Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question-and-answer session. Your first question comes from the line of Gunit Singh with Counter Cyclical PMS. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. So how much of a price hike did we take in Q1 as compared to say Q4 or Q1 last year?

So in totality we have taken a price increase of around 18 % to 19% vis -a-vis pre-war situation and we were able to basically get almost all of that.

Got it. So now that the gas prices have fallen because of I mean the Middle East situation getting better. Are we still able to sustain these higher prices or I mean have we taken any cuts in Q2 or do we plan to take any price cuts?

So as of now this situation is very volatile, the gas prices continues to remain volatile , people are not very sure of that the continuity on availability of propane. So as of now there are no price cuts that we have taken. We will continue to watch the market and decide basis the gas prices going ahead.

So what were the gas prices in Q1 for us on average?

On an average it was around INR60.

And how are they currently?

Got it. And I mean if tomorrow the gas prices go down, then we would have to take price cuts or do you think that we will be able to sustain these higher prices, what's your take on that given the current demand supply dynamics?

It all depends on how the industry works, how the prices moves within different geographies. If price cuts happens only in Morbi, happens all across, it all depends on that. So too early to tell that what will happen in future.

Got it. And in Morbi, did we see any plant shutdowns in Q1 and I mean how is the situation there?

So plant shutdowns were there from I think end of March till mid of May, the plants were shut down then. But post that the supply situations have resumed and there is no problem in terms of availability of gas or propane. So currently the plants are running at capacity in Morbi. Initially there were some problems initially on account of gas, then on account of lab our, but post 15th of May, I think the supply situations have improved.

Got it. And currently I mean with the higher prices, I am sure Morbi players would also have hiked their prices. So how much higher are our prices as compared to the Morbi players?

It depends on product to product, but so the gap between our prices and Morbi prices have come down. So if it let say, the gap between us and them was say for example a INR100, the gap has come down to INR50-55. So which is a positive for organized players like us. And there is one more thing which is playing out, which is good for the organized player is that . Other than, so one advantage that the organized players have is the advantage on account of this gap being reduced between Morbi as well as organized players. The other thing that is increasingly visible is that the dealers are basically are looking at diversifying their sourcing by adding additional supplier to their kitty and they do not want to be dependent on say one geography like Morbi, because of what has happened recently. They want supply security and that's the reason they are adding geographically more sourcing locations.

Got it. And in terms of demand, I mean what were the main drivers of 23% higher volumes and if we look at I mean project completions and end user demand for us, so do you think that such growth it is sustainable?

So see there are basically two broad buckets or two broad reasons because of which we have seen a increase in demand. One of it is what has happened in the market, we all know that Morbi was shut down for half of quarter one. And that did create a supply vacuum, a supply gap in the industry which is something which we, with our lower than most companies' dependence on Morbi, we benefited from that. That was one part of, one part driving the 23% growth. The second part would be unique to OBL , that would be because of our sustained efforts on demand generation. See what happened is when prices were going up with a lot of uncertainty, the dealers were not very sure about stocking up. They always thought that prices would come down 15 days later or next month and so on and so forth.

But with all the work that we have been doing on demand generation, our teams were able to go to the dealers and tell them that look, whatever you are buying from me, I am going to ensure that 35%, 40% of that I am selling out in your name through projects, through our online tile, e- commerce initiative, tile cart. So that has also helped us, dealers felt very secure knowing that almost 40% of what they were buying from us would be sold out by the company's team itself. So there inventory levels were not getting blocked, their capital was not getting blocked. So this base, plus whatever we are doing on the brand side, we have been on TV 24/7 for more than a year now. So all these factors put together helped us get to this 23% volume growth figure.

Got it sir. Now with the Morbi supply coming in, I mean the growth in volumes might not be that much. But with your initiatives that you have taken, I mean is there some kind of a volume growth that you are looking at for the current financial year?

