Godrej Locks eyes small-town India to unlock next phase of growth

CHENNAI:  Godrej Locks and Architectural Fittings & Systems has drawn up plans to tap non-metros, particularly the tier III, tier IV cities as well as rural India, after the lock maker witnessed an uptick in its sales in these regions during Covid-19. 

Apart from increasing its penetration in the smaller towns, the company will also launch a new range of products to cater to these markets, said Shyam Motwani, EVP and Business Head, Godrej Locks and Architectural Fittings & Systems. Motwani further added that the share of sales from tier III and tier IV cities has increased to 26 per cent during October-January period of the current financial year from 22 per cent during the same period of last year. 

“Currently we have our presence in over 350 of such cities. We are expanding our footprints in smaller cities with a population of one lakh and  beyond by strengthening our distributors chain,” said Motwani. He added that soon the company will launch a new range of products designed to meet the needs of the smaller towns. He also pointed out that as the rural economy strengthens, the rural market, which remains untapped, will be growing too.

According  to Motwani, the locks and  architectural fittings category has witnessed a  significant growth of 18 per cent between October 2020 and January 2021 (in comparison to the same  period last fiscal and the company is hopeful of better performance in the coming months.

“Almost 86 per cent of our revenue is generated from the B2C market segment and the business growth will be driven by extracting more from the existing urban markets, by way of penetrating in tier III and IV cities and launching new products,” said Motwani. Godrej Locks is a top player with 40 per cent market share among the organised players, he added. The market size for locks is pegged at Rs 5,200 crore.

Contactless, safety

The manufacturer of innovative locking solutions has recently nnounced its foray into the contactless products segment and launched four products in the range including Universal Brass Key, Arm-Operated Door Handle and two variants of Foot-Operated Door Opener. The company has launched this range exclusively on e-commerce (Amazon India).