by Suman Gupta
This year, we have witnessed the waning of the pandemic effect for home appliances segment. After two-years gap, the summer season this year saw higher demand for cooling appliances, and then festive season was an enabler for consumers to upgrade their appliances and initiated those purchases which were being postponed since a long time. Although inflation affected consumer sentiment in the mass segments, premium segments remained buoyant.
We have witnessed growth in premium segments over mass segments across geographies and channels. For Godrej Appliances, the premium segment has grown over 100% in comparison to the pre-pandemic period FY 19-20; this growth rate is at par with the industry trend. Additionally, we have been witnessing more traction for appliances delivering higher convenience, larger capacities, and health-first innovative features with latest technologies. To cater to this, we offered 100+ new product SKUs largely centered around premium products across categories-from side-by-side refrigerators to top end automatic washing machines, double door refrigerators, advanced air conditioners – and our new cooling solution InsuliCool. Many of these premium offerings are health first offerings, with patents applied – like the food disinfection technology in refrigerators, germ disinfection in washing machines or the unique thermoelectric precision cooling for insulin, delivering greater health and convenience to our customers. Supported by the above, in FY 22-23, Godrej Appliances has achieved more than 66% growth over last year, at par with the industry growth rate.
Talking about the growth prospects for 2023, overall the industry is expected to grow at 10%- 15% in FY 23-24 and Godrej Appliances is expecting 20% growth in this period- this growth will be primarily led by the premium segment.YTD November data re-establishes the premium trend with Frost Free refrigerators and Fully Automatic Washing Machines continuing to grow much faster. We have also planned for significant investments and have new launches coming up as well.
