Note: This is a preliminary transcript and may contain inaccuracies. It will be updated with a final, fully-reviewed version soon.
ORIENT BELL LIMITED (NSE: ORIENTBELL) Q4 2026 Earnings Call dated May. 19, 2026
Corporate Participants:
Suyash Samant — Investor Relations
Aditya Gupta — Chief Executive Officer
Anuj Arora — Chief Financial Officer
Tanmay Roy — Unidentified Participant
Rakesh Kumar — Unidentified Participant
Saket — Unidentified Participant
Shubham — Unidentified Participant
Analysts:
Ashvath Rajan — Analyst
Apurva Sharma — Analyst
Deepak Pruthi — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Orient Bell Limited Q4 and FY26 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode. 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 and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Suyesh Samanth from Stellari Advisors.
Thank you. And over to you sir.
Suyash Samant — Investor Relations
Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. Joining us today. We have with us today senior management of Orion Bell Limited, Mr. Aditya Gupta, Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Anuj Arora, Chief Financial Officer who will represent Orion Bell Limited. On the call, the management will be sharing the key operating and financial highlights for the quarter and full year ended 31st March 2026 followed by a question and answer session. Please note this call may contain some of the forward looking statements which are completely based upon the company’s beliefs, opinions and expectations as of today.
These statements are not a guarantee of the company’s future performance and involve unforeseen risk and uncertainties. The company also undertakes no obligation to update any forward looking statements to to reflect development that occur after the statement is made. I now hand over the conference to Mr. Aditya Gupta. Sir. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Aditya Gupta — Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our Q4 and FY26 earnings call. All of you are aware of the current industry situation, especially in modi. So I will focus on more on obl. Over the last few quarters we have remained focused on demand generation, premiumization and strengthening brand visibility while simultaneously digitizing our internal processes to deliver on the vision of simplifying tile buying and selling. Technology and digital initiatives continue to remain a key differentiator for ovl.
The company has consistently strengthened its digital capabilities through technology led customer engagement, dealer enablement and backend integration initiatives. Investments in our digital platform’s online catalog visibility, visualization tools and lead management systems are helping improve conversion ratios, customer experience and distribution efficiency across markets. These initiatives are now getting huge traction from consumers, both dealers and individual end consumers. For example, dealers are adding 50,000 new designs every month of our time using our AI enabled loom visualization tools.
Our website continues to be among the most popular and our online lead generation initiative is now contributing to sale for 350 plus dealers every month. These unique differentiators are helping us deliver a sellout proposition to dealers as opposed to the industry norm of a rate driven sale. On the business performance front, the Momentum witnessed since Q2 continues to get stronger. Q4 volumes grew by 7% while revenues increased by 7.5% year on year. For FY26 volumes grew by 4.4% and revenues increased by 3.1% over FY25.
From an industry perspective, the current US Iran wall is driving structural changes which are advantageous for organized and multilocational players. As a pure play branded tiles company with manufacturing facilities spread across India and comparatively low dependence on moldy OBN is well positioned to benefit. While the immediate future is filled with uncertainty and volatility especially around gas pricing and the impact long term impact it would have on on demand, we feel that in India long term industry tailwinds are favorable supported by sustained housing demand, government infrastructure spending and renovation demand.
Our strong balance sheet and success in cost management enables us to manage any volatility which might be seen in the short term. To summarize, we believe these strategic initiatives undertaken over over the last few years across the value chain have started delivering meaningful differentiation and operational efficiencies thus creating a strong foundation for sustainable and profitable growth going forward. Thank you.
Operator
Sir. Do we open the floor for questions?
Anuj Arora — Chief Financial Officer
This is Anuj and thanks for joining us today. As Aditya highlighted, the company delivered sequential revenue growth during the quarter supported by improved product mix, continued premiumization and focused execution across markets. Profitability continued to outpace revenue growth driven by operating leverages, manufacturing efficiencies and disciplined cost management initiatives undertaken over last few quarters. On a consolidated basis, Q4FY26 EBITDA increased by a robust 66% year on year to 16.4 crore with EBITDA margin expansion of 270 basis points while PBT rose meaningfully to 8.4 crores compared to 3.6 crores in the corresponding quarter last year.
