Sanitaryware major HSIL Limited is optimistic about the business in the second half and expects festival season to trigger demand.

Sandip Somany, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of HSIL, said, “While Covid has disrupted businesses, we are on track with our capex plans. Our capex takes 18 months to complete and we feel that in 18 months the pandemic will be behind us.”

“We are looking forward to H2 being equivalent or better than H2 last year. For the whole year across the group, some of our businesses will exceed the pre-Covid sales, some of them will not be able to catch the sales of last year because of lockdown. But all the businesses including under performing ones will cover 85-90 per cent or pre-Covid sales which is very good,” he told BusinessLine .

Contactless products

Somany said, “We have significantly expanded our contactless product range. Our sales in this segment are up about 10 times and this will become a norm in future in the contactless product portfolio. Apart from faucets, we also have a range of water closets which are touchless, wherein one does not have to touch it for flushing. People prefer them in the public areas,” he said.

“We have increased manufacturing output in this segment and our units are flexible in producing any type of products. The sanitaryware is manufactured in our Bahadurgarh plant in Haryana and the fittings are manufactured in our Rajasthan plant. So, in Rajasthan plant we have stepped-up the production of contactless products,” he said.

Brilloca, the marketing arm and a 100 per cent subsidiary of Somany Home Innovation Limited, closed 2019-20 with a revenue of ₹1,160.88 crore. For 2021-22, Brilloca’s revenue are projected at ₹1,700 crore. The current year’s projection will be difficult to give because of Covid, he said.

Tough year

“Post pandemic, we all are trying to recover and come back to pre-pandemic sales. July onwards the sale is rising consistently, but he has not yet reached pre-Covid level. We are hopeful that with the upcoming festival season, things should get normalised. It has been a tough year for the entire industry with April and May registered zero revenue, with June things started picking-up. So, July was better than June, August was better than July and hopefully September will be better than August. So, these figures showing the sign of recovery with consumers are coming back,” he said.

“There is a complete overhaul in buying patterns of consumers especially during the current situation. Dealers are even sending samples to show the product to their customers. We continue to learn and as consumer’s point of view, they continue to evolve,” he said.

“The product mix has changed, now consumers want more contactless products not only at homes but also in commercial and public places. By the time the pandemic is over, the bigger companies with better retail and supply chain management will come out stronger and the smaller once will face tough times as it is not easy to convert customers these days,” he explained.

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