Berger Paints India Ltd — Q4 FY26
Berger Paints delivered a strong Q4 FY26 with standalone volume growth of 11.8% and value growth of 6.7%, driven by healthy traction across decorative and industrial segments.
bullish
high
✓ Verified against BSE filing
Claim Ledger
Did management answer the analysts?
Every material analyst question, graded on whether management actually answered it — with the verbatim exchange and quantitative claims checked against filed numbers.
71%Questions answered2Evaded / deflected12Questions auditedMixedNumbers vs filing
Partial answer
High priority
Impact of pre-buying before price increases on volume growth and Q1 volumes.
Asked by Miisha
Acknowledged pre-buying but did not quantify its impact on Q1 volumes, only gave qualitative outlook.
no quantification of pre-buying impactdeferred to qualitative trend
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Question
this step up in volume growth that we are seeing what according to you would be the impact of pre-buying before the price increases and how should one think about the Q1 volumes will this pre-buying have any impact on Q1 volumes.
Abhijit Roy (MD)
there is some impact but obviously the volume growth was improving month on month... in quarter one as well there have been actually three price increases and the fourth one is coming up on the 15th of May for us. So there will be a healthy growth in quarter 1 as well.
Answered
High priority
Secondary sales volume growth and pre-buying impact in Q4.
Asked by Miisha
Provided specific volume growth breakdown between secondary and pre-buying.
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Question
any level of secondary sales for 4Q that you think that you can share?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
secondary sales had improved... if we saw 11-12% approximately in terms of volume growth then I would say that the secondary would be around 8 to 9% and then 3 to 4% would have been the bunching up of purchasing due to the price increases.
Evasive
High priority
Cost inflation, cumulative price hikes, and margin impact in Q1.
Asked by Miisha
Avoided giving specific numbers for cost inflation, cumulative price hikes, or margin impact.
no specific cost increase numberno cumulative price hike percentageno margin level guidance
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Question
given the cost inflation, what is the level of cost increase that you are seeing in RMS currently? And what is the cumulative price increase of these four price hikes that will sit in Q1? And should one expect margins to compress in Q1 and to what level?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
more or less whatever has been the raw material price increase so far... we are more or less covered... I don't see any major impact in the profitability that way.
Evasive
High priority
Expected volume growth in FY27 given favorable base and El Nino.
Asked by Miisha
Declined to give any specific volume growth expectation for FY27.
no volume growth guidancedeferred to uncertainty
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Question
what is the level of volume growth that one should expect in FY27 given FY26 has a favorable base... can one expect double digit volumes in FY27 with no impact on margins?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
It's a difficult question to answer at this stage... it is so volatile... we assume that it will be a fairly decent volume growth in spite of all of these challenges.
Answered
High priority
Cumulative price hike percentage and impact on volume vs value growth.
Asked by Aimea
Provided specific cumulative price hike percentage and explained value vs volume growth dynamics.
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Question
I wanted to kind of check with you on two things. One, conceptually, this cumulative price hikes, if you could give us a number for it and would it improve the growth trajectory from the 6%?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
the price increase that we have taken is about 11 to 12%... the value growth will be definitely significantly higher than what it was last year.
Answered
Medium priority
Whether price hikes offset input inflation in absolute or percentage margin terms.
Asked by Aimea
Clearly stated that price hikes neutralize percentage margin.
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Question
When you say this offset, is this an absolute inflation number in rupees that has been passed on or is it percentage margin? How should we look at that?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
It neutralizes the percentage margin sort of you know absolute.
Partial answer
High priority
Risk of volume backlash from significant pricing, unlike COVID period.
Asked by Percy Pantagi
Gave historical context but no specific quantification of expected volume impact.
no specific volume impact estimaterelied on historical analogy
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Question
Don't you think there could be a sort of backlash in terms of volume and how do we figure out whether this will happen?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
we have not seen this type of increase of 12-13% but we have definitely seen 7-8% price increases... whenever that had happened the expectation was that it will impact volumes somewhat but very marginal... we should be able to hold on to the volume growth that we had last year.
Answered
High priority
Overall COGS inflation compared to pre-war situation.
Asked by Percy Pantagi
Provided specific inflation percentage and stated it is covered by price increases.
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Question
on your overall COGS basket, what is the inflation today compared to the pre-war situation?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
It's about 22-23% and that's more or less covered through the price increase.
Answered
Medium priority
Size of West Bengal market and impact of government change.
Asked by Roy
Confirmed double-digit percentage and gave positive outlook.
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Question
how big is Bengal market for you as a percentage of revenue and last 2-3 years is there a slowdown?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
it is double digit actually... we expect therefore the growth rate to accelerate in the state of West Bengal for sure.
Partial answer
Medium priority
Competitive intensity and media spend relative to peers.
Asked by Roy
Explained competitive intensity qualitatively but did not provide a specific media share percentage.
no specific media share numberqualitative only
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Question
if you could explain why is the competitive intensity high? And what is your media share when we take the new player into account?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
competitive intensity why I have said is that it is still quite strong... we spend about we have not increased or decreased our spends... at our market share sort of which is 20%.
Answered
High priority
Impact of price hikes on gross margin percentage and mitigating factors.
Asked by Akshand Takar
Acknowledged gross margin impact and quantified it at 1-1.5% with offsetting factors.
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Question
you said that 60 has got 20% inflation. So your raw material cost will go up by 12 and which is the price increase that you've taken. In an accounting sense the percentage gross margins would be lower?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
you are right it will have an impact slightly on the gross margin... we have initiated certain measures... It will still have possibly a slow one to one and a half% impact on the gross margin but that will get neutralized in the EBITDA margin because of scale efficiency.
Answered
High priority
EBITDA margin guidance range and retention of pricing power.
Asked by Adita Barta
Reaffirmed 15-17% EBITDA margin guidance and explained behavior at upper end.
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Question
historically you have guided for roughly 15 to 17% EBITDA range. Is that the range you'll stick with even in this inflationary environment?
Abhijit Roy (MD)
we stick to that 15 to 17%... this quarter we did exceed that we went up to 18.3%... sometimes when it goes up consistently we will spend more on advertisement rather than go up to 18-19.
Quantitative claims vs filed numbers
| Claim | Management said | Filing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume growth approximately 11-12% in Q4 | 12% | 6.7% | Overstated vs filing |
| EBITDA margin 18.3% this quarter | 18.3% | 18.3% | Matches filing |
| Gross margin impact 1-1.5% from inflation | 125 bps | 110 bps | Matches filing |
Filed figures sourced from Screener.in. Claims within a small tolerance of the filing are marked “matches filing”.