V-Guard Industries, a maker of cables and electronics, is betting on Internet of Things (IoT) to drive growth in the future.

The Kochi-based company believes that with internet becoming a part and parcel of every day life, there is a need to internet-enable its products from water heaters to stabilisers. “We have hired a team of software developers to work on the design as well as integrating it with these devices,” Mithun Chittilappilly, Managing Director, V-Guard Industries, told BusinessLine in the sidelines of its new brand identity launch.

V-Guard will continue to manufacture these products from its Kala Amb factory in Himachal Pradesh. The products will be designed and built with sensor technologies that will communicate using the internet. “The prices of sensors have crashed and in combination with the traditional knowledge we have in designing PCBs, we are well-positioned,” said Chittilappilly.

The ball has been set rolling in this direction through some of V-Guard’s new launches in AC stabiliser, Verano – a range IoT-enabled geysers and its range of smart inverters, pointed out Chittilappilly. Verano water heaters are available in 25 litres and 15 Ltr variants, and the new model can be controlled by a smartphone from anywhere with an infrared remote.

Further, V-Guard will also be launching its smart fans this summer, Imagina, which will be equipped with LED lights in different colour combinations. This will be brought to consumers through 500 distributors, 200 service centres, 5,500 direct dealers and 20,000 retailers.

Eyes expansion

The company, after gaining a strong foothold in the South market, is also eyeing western and northern markets and Chittilappilly expects ₹800-900 crore to come from non-south markets. It also expects its new category that includes switch gears and kitchen appliances to drive growth forward. In the third quarter of 2018 fiscal, V-Guard clocked a 41.39 per cent increase in standalone net profit at ₹35.76 crore. The company is also targeting 15 per cent average annual growth in sales over the next 4-5 years.

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