Voltas Limited (NSE: VOLTAS) Q3 2026 Earnings Call dated Jan. 29, 2026
Corporate Participants:
K.V. Sridhar — Chief Financial Officer
Mukundan C P Menon — Managing Director
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Natasha Jain — Analyst
Aditya Bhartia — Analyst
Aniruddha Joshi — Analyst
Girish Achhipalia — Analyst
Naushad Chaudhary — Analyst
Akshen Thakkar — Analyst
Renu Baid — Analyst
Pulkit Patni — Analyst
Umang Mehta — Analyst
Tavishi Mehta — Analyst
Balasubramanian A — Analyst
Akshay Gattani — Analyst
Dhruv Jain — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to VolTest Ltd. Q3FY26 earnings conference call hosted by Philip Capital. 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 the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star and then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Natasha Jain from Philip Capital. Thank you. And over to you Ma’.
Natasha Jain — Analyst
Am. Thank you Sagar and good evening everyone. On behalf of Philip Capital, I welcome all of you to the third quarter FY26 earnings conference call of Voltas India Ltd. From the management today we have Mr. Mukundan Manon, Managing Director K.V. sridhar, Chief Financial Officer Nikhil R. Chandrana, Head Corporate Finance, Sumana Tripathi, Head FPA and Vaibhav Vora, Head Commercial. I would request the management to give their opening remarks post which we shall open the floor for Q and A. Thank you. And over to you sir.
K.V. Sridhar — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Natasha. Good evening all. Glad to connect again for the quarter call. So just to give you a brief. Voltastic strengthens its leadership in Q3 backed by room air conditioners, recovery and sustained performance from other verticals Global conditions in 2025 remained unsettled with geopolitical tensions, new tariff actions and periodic supply chain detours creating volatility across input categories such as energy base, metals and select electrical components. At the same time, uneven global growth, currency and commodity fluctuation and persistent policy uncertainty tempered sentiment across several markets. Even as emerging economies, most notably India, continued to demonstrate relative resilience driven by steady consumption and sustained public investment.
This environment shaped a mixed demand backdrop for consumer facing categories and infrastructure linked sectors forming the macro context in which Volta’s consumer and projects business operated during the quarter, Voltas Limited announced its financial results for the quarter and nine months ending 31 December 2025. Through this quarter, the company’s performance was anchored by the room air conditioning business driven by healthier channel activity following the GST rate cut and buying ahead of the Bee Star label transition as customers anticipated price hikes on the new table, the project’s business continued to lend stability through consistent execution and and strong order pipeline reinforcing the continue to lend stability through consistent execution and a strong order pipeline reinforcing the strength of Volta’s diversified portfolio.
Management remained focused on market leadership in the cooling segment, regulatory preparedness and disciplined performance across businesses. At an overall level for the quarter total income was at 3,130 crores against 3,164 last year. Profit before tax was 116 crores after factoring in the labour code impact versus 191 crores in Q3.25. Net profit was at 84 crores against 131 last year. For the nine months ending December 25, the total income was 9,552 crores compared to 10,890 crores last year. Same period and profit before tax was 373 crores versus 848 crores in the corresponding period last year. Net profit was at 257 crores compared to 599 last year.
Same period in terms of the Segment performance A bit in depth in terms of Segment A unitary cooling products, the segment delivered a relatively steady performance in both volume and revenue. Despite inherent seasonality and the impact of a shortened second summer, the room air conditioner business continued to anchor Segment A, maintaining voltages leadership position with 17.9% year to date market share and benefiting from strong channel activity following the GST reduction and buying ahead of the upcoming Bee Star label transition. Growth during the quarter was driven by structured network expansion with micro level targeting, improved channel readiness and sharper retail and digital activation across priority markets.
These changes are expected to drive consumer upgrades in the coming quarter providing a positive fillip to demand and product mix improvement. Complementary categories such as air coolers, water heaters and fans, though facing some headwinds due to inventory overhang, continue to build relevance through refreshed lineups, wider retail reach and sharper digital activation, reinforcing voltas comfort, solution positioning and broadening the non seasonal share of cooling products. Together these initiatives support brand preference and strengthen category resilience and into the upcoming season. Within Segment A, commercial air condition continued to act as a growth contributor supported by corporate, commercial and industrial demand.
