Demand continues to be positive from rural areas; branded players are doing much better: Kajaria Ceramics

The home improvement sector has seen a huge demand amid the COVID-19 lockdown and the work from home, including in the rural areas, said Ashok Kajaria, CMD of Kajaria Ceramics. The demand from non-metros and smaller towns is robust, he added.

“The residential market is very strong especially from tier-2, tier-3, and tier-4 towns. The demand is very strong after the lockdown. In the earlier months we thought it is pent up demand, but looking at the last five months, the demand continues to be positive,” Kajaria said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

He further said that the branded players are doing much better post lockdown and exports too have gone up.

“After the lockdown, things are much better for branded players. They are doing very well in the domestic market. The exports have also gone up from the country in the last three months. September, October, and November, the exports have gone up by almost 40 percent than what it was last year,” Kajaira added.

Joining the discussion, Sandip Somany, VC and MD of HSIL said that there has been significant growth in demand particularly in the kitchen space and they expect to see 15 percent growth by end of the year in that space.

“We see a very sharp increase in home improvement products. The kitchen space particularly has seen significant growth in demand because for the past 20-40 years nobody has spent so much time in their homes and people are enjoying cooking and rediscovering cooking. So, the kitchen space has become very exciting. We are the second-largest producer there in the country and we have seen a significant reemergence in the demand there. I think at the end of the year we will be close to 15-20 percent positive,” he said.