I think we clocked exports of last year, 455 crores from the earlier year of 500 crores. So that was a 10% loss. But now with the depreciation of the rupee and rupee level, some of our product, especially on the food side, exports could become more competitive and that would help us.
So I think this is where we are. So we are cautious, we remain focused. 27 is an important year and. But I think overall we are in good way, right? For the whole year. Right. Again, our Business quarter to quarter keeps moving but for the whole year we should do well. And also one last item on the PAT that you know the reported PAT being negative was also the fact and that is covered in the notes was that we have opted this year to go for the new regime on the taxes at 25%. Earlier regime was 34% and because of the earlier accumulated losses we had created deferred tax assets based on 34% future tax rate.
Now the fact that we are moving to the new regime of 25% that means we needed to unwind some of those earlier deferred taxes which were created as an asset based on 34%. And that impact has already been given. It’s a non cash impact. And that got necessitated because of the government circular in February. We said that if you decide not to move then you could lose all the MAT credit. And we had mat credit of more than 80 crores. And therefore that decision we have taken is a one time hit. And for the whole year number there was also one time change due to the labor code.
Again that was a non cash item. And usually in our PAT number also some of the unwinding of the zero percent entities also comes through. That was another 80 crores which was also is a non cash item. So when you see reported PAT and if you add back some of these numbers the adjusted pack comes out to be quite positive for the company. Of course we need to further do it and further improve it and I think that’s where our efforts are. So I would like to add thank everybody for being patient and listening through almost half an hour of review of the business of where we stand, how 26 went and what are we expecting in 27.
And as I said 27 being somewhat uncertain year because of all these situations, we’ll continually monitor what is happening. We are hands on in terms of where we need to go and where necessary. We are employing within our business and within our data artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of business, improve training of people. How do we reach out to the dealers, how do we give more crop solutions to the farmer? So a lot of work is going on to create a more robust platform than we had in the past.
Thank you and we would be very happy to take any questions. Thank you again.
Operator
Thank you sir for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question now press star and one on the touch on telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and two participants Are request to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
Praneet — Analyst
The first question come from the line of Praneet from Samatwa Investments. Please go ahead.
Questions and Answers:
Unidentified Participant
Hi management. Thank you for the opportunity. So we just wanted to understand in terms of the debt repayment. I understand that you mentioned that Castle may be able to service it. But if you see a standalone business where most of our entities we don’t have that much of cash flow. So could you explain on how are you planning on servicing the debt? Especially in previously management has indicated that you might restrict some portion of it and there might be a fundraise. There were many options given but it was always vague on how are we planning on specifically paying this liability.
So could the management explain what’s the strategy now? Whether there’ll be restructuring of debt or what is going to go.
Bhavya Sharma
Yeah, I think that’s a good question.
Anil Jain
The, you know standalone business which we have does generate certain amount of cash flow. And even the last year I think in 2526 we generated net cash from operation 50 crore post working capital change. And part of was the increase in the receivables etc. The fact that we would expect to cover these receivables in fact should go down about 450 crores from the government. With all that calculation we are expecting the 350 crore to grow to almost about 750. 800 crore is our anticipation. So while that is our clear objective that from internal accruals of standalone business is what we should be able to repay majority of these NCDS and the cross.
In addition, you know we are expecting in current year in standalone business about 150crores of of the government benefits. This is not linked to the projects or these are not subsidies. These are special benefits which are good which will be released by the government in the current year and that amount will be also available to pay for its debt. In terms of the backup options. Right. If things are delayed on the government projects or receivables the backup options are always available about refinancing, backup option about raising of the equity etc.
Those are available. We feel fairly confident that we should be able to do through internal accruals. And I would like to state that look between 23 and 26 restructuring for since 22 in last 4 years we also repaid 1300 crores total to the banks. And that was possible and it became possible. So companies are stronger today than let’s say it was three or four years ago. So we feel okay and good that we can do this. In terms of backup option, you know, I think we are exploring everything including refinancing if required.
And this scenario of what has happened in March and April necessitates some of the additional backup one must do. Because things are uncertain and we are exploring those. And I think sometimes in July when we speak we should have more clarity on that. Now as I also explained this date is smaller amount of debt is due in September and majority amount of debt is due in March. So you know it’s 10 months away. I think we have necessary wherewithal to ensure that it will be paid properly.
