Brands
Bajaj Electricals eyes Rs 5,000 crore turnover in fiscal 2014-15
KOLKATA: To commemorate completion of 75 years of business in 2013, Bajaj Electricals, has kept aside Rs 15 crore out of the Rs 60 crore earmarked for advertising and promotion during fiscal 2013-14 for both above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL) activities. The company has tapped all media and even created a software application (app) to mark the occasion.
What’s more, the manufacturer of lights, fans and home appliances is targeting a sales turnover of Rs 5,000 crore in fiscal 2014-15.
Bajaj Electricals chairman and managing director, Shekhar Bajaj, confirms: “In the current fiscal (2013-14), we are looking at a turnover of Rs 4,200 crore. In the next fiscal (2014-15), the company is looking at a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore.”
Of Bajaj Electricals’ six strategic business units – engineering and projects, home appliances, fans, lighting, luminaries and Morphy Richards – the company will continue to focus on home appliances, wherein it is practically the market leader.
“Every year, on an average, the company sells 37 lakh irons and more than 15 lakh mixers,” informs Shekhar Bajaj, stressing that the company will remain focused on low-end home appliances and will not venture into the white goods’ sector. “We are practically the market leader in almost the entire home appliances segment comprising fans, toasters, OTG and others. We have a competitive edge in that segment,” he adds.
As for engineering and projects, Bajaj Electricals joint managing director Anant Bajaj informs that as on 1 December, 2013, the division’s order book stood at Rs 2,100 crore approximately. Of which, orders worth nearly Rs 1,000 crore are from rural electrification projects, a majority of them under the Rajiv Gandhi
Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana. Plus, the unit will start the next fiscal (2014-15) with an order book of about Rs 1,500 crore; he adds.
The engineering and projects vertical clocked revenues of Rs 1,200 crore in the current fiscal and is looking to clock Rs 1,500 crore in the next fiscal, concludes Anant Bajaj.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
