Ice Make Refrigeration Limited (ICEMAKE) Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

All right. So thank you for joining back, and I'm so sorry about the technical error that was there with the system. So let's begin again and let me start again, all over again. So good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to Ice Make Refrigeration Limited quarterly vision dialogue for Q3 FY '26. Ice Make is a leading provider of industrial and commercial refrigeration solutions. Can I request the members to mute your system for now. We'll allow you to ask questions a little later. So we appreciate the presence of investors, analysts, partners and stakeholders joining us today. This platform is designed to provide transparent engagement structured insights into performance and clarity for our forward strategy. Before we begin, please note that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties. From the company, I welcome our CMD, Mr. Chandrakant P. Patel; and CEO, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. M. Srinivas Reddy; and Treasury Head, Mr. Nikhil Bhatt; and CFO, Mr. Ankit Patel; and also, CS Mr. Mandar Desai. They will take us through the financial performance and overview and outlook for the day. Now I invite our Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Chandrakant P. Patel, to share his opening remarks. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, and a warm welcome all. Ice Make continues to grow on its strong foundation of innovation [indiscernible] and long-term value creation. While the current operating environment may be dynamic, our focus remains on strengthening performance, accelerating market expansion and further strengthening operational discipline. I now request Mr. Reddy to share his thoughts on business performance and future outlook.

Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is an exciting phase for Ice Make Refrigeration Limited as we strengthen our market presence and customer engagement. Q3 FY '26 demonstrates sustained revenue momentum, planned expansion in new markets and [ global ] operations across industrial refrigeration, cold chain and commercial cooling segments. Now with a diverse product portfolio and expanding reach, we remain focused on disciplined execution and sustainable growth. Our priorities include strengthening regional penetration, operational efficiency and aligning systems and processes to support the next phase of growth and scale. While finance costs and depreciation remain elevated due to expansion initiatives, we are consciously working towards operational optimization and margin stability. With a few introductions, I now invite our CFO, Mr. Ankit Patel, to take you through the detailed financial performance.

Thank you, Reddy sir. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll give you a brief financial overview. On a stand-alone basis, revenue from operations for Q3 FY '26 stood at INR 153.21 crore with total income at INR 153.48 crore. The company reported a profit before tax INR 1.5 crore and profit after tax at INR 1.11 crore for the quarter. During the first 9 months of FY '26, stand-alone revenue from operations reached at INR 413.76 crore, while profit before tax stood at INR 1.68 crore and profit after tax stood at INR 1.17 crore. On a consolidated basis, Q3 FY '26 revenue stood at INR 153.36 crore, reflecting a robust 39% year-on-year growth. Profit before tax stood at INR 1.9 crore and profit after tax at INR 1.45 crore. For 9 months ended 31st December 2025, revenue reached at INR 412.35 crore. The demand remained healthy across industrial refrigeration, cold chain, HoReCa and commercial cooling segment during the quarter. Input costs and finance expense continue to exert pressure on margin. During the year, the company commenced operation majorly into 2 new verticals. In the initial phase, the focus is on establishing market presence and building customer relationships with margins calibrated accordingly. This entry stage, the strategy has resulted in some pressure on overall margins, which remains within management's planned range. As volume scale up and operating efficiencies improve, margins in these new verticals are expected to move closer to prevailing industry levels over the medium term. I now invite Mr. Nikhil Bhatt to share our strategic road map. Thank you.

Thank you, Ankitji. During the quarters, we have continued our journey in a better way as well as we have strengthened and expanded the retail presence through the various outlets or exhibitions related to HoReCa as well as the food-processing industries. We have showcased our product portfolio at major industries platform, including the HoReCa S Bangalore as well as [indiscernible] in Gandhinagar. And also for the dairy IDA exhibitions held at New Delhi. Our strategic priorities focus on 3 pillars may be the retail footprints expansion and last mile connectivity, strengthening presence in HoReCa, pharmaceutical and food-processing industries, enhancing manufacturing efficiency and product innovations. We are positioning Ice Make to capture long-term opportunities in India's expanding cold chain ecosystems. And looking to the numbers we have in order on hand of about INR 180-plus crores. We are hopeful that we are definitely achieve our goal at the end of this financial year. Thank you.

All right. So thank you so much, Nikhilji and the entire management team. Now we can open the floor for the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] All right. I've got the first question, sir. Congratulations on the good set of numbers. Revenue has grown strongly year-on-year. How sustainable is the current quarterly run rate going forward? This is a question from [ Hitesh Shah ]. Yes, please management -- over to management.

[Foreign Language]. Hello. Is it audible? [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] I'll just unmute his line. Request if you can ask question in Hindi.

