Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd

NSE:CROMPTON

Earnings Call Analysis

Crompton Greaves Continues Strong Revenue Growth with Margin Improvements

Crompton Greaves Consumer Limited reported a commendable 11% revenue increase, reaching INR 1,645 crores for Q2 FY '25, marking its fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. The ECD segment grew 13% year-on-year, particularly driven by a 26% surge in appliances and a 20% growth in pumps. The lighting business has seen consistent improvement, achieving a 6% revenue growth this quarter. With H1 revenues up 15% and a 26% increase in EBIT year-on-year, management expresses confidence in maintaining this trajectory, forecasting a doubling of business over the next five years.

Steady Growth Amidst Strategic Overhaul

In the second quarter of FY '25, Crompton Greaves Consumer Limited reported a robust standalone revenue of INR 1,645 crores, reflecting an 11% year-on-year growth. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, driven by strong performances across its consumer electrical division (ECD). Notable categories include a 13% growth in ECD during this quarter, particularly buoyed by Appliances, which surged 26% year-on-year. Management attributes this success to their strategic overhaul, referred to as Crompton 2.0, which emphasizes long-term sustainable growth.

Lighting Business Rebound

The company's lighting segment has witnessed a revival, with revenue growing by 6% year-on-year, up from prior quarters (1% in Q4 FY '24 and 2% in Q1 FY '25). The growth is bolstered by improved margins, particularly in outdoor and accessory products, showing that Crompton is regaining market share in a segment previously in decline. The management expressed confidence in continued growth within this segment, highlighting the importance of innovation and product launches.

Strong Performance in Appliances and Pumps

The performance in appliances has been particularly strong, with significant gains in water heaters and air coolers. The Pumps category also recorded a commendable 20% growth, suggesting strong demand and market share gains, particularly in solar pumps. This increase was supported by strategic pricing and new product launches aimed at premium segments, demonstrating a clear focus on enhancing product offering and driving profitability.

Butterfly's Strategic Realignment

Butterfly, now owned by Crompton, generated INR 258 crores in the recent quarter, showcasing an impressive 42% sequential growth due to festive season effects. The management is optimistic about future performance, citing an improved EBIT margin of 8.9%, up 380 basis points sequentially. The strategies implemented, including pricing adjustments and enhanced channel management, are expected to stabilize revenues and restore the brand's profitability moving forward.

Future Outlook and Guidance

Looking ahead, the management has expressed optimism about maintaining the current growth trajectory, particularly in ECD, which has potential for doubling revenues over the next five years. Although they refrained from providing specific revenue guidance for the second half of FY '25, they indicated confidence in arresting revenue declines in the Butterfly segment, suggesting that any declines would be marginal. Thus, investors can expect a strategically significant period ahead, underpinned by strong fundamentals and market responsiveness.

Innovation and Competitive Positioning

Crompton's ongoing investment in innovation is noteworthy, with R&D spending reaching INR 100 crores annually. The company's focus on premium products and the introduction of new models has contributed positively to their market position. Additionally, the management recognizes the importance of maintaining competitive agility, particularly in the fluctuating landscape of consumer demands and competitive pricing strategies.

Earnings Call Transcript 2025-Q2

[Operator]

Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Equirus Securities, I welcome you all to quarter 2 of FY '25 Results Conference Call of Crompton Greaves Consumer Limited. We have senior management team from Crompton, represented by Mr. Promeet Ghosh, Managing Director and CEO; Mr. Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, CFO; Ms. Swetha Sagar, Chief Business Officer, Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances Limited; and Ms. Natasha Kedia, Head of Investor Relations.

I will request management to start with their opening remarks and following which we can start with the Q&A as well. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Thanks. Thanks also to the people who are on the call for joining this earnings call. As you know, a short while ago, we announced our Q2 financials. I will make some preliminary remarks, and then we can get to question and answers. I'm being joined, as you already know, by Kaleesh, Swetha and Natasha.

I'm pleased to share that we have been able to continue our growth trajectory, recording double-digit growth during this quarter for the fifth consecutive time. We clocked stand-alone revenues of INR 1,645 crores in Q2 FY '25, a growth of 11%. In our ECD business, we witnessed robust growth overall with revenue growing at 13% Y-o-Y to INR 1,393 crores this quarter.

