Q1-FY24 · Bharat Puri
We are clear that market share/volume growth is our prime indicator. In the time when VAM went up to $2,500 a ton, we actually took down our margins down to 17% from our traditional 20%-24%.
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Q1-FY24 · Bharat Puri
The good thing for us actually is that our rural mix, outside the fact that there are smaller packs and there are more basic products, the discounts here tend to be lower, but freight and logistics costs tend to be higher. At an overall level, there is no difference in profitability and therefore, ROC between our rural and urban businesses.
Q1-FY24 · Bharat Puri
We are now making tremendous progress with the whole digital piece. We have an app called Pidilite Genie, and we believe we are only one of two companies who are getting more than 25% of our sales now via an app where there is no salesman or distributor involved.
Q1-FY25 · Bharat Puri
90% of our growth is same-store growth. The new outlets, et cetera, is less than 10%. So we still have a massive opportunity in penetration in existing markets with existing accounts.
Q1-FY25 · Bharat Puri
We measure underlying volume growth, which is turnover at constant prices. If we were to look at our total volume growth for the first quarter, our actual volume growth is 19% in terms of tonnage. But frankly, we don't believe that's where I think underlying volume growth is a far better indicator of real growth.
Q1-FY25 · Bharat Puri
As far as the VAM bottom is concerned, when we speak to VAM manufacturers currently, in fact, the largest one of them actually declared a force majeure in its U.S. and Mexico plants because they found these levels itself not satisfactory. So I would say we are very near the bottom.
Q1-FY26 · Sandeep Batra
We believe that this is a bit of a game changer in the way if you look at exteriors. A typical painting process has four layers... We are trying to create a category where the exteriors can be done with either one or two coats maximum.
Q1-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
The distinctive thing about Pidilite, and which I think makes us unique, is that this tends to be more universal for us... We work so closely with our applications and users that we cover a vast majority of our products. Our ability to see what is their demand, what do they need extra, what is working at this moment, not working at this moment, and we tend to be very, very detailed.
Q1-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
We have increased our direct coverage by 2x in rural and small town direct coverage. We have increased our PKDs by 3x. We have increased our GFCs, which are Dr. Fixit centers, also close to about 3x.
Q2-FY24 · Bharat Puri
We're already at 12,000, and we are pretty much adding between 1,000-1,500 every quarter. We are rapidly expanding the Pidilite Ki Duniya network.
Q2-FY24 · Bharat Puri
Based on the commodity prices, this seems appropriate, but if we again get some windfalls, we will do that, because finally we must offer value to the consumer at the right margin.
Q2-FY24 · Bharat Puri
This is a separate team, completely different from the Pidilite team, and once we announce the team, you will see it's a very heavyweight team.
Q2-FY25 · Bharat Puri
Despite challenging economic conditions across the first half, first quarter disrupted by elections and the second quarter because of extensive rains, we have delivered robust underlying volume growth as well as improved profitability.
Q2-FY25 · Sudhanshu Vats
There is no evidence right now of what I would say, a much more buoyant demand situation during the festive season. We are ten days away, though I must say that, remember, the last ten days of the festive season are very strong. But having said that, I mean, we are not seeing any major, like, you know, as if there was a lot of pending stuff that had to be completed, and therefore there is a rush. It's, it is still a normal October.
Q2-FY25 · Sudhanshu Vats
What we would like to do is, if in these tougher times, we have delivered 9% UVG, stepping it up second half is an imminent possibility. But as I said in the answer to another question on demand, frankly, the best. This question will be best answered in January, because by then you'll know where the new normal has settled post-Diwali.
Q2-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
Urban performance has been very good. Urban, if I can use the word, is inching up. Urban performance has been very good. I think we've also, our growth drivers in quarter two have been our construction sector growth brands, which have had a strong urban listing as well.
Q2-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
We had taken the baby step of now looking at a few eastern geographies. Having said that, have we got the business model fully right? There again, if I was to be absolutely candid with you, the answer is no. It's still work in progress. We are working on it.
Q2-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
Very few companies focus on demand generation the way Pidilite does. With our entire business model, also our business model is not only about, of course, you are aware that we've talked about it, that there are two field forces, blah, blah, and all that. How do we review? What are the linkages? How do we keep improving that as we keep going forward?
Q3-FY24 · Bharat Puri
Our objective as an organization is double-digit underlying volume Growth. We are in the range of double-digit underlying volume Growth, and our margin is at the 20-24 level, and hopefully, our proportion of Core to Growth and pioneer continues to change. We will be on a healthy Growth trajectory.
