Behind the K-shaped growth

The worst kind of growth is when a small number of (very rich) people do very well while the vast majority languish

Last week I was chatting with a director of a kitchen-appliances company and he said that “pots and pans are not selling well”. This is borne out by the poor sales growth of kitchen-appliances companies. On the other hand, India’s largest luxury and premium watch retailer, Ethos, which sells Omega, Jaeger LeCoultre, Panerai, Bvlgari, Longines, Baume & Mercier, Tissot, Raymond Weil, etc., each of them costing lakhs, reported a 44 per cent increase in sales and 262 per cent rise in net profit in the March quarter. While underwear sales have collapsed and two-wheeler sales have crashed to the 2012