For the full year EBITDA stood at 42.5 crores reflecting a 38% year on year increase with EBITDA expansion of 160 basis points. PBT also improved significantly to 16.4 crores from 3.8 crores in FY25. This is after absorbing one time cost of 1.3 crore towards complying with the new Labor Code. As utilization levels continue to improve, the benefit of operating leverages are becoming increasingly visible in the business. Nearly 60% of the incremental revenue in FY26 flow through the bottom line. Importantly, as we operate at 60 65% of the capacity utilization, we continue to have adequate available capacity to support future growth without any significant incremental capex.
The company also maintained a strong focus on cash flow and working capital discipline during the quarter cycle. Controls over receivables helped us reduce DSO by nine days to 48 days. Overall, cash and budget cycle improved to 20 days from 26 days last year. From a balance sheet perspective, the company remains net free supported by a strong cash position and liquid investments. This provides significant flexibility to support future growth opportunities. Overall, the continued improvement in revenue margins, cash flow and balance sheet gives us confidence that the business is well positioned for a sustainable and profitable growth going forward.
With this, I’ll request moderator to open the floor for Q and A.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press STAR and then one on their touchstone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press STAR and then two participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles again. To register, please press Star and then 1. Your first question comes from the line of Ashwath from Arihant Capital Markets limited Please go ahead.
Ashvath Rajan
Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations for the good set of numbers. My first question is on our margin front, do we see margins to add around Q4 levels in coming quarters given the issue with gas price in the country? That is my first question. And on the volume growth front, what kind of volumes are we seeing ahead and have we taken any price hikes and what kind of price hikes are we expecting? That is.
Anuj Arora
So on the margin strength you must be basically from quarter on quarter you’ll be missing increase in margins. So the trajectory is is likely to continue is what we feel. Quarter on quarter basis. I think last quarter was somewhere around 6%. This is 7.7% and we feel that this trajectory will continue.
Aditya Gupta
On. Yes, we have taken price increases. Actually I think we are with price increases in the second week of March and step by step we have been taking price increases up cumulatively in March and April put together we have taken almost 30% price increase which was split, I would say about 15% was taken in the month of March and about 5, 6% was taken in the month of April.
Operator
Sorry to interrupt sir, you were sounding A little bit distant and there was a bit of an airy sound also which was disturbing. So
Aditya Gupta
Ashwa Kai, I’ll repeat, on price increases, we were I think the first company to start taking price increases around 10th of March. We have taken increases in multiple stages. So on a cumulative basis almost 20% price increase has been taken in March and April put together.
Ashvath Rajan
Okay. So I couldn’t, I probably not hear what kind of price hikes are we expecting ahead.
Aditya Gupta
So it all depends on what the gas price is going to be. And we will wait and see how gas prices go up. Also, Ashwath, you know, we also expect certain secondary cost pushes which will become more obvious with diesel prices going up. And you know, gas is also impacting a lot of our raw materials also. So we see a gradual push upwards over the next few months. And watching it very closely, as I said in my opening remarks, things due to energy pricing are a bit volatile. So keeping our eyes peeled to ensure that our volumes, our momentum on volume and on margins is kind of safeguarded.
Ashvath Rajan
Thank you sir. My next question is what kind of gas prices are we looking at right now? Could you help us with the breakdown?
Anuj Arora
So Ashwath, gas prices are actually formula linked and that formula keeps on changing every few days. It was, it started with the 80% formula I’m sure you are aware of, which has gone down to 55% at a normal rate and balanced 45% at swap rates. It further got eased during April. So it’s, it’s kind of very, very volatile. But in general approximately 30% increase is what we have seen on a overall basis in the gas prices.
Ashvath Rajan
Could you help us with the INR for SEM for Q4 blended.
Anuj Arora
So Q4 INR somewhere around 45 rupees average.
Ashvath Rajan
Okay. Sir, another question if you may. Just wanted to understand since we have enough or and we’re sitting at some level of cash at this point, are we looking at some form of capex going ahead or what is our next move forward?
Anuj Arora
So as of now we have sufficient capacities like I mentioned in my opening remark as well. So there will be capex basically for maintenance. But as of now, during the current year we don’t maintain need any additional CapEx in FY27 or capacities.
Ashvath Rajan
Noted, sir. And one last question on the marketing spends, are we, what kind of percentage basis are we looking at to allocate towards marketing?
