Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
Mold-Tek Packaging Limited (NSE: MOLDTKPAC) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 11, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Lakshmana Rao — Chairman and Managing Director
Analysts:
Rajesh Kumar — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Darshita Shah — Analyst
Shirish Pardeshi — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Moltech Packaging Limited Q4FY26 earnings conference call hosted by MK Global Financial Services Limited. 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 0 on your Touchstone 4. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr.
Rajesh Kumar from MK Global Financial Service. Thank you and over to you, Mr. Kumar.
Rajesh Kumar — Analyst
Good afternoon everyone. I would like to welcome Mr. J. Lakshman Rao, Chairman and Managing Director and thank him for this opportunity. I shall now hand over the call to him for the opening remarks. Over to you sir.
Lakshmana Rao — Chairman and Managing Director
Good afternoon everybody. Thank you very much for participating in our quarterly and yearly earnings results con call. I’m very happy to announce good results from Maltech Packaging with all the units running with better capacity utilization than the past and especially the consolidation of five units in Hyderabad into two units I.e. Unit 1 and 10 has improved the overall performance and efficiencies and resulted in a better EBITDA margins and going forward. And again, one more notable thing in this quarter is the pharma packaging.
It’s grown by 37% over the Q4 of last year and overall growth of the full year is more than 200% giving us ability to look for higher numbers going forward. We are also expanding our product range in Pharma and have ideas to add some odd lines of activity in pharma which can take the Multec into a decent major player in this segment.
Rajesh Kumar — Analyst
So going forward
Lakshmana Rao — Chairman and Managing Director
The paints business, especially in the paint side has marked double digit growth this year. That is one of the reasons for closing the year at around 13% sales growth 13.4% and though there is a disappointing trend in Loop’s segment, it was well offset by more than 15% growth in food and FMCV and Qpex 25% and of course pharma 200% and overall resulting in a healthy 13.4% growth. I would rather like to share more details across question and answers. I owe to the operator to start the question answer session.
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 RN1 on the Touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Participants, you may press star and one to ask the question. The first question is from the line of Sanmar Jain from Kamayakia Wealth Management.
Please go ahead. Yes, my voice is coming muffled. Can you speak through the handset please?
Rajesh Kumar
Yeah. Is it okay now?
Operator
Yes, slightly better.
Rajesh Kumar
Yeah. So thank you for the opportunity. I have a question regarding the collaboration with the Vibe. So was there any revenue contribution from this contract in Q4?
Lakshmana Rao
Yes. I already mentioned during my previous con call that this is a long term opportunity where we are working with Vibe and development of new set of products, especially closures for high end chemicals and lubricants. And now the two out of three products, they have given us the designs, two products, pilot moulds are ready. But these molds to become commercial and add revenues, it will certainly take two or three more quarters. So the numbers will start adding probably towards the end of this financial year.
26, 27. So while as of now is on the developmental stage, but the products which we are coming out are two out of three are already successful in pilot trials. And more and more visibility would only come after a couple of quarters.
Rajesh Kumar
Okay, so you gave us the guidance of 55 to 60,000 pharma for FY27. So is this including this contract revenue or will it be incremental to this?
Lakshmana Rao
No. 55 crores is our target for the next firm financial year. 26, 27, we hit 35, almost 34.4 crores for the current financial year. So we have taken a 50% growth. So to reach somewhere around close to between 50 and 55 crores for the Pharma. We are online with that I hope.
Rajesh Kumar
Okay. Okay, thank you. That’s it from us.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Richa from Equity Master. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hi, am I audible?
Operator
Yes.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, could you break down the growth in the paint segment volumes? You know, with calcium and without gassing.
Lakshmana Rao
Yes, with Grassim and without Grassim. I don’t have the figures readily available, but Grassim has contributed handsomely to the growth of paint because they have been the kind of new players and their numbers are expanding more rapidly. So the volume also has shot up by more than 60% in ABG compared to the last year because this last year base was much smaller. Currently the numbers are improving month after month or quarter after quarter. So they are contributing handsomely and they are in the top 10 supply.
I mean,
Unidentified Participant
Okay, but a few quarters ago, like you Know, there was a lot of competition coming in for Asian things and you know, we had some kind of weakness in volumes there. So has that stabilized?
Lakshmana Rao
Yes, rather we have a very healthy growth in this quarter. We have more than 17% growth coming from Asian pains in Q4 to Q4. So that’s a very healthy recovery for us. Okay.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And so can you also elaborate on, you know, why such a sharp decline in the lubricant segment? I mean I’m not sure how that is visa with industry, but normally the industry growth is, you know, tends to be between minus 2 to plus 2. This seems to be a sharper decline. So are we losing clients from additional there?
Lakshmana Rao
Yes, we lost a client BPCL towards the end of last financial year who used to, I mean which used to contribute about significant amount of sale. But due to tendering system and public sector, they go only by L1 basis. We couldn’t match their pricing and we let it go. So one of the reasons why last four quarters we still have loss in sale, last year itself it was more than 14, 15 crores turnover has come from BPCL that has gone off in this full year.
