'There Has Been A Decline In The Unorganised Market For LEDs'

Opines Gautam Seth, Joint Managing Director, HPL Electric & Power Ltd., in an interaction with Monica Chaturvedi Charna, on the role of EESL in driving the LED market in India, future of unorganised players and business opportunities rendered by the Smart Cities mission...

- Monica Chaturvedi Charna

Kindly shed light on the company’s scope of operations in the lighting space and have you phased-out CFLs completely?

HPL has been doing PCBs for CFLs, and drivers and PCBs for LEDs in house. This gives us an edge in the market. The CFL market is shrinking very fast so we have accordingly right-sized our factories. We will continue to market and sell the product till there is a demand. Our focus in terms of R&D, production and sales is now around the LEDs. This is because the sector is growing very fast and nearly 75 per cent of the lighting revenue is coming from LEDs. We expect that by the end of this year, our focus will completely shift to LEDs.

HPL has still not become a common brand name among households in the LED lighting solutions domain. What is the reason for this?

We have a fairly large distribution network, which we have built over the years on two factors: Push sales basis and our relationship with dealers. Although our brand is not as visible as some of the competitors, in the last two years ending FY2016, we have spent almost Rs 21 crore on brand advertising. Going forward, we plan to build our brand in a much bigger way so that there is a better brand recall value and HPL becomes a household name.

Have you considered bidding for EESL tenders?