With healthy traction across product categories and AMC business. Commercial refrigeration delivered a softer quarter amid slower product offtake and competitive intensity. The focus remained on sharpening the offer in priority segments and stabilizing the mix to support sequential improvement. Together, CAC and C TR reinforced the diversification within UCP and helps balance seasonal volatility in room cooling. Segment a margins in Q3 reflected the seasonal profile of the quarter and a competitive environment with profitability shaped by higher channel and customer support. In the coming quarter, management remains focused on mix improvement, cost optimization and structured network expansion to support sequential recovery.
The company is fully ready and realigned for the new bee efficiency table with refreshed lineups and calibrated pricing architecture in place and is geared to meet seasonal demand with aligned production plans across Pantanagar and the new Chennai factory. Production Capacity utilization, operational efficiency improvements and supply chain actions have been tuned to support faster ramp up into the season and and improve availability of priority SKUs Voltpec home appliances Voltpec delivered a solid Q3 sustaining broad based momentum across washing machines and refrigerators led by dominant semi automatic segment and a clear step up in fully automatic top load alongside a stronger showing in the Frostry segment in an expanded energy efficient locally manufactured lineup.
In refrigerators Volksbeck’s overall market share stands at 6.2% year to date and in washing machines at 8.2% year to date reflecting improved portfolio relevance and tighter in store execution. Volzpec will sustain momentum through a focused brand led premiumization strategy combining high impact consumer engagement and an expanded energy efficient portfolio across categories to deepen preference and conversion across priority channels while steadily broadening the franchise towards a full scale home appliance platform that complements Voltas end to end home solutions. In parallel, ongoing pricing and cost optimization initiatives across the portfolio are intended to support margin resilience as scale builds through the season.
Together these developments reinforce Voltas progression from predominantly seasonal cooling business to a year round full stack consumer durables enterprise supported by a broader innovation led portfolio and disciplined operational execution. Segment B Electromechanical Projects and Services the domestic projects business continue to book and execute orders across all verticals underscoring engineering depth and multi vertical presence. Prudent selection of projects backed by on time handovers, tighter project governance and cash conversion facilitated the margin expansion. The international environment remains competitive for fresh wins but delivery momentum supported by a mix of ongoing projects and disciplined project engagement. During CY25 year to date Volta secured new orders and lifted the order pad and the international project business reported sequential exposure reduction reflecting tighter commercial controls and collection.
With a robust consolidated order book of around 6100 crores and a healthy order pipeline the segment is well positioned to drive steady growth and deliver consistent performance over the medium term. Segment C Engineering Products and Services the mining and construction equipment division delivered steady top line growth supported by continuity in operations and maintenance contracts and sustained demand for power screen crushing and screening machinery going ahead. The mining and construction equipment service annuities and a healthy inquiry funnel provide performance visibility. The textile machinery division business was adversely impacted by macro backdrop, notably the 50% US tariff imposition on certain textile products which weighed on msmes and led to production cuts and softer domestic demand for yarns and fabrics.
Execution of pending orders, strong after sales run rate and postpainning momentum helped cushion the effect. Looking ahead, TMD remains focused on after sales, post spinning mix and disciplined delivery while looking forward for a recovery in the core spinning category. Balance sheet and Working capital Working capital was tightly managed in Q3 with improved inventory and receivables ahead of upcoming season supported by availability of priority SKUs and steady project billings and collections. Commercial controls, selective order intake and export exposure reduction further supported a stable position despite uneven demand pockets and a competitive environment. Overall, the company exited the quarter with a balanced working capital profile as Voltas enters Q4 focused on execution and seasonal readiness, the company is fully aligned to the new bee efficiency table with a refreshed RAC lineup and calibrated pricing and is geared to meet peak season demand with aligned production plan across factories including the new capacity ramp up at Pantanagar in Chennai.
The priority is to boost all demand sources core retail, organized trade and institutional while optimizing resources across manufacturing supply chain and channel. The project’s business will continue to selectively book and execute across all verticals in which we are present, supported by a healthy bid pipeline and a stronger project governance. Overall, the strategy remains simple and focused. Be regulatory ready, scale efficient into the season using the expanded manufacturing footprint and convert demand with sharper in market activation and disciplined delivery across businesses. In terms of margin, we are committed to further optimize cost through value engineering, better inventory planning while being cautious about the impact of commodity and currency fluctuations.
Thank you.
operator
So should we open the floor for questions?
K.V. Sridhar — Chief Financial Officer
Yes please.
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 would wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star and 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. Participants are requested to limit their questions to only one question per participant and to not add any additional questions in the same. Our first question comes from the line of Aditya Bhartia from Investec.
