Kajaria Ceramics Limited (NSE: KAJARIACER) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 30, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Ashok Kajaria — Chairman & Managing Director
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Dharmesh Shah — Analyst
Sneha Talreja — Analyst
Utkarsh Nopany — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Kajaria Ceramics Q3FY26 earning conference call hosted by JM Financial Institutional securities Limited. As a reminder, all participant line will be in the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touch tone four. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Dharmesh Shah from JM Financial Institutional securities Ltd. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Dharmesh Shah — Analyst
Thanks Danish. Hi everyone. Good evening and thanks for joining. We have with us senior management of Kajaria ceramics including Mr. Asok Kajaria chairman. Mr. Chetan Kajaria vice chairman, Mr. Rishi. Kajaria managing director, Mr. Sanjeev Agarwal CFO Karthik Kajaria head Adhesives Business and Parvin Gupta Vice President Finance. I would request Asokji to start with. The initial remarks post which we will. Have a Q and A session. Over to you Asakji.
Ashok Kajaria — Chairman & Managing Director
Thank you Dharmesh. Good evening everyone. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the quarter three F26 earnings conference call of Tajaria Ceramics Limited. Joining me in this conference call is the senior management team of Kajeria ceramics. In quarter 3F26, our consolidated revenue is flattish at rupees 1168 crores compared to the corresponding quarter last year mainly due to no growth in tiles volume and absence supply sales due to closure of that division. EBITDA margin a quarter through F26 is 17.2% plus 442 basis points against 12.78 in corresponding quarter last year. However, EBITDA dropped by 74 basis points to subsequent sequentially as compared to quarter two of 26 mainly because of lower sales realization as we gained some discount in order to reduce our SKUs in Goipur plant, we have converted one unit with a capacity of 9.1 million square meters from ceramic floor tiles to BS55 tiles to move towards value added products as per prevailing market demand scenario with Tagania 2.0.
Our transformation journey has begun and we remain confident about sustainable value creation going forward. Now for this quarter segment wise financial performance tide segment remained flattish year to year at rupees 103 crores 30 crores in quarter three of 26 compared to rupees 1,040 crores in quarter three of 25. Barclay segment registered a 9% growth in revenue reaching 103 crores in quarter three of 26 Compared to rupees 95 crores in quarter three of 25. Revenue from Adesa grew to 35 crores in quarter three. 26 as compared to rupees 20 crores in quarter three F25. EBITDA improved by in quarter three F26 to 17.20% as compared to 12.48% in quarter three F25 plus 442 basis points but dropped by 74 basis points sequentially as compared to quarter two mainly because of lower sales rises.
Profit before tax from JV exceptional items and tax for the quarter grew by 49% to rupees 165 crores in quarter 3 of 26 as compared to rupees 111 crores in Q.3 of 25. PAD for the quarter grew by 13% to rupees 88 crores in quarter 3 of 26 as compared to rupees 78 crores in quarter 3. 25 Due to adjustments of exceptional items of rupees 39.64 crores in quarter 326 as of December 25th, the working capital days increased by 8 days to rupees to 64 days compared to 56 days on 30th of September 25th mainly due to increase in receivables and decrease of other credit liabilities.
With this I take the opportunity of thanking you for joining us today. Over to moderator for Q and A please. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
operator
Thank you so much sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star 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. Our first question comes from the line of Keshava from HDFC securities. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Firstly can you give some sense how is the unification working on volume and margin front? So last call we are hopefully some volume growth will see because of unification. So how are things moving? And secondly how should now we see margin going forward? The realization cut which you have taken, is it just for this quarter or will we see this impact in next quarter also?
Ashok Kajaria
So in terms of volume the market scenario was weak and also we did destocking of inventory at the dealers end so we could not grow in this quarter three. But going forward we see Positive shoots going forward for growth. So what’s also happened was that you know we’ve been churning a lot of dealers with all the unification happening. A lot of tail end dealers are going out, some dealers are adding in. So you know a lot of churning is happening. Cross selling is happening, cross selling between the dealers. You know a lot of dealers were only probably working with one vertical where we are giving them other ties as well.