Aditya Gupta
So I think last year FY26 we did was three and a half percent, 3.7%,
Anuj Arora
3.6%,
Aditya Gupta
3.6%. Sure. And this is an area that we will continue to invest. And I think 3.6% will kind of creep upwards maybe closer to 4%. We have, we have not done, we have not decided yet. But directionally we are very clear like FY26 was more than FY25. We are very clear that this is an area to invest. So it would additionally keep moving up. Okay, thank you sir. Thank you for asking my questions.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Apurva Sharma from Raas Capital. Please go ahead.
Apurva Sharma
Hi, I’m audible. Yeah. Congratulations sir for such an encouraging set of results. It seems like operating leverage has started to creep in in a big way. I have few questions starting with you mentioned about capacity utilization to the tune of 60, 65%. Is that right?
Anuj Arora
Correct.
Apurva Sharma
In last one year our marketing spend has been upwards of three and a half. Three, three and a half percent. We have increased our sales mix from the ceramic to gbt. And with the launch of your anti static tile as well and your adhesives, when do we see a collective capacity going upwards of 80%. The real estate cycle also seems to be in our favor.
Aditya Gupta
We have consistently stayed away from giving future guidances. And also I would request if you know, we can focus more on FY26. But I think this year, even more than the previous years, there is a lot of uncertainty how the market is going to pan out because of gas pricing and more so gas availability. There was a time just 10 weeks back where we were actually sitting and thinking of which lines should be shut up, should be shut down lines because the gas allocation has been reduced to 50% and all.
So I think talking of Capacity utilization for FY27 is not something which is in our control now. I think, let me tell you this, Quarter four capacity utilization was better than what quarter three was. And if status quo continues then we expect this number to get better status que in terms of gas availability.
Apurva Sharma
So sir, another question was since because of this energy crisis a lot of unorganized players have shut down their capacities. That is maybe across Mori and many other places in India. Now when we see this transition of the organized market share increasing in next one to two years, how do we plan on capitalizing this? Does it still have to be there? 40, 40, 45% of our revenue will still come from the OBTB or do we have a more aggressive strategy here to get the market?
Aditya Gupta
I think you’re right. We expect players like us to benefit strongly with the disturbances in Malti because of our balance Sheet because of our cash position and our focus for the last few years on selling out from a dealer go down as opposed to selling in. I think we are better placed to capitalize on this development in terms of OBTX and all. I think it would definitely it could go up. I haven’t done those numbers segment wise from exactly where it will, how much of it will come from OBTX or non obtx but with stronger retail footprint I think that number we should definitely get better.
Ashvath Rajan
All right
Apurva Sharma
So this the the antimicrobial tile and your anti static style. Have you have. Has Orient belt started getting a reasonable traction on these products lately? Because in the data centers are so much in. In your headlines in last six, seven months have we received any good, good orders or any interest from these companies?
Aditya Gupta
There have been some orders on anti static tanks and all but you know the contribution is still a very very small portion of the overall. So it is a nice branding this thing we have. We are getting some orders but really not enough to move the top lane.
Apurva Sharma
All right. All right sir, I’ll wait for my queue. I’ll ask my questions then. Thank you so much and wish you all the best.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Deepak Pruthi with wealth, with wisdom. Please go ahead.
Deepak Pruthi
Hi. Congratulations on a great set of numbers. Just wanted to understand from you how is the overall demand scenario looking like for building material? So has it kind of turnaround considering you know pipe companies have also delivered good numbers. Tile companies, all of them have delivered good numbers and you know overall electrical wire and all these companies have also started delivering good numbers. So as it kind of you know in your view kind of turnaround or you know if the demand has been coming from household and builders.
Aditya Gupta
I think I’ve been seeing that the rapid pace of organization and a lot of support, a lot of special capex by the government. Also things for the building construction industry overall are positive. We have had some issues largely related to oversupply in the MODI cluster. But I think this particular crisis has cut down that oversupply to a level which we can easily manage. So I think the long term thing looks positive but I also foresee that in the short term there could be some ups and downs. For example, you know bond rates are going up internationally.
Interest rates in India could also go up. The Prime Minister has already spoken about the need for austerity and you know how it plays out on the consumption side. We will know over the next one month or so. So I think There might be some short term blips for a quarter or so up and down. But the long term story in terms of building and construction demand, I think it stays strong and coming to tide specifically because of the adverse impact on moldy. I think the supply demand would also get corrected, which, which is a big positive for the industry.
