Hansgrohe bets big on India, sees it among top five global market

Latching on to India’s growing appetite for premium products, German luxury home fittings maker Hansgrohe is seeing the country among its top five markets globally in terms of sales over the next few years.

Currently, Germany, China, France, the US and the UK are its top five markets. India is among top 10 markets for the German firm, which has recently set up assembly lines here in its bid to penetrate deeper into the country.

“India is currently in Hansgrohe’s top-10 markets globally, and is expected to move to top-5 in the next few years,” said Marc Andre Palm, head of global brand marketing-Hansgrohe, Hansgrohe SE.

He added, “India is on a great momentum, growth momentum, especially after COVID. We see that the need for premium fix fixtures is increasing.”

The company did not share India’s revenue numbers, however, the executive expects India to contribute up to 10 per cent in the global sales in the years to come.

According to the website of Hansgrohe Group, it achieved a total turnover of €1.406 billion (Rs 12,603 crore) in 2023, down 9.3 per cent year-on-year from €1.550 billion in the previous year. Adjusted for currency effects, the global turnover was down 6.2 per cent over the previous year.

Commenting on India’s demand growth so far, Gaurav Malhotra, managing director for Hansgrohe India, said, “In general, we’ve had a phenomenal last six years, with a sales growth in excess of 40 per cent. We (India) are one of the large growth drivers for us (globally). So our share of growth will be substantially higher (in growth) than our share of revenue.”

In 2023, Hansgrohe started operations at its own assembly line in India, a first for the German major in India.

“It’s also about the changing footprint in India. So traditionally, we’ve always been a market that imports finished goods. And now we are saying that we need to get a bit closer to our customers,” said Malhotra.

He added, “We know that there is price sensitivity in the Indian market. So we are taking our first steps towards taking a select portfolio of products and assembling them. Obviously this helps in lowering some costs, largely the duty costs that go down. We will then build it up into a substantial portfolio.”

He also noted, Hansgrohe’s sales mix in India is also changing.

“Even maybe five years back around 90 per cent of sales were in the retail space and only 10 per cent in projects of institutional sales. But it has already doubled and is at 80-20 right now,” Malhotra said.