Please go ahead.
Aditya Bhartia
Hi, good evening sir. So my question is on you kind of referred about raw material inflation and rupee depreciation impact. So my question is what kind of price increases do you think are warranted? And given that we are coming from a fairly weak season, do you think that the industry would be in a position to pass on these price Hikes or part of that may need to be absorbed by the company. And you also mentioned about cost optimization. So what are the measures that you can undertake to kind of partly offset this impact? Thank you.
K.V. Sridhar
Thanks for the question. I think it’s a valid one given the environment that we are in. So see, this quarter will be a slightly mixed one in terms of navigating the old table sales and also the new table sales. Right. So we would sort of be doing a very balanced approach in terms of trying to navigate the pricing. Will the commodity and the currency fluctuation have an impact on the pricing? Definitely. Yes, there will be an impact of the pricing. But how much and when to sort of pass on is something. It’s a very dynamic decision that we’ll have to sort of look at it fairly almost on a daily basis.
And I think the pricing decisions will have to be fairly dynamic. So to put a number would be difficult. But is there an impact on the pricing? There is an impact on the pricing. We are looking at it ongoing basis and we’ll take a call accordingly. I think the new table also I think will take some time for. For also the pricing also to stabilize in that front. That I think will also take a few months given that this quarter is likely to mix between old table and the new table sales.
Aditya Bhartia
Understood, sir. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Manan Goyal from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Aniruddha Joshi
Hello.
Mukundan C P Menon
Yes, we can hear you.
Aniruddha Joshi
Yeah, so this is Aniruddhu Joshi here. So my question is what was the exit market share at the end of either November or December? If you can share, you have shared YTD market share. And secondly, was there any excess trade discount given to clear the inventory at the end of December? And last point, there is a very strong market shares across both categories, revs and washers. But despite that, the profitability still remains in a way still in red. So how do you see the profitability? Earlier there was a indication probably by end of FY26 it should be profitable.
So how. How should we read about voltage? Yeah, that’s it from my side.
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, thanks. So this is Mukundan Menon here. So on the market share, our exit market share for the month of December is also at 17.9% which coincidentally coincides with our YTD market share also which is at 17.9%. So if you recall when we began this calendar year, that is the Jan to March quarter, we had a market share of 15.8% and that has grown to 17.9%. So over the last 12 months we gained market share of roughly 2.1% which is a good, I think it holds us in good in terms of schemes. Yes, most of the channel partners had a lot of inventory with them and it is imperative for us to help them to clear the stock.
So the schemes were progressively being given to them during the quarter three. But as we approach summer, these schemes will start becoming a little more market demand related. So indeed, to facilitate the secondary sales schemes and discounts were offered in quarter three, which is reflecting in our margin profile. Also, if you see going back to Volta’s Peco, the story is a little different here. The primary focus is to gain market share which we are doing consistently. Refrigerators, we are at a market share of 6.2% and this, this is a gain of roughly 1.1% over 6.2% for the YTD number.
However, the exit November number, the December number we haven’t seen as yet is a better number at 6.8% and the washing machine market share YTD is 8.2. But the exit November number is again a very healthy 10.2%. So, so here the focus is about gaining market share, about making our presence fair and the profitability. In a way the scale is slowly getting us to a place where in the very near future we will see this get into at least a breakeven kind of situation.
Aniruddha Joshi
Okay, sure sir, this is very helpful. Many thanks.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thank you. Anezadha.
operator
Yeah, thank you. Requesting all the participants to just limit themselves to just one question and do not add any additional questions within the same questions, please. Our next question comes from the line of Natasha Jain. Please go ahead.
Natasha Jain
Thank you. So just one question. Given that we have one of the highest assembly capabilities and the season for calendar 25 was bad, so I assume that we were also left with higher number of inventory. And given that sequential growth for voltas in UCP has been quite high, is it fair to assume that channel is sitting with larger inventory of voltas? And by that logic is it again fair to assume that if and when summer picks up, market share growth For Voltas in 4Q will be sharper than tears? That’s it. Thank you sir.
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, yeah. So Natasha, very well said. The second point is the market share will see a very positive trend because of the volumes that the primary billings that we have done is also significant. So the market share gains will be visible in quarter four for sure. Inventory of voltage. My sense is that we are talking about a few weeks five to Six weeks of inventory is there in the channel and it’s just a matter of time. By March middle I suppose the entire inventory will get finished. So that’s the way we see it. So it’s not a very high number because the summer season is going to pick up.
