Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Manish Mahawar from Antique Stock Broking. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you, Steve. On behalf of Antique Stock Broking, I would like to welcome all the participants on the call of Sharda Cropchem. From the management, we have Mr. R.V. Bubna, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Shailesh Mehendale, CFO, and Mr. Dinesh Nahar, GM Finance, on the call. Without any delay, I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Bubna for opening remarks, post which we will open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to Mr. Bubna. Thank you, Manishji. Good afternoon and very warm welcome to everyone present on this call. Along with me, I have Mr. Shailesh Mehendale, our CFO, and Mr. Dinesh Nahar, General Manager Finance, and SGA, our Investor Relations Advisors, are on the call. Hope you all have received our investor deck by now. For those who have not, you can view them on the stock exchanges and the company website. As you are aware, we are engaged in marketing and distribution of a wide range of agrochemical products, which means herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and biocides, catering to a diverse global customer base. We prepare comprehensive dossiers and seek registrations in our own name. We allocate substantial resources and establish our foothold in the market. Our total product registrations stood at 2,918 as of 31st March 2024. Additionally, 1,095 applications for product registrations globally are at different stages of approval. The CapEx for FY 2024 stood at INR 420 crores. Going ahead in FY 2025, we expect the CapEx in the range of INR 400-INR 450 crores. For Q4 FY 2024, revenues have decreased by 11% from INR 1,482 crores to INR 1,312 crores, but we have seen a volume growth of approximately 25% year- on- year in our products. Volumes from agrochemicals increased by 28% YoY and for non-agrochemicals by 42% YoY. Revenues have decreased due to lower product price realizations across all regions. Gross margins have also increased during the quarter by 300 basis points, from 31.6% in Q4 FY 2023 to 34.6% in Q4 FY 2024. This clearly shows that the company is getting back on track after a challenging year, mainly due to external factors. Going ahead for FY 2025, we expect revenues to grow by 12%-15%. We see our EBITDA margins to increase and be in the range of 15%-18% in this year. With this brief review, I would now like to hand over the call to our CFO, Mr. Shailesh Mehendale, for discussing our financial performance. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Mr. Shailesh. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, everyone. Coming to quarter four FY 2024 performance, revenues stood at INR 1,312 crores in quarter four for FY 2024 versus INR 1,482 crores in quarter four FY 2023, a reduction of 11% year-on-year. Coming to the split, agrochemical business reduced by 8% year-on-year to INR 1,215 crores, whereas the non-agrochemical business reduced by 42% year-on-year to INR 97 crores. Gross margins stood at 34.6% in quarter four FY 2024 as against 31.6% in quarter four FY 2023 and increased by 300 basis points. EBITDA stood at INR 303 crores in quarter four FY 2024. PAT for the quarter stood at INR 144 crores. Coming to the full year FY 2024 performance, revenues stood at INR 3,163 crores in FY 2024 versus INR 4,045 crores in FY 2023, a reduction of 22% year-on-year. Coming to the split, agrochemical business reduced by 21% year-on-year to INR 2,639 crores, whereas the non-agrochemical business reduced by 25% year-on-year to INR 524 crores. Gross margins stood at 25.9% in FY 2024 as against 29.3% in FY 2023. We have done stock revaluation as per accounting policy, and that has impacted our GP and profitability to the tune of INR 91 crores in FY 2024. EBITDA stood at INR 318 crores, whereas PAT for the full year stood at INR 32 crores. Working capital days as of 31st March 2024 stands at 158 days. We remain net debt-free company and have cash and liquid investment of INR 375 crores as of 31st March 2024. The board of directors have recommended dividend of INR 300 for the financial year 2023-2024. We can now open the floor for the questions and answers. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and one. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Soham Joshi from ASC. Please go ahead. Hello. Am I audible? Yes. Congratulations on what is numbered. My first question is, when you said that we'll be growing with 12%-15%, does it mean that we'll be growing at 12%-15% keeping the last year as base, I mean, 2023-2024? When will we see the realizations coming to 2022 level? Sir, can you speak a little slowly because your speech was very fast and the words were getting mixed up? So please speak slowly, separating the words. I'm sorry. That we will see 2% growth, does it mean that 12%-15% growth has compared to the 23 levels? I mean, when will we see the realizations coming up toward 21, 22 levels? No, 23 levels. 23 levels. Okay. So it will take some time for the realizations to come up to 21, 22 levels, right? Yes, please. Okay, okay, okay. Thanks a lot, sir. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt, sir, but there is an echo from the management line. Hello? Yes, sir. Yes, please. Now it's clear. Should we move on to the next question, sir? Yes, please. Yes. The next question is from the line of Ankur Kumar from Alpha Capital. Please go ahead. Yes, sir. Congrats for the recovery, and thank you for taking my question. Am I audible? Yes, please. Yeah, sir. I was listening to your CNBC interview in that you were guiding for 5%-10% volume growth for this year. But now you are saying in terms of revenue, 12%-13%. So is it like we expect pricing to recover, sir? Yes, please. Got it, sir. And sir, last two years, we have a lot of issues in terms of foreign exchanges loss, inventory losses, demand slowdown. So how are we looking in terms of things now? See, the foreign exchange loss was in the year before last, and that was a temporary phenomenon, and it got recovered by the end of that year itself. Now, these are all factors which are due to external factors, universal factors, Ukraine-Russia war, and many factors which you cannot predict in advance. So I suppose, in spite of the wars in the Middle East now, the cross-currency exchange rates will be more or less steady. But it can go anyway which we cannot predict at this stage. Got it, sir. And sir, in terms of margin, sir, you are saying 15%-18%. But if I look at our history, we have never done lower than 16% margin, sir. So any comment on why are we saying 15 and not, say, 17, 18, 20% margin times? Mr. Ankur Kumar, I mean, I am not having any 100% calculations. We are talking about future, and nobody can say for sure. I don't rule out it going to 15, and I also don't rule out going up to 18. It's just the range that I have stated. Now, I shouldn't take it very seriously that's why I said 15. It can happen. Okay, sir. And sir, in our CNBC interview, you said demand pricing is better than RM pricing right now. So can we expect some inventory gains in the first quarter or second quarter? Not much because the increase is not so abrupt. It is very gradual. Okay. But there will not be any inventory losses and all those stuff, sir? No, not that we can predict as on today. Got it, sir. And sir, in balance sheet, our receivable and inventory absolute number is down. So is it because pricing is down, so those numbers are down, or volumes also we have reduced? Mainly because of the prices. Mainly because of prices. Got it, sir. I'll join back with you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohit Nagraj from Centrum Broking. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, and good to see the recovery. Sir, first question is, during this Q4, we have done agrochemicals volumes growth of almost 29%. So what is your perception of this? Is it primarily because of the Red Sea and logistics and supply chain challenges that the volumes have gone up? Because what we hear from the industry participants is that there is still a good amount of inventory in the global system. So just your thoughts on this. Thank you. Sir, first of all, quarter four, our business is seasonal business, and quarter four is the best business among all the four quarters that we have. So in this quarter, the demand has been better than what it was in the first three quarters, and we were also having availability of the product. We didn't have to wait for long-distance transportation and other things. So some of these factors have helped us. We were able to meet the demand of the customers very promptly. So these have helped us to increase the volume. Sure. Sir, second question is in terms of working capital. So the inventory days and receivable days have increased on a year-on-year basis. So do we think that probably this would be the normal working capital incrementally, or we expect that over the course of FY 2025, the working capital days would come down? Thank you. See, this working capital has gone up mainly because of the creditor days sorry, mainly because of the receivable days. The receivables have been slow. Many of our customers have not been able to receive the payments from their customers, and they have been requesting us for an extension of the credit period, which we have to do in the interest of long-term business relationship. But I am sure all these things will get but these are not very regular features, and I am sure they are going to be corrected, and these figures will come down. Sure. Thanks for answering the questions, and all the best, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nagraj. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tanish Mehta from iThought. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Sir, just my first question with regards to what has been driving the decline in the non-agrochemical segment? Sir, the main factor responsible is the freight charges, which have increased astronomically high and much more after the disturbance in the Red Sea area, and also the time of travel from the source to the destination. Because of the increased cost, the natural impact has been on the demand. Somebody who would replace a belt after six months, he'll wait for one or two more months till the things get waiting for the things to come to normal. So this is a very natural phenomenon, mainly because of the freight and time of travel and resultant higher cost. Right. Okay. So my second question is that we have noticed over the past few years that the cost as well as the time to register any new product has increased significantly. So your commentary on this has been that it's a good thing in the sense that there will be lesser competition and better market. This is obviously true, and that is going to be the case. But another way to look at it is that because these costs are increasing and time is also increasing to register new products, our ability to get new registrations will decrease. Our registration growth will decrease. So in that sense, won't the revenue also decrease? Because over the past, if you look, we have been adding registration and. Oh, excuse me. Mr. Tanish, your voice is having a very big, loud echo. We are not able to understand. And so either you have to something has to be done about the voice, or you have to speak a little slowly. Sure, sure. And my audible sound good? You are audible, but the echo is much more stronger and more audible, more louder. Right. So, sir, my question is basically that because registration costs. 