The company’s chairman and managing director Anil Rai Gupta told analysts in its quarterly earnings call there is high channel inventory for ACs which will take 1-2 quarters to liquidate and the company is accordingly adjusting production.
“The first quarter was a challenging quarter with unexpected weak summer impacting the overall performance, however we feel this is transitory and expect both revenue growth and margin improvements over ensuing quarters,” he said.
The company’s large appliance business of refrigerators and air-conditioners under the Lloyd brand declined by 34% yoy to Rs 1,262 crore in the quarter under review. The lighting and fixtures business too declined marginally at Rs 374 crore in the quarter as against Rs 386 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year. The electrical consumer durables business declined by 14% yoy at Rs 906 crore in the quarter.
However, Havells switchgears business grew by 9% yoy to Rs 630 crore and the cable business grew by 27% yoy to Rs 1,933 crore in the quarter under review.
Gupta said the Lloyd business will improve margin with better operational efficiency and price positioning despite stiff competition. “There is a good room to grow margins in Lloyd,” he said. The brand is amongst the top three in AC sales. He said there will be no heavy discounting to liquidate unsold AC inventory. Havells is also open to acquisition opportunities despite its large organic business portfolio.
