I think there are too many people on the queue. You can come back in queue. Mr. Kunal Sure. Thank you, sir. Next question is from the line of Siddhartha Bera. Siddhartha, you can go ahead, please just announce your organization name as well. Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, sir. This is Siddhartha from Nomura. Sir, first question again on the fan side. Now, we have consistently seen healthy double-digit growth for the last many quarters. Some colour on this? Is the industry growth in line or have we grown ahead? And how do you see the remaining part of the year for the fans going ahead? Mr. Promeet Ghosh Yeah, as you said, we've had robust growth in fans. And for the rest of the year, it's not easy always to say in our business, but I'd say we expect to see moderate growth going forward as well. Not a big change in the demand scenario between now and the rest of the year is the way we see it. The important thing in these situations is to continue to build on your strengths. This is the key thing that you must do in our businesses. So, what you will see us do is introduce NPDs, some of these NPDs we've introduced towards the end of last quarter, they are doing very well. In fact, one of the NPDs that we introduced sold out. I'm not getting into the details of the presentations, but these are NPDs that we are finding being very well received by the market. It's also to simultaneously bolster our non- ceiling fans category, where we believe they will be continuing both industry growth and industry leading growth from our side. So, while we are doing that, our Unnati project continues the pace. So, we will have growth, sustainable growth, leading growth, as well as strong profits.

Got it, sir. So, second question on the light side, you indicated that outdoor and accessory segments led to the growth picking up for lights. Did you mention that these were 50% of the light portfolio for us right now? And here also, should we see further step up given the new products you have launched recently? Mr. Promeet Ghosh Yes, I would certainly hope so. Even as we speak, decorative panels are now our single largest segment. That says something for our company where we've been saying that we wanted to increase our ceiling lights portfolio, even as we speak, they are now the largest segment, which kind of tells you about how fast that business has been growing. And so that's not to say that we are de-emphasizing, but obviously this is growing at a faster rate than our lamps and battens business. And similarly, of course, in the outdoor floodlights, accessories business, there is again disproportionate growth. That is not linked to how the market is growing, the significant growth that we are seeing there. I'm very glad to say that the NPD pipeline and NPD introduction pipeline in lighting has already in fact, come into play in the first quarter substantively already. You'll also see more of the first and second quarter already. We'll also see more in H2. But these are profitable products that are selling well.

Thanks, sir. Lastly, sir, can you share? Equirus Securities Siddharth, I will request you to get back in the queue.