1 minute. Speak with the handset. Just a second, sir. Yeah. Is it better now? Much better. Right. Yes, sir. So my question is with regards to the cost and time of registering new products. So we have noticed that it's increasing significantly over the past few years. So your commentary has been that it's a good thing because, obviously, competition will be lesser, and we'll get better margins also. But another way to look at it is that over the past years or past six, seven years, our ability to generate new revenue is directly proportional with our ability to get new registrations. Over the past five, six years, we've been able to add registration at an increasingly high rate. But this is going to decrease in the future because, obviously, cost and time is increasing. So won't the revenue growth also be affected? So I just wanted some clarity on that. Is my understanding wrong, or yeah? You see, you have first said that the costs are going up. We have said it is better. Now, let me tell you, we have no control on the cost of registrations. The cost of registrations are going up because the authorities want to be more and more sure about the compatibility of the product, effectiveness of the product, and harmfulness of the product to the human and animal life and fauna and flowers. So these are the factors which are leading to the increase in the cost of registration. Now, I have told you that it is better as far as Sharda is concerned because Sharda has registered many products. Maybe 10 years back or eight years back, where the cost was much lesser, maybe less than 50%, which a new entrant has to spend now. So that puts the new entrant to a small disadvantage compared to Sharda, who have already recovered all their investment of the registration of these products over the last eight to 10 years. And that is the only thing I can comment. And these costs will keep on going up, but we have to flow with the stream, and we are still able to recover the investment on these registrations over a period of about two to three years in general. So our business is not adversely affected because of the increase in the cost because we are able to also recover our investments in the same way. Right. Okay. So what is the reregistration period for these molecules in different markets? My friend, you are Mr. Tanish Mehta, no? Yes, sir. Mr. Tanish, there is no period for reregistration. Every product has. The registration has a validity, which is normally five years. It can be seven years. It can be three years in some cases. After the period of when that period passes, you have to reregister the product. While you are reregistering, you continue to use that registration. The registration is not expiring. You continue to sell your products under that registration, and the business is not getting impacted. Reregistration period is just bureaucratic and additional information which go side by side to the sales. It is increasing because the authorities need more sophisticated data, more detailed information to make sure that the product continues to be harmless and no harmful product gets into the fields or gets in touch with the human beings. There's nothing like reregistration period because that reregistration period is just on paper. It does not impact our sales and ability to sell. Right. Okay. Thank you so much for the clarification, sir. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash Dedhia from Maximal Capital. Please go ahead. Hello. Thanks, Mr. Bubna. Am I audible? Very faintly, sir. Not very clearly. Okay. Am I audible now? Better. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, sir, I just wanted to know how the supply side is facing with respect to this lower realization and demand fluctuations. So is the industry moving from stocking the supply to using the product and ordering the product just before the consumption happens? Or the normalization is there in terms of stocking the products just like it used to happen earlier? Mr. Dedhia, your question is not very clear. What I am saying is this problem had happened in the last one year or more because of excess supply, excess production in the factories in China, which the world markets could not absorb. So the availability of the product was very easy, and the prices were going down for every next purchase because the demand was lesser than the production. Now, that situation is getting improved now. The Chinese have controlled their production. Some of them have cut down or shut down their extra capacities, and the demand is coming closer to the production. But the product has still to be ordered. The waiting period for the