Unidentified Participant
Understood sir. But like we have always had like many of these backup options in terms of asset sales and government disables and all of that in the past also to prepare whatever it is. But we have not most of them didn’t work out. So how fairly confident are you terms of getting the government receivables? Let it be the benefit or the project receivables. And like in terms of everything was delayed. I understand the management is doing everything from where they are, but it is and it’s not very far apart.
It’s 10 months is not that long. And the next payments in September that is also not too long. With existing situation it looks like still to be difficult. And we are also doing a lot of capex in the food business where it has its own commitments. So overall this is how. Because it got delayed so far. I’m just curious on how confident is the management in terms of doing it. Because neither we delayed, we got IPO in terms of liquidity and we have not. And land also got delayed. So is there any other backup option of the restructuring?
That’s already set. Because getting financing in this market also could be difficult.
Anil Jain
No asset sale actually about the land is also in. You know we kind of signed the MOU etc. It’s based in Tamil Nadu. There were recent elections there. So it is expected to be closed this month, next month. So when I overall. Right. So also you talked about government projects. The scenario is that in terms of the government projects now I think four major projects have been completed. So funds have to come earlier. There was still last milestone was not done and so on so forth that’s in place. The government benefit I talked about we got the approvals only in July August.
So payment has to only take place this year. It could not have been done earlier. So when I’m saying something it’s based on being Conservative and also doing thorough analysis. So and as I said, September part we already know how that would happen. The March part there is some more work needs to be done. I think, as I said, we have 10 months and we are very confident that this will be done. No issues.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. In order to ensure that the management will be able to address all the questions from the participant, we request you to kindly limit your question to one question per participant. If you have a follow up question, please rejoin the queue. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sanjay Kohli from Goldstone Capital. Please go ahead.
Bhavya Sharma
Thank you for the opportunity. Again, as a follow up to the previous speaker’s question about the debt management, there was a recent report by ICRA on the ratings, you know, update which they provided and in that is mentioned very advanced level of talks about sale which should crystallize sometime this month. Where are we with that, sir?
Anil Jain
Yeah, so I think the sale of the assets, as I said it is happening in Tamil Nadu. We already signed the necessary MOU or whatever else, so it should happen over next couple of weeks. So that’s in place. So that’s what I’m saying. Some of these things are happening now and we feel fairly confident that’s not an issue.
Bhavya Sharma
Okay, so that’s wonderful news because this would be a very nice near term catalyst for investors to be also looking at the, you know, valuation and interest. The other. Yeah. What progress have we made in the UK business and in the bottling plant and since we made the announcement, what sort of, you know, from cash generation, from operations, what have we pumped into these businesses so far? The amounts. Basically on the capital work in progress or the investment collected individually and collectively.
Anil Jain
So the bottling, beverage business, we have invested approximately 140 crores over last couple of quarters, December and March quarter. And the first project is already online. It’s working. We do not have to put any working capital because that’s how the business works and business has started functioning in terms of the UK business, which was a different question. Where we have grown this year From I think £60 million to £68 million on the food side. But there are some challenges related to cost because of the growth which we were achieving.
There were additional costs attached to it and those cost I think will not be there in FY27. So I think we should get back to higher level of EBITDA into that business. But overall revenues are protected. Good. In a market which is not growing much. The fact that we could grow about 12% was quite nice. So as I said, if you look at overall business, the food business, the seasons for onion and mango look good with rupee depreciation that should further help. The beverage is a new project which has already started so that augurs well.
And the negative which we had in especially UK market and partly US market should not be there in FY20. So overall food business should come back very quite strong. Though in the current year food business did better than the earlier in terms of revenue and EBITDA both they grew for 9%. But next year should be better in both. And as I said because of the current uncertainty, I don’t want to talk of any numbers where we’ll end up because everything is disturbed one way or the other. But overall directionally I think it is quite positive.
Praneet
Thank you. Participant has left the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Sumit Kumar from Magat Securities. Please go ahead. Sumit Kumar, you may please proceed ahead with the question.
Bhavya Sharma
Hello, Am I audible?
Praneet
Yes, you are. Now
Bhavya Sharma
My one first question is regarding that. So lots of hard work is going on and have been done in the past. But still we are on path, we are not on positive side. So till what side can you give me some time that from this quarter we are expected to be 5 positive?
Unidentified Participant
Okay.