Unidentified Participant
Okay.
Lakshmana Rao
That is one of the reasons for the drop in loop sales.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. And so capacity wise, how much additional capacity are we targeting for Braston and you know, Pharma as well? Because we have some capacity capex planned in that segment.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah, currently Pharma is hardly about 1500 tons and we have to still make new investments in that segment to take it up to 2,500 tons in this year. And Grassium already we have capacities created more than 12,000 tons. 5,000 at Panipat, 4,400 at Church and about 2,500 at Mahad, that is through Satara. So total 12,000 tonnes of capacity has been created which is running around 65% capacity as of now. Utilization as of now, which was better than last year which was in 50s. So this is one of the reasons for better performance is those plants are running now at least around 60, 65% range of capacity utilization.
And as we go forward and as the demand also picks up, the plant capacity utilization will also improve there.
Unidentified Participant
Okay. Okay. And so one month, you know, has already passed in first quarter. And do you have any sense of how syntax sales could look like given, you know, what is the impact on ice cream sales? Are you witnessing the growth this quarter?
Lakshmana Rao
Yes, I can’t comment much about this quarter, but April has been pretty strong and we have seen all around momentum in spite of the West Asia war which has impacted the general sentiment. But the consumption of such goods like ice creams or curds that they won’t get impacted because they are not luxury goods. And even in the case of paint we see a strong momentum even in the month of April.
Unidentified Participant
Okay, thank you so much. I’ll come back.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah,
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Chiral from Keynote Capitals. Please go ahead. Can you please speak through the handset?
Rajesh Kumar
Hello. Am I audible now?
Operator
Thank you.
Rajesh Kumar
Yes. Congratulations Daxman sir for a great set of numbers.
Operator
My first question is related to understanding from Vinyas Talking about the capacity expansion from 62,000 MPa currently. What are we looking at for next year? Because we are already reaching 100 or 70 percentage capacity utilization now.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah, our capacity is 63,000 tons and utilization is hardly 43,000. So we have a long way to go to make use of this capacity. And some of the missions which were ordered last year are on the way arriving in this year. Because there will be always some replacement of old machinery and also expanding marginally Especially units like Mansour and Satara where Mahad especially these are areas of growth and Pharma will continue to add machinery to meet the increasing demand for our products. So these three areas.
But we have a sharp lesser budget of capital investment in this current financial year which was 140 crores two years ago for two consecutive years and 120 years in this financial year 2526. And we hope to control this capex to 8085 crores in the next year. That is 2627. As we we will be going only for brownfield expansions now onwards.
Operator
Got it, Got it. And that will lead to almost like 70,000 MPK capacity by the end of FY27. Is my assumption correct?
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah, I think we should be close to 68 67. Because capacity wise in Pharma the number of tons won’t be too too many. It may be thousand thousand two hundred tons. And brownfield expansions are only new saves at Mysore and Satara. Satara basically that is Mahad plant supply. So these are the two areas and the rest of the plants we see and of course north plant Paripat where we are adding thin wall capacities. Four missions are coming in this July. So by end of this financial year that is 2627 probably will be somewhere around 67, 68,000 maybe close to $70,000.
Operator
Got it. Got. So my second question is generally whenever there is significant raw material prices fluctuation taking place the players who work on low margin Packaging industry face a lot of headwinds and at that time clients tend to shift to different layers in the industry. We just wanted to understand this current situation which is going on due to war. Has this led to some older clients who went away from us or some new clients adding to our portfolio?
Lakshmana Rao
On the contrary to your expectation. In fact we are finding our clients coming back in hoods because they are worried about the connectivity, material procurement abilities and ability to quickly react to the international scenario. So we noticed the jump in call ups from even old clients like Berger and Naralak who used to give us only a few grades now increase their call ups in fear, I would say rather not fear of supply chain disruptions in smaller companies. So they are coming back to us in terms of increasing numbers and also we need to notice the bond between us and the clients have become stronger due to the external environment being fragile.
So we are in fact finding some of them coming back to us. And dependence on companies like Maltech is going to go up because of course I don’t take it as an advantage but a scenario is such that that materials sometime in March especially has become very difficult to procure. But due to our long term relationship with the Reliance and our other suppliers in an oil and hml we could able to get the necessary material in time.
Operator
Got it. And sir, will it be fair to though you have mentioned press release that all the cost increase we are able to perform. I just wanted to know the current scenario like will it be fair to assume that you would be able to maintain the 46, 47 percentage gross margin levels in the coming quarters too?
Lakshmana Rao
Certainly we have passed on the entire price rise to the clients across the segments and they also appreciated that the reality ground realities and even some of them have reduced the period of raw material fluctuation. That means earlier they used to be quarterly, now they come down to a monthly or even sometimes 15 fortnightly correction. So that way even when the prices come down, we too will have to pass on the reduction to them. It’s a fair game. But I’m very thankful to all our clients. Majority of them have accepted the price rise rapidly because the price movement in March was so rapid.