Our overall performance across categories has been broad-based with many of the businesses continuing to fire. Our appliances with Appliances and Pumps taking the lead in what is otherwise a nonseasonal quarter. We have Appliances growing at 26% Y-o-Y this quarter, followed by Pumps, which is growing at 20% Y-o-Y.

Our largest portfolio of fans also continued to grow at 5% this quarter, more about that -- more about the details of all of these in a moment.

I would like to also remind you that one of the key strategic initiatives that we had called out when we unveiled Crompton 2.0 was to put the lighting business back on a growth trajectory, something that we have delivered over the last couple of quarters. We initially saw some green shoots through improved margins quarter-on-quarter. And now in Q2, we have a combination of both growth and margin strengthening.

The lighting trajectory, as I said, has been strengthened, and we have picked up pace in our revenue growth. It was 1% Y-o-Y in Q4 FY '24, 2% Y-o-Y in Q1 FY '25 and is now 6% Y-o-Y in Q2 FY '25. This has led to our delivering industry-leading revenue growth led by our B2C business, particularly our outdoor and accessories and nonconventional lighting products.

Moving to the specifics. In fans, as industry leaders, we continue to suit to sustainably strengthen both our revenues as well as our profits in their growth trajectory. Over the last several quarters, not only have we grown faster than the market, but we have taken consistent pricing increases ahead of the competition.

Particularly in this quarter, we have seen a consistent lag in pricing actions by the competition. We have remained steadfast in our own actions and we will continue to leverage the considerable strengths of our business.

As you can see, we are conscious about how we drive this business and view it holistically. For instance, you would have observed how we have steadily built our premium offering through new launches and how we are building our brand equity through aesthetics and style.

This quarter, we introduced albeit towards the later end of the quarter, new premium induction models such as Avancer Swirl, Santos, Aura2-4 Blade, which are already contributing to sales, and we expect sales from NPD to materially improve going forward.

Similarly, to scale our BLDC portfolio, we are working towards increasing our in-house manufacturing so as to have more control on important aspects of the business as well as further enhance the quality of our products. This quarter, in particular, our non-ceiling portfolio has also shown strong growth. In the fans industry, as we are frontrunners, we endeavor to lead the way the Green-Pro certification in the consumer products category for ceiling fans.

I should also highlight that our business is in the midst of various regulatory changes, and we have planned ahead and completed in a timely manner the various BIS transitions in our fans business.

In Pumps, we witnessed robust growth across solar and residential pumps. In solar, we executed orders of INR 42 crores last quarter. And as we speak, as Kaleesh reminded me just before I came in, we have crossed INR 100 crores of sales in -- perhaps a little bit more than crossed INR 100 crores of sales in solar. And we have in that business, a pretty strong pipeline as well.

Despite some headwinds on account of weather disturbances and a delayed agricultural season, we continue to innovate and launch new products and further our premiumization agenda.

In our Appliance business, we saw, again, broad-based growth. High offtake water heaters, room heaters and in particular, air coolers, all of them grew even though it was off-season and lean season, if you will, for air coolers. Mixer grinders have had a very solid run, supported by new launches in mass premium segment and further channel expansion. Perhaps during the Q&A, I'll talk a little bit more about how we now believe we have a leadership position in the mixer grinders business.

Large kitchen appliances recorded a revenue of INR 19 crores. And while the business is growing, it is also reducing the EBITDA losses, which it is showing in an indication that we are getting our arms around the business.

I also want to highlight, like I said earlier, the performance in lighting, a question that -- a segment that I have faced quite a few questions over the last several quarters from you. We are seeing consistent improvements in that segment and growth continues to pick up quarter-on-quarter.

As I said earlier, this quarter, we have now recorded a 6% growth. Now especially if you factor the lack of conventional product sales, which was a part of the corresponding quarter last year, our revenue growth is industry-leading. And while we have had good growth in the B2B segment, B2C has also now joined in the momentum.

This growth that we are seeing is being particularly driven by nonconventional products. Revenue from Ceiling and Outdoor category have significantly improved post new product launches. In fact, now battens and bulbs, which accounted for a share of business the previous quarter close to about 70% now account for about 50%, which should tell you how materially the business mix in our lighting business has evolved over the last several quarters.

On the B2C side, the industrial segment is performing well. This quarter, we executed a marquee project at Bengaluru's satellite town Ring Road of the NHAI with high-performance LED street lights. Our focus is on converting a strong order pipeline across categories and driving traction for new products.

