WFH impact: Wonderchef eyes Rs 120 crore revenue from festive sales

Indians working from home and cooking full-time due to coronavirus-led lockdown is working well for appliance brand Wonderchef. In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Wonderchef Managing Director Ravi Saxena said the company is eyeing festive sales of Rs 120 crore and will end FY21 with a revenue of Rs 400 crore.

“We are semi-essential now and people were forced to cook at home. So, people started to buy appliances. For the first time, maids and cooks weren’t coming into people’s homes. People realised that they don’t have the appropriate appliances,” he added.

Saxena said that compared to pre-lockdown when customers were buying a single cookware, now the idea is to buy an entire set to meet the needs of the kitchen. The home-grown appliance brand is co-owned by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor and was founded in 2009.

What is working for the brand?

Saxena explained that close to 45-50 percent of the sales is coming from digital channels compared to 20 percent in the pre-COVID-19 era.

“Customers are now buying multiple products online and brands like ours are heavily benefiting from this. Even products like hobs and chimneys which wasn’t a big focus area across India is now finding favour with the public considering the concerns around smoke,” he added.

Earlier this year, Wonderchef entered the UAE market through a partnership with Landmark Group's furniture and home furnishing brand HomeBox.

In the initial phase, the company is eyeing 10 percent of its total revenue from the UAE market, by 2022. For the UAE, almost one-fourth of the total $16 billion consumer appliance market revenue comes from kitchen appliances.

Millennials driving business 

Saxena added that it is the social media activities around cooking and baking that will turn out to be revenue accretive for the company. The company ended FY20 with a revenue of Rs 300 crore.

"Everyone wants to post pictures of themselves cooking a fancy meal or baking cakes. This will make it essential for them to have adequate kitchen tools for cooking and baking. Since we have relevant products for these needs, sales have picked up," he added,