So we have consistently stayed away from providing any future guidance and more so at this point of time when things are so volatile, the news from Middle East changes almost every few days. So we will stay away from that. But I think what I would like to tell you is that we are very sharply focused on some of these input KPIs which we are driving, which is in terms of, as I said, our own initiatives, internal initiatives to generate secondary sales, of how our dealers are stocking up, how our dealers are using our tools for reaching out to more customers. And we continue to see a good growth rate in those input KPIs. So from these indicators, the early indicators, we are kind of optimistic and confident that we will continue to grow strongly.

Got it, sir. Thank you very much, I will join back the queue and I wish you all the best.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Ashvath Rajan with Arihant Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity and I congratulate the management on a good set of numbers. My first question is on the Dora plant. I just wanted to understand what kind of numbers utilizations and some specifics on the same, if you could help us share some details or shed some color on the same.

Ashvath, we very often produce in a particular plant and move it to another plant of ours to sell from there for that market. So that's why a plant level capacity utilization is actually misleading because it might go down dramatically in a quarter for the simple reason that we decided not to produce that product in that plant. But I think Dora expansion for the last three years the logic with which we had done that was to focus on the South and the West markets. So maybe I think you will get your answer if I tell you how South and West markets have been performing for us. That would help you more and give you a better handle on this rather than the utilization number at Dora, which is not okay.

So I'm talking about the retail business. I've left the enterprise business out of this. So our South business grew by about 37% in volume in quarter 1. Our West business grew by about 60% in volume. So our growth has been faster, growth has been stronger in these two territories where historically OBL has been underrepresented. This is a good sign for us, always well for the future.

Just to further on the Dora plant only. I just wanted to understand like what percentage of our GVT today is supplied from the Dora Plant, one? And if you could quantify on its EBITDA levels, that would be really helpful or its contribution to the EBITDA?

So I think -- so we have about 47% by value of our sales in quarter 1 was GVT. So I think about 15% to 20% of that would be coming from Dora and balance -- bulk of the rest would be coming from SKD. And there will be a very small percentage, maybe 4%, 5%, lo w single -digit percentage which we would be sourcing out of Morbi.

And could you also help us with our blended utilization levels? What it was for financial year '26 and what it is for Q1?

So capacity utilizations last year was 60% blended which is 73% in this quarter.

So we have headroom to grow, Ashvath. So I think that's one positive that there is headroom to grow. And one of the lines which we were using sporadically, that is a ceramic line. We have decided to convert that into GVT, which would further help drive our capacity utilization in quarter 3, quarter 4.

Just a question on our project and retail split. There was some outlook on the industry of an uptick in the retail -- on the project part of the entire dynamics. So just wanted to understand Orientbell's outlook on the same and what kind of percentage spli t are we looking at on the project end going forward?

See we have historically been strong on projects. And we do projects both through our direct team which is our key account management team, the enterprise team and also through our dealers. So we have historically in all calls kind of taken a split of, I t hink, 3,000 meters and above as a project – with a lot of smaller projects get done through retail. So even if you were to do the split, I think for quarter 1, our project revenue was 18%.

Project was 18% and...

18%, which includes projects which we have done through retail, greater than 3,000 meters billed volume and also the project which have been done by key account management. To your second question about what is our lookout, I think we have grown faster for the last few quarters, not just quarter 1 but actually last financial year also our growth has been faster in the retail segment than in the enterprise segment. This is something which we are focusing on now and we plan to build up some extra volumes from the enterprise which is a large builder segment. But we don't have a target percentage, so to speak, that this will be 80%, that will be 20% or whatever.

And one last question I have on the inflation of gas, have we absorbed the entire brunt in quarter 1? Or do we see a drag in the next quarter as well?

I didn't understand the question Ashvath

The gas cost, the inflation in gas cost, do we foresee this to pertain in Q2 as well? Or do we see a larger chunk of it settled in Q1?