Additionally, we have seen a quarter-on-quarter improvement in EBIT margins. This is happening across the board in lighting despite much higher A&P spends. But higher A&P spends are also a characteristic of the company overall. This quarter, our A&P spend stood at INR 58 crores, an increase of 69% over the previous quarter.

We have, in the past, said that stepping up A&P spends to both bolster brand visibility and also help our visibility across various platforms and channels, we would be investing heavily in A&P, and you can see that happen.

Similarly, we are also focusing on innovations. This has led to 2 more patents being granted to us this quarter. Alongside this, we have launched 20 more products in Q2 with meaningful contribution in NPD coming into our sales.

Our focus on alternate channels is generating results. Alternate channels grew 37% Y-o-Y this quarter, increasing saliency to 21% of sales versus what was 81% -- 18% in the same quarter last year. Here again, this is our fifth consecutive quarter of delivering INR 100 crore plus revenues from the e-commerce channel. In fact, we more than delivered -- we, in fact, delivered INR 200 crore plus revenues in the e-commerce channel this quarter.

Our strong revenue performance is also reflecting in our bottom line. Our stand-alone material margins were 31.9% this quarter versus 30.1% in Q2 FY '24. EBIT for the quarter is INR 160 crores, a growth of 18% Y-o-Y with an EBIT margin of 9.7%, a healthy improvement of 60 basis points despite, like I said, a 70% increase in A&P spends this quarter. This improvement is largely being driven by our ECD business, which had a margin of 14.8%.

Our lighting segment EBIT margins also witnessed expansion to 10.7%. Put together, we witnessed a PAT growth of 30% this quarter on a stand-alone basis, significantly surpassing our peers.

Now a quick overview of our H1 performance. In H1, as you already know, our revenue growth rate has picked up pace. We generated revenues of INR 3,605 crores, growing at 15%. Similar growth in profits was also visible. EBIT grew to INR 362 crores, a growth of 26% Y-o-Y. EBIT margin for H1 was 10.1%, an expansion of 90 basis points and PAT grew 34%.

Moving on to Butterfly performance. Butterfly, as you know, we are on a trajectory of refreshing the business being led by Swetha, and we are well on that track. Butterfly generated revenue of INR 258 crores this quarter with a strong sequential growth of 42%, helped, of course, by the ongoing festive season.

MOR and export channels are consistently delivering growth. We have successfully executed many pricing actions amidst heightened competitive intensity, which is showing up in the margin performance of the business. EBIT margin saw significant improvement sequentially with expansion of 380 basis points to 8.9%. You will remember last quarter also, our margins improved materially over the previous quarter sequentially. And now they have further strengthened, bolstering what we believe is the overall financial position of this company and its ability to compete in the market. This was primarily due to pricing actions, price laddering stronger management of trade spends, process intervention and reduction in operating costs.

We are happy that our Crompton 2.0 strategy is aiding us to deliver consistently superior results with double-digit revenue growth for the fifth consecutive quarter and strong EBIT margins.

With this, we are exiting the second quarter of the financial year on a solid footing. We continue to expect consistent progress through the remainder of the year. Thank you for your patient listening. And now we are open for Q&A.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions].

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Yes. I mean just one more point for the benefit of the people who are on the call. The investor presentation, which got delayed for some reason is also on our website. So if you want to simultaneously access that, please feel free to do so.

[Operator]

First question is from the line of Kunal Sheth.

[Kunal Sheth, analyst]

Congratulations for a great set of numbers.

Sir, my first question is pertaining to fans. You have mentioned that we have done well in fans, including a margin improvement. So I just wanted to check this margin improvement is driven by improvement in share of premium fans? And if yes, what would be the share of premium fans currently in the overall portfolio?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Share of premium is at a similar level. This is an improvement that we've seen both at gross as well as at EBIT margin levels at our fans business. As you are aware, we do believe in growing this business sustainably, and we have taken regular price increases in the fans business. We have seen sometimes that particularly last quarter, we did think that there was a significant lag in several competitors taking these prices increase. We don't really think these are sustainable. And -- but it's a mix of price increases, stepped up NPD as well as premium.

