A 'fan'tastic success

Havells, a leading player in the electrical goods industry, was once faced with a dilemma. When it exited from the meters segment, its highest revenue contributor in the early 2000s, it had to find new growth avenues. The company could not afford to enter a market where it had to start from scratch. Hence, the only option was to enter a product segment where it could leverage its existing network. That segment was 'fans'. In this edition of Wordsworth Wisdom, we'll look into the book 'Havells: The Untold Story of Qimat Rai Gupta' written by his son Anil Rai Gupta, and study what led QRG (Qimat Rai Gupta), the founder of Havells, into the consumer-durable fans segment at a time when many steered clear of the sector. Analysing the market In 2001, Havells created a small team under B K Gupta, a fan industry veteran, to devise a strategy for entering the market. However, things were far from smooth. "The feedback we got from everybody was that it was not a great space to be in. Six major brands dominated the market - Crompton, Usha, Bajaj, Orient, Polar and Khaitan. No new brand had emerged in the past 25 years, primarily due to the huge presence of unorganised small-scale factories that thrived on evasion of excise duty and used inferior materials to sell at rock-bottom prices.

This article was originally published on August 01, 2024.