From 105 rupees in the beginning it went up to 160 and now currently hovering around 145, 150. So we are in this kind of a scenario found our clients very much with us and I think we can still continue to maintain our trust profit margins.
Operator
Good to hear that sir. So from the perspective of capital allocation as you said that this year we would be focusing less on spending or increasing our capacity. Will it be fair to assume that the additional 4050 crore that we are earning is going to be used for implement of debt?
Lakshmana Rao
Implement of
Operator
Repayment of debt? We have, because of the capacity expansion we have taken certain debt on book.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah, that payment will happen from the cash accruals. But next year. You’re talking about next year capital asset. Yeah.
Operator
Yes. For FY27. Yes sir.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah. We are planning it will be in the region of around 80 to 80 ficros. Overall it could be from mostly from internal accruals. A little bit here and there debt if required
Operator
Debt will be required. Cash
Lakshmana Rao
Generation will be much more than 80 crores. The share itself, if you look at the cash generation it’s around 72 plus 59123 crores depreciation. I mean we might have given a dividend of around 20 crores. So still 100 crores is our net cash accruals. So we’d be able to catch up with that within our requirement for next year. The cash flow,
Operator
Additional debt for the capacity. I’m just understanding
Lakshmana Rao
You could be temporary in nature but it will overall I don’t expect debt to increase.
Operator
So just one last question and I’ll join back the queue. There is one accounting understanding I want to take this particular quarter. We have significant jump in other expenses. Could you just highlight what is the reason behind that
Lakshmana Rao
Other expenses?
Operator
Yes sir.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah. Some of the reasons could be we have taken up a severe preventive maintenance and change of screws and some other parts in the machines to suit to the RCP edition. Because now recycled plastic has become a mandatory. 30% is mandatory now and it’s going to be 40% from next April. So the missions which are equipped with ordinary screws are not able to process such mix and we have gone for better technically stronger screw material and screw systems that corrections we have done in this quarter to a reasonable extent.
So this is a one time expansion and maintenance cost that is preventive in nature. But it has been taken in the P and L.
Operator
And this mandatory, this mandatory requirement of RTP is just related to the paint and lube segment, right?
Lakshmana Rao
Currently yes, the pharma and food are exempted from this. But paint loop constitute, you know, majority of our sales. So in terms of volume, that’s why we need to be ready that are suitably altered.
Rajesh Kumar
Thank you so much sir, I’ll turn back to you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sandeep Modi, individual investor, please go ahead.
Rajesh Kumar
Yes sir. I am audible now.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah,
Rajesh Kumar
Yeah. Sir, first of all, congratulations to the management for increasing the state from 33.07 to 33.19.
Lakshmana Rao
Okay.
Rajesh Kumar
And sir, one more thing. How many pharma companies have visited our premises? Any good news about pharma business, status of new product etc?
Lakshmana Rao
Sanjay, you should be very happy to note that in the year one itself, or I would say year one of full operations we’ve grown by 210% compared to the last year. Okay. 11. 11 and a half crores to almost 34 crores. 10.7 to 34.3. So that is a 219% increase in pharmaceuticals. Of course it’s a small base so I would still take it as a good jump. Given the competitive environment in pharma packaging. Because of our good product range and ability to develop new packs faster we are able to entrench into this field and quickly become a name in the industry.
So we are now again taken a 50% increase as our target for this current year. So to reach somewhere around 5254 crores for the next financial year. Several clients are visiting nowadays. I lost count. And several of them are at different stages. Some of them are buying commercially, some of them are in line trial. Some of them are in establishing the RPACs like that. And some two, three new products, different cap systems are being introduced. As I said, we are also looking at ophthalmic novel sprays and also couple of other products which I can’t divulge today because it’s in the nascent stage of discussion.
But be assured we’ll be widening our product range year after year and getting more and more deep into the pharma sector in the coming years.
Rajesh Kumar
Yes sir. Anyway sir, how many new products are in process now? Molds are in process in pharma
Lakshmana Rao
Now. Molds means. I can’t just give you a count. It could be 5 or 10 molds at any given time. It may be new bottles, new sizes, same sizes with different weights. So like that different course and different cavities may be changed or a new entirely new set of products are being developed. So at any given time you can say there will be five to ten products every quarter.
Rajesh Kumar
Okay? Okay. Yes sir. One. One more thing. No margin available in exchange for molted packaging set. Can you give some details about this?
Lakshmana Rao
Oh, I don’t know much about the stock exchange and their loans.
Rajesh Kumar
We were pledging the shares and we were getting margin on it. And now the exchanges suddenly Stopped. So sir, please look into the matter and just go through.
Lakshmana Rao
And
Rajesh Kumar
Sir, what is the status of land which we have bought? Any expansion going on there?
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah, yeah. The land has been just acquired but they had to hand over the land because of various bureaucratic things. The land is the year mark now. The road in front of the land is being laid now because it’s in front of our unit in Sultanpur. So we
Rajesh Kumar
Really
Lakshmana Rao
Notice it every day. Probably in this month we should able to get the position or agreement and then we’ll be able to start commercial construction. That’s one of the reasons why the construction activity also could not be started.
