Home appliances, smartphone sales continue to surge | Economic Times

The post-lockdown surge in purchases of home appliances and smartphones continued in the January to March quarter with many brands seeing high double-digit growth in sales. However, most companies are cautious about the June quarter, fearing wider curbs amid rising Covid-19 infections.Top white goods brands such as LG, Bosch, Siemens, Voltas, Panasonic, Lloyd and Godrej said their sales went up by up to 40% in the March quarter over the same period in 2019. In comparison to 2020 March quarter, sales growth was even higher for most brands since the national lockdown was enforced in March last year.In smartphones, market researcher Counterpoint said the January to March shipments in India will hit a new high for this period at about 34-36 million, growing by 13-16% over 2019 same quarter. If new 5G handset launches is driving smartphone sales, consumers are also upgrading their home appliances and automating daily chores as they are spending more time at home. Pent-up demand and rising temperature are pushing demand for ACs and refrigerators. 81810502Companies said the 3-7% price hike that brands undertook in the quarter had no major impact on demand.Some including LG India and Bosch Siemens said they posted their highest ever revenue and sales growth in March quarter.“In January and February, we have grown by 41% and 28% over the same period last year,” said Vijay Babu, vice president at LG India, the country’s largest home appliances maker. “In March, we grew by 98% over 2020 and 35% over 2019. The pent-up demand continued, including for premium products,” he said.As per researcher GfK India, which tracks actual sales, washing machine sales went up by 26% in January over last year, refrigerator by 22% and AC by 58%. Sales figures for February and March are still not available. Nikhil Mathur, MD of GfK India, said there are continued positive sentiments from the October-December quarter.“However, there is cautious optimism given the interplay of variables of supply, pricing and changing Covid-19 situation in the country.”Counterpoint’s associate director Tarun Pathak said a part of the smartphone demand shifted from 2020 towards 2021 aided by new 5G launches.“However, there is still a component shortage across industry, the impact of which will be visible more in the April-June quarter and hopefully get better from there onwards,” he said. Neeraj Bahl, managing director of BSH Household Appliances India that sells under the Bosch and Siemens brands, said while consumers did not mind the price hike, there has been some slowdown from mid-March in some markets where Covid-19 infection and restrictions are high. Lloyd CEO Shashi Arora too said there is uncertainty going forward due to the second wave. Godrej Appliances business head Kamal Nandi said the growth rate came down in March due to the second wave. “The biggest worry now is the continuing rise in commodity prices and whether more restrictions come due to the second wave. However, if summer temperature goes up, it will offset some of these challenges,” he said. Still, appliances makers expect pent-up demand to surge in summer since last year's season was lost due to lockdown, provided Covid-19 restrictions are not severe. Pradeep Bakshi, CEO and managing director of Voltas, said the Tata Group company is likely to post around 40% growth in January-March over 2019 same quarter. “We will recover business which was lost last year,” he said. “Due to work from home, consumers are adding more AC to their homes, boosting the already existing pent-up demand.”Panasonic India MD Manish Sharma too said sales in March was the highest ever for air-conditioners in that month.