So February between February when the summer begins from Kerala and then moves on towards the western region and Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and comes into Maharashtra. I think we’re talking about a clear 45 days, less than 45 days for the inventory of our channel partners to, to sort of deplete completely.
Natasha Jain
Thank you sir. That’s helpful.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thanks Natasha.
operator
Yeah, thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Girish Achipalia from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Girish Achhipalia
Yeah. Hi sir. Mr. Mukundan, I had one question on the price hike that the system and you would need. Because of the copper being where it is, aluminum being where it is and the rupee being where it is, my estimate says that it could be between 12 to 14% basis the commodity move as well as the new norms that have kicked in and also some e waste tools etc. So if you can comment. I know this is like going to be a mixed quarter, some old inventory, some new inventory. But once the new inventory comes through, is that a fair assessment of price increases needed and how much has already been taken, if at all in the month of January.
Thank you.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thanks Girish. Actually, Mr. Sridhar will thank you Girish for the question.
K.V. Sridhar
I think it’s sort of comparable to the first question that sort of came up. So this quarter will be a mixed one between old table and new table. So obviously the costs will be different as you know and by the time the prices stabilize as part of the new table, I think it will take maybe a couple of months. I think that’s likely to be the case and that’s what our sense is also. So we’ll have to sort of do a wait and watch. But to your primary question, is there an impact of commodity and currency? There is to that extent there is but the exact quantum and how the price transition will happen that I think we’ll have to do a bit of wait and watch.
We are sort of monitoring it almost regularly and any departing decision we are linking it to the market requirements. But there is an impact of currency and, and commodity hedging here.
Girish Achhipalia
But sir, can you point, I mean directionally, am I right in the ballpark for the new, new rules that have been applicable and the commodity, if they were to remain for the new inventory that you place in the system. Is that fair to interrupt?
operator
Sorry to interrupt you.
Girish Achhipalia
I’m actually asking the same question. I’m actually asking the same question.
Mukundan C P Menon
So Sagar will answer that. So essentially the Girish the thing is that the table change impact on the pricing is a little different for the three star and is a little different for the Pfizer. Three star is a little lesser. But five star is very very significant increase. So the increase will impact on the five star will be more. Now the impact of the commodity, the copper and the dollar, these are the moving pieces in this entire thing. So the overall numbers will be a summation of these three things. Stable change increase for three star plus the commodity and copper for the same.
The table change impact for the five star and the copper and aluminium, the copper and the currency impact for the same. So typically five star will be a much higher number. We are as Sridhar said, it’s still too many moving parts in the overall thing. We are unable to really quantify the number to whatever you mentioned. But the fact of the matter is these all will impact the sort of the pricing certainly because these are not small impact. These are not small numbers by any stretch of imagination.
Girish Achhipalia
Best wishes sir. Thank you.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thank you. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Naushat Chaudhary from Aditya Birla Mutual Funds. Please go ahead.
Naushad Chaudhary
Yeah. Hi. Thanks. One question on the project business. This business is consistently order book consistently declining though we are adjusting the domestic and international portfolio. But overall on an overall basis this business seems struggling. So just wanted to understand when do you see by when the order book, you know or slide should stop and from when we should, you know start experiencing growth in the order book and if this business has a potential to be 10,000 crore rupees of business and if yes, how much time will it take to reach those?
K.V. Sridhar
So now see this project business has got two parts as you rightly pointed out. There is a domestic and there is a international business. So the general thing is that across both these businesses, the domestic and the international, we have been very careful in terms of picking up projects over the last 12 months I would say. So we’ve been very prudent in selection of the clients. There are proper guidelines and frameworks for that in terms of nature of client, the credentials of the client, the payment terms, the margin profile and the exposure of bank guarantees, the liquidity damages.
We work around multiple things. So if you ask, the size of the order book might have diminished but the health of the order book is very Very healthy compared to what it was a year ago. So we’ve been very prudent and we have been extremely prudent, especially in the international business where we have been very careful in selection of the clients and essentially we are going after projects where we get a sort of preferred sort of vendor thing compared to others. So we are not really bothered about the overall size of the order book because these are generally order books which sort of get built over a period of two, two and a half years or so.
