Moser Baer to focus on LED products, targets ₹500-cr market size in 3 years

With an eye on tapping the burgeoning LED market, tech-manufacturing firm Moser Baer plans to enhance its product portfolio and develop a strong distribution network, as it expects the Centre’s smart city programme to give a major boost to the demand for such devices in future.

The company is also scouting for opportunities in government tenders and contract manufacturing for established large brands, besides directly selling to consumers for the growth of its LED segment.

Not worried by a late entry into the segment, Moser Baer expects to have up to 7 per cent market share in the next three years. “We expect to have a market of ₹500 crore by FY 2018-19 with 6-7 per cent market share. This year it will be in the sub-₹100 crore category but is growing rapidly. We will have ₹1,000 crore-plus market in the next five to six years,” Moser Baer CEO Shiv Nath told PTI. Industry body ELCOMA estimates that the LED market will be around ₹21,000 crore by 2020.

On product portfolio, Nath said that Moser Baer has made a very focused investment in R&D for it. “We have chosen focused products, which constitute 80 per cent of the market as downlights, panel lights and fixtures, tube lights, bulbs and then we have street lights and downlights for warehousing etc,” he said. It is also working to develop network of wireless control LED devices, aiming to participate in the Centre’s plan to develop 100 smart cities.

“We are developing our own technology, which would be a very low-cost wireless system. It will be highly competitive and we shall have prototypes in next six months,” he said. The entire R&D work for these future compatible LEDs is done in India, he added.

Moser Baer has forayed into direct selling of LED this year and is presently building its sales channels and has appointed its distributors network for B2C sales in 12 States. Apart from that, Moser Baer also recently launched its online e-commerce portal and has associations with mobile commerce platform Paytm and other online channel partners such as Snapdeal, Flipkart etc.

“We already have an online presence through partners and will accelerate digital marketing efforts. We have also designed and launched a mobile app for consumers to adopt understand LED better,” he said.

Moser Baer is also exporting its LED to some Middle East countries and neighbouring nations as Sri Lanka etc.

“We are building the export market slowly in new geographies like Europe and the US,” Jain said.

Last year, Moser Baer had a turnover of ₹12,000 crore from its various verticals and 65 per cent was from exports.