Q3-FY24 · Bharat Puri
When raw material prices are benign, as they are now, it will tend towards the higher end. When they become a little more volatile or there is some fluctuation, they may move towards the lower end. And at this end, what we would keep looking is how to invest further for volume Growth.
Q3-FY24 · Bharat Puri
Categories like ours, even equalized for income, are under-indexed in rural areas and small towns, largely because of a lack of consumer education, a lack of user education, and at times, a lack of full range availability. Our CAGR for rural over a three-year period is actually one and a half times urban.
Q3-FY25 · Bharat Puri
We are seeing a certain amount of strain in demand... Having said that, it is still positive... Hopefully, in the first and second quarters of the next financial year... post the budget, and therefore, the first quarter of next year, we're hopeful that things should improve.
Q3-FY25 · Bharat Puri
We always say that we would like to grow Core at one to two times GDP. It is nearer now, therefore, to GDP rather than twice GDP. And when we say Growth to grow two to five times, it is closer to two to three times rather than five times.
Q3-FY25 · Bharat Puri
If we see our margins at the higher end, we will look at further sets of actions to stimulate Growth in the first half of next year. So I would not go by that assumption as of now.
Q3-FY26 · Sandeep Batra
The domestic franchise remains strong, and the underlying volume growths there have been inching up over the last eight quarters. Both in Q3 and in Q2, the UVG was in excess of 11%.
Q3-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
This is largely behind us. We should see action based on the new tariff rate, hopefully maybe by the turn of this quarter itself, but definitely as we move forward. We also feel that the impact on B2B per se in this quarter and future quarters will also be minimal because we've got other plan Bs.
Q3-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
Our renovation and repair account for maybe 70%-75%. And new construction is more like 25%, maybe a little higher. So first of all, we are well equipped, even if there is a downturn in new construction.
Q3-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
If you look at the nine-month consolidated growth, that's around 10%. So therefore, you are seeing a flip in the growth. Our EBITDA corridor is 20%-24%. We are also very conscious that we should have right profitability at the same time, focus on building capabilities, building brands, and all of that leading to improvement in revenue growth.
Q4-FY24 · Bharat Puri
Rural is not just about quarter four. For the whole year, our rural has been 1.5 times urban. We have consistently invested strongly behind rural because we felt we were under-penetrated in a lot of our categories, and that is paying us dividends over a longer period of time.
Q4-FY24 · Bharat Puri
When I look at the real estate cycle... it appears that the cycle will be a much longer cycle than we think. The focus on infrastructure always has an impact on our sales across the board, and we are seeing that.
Q4-FY24 · Sandeep Batra
We are clear believers in the future, and we don't like to worry about 1 or 2 quarters of cost to be able to make sure that we are on the right track.
Q4-FY25 · Sudhanshu Vats
We remain optimistic on fundamental consumer demand. As we enter FY26, the geopolitical situation and also the global economic situation is very uncertain and very unpredictable. Therefore, the cautiousness is coming around largely from there this time.
Q4-FY25 · Sudhanshu Vats
This business could be a billion-dollar market by 2030. We've now partnered with Caltech. As I speak to you, we've managed to get a few commercial orders. We are making good progress. It is a pioneering business. It is going to take time.
Q4-FY25 · Sudhanshu Vats
We will be focused, at least to begin with, and for a considerable period of time, on what is called rural and small-town India. Once we get this thing right, hopefully, numbers will follow.
Q4-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
Our approach is that we are looking at this replacement margin at the current costs and saying that, first and foremost, how do we transfer these costs in a calibrated fashion into the market, calibrated and staggered a little bit. Our topmost priority is to continue our focus on growth and continue to do all the demand generation activities which we need to do.
Q4-FY26 · Sandeep Batra
The endeavor from our side is to drive investments so that we can get faster growth. That as an intent has not changed. It remains. We saw results all of last year and we saw a very healthy result in the last quarter. What will be the outcome? I think given the situation that we are in, it will be very difficult to hazard a guess as to what will happen in this year. It's not a normal year.
Q4-FY26 · Sudhanshu Vats
There are basically two scenarios. Scenario one is that West Asia conflict is contained or at least partly resolved in the month of May. There is a good chance of that, to be honest with you. Scenario two is West Asia conflict continues for much longer. In the case of scenario one, I think we are going in with the hypothesis that the demand buoyancy which India saw in the last quarter of FY 2026 will more or less sustain.