Havells India

“So, we do not give any revenue guidance for the year”

“And we believe this even couple of percentage points, which it has sort of come down, I see no reason why, in the next couple of years, we should not be doing much better than this also.”

“Cables and wires, R&D centre as well.”

“One, we've maintained that we were a bit delayed in terms of capex, which we have caught up in the last couple of years.”

“So, we'll continue to invest upon in this business. And going forward also, we think the kind of growth that we are now experiencing with this new capacity, we will continue to be on a good growth path in the underground cable as well.”

“The recent capacity expansions in Havells has been more towards medium voltage and high voltage.”

“In the last few years, the most of the capex has gone towards medium to high voltage. And we have enough capacities for low voltage.”

“So, ref growth has been pretty decent. I think that has contributed well to the volume growth, because, as you rightly said, before, we didn't have our own factory.”

“And but I think the season will be coming up next year, because it has only got fully on steam in last couple of months.”

“Lloyd also delivered healthy revenue growth, supported by both volume and value growth. Margins, however, remained subdued with raw material inflation”

“And I think, overall, volume growth has also been healthy, closer to double digits, because switchgear value growth is not the same as cables wires, so switchgear volume growth has also been healthy.”

“So, at this point of time, it's too early to say what are the peak volumes that we will be getting out of this business, but we'll continue to strive towards making it into a healthy margin business”

“We are very hopeful that the kind of growth, I mean, after sometime that we have started getting industry-leading growth in this wires business, we will continue to strive to improve market share in this business.”

“As you know, we have tied up with Goldi Solar, so a lot of manufacturing is done by them for Havells.”

“Looking ahead, while macroeconomic uncertainties persist and commodity prices remain elevated, we enter the festive season with a positive outlook on both demand and margins.”

“Encouragingly, the consumer demand remains steady despite the inflationary environment.”

“So, I think for market shares, this is probably not the best quarter because our major market shares are in air conditioners, and this is the lowest quarter for air conditioners.”

“And we do believe that in the overall, not only Indian market, but export markets also, there is a decent traction for cables in the next 5 - 7 years.”

“usually the channel brings down the normalized inventory levels by the end of the second quarter.”

“For H1, cables contribution margins were approximately 15%, broadly in line with the long-term average.”

“Contribution margins were softer year-on-year, primarily due to cables, where a decline in aluminium prices during the quarter impacted margins, particularly against a strong base last year.”

“I think switchgear margins are actually coming back to normalized levels, which always used to remain between 38% and 40%.”

“So, that has now started coming to our 38% - 39% contribution margins. I mean, having said that, we do see, raw material challenges even in the second quarter, for which certain more actions are being taken in the third quarter as well.”

“But I think, more importantly, the margins are not only impacted by the under-absorption, but also the fact that due to off-season, certain cost increases have not been fully passed on to the marketplace, which will happen more as the season starts kicking in.”

“So, the major focus has always been to build a final product for the consumer, rather than be a manufacturer for other brands.”

“Yes, I think this is a regular process of, you know, rejigging the management team and what we announced at the start of the year is a part of every 3 to 4 years, it's more like people development process”

“PBT growth was relatively moderate, primarily due to the higher base arising from a one- time gain in other income in the corresponding period last year.”

“But yes, of course, certain irrational behaviours from new competition can affect certain market shares for some time.”

“In the last 20 years or so, LT has always been more competitive as compared to medium voltage and high voltage, and that will continue to remain in the future as well.”

“of retaining their market shares, or if there is anything, you know, maybe a slight compromise on the contribution margins or profitability.”

“We delivered a strong performance in the second quarter, with revenue growing 35%”

“At an overall level, operating leverage supported healthy EBITDA growth of approximately 30%.”

“We do believe that it has established well, and now it's more pull-led rather than push-led.”

“Currently, despite the volatility, we are close to 23%.”

“During the quarter, each of our categories grew, with healthy contributions from both our established categories, including cables and switchgear, as well as the emerging renewables category.”