Wipro Consumer surpasses average industry growth rates

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Wednesday March 9, 2011.

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting (WCCL), the FMCG vertical of IT major Wipro, has surpassed average industry growth figures in the lighting and furniture space during the current fiscal.

Parag Kulkarni

WCCL has registered 26% growth in the lighting segment and 32% growth in the furniture segment despite strong competitors such as Philips, Crompton Greaves, Bajaj, Godrej, Blowplast, Featherlite, etc, it said.

Parag Kulkarni, vice-president & business head - commercial lighting & furniture business, WCCL, told DNA Money, “The industry average growth in the lighting segment is 15-16% and in the furniture space it is around 18%.”

Kulkarni attributes WCCL’s numbers to innovation, introduction of new products at regular intervals and working closely with customers.

“This apart, we take a bouquet approach to addressing the customers’ needs, which is very unique to us. We are the only company which offers solutions in lighting, furniture, chair, electronic security and switches under the same roof,” said Kulkarni.

The company is among the fastest growing FMCG in India. Post acquisitions of Unza Holdings and Yardley, WCCL is currently amongst the top 10 FMCG players in the country.

The FMCG business has three main segments — Indian Household business (includes personal care and domestic lighting), Unza (the international personal care business spanning across Asia and Africa) and the Indian Office Solutions business.

With combined revenues of `2,250 crore in 2010, WCCL has registered an overall growth of 23% by the end of third quarter of the current fiscal. Not looking to tap international markets, the WCCL management envisages huge potential in the domestic consumption story and is aggressively addressing the needs with its range of products.

Its institutional business rakes in around 27% of revenues and services a lot of industrial applications that revolve around lighting.

“Infrastructure projects is where we sees tremendous growth in the coming years. For instance, Terminal 3 at Delhi International Airport has used a lot of our lighting and furniture products. A few other names in the list include Reliance and Siemens. Our products are extensively used by these large corporates for all their commercial and industrial establishments,” said

Kulkarni.

Going forward, WCCL will focus on the light emitting diode (LED) space and the company management sees very good business opportunities for its indoor and outdoor lighting solutions based on LED.