Godrej Appliances bearish on demand recovery in mass segment until mid-FY25

Bengaluru: Speaking to DH on Tuesday, Godrej Appliances Business Head and Executive Vice president Kamal Nandi projected a bleak outlook on demand recovery in the larger white goods industry’s mass product segment, which has been under pressure since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is expected to bounce but the time frame will be a little longer than we expect, about a couple of quarters. We are expecting maybe by the second quarter of next fiscal year or festive quarter, we should see the mass segment picking up well,” Nandi said. He expects a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels in the segment only in the financial year 2025-26, conditional on a good summer this year.

The Mumbai-headquartered white goods major is looking to close the current fiscal with over 18% annual growth in its topline to Rs 6,000 crore, driven by sales in the company’s premium product portfolio, Nandi said.

“AC as a category has been doing well and is driving the overall growth for the industry. One of the basic reasons is lower penetration and temperatures going up year-on-year. That was followed by washing machine,” Nandi said, listing the top selling products in the larger industry this fiscal year. Sale of refrigerators continues to witness a lag, he added.

Going forward, Godrej Appliances is betting on its premium product portfolio for fueling the company’s growth, aiming to increase its contribution to 55%, from 45% currently, in the next financial year.

“We are catering to the wave of premiumisation that the whole industry has been talking about all of last year and the trend is very much here to stay,” Godrej Appliances Head of Marketing Swati Rathi said, adding that customers can expect high-end launches from the brand in coming months.