I think it looks like that the bulk of the price increases on gas seems to have happened in quarter 1. Now it is kind of more or less stable as Anuj was saying that maybe INR1 or INR2 in there fall, a few percentage points here and there. So as of now, we see stability. But as mentioned before, if anybody's guess what happens in the larger world, what happens in Iran and we are now seeing for last few weeks how refineries in Russia are being destroyed and I believe they have lost 1/3 of the refining capacity and what impact it will have going forward is anybody's guess. But given situation so far, I think July, I would say that the gas prices have been close to what we had in quarter 1.

Your next question comes from the line of Apurva Sharma with Raas Capital.

Congratulations, everyone, for the great set of results. Some operating leverage we have been waiting for since a very long time now. Sir, my first question would be this quarter, we had a benefit of both price volume and the price hike that we discussed i n last quarter. And in last quarter as well, I think we briefly discussed that the effect of the price hike doesn't sustain for more than three, four maximum five months. But now looking at the macro events, it still looks like the situation is here to stay for maybe another one, two quarters. Are we still on the track of maintaining these prices, the hikes that we have taken up?

Yes we are, so far so good. But as I said before, we are watching the market. We don't want to kind of get locked into a position. If the market changes in a certain direction, then we would follow suit. But as things stand today, we are more or less on course to retain the margins.

Okay. Sir, another thing, our gas contracts are with GAIL, GSPC or both of them?

With GAIL.

What I have understood...

In Morbi our JVs tie up with Gujarat Gas for that. Outside of Morbi, it is all with Gas Authority of India…

Okay. I mean, Okay. What I have understood uh through some of the manufacturers in Morbi that once the gas prices, which was INR42 -INR44 per cubic, has in in these times, have even gone up to INR69. I think the last week rate has slid up a bit. Now given the situation in Morbi, what does uh the north side of gas prices usually fluctuate at?

No, I just wanted to understand the kind of the kind of gas hikes we had in Morbi, how does it work in the north side where our Sikandrabad plant is right now?

So, Sikandrabad before the war, the prices were somewhere in the range of INR44 -INR45, and currently they stand at INR60 -INR62. Again, it's a formula -based depending on your usage in the preceding six months, basis that they have they have a formula that till this level, they'll give you at the rates prevailing basis the Brent rate. Beyond that, there are spot rates that apply. So, broadly from INR44-INR45 to INR60-INR62 is the how they have moved from pre-war to the current levels.

Your next question comes from the line of Sagar Jagtap from Marine Research Please go ahead.

Hello. Congrats on good set of numbers. Thanks for taking my question. I had only one question. In Morbi, in last five-six months, Gulf War happened, and freight rates going up. In Morbi exporter, current ground activity, any chances to recover export?

Any chances to, what is the question, Sagar, any chances to?

Yes.

Sagar, sir, can you repeat your question?

Hello, audible?

Yes.

In Morbi, in last five-six months, Gulf War happened, and freight rates are significantly increased. Exporter ground, are any chances to export market?

I'm sorry, your voice is garbled up. I cannot understand the question.

Are you talking about the how is exports doing currently?

Yes, sir.

So, exports in whatever data that we have for first couple of months for the year, exports is down, which was somewhere around INR1,500 crores to INR1,600 crores a month. April was somewhere around INR500 crores, and May was somewhere around INR1,000 crores. So, average INR800 crores in the first two months of the year. And because of the elevated freight cost and when this geopolitical tension in West Asia, the export market continues to be down, primary in the regions like Gulf and all, where the freight costs have actually gone up from at least 5x to 6x.

Okay, thanks.

Hi, sir. Good evening. First of all, congratulation on good set of numbers. Can you give guidance for revenue FY27 and EBITDA margin for this year?

As a policy, we do not give any guidance for future.

And for margin?

Same, same, both for top line and margins, we do not provide guidance.