Rajesh Kumar
Yeah, so there was a pharma packaging. We are trying to start some new this thing.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah, this new plant is new land is mainly meant for pharma alone.
Rajesh Kumar
Okay.
Lakshmana Rao
The construction activity will start immediately.
Rajesh Kumar
So when will that complete this new factory start over?
Lakshmana Rao
I think it will go into commercial production only by beginning of next financial year. I mean next calendar year it may take at least 8, 9 months to complete the construction. Once the land is handed over for various reasons there is a delay from the industrial estate to hand over the land. We have paid for it more than seven, eight months ago.
Rajesh Kumar
So around 2028 it will be operational fully.
Lakshmana Rao
Yes, 2727. Before end of the financial year I think we may start the new plant because of the delay in land allotment. Otherwise it would have gone by third quarter of this year.
Rajesh Kumar
Okay. Okay. Thank you very much sir. Thanks for the reply.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from line of Deepak Saha from Ashoka Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Lakshmana Rao
Yes,
Rajesh Kumar
Hi, thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. So first of all congratulations on this set of number. Just one bookkeeping question. If you can share the IML and non IML mix for four key and 526.
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah, it was for the 4Q it was around 75.5% and overall here it is 75.1%. So in value terms it is 76.8%. So almost 77 you can say percent is in IML.
Rajesh Kumar
Got it. That’s helpful. And I got little bit late. Just pardon me if I missed it. On the paid volume side we have a meaningful growth for the quarter. Is there any one off? Because I think for 4Q this kind of a pain growth that we have seen in terms of volume 26% kind of YY growth after a long time. So if you can just share some color whether it is sustainable going ahead and what led to this kind of a growth.
Lakshmana Rao
Oh 26% volume growth. I didn’t say it is 14.4% in value terms and 13.5% is a gross in paint segment. That 60%. What I said is the ABG numbers for the quarter this particular quarter ABG compared to the previous year Q4 the ABG numbers have shot up by 60%
Rajesh Kumar
And there’s no one,
Lakshmana Rao
Sorry,
Rajesh Kumar
There’s no one up in the morning.
Lakshmana Rao
Your voice is not clear.
Rajesh Kumar
There is no one off in the volume growth that we are seeing. There is no one off as such, right?
Lakshmana Rao
No. You mean this is one of the times only it’s not going to recur even. Yeah,
Rajesh Kumar
Yeah, yeah.
Lakshmana Rao
It’s been consistently growing around 40 to 60% now it is overall yearly growth. Quarterly quarter growth was 60 plus percentage and overall yearly also is close to 60%. So every quarter on quarter a consistent growth. Because they are also maybe acquiring new market share in the paint segment. I think it will continue. But the way they are aggressively marketing and aggressively ramping up their production capacities, I think we will certainly be in a strong double digits for next couple of years.
Rajesh Kumar
From 27 full year point of view, how should we understand the growth numbers? And if you can broadly give a breaker because lubricants has been degrowing, paint has started growing. You said both Kishing Paints and other players are growing recently. So if you just can give some color on a full year basis FY27 what kind of a volume growth we should look for and the breakdown of that.
Lakshmana Rao
See I can see two ways of looking at in future. Because volume growth comes from mere kgs then pharma, even if it grows by 50% the number of kgs it will add will be less. But the number of rupees or value wise it will be much higher. Because our average realization pharma is almost double that of other segments. So in terms of just volume it might look like 10 to 15%. Anywhere between 10 to 15% of growth is possible. But in terms of value, I’m sure we’ll be clocking between 13 to 15% value growth like what we did this year, 13.3%.
We hope that we will be somewhere between 13 to 15% in the value growth in the next financial year. That is why I said in the year 2627 we may cross the 1000 floor mark sales.
Rajesh Kumar
Got it. That’s really helpful. Thank you. And all the best.
Lakshmana Rao
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from Ranav Darshita from DSP Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Darshita Shah
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. My first question is regarding the paints growth. I think the earlier participant mentioned that the paints volume growth has been 26%. I think this is for the fourth quarter. If you could just give us some understanding as to where has this growth come from. I understand you’ve mentioned that a larger portion of growth has come from abg, but has Berger and Naruto also contributed meaningfully to this particular growth? You know, and because of the raw material unavailability issue.
Lakshmana Rao
And Narlac started only from March. That is the time when the real war erupted and situation become fragile. So Bedjar and Nairola growth is hardly for a couple of weeks in March or last 15 days of March. Of course they were buying from us, but the numbers have improved from March onwards. Asian paints and ABG were consistently growing. You know, Asian paints was negative in the third quarter, but in the fourth quarter it’s a good positive rise of 17% which pulled the overall number into positive for the full year.
And ABG was a major contributor towards this 14% growth in paint segment. By handsomely adding, almost 10% of the growth has come from, I mean ABG alone, the remaining 4% from Asian paints and others.
