The Lloyd acquisition, which was supposed to catapult the electricals giant into the consumer durables segment, has missed expectations. But chairman Anil Rai Gupta has only just doubled down on the brand. Will the risk pay off?
Anil Rai Gupta had lived in dual shadows for years.
One was of his late father, the legendary Qimat Rai Gupta, a former electricals dealer who acquired Havells in the 1970s and turned it into an almost Rs 5,000 crore electrical goods maker by the time he died in 2014. The other was the expensive acquisition of Frankfurt-headquartered Sylvania in 2007, which went south for the company (more on that later).
Things were expected to change in 2017, when Havells bought Lloyd. It was hoped that acquiring one of India’s top three air conditioner brands would turn Havells into Anil …
Ujval leads our Business vertical at The Morning Context. In a corporate career spanning 14 years, he has worked across startups, consulting firms, multinational corporations and large Indian companies, including India Infoline, ICICI, KPMG, Tata Steel and Jubilant Pharma. Ujval has been a freelance writer and trainer for eight years, with bylines in Forbes India and The Economic Times.
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