Deepak Pruthi
Okay, just, just a ballpark figure in terms of how much would have the industry grown in terms of tonnage, organized and organized put together. So have the organized sector grown, you know, on the back of unorganized sector not getting enough from deal supplies or the entire industry has grown.
Aditya Gupta
See, I think the unorganized sector has not done too well in FY26. Also because exports have been flat. Exports in FY26 would be slightly lower than FY25 and I think or say it’s not lower, same size as FY20 and lower than what FY24 watts. So the alumni sector has not done too well for the first 11 months of the year. There has been a steady price selling price erosion also. So while volumes were still better, but the revenue piece took a bigger hit. Your next question was in terms of the organized players.
I think your different players have behaved differently. See, the figures of say March could be fourth quarter could be an aberration. Some companies might have done better than the normal run rate. Some could have done worse depending on how big their dependence on moldy was. But generally I see that. I think at least I can speak for myself, can’t speak for the industry. January and February were also great months for us. So it was not that we started, you know, growing in the month of March. And if I shared this information with you, say in the first week of March, we would have been equally about our quarter for the outcome because a good match came on the back of a nice January and February.
Deepak Pruthi
Understand the one last question. So in terms of segments, you know, what is. What would be the contribution coming from institutional vis a vis retain segment and which segment has grown the most in the last quarter?
Aditya Gupta
I don’t have the numbers offhand, but retail has grown much better for us. The enterprise business actually has not done too well for us in FY26.
Deepak Pruthi
Okay, and what would be the contribution coming from retail vis a vis institutional overall revenue?
Anuj Arora
Retail is somewhere around 78% in this year.
Deepak Pruthi
Okay, thank you. Thank you and all the best.
Operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants. You may press star and then one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of tanmay Roy and individual investor, please go ahead.
Tanmay Roy
Hello. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. So my first question is actually I was seeing that our power and fuel cost which has gone up by 30, 34% year on year and then our input cost is also up around around 24% but wherein revenue growth is only 7%. So how do you see if the same pressure persist? Are you going to manage the, you know, our margins in the next coming quarters considering that because demand supply also
Anuj Arora
These are two separate sets of data that we are talking about.
Tanmay Roy
So
Anuj Arora
The power and fuel that you are looking at is basically as a percentage, you need to look at not as a percentage of sales but as a percentage of production. In the last quarter our production has gone up by 20, 25% if I remember correctly. So on an overall basis, like I mentioned initially that in quarter four our power and fuel cost, the fuel cost which was somewhere around 43, 44 in the quarter three it was at 44, it was at 45, 45 and a half in quarter four. So as such the increase that you see is mainly on account of production increase.
Tanmay Roy
Okay, so. So you’re saying that the, the pressure from the, you know, Iran war which is, which is still. I am thinking that it will actually be shown in the Q1 results. So you are saying that has already been absorbed in this quarter Also if this cost, no increases, what you are saying is linked to the production increase.
Anuj Arora
The cost increase started from 9th of March. So there was a part of that which was basically in quarter 3, quarter 4 and the balance will come up in Q1.
Tanmay Roy
Which we are already covered
Anuj Arora
Because we have already taken price increases during March as well as in April.
Tanmay Roy
Okay, so based on the current input cost and the increase, we don’t need any further price increase if the, if that persists.
Anuj Arora
Yes, if the gas prices stays where they are, if they move up, then yes, we’ll have to take another increase.
Tanmay Roy
Okay, so how is our inventory level right now? So are we, I mean in case if, if something comes up again to gas, you know, gas we are not getting properly and we have to halt our production how long we can serve our customers.
Anuj Arora
There’s no problem in terms of availability as such is that the pricing will change if the, if the allocation change, the pricing will change. But I said because we being a multi location there, we haven’t faced any availability related problems.
Aditya Gupta
So we have to pay a strict price. If you consume more than what the government has given as a quota. And so to answer your question, we are comfortable on inventory. I Think we are maintaining our inventory levels to what it was in quarter four. And I think unlike Movi and all we have sufficient stocks falling here down and we keep. And we. We continue focusing. As somebody had said, chemistry utilization this April May has been better than what it was in quarter four.
