Syska eyes Rs 500 crore from wires and cables vertical in very first year

Syska Group, known for its LED lighting products, recently ventured into the wires and cables business and in the very first year, the brand is eyeing Rs 500 crore from the vertical.

Amit Sethiya

“The category is around Rs 390 billion and around 60% of it is driven by the organised player and 40% is unorganised. We are looking at around Rs 500 crore from the vertical, to begin with, this financial year,” said Amit Sethiya, Chief Marketing Officer, Syska Group.

Syska is looking to cash in on the opportunity that the implementation of GST has accorded the company and intends to be among the top three players in wires and cables category.

“With the implementation of GST, the unorganised players will not be able to last long and as a result, a space is going to be created. We are looking to target this space,” said Sethiya.

The organised segment in the wires and cables category is pegged to increase to about 75% by 2022 and with the category itself growing by a CAGR for 14-15%, Syska wants to be about 15-20% of the market in three years.

The group has planned an aggressive marketing strategy to launch the new vertical and has roped in Amitabh Bachchan as the face of its wires and cables business. The group has earmarked Rs 30 crore to market the new vertical, of which 80% will go in traditional media.

“Each medium plays an important role in building a brand. For us, that medium is television. TV has helped us become a household name. As far as the newer mediums are concerned, we are definitely going to create some engaging pieces of communication for the online mediums and by extension, for the future customers as well. Because the mantra here is to catch everybody young,” said Sethiya.

IBD India is the creative agency that is working on the campaign, which is expected to go live sometime next month.

Syska is known for its successful associations with celebrities, like with Irrfan Khan for LED lights. So impactful was the association that the actor and Syska LED lights became almost synonymous with each other.

But while Irrfan Khan (when he partnered with Syska lights) wasn’t so big on the endorsement scene, Amitabh Bachchan has many brands in his kitty.

On why they chose Bachchan, Sethiya said, “When it comes to celebrity associations, from day one, it has been a very strategic decision at Syska. The best example of that is Irrfan Khan. Because of the success of that association, it puts a bigger responsibility on us when we talk about ‘what next?’ From that perspective, it was very important to bring in somebody who could bring in a lot of relevance and seriousness to the category. But Amitabh Bachchan is also very good at straight-faced humour and we have brought him on-board for this very reason.”

“Syska was the only brand that started its journey with LED in the lights category. Other brands in the segment were doing well in other categories and gradually came to LED. If you look at Irrfan Khan’s journey in the film industry, he also went from being a supporting cast to main lead to working in Hollywood. So, Irrfan’s achievements in his career complemented Syska’s journey and that is the reason we took him on board. He was not very prominent in the endorsement scene during those days and Syska was also at a very nascent stage; we matured together. Now, the brand has matured and we have a lot of equity in the market and therefore it was necessary to communicate with the audience as a matured brand and Amitabh Bachchan makes for a perfect brand ambassador in such a situation,” added Sethiya.

Syska Group today is a Rs 1200-crore brand and the LED lights business still accounts for the largest chunk of the group’s overall revenues, about 75%. But the contribution of online (in terms of sales for LED lights) is still 5%.

“LED is not a very engaging product. People don’t go online, organically, to buy LED. Consumers will go to the ‘nukkad’ shop to buy LED. People go online to look at home décor or fixtures and fittings. With the way algorithms are planned online, customers will also start getting ‘also view’ suggestions and that is where customers encounter LED bulbs,” explained Sethiya.

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