Bhavya Sharma
It seems like we are working just unpaid employees of banks. Whatever the EBIT is, major chunk is going for financing the debt and debt is increasing rather than decreasing. It is increasing on consolidated basis. So can you give me some timeline that from that we would be.
Anil Jain
So I think you know that’s a good question for FY27, right? Our plan right now is to be PAT positive. But I want to just bring attention to one part, right? That’s a pain felt by us also, right? That you know that whether you are unpaid employees of the banks after doing all the work. But when you look at the pat for example for the entire FY20 the pat is at minus 40 crores. But within that 40 crores these are one time issues plus the unwinding of these NCDS which is a non cash item and not linked to the current year performance.
If you adjust that adjusted pattern which we have given in investor presentation also on slide 9 is about 133 crores which was 97 crores earlier. So there is an improvement in the PAT which we have earned on a cash basis. But on a PAT reported basis it is negative. But I think the whole idea or thought process from next year onwards is that you must earn the PAT even post any adjustment if any to be on positive, you have a positive eps. So that’s what we are striving for and it should happen from next year.
Operator
Thank you Mr. Kumar, you may rejoin the queue. If you have a question reminded to all the participants, please leave me the question. To one question per participant. Our next question comes from the line of from PK Investments. Please go ahead.
Bhavya Sharma
Good evening sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Anil Jain
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Please go ahead.
Bhavya Sharma
Okay, so thank you for the opportunity. I joined slightly late if I missed some of your opening remarks. How are we doing in terms of bottling plant progress and how much we expect and if you can just tell with whom which we are doing the partnership and what kind of, you know, revenue we expect from the bottling plant lines because this being the summer season, a peak time. So what’s your estimate for Q1 from the bottling plant lines?
Anil Jain
So I think the, you know the two lines which we set up have already started working part of February and March. But of course there is the initial period trials and all of that. Those have happened and we already had I think about 2720 crore revenue clocked before end of March. I can’t give you the detail of exactly what is happening now but overall season is going well. We are running both the lines quite well right now as we speak. Rest of the season goes and all of that the next year revenue should be good for both of these lines and there is a discussion that we should do additional three more lines I think by investment in December, January.
But most of that revenue will come. Some of it will come in the fourth quarter but. But most of the revenue for the additional sea line should come into the next fiscal year. So that’s where we are. It looks very positive and we think this is going to be very good for the overall food business.
Bhavya Sharma
Okay, and are we getting closer in terms of doing the IPO for the food division? We are still some distance away.
Anil Jain
Generally we are some distance away because of also our merchant bankers tell us that market right now has difficulties and smaller issues, especially larger difficulties. If you have a very big issue then it’s a different story. So that is something I think we need to continue to look at market and based on the advice from merchant bankers, investment bankers who look at it. But I don’t see that immediately happening, at least not in the first half. We, we will see how things change post some of these uncertainties go away in the second half.
Bhavya Sharma
Okay sir, thank you for the opportunity and all the rest for the busy season ahead.
Anil Jain
Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ravi Kumar from Madhua. Please go ahead.
Bhavya Sharma
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just want the market rumor that the beverage partnership and the Tomato Puri partnership is with Reliance Consumer Packs and Kagome. Would management be able to confirm or deny this?
Anil Jain
No, we don’t want to confirm or deny, you know, in a sense that Kagome is a global international player and we are working with them. They have been our customers for tomato puree earlier and we are working with them to increase what you call partnership more also. We are definitely working with Reliance Consumer. They are also our customers and we are doing more things with them as we do also. For example, Coca Cola has been our customers for 15, 20 years. We work with Nestle Unilever, all different types of people, you know, the global food companies, Indian companies.
And again I think as things evolve, you know, we would be discussing more details out there but things are moving in positive direction. There is a very strong undercurrent of the opportunity which is out there on the beverages, on overall food business.
Bhavya Sharma
Okay, just a follow up, not a follow up question. Sir, when? February 4th, when we had our results for the Q3. I mean at least at that point of time we were looking at overall YoY 15%. That would mean we are in Q4. We are almost short by in revenue. We are short by around 200 to 250 crores. I understand you gave details. Could you be just be able to unbox this 200, 250 by various segments. Where did we lose? And just linked to that. I mean February is when this whole uncertainty started. So the March was a troubled one.