So you know all that is happening. And also we liquidated a lot of our stock which was a lot of skus had increased. So all that happened last quarter and because of that we remain flattish. But Jan is looks little encouraging and we should be okay from here.
Unidentified Participant
Got it sir. On the margin side, how are things moving? Can you give some more, you know, more color? What sort of margin improvement we can see? Maybe it’s you know, a few quarter. We have started the strategy.
Ashok Kajaria
So margin will remain between 17 to 18% somewhere in that bank we that should happen.
Unidentified Participant
So we are already there. So the juice out of unification on margin is already, you know, out. You mean to say no more levers are left. That is a fair assessment.
Ashok Kajaria
So you know, even if the margin increases we like to pump it back in the market in terms of advertisement and we are now our focus will be more on increasing our sales and maintaining the margin.
Unidentified Participant
Understood. Got it. And last question from Mike. The ad spend for this quarter.
Ashok Kajaria
Ad spend for last quarter October, December, you’re not asking.
Unidentified Participant
Yes.
Ashok Kajaria
We spent roughly 24 crores in quarter three. This is what’s been around 24 crore.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Thank you.
Ashok Kajaria
Q3 of the previous year. But in the fourth quarter we intend to increase it much higher than Q3.
Unidentified Participant
Got it.
Ashok Kajaria
So overall ad spend in the year would be lower as compared to the last year because we have not done one annual leader wheat we used to do in Thailand. So that has. We have saved around 5 crore rupees. So I mean we have negotiated well with our existing advertisement vendors. So. And we have. We have ignored some areas where we were not finding some value. So optically advertisement will look lower this year but the value we have will be getting for what we have got last year.
operator
Thank you. The participant left the queue. Our next question comes from the line of Sneha Talreija from Nuama Capital. Please go ahead.
Sneha Talreja
Hi, good evening team. Thanks a lot for opportunity. Just couple of questions now. Firstly on the last con call you mentioned that you know your cost cutting measures are on and we can see quarter on quarter margin improvement and that was at the point where your margins were around 80%. But if I heard you correctly, now you are saying that margins will remain under 17 to 18 and you will be passing on the incremental benefit to gain market share. Is that a change in strategy again?
Ashok Kajaria
Yeah. In this quarter the margin is 17 plus despite two around 220 or 240% drop in the selling price. So our cost optimization journey is continued and we are further. We have not stopped there. We have taken some low hanging fruits. But we have identified some area where we’ll be working in this quarter and the next. The whole next year the journey will continue. But. And as we said, as Rishiji had said that this quarter we have. There is a drop in selling price because of liquidation of some inventory. We have lot many SKUs. Because of the multiple division.
The SKUs numbers have gone very high. So we are in the process to reduce that. So that is the reason we. We gave some discount. So that’s the reason for the lower realization and for the lower sale. The reason is as we explained. I’m just repeating it because we. There was some de stocking happened at the dealers level. Because one dealer. Suppose one dealer is a ceramic exclusive dealer. So we have stopped supplying ceramic to him. We are saying no now we will not give ceramic. You have to take some GBT sub. The dealer is gbt.
He has to. I mean it takes time for a dealer to. To change his display. Because he has been displaying all gbt. So he has to display ceramic or ceramic dealer is displaying ceramic. He has to display gbt. So this some. It’s a big change. The big change in the corporate. So it will take some time. So it is taking time. But we are very sure after this correction we will emerge as a very strong and very very very process driven company. Not only that we are. We are in the process of improving like. Like the fraud happened in the company.
So we have. We are revisiting. We have appointed a forensic auditor. Also Ernst and Young. We have appointed. They have. They have yet to give the report. But prima facie the fraud amount. Because I know this question will come again. So I’m answering. So the. The fraud amount is not beyond what we have stated earlier. So that is there. And we are doing our proceed audit process. All the processes we are getting it audited. And you will be happy to know that we have found all systems are working very strong except that subsidiary. That was unfortunate incident.
But still we are in the process of strengthening our system. Further strengthening the system. We have changed all the signing power Even the chairman cannot sign or even I cannot sign a 10,000 check things.
