A delayed winter this year has slowed down the sales of winter-centric electrical appliances like geysers and heaters in November, especially in North India, dealers and industry players told FE.
“The delayed onset of winter has undoubtedly impacted the immediate sales of winter-centric appliances like geysers and heaters,” said Rajat Chopra, business head for home electricals at Crompton.
Sunil Grover, a Dwarka-based dealer of electrical appliances said that there has been a lower footfall at his shop – Grover’s Electrical – as compared to last year. He attributed it to the above-than-normal temperature in the capital.
“We are still using fans on most days at our homes. It is obvious that people don’t yet feel the need of heaters,” he said, adding that the demand for geysers and immersion rods is better than that of the heaters.
The Indian Metereological Department (IMD) has said that India witnessed its warmest October since 1901 this year, with a mean temperature at 26.92 degrees Celsius. In November, it had predicted that the temperatures would remain 4 to 6 degrees Celsius above average.
Rajesh Bhagat, another dealer based in Chandigarh’s Sector 22, who sells his products across Haryana and Punjab, said that the slowdown has been visible for the last 2-3 years.
“Last year too, the demand was less in November as the temperatures were not that low,” he said. “But this year, it’s worse than that.”
However, dealers as well as companies expect the demand to recover in December as temperatures are expected to return to normal.
On November 21, Delhi recorded its coldest night of the season, when the temperature settled at 10.2 degrees Celsius. On November 27, the capital witnessed its second-coldest night at 10.4 degrees Celsius, just 0.1 degrees above normal.
“While there has been some impact on offtake due to the late onset of winter, we are confident of capturing the surge in demand as the season progresses,” said Gaurav Dhawan, business head (electrical consumer durables), Orient Electric.
“Encouragingly, we have seen positive momentum picking up in the tertiary markets since mid-November,” he added.
Chopra said that they remain optimistic about the overall season. “As temperatures gradually dip, we anticipate a surge in demand, particularly in the coming weeks,” he said.
A Croma executive from Delhi’s Select City Walk Mall branch said that they have started seeing an uptick in sales for heaters and geysers in the last 2-3 days.
“We only expect it to get better in December,” he said, asking not to be named.