[Kunal Sheth, analyst]

Sure. And sir, you mentioned that a lot of competitors are delaying price hike. So is that because of any slackness in demand or it's just a strategy -- aggressive pricing strategy that they are trying to follow?

[Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, executive]

I think it's pretty difficult for us to comment what is the stand the competitor is taking on -- for their pricing strategy. From our perspective, as a market leader, we want to drive the market to behave in a particular manner in terms of our portfolio and how do we put prices.

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

These are -- these situations come and go. So you've got to be watchful. I can imagine that our peers have also been seeing us grow consistently with the kind of strategy growth on taking price increases as well as industry-leading growth. So sometimes that can have some reaction, but these are kind of stuff that they don't sustainably change the business.

[Kunal Sheth, analyst]

Sure. Sir, my second question is pertaining to Pumps. We mentioned that we have grown 20% in the Pump business. How much would have market grown? And would we have gained market share in the Pumps business?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

See, our Pumps business is -- in each one of our businesses, what we have -- what we are doing is there's the regular market growth and there are a few segments which are growing disproportionately, correct, well ahead of what the market may be growing at.

So in our solar pumps business, as I said earlier, we kind of -- I think, did about INR 42 crores, and we've already done more than INR 100 crores this year itself. Clearly, we are growing quite fast. In residential pumps business as well, I would imagine that we've probably gained market share in that business.

So yes -- is it a dramatic increase in market share? No. But yes, we would be incrementally gaining market share in our core business, which is resi. And growth is being driven by adding newer areas, which is solar.

[Kunal Sheth, analyst]

Sure. Sir, and my last question is pertaining to...

[Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, executive]

I think there are too many people on the queue. You can come back in the queue.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of Siddhartha Bera.

[Siddhartha Bera, analyst]

This is Siddhartha from Nomura. Sir, first question, again, on the fan side. Now we have consistently seen healthy double-digit growth for the last many quarters. Some color on this quarter, what -- is the industry growth in line with our or have we grown ahead? And how do you see the remaining part of the year for the fans going ahead?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Yes. As you said, we've had robust growth in fans. And for the rest of the year, it's not easy always to say in our business, but I'd say we expect to see moderate growth going forward as well. Not a big change in the demand scenario between now and the rest of the year is the way we see it.

The important thing in these situations is to continue to build on your strengths. This is the key thing that you have to do in our businesses. So what you will see us do is introduce NPDs. Some of these NPDs we've introduced towards the end of last quarter. They are doing very well.

In fact, one of the NPDs that we introduced sold out. I'm not getting into the details, you look at the presentations. So these are NPDs that we are finding, which are finding -- which are being very well received by the market. It's also to simultaneously bolster our non-ceiling fans category, where we believe they will be continuing both industry growth and industry-leading growth from our side.

So -- and while we are doing that, our Unnati project continues a pace. So we will have growth -- sustainable growth, leading growth as well as strong profits.

[Siddhartha Bera, analyst]

Got it, sir. Sir, second question on the Light side. You indicated that outdoor and accessory segments has led to the growth picking up for Lights. Did you mention that these were 50% of the Light portfolio for us right now? And here also, should we see further step up given the new products you have launched recently?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Yes, I would certainly hope so. Even as we speak, decorative panels are now our single largest segment. That say something for a company where we've been saying that we wanted to increase our ceiling lights portfolio. Even as we speak, like I said, they are now the largest segment, which kind of tells you about how fast that business has been growing.

And so that's not to say that we are deemphasizing, but obviously, this is growing at a faster rate than our lamps and battens business. And similarly, of course, in the outdoor flood lights, accessories business, there is, again, disproportionate growth. right? That is not in any way linked to how the market is growing, the significant growth that we are seeing there. I'm very glad to see that the NPD pipeline and our NPD introduction pipeline in lighting has already, in fact, come into play in the first quarter substantively already. You'll also see more in the first and second quarter already. We'll also see more in H2. But these are profitable products, and these are products that are selling well.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of Aditya Bhartia.

[Aditya Bhartia, analyst]

My first question is on the kitchen appliances segment, wherein you mentioned that on the mixer grinder side, we are now having market dominance. It would be very helpful if you could further build some light on that. And how are we looking at this segment in particular? Is it Crompton plus Butterfly combined? What kind of synergies are we enjoying at this stage between the 2 entities? That is also something that I'd like to understand.