Sneha Talreja
Understood. That’s excellent to know sir. So you also mentioned that you know you are changing SKU reduction. Could you speak more on it in terms of how much inventory levels could reduce because of that or properly you know what the skew reduction looking like. And can that have any impact on sales?
Ashok Kajaria
See what was happening was because as you said the different verticals ceramic GVT Pvt. You know, so there was a lot of commonality in the products. So that is what we are doing. We are reducing the SKUs so the plants are more, you know, the plants more efficient. And because of that this was the issue of this quarter only. So a lot of our work is done. We are emerging out much stronger in terms of our plants also. And in terms of efficiency of the stocks also.
Sneha Talreja
Understood. And lastly on the growth front, firstly we’ve seen some amount of exports inch up during first six months. But like you mentioned that you know you were doing all of these SKU reduction because of which you did not see growth. But what’s your outlook now probably for next quarter or next year in terms of demand growth, how are you seeing your volume shaping up in terms of tiles? That’s one. Secondly, even in terms of bath where you have hired a consultant, you mentioned that last quarter we’ve seen around 9% growth this quarter. How is that shaping up and what’s the outlook for that segment also next year?
Ashok Kajaria
Sneha, in the first part, as we said January is looking positive and encouraging. And we’re seeing a positive growth going forward from quarter four onwards. And the same will be both in tiles and sanitary wear as well. Even the dash will have a much sanitary wear. We’re definitely looking at a double digit volume growth from here.
Sneha Talreja
And anything on the tiles front, could we hear some numbers for the month of Jan or probably you know some guidance there in terms of volume?
Ashok Kajaria
Still early to give you the numbers but yes, Jan has been little encouraging.
Sneha Talreja
Understood. Thanks team. All the best.
Ashok Kajaria
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sonali from Jeffries. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
So thank you for the opportunity. So my first question is regarding Murbi. Could you help us understand how things are shaping up in terms of are the exports back on track? Are they still creating a lot of pressure in terms of domestic market pricing etc.
Ashok Kajaria
Hi Sonali. So Indian tile exports have experienced a 20% fall in value in FY25 to 16,000 crore due to increased freight trade, Red Sea crisis And the ongoing geopolitical disturbances. But in quarter three we exported around 4,000 crores from the country approximately. So let’s see. If the trade dealer with us is positive then it will result in increased upliftment of exports. Also it’s not actually getting any pressure in the domestic market. Because you know, a lot of these plants are closed in Morbi. If the sales don’t happen, they close the factories. It is very difficult for them to sell in domestic market. Off and on.
Unidentified Participant
Okay sir, I would just like this point. You’re saying that the factories in Murbi are closed right now. Since when accounts?
Ashok Kajaria
What I’m saying is if the exports go down, a lot of factories in more B are only exporting base. When the exports come down, they. They close down the factory because it is very difficult for them to liquidate that material in the domestic market.
Unidentified Participant
Understood? Got it. So secondly, on you know gas pricing, you know, any indicator. So what has been the gas pricing in Q3 for us across regions? If we give and how do you expect the gas pricing to go forward?
Ashok Kajaria
The SONALI in quarter three the gas pricing has been average of 37 rupees. North was 38, Southwest 38 and west was 37. And going forward also we expected to remain stable. There is an increase of one rupee going forward in quarter four.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. And just one last question. Would you like at this point to give any kind of volume guidance for F27?
Ashok Kajaria
No guidance as such. We’re just going to do a job and we’ll work for the best.
Unidentified Participant
Got it, sir. Thank you very much.
operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Omkar Gogar from SRI Investment. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Sir. Just wanted to get your outlook on the growth front. Since you have mentioned that with 2.0 you will be going ahead with all the measures which you have already taken and all the measures you will be taking. Where does the growth factor comes in? Like what kind of growth we can achieve in next two, three years? Double digit, highest single digit. Obviously it depends on the market. But still,
Ashok Kajaria
as we said this was a year of correction and Jan has been positive. But yes, next year we are definitely looking at a good value growth.
Unidentified Participant
I mean, can you just quantify it? Not exactly, but I mean higher double digit, single digit, lower single digit.
