Leading air conditioner (AC) maker Voltas is looking to grow its Rs 2,300-crore home appliances business by more than threefold to Rs 7,000-8,000 crore in the next 3-5 years, a top executive told FE. The company also aims to get into the top three club in home appliances, eyeing a wider presence in consumer durables.
Diversification Beyond Seasonal AC Business
The move to diversify, said experts, is significant, as cooling products such as ACs are seasonal in nature. Most AC makers this year have seen demand take a sharp hit and inventories pile up on account of unseasonal rains and a lean summer period. This is despite a 10% goods and services tax (GST) cut on ACs announced in September, which saw tertiary sales pick up on the back of price cuts that AC makers took in the category. But primary sales from companies to dealers have been weak, experts said, which has seen most AC makers report weak numbers for the first half of FY26.
Voltas, for instance, saw top line in the first half of FY26 decline by nearly 17% year-on-year to Rs 6,432.58 crore due to weakness in the AC business. While bottom line for the period fell by 63% versus last year to Rs 467.83 crore, according to the company’s financial results.
Voltas expects to see a better second half driven by improved consumer sentiment, GST rate reduction and better demand conditions fuelled by the easing of interest rates and income tax cuts announced earlier this calendar year, Jayant Balan, a senior business leader at the company, said. While the introduction of new energy efficiency norms in ACs in January 2026 may see prices increase by 7-8%, most AC makers including Voltas have said that the cost push is unavoidable.
Voltas Beko, which has a presence in refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers and microwave ovens and was launched in 2018, is also aiming to be Ebitda-positive by FY27, he said.
New Categories and Manufacturing Ramping
The plan, according to Balan, is a gradual expansion into small domestic appliances as far as home appliances goes. There is no plan, he said, of getting into TVs anytime soon given the competitive intensity in that category.
“We’ve made a modest start in dry irons and mixer grinders as far as category expansion goes. We’ll slowly expand that portfolio to include induction cooktops, kettles, air fryers, and so on, as we eye a bigger play in durables,” he said.
The company is also ramping up both manufacturing and distribution to achieve its turnover targets in home appliances, Balan said. This includes increasing capacity at its Sanand factory in Gujarat for home appliances and in its Chennai factory for ACs. The company has a third plant in Pantnagar in Uttarakhand.
“In the last 3-4 years, we have made an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in manufacturing for both room air conditioners and home appliances. We can make about 1.5 million refrigerators and about half a million fully automatic washing machines. From an AC perspective, close to about 3 million should be possible once we complete our capacity enhancement at our Chennai plant,” Balan said.