shipments is much lesser because most of the factories are carrying inventory. Now, this situation may change in the next four to six months when the stocks of the manufacturing factories go down to the normal level. So now. That is part of your question. Now the supply side is recalibrating with the demand forecast, which is it? Now, the supplier side is having it is sort of not take, take, take, give, give, give. We are going towards from take, take, take to give, give, give. Yeah. So it is recalibrating with the demand forecast. If the demand is there right now, then the supply will happen right now. And if the demand is there after, say, after two months, then the stock will be created after two months. I think this situation may take about four to six months ahead for it to come down to a normal when the inventory has to be produced after receiving the order and not available waiting for the order. Okay. The realizations have been stabilized now at the bottom level, or it is still yet to go down, or the recovery is in the near future? No, you are saying realization and recovery. These are two separate things. The recovery and the realization. The realization, again, depends upon the availability and the price at the source. Now, the prices at the source have not started going up because the products are available waiting for the demand. So when the source prices are not going up, the price realizations cannot go up independent of the source price. And this process will take still some more time when the manufacturers will be starting production of the goods after receipt of the order. Till then, we are passing through the intermediate stage. Clear? Okay. And. Sorry to interrupt, sir. I would request Mr. Yash to please follow up in the question queue for further questions. The next question is from the line of R. Ramesh from Nirmal Bang Equities. Please go ahead. Good evening, and thank you very much, Bubnaji, and congratulations. So if I may ask you, when you mentioned about China shutting down production and reducing the supply, we also see that they are adding a lot of capacity. So do you see the supply from China from now at least getting stabilized at where they are and further reduction in the production and cutdown of capacities, or will the new supplies again put some pressure? What is your reading of the situation? Rameshji, I have never said that they are adding to the capacities. They had done a lot of addition to the capacities almost two years back, and the world and industry is suffering for that. So on the contrary, Chinese are cutting down on the capacities so that they can sell the product and not sit on the inventories. This situation is getting slowly towards normality. So you're. And. Please go ahead, yeah. Huh? And nobody is keen because they cannot; they have to pay for the inventory. They have to pay for the storage, and they have to pay the finance cost for the inventories. This, the Chinese have realized, is very painful. So they are only trying to run and manage whatever minimum capacities they can run to recover the normal maintenance costs. Yeah. So I was not referring to the situation today. No, I was not referring to your mentioning capacity addition. I was talking about what I have read. So if you see the news on Chinese capacity addition, they're adding a lot of new capacity. So I was just wondering whether that incremental capacity will again lead to oversupply. So you are saying that right now, they are reducing capacities. That's okay. Second thing is if you. To my knowledge, to my knowledge, no new capacities are being added. I don't know from where have you read it, and everybody is worried about the capacities today. But if you read it somewhere, I have no means to dispute it. Okay. Second thing is when you look at your expectation for future on your 15%-17% return margin, will you be able to go back to, say, 15%-18% ROCE? What is the kind of expectation you have in terms of your normalized ROCE level, say, over the next two years? Sir, we should be able to. Today, I am hopeful we should be able to go back to those levels. So if you're looking at that expectation, would it be possible to do that with just volume growth because prices are volatile, not in your control? So if you are able to do this volume growth of, say, 5%-10% and normal price increases over a period of two years, will you be able to achieve that ROCE? Sir, this becomes very theoretical question. As I am saying, along with the, I mean, reduction in the inventories, the prices are also picking up, or they have started to pick up, and they will pick up because this is a normal flow business. So you are saying that a combination of volume growth and some pricing power will help you achieve your overall revenue and margins, and that will help you sustain your ROCE. Understood. Yes, sir. You have given a very appropriate word to what I was trying to say. That is a combination. Okay. Thank you very much, and wish you all the best. Yes, sir. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shubham Sehgal from SiMPL. Please go ahead. Hello, sir. Am I audible? Yes. Yes, sir. So my first question was, how has the primary sales for us been in quarter four in our major markets, especially North America and Europe? And what is the communication we are getting from our distributors in terms of liquidation for the upcoming season in June and September quarter? Mr. Sridharan, we don't have to, I mean, we are in touch with our markets, and we are in regular and daily touch with the markets. So this is our observation and understanding of the market, that the demands are picking up, and the prices should slowly start increasing. What about the liquidation of the inventory they're having? Sir, the inventory is getting liquidated over a period of time. The inventory was there, it speaks about a year back or even more. Now, the inventories are going down both at the consumer level as well as the production level and in the pipeline. It's a slow but continuous process. Okay, okay, sir. Got it. And my next question is, so our volumes have strongly grown in quarter four and FY 2024 as a whole. So how much is this led by new product registrations for which we have been investing in the last three, four years versus the existing molecule registrations? Sir, I mean, I would say it's both. Both new registrations versus our ability to convince the customers, market our products, and the customers accepting our goods and our supplies. Okay. And just to follow up on this, so we have seen a positive growth in our North American market. So what is that driven by? Any new products we have introduced there, or what exactly is driving that? I think, broadly speaking, there's not many new products. It's mainly the existing products. But we are adding the products which are new to us for different kinds of vegetables. I mean, various kinds of crops. The products are same, but they are being used for different crops. So we are adding these crops to our registrations, and that is also helping us. Okay. And so what is our channel inventory right now at the distributor level at the end of quarter four, if I must ask? And do you see any risk to our current high receivables or inventory? Again, two parts. We don't see much of a risk to our current receivables. And considering the channel inventory, I do not know how to keep track of this channel inventory. There's nothing like a channel inventory in my way, my thinking. People buy the goods when they need it, when they have demand. And the manufacturers, they deliver the goods. If some demand comes, they start producing when they find that the levels have gone down, and if they have to keep their factory running. Okay. Got it. And so in Q4, margin. So what was that led by? Were there any one-offs? No, sir. Your voice got cut in between, so I couldn't hear the full part of the question. Can you please repeat it? Yeah, yeah. I'll repeat it. I'll repeat it. So in quarter four, we saw sizable expansion in gross margins. So what was that led by? Were there any one-offs present? No. There was not any one-off, and there's not been a very sizable gain in the gross margins. There's been a reasonable gain in the gross margins. Earlier, the trend was that if I'm selling somebody a product at $90, he will come back to me that, "Sorry, the prices have gone down to $75." So either you take back the goods or give me a discount. And since I had to, I look at the long-term business. I don't want to lose my customer. I accepted demand because I have to stay in the market. Now, this process was going on from $75-$50, $50-$35. And we have borne all that depreciation in the prices, not the customer. Now, that process is getting stopped for us. Now, the customer is buying, and he's able to sell at the price that he's buying from us. That makes us very comfortable. Okay. So going. Sorry to interrupt, sir. I would request Mr. Shubham to please follow up in the question queue for further questions. The next question is from the line of Darshita from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question was regarding any sales returns that we have seen in the month of April and May after the fourth quarter volume growth that we have seen. Any what? Any sales returns. Any significant sales returns. Almost zero. There's no sales return in the first one and a half months of this quarter. All right. Got it. And I had. Which was in abundance during the same period last year. Right, right. There's a huge amount of sales returns, and this year, there's no sales returns. Right. Yeah. That's what I was trying to understand. Okay. Got it. I had a couple of bookkeeping questions. If you could give the volume, price, and exchange contribution to overall sales for fourth quarter and full year FY 2024. One minute. For the quarter four, the volume growth has been 25%. Foreign exchange impact has been +3.2%, but price and product mix impact has been almost -40%. So this has led to a total growth of -11.5%. Okay. And the same for FY 2024? This is FY 2024. Okay. This is for FY 2024. Sorry, sorry. I'm sorry. Right. Quarter 2024. Quarter four, Q4, 2024. For FY 2024? FY 2024, the volume growth has been 4%. Foreign exchange impact has been also +4%, but product and price mix has had an impact of -21%. Sorry, -29% or -30%. And total growth is -22%. Okay. Got it. Could we get the volumes for agrochemicals for fourth quarter FY 2024, region-wise volumes? One minute. You said for the quarter FY 2024? Yes. In Europe, the volume has been some 9,958,000 and/or units, which is a growth of 24.4% over the previous year, quarter four. In Latin America, this is a degrowth of -23% in the same quarter this year compared to last year. In NAFTA region, the volume has increased to 52.5%. And in the rest of the world, the volume has increased by 12%. Overall, an increase of 28% in the period of FY 2024, Q4 2024. Q4 2024. Okay. Perfect. And region-wise gross margins? Pardon? Region-wise gross margins. Yeah. Region-wise gross margin, Europe has been 36%. Latin America, also 36%. NAFTA, 31%. The rest of the world, 36%. Average, 34.6%. Right. Perfect. And just one last question. Region-wise registrations, if you can give us? One minute. Region-wise registrations, as on March 24, Europe is 1,617. Latin America, 756. NAFTA, 300. The rest of the world, 246. Same for the pipeline? Pipeline Europe is 680. Latin America, 204. NAFTA, 125. And the rest of the world, 90. 