Ashok Kajaria
We do not want to quantify it, but we should. We are looking at it a very positive way. We are getting a very positive feeling for the next year.
Unidentified Participant
And there will be some growth in the revenues and margins will be in the similar range. 17 to 18%.
Ashok Kajaria
Should be around that. Because lot of because as I said the first country. So cost optimization will continue and when there was an exceptional dip in this not there maybe here in the next quarter. It may continue for in this quarter as well. But from the next year onward very light company in terms of SKUS and our all dealers should be will be unified which is under progress. So we are working. It’s doing in the old fashion. So we are all doing it digitally. We are working a lot on digital thing we have. We are not only that we are hiring good people.
We are adding at least 3 to 4 C level people which we will disclose when they join within next one one or two months. So it is we are strengthening the company all the way and growth is will be a result of the all improvement in the system. So when the systems are weak not the system I mean the process the sailing and the dealer long tail of dealer. We have identified white spaces. We have identified when we do the right thing growth has to come automatically and we are despite the number one company we are market share is very less.
So we have even if the industry doesn’t grow which has happened in the past the industry didn’t grow but we took the market share and we are hopeful the next year onward we will continue to repeat our old time and take the market share significantly.
Unidentified Participant
So just wanted to know what exactly are the points you are focusing on on this Kajaria 2.0 and how you are utilizing the cash balance in order to increase your growth ahead or to.
Ashok Kajaria
Support the second question. So for the sales strategies what we are doing is as stated earlier one we are talking about cross selling of the dealers. Earlier dealers were working in only one vertical. Now they are adding second and third product lines as well. Second we are putting a major thrust from the architect and interior designer community. This we are not focusing much earlier on. So we are making a very solid team all over India whose job is only to service these architects and interior designers and you know get products approved. Government is another sector that we are working on as well where we have a strong government team also to do this all these initiatives the work will happen.
Unidentified Participant
Oh yeah. If you can answer how how we are utilizing the cash balance.
operator
I’m sorry to interrupt you Mr. Omkar but there are a lot of background noise coming from you.
Ashok Kajaria
No problem. So we are many times we are not going to do a big thing. We are the cash is lying in the balance sheet in a and we don’t see major capex in next One or two years so maybe if we continue to keep the cash and may increase the dividend and all I can’t say at this moment but we don’t have any major capex in the future we don’t see any capex in next so cash balance may increase going forward.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you.
operator
Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Utkarsh Napani from Anandrati Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Utkarsh Nopany
Yeah hi Good evening sir so my first question is regarding the pricing scenario in the bath fair portfolio Just wanted to know have we taken any price hike recently or plan to take any price hike in faucets and sanitary wear? Both. So if you can specify how much price hike we are planning to take.
Ashok Kajaria
In both so yeah the grass prices have really increased and the entire industry has taken a price hike and so have we. So from 19th of January we have taken a price hike in the faucet faucet products in the tune about 8 to 12% and sanitary where we plan to take a price hike probably from 1st of March.
Utkarsh Nopany
Okay and sir, how much your price hike we are planning to take for sanitary wear portfolio?
Ashok Kajaria
Not that much there the cost will not increase that much but we will take a call we’re still working on it. We’re still working on a pricing strategy.
Utkarsh Nopany
Okay and second sir, on the Taigs realization front if we see for our own manufacturing product the tiles realization for us it has fallen from 401 square meter in Q3 of FY23 to right now at 365 square meters so we have seen a decline of close to around 9% so if you can help me out when we can start seeing improvement in our tiles realization sir.
Ashok Kajaria
So what for that we are doing a couple of things as we said even the Aken tiers and our team they will also help us sell in more value realization times. See prices of tiles are not increasing in the market with you know so many players there but the only way forward is that we have to sell more of valuation so it’s difficult to again calculate and tell you what is the price ration going to be but it should not go down from here the way we are working I think we’ll maintain it and slowly it should go up and we have converted one line of ceramic of 9 million in so that should also help in improving the realization that improves the bottom line further.