Okay sure, yeah. Equirus Securities Next question is from the line of Aditya Bhartia. Aditya, you can go ahead. Mr. Aditya Bhartia My first question is on the kitchen appliances segment, wherein you mentioned that on the mixer grinder side, we are now having market dominance. It would be very helpful if you could further build some light on that. And how are we looking at this segment in particular? Is it Crompton plus Butterfly combined? What kind of synergies are we enjoying at this stage between the two entities? That is also something that I'd like to understand. Thanks. Mr. Promeet Ghosh Yeah, our belief is that as we speak, we have, as a combination of Crompton and Butterfly, the market leadership position in mixer grinders. So, and I believe in some distance, but I don't want to talk too much about what's happening as we speak, because we are now talking about the previous quarter, where the strength of the previous quarter in mixer grinders is clearly sustaining. So, combination of numbers between Butterfly and Crompton is going very well. We've spoken about this in the past, the way that we are leveraging off the strengths of each other in Crompton and Butterfly. So far as the front end is concerned, we have an independent channel, Butterfly is working differently from Crompton. So, Butterfly is doing is a very, very strong brand in South. In small domestic appliances in Crompton, we are a much more national brand, particularly strong in the West. How we are leveraging the strengths of each other is sourcing all its products, mixer grinders in fact, all its products per se in SDA is now already insourcing it from the Butterfly manufacturing system, which is helping both Butterfly as well as Crompton. So, the back-end is being integrated and helping us, but the front end, they are independently going well. Mr. Aditya Bhartia So, does that mean that the sales team for the two entities are different at this stage for selling kitchen appliances or is there some synergy around that as well? Mr. Promeet Ghosh No. So, we are today continuing to operate at the operational level in the sales team in South with a separate Butterfly channel and with a separate Crompton channel. If there is Butterfly presence outside of the South, there is some combined selling efforts, but substantively, these are two businesses operating at the front end. Mr. Aditya Bhartia Understood. And so, my second question is on the pumps business, wherein solar is certainly a growth area for us. If you could just explain to us how we position competition on the solar side? Is it largely bidding based? How exactly are we getting these tenders? And what kind of opportunity are you seeing in front of you from a two-year, three-year perspective? Is KUSUM Scheme also something that you're excited about? Mr. Promeet Ghosh Yes, KUSUM Scheme is helping. These are tender-based businesses. What helps is that clearly people understand that if a pump is at the heart of a solar pump and that's made by Crompton, then clearly people understand that there is consumer experience and service support, etc. Therefore, the Crompton end to end is helping us grow in the solar business. We have a partner who helps us in this project. Frankly, very often, part of how this business will grow over the next several years - very optimistic. Mr. Aditya Bhartia Perfect. That's very, very helpful, sir. Thank you so much. Equirus Securities Next question is from the line of Bhoomika Nair. Bhoomika, you can go ahead. Yeah, hi. Good evening, sir. Sir, just wanted to understand in terms of the demand trends and specifically from the festive market and also kitchen appliances and how is it really panning out? And my second question is on Butterfly. You know, we're hoping for some improvement in the revenue numbers in the second half. When do we start seeing growth coming back and is our GTM realignment, in terms of the non-profitable aspect, kind of now into the base or do we still continue to see that bit of a challenge continuing? Mr. Promeet Ghosh Well, maybe I'll take a quick shot at it and then let Swetha answer that. See, from a group perspective, it's been very important for us that we set the fundamentals of the business on a solid base. And therefore, what you've seen in the business is for us to take some tough falls, let go even of some revenue, if you will, because you can't make an egg without breaking a few eggs. So, if you want to scramble an egg, you've got to crack a few eggs. And I think the business has done that very well that they have worked on the price laddering, they've worked on the terms of trade. And that is showing. And it is showing that the Butterfly brand is strong because these have now been accepted pretty much by the market. And it's certainly my expectation that as we've done this, the revenue growth will also come. It's not I didn't want to, before Swetha takes on this specifically, I want to tell you, this is also symptomatic of how we've consistently dealt with businesses which have required a reset. Lighting is a very similar situation, right? I mean, some quarters ago, we weren't seeing a strong growth momentum. we didn't choose to go out and get that momentum suddenly, but we chose to strengthen the fundamentals of the business, build the profitability of the business and believe that once you have that profitability, you will be able to drive revenues and you are seeing that happen, right? So this is, if you go about it the other way, and don't grow a business sustainably, then it doesn't work out very well. So, it's something that that is a pretty consistent approach of ours. Yes, Swetha. Ms. Swetha Sagar So, just to elaborate on what just Promeet said, I think, the first thing is that, fundamentally, I think the approach that we are trying to take for Butterfly is brand first. So, keeping brand at the centre and the consumer at the centre is what we are trying to work out, our channel strategy, pricing, value chain mapping, the cost at which the business operations are happening, exactly like what he's been mentioning, that's what is showing us what we have done in Q2. Second thing, we have resident knowledge in Crompton in multiple other operations, also in terms of turning around businesses. So, that is also coming in handy for Butterfly to look forward for. I think that's the way that we are looking at Butterfly.