Darshita Shah
Got it. Secondly, so we’ve mentioned that a larger portion of the raw material price increase has been passed on to the customer. Our volume growth for the quarter for fourth quarter is 17% and so is our top line growth. Ideally had there been some realization growth as well, which I’m assuming would have happened in the month of March, we ideally should have seen a higher value growth because volume and there could be some realization growth as well. So is it safe to assume that a larger portion of the value growth will be seen in the first quarter numbers
Lakshmana Rao
Realization
Darshita Shah
Related growth will be seen in the first quarter quarter?
Lakshmana Rao
Yeah, your guess is correct because in the last two weeks of March only we got the price hike because the war erupted in 1st of March. So we have to obviously keep the pricing stable till middle of March, some cases 25th of March. So hardly a week. The price is reflective of high price. But you will notice that in case Q1 more significantly.
Darshita Shah
Got it. And because of us taking price hikes, I’m assuming that our raw material polypropylene would have gone up by at least 2530 odd percent. Have we lost any customers? Given that we may be revising the price more often than just what we usually do, I’m guessing 15 days or one month or so. Have we lost any customers because of that?
Lakshmana Rao
You know, all our clients are blue chip clients in their respective Segments be it
Darshita Shah
Ice
Lakshmana Rao
Creams or curds or you know, paint or food oils. So they cannot afford to reduce their presence in the market. They keep producing their products at the same pace as of today. I don’t know how bad it is. Can become worse, it can become. But as of now we don’t see any demand downturn in any of our top clients. So that’s a very reassuring fact which we are also observing. And we very rarely out of our 100%, hardly 4 to 5% or max 6, 7% of our sales would go to, I mean non blue chip clients. So our impact efedding could happen in those 5,6% to the tune of 1,2%.
But while we lose 1,2% of such business, our major clients, Asian Paints and ABG or even HUL, they’re all going in full guns. Their demand increase because it’s mainly meant for local consumption. And in pharma obviously the replacement demand, we are replacing others due to our better quality and consistency. That is how we are penetrating in the Indian pharma industry which is meant for exports. But
Rajesh Kumar
The
Lakshmana Rao
Penetration is mainly into the replacement demand and growing demand for pharma. Also you must be noticing that all the sanctions against pharma exports have been completely removed, at least as of now. So all the pharma companies are full in a full way. They’re going forward with their expansion plans. So we don’t see any impact immediately unless some new sanctions are put on pharma exports. So given this scenario, most of the cases, 99% of 98 to 99% of our clients are safe and they are growing with the domestic growth in demand which is somewhere around 6 to 8%.
You know that. So that way we are safe. And because of the replacement demand in pharma and other areas and more and more AML absorption coming from Asian pains, we are confident that we will be able to sustain the growth.
Darshita Shah
Got it. Thirdly, on the FMCG or the FNF segment growth, how should we think about it? Specifically just the fnf growth from FY27 for the year. FY27 and more. So from the Panipat facility we had onboarded a few customers. I think we’ve added a few more customers in 4Q. If you could just throw some light on what the capacity utilization for the Panipat plant for FMCG was in third quarter and what was it in fourth quarter and how do you think about this in FY27?
Lakshmana Rao
I didn’t have perfect numbers but I can get the feel of that Q3 was hardly anything because that is the time when we started the Panipat thinwal production. But Q4 started in decent numbers somewhere around a couple of crores of turnover has come in the month of March
Rajesh Kumar
Alone
Lakshmana Rao
From QPAK and Tinwal together and the numbers are increasing and the client number is actually we have signed recently couple of big clients who are buying from our other competitors in that area and not is going to significantly add to the numbers in the next financial year for sure. So food and FMCG from if you see only thin wall it is 15.4%. If you combine with the thick wall also food is around 18%. But this 15.4, I’m sure it will be looking at at least 20% growth. Growth in the food and FMC including the north numbers for the next financial year.
Darshita Shah
Got it. And if you can just share some light on what is, what is the peak revenue potential from the Panipat facilities that we should think about and how long will it take for us to reach the peak capacity utilization There
Lakshmana Rao
See in. In ABG plant that is mainly meant for pails and QPAC we are hardly reaching around 60% capacity utilization in Panipat and in thin wall which is hardly four or five months old we may be around 70%, 25% capacity utilization. So there’s a long way to go. And we are in fact adding four more machines in July for Thinwal. So which will expand the capacity thereby another 100% and capacity utilization next year even if we reach 50% that will add handsomely to the numbers. So Paripat has a long way to go and the building is completely ready.
Now the second building for the food and FMCG and it has four machines that will be eight from July. So we are setting ready for the festive season that starts sometime in July. So I think next year there will be a good jump. I don’t think it will go to 80% capacity but at least from current 20% it may go up to 40, 50% on a bigger capacity.
Darshita Shah
Okay. And just lastly. Thank you
Operator
Ma’. Am, Sorry to interrupt. If I may request you, please come back.
Darshita Shah
Sure.
Operator
Thank you. A kind request to all the participants. Kindly limit yourself to question per participant and rejoin the queue for a follow up. The next question is from the line of akhil Parekh from 361 Capital. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Kumar
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity and many congratulations sir on a very good set of numbers. My first question on the EBITDA per kg right and we have shown good improvement. What should that number look like say in FY27 and 28?