Utkarsh Nopany
Okay and so lastly on the capital allocation part we have already mentioned that we are not planning to do any major capex but if I See our ties own capacity and plus JV capacity has gone down from 92 and a half million square meter to 82 and a half million square meter over the past 18 month period. And we are operating at almost full capacity. Whereas if we see two unlisted peers and Boromora are almost doubling their capacity. So just wanted to know whether our conservative capital allocation is not likely to result into any loss of market share for us in the coming quarters time frame.
Ashok Kajaria
No market share loss is not a situation at all. So there is enough capacity available at MODI at very good competitive prices for us to outsource from them sell in the country. And we also have a very substantial production capacity built in. And whenever feel the need we can always expand. So right now we don’t need to feel the need to do it.
Utkarsh Nopany
Okay.
Ashok Kajaria
Our capacity that way if you see with all we have A good capacity 82.5 million the rest of the players are still in a much lower capacity than us.
Utkarsh Nopany
Okay, fine. So answer. If you can just specify what is the share of our institutional sales in December quarter versus last December quarter.
Ashok Kajaria
So roughly our share is 70% in retail and 30% in projects. And this projection includes government projects also and private projects also with builders basically.
Utkarsh Nopany
Okay, that’s it for my sir. Thanks a lot.
Ashok Kajaria
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. My next question comes from the line of Praveen Sai from PL Capital District.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for opportunity. So my question is as you had mentioning that a lot of a cross selling, you know you are emphasizing to your dealer. So now where we are in the churn within the dealers like 100% of that has achieved or 70% where we are right now.
Ashok Kajaria
So I would say about 70 to 75% is already done. Rest will all happen in this quarter. That doesn’t mean that we’ll not grow in this quarter. We’ll definitely grow as well in this quarter. And the remaining churning will also happen. So that next year, when we start the next financial year we’ll be in a very very solid position.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, good to hear that. Second question is as realization on sequential basis has been down but your gross margin has improved. So is there is some cost related to the RM as well? Some rationalization happened. What exactly happened?
Ashok Kajaria
Yeah, as I said, the cost optimization journey is continued. So if. If the sales reaction wouldn’t have dropped, the margin would have been much higher. This margin 17 margin is despite the drop of 250 or 240bps decline in the selling price sales realization Sir.
Unidentified Participant
Right you are. I am saying that so your relation is down. Gross margin has improved actually sequentially. So cross margin is a function of realization and the rm. So is there a sum? Yeah. So you.
Ashok Kajaria
Have you taken the gross margin? Have you taken the foreign also?
Unidentified Participant
No, sorry. What do you have taken? Yeah, yeah. Hello sir. What you said? Sorry.
Ashok Kajaria
To take the most of the analysts are not taking the power and fuel.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah,
Ashok Kajaria
yeah. You have to include orange source and sphere. Then as compared to Q2. Q2, Q2FY26 was around 36%. And even this quarter it is 36%. To be very precise it was 37% in Q2FY26. And in this quarter it was 36%. For that you have to take a raw material trading purchase and power and fuel and stores and spare.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for answering my questions.
operator
Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Nilish Sharma from Anand Ananda Skycon. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you so much for the opportunity. Sir, I just want to know from a long term industry structure perspective, when do you believe that Indian tile industry reaches an inflection point where organized players start gaining visible market share from more B or unorganized players.
Ashok Kajaria
Saying when do you think they’ll in the long term industry. Long term. Just repeat your question for everybody please.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, yeah. So my question is from a long term industry in long term industry perspective, when do you believe Indian tile industry reaches at the point when organized player gaining the visible or sustainable market share from more B or other unorganized players. So that we like Kajaria, so many like players will get the momentum.
Ashok Kajaria
See two things are happening. One is GST has changed lot of perspective. Earlier as we all know there was a lot of problem on various fronts the GST everybody has become part of GST almost. You can say 80% of the industry are in GST. Some here and there is still being done at Modi by underpricing as you all know. But GST is a big game changer. With the process of time, what will happen is the branded players today you see the prices of all housing is going up. People prefer good products as you all know.
