Havells to hire around 200 to ramp up R&D

Havells India, a BSE-listed electrical equipment and home appliances manufacturing company, plans to add 200 more as part of their research and development (R&D) activities to become Rs 20,000 crore company by 2022.

In an interaction with DH, Havells India Chief Technology Officer Mukul Saxena said the company is giving rich experience banking on technology and has a team of around 300 scientists spread across its corporate headquarters and 11 manufacturing locations. 

"We are planning to hire around 200 in R&D to focus on software architecture, big data, data analytics, IoT and smart cities. This will further fuel innovation on our current product portfolio and getting into new business opportunities," said Saxena. 

The company registered Rs 8,200 crore in revenue last year and spend 1% of total revenue for R&D. "This year onwards we have decided to spend 2% of total revenues to take on growing customer demands," he said.

The company has a product portfolio ranging from home and kitchen appliances, lighting, switch-gear, cables and wires. "Here, 90% of our revenue comes from consumer durable and we innovate around their requirement using technology than replicating products manufactured elsewhere," he said. 

Saxena said the company's 'deeper into homes' strategy helps to add newer products from water purification and personal grooming category.

"We want to use technology to fulfil aspirations of customers and localise products. We have digital savvy millennial and gen-next and old groups who are not ready to get into digital. We have to satisfy everyone with a mix of product portfolio," he said. 

Besides Havells, the company owns Lloyds, Crabtree, Standard and REO brands. "We are positioning Lloyds into a premium brand. Bengaluru-based Promptec Renewable Energy Solutions expanded our presence to solar energy and LED space. We will start manufacturing from our white label products by the end of this year at Neemrana plant in Rajasthan," he said.

Havells is also using technology for its core business to streamline supply chain and other business functions. Besides distribution management system (DMS), a mini-enterprise resource planning tool to connect a network of 1,300 distributors, the company launched dealer (Havells mKonnect) and retailer (eSampark) apps to reduce costs," he said.