Shobha Roy

Premium cookware and appliances brand Wonderchef is expecting 20 per cent growth in sales in FY-22 backed by launch of products both in the premium and mass segments and expansion of footprint in the Tier II and Tier III markets.

According to Ravi Saxena, Co-Founder & MD, Wonderchef, though the company’s products fell under discretionary category which had been badly hit by the slowdown caused due to the pandemic, however, there has been a good demand for their products as more people have been focusing on kitchen renovation and upgradation since last year.

“Last year saw many people entering their kitchens and trying out different cuisines and also doing a lot of baking etc. So there was a lot of kitchen renovation that happened last year. We saw a huge bump in sales last year and we grew by nearly 23 per cent over the previous year,” Saxena told BusinessLine .

The company registered a turnover of around ₹300 crore in FY-21 and is hopeful of closing FY-22 at around ₹350-360 crore. Close to 60-65 per cent of its sales come from appliances and the remaining 35-40 per cent comes from cookware.

New launches

The company, which recently launched its premium range of Crimson Edge appliances including OTG, air fryers, hand mixers, blenders and kettle among others, is planning to take them pan India over the next two-to-three years.

Wonderchef, which currently has around 10,000 retail outlets, plans to take it up to 50,000 in the next three years. Apart from increasing its retail footprint, the company has also been witnessing a steady rise in sales from digital platform.

Online sales, which accounted for roughly around 26 per cent of the company’s total business in FY-20, increased to close to 35 per cent in FY-21. This is further likely to increase to 40 per cent during the current fiscal, he said.

As a premium brand, Wonderchef has been largely focused on metro cities for its sales. Nearly 60 per cent of its sales come from metro cities while the remaining 40 per cent come from non-metro towns and cities. However, the company plans to launch a slew of products under the affordable range for catering to the non-metro markets.

“We will be launching cookware and some appliances targeted at these (non-metro) markets before Diwali this year. We would like to take the share of non-metro to our total sales to around 50 per cent moving forward,” he said.