Tanmay Roy
Okay, yeah, so that’s fine. Thank you. So one last question. So from May 5th there are supposed to be some units supposed to be open in Morbius. Any quantifiable number which you can see like how much has been reopened and how the production is going here in more base
Aditya Gupta
From 1st of May onwards I think 500 plus units have opened in Modi. Most of the GDP units have opened. The percentage of units who are doing ceramics is lesser. They have. Most of the units are struggling because. Not because of gas availability but they’re struggling because of labor availability. Labor has been a big challenge. The output from the kin is coming out. But you know polishing and packing will where a lot of manual labor is needed that is taking a hit. So people are not able to actually sell in the market to that extent.
Tanmay Roy
So in that case sir, if demand continues the same any price increase can be absorbed by the end customer. Right? If that true. I mean
Aditya Gupta
That’s what, that’s what we also expect. The dealer is. The customer is trying to shop around. Check whether they are going. They are getting, you know something cheaper from a competitor. So all that shopping around is currently on. But it is a force far from perfect kind of a situation. Supplies we had rundown see from more than half of March no production. Full April, no production. So stocks at the design level in Moldy have really run down. So to kind of get that whole assortment of design available does take time.
We are lucky that way because we have bulk of our sales originates from outside Morbi Cluster from our three factories which are located outside of Molvi. So we have had a better availability stock availability situation. Does it answer your question?
Operator
Sorry to interrupt sir. The line for Tanmay sir has been dropped from the queue. We’ll move on to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Ashwath from Arihant Capital Markets limited Please go ahead.
Ashvath Rajan
Thank you. Thank you for the follow up. So my question is on the dealer inventory. Just wanted to understand sir what kind of traction are we looking at there and are we getting new ordering activity from the dealer’s end?
Aditya Gupta
So dealers have been. Have turned cautious. They don’t want to get stuck with the high price inventory because many of them hope or many of them are hoping that prices might come down though they are kind of reducing their stocks. That is where, you know, our focus of sellout is kind of helping because our teams are going with dealer and talking to them, telling them that, look, in the last six months, this is the total sales. This is the percentage of secondary sale orders that we have generated and given to you, which is all documented and digitally available.
So why don’t you give me another order and all. I’m helping you out. Sell, helping you to sell out. So that will continue. But my sense is that a, there’s a working capital squeeze at the dealer’s end because, you know, of this 20% increase, that same square meter of time is costing him 20% more than previously. There’s a bit of working capital squeeze there. And he also wants to wait and watch. In terms of projects, for example, not just dealers, large projects, they are in a wait and watch mode.
Right through April, they are in a wait and watch mode. So all that is playing around. I think it will, it will start settling down because there really is no alternative to price. Now if prices go down, they will go down for everybody. Not just for me, but for the whole industry. So everybody will then take their prices down and they can’t substitute tile with some other surface
Ashvath Rajan
Of
Aditya Gupta
Time. Some sh. Yeah, please.
Ashvath Rajan
And another question is on the impact that you could see in Q1 because of gas. My question is on what, to what extent can we pass on this impact and will this also pan beyond Q1 to Q2 in any front because of the inflation in gas?
Aditya Gupta
This is a question. What percentage of the cost increase we will be able to pass on to the consumer? Is that the question?
Ashvath Rajan
Correct.
Aditya Gupta
So as of now, we have passed down all the cost increase to the consumer.
Ashvath Rajan
Okay. And will this continue over Q2 as well in case the price remains inflated?
Aditya Gupta
I think so. I think so. See, recently there have been some talks since yesterday that in Movi cluster, Gujarat gas is increasing June pricing has indicated that June price will be about 5 rupees per cubic meter more than what May was. I think there was a very small diesel price increase today. There was a diesel price increase a few days back. So all of these things I think are adding up. So a downward movement of prices and all doesn’t look very probable in the next few months. Definitely not in quarter one.
Ashvath Rajan
Okay. And if you could just help us understand what kind of utilization split do we have in our non version versus our vitrified this point? Ballpark.
Aditya Gupta
So all vitrified, manufacturing, vitrified is on Capacity utilization. I don’t have the exact numbers, but the capacity utilization on the vitrified piece is much higher than the ceramic line.
