Japan-based Hayashi has announced its foray into country's regular and premium electric fan market and plans to sell around 5 lakh units over the next three years. The company is also planning to set up its own manufacturing unit in India by the end of this year, which would act as a hub to meet the domestic demand and as well as the exports.
In an exclusive chat with BW | Businessworld's Haider Ali Khan, Ashish Narang, COO India, South East Asia and Middle East, Hayashi Electric, spoke about the company's plan and targets in India. Edited excerpts
On focus areaWe are entering in an entire set of market, but will start from the super premium fans. The fan market is quite saturated in India, big players are already here in the market. There is nothing new, but at the same time there is a segment which has not been tapped and that is the premium segment. The already established players tried their hand in this segment, but in bits and pieces and they lacked aggression.
On decorative fans trend in IndiaWe are the pioneers of decorative fans and in air technology. The trend in the Indian market has changed. People have started buying decorative fans. There is no organised decorative fan market in India.
We started the concept of decorative fans. We know what the market is. We have a factory in China and Taiwan, where most of our fans are made and we are selling close to one million fans in a year most of them are premium fans, which starts from Rs 5,000 and goes upto around Rs 15, 00,000. There is capacity in India to pay; availability has been a major issue.
On Make in IndiaWe want to Make in India as one of our manufacturing hub.
We are planning to build a manufacturing unit in India and probably in 2016 we would do so, but as of now we are importing the products from our plant in Taiwan and China. There are certain models of fans which are manufactured by our local vendors in India.
We have got our quality check team working with the local vendors here in India. We are an ISO 6 Sigma certified company and follow the same SOP everywhere.
But, all the decorative fans are imported only. We are awaiting the government's approval to set up our facility in India.
On investmentWe have invested here in sales and marketing only.
Our manufacturing unit will be somewhere on the coastal front of India as it will cut down on expenses and logistics.
On launchWe will begin our sales from February 1, 2016 and initially through brick and mortar store only. We will begin from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Chennai.
We will have online billing, but only through company's website. We are very new as a brand in India and as we grow we would like to have partnership with the e-commerce giants.
On nameWe will sell our products with the same name ‘Hayashi’ in India, which denotes ‘cool storm’ in Japanese. It is also the name of a tribe in Japan, and the founders are from the same tribe who owns this company.
On rangeOur range start from Rs 1,200 and premium luxury fans begin from Rs 5,000 and above and we are going to give a tough competition to the already established players here in India. Our main focus will be the high-end fans as that segment has not been tapped in India.
On USPIt is very easy to make a fan but, the technology and air-delivery that our products give is simply unmatched. Most of these decorative fans run on Direct Current (DC) and consumes 1/4th of the power from a regular fan. Our fans have two times more weight than the normal ones which gets an rpm of 330. People will use it as a fan rather than just a decorative masterpiece.
On promotion
We have not signed any brand ambassador to promote our brand as we want to penetrate the Indian market first, and then build on these promotional activities. We would like to reach every nook and corner of this country.
Till December 2016, we would like to add as many counters as possible and we are not concerned about the numbers; reach and penetration is important to us.
There is no TVC yet, but we are doing social media campaign. Our segment is internet-savvy. We want to be specific when it comes to premium fans and social media is a good option.
We do not see much competition in this segment and in entry segment; we do not want to compete. Our focus will be luxury premium segment.
On CSR
For our CSR, we would plant one sapling on every fan sold here in India and for that we do need some government support also. We may tie up with an NGO for this. This model has been successful in Middle-East and Africa. We would also like to help farmers with seeds.
On GSTWe support GST as it would make life much easier for the business people and the taxation will be much simpler and uniform. The state taxes are a nightmare.
BW Reporters
Haider Ali Khan is an alumnus of IIMC. He holds a degree in English Journalism from the prestigious campus. His passion includes Aviation, Technology, Politics and Sports.