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Yes. Our belief is that as we speak, we have a combination of Crompton and Butterfly, the market leadership position in mixer grinders. So -- and I believe with some distance, but look, I don't want to talk too much about what's happening as we speak because we are now talking about the previous quarter where the strength of the previous quarter in mixer grinders, we are -- is clearly sustaining. So combination of numbers between Butterfly and Crompton is looking well.

We've spoken about this in the past. The way that we are leveraging the strengths of each other is Crompton and Butterfly are -- insofar as the front end is concerned, we have an independent channel which Butterfly is working differently from Crompton. So Butterfly is doing -- is, as you know, a very, very strong brand in South in the small domestic appliances in Crompton, we are a much more national brand, particularly strong, also in the West.

How we are leveraging the strengths of each other is all its product of mixer grinder, in fact, all its products per se in SDA is now already in-sourcing it from the Butterfly manufacturing system, which is helping both Butterfly as well as Crompton. So the back end is being integrated and helping us. But the front end, they are [indiscernible].

[Aditya Bhartia, analyst]

Sir, does that mean that the sales team for the 2 entities are different at this stage for selling kitchen appliances? Or is there some synergy around that as well?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

No. So we are today continuing to operate at the operational level in the sales team in South with a separate Butterfly channel and with a separate Crompton channel. There is -- Butterfly as you know don't have a very much presence outside of the South. There, there is some combined selling efforts. But substantively, these 2 businesses operate at the front end.

[Aditya Bhartia, analyst]

Understood. Understood. And sir, my second question is on the Pumps business, wherein solar is certainly a growth area for us. If you could just explain to us how we positioned versus competition on the solar side? Is it largely bidding based? How exactly are we getting these tenders? And what kind of opportunity are you seeing in front of you from a 2-year, 3-year perspective? Is KUSUM scheme also something that you're excited about?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Yes. KUSUM scheme clearly is helping. These are tender-based businesses. What helps is that clearly people understand that it is at the heart of a solar pump and that's made by Crompton, then people understand what that means when it comes to consumer experience [indiscernible] et cetera. Therefore, the Crompton brand is helping us grow the solar business. We have a partner who helps us in this project [indiscernible] very optimistic about how this business will grow over the next several years, very optimistic.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of Bhoomika Nair.

[Bhoomika Nair, analyst]

Sir, just wanted to understand in terms of the demand trends and specifically from the festive market and also kitchen appliances and how is it really panning out?

And my second question is on Butterfly. We were hoping for some improvement in the revenue numbers in the second half. When do we start seeing growth coming back? And is our GTM realignment in terms of the nonprofitable aspect kind of now into the base? Or do we still continue to see that bit of a challenge continuing?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Well, maybe I'll take a quick shot at it and then let Swetha answer that. See, from a group perspective, it's been very important for us that we set the fundamentals of the business on a solid base, right? And therefore, what you've seen in the business is for us to take some tough calls, let go even some revenue, if you will, because you can't make an egg without breaking a few eggs. So if you want to scramble an egg, you want to crack a few eggs.

And I think the business has done that very well, that they have worked on the price laddering, they've worked on the terms of trade and that is showing, right? And it is showing that the Butterfly brand is strong because these have been now accepted pretty much by the market. And it's certainly my expectation that as we've done this, the revenue growth will also come.

It's not -- I didn't want to -- before Swetha takes on this specifically, I want to tell you this is also symptomatic of how we've consistently dealt with businesses which have required a reset. Lighting is a very similar situation, right? I mean some quarters ago, we weren't seeing strong growth momentum. We didn't choose to go out and get that momentum suddenly, but we chose to strengthen the fundamentals of the business, build the profitability of the business and believe that once you have that profitability, you will be able to drive revenues.

And you are seeing that happen, right? So this is -- if you go about it the other way and don't grow our business sustainably, then it doesn't work out very well. So it's something that we've -- that is a pretty consistent approach of ours. Yes Swetha.

[Swetha Sagar, executive]

So just to elaborate on what you said. I think the first thing is that fundamentally, I think the approach that we are trying to take for Butterfly is brand first. So keeping brand at the center and the consumer at the center is what we are trying to work out our channel strategy, pricing, value chain mapping, the cost at which the business operations are happening, exactly like what he's been mentioning from. That's what is showing us what we have done in Q2.