90. Perfect. Got it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, madam. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dhruv Muchhal from HDFC Asset Management. Please go ahead. Yes, sir. Thank you. Sir, we are seeing that technical prices from China and others have already fallen and probably stabilized also to some degree. So have the innovators also taken this similar price correction for the end market, formulation products meant, or they are not cutting their prices as much, which can then benefit us to earn better margins? Sir, how can they? Because we can then correct that. Because we are living in a different world. Innovators are, at the end of the day, operating in the same market, and the customer base is the same for them as well as for us. So innovators have no other choice if they want to have their market share to fall in line with the rest of the things. And I want to tell you one thing. In this period, probably innovators have cut down their own production substantially, and they also started sourcing from China because they find that their own cost of manufacturing is much higher than what the Chinese can provide them. They have to stay in the market. They have to bring down their prices. Okay. They're already cutting prices in the final market. They have cut. I'm not saying cutting because now maybe that period is not worth there. Now, they may be getting the opportunity to increase the prices. Okay. Got it. Sure, sir. That was the only question. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nikhil from SiMPL. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. two, three questions. One is a bookkeeping question. Am I audible? Yes, you are audible. Yeah. One is this write-off on intangibles of INR 35 crore, which we have taken. If you can just elaborate a little bit more on this. And secondly, on the depreciation, we also saw a drop in Q4. So what is the sustainable rate of depreciation? One minute, sir. Let us deal with your question one by one. Your first question was write-off in the intangible. Am I right? Correct, sir. These things happen when the registrations are no longer yielding any benefit or sales. When the registration becomes old or outdated, then as per the accounting guidelines and as per the auditors, they advise, and we also agree with them, and we write off the intangible assets. Or sometimes the products get banned because of many reasons. So in that case, the registrations that we are holding and the product is banned, then that registration is not giving us any value, and they write it off. Okay. So what was this number for the full year? Yeah. For the full year, this write-off was INR 35 crore. Okay. Secondly, on the depreciation, there is a drop. One minute. Hello? Yes, sir. Hello. My friend, my colleagues tell me that there is no drop. There's an increase in the depreciation. No. For the fourth quarter, our run rate of depreciation was INR 70 crore, which came down to INR 54 crore this quarter. So just asking on that aspect. See, this is a question of mathematics because the depreciation is decided by manufacturers, including the use of their worthwhileness of the depreciation and useful life of the product. Okay. We should consider the full year number as the run rate to continue. Yes, please. Okay. Just two more questions. One is, what would be your CapEx guidance for 2025? I have given already. The CapEx guidance is about INR 400 crore-INR 450 crore. Okay. And lastly, sir, you mentioned at the beginning of the call the guidance you gave of around 10%-12% sales growth. I was a little bit confused because somewhere you said it's on a base of 2023. If you can just reiterate the guidance, and what is it on a base of? Is it on 2024 sales base or 2023 sales base? No, this is for FY 2025 based on 2024 sales. Okay. Okay. Fine. Thanks. I'll come back in a bit. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bhavya Gandhi from Dalal & Broacha Stock Broking. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, just wanted to understand. We get our products manufactured from China. So if you can share, what would be capacity utilization graph across the plants over there? If you can give some broad assessment? See, it's very difficult to get into those details with the Chinese manufacturers because Chinese manufacturers are not so transparent. They can't help us. All we come to know from them is that they are sitting with when we go there, meet them at exhibitions or any occasions, they only say that they are sitting on a huge inventory, and they want to get rid of it. They have reduced their production capacity in terms of I mean, one manufacturer was telling me he had seven plants. Now, he shut down three plants, and he's running only four plants. These are all hearsay. There's