Sure. And on the question on the demand trends specifically from a festive point of view, how is it really panning out? Are we seeing green shoots in terms of demand and uptick across categories? Any specific comments, segments where you're seeing a sharper growth, if you can kind of comment on that? Mr. Promeet Ghosh Why don't you talk about kitchen appliances then I kind of talk about Crompton. Ms. Swetha Sagar Alright. In kitchen appliances segment, the last few weeks of Diwali have been good in terms of consumer demand. They have been positively reassuring us in terms of our offtakes and how the consumer is responding to the festive season. We do see that categories like gas stoves and pressure cookers are doing good for us. While we've been working very, very strongly, the non-electrical businesses have seen a sharper demand from the consumers. Mr. Promeet Ghosh I think it's fair to say that the demand outlook at a broader level is moderate. And as I said earlier, the key thing in these situations is, continue to mind the demand strongly in these times and grow in segments, and in certain segments grow disproportionately, in order to be able to bolster the overall revenue growth of the company. You already heard in pumps, we've grown disproportionately in solar, in lighting, we've been able to grow our ceiling and our outdoor and accessories business. In kitchen appliances, we've had very strong growth in mixer grinders. Actually in LDA, large domestic appliances, we've had very strong non-seasonal growth in air coolers to supplement our regular growth that we're anyway getting and so on and so forth. In fans, we've had very robust growth in TPW. So, yeah, so those are the kinds of tools and levers that you have to keep using.

Yeah, thank you so much, sir. Equirus Securities Next question is from the line of Umang Mehta. Umang, you can go ahead. Mr. Umang Mehta Yeah, thank you for the opportunity and congrats on a good quarter. So, I just wanted to check on pumps. So, this quarter, I believe solar pumps contributed a fair chunk of your overall pumps revenues. And still we've seen ECD margins kind of hold up quite well. Also in terms of receivables and inventories, we've not seen any kind of built up. So, your initial worry about going more aggressive on solar pumps, do you think that’s allayed and possibly you could do much more than what we've already seen? Mr. Promeet Ghosh In each of these businesses, you have to learn to do the business. So, we've scaled up pretty well in solar pumps. And we've done that together with other things that we do well, right. So, we continue to work at the backend quite aggressively, to continue to work on costs. So we have a long standing program, Unnati. Also, in solar, for instance, we've worked on how we bid. Just because you're seeing growth doesn't mean that we've gone and bid randomly. So what that has translated into is a very good rotation of money in the solar pumps business. So, even though there may be government-backed orders, we're getting paid in time, for the most part. So, those are the things that we've kind of gained more and more confidence and that's showing up in the way that we're doing the business. Mr. Umang Mehta Understood. And the second question is on Butterfly. It's more of a factual question. So, in the base quarter starting Q3, can we assume that the channel correction which had happened in institutional will be over? In the sense, last year Q3 was after the channel correction, right? That would be the correct assumption. Mr. Promeet Ghosh Okay, let me take a shot at it. I'd say I think we are substantively done with the journey. Mr. Umang Mehta Got it. Thanks a lot and all the best. Equirus Securities Next question is from the line of Achal Lohade. Achal, I will request you to announce your organization name as well. Mr. Achal Lohade Yeah, good evening, team. This is Achal from Nuvama. Thank you so much for the opportunity, sir. First with respect to Butterfly, since we are on that subject, if you look at 2Q performance, the gross margins is stable, while you talked about the price corrections, premiumization thing, and we've seen a substantial drop in employee cost and the other expenses. So, if you could help us understand in second half, because the third quarter will be a seasonally strong quarter. But given the drop in sales, focus on premium products how do we see the second half margins and the growth? Because if I do a rough math, I am seeing a double-digit decline in terms of revenue for the full year, and margins, maybe about 2%, 3%, 4%. If you could help us understand the journey from here on in terms of growth, and the margins for Butterfly specifically.

Achal, we cannot comment on margin model that we have created but let us talk about what have we delivered and what are we looking at for balance of the year. So, fundamentally, what we have been consistently saying over the last few quarters is get the unit economics right for Butterfly, which means that we have to ensure that channel parity is brought in place. We have to ensure that pricing actions, including price ups have to be brought in place. And at the same point of time, operating cost needs to be reduced. So, what you see as a reduction in people cost is also part of some of the actions that we have taken to ensure that for a business and size of Butterfly, what are the kind of manpower requirements that you handle. So, today, as we stand compared to last year, our EBITDA margins in Butterfly has improved, even on a lower revenue base that we have delivered. So, that ensures that the health of the business is at the right place. I would like you to recollect and go back four quarters, precisely the statement that we made in lighting, where we said the step one is to get the unit economics right, get the operating parameters right and ensure that the business is in a healthy shape to invest. What is it going to do for us? The money that we have generated is going to help us to do a brand refresh and repositioning on Butterfly, invest in NPD, and that will ensure that it will drive growth for the future. And our priority, as we called out in lighting, here also is, step one is to address the decline and consistently deliver a steady margin and over a period of time start delivering operating leverage and improvement in margin also. Mr. Achal Lohade Understood. And the second question I had with respect to Fans, 5% revenue growth YoY , if you could guide us in the last 12 months, how much price hike have we taken? And also the volume growth for the second quarter? Is it fair to say that volume has been fairly flattish? And most of the growth, what you're seeing is driven by the price hike?