Second thing is like we have resident knowledge in Crompton in multiple other operations also in terms of turning around the business. So that is also coming in hand for Butterfly to look forward for and see what we are -- what we've been. [indiscernible] I think that's the way that we are looking at Butterfly.

[Bhoomika Nair, analyst]

Sure. And on the question on the demand trend specifically from a festive, how is it really panning out? Are we seeing green shoots in terms of demand and uptick across categories? Any specific comments where segments where you're seeing a sharper growth, if you can kind of comment on that?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Why don't you talk about kitchen appliances and I'll kind of talk about.

[Swetha Sagar, executive]

All right. In kitchen, I think the last few weeks of Diwali have been good in terms of consumer demand. I think they have been positively reassuring us in terms of our offtakes and how the consumer has been responding to the festive. We do see that categories like gas stoves and pressure cookers are doing good for us. While we've been working very, very strongly in terms of electric, non-electrical businesses have seen sharper demand from the consumer. That is how [indiscernible].

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

I think it's fair to say that the demand outlook at a broader level is moderate. And as I said earlier, the key thing in these situations is continue to mine the demand strongly in these times and grow in segments. Certain segments are disproportionately in order to be able to bolster the overall revenue growth of the company. You already heard in Pumps, you know we have grown disproportionately in solar. In lighting, we've been able to grow our ceiling and our outdoor and accessories business. In kitchen appliances, we've had very strong growth in mixer grinders.

In actually LDA, large domestic appliances, we've had very strong nonseasonal growth in air coolers to supplement our the regular growth that we are anyway getting and so on and so forth. In fans, we've had very robust growth in TPW. So yes, so you kind of -- those are the kind of tools and levers that you have to keep using.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of Umang Mehta.

[Umang Mehta, analyst]

Congrats on a good quarter. Sir, I just wanted to check on Pumps. So this quarter, I believe solar pumps contributed a fair chunk of your overall Pumps revenues. And still, we've seen ECD margins kind of hold up quite well. Also in terms of receivables and inventories, we've not seen any kind of built up. So your initial, I would say, worry about going more aggressive on solar pumps, do you think that's allayed and possibly you could do much more than what we've already seen?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Each one of these businesses, you have to learn to do the business. So I think we've scaled up pretty well in solar pumps. And so -- and we've done that together with other things that we do well, right? So we continue to work at the back end quite aggressively to continue to work on costs, right, Unnati, right? So we have a long-standing program.

Also, in solar, for instance, we've worked on how we bid, right? We've been -- just because you're seeing growth doesn't mean that we've gone and bid randomly, right? So what that has translated into is a very good rotation of money in the solar pumps business. So even though they may be government-backed orders, we are getting paid in time for most part, et cetera. So that's -- those are the things that we've kind of gained more and more confidence and that's showing up in the way that we are doing the business.

[Umang Mehta, analyst]

Understood. And the second question is on Butterfly, it's more of a factual question. So in the base quarter starting 3Q, can we assume that the channel correction, which had happened in institutional will be over? In the sense last year, 3Q was after the channel correction, right? That would be the correct assumption.

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Okay. I'll let me take a shot at it. I think we are substantively through done with the journey.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of Achal Lohade.

[Achalkumar Lohade, analyst]

This is Achal from Nuvama. First, with respect to Butterfly since we are on that subject, if you look at 2Q performance, the gross margin is stable, while you talked about the price corrections, premiumization thing. And we have seen a substantial drop in employee cost and the other expenses. So if you could help us understand in second half, because third quarter will be seasonally strong quarter. But given the drop in sales focus on premium products, how do we see the second half margins and the growth?

Because if I do a rough math, I'm seeing a double-digit decline in terms of revenue for the full year and margins of maybe about 2%, 3%, 4%. If you could help us understand the journey from here on in terms of growth and the margins for Butterfly specifically?

[Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, executive]

Achal allow us not to comment on the margin model that we created, but let us talk about what have we delivered and what are we looking at for the balance of the year.

So fundamentally, I think consistently, what we have been seeing over the last few quarters is get the unit economics right for Butterfly, which means that we have to ensure that channel parity is brought in place. We had to ensure that our pricing actions, including price ups had to be brought in place. And at the same point of time, operating cost needs to be reduced.

So what you see as a reduction -- reduction in people cost is also part of some of the actions that we have taken to ensure for a business and size of Butterfly, what are the kind of manpower requirements that you need to have.