I can understand we would have had a margin impact because of the raw material price increase. How did it impact the revenue part? If you can just. I’m sure there must be reasons. If you can just give us a little bit more detail on that.
Anil Jain
Yeah, you know I think. See usually if you think the drip and pipe which we sell to the farmers, you know the first crop, the curry crop comes through January, right? January, early February. Then the farmer fields remain open. So our season, real season starts in March, then March, April, May, June before the monsoon. We sell lot these four months and then monsoon there is a lean season again. July, August, September and then post the monsoon again, business picks up. That’s the nature of the business.
And when early February when we spoke, right. We were anticipating because of the earlier good monsoon, a very strong season happening through March onwards. And that is when this war stuck And I have day wise the details I didn’t find first 15 days the prices of PVC were up by I think 30%. Prices of polythylene went up by 30, 35% which are the raw material related to PVC in drip business which is what kicks in that time. And the farmers decided to postpone their purchases. Then they got impacted also because of the lower produce prices for themselves.
And that is what. So the entire reduction about 200, 250 crore is linked to this pricing shock in March. Otherwise our overall revenue for fourth quarter should have been you know for standalone which was about 1000, was about, should have been about more than 1200, 1250 in that region. So but despite that if you see overall margins have remained same. So you know overall EBITDA for the domestic standalone business for the fourth quarter is higher than the same period last year. So imagine a scenario if we had done 200, 250EBITDA would have been higher by about 25 crore at least.
You know
Bhavya Sharma
Exactly for March whatever we are already had in linked. Question.
Anil Jain
Yeah, yeah, so I think yeah, yeah I would answer the question. I heard you that you know there is a, of course there is an inventory. So question is the, the farmers postpone in general the purchase decision because when the raw material prices, you know you average out the pricing right when you’re buying raw material then next week or after two weeks you buy at Y and then Z. So you always average your raw metal price and your finished goods prices. And so that’s the industry practice and that’s what we did also and partly as I said the farmer postponed decisions to purchase also was not just due to this price shock but the fact that the end produce prices for them went down because the exports of some of these agri and food commodities also went down as same time because of this shock.
So that is the reason and that’s why we fell short because we were planned and ready. But as I said things have started coming back now what has gone is gone and we still manage reasonably good level of EBITDA for the whole year and the growth for this quarter also. But it could have been much better. So I think we can move forward to the next question.
Bhavya Sharma
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Ankit Bansal from AB Private India. Please go ahead.
Bhavya Sharma
Hello.
Anil Jain
Yeah please
Bhavya Sharma
Sir, how are you looking at the current scenario like globe with global environment, with domestic environment. How are you positioning yourself as a company which has been coming from the last struggling four years? How you seeing your businesses because you are being in a lot of businesses. My question mainly is that why not focus on the main part of the business like food, beverages. Your pipe business is not doing, I think so in north India. I have not seen any presence of your company. But are you comments on that?
Anil Jain
Yeah, I think see the company has been configured to operate across agri value chain. So just to quickly refresh everybody, we have high tech division where we provide to farmers the drip irrigation, the pipe which goes along with the drip irrigation and also the tissue culture, the planting material. Then we also buy from farmers what they grow and we process the fruit, fruits make the pulp and now the beverages. So we are across the agri value chain. Right. We can’t pick and choose. That’s how company is structured and configured.
But your question is valid that how much do we sell in north? So our sales for the piping business are far more in western and southern India but they are growing in north. I think because our base is lower in north. The percentage growth in fact is higher now. And we have a manufacturing plant in Alwar near Delhi and within Rajasthan. And we are adding capacity into that to grow more into North. We are also adding more dealers. So I think the situation that our brand is not visible in north would change over Next, I think 12 to 18 month period.
But all in all the pipes are linked to irrigation. They are linked to the farmer. So this is a consolidated offering. And that is unique point, right? Yes, you mentioned that we have struggled for four years. But within this period we also repaid substantial amount of debt. Company has increased its retail business. Company has increased the dealer network. The margins are better today than let’s say they were three or four years ago. So those are the positives. And now with this, this year in FY27, the substantial amount of debt gets paid thereafter.
Company can be very focused on the growth agenda because whatever positive cash flow it generates, it can go into the growth. And there is still a lot of growth in this country, lakh. And we are also export oriented. So when medium term, if I think of three, four years, we are very, very positive. And even for the next year we are being very cautious when we speak because things are uncertain. We do not know what holds for any or all of us. And we will see how that goes. But we are preparing ourselves for that.