Lakshmana Rao
FY27 as I expected we are aiming at at least 42 to 43. 42.5 could be a good estimate for full year. And then how it frames in Pharma Q In 28 probably we can aim it around 43 to 44 range. So definitely we are the uptrend will continue now because two things. It’s not just the growth in the different segments but the consolidation of our operations in Hyderabad where we reduced five plants to two plants. Now only Anaram and Sultanpur is two units which are producing all the production which were earlier made in five plants so thereby getting the better efficiencies.
More head reduction and movement of goods has come down. All this is yielding to better productivity. All this consolidation happened only till January this year. That means until January. So the full benefit of this consolidation and improved efficiencies would be reflective in the next financial year. That itself should add a rupee or so to the already 40.7 what we have achieved this year compared to 37.6 in the previous year. So there’s a jump of 8%, 8.4% increase in the EBITDA margin which is a substantial jump which we last during the last couple of years we recovered and going forward with these efficiencies kicking in and more and more HCL labels also being made in house and the new ways of automation which we have taken up in various areas to reduce the manpower dependency is going to improve the efficiencies going forward.
And ABG plants even today are hardly around 60% capacity and I hope next year they will be reaching 70 plus which will be a very good attitude to the bottom line. So going forward with the only brownfield expansions which will marginally may require capital but increase in the capacity utilization will kick in. So I look at very positively for 26, 27 and to aim at least 42.5 to 243 range for 26, 27, 27, 28 may be little difficult to predict now. Maybe we may touch even 45 given a good wind in pharma.
If it happens we may aim at 44, 45 also for next 37, 28 but I can give a better picture going forward in the next couple of quarters.
Rajesh Kumar
Great sir. And just reconfirming your growth guidance for 27 you suggested 10 to 15% volume growth and 13 to 13 to 15% value growth. Did I hear correctly?
Lakshmana Rao
Yes, 10 to 13%. Because pharma won’t add volumes. It will hardly be in few terms. So even the rupees become up by 50%. Why was last year it was hardly how much? 853 tons. So last year it was 853 tons. And so the next year 2627 it will hardly touch 1200 to 1300 kgs. So sorry tons 1200 to 1300 tons even if you achieve a 50% increase. So volume wise increment might look 10 to 13%. But value wise increment we are aiming at 13 to 15%.
Rajesh Kumar
Okay. Okay. So that implant we should easily cross 1200 crore of revenue by 598. Which was the past guidance I believe.
Lakshmana Rao
I hope so. But I’m sure this year we will be aiming at thousand plus for sure.
Operator
Thank you. Akhil, request to come back for a follow up question. Please participants kindly limit yourself questions for participants. Next question is from the line of Deepak from Sundaram Mutual fund. Please go ahead. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Lakshmana Rao
Yes
Operator
Sir. My first question was on paint. So if I do a small back calculation Even your non ABG paint volumes for Q4 would have grown at roughly between 13 to 15% which was kind in a declining trend or let’s say a flattish trend for the first nine months. So just wanted to understand, you know what has changed this quarter because you did highlight that you know one change has happened is IML adoption by Asian paints. So just wanted to understand how sustainable is this double digit volume growth non ABG which you have seen in Q4 and what is the growth outlook on the volume front for non ABG clients in FY27?
Lakshmana Rao
Yes. You said the reason the IML adoption by Asian Credits and more and more brands is one of the reasons of us getting back their higher volume of business. And that will I hope will continue because their artworks are very critical. If you notice their in the market they have metallic IML which is a top class IML to handle both technically and visually. So visually it gives an excellent outlook and technically it is very complex to handle. So I don’t think we lose that edge in the next couple of years and we may continue to gain traction with Asian paints given their commitment.
Because we are on their commitment, we invested on several new initiatives in the printing and even in the robotics. So and they generally very much respect their commitment. So I still look at double digit growth formation paints in the coming years.
Operator
Okay, got it. And sir, as you earlier also highlighted that you know in terms of price hike because of prestige, steep inflation in polymer prices that we are able to initiate some price hike. Would it be possible to call out how much price hikes have been taken versus you know, the steep increase in raw material prices
Lakshmana Rao
Completely offsetting the price increase in raw material. It’s not any percentage whatever is the price hike they have passed on in their pricing and they increase the prices accordingly.
Operator
Thank you Deepak. I request to come back for a follow up question. Next question is from the line of Shirish Pradeshi from Motila Loswan. Please go ahead.
Shirish Pardeshi
Good evening sir and thank you for the opportunity and congratulations. My question is specifically on the paints. If we have reported a 42.1% EBITDA per kg, how the paint EBITDA has moved over yui
Lakshmana Rao
See I always tell you pace EBITDA pace and square packs. EBITDA is in the region of 30 to 35 per kg and what pulls it up is food and FMCG and pharma overall average. So it’s. I have no detailed discussion. I mean EBITDA per kg of each segment but it will lie in the region of 30 to 33.
