Stabilising Effect

Kochouseph Chittilappilly started selling voltage stabilizers under the brand name V-Guard in 1977. He was 27 years old then. Nearly 40 years later, V-Guard is the largest manufacturer of voltage stabilizers in the country and has presence in a whole host of other consumer products that include geysers, fans, pumps and inverters. Chittilappilly is not your typical Indian businessman. A few years ago, he donated his kidney to a truck driver in a chain scheme that saw the truck driver's wife donate a kidney to an unrelated person. The unrelated person's wife in turn donated her kidney to another in a chain. When militant trade unionists forced his workers to strike in the mid-1980s, Chittilappilly outsourced his products to smaller enterprises. That practice continues to date. V-Guard procures most of its products from vendors-many of them small scale. An added advantage of this strategy is that operations remain asset light. Strength Undisputed leader of voltage stabilizers. V-Guard started its business selling voltage stabilizers. Call it first mover advantage or a strong brand positioning, V-Guard today has a 34 per cent market share of the ₹600 crore organized stabilizer market in India. Its next biggest competitor Capri has a market share of a distant nine per cent. Wide range of established products. V-Guard has a wide range of products. The company has made its mark in a number of them. In the UPS segment, it is the third largest with 20 per cent organized market share. In pumps it has a 15 per cent share. Water heat

This article was originally published on September 09, 2014.