Month-on-month recoveries in consumer durable sales are being witnessed with the festival season expected to result in “further good off-take.”

According to Ravindra Singh Negi, President - Electrical Consumer Durables, Havells India, initial trends suggest a rise in demand for small kitchen appliances — led by pent-up demand and the need for upgrades — while personal grooming devices — which have seen a 5-6x growth thank to the do-it- yourself trend and influencer videos — is another growing category.

Metros and mini-metros (towns with population of over 500,000) are witnessing recoveries, while upcountry markets have been growth drivers in categories such as small kitchen appliances, residential pumps and so on.

Small kitchen appliances, fans, water heaters (geysers), water purifiers and residential pumps, sold under the eponymous Havells brand and through Standard and Reo sub-brands, account for a little less than one-third of the company’s total turnover. Large consumer durables (white goods) are a separate vertical that are now sold under the Lloyd brand. Havells has a turnover of around Rs 9500 crore.

“We have been witnessing some green shoots since July. It is still too early to give an outlook, but a lot depends on the festival season sales. We are hopeful that numbers will be more than pre-Covid levels,” Negi told BusinessLine .

Festival season sales are said to account for 40 per cent in categories such as small kitchen appliances and grooming devices that include trimmers and clippers.

Keeping in mind the festival season, Havells has also worked on its hyperlocal presence — which helped the company during local lockdown testrictions — and omi-channel presence. These include ramping up online store presence and ensuring delivery of items from a Havells shop/distributor nearest to the pin-code of the consumer.

Health concerns

According to Negi, personal grooming device sales have stabilised after a surge in the initial days after unlocking began. However, the demand surge continues to be “higher than normal years.”

Similarly, in the small kitchen appliance segment, there is a demand for air-fryers. In-home consumption still continues to be on the higher side as people are experimenting with their culinary skills.

Health concerns have also seen a rise in demand for pedestal and table fans despite peak months of April and May being a washout because of the lockdown.

“Health has been a major concern this year and has influenced consumer choices and purchase decisions. For instance, pedestal fans are in demand as people want more air circulation in closed spaces,” he explained.

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