[Foreign Language] Congratulations to the entire management of the Ice Make. Wonderful results. Sir, a couple of questions. First, if you could help me understand [Foreign Language]?

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Got it. Got it. [Foreign Language]

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Got it. [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] yes possible, yes.

Got it. Got it. And sir, 2 more questions on this new business. [Foreign Language]

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Got it. One more question on [Foreign Language]

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Got it. Got it. [Foreign Language] so that is of course probably a raw material for us across all products [Foreign Language] copper overall for us, is it impacting us, our margins as now?

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Perfect. [Foreign Language] because steel is a major raw material for us there.

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[Foreign Language]?

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Next year, sir, next year.

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FY '27 [Foreign Language]?

Yes.

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[Foreign Language] How will it add to our top line?

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Yes. Mehul, can I request you to come back. All right. Yes. So before we get [ Bhargav ], I have a question from Ruchika Modi. Her question is outlook on input cost, when is the pressure expected to recede? Also, current debt levels, if the management can share? And is it expected to increase further in near term? So this is a question from Ruchika. Sir, please, over to you.

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Okay. Thank you, Ankitji. Now we have Bhargavji. Sir, you can unmute and please -- go ahead with your question.

Yes. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Sir, [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] Somewhere around INR 325 crores, around INR 350 crores.

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Right.

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Thank you, Bhargavji. I have 2 questions on my chatbots. And it is for Mr. Srinivas. How does the company differentiate itself from competitors in the price-related market? That is one question. The second is what is the export outlook and contribution from international markets. And there is one more question, which is how will retail brand outlet expansion contribute to revenue and profitability. So these are 3 questions to our CEO. Over you, sir.

Thank you for asking these questions. I think the first question is, how do we compare ourselves with the competitors? I'm actually very proud to say that Ice Make has a better advantage than some of the competitors. In one, this -- the range, the diversified product portfolio the company has caters to entire consumption segment. So that's one positive. Second positive is, I think company has already invested in the manufacturing capabilities to beat all the government regulations, whether the [ QCR or BE ] and all of that. So that's definitely a positive compared to some of the competitors, of course. So what needs to be done here is, of course, the next phase of growth in terms of the channel expansion and strengthening the operational efficiency. These 2 are the levers that we want to look at to improve the sustained growth momentum. So the important thing is, I think companies 30 years in the industry, especially focused in the refrigeration alone. The core of this company is refrigeration, so unlike the competitors, so that gives them the leverage to innovate and launch products, which are core in the refrigeration itself. So I hope I've answered this question. What is the second question?

Yes. Thank you, sir. So the next question from the analyst is, what is the export outlook and contribution from international markets, any view on that?

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Okay. All right. Thank you, Ankitji. And there is one more question, which is related to how will retail brand outlet expansion contribute to revenue and profitability?

Yes. So currently, whatever we are expanding into the retail brand center, first thing is with -- that is not the company's liability, that is our dealer and liability that's a dealer's shop. That gives the brand actual customer can come to the shop and they can have a touch and feel of the products. Dealer also -- in this product specific, dealers are usually multi-brand dealers. If we are having a brand shop of any particular company, they can demonstrate the quality and the value for money for the product very easily. So secondary sale would be jumping in big numbers. So that is the main goal behind the retail brand shop. Yes, so if any other question regarding that, you can ask.

All right, sir. Thank you so much. And now we have a question from Dhananjay. Dhananjay, if you can unmute and ask your question.

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[Foreign Language] What will be the EBITDA to OCF conversion over the next 2 years? This is the question from her.

[Foreign Language] the same guidance what we used to give, somewhere around 9.5% to 10.5% [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] What will be the EBITDA going forward in FY '26 and FY '27? I think you -- we've already answered, but you can still.

I think current financial year [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] Now, we will take a question from [ Harsha Shah ], then we'll go to [ Khursiidji ] and then we take from there. So Harsha, please unmute yourself and ask.

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Now we will take a question from Khursiidji. And if you can unmute and then we'll answer the question that has come from [ Vaibhavi ]. All right. Khursiidji, please mute and you can ask your question. Khursiidji, are you there? [Foreign Language] If you can message me, I'll ask. [ Teja Patelji ], you can ask a question, please unmute and ask.

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[Foreign Language] it is in our focus. Going forward, we are also expanding this. [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] how is the response from South?

