The White Knight

Havells India, led by Anil Rai Gupta, is transitioning from a B2B electricals giant to a consumer-centric company by developing Lloyd into a full-range white goods player

- Arnab Dutta

SIX YEARS AGO, Havells India acquired the consumer durables business of Lloyd Electric. It marked the entry of the Noida-headquartered electricals major— which earns half of its revenues from cables & wires and switchgear sales—into India’s burgeoning ₹1 lakh crore consumer durables market.

Since then, the company’s persistent focus on expanding its footprint in the consumer durables business and B2C operations has propelled it to the forefront of India’s white goods market. As a result, Havells’s portfolio is more evenly distributed between its B2B and B2C operations than earlier. In fact, it’s the consumer business—under the Lloyd brand—that is driving Havells India’s growth, pulling its revenue up by double digits despite macroeconomic challenges. The brand is expected to report revenues of? 3,500 crore in FY23, up from average annual sales of ₹2,000 crore a few years ago.

However, this success didn’t come easy. Well-articulated planning for brand building and the localisation of its manufacturing played major roles. The data-driven analytical approach and vision for the brand that Anil Rai Gupta, Chairman and MD of Havells India, has for Lloyd were also deciding factors in its recent success, say people aware of the developments.