• Advertising and margins: Elevated Q1 advertising and sales promotion expenses were front-loaded, with marketing spends expected to normalize to around 2.5% of revenue over the remainder of the year.
• Export performance: Exports experienced flattish growth during the quarter due to the West Asia crisis weakening switchgear export demand, though domestic market demand remains resilient.
• Pricing and volumes: High raw material volatility led to 7% to 8% price hikes across consumer categories, resulting in muted volume growth but higher overall value growth.
• Capex guidance: Havells increased its capex target to ₹1,400 crore, allocating more than half to cables capacity expansion and approximately ₹200 crore to setting up a new R&D facility.
• Lloyd segment outlook: Performance is projected to stay strong over the next three to four quarters, driven by completed price hikes and upcoming capacity additions in refrigerators during Q2 and Q3.