Symphony Ltd (NSE:SYMPHONY) Q4 FY23 Earnings Concall dated May. 05, 2023.
Corporate Participants:
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
Analysts:
Aniruddha Joshi — Analyst
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Rahul Gajare — Haitong Securities — Analyst
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Pulkit Patni — Goldman Sachs — Analyst
Nikhil Gada — Abakkus AMC — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to Q4 and FY’23 Earnings Conference Call of Symphony Limited hosted by ICICI Securities. 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. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Aniruddha Joshi from ICICI Securities. Thank you and over to you.
Aniruddha Joshi — Analyst
Yeah. Thanks, Yashree. On behalf of ICICI Securities, we welcome you all to FY’23 Q4 FY’23 results conference call of Symphony Limited. We have with us the senior management represented by Mr. Achal Bakeri, Managing Director; Mr. Nrupesh Shah, Executive Director; and Mr. Amit Kumar, Executive Director, and Group CEO.
Now, I hand over the call to the management for their initial comments and then we will open the floor for question-and-answer session. Thanks and over to you sir.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Thank you. A warm welcome to all of you, and good afternoon. I’ll request my colleague, Nrupesh Shah to take us through the numbers, after which, Amit Kumar and myself and Nrupesh bhai all of us will be here to take any questions that you may have. Thank you.
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
Yeah, welcome to Q4 and FY’23 conference call. So customary Safe-Harbor statement is applicable.
Before we move forward, of course, we must say that for Q4 FY’23 as well as for FY’23, overall, on a consolidated basis, in particular, we haven’t perform up to the mark. We will take you through the details. Yeah. So in terms of the product range, in terms of the technology, in terms of the products positioning, now Symphony has positioned itself as Tinker of tomorrow. In the interest of time, we are not playing it over here, but we have shared the link and it may be worth visiting and viewing it. And similarly, this is some interesting Kal Ki Soch.
So during the quarter, we have for the first time launch worlds for air cooler wit h BLDC technology. The Landmark feature is it saves 60% power consumption apart from many other value-added features, and it also saves water and hence having up to eight hours night sleep more. So coming to the performance highlights, standalone as well as consolidated, we have reached our highest-ever standalone and domestic sales, surpassing pre-COVID it’s historical high. In respect of the standalone sales, we have surpassed equally high 24%, and hardcore domestic sales, that is that India market, it is 21% growth. So, we have maintained our market leadership with the 50% market share among all national organize players.
Also happy to share that in respect of the alternate channel that is the modern trade, we consisting of NFS, RCS, e-commerce D2C, etcetera, etcetera, continuously issuing uptrend and each has contributed now almost one-third of the domestic sales, up from 21% in FY’20. Global headwinds, particularly in the United States and Australia have severely impacted the performance of Climate Technology more so in this quarter and hence the year is [Indepreciable]. However, we believe that and we are very confident that can see during the overall potential and of ease of steps which we have stated the medium-to-long term viability and profitability of U.S. business and Australia market and climate technology remains intact.
Coming to standalone profitability. The gross margin for the year was up by about three percentage that is 47.9%, aided by price hike, softening of input costs, of course, they are at a level higher than pre-COVID level, and standalone EBITDA margin for the year stands at 20%, up by 210 bps. And standalone PAT up from INR111 crores to INR165 crores up by 49%, however, also did PAT is Y-o-Y lower, down from INR121 crores to INR116 crores. And, during the year, including interim dividend, final dividends, and share buyback of rupees INR249 crore including taxes and expenses, the total shareholder payout is INR284 crores, far in excess of console or standalone PAT for the year all cumulative PAT of last two years.
Coming to January to March ’23 quarterly performance. Again, as far as domestic sales is concerned, we registered 23% growth in domestic sales, I’m differentiating between domestic sales and Symphony standalone India. So domestic sales is up by 23% vis-a-vis historical high which was in March ’22, this is despite unseasonal rains in the month of March. Again, as I said during the year, climate technology Australia and United States severely impacted the performance for the quarter. Standalone gross margin for this quarter stood at 48.9%, up by 600 bps Y-o-Y, the highest March quarter margin in last three years. And standalone EBITDA margin percentage stands at 20%, up by 80 bps. The traction in LSV, we’ve made quite decent.
