BSH, Europe’s largest home appliances maker, hopes to launch a range of new products in the Indian market, including refrigerators, chimneys and cooktops. At the same time, it is shifting production of top loading washing machines from China to India, a top official told THE WEEK.
The move comes on the back of rising demand for appliances as many people continue to work from and spend more time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sales in the first half of 2021 are expected to grow as much as 50 per cent, while it sees full year sales growth of 30-35 per cent, a top official told THE WEEK.
“We are launching around 25-30 models of refrigerators from our Chennai factory in October. We are also launching self-clean and auto-clean chimneys from August, that is also close to 35 models and then we are also launching four models of cooktops in October or November this year. Also, we have shifted production from China of top load fully automatic washing machine. That also will be coming in this year,” Neeraj Bahl, MD and CEO of BSH Household Appliances, said.
The company is investing €100 million in India to scale up IoT (internet of things)-based product solutions and setting up factory for refrigerators.
The Narendra Modi government last year approved a Rs 1.46 lakh crore production-linked incentive scheme for 10 sectors to attract global companies to manufacture in India. Several consumer electronics and smartphone makers applied for the incentives. For instance, Samsung is shifting its mobile and IT display production unit from China to the National Capital Region, it was announced in December.
iPhone maker Apple’s partners including Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron too had received approvals to invest in India under the PLI scheme
On Wednesday, the government approved Rs 7,350 crore PLI scheme to boost local manufacturing and exports of computers, laptops and tablets, among other IT products.
“The PLI scheme is a very good initiative by the Indian government and definitely we would like to participate as much as possible. We have already started our refrigerator plant and we are also looking at dishwashers to move to India. We are also looking for shifting hand blenders production to India. So, yes, we will be participating in this scheme for sure,” said Bahl.
BSH already has a plant in Chennai, where it has invested Rs 300 crore. BSH intends to expand the capacity there as it plans to start manufacturing dishwashers, a product category that has seen demand surge as a more than two-months of lockdown last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, forced people to stay at home. Bahl also said that it will be exhausting the 350,000 units per annum capacity for front-load washing machines there and has already got approval to enhance the line so that the production capacity will go up to 500,000 units.
In due course, BSH also plans to export some of the products from India to neighbouring SAARC countries and possibly Africa too.
As it introduces new products in the country, BSH also plans to expand its retail and distribution network.
“We are present across 4,000 retailers and by 2025 we will be looking at approximately 10,000 retailers,” Bahl said.
BSH is also expanding its direct2consumer platform to push sales of some of its products, especially high end.
It is estimated that the household appliances market in India will grow at around 14.5 per cent on a compounded annual basis resulting in a market volume of $2.02 billion by 2022.