Havells India Marketing Strategy & Case Study
About Founder
Qimat Rai Gupta quit his job teaching in a school in Punjab, and came to Delhi in 1958 with Rs 10,000 in hand. He started an electrical goods trading company in the old part of the city, but the market was too small for his ambitions.
He spotted an opportunity in the distressed Havells brand, named after its founder, Haveli Ram Gupta. He bought it for around Rs 7 lakh in 1971, and followed up with a series of acquisitions, joint ventures and entry into new product categories.
Today, Havells India Ltd is a Rs 7,248-crore company. The journey hasn’t always been smooth, but the roughest patch was easily the 2007 acquisition of German lighting and fixtures maker SLI Lighting, owner of the Sylvania brand.
Havells Marketing Strategy:
Havells is one of the leading players in the Indian electrical products industry. The company which was virtually unknown 5 years ago shot into limelight through some clutter breaking campaigns in recent times.
Havells is a part of the Indian business group- QRG group. Established in 1958 as a trading company , Havells came into existence in 1983. The company is now a Rs 1600 crore company with presence in all major electrical categories.
Havells : Shock Laga Kya
Havells business is primarily focused on four key verticals.
Switch Gear
Lighting and Fixtures
Cables and
Electrical consumer deliverable.
VISION
“To be a globally recognized corporation that provides best electrical & lighting solutions, delivered by best-in-class people.”
MISSION
To achieve our vision through fairness, business ethics, global reach, technological expertise, building long term relationships with all our associates, customers, partners, and employees
VALUES
Customer Delight:
A commitment to surpassing our customer expectations.
Leadership by example:
A commitment to set standards in our business and transactions based on mutual trust.
Integrity and Transparency:
A commitment to be ethical, sincere and open in our dealing.
Pursuit of Excellence:
A commitment to strive relentlessly, to constantly improve ourselves, our teams, our services and products so as to become the best in class.
Brief Story
Late Sh. Qimat Rai Gupta was born into a lower middle class family in 1937, in the then undivided Punjab. He was brought up with the Indian ethos and the teachings of Bhagvad Gita which continued to have a great impact in his life and outlook. He was a staunch believer in simple living, hard work, honesty and integrity and ethical corporate governance, and upheld these standards for the seven decades of his life.
Shri Gupta began his business career in 1958, from the electrical market at Bhagirath Palace, Delhi, where he was a small trader in electrical goods.
At a time when most of the industry was happy with the trading model to earn more profits, he undertook the bold decision of investing his capital in creating world class manufacturing plants in India. He bought over a small electrical goods Company in 1971 and over time he transformed it into one of the largest electrical goods companies in the world with several leading global brands in its stable. He pioneered many trends in the FMEG industry and elevated Indian manufactured electric goods to global standards.
Today, Havells is a US$ 1.4 billion Company and has over 6,500 employees, and 20,000+ trade partners. Our operations span 50 different countries, and we have fourteen manufacturing plants in India, along with 8 global manufacturing locations. This thriving, innovative, productive and entrepreneurial enterprise is part of his industrial legacy.
In economic terms, he has translated the small investment in 1971 into a Company valued at US$1.4 billion, and overseen the rise of the Indian multinational with his global acquisition of Sylvania brand and business. He has partnered with his 20,000 strong network of dealers, distributors and retailers who have benefited by sharing the profits and the growth of Havells. He has helped these partners to take out health and insurance policies for their families and provided them access to critical capital through the Group’s channel financing schemes. Everybody whose life he touched benefited from the association.
Under the inspired leadership of QRG, Havells has been actively involved in philanthropic activities that reach out and help people in need. Havells has invested in a central kitchen, staff and transport infrastructure to feed nutritious and hygienic mid day meals to over 50,000 school children every day from across 666 Government schools in Alwar district of Rajasthan.
He also instituted QRG Medicare- a Group Company that runs a large, 140 bed modern hospital called the QRG Central Hospital and Research Centre in Faridabad, Haryana. He also initiated the set of another state of the art 450 bed hospital in the same city, the first of its kind in the area. Under his leadership, Havells has generously contributed in cash and kind to help the victims of various national calamities like the Bihar Flood and Tsunami, and for the Kargil Relief Fund.
QRG was keen to leave behind a society that was at least as good as what he received from his forefathers. He was especially conscious of the environmental impact of manufacturing and worked towards minimizing the ecological footprint of his manufacturing facilities. He also focused on creating energy efficient electrical appliances and today a full 70% of the Havells range is energy efficient, causing less pollution and carbon emission for the same usage. He was a leader in elimination of hazardous substances in the manufacture of luminaries and Havells is one of the first companies in India to get RoHS accreditation from Europe for Restriction of Hazardous substances in CFL’s.
In industrial terms, he put Indian electrical brands in the global arena and left behind a benchmark for others to follow. In economic terms, he enriched the lives of people he worked and partnered with thriving businesses that delivered both growth and sustainability. In social terms, he contributed to the betterment of the society in multiple ways, creating a role model that bears emulation.
In environmental ways, he raised the bar, ensuring that sustainability of operations and the minimization of environmental impact became as important an aspect of business as growth and profits.
He was a person whose life was a standing testimony to the concept of “Simple Living, High Thinking”