Ashvath Rajan
If you could help us, the difference in between the. I
Anuj Arora
Do not have a direct number to it, but I think V should be somewhere around 80%
Ashvath Rajan
And the normal five would be around
Aditya Gupta
Maybe even more than that. Maybe even more than quarter four might be even more. No, it will be maybe 90%. I don’t know. You’ll have to work Asha, you’ll have to work that number out. I haven’t seen it separately. Okay,
Ashvath Rajan
Sir. And another question was on our new ed front, what kind of caption are we looking at there and when do we plan to launch the adhesive brand and all its scale?
Aditya Gupta
What question? I didn’t get what the question. What’s the question?
Ashvath Rajan
So I’ll repeat on our Edison segment that we have introduced lately, which is on its pilot.
Aditya Gupta
So we, we have started. So this year is the first full year I think we have. It has been a learning curve for us. So this year, step by step we’ll be kind of expanding. And again, you know, with all this, we have not given that much attention to addresses in the last one or two months that we would have given otherwise. Also there has been some pricing cost push challenges and all, but we are slowly getting opening it up to more and more of our dealers and setting up, you know, multilocation tie ups.
So this is something which we are, you know, quite gungo about and I expect to get some decent volumes from there in FY27.
Ashvath Rajan
And has it been introduced to our OBTX outlets? Is it widely available for. For realtors who want to purchase it or develop it in Any question was not clear. My question was is it available on the open market for developers, for people to purchase it, for the consumer to purchase it at this point or at what stage of
Aditya Gupta
Geographies? We have also, you know, we have also added a lot of products in the last two, three months. We have added epoxy, we have added grouts and all. We have added sparklers. All these things are not there two, three months back. So all that work is happening. So that is kind of moving out. But geographically it is still, you know, pockets of north India where we are available, pockets of north and east India. So that is something which we will keep on expanding.
Ashvath Rajan
Okay, just one more question just for modeling purposes. Did you mention some maintenance capex that would be occurring for 27 now? I just wanted to understand what kind of number would that be
Anuj Arora
Again? Ashwath your voice is not very audible.
Ashvath Rajan
Is it better? Hello.
Anuj Arora
Yes Ashwath.
Ashvath Rajan
Yes. My question was on the maintenance capex. If you could help us quantify what kind of number are we looking at for modeling purposes only.
Anuj Arora
So basically I think this year, this year we have done some 6,7 crores of capex. Next year also it should be in the range of 10 crores plus minus 4,5 crores.
Ashvath Rajan
Okay, understood. Thank you sir. Thank you for taking the questions.
Operator
Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all the participants. Please press star and one to ask a question. The next question comes from the line of Apurua Sharma from RAS Capital. Please go ahead.
Apurva Sharma
I’m audible?
Operator
Yes sir.
Apurva Sharma
So just last two questions if you can indulge me. Number one, we have taken a price hike of. The first person asked about the price hike, it was not really audible. Can you just again guide me as to what the price hike has been so far?
Anuj Arora
We have taken a price hike of 20% over March and April put together.
Apurva Sharma
Okay sir, in meanwhile for the month of April itself the gas prices in north have again risen by more than 12% from 55.5 SEM to 62.5. So does that indicate that there is also going to be another very small price act going forward?
Anuj Arora
So I mentioned that we have taken both in March as well as April. So the price increase, the cost increase in, in April in terms of their prices is already covered in our price increase.
Apurva Sharma
Okay. And sir, going forward, whenever the situation, the energy cloud situation mellows down for, for the sake of my understanding these realizations that we are seeing right now post hike, these prices remain in the market for at least six to nine months.
Aditya Gupta
No, no, no, not that long. I think they will start readjusting in a period of say three months, four months. They will readjust.
Apurva Sharma
So this is basically a one off event where because of this extreme situation we have gotten this realization.
Aditya Gupta
Yeah, you can think of it this way but I think it will not change very soon. And secondly it’s a bit of a blow to players who have. Who don’t have a strong balance sheet because now they have to get a lot of working capital in place to buy gas while they were earlier relying on some other fuel and all of that. So I think net, net it will, things can change but it will lead, it will leave us better off than what we were before this crisis happened.
Apurva Sharma
Okay, that’s great. This just leads to my last question sir. We have, we have seen our, our peer, you know they have shifted already to 30 of their power to biofuels. Going forward, do we have any plans in respect to the same, you know, phasing out to biofuels? Because in that case our SCM then suddenly drops down to 20, 25 which is a significant savings.