So today, as we stand compared to last year, our EBITDA margins in Butterfly has improved even on a lower revenue base that we have delivered. So that ensures that the health of the business is the right place. I would like you to recollect and go back 4 quarters back, precisely the statement that we made in lighting, where we said the step 1 is to get the unit economics right, get the operating parameters right and ensure that the business is in a healthy shape to invest.

What is it going to do for us? The money that we have generated is going to help us to do a brand refresh and repositioning on Butterfly, invest behind NPD and that will ensure that it will drive growth for the future. And our priority, as we called out in lighting here also is step 1 is to arrest the decline and consistently deliver a steady margin and over a period of time, start delivering operating leverage and improvement in margin also.

[Achalkumar Lohade, analyst]

Understood. The second question I had with respect to fans, 5% revenue growth Y-o-Y. If you could guide us in last 12 months, how much price hike have we taken and also the volume growth for the second quarter? Is it fair to say that volume has been fairly flattish and the -- most of the growth what you're seeing is driven by the price hike?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

No, it is partially volume growth and partially price increase that has helped us to grow in Q2. Over the last fourth quarter, almost a year now, November last year is when we started taking the price increases. We have been taking bite-sized price increase of about 1.5 to 2 percentage every quarter.

At this point of time, between the large quarter of pricing action is done, unless otherwise, we see any other reason for us to do with the commodity or other things. Outlook, as we look at from a gross margin perspective, the levers that we are looking at is, one, how do we improve further on mix? We called out our ambition in terms of premium fans a long time back. Also, we are looking at Unnati as a continuous lever to see how do we improve the margin model through that.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of Latika Chopra.

[Latika Chopra, analyst]

I'm Latika from JPMorgan. A lot of my questions were answered. I wanted to just quickly check with you some color on the channel inventory levels. Because it seems in appliances, the water heater sales were pretty good for you. And festive this time was a little early as well in case it influences the small appliances business for you.

And if you could also comment on how are you looking at the second half for ECD business from a growth perspective? You had 13% revenue growth in this quarter. Is this a number that you're comfortable and you believe all your initiatives on premiumization, channel expansion, new launches are going to sustain this kind of growth? So that was the first question.

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

So Latika, as you know, we don't give forward guidance on [indiscernible] panel. But the way we would see it is -- I'm answering your first question on demand plus how we're looking at our business.

See, we are a portfolio ECD business. We have fans, we have pumps. We have got large domestic appliances led by geysers and coolers. We have a portfolio of small domestic appliances and then there is large kitchen.

And there are varied segments that we have within fans, which is ceiling, non-ceiling and within ceiling, premium, non-premium. Pumps, we have clearly forayed into solar and that has been delivering consistent growth for us.

As in far as LDA and SDA are concerned, we have not even tapped the full potential of the geography and the channel opportunities that we have. So in the medium term to long run, we don't have, I would say, from our perspective, a challenge that we see. We have opportunity to grow, and we would expect that in the long run, as we have been calling out, the business can double in about, say, 5 years' time from now, coupled with the existing and new categories.

[Latika Chopra, analyst]

Sir, my question was actually on -- in this quarter, did you see any early festive-related demand benefit? And if you could also comment on the channel inventory trends. Actually, that was the key question. If you could comment on that, please?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Yes. See, channel inventory, we are in line. We have average channel inventory. We have not any channel inventory issues as we speak across categories. In terms of festive momentum, it's just a shift might be for some of our categories. For us, kitchen is the only category which we would see as a large beneficiary of festive momentum. Otherwise, it has got nothing to do with an early festive or a later festive driving a 30% ECD growth for us.

[Latika Chopra, analyst]

Understood. And the second bit was just on Butterfly. We did hear a lot of qualitative comments. And in one of the prior answers, is it right to assume that we are kind of done with this Y-o-Y dips in revenue and now revenues should start to stabilize or still a little early to call that out? That's the last question.

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

H2, we are looking to arrest the decline in revenue. By and large, the channel issues that we have to solve for has been solved for.

[Latika Chopra, analyst]

Okay. So even if there is any decline, these will be marginal?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

That's right.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of Praveen Sahay.