In terms of the domestic projects, again, if you see there are three different verticals. There is mechanical and electrical and plumbing MEP vertical. The second one is the water vertical and the third one is the electrical and solar vertical. The electrical and solar as well as the water vertical predominantly operates in the government space. And these are long gestation projects with a fair amount of sort of a working capital locked up for a larger period of time. We have been very prudent in picking up jobs in this category and we have been very selective about it.
However, in the mechanical and electrical and plumbing we have been picking up fairly good healthy jobs. In the manufacturing segment we are also focusing on the data center segments and these are the general industrial segment and data center are the segments which are very fast track, quick completion, very low risk and in terms of profitability also it’s a quick turnaround. So we have been prudent in this. So the size of the order book less important compared to the health of the order book. That’s the way we see it. Noshad.
operator
Sorry to interrupt. Noshad. Sir, may we request you return to the queue for follow up questions please. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of action from Fidelity. Please go ahead.
Akshen Thakkar
Yeah, hi sir. Congratulations on a good show on the market share. Just wanted to one clarity from you on how should we be thinking about margins in the unitary business. It’s been a tough year right now. We’ve been used to making 8 to 10% margins here. Given what you know in terms of cost pressures in terms of channel inventory, not in like Q4 but just generally over the next year or two, what’s the kind of margins should we be thinking about? Do margins go back to 8 to 10% or, or do you think we should first focus on getting top line right and then focus on getting the margins right? That’s the only question.
Thank you.
K.V. Sridhar
Sridhar here again. So I think, fair question, I think in terms of where we see whether it’s market share or margins, I think it’s never quite possible to sort of give either or answer. To be fair, I think it both has to be sort of balanced. While we don’t want to lose out on the market leadership that we have, we want to sort of focus on. At the same time, we have to continue focus on the margins also. Right. So in terms of, if you see the intent is to sort of focus on the cost reduction initiatives very, very prudently in a very institutionalized manner, look at any pricing opportunities that we have.
We are also looking at mix opportunities in terms of from a product portfolio point of view. So we’re looking at all multiple aspects in terms of trying to see how we can sort of focus on the margin improvements also. So it’s not either or, in all fairness, it is an and. And the focus has to be there on both. Top line has to happen. And also in terms of market share growth at the same time, focus continues on margins also.
Akshen Thakkar
Sorry, just continuing that question. There is no doubt that incremental margins will sort of improve and. Sorry to interrupt.
operator
May we request you return to the queue for that?
Akshen Thakkar
Sorry, this is a mic. My question wasn’t answered. I’m just seeking a clarification on the same question.
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, that’s fine. Yeah, tell me.
Akshen Thakkar
Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. Just sort of want to belabor on that point a little more just to, to, you know, when we think about margins. So you’re saying incremental margins will move up with all the initiatives that you outlined, which is a fair summation and a good strategy. I’m just trying to understand the trajectory of that because from where we are to let’s say where normative margins were is a decent gap. So I’m just trying to understand should our expectations be towards 8, 10% right away or should it be over a period of time? That’s the only clarification.
K.V. Sridhar
So the recovery would be sequential, as we sort of discussed. Right. And also there are two many moving parts, unfortunately in this piece, I think the commodity inflation, the currency depreciation, so there are multiple moving parts. And also the table change impact also. So there are multiple moving parts in this intent is to sort of get better. Will it be a sequential improvement? There will be a sequential improvement when and what we will reach. Unfortunately it will be maybe too too soon to sort of quantify. That’s the only point where we are. But intent is to sort of definitely get better and come closer to the expectations that you have.
operator
Does that answer your questions?
Akshen Thakkar
Yes, yes it does. Thank you. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you so much, sir.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thanks.
operator
Our Next question comes from the line of Renu from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Renu Baid
Yeah, hi, I have only one question. So what would be your strategy for the domestic MEP portfolio? How is our market share stacked up and what is your strategy of getting voltas back on the mainstream with market leading share and margin from a medium term perspective?
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah. So Renu just. You’re referring to the domestic MEP projects segment?
K.V. Sridhar
No, overall domestic.
Renu Baid
No, no. The domestic MEP or the H VAC portfolio that we are looking within the projects part of the business. Not water, not electrical, solar core, mep.
Mukundan C P Menon
Understood. So as I said, we have decided that we will focus big time on the MEP part of the infra project that is less of water, less of electrical, the way you have sounded. And essentially within MEP also there are two or three different customer categories. One is the industrial and data center category, which is which we call it manufacturing and data centers. And the second one is the commercial buildings which is to do with shopping malls and so on and so forth. And there’s a third category which is metros, airports and so on and so forth.
