Eveready to focus on lighting, appliances to grow topline

Dry cell battery major Eveready is focusing on the lighting and appliances business to drive its growth and expects the two segments to contribute almost half in its turnover in the next 4-5 years, a senior company executive has said.

At present, the Kolkata-based company's total torch and battery business accounts for 70 per cent of its turnover.

"Torch and battery business has been growing at a compounded annual growth rateof 2-3 per cent over last few years. We are focusing on other categories to grow our business ortopline,"Anil Bajaj, senior vice-president for sales and marketing, Eveready,toldPTI.

"The projection in the next four to five years time is our turnover from the non-torch and battery category should start reflecting 45-50 per cent on our business. For this the challenge is to grow to lighting business andappliance business," he added.

It had clocked a turnover of Rs 1,450crorelast fiscal, of which torch and batteries accounted for Rs 950 crore whilelighting business contributed Rs 300crore, the company said.

The appliances segment accounted for Rs 100crore and its packet tea segment contributed Rs 70-75crore.

This financial year, the company aims to grow at around 15 per cent.

Evereadyis estimated to have a 55 per cent market share in batteries in terms of volume and 65 per cent share in value terms.

In torch category, it holds over 80 per cent of the total market pie. The battery market is estimated to be Rs 1,300-1400crore, of which the companys share is Rs 750crore.

In terms of volume, Eveready sells 1.2 million batteries of the total around 2.2 to 2.3 billion batteries market per year.

The torch industry is pegged at Rs 240-250crore, of which Evereadys estimated share is Rs 200crore.

The company which spends 3-4 per cent of its turnover on marketing activities, said metros and top 20 towns account for 30 per cent of business.

"Urban vs rural consumption for overall business would be 60:40. For batteries it would be more skewed towards rural,Bajaj said.

He added that online contributes close to 10 per cent of sales for the appliances business.