Thank you.
Bhavya Sharma
Okay. Sir, one question. Sir, would drip irrigation like it’s the major technology, why it is not changed northern India? I have never ever seen drip irrigation projects in like district, like Haryana, like Delhi, like Jammu Ashwin Punjab. So why it’s not changing all over India? Why it’s changing only southern part of India? Why it’s not capturing all over India? It’s been technology sir. Why it’s not everybody is not using it. What’s that big hole? That is not. That country is not adopting to this technology.
Anil Jain
Yeah, again that’s a good question. So if I really look at that FY26, right. How much drip we sold where in terms of different regions. So Maharashtra, just to give you a flavor of the numbers, Maharashtra we sold 700 crores. South four states put together, we sold 400 and odd crores. Then in the west, west is then Gujarat MP that Parak Rajasthan, that was 250 crores. The rest of the north we sold about 88 crores. So it is not that we don’t sell 88 crores. And northeast east part we sold about 100 crores.
So you know we are selling. And in fact if I look at in north last year sales were 75 crores. This way they are 88 crores. So there is a 20% growth. East last year our sale was 60 crores. This year is 107 crore. So there is a substantial increase there also. So the reason north has less demand today and I would underline the word today for drip is typically in west and South. If farmer needs to irrigate his farm and if he needs to take the groundwater for example, he needs to go down 100ft, 200ft, 300ft.
In places like UP and Bihar, lot of places you go down 10ft and you get water. So the value of the water understanding is less than not. But you talked about Haryana, let’s talk about Punjab, right? There are these rivers and the canals and the farmers keep on getting water, they keep on getting free electricity. They don’t want to sell. And if they are growing just wheat and rice, the government is buying. They are not worried about marketing the farmers in west and south, right? They are growing value added agriculture.
They want to make more production. So they want to employ drip. Because drip just doesn’t say water but improves productivity and production by 50% for these farmers they make a lot more money. Some of our customers in west and south are making 2, 3, 4 lakh rupees per acre per year net profit. And some of the farmers in northern India are also doing. We have cases of farmers in Bihar, up, Punjab, Haryana number is small, right? But they are now doing very well. They are growing crops like banana moving beyond wheat and rice.
And we have now Started drip on the rise also. So what happens is that sometimes it takes time. And now I believe if last 20 to 30 years, Western and Southern India has used trip as a technology to change the farming and to improve the farmer incomes. I think over the next five to seven years that’s going to happen in north and northeast and it has already started. I gave you the numbers that we are already growing in these areas, but basically small. But I think over next two, three years, as we get more dealers to push forward and as the farmers also are doing more value added agriculture, lot more reboot gets sold there.
Thank you.
Bhavya Sharma
Okay. Okay, sir, one question, last question. Sir, Coffee mou, how long, how far it has gone that you are signed with jnk, the government?
Anil Jain
Yeah, the coffee MOU we started, we signed with the coffee board, you know, and there our first drip irrigation systems have been delivered to the coffee grower. Again it is happening for the kind of first time in the world that coffee, they are using these advanced irrigation methods. We already have good sales in general. J and K there the MOU was to work with the irrigation technologies into crops like saffron and apple. That is what is grown more in northern India. And there also we have a good success and we think JNK using the technology can modernize its apple gardens and apple orchards.
And then India does not have to import apple because today our productivity is quite low. So working with the, you know, the local farmers there to change the entire package of agriculture practices into a product like apples. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. That was the last question for today. I would like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing remarks. Over to you team.
Anil Jain
Yeah. So you know, I think already, just to summarize what I said, the last couple of months have been challenging and into the business, but things are stabilizing and so, you know, there are green shoots, growth is back. Farmers have started coming with orders, so that’s positive. Overall, food looks as a much positive year for 27. Drip continues to remain quite good margins and profitable for us. And our focus this year is on cash flow as one most important priority to ensure that we are able to take care of the significant amount of debt which is falling through this year.
But we are very confident that it would happen in time and we have taken necessary steps and we have backup options to ensure that we will come through well on that. And 28 onwards, business is focused purely on growth because internal accruals and cash flow would provide the huge support for the growth across all three businesses. We have. Thank you.
Praneet
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Choxy Finso, Private Limited and Gen Irrigation system. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.