So with the change of time the branded players will be more preferred compared to Murby. Even in Morbi some people are emerging as branded players like Vadmora and Simpolo. And I think over a process of time it’s a time which will tell you but things will happen whereby the current share of the organized is about 40%. The share of Modi is about 60%. I would say about two years time or three years time it will be 50. 50.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you sir. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Next question is from nan Rahul. Over 1 from Ikela Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Hi. Very good evening sir. So this first question on, you know, before the unification, I think the pricing, dealer schemes and incentives for Ceramic Pvt GVT would have been different. Right. For all three segments. Now given the unification has happened, has that been aligned and are the dealers now comfortable understanding the pricing and scheme structure?
Ashok Kajaria
Yes. Just to answer that question with effect from 1st of Jan, we have aligned the pricing and ceramic EBIT and PVT made the discount structure very similar. So when a sales team goes to a dealer, it’s very easy for him to explain what are the various schemes and pricing sector of all the three verticals. And also aligned and set the policies to a great extent. It’s all performance based on. It has become simpler post unification rather than it was pre unification.
Unidentified Participant
So when I talk to dealers, what I hear is that the earlier person who was handling three segments, three products separately because of different schemes and structures, it’s still getting difficult for them to understand the new pricing and schemes. And hence they are still contacting the older sales managers, you know, to place orders. Any, any thoughts on this?
Ashok Kajaria
This happens on 1st of Jan, so it will take let’s say a month, two months time for them to absorb and get in the market also. And once it’s explained to all the dealers, it will all become very simple and transparent for them to understand the new systems in the policies.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, okay. Like is it possible to, you know, do certain, you know, central meeting with all the dealers and explain them this or how does it work? Like how are you communicating this with your channel?
Ashok Kajaria
We can’t do a central meeting because every geography and zone is different. You cannot get 1800 dealers on a call to the end because the pricing and systems are schemes are different for various zones, Northeast, Southwest. So it’s all being told to the dealers by the people on the ground. And we’ve had some meetings with dealers in various pockets to explain them what the new scheme and policy is.
Unidentified Participant
Right. Understand that? Understand. Of course. I mean it has to be more regional driven kind of effort to communicate. Got it. So very clear on that. Secondly, you know, when I look at the production breakdown, it’s 6 million square meters a quarter is what you report as the joint venture production. Just wanted a clarification. These joint venture production are entities referred to which region is this largely murabi and South Asian Ceramics.
Ashok Kajaria
Yes. The joint ventures are three in Murby and one in South Asia. One is South Asia. Four plants are joint ventures.
Unidentified Participant
Right. So over here.
Ashok Kajaria
Sorry. One of the subsidiaries we have in the board meeting, we have taken approval to acquire 10%. But the joint ventures make it a wholly owned subsidiary. So it will not be a joint venture. And even the joint venture we have increased our equity significantly. So the ultimate aim is to acquire the balance and merge it with the area service going forward and run it more efficiently.
Unidentified Participant
Right. That was the precise question. That incrementally this 6 million square meter per quarter or 2425 for the full year will actually move to own manufacturing and there will be no JV production breakdown available. Is that correct?
Ashok Kajaria
That’s the endeavor. As we go along, we take a call as we said that out of four JVs this quarter, we have converted one JV into a taken the permission to convert into a subsidiary like that as we go along. But we still own majority of the shares of these JVs. 80 plus percent in more B all the JVs we have almost 85% plus equity as we are in the plants. South Asia is about 60, 60%. They’re also there only operating a plant. Basically. Yes. So it is. It is it? Earlier it used to be JV in real jv. Because these people, our partners used to run the plant. But over a period of last couple of years we have taken the management control. Yes. And they are just shareholder. But we are running the plants.
Unidentified Participant
Absolutely. I completely agree. That’s what I was wondering that since we own majority and now the endeavor is to own majority and 100% ownership, it should all move to own manufacturing versus joint venture. So I agree.
Ashok Kajaria
Efficient. Also not suppose some JB is having losses. So that is not getting any benefit. And the I am paying tax. So once we merge everything. So it will be very. And then there will be no related party transaction, no tax issues. So it will be very clean system of working going forward.
Unidentified Participant
Absolutely. Got it. And last question was on discounts. And the discounts was it region specific or it was Pan India offering From your side, like the SKU reduction which happened.