[Praveen Sahay, analyst]

I'm Praveen Sahay from Prabhudas. So I have only one question related to the BIS transition. As you had already mentioned in the non-ceiling fan and appliances, you had already transitioned to the BIS.

[Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, executive]

Yes, we have.

[Praveen Sahay, analyst]

So is there any cost element also associated to that and which you are able to pass on to the prices? And is there a further segments also there where you have to transition yet?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

Yes, Praveen, actually, BIS transition now are a feature of our business, right? So in business after business and product after product, you will see BIS transitions being required. The important thing is to get your organization ready to be able to do these in a timely manner. And remember, we are Crompton, right?

So if the government says 4th of September means 4th of September, every product, whether it is coming out of our own manufacturing facilities or out of some outsourced manufacturing facility, those transitions we would like to see.

It's so far -- so there is -- it's something that takes work is -- requires a fair amount of planning, but I'd say that it's something that we've now got our arms around.

There are -- it's not to say that there are no cost implications to it. But as you already know, our job is to keep working on costs as we go along and we either able to pass on that those costs to the market or we able to optimize costs internally. So that's how we've been dealing with it.

We have seen in the recent past some of our peers lag in some of these. I think that tends to show up in margins in many cases. But we'll see how they are able to sustain it or not. From our perspective, we are leaders and we like to do what's right for the business. And we do see that paying off very well for us. So we do expect to combine market-leading growth with strong profit margins and profit growths.

[Praveen Sahay, analyst]

Fair to assume that you gained out of that as well in terms of market share?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

To say, I can't. With regulatory change, you've got to make sure that you are on the ball, right? Whether you gain from it or not depends on whether the government goes out inspecting whether everybody has changed and adhere to BIS or a bunch of other things. But you got to do what you got to do.

[Operator]

Next question is from the line of Harshit Kapadia.

[Harshit Kapadia, analyst]

Congrats for a good set of results. So my question is on solar pumps. Some of the competitors have highlighted that they are facing challenges in sourcing the solar panels because it requires a DCR requirement is there. So are you facing some challenges as well from your solar portfolio? That's the first question.

And second is on the new product development, would you be able to share how much contribution do you have in each of your product segment for the NPD? Earlier, you used to give that data. So that would be of a value for us.

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

The sourcing of solar panels so far hasn't been a material impediment for us. I don't know whether we've given out NPD numbers, Kaleesh.

[Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, executive]

Yes. We have stopped calling that out in terms of what is our share of NPD. I think what we believe is that as a part of premiumization and as part of existing replacements, it does come in. But the way we look at it, what is the kind of investments that we are making towards our R&D and innovation. Currently, we are spending about INR 100 crores per annum, and the aim is to further invest to bring in much more meaningful new products.

[Operator]

Due to time constraint, this will be the last question from the line of Indrajit Agarwal.

[Indrajit Agarwal, analyst]

I have one question on the solar pump side. So just wanted to understand, are you bidding it yourself? Or is it through a partner?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

We bid together with a partner, but we are the lead partner.

[Indrajit Agarwal, analyst]

Sure. And which geographies or which states have you won most of the bids in?

[Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, executive]

We have in Haryana and Maharashtra.

[Indrajit Agarwal, analyst]

Sure. And you're only doing the pump side of things, right? Rest is all outsourced in the sense of panel, the EPC, everything, nothing else that you are doing?

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

I mean, look, we obviously contribute substantively to the pumps component of the business, but we get a share of the entire bid. So we benefit from the entire size of the order.

[Operator]

I think, sir, that was the last question. I would request if you have any closing comments, then we can conclude the call.

[Promeet Ghosh, executive]

No. Well, that's -- thank you for joining. Like I said, I'm delighted with the results that we've had. It's looking around the market, I don't see many companies, whether in our businesses or others, which are able to grow their profits at a 30% year-on-year growth levels. So that speaks to the kind of leadership that Crompton has together with Butterfly across products and the kind of effort that we've been putting in, in solidifying our foundations in strengthening our brand.

And I think it's also visible when we started out there were a bunch of questions about how we were going to get growth, how we were going to have -- how we were going to turn around right team, what we were going to do with Butterfly. And I trust that some of those questions as we speak are being answered because I can say anything, but you got to see what we deliver and I think we are delivering.

And of course, if you guys have any other further questions, do feel free to reach out to our teams. Thank you.

[Kaleeswaran Arunachalam, executive]

Thank you.