In interaction with Mr. Amit Kaushik, CFO and CEO of INFLAME India

Speaking with DSIJ, Mr. Amit Kaushik, CFO and CEO of INFLAME India indicates, the company’s unwavering focus on innovation is what has kept it on the growth path

What is the demand outlook for kitchen appliances in India?

Inflame is into manufacturing kitchen appliances such as chimneys, gas hobs and gas stoves. Here, the market for chimneys is the fastest growing in India among kitchen appliances with approximately 15 per cent year-on-year growth. This growth rate is expected to stay forth for the coming decade or so. Chimneys are presently manufactured mainly by Chinese companies and are imported in India by various brands or small traders for feeding the ever-growing demand of approximately 1.8 million annually. There are a few big brand owners in India who manufacture these products for their own brands, but the total quantum is less than 10 per cent.

Hence, there was a huge opportunity to get into manufacturing of chimneys to cater to the vast requirement by major brands such as Hindware, Sunflame, Prestige, Kaff, etc. The same is the case for gas hobs as this is also a very high growth segment on account of the changing cooking dynamics in Indian kitchens. There are no manufacturers in India who are involved in manufacturing dishwashers and as Inflame is planning to venture into this segment in the next 18 months, it’s going to be a first by any Indian company. The demand for dishwashers is decently going up after the pandemic-triggered lockdown.

What is your strategy to improve the market share for your products?

Inflame is the first in the organised sector to start manufacturing for other brands and therefore has been competing directly with Chinese suppliers. This has helped expand the opportunity. The company has created a complete service industry to cater to the components’ requirements. It is worth noting that from almost 50-60 per cent of the import content to almost an insignificant 2-3 per cent of import content, we stand tall among other manufacturers who have created a complete infrastructure to manufacture chimneys in India. This has created a competitive advantage for our products in terms of pricing and quality.

Further, with freight component as high as 10-15 per cent in chimneys for import of these products from China, we have a great chance to sustain the price competition with Chinese suppliers. Both these factors are crucial for long-term sustainability. The company has a plan to achieve 1,00,000 units of production by June 2023, which will make us a substantial player in manufacturing these products in India and would keep us ahead in the race for a long time to come. Further, our core strength is research and development which we have created especially after the lockdown. We are working on innovations to benefit our consumers in terms of both commercial and technical aspects.

What is your product mix strategy?

In the next three years our major products would be chimneys (70 per cent), gas hobs (15 per cent), gas stoves (10 per cent) and dishwashers (5 per cent).

What is your earning outlook for the coming three quarters?

We are continuously improving over the previous months’ production and we hope with all the development, including spare parts and components, completed by March 2021, our next three quarters would be a significant improvement over the previous quarters. We foresee continued growth for the next 3-5 years.