Q1 was a seasonally strong quarter for Whirlpool, boosted by new product launches and expansion of their distribution network. Sunil D'souza, MD of the company, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the results and shared outlook for fiscal 2019.

"Longer summer led to better Q1 performance," D'souza said on Monday.

“We have seen demand continuing to hold especially in tier-II, tier-III towns. The electrification moves of the government with cable led to the last village, I think we are starting to see that piece play out and also our entire product pipeline making sure that we have got competitive products in line with what Indian consumer wants and executing it to the best of our ability,” he added.

Talking about the business, D'souza said, “Competition is good for the consumer. India will be a competitive industry because there is potential for growth. It is one of the few areas geographically in the world where there is still long-term growth to be had. Therefore, current and future competition will continue to be aggressive.”

“We need to be mindful about the current competitors and we need to plan for new competitors coming in and we happen to know how they operate apart from that strengthening our own PEs and when strengthening our own PEs ad budget is one piece and we bumped up our advertising and promotional (A&P) significantly over the last quarter,” he added.

“However, apart from A&P having a strong product pipeline and executing it best in class is key. So all 3 pieces go together along with making sure that we have got the capacity to maintain our momentum. Therefore, investment is in both product pipeline as well as capacity,” added D'souza.

On the growth front, the MD said, “We have seen double-digit growth continue in July and we do expect August-September to also come in double-digits. The industry will be continuing in the double-digit range given the shift in festival timing etc., but we will grow ahead of the industry.”

First Published:Aug 19, 2019 11:24 AM IST