Havells earmarks Rs 100 cr for marketing initiatives

Electrical equipment maker Havells India today said it will increase its marketing spend by over 40 per cent to Rs 100 crore by next fiscal and plans to enhance retail overseas footprints, starting with Africa.

The company, which is mainly into electricals and lighting products, plans to enter new segment like water heater by next winter.

"We invested around Rs 70 crore this fiscal on marketing and opening our centres. As we open more centres and expand our presence next fiscal, we have also increased our marketing spend to Rs 100 crore," Havells India Joint Managing Director Anil Gupta told reporters here.

The company, which today opened its first company-owned 'Havells World' centre, said it is planing to open 10 such centres across the country, besides increasing the number of existing retail stores run through dealers, 'Galaxy' to 100 this fiscal.

At 'Havells World' centre, the company will display all its products apart from using it as a training centre.

Gupta said although Havells brand is already available in international markets through appointed dealers, the company will open the first display centre, 'Galaxy' in Nairobi by next month. It will also consider opening more such centres in African countries, including Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania.

"We are focussing on the developing markets, Latin America and the African nations. In the near future, we expect growth coming from this region," he said.

At present, Gupta said Havells has sales revenue of about Rs 50 crore coming from the African continent.

The company is likely to clock a sales of about Rs 5,500 crore this fiscal and expects 15-10 per cent in the next financial year, he added.

"Due to the slowdown, our business was hit, particularly last fiscal. We have done a lot restructuring to bring back our profitability. This fiscal, we have been able to stabilise and by next fiscal, our target is to grow by 15-20 per cent," Gupta said.

He said last fiscal the company witnessed 25 per cent decline in demand from the European markets. Global business accounts around 65 per cent of the company's all overall turnover, he added.

This year, the company had sold its sanitaryware business to Somany group company Hindustan Sanitaryware and Industries (HSIL) for an undisclosed amount to concentrate on electrical equipment business.

He said, Havells will enter appliances business by this year. "Going forward, we are looking at expanding ourselves into the appliances segment. We are currently planing to launch our water heater this winter."