So the focus currently is that we want to have a larger pie of the industry, manufacturing and the data center market. We are also looking at a steady flow of. These are generally fast track projects which will quickly give are turned around within less than 9 months to 12 months. We are also looking at the metro and such infrastructure projects which are generally spread over a longer period of time but come with a lot of comfort with respect to the price variation clauses and the risks are very limited in this. So a mix of these two and a little lesser focus on the commercial is what we are looking at.
And of course the electrical and the water segments are areas which we have been very careful now and we are picking, just cherry picking the projects that we wish to do in this category.
Renu Baid
Ansa, what is the current market share?
operator
Sorry to interrupt. Renu. Ma’. Am. Anyone? Sorry to interrupt.
Mukundan C P Menon
In this area there is generally these market shares don’t get track because for example mep, the overall size of the market and the overall sort of. Yeah, we don’t capture that data from an external. There are no external data things. It is all depending on the orders that you quote and the orders that you win and versus the orders that you lose. We have some internal assessments of the market share. Yeah, very difficult to say because it could be even wrong because there are many projects which we would not even know that has been bid.
You know, it’s possible, it’s possible.
Renu Baid
Understand thank you so much, sir.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, sir.
Pulkit Patni
Thank you for taking my question. Sir. Some of your peers have interpreted the be norm change slightly differently. That is that they can continue to sell those ACs for a slightly longer period of time and in which case they have actually not liquidated that inventory. Now my question is assuming all that’s true in the fourth quarter, which is the current quarter, is it fair to assume that whatever you sell in the primary market will be higher cost inventory and compared to companies which have old inventory, basically benefiting? So I’m just trying to understand in the fourth quarter, is there a possibility that on the primary side we may have slightly softer revenue and as you rightly highlighted that by the time we get to summer it will all normalize.
Is that a fair assumption?
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, Pulkirti, I just wouldn’t. So there is, I think the be norms. There was a gazette which came in a year ago which none of us had even noticed. And when we got closer to the end of the year, all the industry woke up to that and realized that it prohibits you from manufacturing the new products from 1st of January 2026. But both the brand that is the manufacturing brands as well as the channel partners can sell this till June end. You know, so most of us had a sense of this sometime by November end we got to know that this is the role.
So most of the brands have stocks of the old table products and so do we have stocks of the old products. So and depending on when these stocks, like for example, there’s a bunch of product SKUs in the three star bucket, there’s a bunch of SKUs in the five star bucket. Depending on when these stock levels deplete to zero, the new table products will be introduced into the market. And so each brand, all the brands are almost on equal level playing field with respect to availability of the old stock versus the new stock. All of them have started manufacturing new products right from November.
But obviously the focus would be to liquidate the old table stocks before you start selling the new table stocks. Does that answer your question Pulpit?
Pulkit Patni
Absolutely, that’s very clear. So effectively you are at even keel with others when it comes to the fourth quarter channel. Perfect. Thank you for that answer.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Omang Mehta from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Umang Mehta
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Just building on to the last question you mentioned about micro targeting markets. Also greater focus on modern trade GT in this performance which you’ve shown in 3Q have you added any new accounts on empty Institutional, you mentioned about some gaps you had in past with your first interaction with us. Could you share any insights on this?
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, Umang, actually so what we embarked on is we have started tracking almost like 29,000 counters across the country which sell these products spread over 19,000 pin codes and we have a structured, very structured network acquisition plan which we have put in place. We have added a decent number of channel partners either directly through as a direct billing point. We have also done and added a fair amount of counters through our distribution network. That’s as far as the general trade is concerned. In terms of modern trade, we have a fair presence across all the three modern people.
We call the three big the reliance of Chroma and the Vidya sales as modern trade in our terminology. We have got a presence across all of this. The focus now is to have a higher share of their wallet. So that’s the focus now. There is a bunch of roughly 85 or so regional retailers where we see that our presence can be improved. So there is a major focus in entering many of the regional retailers, especially in the south and the west markets which are heavy on the regional retailers space. So we are making good progress on that as well.
Actually that’s as far as the channel partner is concerned. Institutional sales is essentially we do a decent number in institutions. This comes from things like banks, it comes from builders. So we are making very good progress there as well.
Umang Mehta
.
Understood sir. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Tavishi Mehta from icici potential mutual funds. Please go ahead.