Shirish Pardeshi
See the reason I’m asking we have as you said that we have passed on the price increases. So will this EBITDA per kg despite ABGs growing upward of 60% will show the upward trajectory in FY27 or will remain in the same range
Lakshmana Rao
Will definitely remain positively for all the clients, especially ABG in particular because ABC we have now establishing Mahad during the current year and that numbers will keep improving handsomely. So next year also we look forward to a strong growth in the paint segment.
Shirish Pardeshi
Okay. And on the last question on the food and fmcg I think the mix as the new clients are coming and you have given the existing client is also expanding their business. So how we should look at the food, FMCG and in terms of the number of clients which we have added is this number is going to exceed FY26 or will remain similar level or in terms of growth and in terms of margin if you can give some qualitative comments.
Lakshmana Rao
Definitely I’m very confident that more and more number of clients will be added in 2627 than last year. Basically. Basically because our north plant has started operations from October, November and slowly there is a traction that is being created. As I said in the month of March we have made some sales worth around three and a half crores for both the Q pack and food together it was zero last year. So going forward that itself is indication that 4235 to 40 crores of new additions business can come from north in QPAC and food together.
So that is still less than 50% capacity utilization but will be handsome number new addition. So in my opinion 2627 will have many more plant editions in food and FMCG from the north compared to overall year 2526.
Operator
Thank you. Actually shall request to come back for a follow up question. Next question is from the line of Raj from Fiber and Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Kumar
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. My question on the volume growth that you have highlighted for 2627 of around 13 to 15%. So I mean if you are saying that ABG should grow at around double digit plus sorry Ocean paints would go at double digits and ABG is growing much faster for us plus food and SMCG I think the volumes are going at 20 to 25%. So I just wanted to understand where is the disconnect? I mean if that kind of growth we are able to see then FY27 ideally should be much better for us in terms of volumes.
So just wanted to understand. No,
Lakshmana Rao
I said the volumes were not 10 to 15. I said 10 to 13% volume increase because the pharma numbers will be less in tonnes. And I said 13 to 15% for the value in terms of value. Having said that, Loops is one area where we don’t see any major increase in the even next couple of years because it’s stagnating. Market industry itself is not growing, it’s growing only in single digits, sometimes not even there. So there we have substantial 17, 18% of our turnover comes from that segment. So that segment I am not anticipating any major growth.
A couple of points of growth may come in Castrol but I don’t foresee a lube will be pulling us up. So what pulls us up is Asian pains under ABG as you correctly said because the Asian pains growth even in this full year. If you take though it is 17% in the Q4 full year it is hardly around 33 and a half percent. So that 3 and of becoming 10 will be a good value add for us in the year 2627. We foresee for that
Rajesh Kumar
And
Lakshmana Rao
Loop being a lagard. That’s why we are aiming between 10 to 13% volume growth
Rajesh Kumar
Understood as a steady state, I mean X of the increase in raw material prices. The realizations for us in paints have been flattish but now with Asian paints also increasing their IML consumption plus we are now at a Different scale for ABV as well. So do we see realizations improving or our pricing power improving because of IML in paints X of the price increase that we take because of raw material inflation?
Lakshmana Rao
Yes, that’s why I’m positive about the ebitda growth from 40.7 which we achieved this year to 42.5 level. It could be little better. Let’s see how the war and the other economic things play around.
Operator
Thank you Raj. I’ll request to come back for a follow up question. Next question is from the line of Pard Gohel from Omtara. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Kumar
Congratulations to the team and the entire management for the performance. Sir, my question is pertaining to the lubricant segment. Do we
Operator
Further foresee or anticipate any loss of volume in coming quarters? Or we can say that it has normalized that this length.
Lakshmana Rao
Yes, I think you have a very smart question. In fact I am also thinking it will stay there because we have no more public sector units to lose. And all the private sector companies value our relation and our quality and the consistency which is very important. I am not saying it’s not for public sector but public sector has more valuation for pricing than anything else. And it’s their policy. And having lost all the PSU business now we may sustain at the current levels in loops.
Operator
Okay, thank you sir. Thank you. A request to all the participants. Kindly limit yourself to one question per participant. Next follow up question is from the line of Chirag from Keynote Capitals. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Kumar
Thank you for the opportunity again sir, just wanted to understand your view related to the ROC for the company. We used to be a company where we
Operator
Were generating 20 percentage rot is our target. Same back. And secondly wanted to understand our working capital days are getting stretched. So what is the outlook on that?
Lakshmana Rao
See, working at this stretch is basically you are looking at a higher valuation. Also because the last three weeks we have been purchasing material at high price and that has indirectly might have impacted the value to look higher and the inventory days also become little longer because in pharma one has to keep 3 months material ready because certain requirements generally come up in batch quantities for pharma and their pickup times are little late and the payment terms are also longer. Pharma industry has been following the 90 day to 110 days payment cycle.
So that’s why you might notice that data days and inventory days out stretched a bit. Coming back to ROCE, yes, the ROC is leaped by about 14% from 10.2% to 12.4 and probably it may hit around 13 and a half to 14% in the next financial year and it was 17 18% two, three years ago. I agree that was when all these greenfield projects have been started. Investment have shot up in the last three years and these investments start yielding now. This year I would say they crossed 50 to 60, 60% capacity utilization.
