Appliance prices maybe hiked 6-7% to offset input costs post Diwali

The festive season is in full gear in India. From restaurants to shopping malls and from hotel rooms to the airport lounges, demand is starting to return as more and more Indians are loosening their purse strings to compensate for the months that they spent indoors. CNBC-TV18 spoke to Kamal Nandi, Business Head & EVP at Godrej Appliances and Chandru Kalro, Managing Director at TTK Prestige to find out the appliances market has fared.

TTK Prestige claims to have had a very good year so far in terms of sales. Even during COVID-19, kitchen goods sold well.

"The good thing is that the offline channels have also started performing well. We are hoping that things are good for this festival,” said Chandru Kalro.

Godrej Appliances has also seen an uptake. largely because of pent up demand post the second wave of COVID-19.

"You will see therefore an uptick in demand throughout this month of October and maybe till the middle of November,” said Kamal Nandi.

Can festivals cheer India Inc? Shereen Bhan discusses with industry veterans

“We are already seeing above 20 percent-plus in value and a 10 percent growth in volumes. This is over last year similar period during the festive time where the demand grew by 30 percent over the pre-COVID levels, which is 19-20 percent,” he added.

Price inflation is a tricky question for the companies currently and Godrej Appliance's Nandi says they are aware and conscious of the fact that the prices are going up because of the commodity spike.

"The prices I think are expected to go up further and that is what all consumers are aware about because the commodities are hardening further,” he said.

So far in the industry has raised prices by 15-16 percent against a commodity increase of roughly 20-22 percent,

"So another 6-7 percent price hike will take place and that should happen post Diwali sometime in the second half of November. Now with the short supply situation that the industry is experiencing, given the China challenges that we all know, I think this price increase will become inevitable going forward,” Nandi added.

On aluminium price increase Kalro said, “Aluminium is critical for us and the prices that we have seen have been unprecedented in a 13-14 year period. Luckily for us, we have reasonably stocked up on raw material. We have also looked at how we can stock up in terms of manufacturing in Q2 so we have enough inventory for this season. So while we have taken price increases in Q2 and even now in Q3 we are hoping that at some point this stops somewhere.”