Tavishi Mehta
Hello. Hi sir. Hello. Yeah sir, as per my calculation due to commodity price rise, the cost as a percentage of BOM is actually increasing by 8 to 9% and as a percentage of selling price that we see it will be somewhere around 6%. So correct me if I’m wrong but basically how does Volta think to pass this on? And additionally even be norm will also have around 5% cost increase. So overall how do we think on pricing going forward?
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, so Tavishi, what you said is like the BE norms as I just explained a little while earlier to a question regarding the the price increase which Girish had asked. So essentially the price increase is also like the three star has a different impact. The five star has a far more sharper increase impact. So that obviously will get passed through the commodity and dollar actually both of them are on an upward trend as you can imagine. Copper, essentially, copper, aluminium the impact of aluminium aluminum is not like on the overall bomb, is not that heavy.
But copper is a big sort of item on the bom. So again model wise this changes because there is some amount of copper which goes into a three star. There is another amount of copper which goes into a five star. So we are assessing the impact of all this along with the third dimension which is the dollar impact. And as our CFO Mr. Sridhar mentioned, we are monitoring it very closely. And then closer to the time when the new table products start getting introduced into the market, we will take a call on this. But the direction is that actually there is going to be a price increase.
And many of these will have to be passed through to the channel partners, to consumers.
K.V. Sridhar
Just to add to what Mr. Menon said, as you know, as he mentioned, we also are working on a clear cost optimization program also. So that is also a set off that we will have to sort of factor in. It’s a fairly dynamic situation, a mix of products being sold. So we are monitoring that and we’ll take the pricing decision appropriately factoring all these variables.
Tavishi Mehta
But can we expect some price increase in coming quarter?
operator
Ms. Maitha, sorry to interrupt me. We request you return to the queue.
K.V. Sridhar
And there would be an element of price increase. There would be. I mean that much I think we have clarified. There would be. How much is something we will have to sort of see depending on all the variables.
Mukundan C P Menon
Price increases, the reality and the quantum amount. And when the exact time when the new products will come into the market are the moving pieces in this entire thing. We also have some cost ground projects which we are doing. Whether the overall price will increase. Obviously it will increase. Actually the numbers little early to say as of now.
Tavishi Mehta
Sure. Okay. Thank you.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Bala Subramanian from Arihant Capital. Please go ahead.
Balasubramanian A
Good evening sir. Thank you so much for the opportunity. In MEP. Our data center share is less than. 5% and we are aiming to 30%. In the medium term. What specific orders are tenders you are purchasing in this space? And how does district cooling fit into your MEP strategy? And you’re partnering with international players for technology side. Thank you.
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah. So mep. So mep, the data center thing is just opening up. We are doing a couple of projects now actually. And the same funnel for the data centers is also very healthy. So we’re bidding for quite a few projects. And as I mentioned earlier the focus is to win data center projects using a combination of two, three levers. One Is essentially as you know, a data center needs the cooling equipment which is chillers. And mostly it is screw chillers or centrifugal chillers where we have made significant progress with a new technology partner alliance which I mentioned in the last meeting.
So we probably offer the best energy efficient products in the screw category. And we also offer the best energy efficient products in the centrifugal category. Centrifugal. Centrifugal has two variants. One is the regular centrifugal chillers and the second oil free chillers. Across these three segments we have probably the most energy efficient product. And energy is a big portion of the opex of our data center. So we are very confident of getting these chiller orders from the data center. And we are bidding this together with our MEP division which is mechanical, electrical and contracting that entire group.
So that makes us a single source vendor to the data center. So this cross functional, the cross divisional approach to this entire data center we will move towards the overall share. Whether to go to 30% so soon I’m not sure. But the direction is very clear and we are seeing some fairly early. Good, good. Sort of tailwinds for us in that thing. District cooling also because of our presence in the centrifugal children. This district cooling essentially comes with the district cooling comes with a centrifugal kind of scope mostly and a few of screw there. Again, because of the most energy efficient chillers in both the categories we have a fair chance of getting a higher share from this.
This is normally dominated by the three American brands which is York Trane and Johnson Controls. And we have a fair chance to compete with them in this space as well. So I think over the next 12 months this entire story will pan out. Bala.
Balasubramanian A
I got it sir. Thank you so much for the detailed answer.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thank you. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Akshay Gattani from ubs. Please go ahead.
Akshay Gattani
Hi sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So given Voltas now have decent in house capacity. So what will be your strategy for this upcoming season between insourcing and outsourcing for manufacturing? And do you expect the higher backward integration which is there in the Chennai plant will start to flow into better margins if the demands for demand for upcoming season turn out the way you’re forecasting?