But next year onwards I’m confident it will be 70 plus and they will be yielding to the bottom line. So probably the ROC will start looking at around 15% by 2728.
Operator
Thank you. Next follow up question is from the line of from BSP asset managers. Please go ahead. Rashida, may I request and eat online and proceed with your question?
Darshita Shah
Yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry. I hope I’m audible now.
Operator
Yes ma’. Am.
Darshita Shah
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity again. So could you just tell us what is the total, what will the total capacity be for FMCG once the 8 plus once the 4 more units come in at the funny part facility?
Lakshmana Rao
Currently I think it is about 1200 tons or 900 to. Sorry 1000 tons. It will become 2000 tons. Food and FMC is there and QPAC also we are adding little bit so about 2,000. It will become 2,000 to 2,500 tons per annum including QPAC.
Darshita Shah
Secondly, just on the raw material availability perspective, are we facing any issues currently for polypropylene supplies and for how long have we covered? At this point
Lakshmana Rao
We have well covered for almost two months. That is what is shown in inventory days. So we have that coverage of two months which is there in physical form also. So material availability has improved because alliance has started its production in a regular basis from middle of March and they are indicating and assuring us that there won’t be any shortfall. One or two grades, especially in pharma are on little short supply. That is where we are concentrating.
Rajesh Kumar
Thank you,
Operator
Kindly come back for a follow up. Next question is from the line of Sanskar from Iraya Capital. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Kumar
Hello. Yes sir, most of my questions have been answered. Just wanted to understand on the growth perspective and you have answered on volume and value terms. Just wanted to get that you have guided going forward on maintaining around 20% growth in terms of profitability at EBITDA and PAD level. So are you maintaining that or is there any upside of downward revision?
Lakshmana Rao
I think we’ll certainly be there. We are aiming at at least 210 crores EBITDA for next financial year up from 173. That’s a 20% rise. I think we are definitely going to achieve that in view of not only the increasing business but our internal improvisations and efficiency creation, what we are bringing through the consolidation of units, it might, I mean if things go well, I mean nothing further damage happens to this war, we should be looking better than that expected bit.
Rajesh Kumar
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Next question is from the line of people from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Rajesh Kumar
Yeah, thank you for the follow up opportunity. I just had one question on Pinball. So if I look at our growth rates, you
Operator
Know qoq have done 44% plus and even yoy it’s a very good number at 30% which was around 13 to 15% in the first nine months. So just wanted to understand, let’s say if I have to break down this growth between let’s see your other plants and Panipat and how much of this growth is driven by it’s a new SQ addition or new client addition. Just wanted to have some flavor on the growth breakup of what is leading to such a high growth number and how much of that is sustainable going forward
Lakshmana Rao
In QPAC
Operator
In thin modes.
Lakshmana Rao
See the number is not 30% it is 15.4% in value terms 18% if you include the bulk food packs. So 18% is the number what we achieved in the year 2627 and why my conference says it can be better is because of our Panipat. Additional capacities are getting created and several new client inquiries are being received in that area north and region. And we have started adding clients who have started buying from March onwards decent numbers and going forward definitely they will appreciate the quality and supply service abilities of Maltech which they are not seen because of our distance in the last few years.
So now with our presence in Panipat, I am sure we will be able to add lot many clients in that region which will contribute to the increased growth in food and fmcg.
Operator
Okay, and so but what about the existing client? Are we seeing any growth there? Or is that, you know, majority of the growth is coming only from this Panipat side?
Lakshmana Rao
No, no, no. All our clients are growing. You take Milky Mist, you take Hudson, you look at Walco, our quality walls, their numbers are all going up. On their ice cream or yogurts, whatever products they sell, their numbers are all going up. Only Cadbury 72k is stagnant. But for the top brands, all top brands are growing in double digits. So that growth will definitely accrue to us. Apart from that, how we can go beyond that is what I’m explaining is through Panipoint.
Operator
Okay, okay. Help us all the best.
Lakshmana Rao
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I’ll now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Lakshmana Rao
Thank you all for showing your interest in spending time to attend the conference call today. I especially thank Rajesh Kumar of MK for arranging this call and operator who is patiently conducted the call in a manner. I also appreciate people’s interest in our company and be assured that we are on a good track and more and more product range also we are looking at which may not very clearly on the drawing board now so but it will happen during the next 3 4/4 in pharma especially and we are also looking at efficiencies to improve cost controls and now we have created teams of finance and HR Admin at all the units who will be directly monitoring and controlling the cost elements closely.
With this new kind of manager outlook and consolidation of units, I think we are on a strong wicket to perform better in the coming quarters and I also hope peace will prevail soon and all the economists and especially our Indian economy will catch up with the speed which it is about to catch, about to reach. So thank you all once again and bye bye. Good evening.
Operator
Thank you very much sir, on behalf of MTA Global Financial Services Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.