Foresee Premium Kitchen Appliances Segment Taking Up 30% of Usha’s Retail Sales: Sachin Anand

Usha International, in partnership with Reliance Digital, has launched five new innovative kitchen appliances under its latest premium iChef range. The new products launched include iChef Steam Oven, iChef Heater Blender, iChef Smart Air Fryer 5.5L, iChef Smart Air Fryer – Digital 5L and iChef Programmable Kettle.

Speaking to BW Marketing World in an exclusive interaction, Sachin Anand, Senior Vice President - Retail & Company Shop, Usha shed light on the USP of the iChef range in the cluttered market of premium kitchen appliances, the expectations of Usha from this range in terms of numbers, India’s consumers being receptive to premium products, and more.

Putting things into perspective, the Indian kitchen appliances’ industry stands at about US$73 billion.  The industry is growing at a CAGR of 5.7%. And premium contributes to about 25 per cent - 30 per cent, depending on which brand it is.

The premium segment is already cluttered with various brands vying for the consumer’s attention.  Then what makes it an appropriate time to launch this product line at this time and not earlier when a lot of brands have already introduced their premium kitchen appliances range much before? To this Anand replies, “iChef is our premium product range and in Usha, we are known for introducing premium products in the industry - when we say these products are one of its kind in India, no one so far has introduced these products with in-built steamers and ovens. And obviously, what better than the Diwali festive season? Diwali is the best time to launch such products.”

Emphasising on the USP of the newly launched range, he goes on, “We would say healthy cooking is our USP, as compared to all other gamuts and gadgets available in the market. We are largely focusing on health-based cooking and its advantages. So the product which is like steam oven, is an amalgamation of three products - it works on steam, it works as an airfryer, and it also works as an oven. So three in one, which no one in India has introduced, so far. The cooking is steam based which is healthy cooking.”

Premiumisation is on a rise in urban India, and the kitchen appliance segment is not unaffected by it. But the question is, how receptive is India to premium products? “I would say bang on, we’re very optimistic about this because post pandemic when people actually got time to spend time with their kitchen and their gadgets, that's the time when people realised they actually want a premium product because they started coming close to and have started loving their equipments. Prior to that, there was typically someone in the kitchen cooking for you. Now you have actually come close to your gadgets, your equipments, your products. That's the time you value more. And India is no doubt a growing market in premium products. So this demand is coming from the consumer only. We see a huge trend change in consumers as far as premium products and health related products are concerned. Healthy cooking is one of the thing which consumers are now looking for,” says Anand.

The festive season is working good for Usha. It all triggered from Onam and over last year, the company booked almost 200 per cent growth. And with the launch of this new range, particularly in retail, Anand foresees the premium kitchen appliances segment taking up to 30 per cent of contribution within the company’s retail sales.

Pointing out its retail strategy, he adds, “For retail, we work dual fold, three fold. We work on expanding the network, which is like going to the market and going approaching the partners, which has the town, has even five lakh or below population. That's one.

And then engagement in store engagement by way of demonstration, is working good for us in retail. And this is only retail centric. And typically that sort of consumer experience. So one which is like approaching a partner, even a partner operates in a five lakh or below population township also.

So we are increasing our footprint from 11 per cent or 12 per cent of last year to typically 15 per cent to 18 per cent of the increase in footprint.”

Stating Usha’s retail expansion plans, Anand said, “We have grown double digit over last year, to be very precise, 11 per cent to 12 per cent in terms of our retail footprint, particularly for us has worked wonders.

If I have to zero down on typical markets, Hyderabad, typically Tamil Nadu, Chennai and Karnataka, has really started paying us well. So we started investing in terms of network expansion, in terms of in store visibility and the consumer enhancing consumer experience by way of demonstration. And all those walking in in the store get a look and feel of the product.”

Wrapping up with the kind of future growth trajectory that he has envisioned for Usha, Anand brings out, “For retail, we will be definitely going for double digit growth, as I mentioned that earlier. 2024 March exit, we'll be at double digit growth. We still are at double digit growth, but then we'll be closing the year with a high double digit growth.”