Aditya Gupta
I don’t even know when we shifted. I think it must have been six, seven, eight years back that we shifted to biofuels in our plant. It’s quite some time back so it is not something new for us. In our spray drive we have been using balance refused in Shikang for at least 78 years that I’ve been around.
Apurva Sharma
Okay, my bad sir. Thank you so much sir.
Aditya Gupta
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rakesh Kumar, an individual investor. Please go.
Rakesh Kumar
Hello, I’m audible.
Anuj Arora
Yes. Yes
Operator
Sir.
Rakesh Kumar
Yeah, hi. So firstly congratulations on a good set of numbers. I just wanted to get a quick sense on means. Can you give an elaboration on the price I’ve taken recently? And how do you see this playing out over the long term? So are these sustainable? How do you see the demand shaping up given the price hikes?
Aditya Gupta
You are talking
Anuj Arora
About sustainability of price hikes,
Rakesh Kumar
Correct? Correct. So how do you see this playing out over the long term?
Aditya Gupta
Rakesh A As I said earlier, there is no substitute for tiles for flooring. Also internationally that’s number one. Secondly, tiles, over the last two, three years the pricing of tiles has only dropped. So to that extent if there is a bit of a shock when prices go up by 20, 25%, 30%. But if you look at it over a three year period, the tile price would have only gone up in line with the inflation. So I don’t really see an issue there. The MOOC question is how will fuel prices behave in the future.
I think if fuel prices were to change, either go down or go up accordingly, the tile pricing will move up or move down. Because the what I’m hearing is that whatever calculation Moldy Cluster had done for the money of May, that this is going to be the incremental cost push. I think many of them are now seeing that their actual cost of manufacturing in May is higher than what they had and by first and if plus on top of that there is a diesel price nudge and then there is a possibility of 5,6 rupees of bizarre gas going up which is again for 5% 6% day.
So I don’t know near future if things are going to come down. But whenever pricing of gas cost of gas comes down then these tight pricing will also follow. Suit and will get adjusted downwards.
Rakesh Kumar
Got it? Got it. So sir, similarly means as you seen this movies, operational operational slowdown. So we saw a good strong volume growth in Q4. So how can we see the trajectory going forward in the in the next few quarters? So do you see the Morbi production coming back strongly? What’s your view on that?
Anuj Arora
So like we mentioned earlier that we don’t give future guidance so we would like to stick to FY26 only. What will happen in future Nobody knows how gas prices will behave, how the demand will turn up. Nobody knows. So I think let’s stick to folks 526 only.
Rakesh Kumar
Okay, thank you. Thank you sir. Thank you for answers.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of saket and investor. Please go.
Saket
Hello. Hello.
Anuj Arora
Yes again.
Saket
Yeah sir, actually I had a broader question like I’ve been tracking our the sector for quite some time now and for the last 10 years also if you see for our company also and for many other companies the sales growth hasn’t been like 10, 15% CAGR also for many companies. So now for the this quarter particularly we have seen a significant increase in the prices, right? And you also mentioned like the last three years the prices have been falling. Now in the industry where we were not able to keep the prices even to protect the margin or improvement over the period, suddenly we have taken this kind of price increases.
What is the ongoing reaction of people like offtake of the product or is there any like demand slowdown because other players in the industry talking that still there is significant demand increase. How do we see for our company?
Aditya Gupta
So Sadhgur, if you are a consumer and you are renovating your house or child comes in at the fag end of your innovation project and you, you can’t leave your home undone, your project unfinished just because tiles have become more expensive than what they were a month back. And secondly, what substitute do you have of tiles? You could definitely, you know, downgrade, you could use a cheaper tile, you could use a different kind of tile, a ceramic tile or a nano this thing. Those choices are available to you as a consumer to downgrade but you don’t have a choice to say look, you know, I’ve got an unfinished house and all and you know, for three months, six months, I’m going to wait till the tile price comes down and only then will I finish the work.
So that doesn’t happen even in large projects. They have, they have a capability and a capacity to kind of hold on their purchase. They will run down the existing inventory but that will be a month or two months at all. They will negotiate to the best possible figure. But existing projects have to be completed. You can’t leave a project how done just because the pricing has gone up
Anuj Arora
On an overall basis, the tire is not more than 1 to 2% of the overall project cost. And holding construction will cost more than the cost increase in terms of tires because the cost of production will increase in terms of interest and all. So it doesn’t make sense is basically to hold construction just to wait and watch when prices will go down.