Ashok Kajaria
SK reduction was plant wise across the country. Across all across the country and across the country. Plant wise and dealer wise as well.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, got it. So there’s nothing to do with abnormal inventory. Right. Because when I look at September balance sheet, the inventory was fine. This is largely. What is this related to?
Ashok Kajaria
This more of cleaning up of our own plants where we’re making our Plants more efficient. The plants, you know the what has happened is the plants, the tires which sell more. How we are making sure that their stock is more as compared to a lot of dead inventory and the plant ties which don’t sell more. So that is the churning of the inventory and that is also all the liquidation of the old stock which happened this quarter. And Rahul, one more thing. Though we have not reduced the inventory at the company level there is a marginal increase in the inventory to company level.
But as explained because of the de stocking that inventory at the dealer level has diminished which will help us in future.
Unidentified Participant
Got it? Got it. Very clear sir. Thank you so much for answering the questions and all the.
Ashok Kajaria
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question May Press Star N1 on their touch on telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, anyone who wishes to ask a question May Press Star N1 on their touch on telephone. Next question comes from the line of Rahul Agarwal from Ikega Asset. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for the follow up. Just one question on the gas consumption overall, all inclusive in a year, how much of gas do our plants consume? About 200 million to cubic meter. Is that correct?
Ashok Kajaria
No, no overall gas consumption. We can come back on this question with a definite answer. When you talk about fuel it’s a combination of gas and biomass also. And in north we are using combination of biomass and fuel. In Morbi it’s all about fuel and coal. And so we have to do plant wise working. Come back to on the gas front how much gas we are using. Because currently what is happening in Morbi they have an option to use gas or propane. So exact details. We will come back and come back. But Raul, your question why this question? You want to know you have any apprehension about the gas price increase.
This is why you are asking this question on why you want. You are interested in knowing the quantity. I can tell you there is no impact of gas in this quarter. And because some people have some apprehension because of increase in Henry there is a cost escalation. So that gas I can clarify that it’s 4 to 5% overall gas power and fuel consumption. And that was temporary hike in few days back because of the extreme cold in Europe which has gone down. And. And there will be no impact of any gas either in this quarter.
There will be maybe marginal gap, let’s say 50 to 80 lakh rupees in the next quarter. So beyond that there is will be no increase in the gas price as of if I take the prices today.
Unidentified Participant
Got it. Sanjeev, thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bhavish from DB Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Hello, Please proceed ahead with the question.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah, hi. Am I audible?
operator
Yes, you are.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. About the export scenario like last year it was around like say 18,000 crore. So can you, can you give me more updates? Exports, what is the situation now? And unorganized players like where are their supply going?
Ashok Kajaria
So FY24 the exports was 20,000 crore. And this is estimating to be around 16,000 crore. So going forward exports should be stable and growing only. And once the US trade deal comes to light then we’ll know much more what the US status will be.
Unidentified Participant
How much exports will be around for the nine months period. Any estimation?
Ashok Kajaria
12,020. We are expecting it to be 16,000 crores for this year, approximately for the financial year.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you.
Ashok Kajaria
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the test on telephone. Next question come from the line of Bharat and individual investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Thanks for the opportunity. I just wanted to know about bathware segment. How are we going forward with our distribution channel? Are we adding dealers, retailers? How is basically that?
Ashok Kajaria
So in bathware we have a mix of both distributors and retailers. Some areas distributors are working, some areas itself retailers are working. So there also a lot of this work is happening. We are going in, you know, so bathware still, it’s taking a little time but we are still going in, attacking all the dealers, getting there, making sure our products are displayed. So we are seeing some results and hopefully that should also change as we go along.
Unidentified Participant
Can you quantify how much are our dealers, retailers? Okay, thank you.
operator
Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, due to the time construct, that was the last question for today, I would like to hand the conference over to the management for the closing comments. Thank you. And over to you.
Ashok Kajaria
So thank you, Ramesh. I think it was a good interaction with the people who are there. I thank on behalf of Kajerian, on behalf for people for asking questions and thank you very much for today’s deliberations. Thank you.
Dharmesh Shah
Thank you.
Ashok Kajaria
Thank you.
operator
Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of GM Financial Institutional securities limited that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.