Shantanu Khosla is a man with a curious mind. Before the pandemic, he would visit the market at least once a month. This was with the objective of getting specific consumer insights and ensuring Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Limited (CGCEL), where he is the MD, brought to the table the most superior product portfolio. Carved out from Crompton Greaves in 2015, CGCEL, he says, is only six years old. “It was an engineering company and we had to put the consumer in the centre.
The focus has been on superior performance apart from aesthetics and design,” he explains. Growth has been impressive and what stands out is CGCEL’s ability to hold on well to existing product categories and make the right moves in the new ones. It is present in categories such as fans, lighting, electrical appliances and pumps. “We have got it right on fans and our market share is at the highest ever. There is also a success story in geysers, where we identified the need for perfect hot water,” says Khosla, the winner of the Consumer Durables category in the BT-PwC India’s Best CEOs rankings. Harshit J. Kapadia, VP, Elara Securities, explains what has worked well over the last 3-5 years. “It comes down to new and innovative products... and redesigning the existing product portfolio... They’ve also done well in expanding the go-to-market reach and capitalising on the shift from the unorganised market.”
For Khosla, a P&G veteran who joined CGCEL in 2015, the journey has just begun. “I think we are a more externally focussed company now. The improvement over the last six years is visible but this process will never stop,” he says. The outlook is optimistic: Kapadia feels the consumer electricals industry is likely to grow in double digits. “It will be driven by rising disposable incomes, higher levels of internet penetration and improved availability of power,” he says. And CGCEL seems set to ride that wave.