[Foreign Language] So response from South region is extremely well. Many [Technical Difficulty] already tied up with -- there's Jersey Milk, Amilma Ice Creams and Scoops Ice Cream. So we are onboarding a few good key players and also dealers. So the branch that we opened in South India was a specific Mangalore region. And dealer is pretty strong in the local area, and he already split his business into more like a 60-40 and 60 for Ice Make. So we are -- in the coming years, we are expecting more dealers to go more aggressive with the Ice Make. 120 dealers, we are already having more than 60% to 70% dealers whose billing is like quite regular, twice in a month or something like that. So we keep increasing that trust between dealers and company. We keep solving the problems on a principal level and everything. So we are expecting these numbers will -- by this time, we are -- we both are talking, there are multiple areas we are tapping right now. And it's almost every day, every day new dealer we are appointing and we are expecting -- West region, we already dominated very well. And North and South will be definitely in eye of target, and we'll keep expanding in the regions. Thank you.

Perfect, perfect. [Foreign Language]

West [Foreign Language] must be 50% to 55%. South [Foreign Language], there are 20%. And North [Foreign Language] again, more 20%. So 50, 20, 70, 99, 10 in the East region because East region, we've not tapped yet because it's quite far from our factory, transport costs are very high. And it's a quite tricky market. We want to tap first these 3 markets thoroughly and then go to...

Perfect. Perfect. One more question is, sir, continuous spend, what I understand is one of the major market for us as Chandrakant sir said infra is a big market for us [Foreign Language]. So is there a risk [Foreign Language] from demand perspective, would not be good for us, so [Foreign Language]

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All right. We have a couple of more questions. One is from Dhananjayji, I'll just come back to you. [Foreign Language]. Khursiidji question [Foreign Language]. Your operating margins are compressed, your expenses are having a toll on the bottom line. From when do you think your bottom line will be more aggressive than the top line? So this is a question from Khursiidji. He was not able to unmute himself.

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Okay. Ankitji [Foreign Language]. Any hopes of backward integration he's asking and whether curbing the cost in general are in plan?

In which vertical?

He saying that any hopes of backward integration or curbing the cost in general. So any backward integration of the company planning, you could share if there are any plans?

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Okay. [Foreign Language] curbing the cost in general [Foreign Language]?

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[Foreign Language] Thank you so much for that answer. [Foreign Language] You're extending in all 4 regions. [Foreign Language] Any thoughts you intend to open an office in the most hottest state, Rajasthan? [Foreign Language], how do you plan to enter that market?

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[Foreign Language] is around Mr. Reddy, he's saying congratulations to you for becoming the CEO of the company. With your expertise, where do you think Ice Make would be in 3 years? [Foreign Language] we have better that, but again, if you can just enlighten the investors on this, where do you see the company in 3 years -- next 3 years?

So well, I've said the company has very good number of innate strengths, which we want to leverage to grow this company into next bit of growth. If I have to just answer you a very specific question that where I want to see the next 3 years, we want to make this company #1 in all the products and solutions that we operate. That's one. And secondly, we want to make this company the most admired in the space that we work on in the next 3 to 5 years' time.

Absolutely, sir. [Foreign Language] It's for your only. Blue Star [Foreign Language] Can we expect margin expansion after reaching or surpassing the INR 1,000 crore top line that we plan to do by FY '28. [Foreign Language]

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[Foreign Language] I think we'll just take last question and I'll just unmute Tej Patel again. Tejji, you can ask your question. Please unmute.

Yes. I have just 2 questions from my end. Question number one is, [Foreign Language] in this financial year, we are targeting to close at about 8% at consol level. And the new business would break even this financial year at 30%, 40% utilization. That is question number one. And question number two is, if you could help me understand, sir [Foreign Language] at this financial year end -- I mean not this financial year, I mean the 9 months?

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At this consol level [Foreign Language] sir, we are targeting to close at about 8%, right, in this financial year, EBITDA?

It's somewhere around 8% [Foreign Language] we will close at current financial year. [Foreign Language]

Got it. Perfect, perfect. And just to just confirm INR 44 crores [Foreign Language], right?

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All right. So it looks like our Q&A session is showing better terms than the Nifty 50. So demand is very high. So let's take one more question, I suppose, from one second [ Charchit Maloo ]. Unmute yourself, sir, and you can ask. Yes, Charchitji, are you able to unmute or no? No? Okay. I think he's not able to unmute himself. So let's close the session, I suppose. Thanks for staying with us through today's call. If today taught us anything, it is that even platforms can have a market correction. And a special thanks to our platform for keeping us on our toes. We are back on track, and so that is the market. So I now invite the Company Secretary and Compliance Officer, Mr. Mandar Desai to sort of close the session. Thank you.

Thank you, Aryanji. Thank you all to all speakers and participants. We look forward to interacting again in the next quarterly vision dialogue. Thank you, and have a good day. Thank you all.

All right. So that concludes this quarterly vision dialogue. Stay with us. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.