Coming to specific financials. Standalone revenue from operations, up by 38%, each ended at INR85 crore. Gross margin absolute amount is the highest ever INR424 crore. And coming to PAT it is INR165 crore up by 49%. vis-a-vis FY’22. Right. The capital employed in the business interesting of investment in fixed assets, working capital, etcetera, based on the monthly average stands at INR39 crores, translating into return on capital employed of 456%, and as many of you may be aware, we differentiate in terms of the segmentation, capital employed one in core business that is air-cooling and appliances and second is surplus driven. While return on net worth stands at 19%, up by 500 bps. This is the waterfall chart of movement of EBITDA margin percentage from 17.9% to 20%.
Coming to January to March Q4 financial. The revenue from operations on standalone down by 5% INR239 crore. As I stated earlier, domestic sales is up by 23%, however, loss of to sales to subsidiary that is to United States has contributed to this decline. While gross margin stands at INR117 crore, up by 8% in absolute amount and profit almost at the same level what it was in FY’22, that is INR43 crore.
Coming to consolidated financial. Revenue from operations, up by 14%, INR11,084 crore while PAT stands at INR116 crores, down from INR121 crores. And on a consolidated basis, the capital employed stands at INR304 crore in core business translating into ROCE of 40 point. And this is the waterfall of movement of EBITDA margin percentage on consolidated basis FY’22 to FY’23. For Q4 also financials. Revenue from operations stand at INR308 crore, down by 20%, while PAT stands at INR16 crores, down by 75%. And EBITDA margin percentage is down by almost 14% at about 7.6%.
Coming to subsidiary wise performance for FY’23. Climate technology, turnover down by 38% to INR225 crores. EBITDA as negative INR43 crore and so is PAT negative INR43 crores. Coming to IMPCO Mexico, INR117 crore up by 15% in PAT at INR2 crore while EBITDA at INR8 crore. And GSK China, INR32 crore of turnover, down by 14%, however at EBITDA level it has broken even mainly because of substantial reduction in CODB.
Coming to outlook. As far as domestic market is concerned, as well as for our respective subsidiaries, Symphony’s [Indepreciable] remain on keep on adding and launching market-leading innovative value-added products. We will take calibrated price hike on need-based so as to reach to historical high EBITDA percentage. And we expect that softening of material, labor, and freight cost should also help towards that. The [Indepreciable] is in-place to build on strong FY’23 domestic sales with better margin.
[Indepreciable] of orders by large retailers in USA and Australia, we believe and we view that as mostly one time phenomenon, mainly because accelerated product category unlike most other appliances don’t have much co-relation with the economy or inflation or interest-rate, it’s correlation is with temperature. And as we are into air-cooling which is environment-friendly products, so we are committed to pursue the growth with a sense of responsibility towards the society and environment.
Now, coming to some of the specifics of climate technology. So on the left-hand side, these are the existing products of climate technology they are ducted products, whether it is in air cooler or heater. Now the market trend is and more-and-more acceptability is towards Symphony kind of air cooler, as well as, portable heater. And as displayed on right-hand side, this see the range of products which we have proposed to launch in the current year and they are new age products having much better margin profile. And in terms of the transformation, number one, regarding the product category completely, the reduction in cost of doing the business, so in INR terms, the cost of bringing business in ’23, ’24 will be down by about INR21 crores for climate technology Australia. Thank you. So, it’s open for question answer.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have a first question from the line of Renu Baid from IIFL Securities. Please go ahead.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Yeah, hi. Good evening, team. [Indepreciable] poor performance this quarter. First question is on the standalone business. First, if you look at — can you elaborate what was the percentage or the revenue loss which you had, a revenue which was missed because of change in the weather patterns towards the end of the quarter because sequentially if you see India RACs sales or air cooler sales are broadly flat on a Q-o-Q basis. So were there any revenue slippages or loss of revenue because of change in weather conditions in your view and how are you looking at the season given that it’s been a pretty patchy somewhere an unseasonal rain patterns across the board?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
So, that’s an interesting question, and definitely while rhodium building is building very well for us. Mastercraft the country the season was not as great. So for the quarter the target that we’ve set and we were on the path to achieve, I would say we lost about 10% of the quarter target because of the change in weather in March total fees.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
And how should we look at Apri, May to be in almost over a month the season has caused through so is the current season looking like a washout or any hopes of some damage control that you see possible?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
So as we speak, it’s a cautious stance that we have. Obviously, April the first or the mid part of April was pretty strong, especially in the Eastern and Central India. And they were actually is carrying for inventory and we were almost on the verge of top-out in places, but this time not the season is yet to pickup. We are expecting that somewhere between tentative season will pickup and we’ll be able to cover for the loss of momentum in the last week of April. That’s the expectation as of now. But a lot remains to be seen over how the weather behaves for the next week or 10 days. It sounds of readiness. Obviously, we are pleased to be distributed pretty well across the market, and once the season gains momentum, we are well-placed to capture that.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Right. Because the overline concern your is if the inventory with the channel as relatively elevated levels, then a poor season will indirectly also have implications on the off-season sales that we try and push during the early half of the year. So in your view is the channel inventory near normal or it is at a much higher elevated level given that this year was expected to be a really good summer after a couple of years?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
For this point of the year, for this time of the year, I would say is, the inventories are at a slightly elevated level. At the same time, this season is still a bit ahead of us, we are expecting a delayed, but a bit prologis summer venturing into end of June or early July also. So as of now, I would say over the next five to six weeks, we do expect the inventories at the end of the season to come to were normal.