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, so actually the backward integration of Chennai already started playing out. As. As I. In the last I think meeting that we had. There are many things which we were not backward integrated in Pantanagar which we have backward integrated in Chennai. One is the entire sheet metal work, which is the outdoor body. Second is the powder coating and the painting of that outdoor thing, which is again a high value addition sort of process. The third is the entire indoor unit plastic, indoor injection molding of that, internal plastic parts, and a full, a fully backward integrated coil and fin shop.
We used to have partly the coil and fin shop in house and we used to do some sort of buying of the coils in fin assembly also in Pants Nagar plant. So the entire play of the Chennai backward integration will play out fully in terms of the outsourcing versus insourcing. Actually, the thing is that our window air conditioners, as we have been doing all along, has always been outsourced from the local OEM manufacturers. And we continue with that sort of the same thing. We are not making any change. However, the split air conditioners, which is essentially now predominantly the inverter splits, we are doing it in a way that there are two things.
One is there is a steady sort of visibility about what will be certainly required. That is in house. And some of the spikes and the ups and downs which come during a very good summer, those are generally being catered by the oem. So it’s a blend of both. And we have taken a very judicious call in terms of picking up how much of these from the OEMs. And we’ve also been very judicious about picking up from the right OEMs in terms of geography. There are some products which are closer to the west market, some products which sell more in the south market.
So we have been very selective in picking those OEMs which cater to the products in that market. So very, very carefully planned out this season. Akshay.
Akshay Gattani
Got it. This is very helpful. Thank you.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thank you.
operator
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Dhruv Jain from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
Dhruv Jain
Just one data point. All my other questions have been answered. If you could just spell out the capacity utilization of the current Chennai plant and you know, in the upcoming season, what is the level at which you expect it to run?
Mukundan C P Menon
Capacity utilization? Actually it is almost 90%. So we have two plants, one in Panchanagar which is operating at I think hundred percent thing because it really has been used out like crazy. And the, the Chennai plant, we have built a capacity of one with built a capacity of one million unit which we’ve expanded to one and a half million units. And we are in the process of doing that another one or two months. That one and a half ton capacity, one and a half Million capacity will be done. Our sense is that this summer season we would have maximized the capacity utilization to almost between 85 to 90.
90. 90% or so. Mr. J.
Dhruv Jain
And sir, if you could just talk about the Capex plans for 2017 with one.
Mukundan C P Menon
Capex. The capex plan for. Yeah. Essentially Mr. Jain, you’re saying as a organization or it is so only it is mainly for room air conditioners.
Dhruv Jain
If you could break it into both, that would be great.
operator
Sorry to interrupt. Drew sir.
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, so. So we’ll. Can we take this offline message in if you don’t mind. We’ll just.
K.V. Sridhar
You can reach out to the team.
Mukundan C P Menon
Yeah, sure. Thank you for understanding.
operator
Thank you. We will take the last question from the line of Sunny Gupta, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Hello. Yeah. Mr. As you tell that there was a pre buying in December quarter. So will this effect sale in 1st January, January 2025.
Mukundan C P Menon
So actually the pre buying in December actually was in a way a very positive thing for us. We were very pleasantly happy with the result that we have done. And a little bit of this might be the January thing but as of now we are not seeing the that we are not seeing any decline in our numbers. So it’s probably laying a Runway for a good January and hopefully for a good February and March. Mr. Gupta.
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Natasha Jain for closing remarks.
Mukundan C P Menon
Actually we have Mr. Rcfamill K.V. sridhar making his closing remarks now.
K.V. Sridhar
Thanks. Thanks all for the participation. Just maybe a few comments towards the end. So I think all these priorities, I think position Voltas to enter the season with sharper readiness, stronger execution muscle and a more efficient operating base. As cost optimization efforts take effect, the company expects to strengthen margin resilience and create a more leveraged financial position profile. With this foundation, Voltas remains well placed to enhance its leadership in the cooling segment while steadily expanding its portfolio as a comprehensive diversified cooling home appliances and engineering project solutions provider. Thank you.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thank you. Yeah, I now have. Yes. Yes ma’. Am. Sorry. Please go ahead. Participants can disconnect the lines. Thank you so much. Thank you.
K.V. Sridhar
Thank you all.
operator
Thank you so much everyone. On behalf of Philip Capital. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.
Mukundan C P Menon
Thank you. Thank you.