no written or concrete information I can. These are just guidelines. Right. Got it. And another, with respect to volume growth post restocking. So I understand now, again, there would be a scenario for two to three quarters where restocking will happen. Post that, maybe one or two, three years down the line, what would be the sustainable volume growth? Because I understand the industry is merely growing at 3%-4%. So I mean, on a longer-term basis, what would drive volume growth and revenue? Sir, I would say about 5%-10%. Yeah. I mean, what helps us assess that number? Pardon me? I mean, what gives us that belief of 5%-7% volume growth in the longer run? Sir, our exposure to the industry and our experience over so many years. What we see, we get the feedback from our customers, manufacturers, competitors. It's a general information. Okay. Just if you can share, what is the absolute sales return amount for FY 2024? One minute. Sir, I don't have that figure ready. But when you say sales return, yes, one month, one customer returns to us, and we get back to our warehouse. But then the same product is taken by some other customer who is in need of that product. Got it. Got it. And, sir, just lasting on the. Sales return forever. Right. Right. Got it. Sir, and elaborating on the succession planning, if I may ask, I mean, we see your sons in the PPT, but we don't hear them on the call. So if you can throw some light on that as well? You are Mr. Bhavya Gandhi. Gandhiji, they are more busy than me. They are contributing to the business. They are driving the business. They are pushing the sales, and they are doing all the things. Too much occupied but fully occupied in the business, but different field of business. Got it. Fair enough, sir. Yeah. That's it from mine. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rohan Gupta from Nuvama. Please go ahead. Rohan here, sir, good evening. Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations. I'm surprised you came at such a vague end of the call anyway. You are most welcome. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Sir, I was just asking that, first of all, congratulations on a sequential recovery seen in the current quarter. I think that after three to four quarters of a long period, we are seeing some recovery. Sir, first of all, what we wanted to understand is that this global competition and with the innovators, the competitive scenario still remains challenging. And probably, as you rightly mentioned, that they are also able to purchase some materials from China, and that reduces their cost and probably reduces the gap between the generic players like you or the branded players like innovators. So in this kind of scenario, do you see that with the lower prices, a company like ours, we face some risk of losing volume or market share? Sir, I didn't understand this part of the question. Sir, we are with generic players. Yeah. See, generic players have their own space, and they are different customers, different style of marketing. Innovators have a different style of marketing. I can only tell you one thing, Rohanji, that sometimes these innovators are buying from us a generic product for their own sales, probably because probably they didn't have sufficient inventory at that time and things like that. They know that we are selling it from China, and we are supplying them Chinese product to meet their demand. Sometimes they don't have the registration of that product, which we have. But sir, in the current scenario, the pricing difference between the branded players and you would have come down, right? It would have narrowed down. To some extent, yes. Okay. The farmers, if they have a choice of buying a brand product maybe at a gap of only 10% versus earlier 20%, isn't it a risk that he will prefer buying a Bayer or a BASF product at a 10% difference, which earlier the difference was 20%? That is the risk I was talking about. Guptaji, the farmers have also become businessmen. This 10% margin also, they find it very difficult to afford. They pay the 10% extra to them because they are dealing with a supplier who has a wider product mix. Along with the generic common product, they can also get some special product. So they are all having their own calculations. Nobody is paying them a higher price just because they are innovators. Some of them do. But I mean, everybody knows that and our distributors are the biggest good salesperson for us. If some farmer comes to them for a product, they say, "This product is not available, but you can buy this product Sharda." The natural question is, will it work? And the answer is, yes, definitely, it will work because it is certified by our government. Look here on the label. The government certification is there. These things work in our favor in the long run. When they do not have any bad experience with our product, they slowly get a confidence that it's better to buy it 10% cheaper from generic. At the end of the day, both the products are working and giving similar results, which is a fact. Right, sir. The second question is that in the last two to three quarters, we had incurred losses not only on a high-cost inventory, but also we have to offer higher rebates and discounts to our customers and distributors for the collection. In this quarter, sir, in the current quarter, Q4, your gross margin has improved significantly. Actually, we are at almost