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
In other words, Renu, it’s a little premature to worry about the inventory. So internally also we are still sort of quite optimistic that things will recover. We still have pretty well, almost the entire month of May ahead of us. So, like I said, it’s a little premature to begin worrying about inventory.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Got it. Secondly, on the some performance. Is it possible to share some inputs on the operating performance of subsideries and because we have given the annual numbers, but we don’t have the nine-Month operating performance of subs. So any share specifically on CTL which has seen a very sharp deceleration and also in [Indepreciable] as I look at the number based on whatever details I have, while revenues in 4Q broadly flat. There is very sharp improvement profitability and gross margins there. So would it also be attributable to change in the business mix that we were doing there with more a vital bucket of other white good products in that region? If you can elaborate —
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Are you referring to financials for Q4 of climate technology and input, that’s what you are looking for?
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Yeah, fourth quarter operating performance. For the nine months you had shared of EBITDA for IMPCO but not for CTN. So it didn’t have the number to compare nine month versus full-year?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Sure. So right now we have for Q4 FY’22 subsidiary wise performance, so climate technologies sales INR52 crores at EBITDA lavel negative INR28 crore and PAT wise negative INR25 crore.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Okay.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
As far as IMPCO is concerned for the quarter, sales is INR37 crores, EBITDA INR5 crore and PAT is positive INR2 crore.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Got it.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
And GSK, normally this is off season over there. Sales is [Indepreciable] and EBITDA is zero and PBT and PAT is minus INR2 crores.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Got it. OKay. So a lion’s share of the business EBITDA essentially has come in 4Q, that —
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Right. So basically the loss of US sales that is if we compare Q4 ’22 to Q4 ’22, it’s in absolute amount about INR51 crores. That is the amount of the degrowth in US-based sales from Symphony India. And so even climate technology.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Got it. And on the core India business, how has been the portfolio of the sentiment of cooling solutions doing and any growth numbers or outlook that you want to add in terms of how the portfolio is ramping up?
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
So that is certainly we are not doing really well in relative terms to what we were doing in that vertical in the previous year. We have not yet sharing specific numbers for that vertical but it is certainly doing well. Again, and we have spoken about this many times in the past on calls that all-in-all, it hasn’t quite lived up to the expectations that we had set for ourselves. So, by now, we had originally expected this to be a much larger vertical. But nonetheless, it is growing at a respectable pace.
Renu Baid — IIFL Securities — Analyst
Got it. I have couple of more questions, I’ll come back in the queue, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rahul from Haitong Securities. Please go ahead.
