Mihir Shah · Nomura
evasiveCan Berger achieve mid-teens volume growth in FY25 given rural demand?
The market definitely has slowed a little bit. October was much better. November, December, was muted, and January also was a bit muted. So from that perspective, whether we will get, you know, mid-teen growth or not is difficult to say at this stage.
Mihir Shah · Nomura
directHave gross margins peaked despite price cuts?
I would say that, you know, gross margin is at a level which is very healthy now, and whether it has peaked out or not is difficult to say. But I don't see this improving from here on.
Abneesh Roy · Nuvama
partialWhy is EBITDA margin volatile with 200 bps drop from Q1 to Q3?
The first quarter for us is, you know, skewed, you know, because we have a high, very high, April... The second reason is, as you said, you know, in third quarter, we spent money on advertisement...
Abneesh Roy · Nuvama
directWhy was putty growth lower in Q3?
The putty growth rate, you know, actually was much lower. ...it was becoming too competitive in the marketplace. You know, we decided to, you know, give up some of those, you know, places, you know, in terms of volume, therefore, it got impacted.
Abneesh Roy · Nuvama
declinedWhat is Berger's premium product mix pre-COVID vs now?
We normally we haven't done this analysis, so I can't tell you offhand. ...pre-COVID, post-COVID, really, you know, we haven't done that, you know, analysis, so I can't comment on this.
Abneesh Roy · Nuvama
partialCan Berger charge a premium for Roof Cool and Clean?
As of now, it is priced competitively. We need to establish this, and it's doing quite well ... as things progress, as we grow our volumes, we will see if we can take a price premium, and how much of it can be taken. But as of now, it's almost matched to the market leader in this segment.
Tejas Shah · Avendus Spark
directIs dealer addition driven by deeper penetration or new regions?
it's a mix of both, you know. Not so much the Sandila plant, I don't think that has had any great impact there... We are doing it more scientifically now, finding out those gaps and populating those...
Tejas Shah · Avendus Spark
directAre new dealers new to paint or switching from competitors?
So it works, you know, both ways, you know. So in the stronger markets ... we are able to get competition dealers to stock ... In the weaker markets, sometimes we don't have that ability ... we look for other non-paint dealers ...
Tejas Shah · Avendus Spark
directWould Berger prioritize margins or market share if competition intensifies?
we would prefer to balance both, you know, but if push comes to shove, you know, we would prefer to maintain our market share, and have a little bit of dilution on the margin.
Shirish Pardeshi · Centrum Broking
directIs the 20% market share in volume or value?
So it is value, because we don't have the volume, the data of the companies. ...if you add up those two companies with our sales, we are in that range of 20% for the top five companies...
Shirish Pardeshi · Centrum Broking
directWhat is the capacity utilization of Sandila plant?
So we are still, you know, operating at about 35% odd level. So there is a long way to go...
Shirish Pardeshi · Centrum Broking
directWhat was the magnitude of price cuts taken in January?
Yes, you know, we had taken a price cut. ...in the month of January. So that's about, you know, 2.7% odd, you know, overall impact to sales.