Havells India Limited, the country's leading electrical goods company, on Wednesday (February 08) announced its foray into the Rs 1,500 crore personal grooming market.
The maker of electric fans and switches will now add electric shavers, beard trimmers, hair straighteners and dryers to its portfolio.
Anil Rai Gupta, chairman and managing director, Havells India Ltd, said, "The personal grooming segment offers enormous growth potential. At Havells, it has never been about maintaining status quo but to understand pulse of the discerning consumer, evolve, innovate, enter new categories with best in line products and establish leadership position while setting new benchmarks in industry excellence."
Saurabh Goel, an executive vice president at Havells, said: "It is one of the fastest growing categories and there is a dearth of good quality products. The market is less cluttered and there are not enough players."
The company worked for a year on the preparations to enter the new market, Goel added.
The personal grooming market is growing at a rate of 25-30 per cent per annum and Havells wants to capture 25 per cent share in the next 2-3 years. At present, Philips is the market leader in India in this category. Japan-based Panasonic and Germany's Braun are the other top players.
"We have been able to evolve number one or number two player in whatever market we have chased in the past. This has been our hallmark," Goel said.
However, Havells will outsource its entire grooming range from vendors based in China, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia for the first few years.
"It has been our strategy for every product. First we import our products and then set up manufacturing unit," Goel said, adding that the company will manufacture the entire range in India in the next 2-3 years.
When asked whether the company will seek celebrity endorsements to market its products like Philips, Goel said Havells would not adopt that marketing method.
"In the past we haven’t tried any celebrity and in future we are likely to continue with the same strategy. However, we will aggressively market our product," he said.
Another person from the company said that some celebrity names were being considered but nothing has been finalised yet.
The products will be available online and in traditional retail stores. "We go wherever our customers are," Goel said.
The company has 400 franchise-based stores and plans to open 40-50 new outlets every year.
The company officials said demonetisation has not affected Havells' sales. Last month, the company reported a 27.54 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 152.97 crore for the third quarter ended 31 December.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