Rahul Gajare — Haitong Securities — Analyst
Good evening, gentlemen. I’m just building on the earlier question where I wanted to move clarity on the safety performance. Is it possible you could break this between how Australia has done and how US have done, so we understand where is a bigger part? And what is it that we are specifically doing to basically get around this problem. And these are obviously Q4 financials. How has been the performance or uptick from the dealers who had issues in the month of April?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Alright. So there are two things here, one is, as far as the US is concerned, it’s clearly an issue offer a sharp drop in the top line, and in the US we have — again, this is something which we have said many times in the past, we have one principal customer which is Home Depot along with across-the-board, all retailers in the US, not only for coolers but for all commodities, have sharply curtailed their inventories and purchases this year in anticipation of a recession and a slowdown. So the same thing has impacted us and I have almost how do their orders in the current year versus the previous year and the summer is yet to come, and despite that assuming that the summer is going to be — the recession is going to hit and the sales is going to be poor they have reduced their inventories and their orders but though we do expect that up then on the summers would be good. And even if it is a normal summer in the US, we expect them to run out of inventory at which point there’ll be nothing that we can do, we can’t overnight ship coolers from India all the way across to the US. So that case would be lost. But that is a function of how that market operates. As far as Australia is concerned, they do, it is a sharp compression of the top-line and there it is not because of any anticipation of a recession. There is the recession is actually hit and a lot of our coolers as was shown in the presentation that installed products, coolers and heaters, which are bought by builders when they build homes and installed and provided along with the homes.
Now because of the recession, the post-COVID recession, many builders in Australia are actually going bust. And so-far, fortunately, we have not sort of directly been impacted in terms of bad debt, but at least in terms of sales, we have been terribly impacted. So our top line has dropped dramatically because of that. The corrective action that we’re taking is, of course, as was shown in the presentation and this is something which we have — they can not only now, but we began this exercise more than a year ago, was the pivot from installed products to portable products, a pivot from gas-fired, gas-powered heaters to electric heaters and a pivot from captive manufacturing to third-party manufacturing, box-in, box-out kind of a strategy.
So as far as coolers go the products will go from India, as far as all the products heatrs, air-conditioners, they will all come in from China. So there is this fundamental shift in the way — in the business model and the entire business of our climate technologies that is underway. And also there is a plan to also we are — along with this sort of change in business model, we’ll also result in a sharp reduction in the cost of doing business, which will bring down our breakeven point substantially. So we have been — ever since we have acquired the company, we have been reducing — working on reducing the cost of doing business. And what it will be a year from now will be about a quarter of what it was when we first acquired the company.
So that is the kind of — and that will have no impact, no telling impact on the topline. Instead, the topline has actually grown. So it’s a transformation in the way will do business in the business model, which is enabling us to do this. So like again Nrupesh bhai made his presentation which notwithstanding or notwithstanding what we have witnessed in the last financial year. We are completely convinced and we know it. We have full conviction that there is a very broad silver lining at the end of this or around this cloud or light at the end of this tunnel. So we are fairly sort of confident that we will — this company will turnaround and will live up to the expectations that we had when we first acquired it nearly 5.5 years ago.
And coming to specific about the US and Australia performance, so as far as US is concerned for FY’23 despite top-line reduced to less than half vis-a-vis FY’22 not only at EBITDA level, at our next, net profit level after allocating all the expenses, it’s fairly profitable. So that is the profitability profile of US business.
Rahul Gajare — Haitong Securities — Analyst
Okay, thanks for that. Sir, my second question is given that so many year, builders we are going bust in Australia. We don’t have any receivable problems. We are not anticipating or even providing for receivable issues.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
No, we don’t. We’ve had no bad debt so far, nor do we expect there to be any bad debt going forward.
Rahul Gajare — Haitong Securities — Analyst
Got it. Sir, on the standalone business, given we’ve had the revenue impacting in this particular quarter mainly because of loss of export revenue, we’ve seen very sharp uptick on the gross margin at almost 49% but that’s been that export typically would have — how do you had export that would have made any difference or this is price hikes or something else that as impacted the gross profit over here?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
So that’s a good observation. So the lack of exports has improve the margins, because again remember our exports are toward subsidiary. So the margin is divided between the two, Symphony would typically sell to the subsidiary at TP at rates which are governed by transfer pricing. So the margins that were retained at Symphony are, of course, much lower. So the lack of exports has helped improve our margins, and again in the past last ago, we had also conveyed that because of significant exports through subsidiaries our margins have are lower than they usually would have been.
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
But when it comes to the total margin profile, we need to consider the margin on exports from Symphony India to subsidiaries margin also being kept by subsidiary. So, by the way as far as US business is concerned, margin in Symphony India and climate technology both put together is even better than our domestic business. So that’s how it’s supposed to be viewed.
