BSH Household to manufacture dishwashers in India as pandemic stokes demand

With a spike in demand for dishwashers globally due to the pandemic and supplies becoming an issue, BSH Household Appliances - a part of German technology and services major, Bosch group - is planning to start manufacturing the appliance in India, a top company official said on Wednesday.

The group, which plans to invest 100 million euros (over Rs 870 crore) on its home appliances segment over next 3-4 years towards personalising solutions, brand building, strengthening technology center and user experience studies, and magnifying India's role globally, is also looking to start manufacturing top load washing machines in India as well.

''Dishwasher is a product which actually put us back in business after zero turnover in April (2020 during the lockdown). We were already a market leader....we enjoy more than 55-60 per cent market share in this segment and this is a very very nascent and small segment in India,'' BSH Household Managing Director and CEO Neeraj Bahl said while addressing a virtual press conference.

To a query on how demand for dishwashers has grown after the pandemic, he said earlier people were not serious about it but COVID-19 has given a new opportunity not only to the company but to the competitors as well. Elaborating on how strong the demand was, he said, the company grew more than 60 per cent in 2020. Industry also grew at the same level and had it not been for supplies, the growth would have been more, he added.

Stating that the supply constraint for dishwashers is not restricted to India only, Bahl said,''So far, the trend if you see in 2021 worldwide, if we run our factories 24 hours, 365 days, we will be 700,000 (units) short of dishwashers.'' So, he said,''We are planning to shift (manufacturing) of dishwashers to India. Business case has been presented, God willing, maybe we will start (manufacturing) dishwashers in India in the next two years. We will be the only company (in India) to do that because we have the capacity and space in our Chennai plant.'' At present, BSH Household imports dishwashers from Bosch factories in Europe, majorly from Turkey and Germany. Commenting on BSH Household's long term manufacturing strategy in India, Bahl said the company has put in place strategies for local manufacturing of more products.

''We are coming up with our refrigerator plant in Chennai,'' he said adding the plant will also manufacture cooktops in future along with top load washing machines which are imported as of now.

Bahl said the company has till date manufactured 1.3 million washing machines for India since it started producing front loaders in 2014. Also it has rolled out a million mixer-grinders since starting production in 2018 and 2 lakh units of 'modern chulha' targeted at rural consumers since 2019.

''So probably for India, we will be spending around Rs 300 crore over the next two years in manufacturing,'' he said adding, overall the company is looking at four-fold growth by 2025. Bosch said its aim is to make home appliances smarter, powerful, efficient, and easy to use and has steadily expanded its product portfolio, with a major focus on localised offerings and India-first innovations built with the highest quality of German engineering. ''Bosch Home Appliances will invest 100 million Euros (over Rs 870 crore) over the next 3-4 years towards personalising solutions, brand building, strengthening its technology center and UX (user experience) studies, and magnifying India's role globally,'' it said.

In the coming years, Bosch will majorly focus on connectivity with its IoT-based product solutions, strengthen its entry-level portfolio, introduce relevant products and new digital business models for customer value (D2C), it added.