It is partially volume growth and partially price increase that has helped us to grow in Q2. Over the last quarter, almost a year now, November last year is when we started taking the price increases. We have been taking bite-sized price increase of about 1.5%-2% every quarter. At this point of time, we think a large part of our pricing action is done, unless we see any other reason for us to do it, the commodity or other things. Outlook, as we look at from a gross margin perspective, the levers that we're looking at is one, how do we improve further our mix. We called out our ambition in terms of premium fans long time back. Also, we are looking at Unnati as a continuous lever to see how do we improve the margin model through that. Mr. Achal Lohade Got it. Thank you. I'll fall back in the queue for more questions. Thank you so much. Equirus Securities Next question is from the line of Latika Chopra. Latika, I will request you to announce your organization name as well. Ms. Latika Chopra Yeah. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm Latika from J.P. Morgan. A lot of my questions were answered. I wanted to just quickly check with you for some colour on the channel inventory levels, because it seems in appliances, the water heater sales were pretty good for you. And festive season this time was a little early as well, in case it influences the small appliances business for you. And if you could also comment on, how are you looking at the second half for ECD business from a growth perspective? You had 13% revenue growth in this quarter. Is this a number that you're comfortable and you believe all your initiatives on premiumization, channel expansion, new launches are going to sustain this kind of growth? So that was the first question.

So, Latika, as you know, we don't give forward guidance. But the way we would see it is, I'm answering your first question on demand plus how are we looking at the business. See, we are a portfolio ECD business. We have fans, we have pumps, we have got large domestic appliances led by geysers and coolers. We have a portfolio of small domestic appliances and then there is large kitchen. And there are varied segments that we have within fans, which is ceiling, non- ceiling and within ceiling, premium, non-premium. Pumps, we have clearly forayed into solar and that has delivered consistent growth for us. As far as LDA and SDA are concerned, we have not even tapped the full potential of the geography and the channel opportunities that we have. So, in the medium term to long run we don’t have, I would say, from our perspective, a challenge that we see. We have opportunity to grow and we would expect that in the long run, as we have been calling out, the business can double in about, say, five years time from now, coupled with the existing and new categories. Ms. Latika Chopra So, my question was actually on this quarter, did you see any early festive related demand benefit? And if you could also comment on the channel inventory trends. Actually, that was the key question. If you could comment on that, please.

See, channel inventory, we are in line. We have average channel inventory. We have not got any channel inventory issues as we speak across categories. In terms of festive momentum, it's just a shift, mildly for some of our categories. For us, kitchen is the only category, where we would see as a large beneficiary of festive momentum. Otherwise, it has got nothing to do with an early festive or a later festive season driving a 13% ECD growth for us. Ms. Latika Chopra Understood. And the second bit was just on Butterfly. We did hear a lot of qualitative comments. And in one of the prior answers, is it right to assume that we're kind of done with this YoY dips in revenue and now revenue should start to stabilize or still a little early to call that out? That's the last question.

It's true. We are looking to arrest the decline in revenue. By and large, the channel issues that we had to solve, have been solved. Ms. Latika Chopra Okay. So, even if there is any decline, these will be marginal.

That's right. Ms. Latika Chopra All right. Thank you so much. Equirus Securities Next question is from the line of Praveen Sahay. Praveen, I will request you to go ahead with the question. Mr. Praveen Sahay Yeah. Hi, I'm Praveen Sahay from Prabhudas. So, I have only one question related to the BIS transition. As you had already mentioned in the non-ceiling fan and appliances, you had already transitioned to the BIS.