Rahul Gajare — Haitong Securities — Analyst
Fair enough. Thank you very much. That’s all from me, sir. And all the very best.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We have our next question from the line of Lokesh Manik from Vallum Capital. Please go ahead.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Yes. Good afternoon to the team. Couple of questions on my end. One is on the gross margin, if I see the difference between consol and standalone so subsidiary has reduced significantly from about 45% odd percent to 32%, so just wanted to understand — and given that your business model is asset-light in nature, most of the costs should be variable in nature. Ideally, we should not be seen such a huge drop in profitability. So what is it debtors’ introduction passing on the price hikes to customers in the subsidiaries?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Are you referring to standalone or–
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
I’m referring to the subsidiaries business. We recorded about if I take the consol and standalone difference loss of about INR40 crores at the EBITDA level on an annual basis. I’m not talking quarterly, I’m referring to the annual basis. So which is quite significant, given that we are an asset-light model.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Not entirely. In Australia, we’ve not really entirely asset-light that is a process that we set into motion to become asset light, like I said in little while ago.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Right.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Yeah. Yeah
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
No, but we have seen significant reduction on the gross margin front, sir.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Yes, that is true, because again last year, costs were higher and our selling prices couldn’t cover the increase in cost. So there was a sharp reduction in the gross margins of sales within Australia.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Got it. Sir, when do we plan to get back to normal levels in your view or as per your plans, business plans?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
So we — I mean, as we speak our margins are better and we are working on improving them, but we believe that, of course, in the current year in ’23, ’24 they should be much better than what they were in ’22, ’23.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Would we be back pre-COVID level?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
As we are shifting the product from installed or ducted product [Indepreciable] product which is the track which is in the demand and they command much better margin too.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Okay, and these [Indepreciable] is going to be exported from India or they are manufactured in Australia?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
No, so the coolers will go from India part from the Symphony range, but other products Symphony doesn’t manufacture, Symphony doesn’r manufacture heater, panel heaters or fireplaces, or air conditions those will go from China.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Got it. Got it. Sir, my second question is on the standalone business in India and more to do with the advertising and marketing. So we’ve had a very impressive track record over the years, especially in the past decade, leaving the last three to four years aside, if I may, where we’ve seen sort of a reduction in our share of voice, which used to be 60% to 80%, has come down to 40%, 50%? And we’re also seeing revenue to add expenses reduction from let’s say 23 to about 15 opening around 15, so just wanted to understand what has changed out here because we’ve also gone from a demand-pull toward a push strategy and we gotten into affordable range of products. Has there been also — can it be also due to a change in the team that has taken place, if that may be the case? I’m just trying to understand what is the reason for this underperformance on the marketing advertising phase?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
No, on the contrary, our ad spend is much higher —
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Relation to the sales, I’m just talking to —
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
In relation to the sales, in fact, in relation to sales during FY’23 on an internal basis, our advertisement sales promotion stands at about 9%, which historically used to be 6 percentage.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Correct.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
And absolute amount if you see the figure, it’s around or in excess of INR70 crores, it is INR73 crores year before our pre-COVID used to be less than INR40 crore.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Right. So we were generating more sales per rupee of ad spend, which is what I’m referring to and which has come down. So just trying to understand the reasons behind that.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
In other words, what you are saying is our ad spend as a percentage of sales has gone up?
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Yeah, inversely, you could say that’s, correct.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Yeah, that’s what the essentially you are saying.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Yes.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
That is true. Maybe we have spent more on advertising than was it needed to or was justified. So that is also something that we are — so we experimented with that last summer. We also had a lot of excess inventory lying with the channel last summer in the quarter of April to June over last financial year. So whchi also sort of increase our ad spend. But we are certainly moderating that in the current year. So we will sort of revert back to our historical ad spend as a percentage of sales.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Got it. Sir, there are no — on the KPI side, there is no really underperformance, because those numbers obviously with the management and not with us. So just to get some clarification that. On the KPI side, we’re not seeing in terms of ad performance that we are doing all the content that we are releasing and the impact that it has. So where we are not seeing any underperformance, just clarification on that.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Not really. No, not really.
