Cellecor aims for Rs 2K crore revenue in FY27, says co-founder Ravi Agarwal

The company is expanding its home and kitchen appliances business and plans to begin production at its Liberia plant by December before widening exports across Africa

Home appliances maker Cellecor Gadgets is targeting sales revenue of up to Rs 2,000 crore by the end of this fiscal and has set itself a target of hitting the Rs 5,000-crore mark by 2030, the company’s co-founder and managing director, Ravi Agarwal said.

 

“We have also diversified into African markets. Our plant has been inaugurated last month end of July in Liberia, and we hope to begin production by December this year. From there, we will also export to all 56 African countries,” he told Business Standard in an interview.

 

An economics (Honours) graduate of Delhi University, Agarwal is a first generation entrepreneur who cut his teeth as a mobile phone retailer from New Delhi’s Karol Bagh market and worked in that industry between 2010 and 2017.

 

In 2017, following demonetisation and introduction of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, when most businesses struggled to stay afloat due to various compliance issues, Agarwal chose to formalise his businesses and start the production of feature phones under his own brand Cellecor, he said.

 

“Between 2017 and till 2020, we continued building our product portfolio with feature phones only and expanded deep into Tier-2, Tier-3 and Tier-4 towns and cities. That has always been our focus. In 2020, we added mobile phone accessories such as wired ear-phones, power banks, data cables, and others in the product portfolio,” Agarwal said.

 

Even as the demand for mobile phones and other communication gadgets saw exponential growth during the lockdown, when most people were working from home, Cellecor further expanded its product category to include hearables and wearables in its product offerings, he said.

 

“We deliberately chose not to enter the smartphone category despite the demand boom because of two reasons. The first is that the segment was dominated by Chinese companies and it is impossible to compete with them at the price points we are present in. Second, it is a high cash burning segment,” Agarwal said.

 

Instead, Cellecor Gadgets, which went for an Intial Public Offering (IPO) in 2023, used the funds raised from the public listing to expand into home and kitchen appliances such as washing machines, air coolers, refrigerators, air conditioners and mixers and grinders, among others, he said.

 

“Though as of date our company has three product categories, in India my focus has shifted from feature phones and related accessories to home and kitchen appliances. Of the Rs 1,292 crore revenue that we achieved last year, nearly 70 per cent came from home and kitchen appliances category,” Agarwal said.