Saket
Right sir. So one more question I had sir. The starting S you recommended that from last quarter we have seen an improvement in the margins and you told that the project will be maintained in the future quarters. So what I want to ask was that you want to say that the current quarter margins will sustain or will still improve the margins going forward also.
Aditya Gupta
So Sadhguru, fourth quarter is. Sorry, first quarter is normally a much leaner quarter compared to the fourth quarter in terms of sales in our industry across players and across years. So there is a lot of extra operating leverage which comes into play in fourth quarter because of a lesser turnover is not so available in quarter one. So you see historically. So that’s why I don’t want to talk to you about quarter on quarter kind of a number. But as Anuj said earlier, we see a much better growth which we have delivered for the last three quarters on margin listing.
We expect that it would continue because as mentioned a couple of times, whatever price cost push has happened, we have compensated for that in our March and April price increases. So we have not taken any hit on because of that.
Saket
I wasn’t asking for next quarter or so for next financial year also. So we are seeing this last quarter’s overall margin maintaining for the next financial year.
Aditya Gupta
We are this financial year we are optimistic compared to last financial year. We expect to do better.
Saket
Is there any sales kind of like guidance if you have any what kind of growth we expected this year?
Aditya Gupta
No, we don’t as I mentioned earlier also we don’t give any future guidances.
Saket
So what is the capacity utilization we are having? I mentioned it earlier.
Anuj Arora
It’s currently around 65% in in quarter four.
Saket
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Shubham, an individual investor.
Shubham
Yeah, hi. Am I audible?
Anuj Arora
Yes.
Shubham
Yeah. Hi. First of all, congratulations on a good set of numbers. So I just wanted to understand what is the exceptional item that we have in this quarter somewhere around 1.28 cr.
Anuj Arora
So that is on account of the new labor Code which has come up, you have to basically provide for the retirement at the rate of 50% of the of the total salary. So that is the exception.
Shubham
Okay. And second thing, on our other expenses, if we see one where there is a absolute dip of 5 percentage. So what line items were does it include? Like where did we see a drop in absolute numbers?
Anuj Arora
You’re talking about which number.
Shubham
So other expenses, if we see current quarter it is around 31.8 for CR&Y and Y. So for quarter ended on the 31st of March it was 33.66 years. So there’s a drop of 5.4%. It’s absolute drop. So if we can have like which line item does it include? Sorry,
Anuj Arora
You’re talking about investor. You’re talking about investor presentation or you’re talking about
Shubham
Results? Results.
Anuj Arora
So this quarter it is 31.8 crores versus 33.6 crores is what you say?
Shubham
Yes,
Anuj Arora
I think the reduction is not. Not specific to any particular this thing. It has been on the overall basis. There has been reduction. I will talk about. So there has been some reduction in terms of.
Shubham
In terms of
Anuj Arora
Travel expense.
Shubham
Okay.
Anuj Arora
Design first.
Shubham
Okay. And do we see the current trend going forward as well? Like are we expecting some further drop in other expenses
Anuj Arora
On the overall basis? If you see only the current quarter. But if you look at the overall year. So we are at a similar level as compared to last year in terms of other expenses. That also includes marketing expense wherein we will actually add on investment. I mentioned and look at area.
Shubham
Okay, got it. And we paid significant amount of debt this quarter. So what is, what is the current future details that we are eyeing at? Like are we going to have zero debt on the books or.
Anuj Arora
We have been repaying it. We haven’t paid anything in this quarter which is extra than what is required for the net debt we have mentioned is because we have surplus cash and liquid investment. There is a reason there is a negative debt of 29 crores.
Shubham
Got it. Got it. Yeah, that’s it from my side. And good luck for the future. Thank you.
Anuj Arora
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if there are no further questions, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Aditya Gupta for closing remarks.
Aditya Gupta
Thank you everybody. Thank you for your interest in Odin Bell. Look forward to meeting you next quarter. Bye. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you on behalf of Orient Bell Limited. That concludes this conference. Thank you everyone for joining us. And you may now disconnect your line.