Lokesh Manik — Vallum Capital — Analyst
Okay, that’s it from my side, sir. Thank you so much.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Smita Mohta from Kredent InfoEdge. Please go ahead.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Yeah. Can you hear me clearly?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Yeah, but your voice is slightly breaking.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Can you hear me now properly?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Yes, better.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Okay. So, basically, I wanted to know that in your nine-month FY’23 con-call you had referred the volume to be as 25 million coolers sold for nine-Month. So wanted to know all this sales for the coolers and your percentage of sales as export market, how much has that dropped compared to the total volume of the sales and which quarter according to the management is the best quarter for them? Is it this summer’s which has heated up? So just wanted the answer to these three questions.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
So 25 million coolers is the cumulative sales which Symphony and subsidiaries put together since inception has achieved. So which is at least five to eight times more than any of the competitor or maybe more than that combined organize retailer of India in many of the country. So that is the significance of it. As far as volume for the quarter or user, due to competitive reason, we early used to share but now we are not sharing because we are the only listed limited company exclusively into air cooler and thus figures are not available so rest of the details are shared but this is not been shared.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Okay. And how much has your export contribution gone down in the total revenue basket, if I may ask?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
You mean to say exports from India or you mean to say total business in the —
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Total business exports in you revenue terms, total revenue terms?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
FY22, it was almost 50%, which improves export from India, and our subsidiaries turnover while in current year. Exports in subsidiaries put together is close to 30%, about 34%, 35%.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Okay, so a drop of 15% from compared to last year, right?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
That’s right.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Okay and which quarter can you say that is the best for coolers for your business?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
As far as Symphony standalone is concerned, we do sales round the year with 100% advance when it comes to the domestic trade. That is general trade. Of course, trade has to sit on inventory until the secondary sales starts. So we don’t have much of the issuing that aspect. However, at a consumer level, the best quarterly April to June quarter for Symphony India. Coming to Australia domestic market, it is December to March. And coming to US it’s from June to August, September.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Okay. Got it. Can you just define your market share presumbly?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
So Symphony’s India, our market share is 50% as earlier converting the presentation and that market share is within organize retailer and it is vis-a-vis. Regional players heavy baseband business, because otherwise there are like hundreds and hundreds of brands, but there may be regional or specific district. So in that respect, it is 50% market share.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Okay. So as you suggested that the subsidiary export is not happening now because of which your margin has risen, so do you think that this is going to last and you are going to have a good margin there because the subsidiaries not making the sales?
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
What do you think we should be hoping for?
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
And that your margins rise? Entire business margins.
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
No, no, but we think that we should also be selling more to our subsidiaries or selling more in overseas market. So, essentially, this was a one-off thing and this is an aberration like I said. Our exports to the US primarily has dropped significantly this year. We are hoping that business revise in the US, and of course, what would be great would be that our margins also remains the same despite an increase in exports. But so, we’ll see.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
And what matters is the compensity.
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
So we’ll see what happens going forward. But essentially what we are looking for is how do we revise the US business and that might have an impact on the margins but we’ll see what happens.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Okay, so how soon do you think that your margins can normalize, one years or two quarters?
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
So first of all, see, as far as domestic standalone business is concerned, our margins are — and our present margins is our — I mean, our margins going forward should improve. When you couple in exports, then on a standalone basis, the margins may be impacted, but then again you have to look at margins end-to-end margins, because like I said, when we export to a subsidiary, there is margin retained at both levels. And when we look at end-to-end margins between the full at the consolidated level, the margins would be a lot better then on a standalone basis.
Smita Mohta — Kredent InfoEdge — Analyst
Okay. Thanks a lot. That’s all from my side.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Pulkit Patni — Goldman Sachs — Analyst
Thank you for taking my question. Sir, this revolves around Australia. We’ve had the subsidiary for a while. Last year, we were talking about how higher logistics cost to is cutting us on this product. This year demand has gone down. I just want to understand what is the thought process of the management, because you mentioned you are increasingly trying to source products from elsewhere and sell because those are countries where even restructuring or closing down factories has a cost involved. So what I’m trying to understand is what is sort of the roadmap for the Australia business, so over a two, three year period because so far it seems it’s been a disappointing went for different reasons in each of the years. So if you could talk about that and.