So, like we mentioned earlier that we don't give any future guidance. However, we are encouraged with the continued sales momentum and the performance trend uh over quarter-on- quarter for last three, four quarters. We continue to focus on strengthening our input parameters like Aditya mentioned, related to demand generation, customer engagement, market penetration, and all these parameters currently the KPIs that we track are currently showing positive results. So, we are hopeful that the year will perform better, but no, no, particular numbers or guidance for the balance of the year.

Okay, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ashvath Rajan with Arihant Capital Markets Limited. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you, team, for the follow -up. I had a question on one, I just noticed we do have a significant amount of cash on our balance sheet, I believe it's around INR75 crores. Just wanted to understand the management's outlook on where can we productively use the cash that we are sitting on at this point?

Hello, can you hear me, Ashvath?

Yes. Yes, you're audible.

So, we have there are some small capex we are currently undertaking over the next, you know, four-five months and all, which will cost us maybe broadly about INR15 odd crores, which will be internally financed. That's one small thing. secondly, we are actually looking at uh the next phase of growth. We are looking at what and where we should what we should be do doing in terms of expanding our manufacturing capabilities. So, that is uh something which we are engaged in now, and hopefully, we would have decided over the next two or three months, and we would be able to answer you. But broadly speaking, the cash that we are holding is something which we want to invest back into the business. Exactly where is a question that we are trying to debate internally.

In plant again, I could not hear you. Hello? Am I audible?

Hello? Ashvath sir, can you repeat your question?

No, no, no. So, this is, so for example, uh Anuj spoke about we are converting one of our uh underutilized ceramic lines into GVT. That that's one capex. We are uh changing some digital printing machines and all. We are adding some polishing machines and all of that. So, balancing equipment and equipment that we feel uh that the DPM that we have, you want to replace it with a with a latest model to kind of drive product enhancement. So, this is all we are doing. So, that is that is but that is just about INR15 odd crores uh which will go from this. The larger part of this money that we have on our balance sheet, we want to invest it into the business, and we have various options that we are debating between. We will announce it to the market uh I guess over the next three, four months.

Okay, got it. And sir, on tile adhesives front, as we see a Masterbond SKU kind of thing on our PPT presentation, so I just wanted to understand like what kind of progression do we have from here on that, and what kind of investments have we made going ahead?

So, Ashvath, we have done INR2.5 crores in Q1. We started on a very small scale. It is a 100% cash-and-carry business for us. And we have been kind of working on the product mix and all of that. So, a slow start. No major capital expenditure, because we have not invested in a plant of our own. So, so nothing very big on that. But the way vitrified tiles are taking up, and with our dealer reach across the country, we want to build this particular product quarter-on-quarter.

So, we have been steadily working upon increasing the geographies. So, we started with a select uh geography in North, and now we are focusing to scale it up to North India as well as some part of East in the in the current year.

Okay, sir. And another question I have on the price hike that the industry has taken as a whole, do we foresee this to pertain ahead on the price hike front, or what kind of trajectory are we looking at? Or do we see it to sustain?

So, Ashvath, that's a see, that's a difficult one to kind of answer. The performance across companies seems to differ quite a lot, even among the listed companies. So, difficult to say what strategies they will take going forward. But only thing which I can say is that our strategy will be A, watch the market, and if there i s a softening of price of selling price, then we have to be competitive. So, we're very clear about that. We will keep a close watch on what happens in the market. And we will focus on our internal initiatives, which I've talked about, things like Tile kart, demand generation, brand building, digitization, and all, to pick up market share. So, so that is our strategy. Be competitive and then work on your internal processes to pick up volume share.

Okay. Okay, sir. Noted. And one last question, just wanted to understand, a lot of our peers have made some incremental investments on the bathware front, so just wanted to understand, do we have an outlook on entering to bath ware in any way?

Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you for taking my questions.

Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, you may press star and then one to ask a question. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Aditya Gupta for closing comments.

Thank you. Thank you for giving your time, and look forward to meeting you a couple of months later, I think October end. Thank you.

Thank you very much. On behalf of Orient Bell Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.