Home appliances, smartphone sales continue to surge

The post-lockdown surge in purchases of home appliances and smartphones continued in the January to March quarter with many brands seeing high double-digit growth in sales. However, most companies are cautious about the June quarter, fearing wider curbs amid rising Covid-19 infections.Top white goods brands such as LG, Bosch, Siemens, Voltas, Panasonic, Lloyd and Godrej said their sales went up by up to 40% in the March quarter over the same period in 2019. In comparison to 2020 March quarter, sales growth was even higher for most brands since the national lockdown was enforced in March last year.In smartphones, market researcher Counterpoint said the January to March shipments in India will hit a new high for this period at about 34-36 million, growing by 13-16% over 2019 same quarter. If new 5G handset launches is driving smartphone sales, consumers are also upgrading their home appliances and automating daily chores as they are spending more time at home. Pent-up demand and rising temperature are pushing demand for ACs and refrigerators.81810502Companies said the 3-7% price hike that brands undertook in the quarter had no major impact on demand.Some including LG India and Bosch Siemens said they posted their highest ever revenue and sales growth in March quarter.“In January and February, we have grown by 41% and 28% over the same period last year,” said Vijay Babu, vice president at LG India, the country’s largest home appliances maker. “In March, we grew by 98% over 2020 and 35% over 2019. The pent-up demand continued, including for premium products,” he said.As per researcher GfK India, which tracks actual sales, washing machine sales went up by 26% in January over last year, refrigerator by 22% and AC by 58%. Sales figures for February and March are still not available. Nikhil Mathur, MD of GfK India, said there are continued positive sentiments from the October-December quarter.“However, there is cautious optimism given the interplay of variables of supply, pricing and changing Covid-19 situation in the country.”Counterpoint’s associate director Tarun Pathak said a part of the smartphone demand shifted from 2020 towards 2021 aided by new 5G launches.

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