I think INR21 crores is what you mentioned is the benefit of reduction of cost of doing business, will that be realized in FY’24 itself or is it again a medium term target?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
No, that is something which we expect to realize in ’24, by ’25, which would be even more. Okay, now to come back to your overall question, Pulkit. Saying that Australia business has been disappointment is an understatement, no doubt about it. We did not sort of acquired this company or the performance that we have witnessed so far. There’s no doubt about that. There is no arguing there. But, again, as far as investors are concerned, it doesn’t really matter, but COVID has been an exceptional event, and whether it’s in India where also our logistic costs have gone up, our bill of material has gone up and that happens in company after company, category after category, it’s not that we are an exception.
And so in Australia, now the international logistic cost has dropped, but the bill of material cost are — the commodity costs are still very elevated and so are be in India. They may have dropped from their peaks, but they are is still significantly higher than what they were pre-COVID levels. So and then you also referred to the difficulty of restructuring, very honestly, that is not the case here. Like I said, we are changing our business model is entirely, so there’ll be very manufacturing almost, no manufacturing that will continue in Australia. We will largely be a box-in, box-out company. I don’t want to use the word trading company, which we are not, because we have a brand of our own and the distribution of our own and all of that. But essentially we will be selling products, which are made either in India or in China. Products that will be sold in Australia will will not be manufactured in Austrlia.
And so there is a major change in the entire way we are doing the business that is underway.
Pulkit Patni — Goldman Sachs — Analyst
Sure, sir. Sir, second question is, when we look at both Australia and US, is it just a function of market declining or being tough or have you also lost market shares? Could you share some perspective on that?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. As far as the US is concerned, like I said, despite Home Depot having sold very well last year. They just sort of — this is, again, not only in coolers, across the board, across every category they have cut down their inventories, they have cut down their orders in anticipation over recession. As far as Australia market itself is concerned, like I said, there are these builders going bust and which is why — And the reason why builders are going up is also very interesting. Most of these builders would have contracted to build homes at an X price before COVID and then suddenly everything has gone up, steel, wood, you name it, every, all costs have gone up and they are unable to deliver or build at both cost which they were contracted at. So which is why there belly after.
And so in Australia the reason is only that. It’s not just us, even our competitors, the whole industry has shrunk. As far as the appliance industry is concern in industry.
Pulkit Patni — Goldman Sachs — Analyst
Sure, sir. That’s useful.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We’ll take our last question from the line of Nikhil Gada from Abakkus AMC. Please go ahead.
Nikhil Gada — Abakkus AMC — Analyst
Yeah. Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, there are couple of questions just purely from the domestic agle. First, could you help us identify how the overall scenario is in North, South, West in terms of how it was in the fourth quarter and how it is panning out right now in April?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Right. So, Nikhil, the picture is obviously very different in different parts of the country. So maybe I’ll unpick them one by one. In [Indepreciable] as we speak most parts of the North of the season has not yet taken off. March was mostly on low-key, Absil had some buildup. But as we speak, it is still not in the regular flow of tank in the North. In West, the situation is similar. The business has not taken into full gear as of now. And especially the coastal parts of the Maharashtra and South Gujarat, the season is yet to take shape. South and East the picture slightly different, especially the Eastern part of South and most of the Eastern India. The second, third week or April saw pretty good heat and as I mentioned earlier in this call to another question, we created very well in those parts of the country and there again, at this point in time, this season is a bit low, but yet getting back to closer to normal temperatures over the next week or so in this parts of the country.
Nikhil Gada — Abakkus AMC — Analyst
Got it, sir. And sir, just because we are seeing a lot of commentary on El Nino does it by any chance help us have — is there any past precedents where sort of gauge if El Nino actually happened, does it benefit the cooler company per say?
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
In the past we had El Nino years the summer so long and summer was warm. This year, while it’s — and El Nino more years this summer has set in late. What we are hearing and getting to understand is the summer likely to set late in most parts of the country and likely to continue to late. So that’s from a weather perspective and heat perspective will be prolonged summer as we see those still we have there it’s more of a hope and prediction, then our actual materialization on the crowd.
Nikhil Gada — Abakkus AMC — Analyst
Understood. And, sir, largely, can you call out what kind of domestic growth do you expect for ’24, is it too early to sort of discuss on that?
Nrupesh Shah — Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
Too early.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
Too early for that like moment.
Nikhil Gada — Abakkus AMC — Analyst
Okay, sir. Thank you so much for answering all my questions. All the best. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Achal Bakeri — Founder, Chairman & Managing Director
So thank you all the participants. Thank you ICICI Securities for hosting this conference call.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]