all-time high at 35%+. So in the current quarter, we did not offer any discounts, rebates to the customer. There is no mention of that in the presentation or even in the commentary. Just wanted to hear your thought on that. Rohanji, in the previous quarters, our margins were much lesser or negative because our cost of purchase was much higher. We didn't purchase it for that market, that situation. We had bought it when the prices were at the peak. We were sitting with those products, and we were selling them even if the prices are going down. To give you an example, some products we sold at a peak at $90 per gallon. Finally, the prices came down to about $18 per gallon. We also sold the product at $18. Today, that product is selling at $16 per gallon. The erosion in the margins was because of higher cost and the market prices shrinking and dumping down. That situation has improved now. I am not sitting with very high-cost inventories. My inventory cost is also much more competitive compared to what it was in the first two, three quarters. Yes, sir. That is a high-cost inventory. Liquidation is almost over. That is also roughly INR 90 crore. That is true. Yeah. So that is INR 90 crore impact you have mentioned in the presentation. I was asking that along with the high-cost inventory liquidation, that point you explained and understood, we were also in the last concall in the last two concalls was making comments that you have to offer higher discounts for the collection. In that scenario, is no more I mean, for collecting the payment from the customers, now you need not to offer them any rebates or discounts? That's what my question was. Rohanji, I think there is some misunderstanding here. In our market, we have never offered rebates or high amount of rebates for recoveries. The rebates or anything is decided at the time of closing the deal, at the time of when I am supplying. He will ask me for a rebate because he says he's getting a similar product at these rates from somebody else. If my selling price is $30 and he says I'm getting for $24, then I may reduce my price from 30 to maybe 25 or 26. Now, you can call it a rebate, or I will. Actually, for you, it was a high-cost inventory where you have to match the customer asking prices. We had to reluctantly come down to those levels. Because we didn't want to sit on the inventories. We were afraid we will ask too much. We may get down to 24 or 23. Got it, sir. So now that all the high-cost inventory is liquidated, that's where we are seeing the improvement in margins, in the gross margins in the current quarter. Okay, sir. We are nimble-footed, asset-light company. We can switch over from one product to the other product without any cost, which a manufacturer cannot do. Right. Sir, in the last 3-4 quarters, we have heard that many distributors, dealers have gone through the tough time. The high-cost inventory liquidation has not only affected you, but many dealers also. Do you see that some of the dealers have gone off the business or who have gone through huge losses in the last 1 year? Many of the old dealer distributors with whom you were doing the business, they are not able to continue the business now or off the market? No, sir. Rohanji, that kind of situation has not happened because they were very conveniently able to transfer that depreciation in the price to their suppliers because they are buying on credit. They are not buying on advance payment or cash against delivery. And if they say that, "Sorry, I cannot give you. Either you take the goods back or give me a discount." So I would tell you, in this entire process, intermediaries like us and manufacturers suffered, not the actual distributors. Actual distributors have probably made good margins. They have taken undue advantage of this situation. Right. Sir, the gross margin in the current quarter, which is roughly 35%, do you see that these are the sustainable margins, or they will once again come back going forward? Because raw material prices still remain very low, right? So we should be able to improve on margins further from here. So just comment on gross margins, sir, for the current year. No, sir. I don't think that they'll go down. They will stay. For the entire year and the next year? I mean, FY 2025. You'll see. Entire year. You are heading the world. I'm not an astrologer. I hope so. From what I see the picture today, there is no reason for the gross margins to go down because at the end of the day, our margins are very reasonable. There have been some products where the innovators are selling at about 300% margin. They have to worry about it, not companies like Sharda. Sorry to interrupt, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that was the last question for today's call. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Okay. Thank you, everyone, for joining us for this conference. I hope we have been able to answer all your queries. We look forward to such interactions in the future. We hope to meet your expectations in the future too. In case you require any further details, you may contact us or Mr. Deven Dhruva from SGA, our investor relations partner. We are available for answering all your questions. Thank you so much. We also learn a lot from your questions, which also helps us. Thank you very much. On behalf of Antique Stockbroking, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line. Thank you. Thank you.