Micromax to become a complete consumer electronics company in next two years

India's second largest handset manufacturer, Micromax is all set to enter the home appliances category, two years after launching its LED television sets. With plans to become a full-fledged consumer electronics company in the next two years, Micromax is now foraying into the air conditioner (AC) category.

Having launched four models of split and window air conditioners, priced between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000, Micromax expects the consumer durables vertical to contribute up to 20-25 percent of its revenues by December 2017.

Rajesh Agarwal, Co-founder of Micromax, said,

We will remain to be an MNC challenger and are a a proven player for fighting MNC smartphone brands with innovation and technology for the past eight years . We will continue with the same strategy for white goods.

He also claimed that today their LED televisions are amongst the top five brands in the segment, holding close to 10 percent of the market share. The top four include Samsung, LG, Sony and Videocon. Micromax expects about 15 percent of its revenues to come from LED televisions and five percent from ACs by December 2017.

With the peak summer almost over, Micromax plans to limit its sales to the north. After televisions, air conditioner is considered to be the second largest market with more than 40 national brands crowding the space.

Reports suggest that Micromax is also looking to bet big on the four largest categories of consumer electronics, comprising of televisions, air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. These four categories total up to 90 percent of India's Rs 45,000 crore consumer electronics market.

Rahul Agarwal said that the company will eventually manufacture these units at its own facility with the air-conditioners being currently manufactured at its Uttarakhand facility.This facility is also used to produce its televisions. He adds,

We expect to make about 50,000 units this year, and ramp it up to 200,000 units, next year. South India (32 percent) and West India (28 percent) are major markets for ACs, followed by North India (28 percent) and East India (12 percent).

Further, Micromax was reported to close revenues of almost $2 billion (roughly Rs 13,350 crores) for fiscal year 2016 with plans to grow by about 30 percent this year. The company also has plans of setting up a new plant for white goods.

To smartphones and more  

In an earlier interview with YourStory, Micromax and YU Co-founder, Rahul Sharma claimed to have sold over two million phones of YU in India and about 36 million Micromax phones in the last fiscal. The company is now targeting to sell 50-54 million units this fiscal year.

Through its product line YU, Micromax is looking to go beyond phones and launch new products primarily focussed on controlling the home. Rahul Sharma was quoted saying that the aim for the company is to have 100 million connected devices in the next two years.

According to research firm Gartner, Micromax ranked 10th globally with 1.8 percent share of the global handset market at the end of March 2015.