Over the last few years, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. (CGCEL), an Indian electrical brand, has been focusing on offering consumers meaningful innovations to create a sustainable competitive advantage. To better equip the company to execute this strategy, CGCEL has set up its largest Research & Development (R&D) center in Vikhroli, Mumbai called the Crompton Experience & Innovation Centre. The new R&D center will further help Crompton accelerate its efforts to bring new customer-centric innovation by the intelligent application of the latest smart, and efficient technologies. Since its inception in 2015, product innovation has always been the key focus area for the company. While prominent products like ‘Anti-Dust’ Fans, ‘Air 360’ Fans as well as ‘Anti -Bac’ LED Bulbs, among others have been launched in the past few years, almost 15% of the annual sales come from products launched in the last 12 months. The company now plans to double its investment in R&D over the next 3 years across its flagship product lines in fans, appliances, pumps, and lighting.
Leveraging its leadership in categories like Fans, the company is already a trendsetter, has launched a slew of breakthrough products – from the “Anti Dust” Fan – that saves the consumer from the hassle of cleaning; “Air 360” Fan – delivering air in 50% more space within a room to the very recent “SilentPro” range of fans – 2x quieter than normal fans. In the lighting category, the company’s “Lyor” Bulb is the most energy-efficient bulb combining aesthetics, comfort, and energy efficiency. The “Anti-Bacterial” Bulb along with providing light also helps in making homes healthier by killing Bacteria and fungi up to 85% safely.
Spread across 50,000 square feet and equipped with the latest state-of-the-art equipment for smarter technologies, the new center will undertake research and development in significant consumer applications coupled with advanced technology enhancements such as IoT, energy efficiency, and solution development. The company has already developed a strong lineup of smart products in the IoT space like IoT Lamps and Battens, IoT Coolers, and IoT Smart Plugs. Crompton is also committed to the energy efficiency space offering a wide range of energy-efficient products like its BLDC Ceiling Fans – Energion, having a 35W BLDC motor that saves up to “50%” energy consumption compared to conventional Fans.
The R&D center is equipped with the latest laboratories and facilities to enable fast prototyping and testing. In addition, it has a dedicated “customer experience zone” where various solutions can be tested with focused consumer groups and built upon. Talent also is paramount to the company’s R&D, Crompton will be ramping up its hiring with 200 engineers for the new center across branches of Mechanical, Electronics, Software, IT and Data Engineering and User-Centric Designs (ID design-product design) capability.
Shantanu Khosla, MD, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. said, “The closer you are to the consumer, the more you understand the needs and problems of the consumer – that has been the motto of our R&D teams. Crompton comes with a rich legacy that has always prioritized innovation as the foundation of its entire ecosystem. Our new investment will help us better address the challenges and advance the company’s strategic growth in the consumer electrical space as well as sustain our market leadership through innovation.”
Mathew Job, CEO & Executive Director, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. further added, “Innovation is deeply embedded in the company’s DNA since its very inception. We have always had strong technology and engineering capability. Over the last 5 years, we have placed the consumer at the heart of our innovation process. In everything we do at our company, we attempt to improve our consumers’ lives through the intelligent application of our superior technology. The new R&D facility will strengthen our ability to do so and move us forward in our quest to become the most innovative company in the industry”.
Speaking about the opening of the company’s latest R&D center, Sanjeev Agrawal, Vice President – Innovation & CTO – Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. added, “Today, our digitally-connected consumers are looking for value-added products that will make their lives simpler and smarter. Our new R&D center launch is part of our overall strategy to speed up the development of product innovations that can address the problems of the consumer and provide a more comfortable and convenient home. By accelerating our innovation efforts, we are also adding new skillsets and an internal ecosystem of performance and practice. We believe that consumer-centric innovation coupled with new and advanced technologies will not only help us stay ahead of the game but also be a world-class (Make in India) consumer brand.”
About Crompton:
With a brand legacy of 75+ years, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. is India’s market leader in the category of fans and residential pumps. Over the years, the organization has continuously strived to produce a range of innovative products that cater to the modern consumer including superior quality and high-performance water heaters, anti-dust fans, antibacterial LED bulbs, and a range of other categories like air coolers, food processors like mixer grinders, electric kettles and garment care like irons. The company has further invested in brand and innovation to not only better understand and meet consumer needs but to also help drive energy efficiency. The consumer business also has a well-established and organized distribution network driven by a strong dealer base across the country offering a wide service network and robust after-sales service to its customers.
Having consistently worked towards the development of energy-efficient products, the company bagged two prestigious National Energy Consumer Awards (NECA) for the Most Energy Efficient Appliances of the Year 2019 organized by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power – one for Ceiling Fans for its HS plus model and the other one in the LED Bulb category for its 9-Watt LED bulb. The company has also been featured in Brand Top 75 most valuable Indian brands list for 2020 released by WPP and Kantar. Furthermore, Crompton was also recognized as the Brand of the Decade 2021 by Herald Global and BARC Asia in the Consumer Electrical category.