Yes, we have Mr. Praveen Sahay So, is there any cost element associated to that and which you are able to pass on to? And are there any further segments where you have to transition yet? Mr. Promeet Ghosh Yeah, Praveen, actually BIS transition now are a feature of our business. So, in business after business and product after product, you will see BIS transitions being required. The important thing is to get your organization ready to be able to do these in a timely manner. Remember, we are Crompton, right? So if the government says 4th of September, it means 4th of September, every product, whether it is coming out of our own manufacturing facilities or out of some outsourced manufacturing facility. So, far, it's something that takes work, it requires a fair amount of planning, but I'd say that it's something that we've now got our arms around. It's not to say that there are no cost implications of it, but as you already know, our job is to keep working on costs as we go along, and to be either able to pass on those costs to the market or be able to optimize costs internally. So, that's how we've been dealing with it. We have seen in the recent past, some of our peers lag in some of these. I think that tends to show up in margins in many cases, but we'll see how well they are able to sustain it or not. From our perspective, we are leaders and we'd like to do what's right for the business and we do see that’s paying off very well for us. So, we do expect to combine market-leading growth with strong profit margins and profit growth. Mr. Praveen Sahay Fair to assume that you gained out of that as well in terms of market share? Mr. Promeet Ghosh Tough to say. With regulatory change, you've got to make sure that you're on the ball. Whether you gain from it or not, depends on whether the government goes on inspecting everybody, whether everybody has changed and adhered to BIS norm and a bunch of other things. But you got to do what you got to do. Mr. Praveen Sahay Got it, sir. Thank you and all the best. Equirus Securities Next question is from the line of Harshit Kapadia. Harshit, you can go ahead with your question. Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity and congrats for a good set of results. So, my question is on solar pumps. Some of the competitors have highlighted that they are facing challenges in sourcing the solar panels because it requires a DCR requirement. So, are you facing some challenges as well for your solar portfolio? That's the first question. And second is on the new product development, would you be able to share how much contribution do you have in each of your product segment for the NPD? Earlier you used to give that data. So, that would be of a value for us. Thank you. Mr. Promeet Ghosh The sourcing of solar panels so far hasn't been a material impediment for us. I don't know whether we've given out NPD numbers.

Yeah, we have stopped calling that out in terms of what is our share of NPD. What we believe is that as a part of premiumization and as part of existing replacements, it does come in. But the way we look at it is what is the kind of investments that we are making towards our R&D and innovation. Currently, we are spending about Rs. 100 crores per annum and the aim is to further invest to bring in much more meaningful products.

Understood, sir. Thank you and wishing you all the best. Equirus Securities Due to time constraints, this will be the last question from the line of Indrajit Agarwal. Hi, thank you for the opportunity. I have one question on the solar pump side. Just want to understand, are you bidding it yourself or is it through a partner? Mr. Promeet Ghosh We bid together with a partner, but we are the lead partner.

Sure, and which geographies or which states have you won most of the bids in?

Haryana, Maharashtra.

Sure, and you're only doing the pump side of things, right? Rest is all outsourced. In the sense of panel, the EPC, etc. Mr. Promeet Ghosh I mean, look, we obviously contribute substantively to the pump’s component of the business, but we get a share of the entire bid. So, we benefit from the entire size of the order.

Sure, that's all from my side. Thank you so much. Equirus Securities I think, sir, that was the last question. I would request if you have any closing comments, then we can conclude the call. Mr. Promeet Ghosh Thank you for joining. Like I said, I'm delighted with the results that we've had. Looking around the market, I don't see many companies, whether in our businesses or others, which are able to grow their profits at a 30% YoY growth levels. So, that speaks to the kind of leadership that Crompton has together with Butterfly across products, and the kind of effort that we've been putting in, in solidifying our foundations, in strengthening our brand. And I think it's also visible, when we started out, there were a bunch of questions about how we were going to get growth, how we were going to turnaround, what we were going to do with Butterfly. And I trust that some of those questions, as we speak, are being answered. Because I can say anything, but you want to see what we deliver. And I think we are delivering. And, of course, if you guys have any other further questions, do feel free to reach out to our teams. Thank you.

Thank you, guys.