How Grohe became a game changer
In the first week of September, Grohe India launched the Grohe Spa Rainshower Aqua A in Mumbai and Delhi. “Driven by the passion for water and for creating luxury experiences for all the senses, the Grohe SPA range features cutting-edge showering innovations, which promise to transform the bathroom into a personal home spa,” explains Bobby Joseph, leader, LWT India & subcontinent (Grohe & American Standard). “So, the aqua elements provide the designers the freedom to customise the showering experience of the consumer -- making it, in simple terms, the lego toys of the toilet”. Grohe works with DLF, Hiranandani, Lodha, Tatas, Mahindras, Rustomjee, Shapoorji, as also Brigade, Embassy, et al, down South.
“Today, you can have a shower, which can have the water falling like rain, the cascading effect, etc,” adds Joseph. “This particular showering allows the architect to do what we call the mix and match. And each shower module has unique functionalities and they can be combined in multiple ways, so that the consumer using it has a whole showering experience”. Grohe brings an affordable luxury collection specifically for the Indian market.
Grohe has a total of over 7,000 employees in 150 countries. In order to offer ‘pure Freudean Wasser’, every Grohe product is based on the brand values of quality, technology, design and sustainability. “Renowned highlights such as Grohe Eurosmart or the Grohe thermostat series, as well as the ground-breaking innovations, such as the Grohe Blue water system, underline the brand’s profound expertise. Focussed on customer needs, Grohe thus creates intelligent, life-enhancing and sustainable product solutions that offer relevant value addition – and bear the ‘Made in Germany’ seal."
Since April 2020, the sanitary brand has been producing CO2-neutral* worldwide. Grohe has also set itself the goal of using plastic-free product packaging by 2021. Grohe and American Standard are part of the strong brand portfolio of the Japanese manufacturer of pioneering water and housing products -- Lixil headquartered in Tokyo and listed in the Japanese Stock Exchange.
Multiple acquisitions
Over the past couple of years, what happened was that Japanese business started stagnating a bit and the company, to fuel up growth, looked outside and waited for multiple acquisitions. Grohe happens to be a German acquisition just like American Standard, where it picked up a few companies in Africa, etc. And, in India, it acquired a manufacturing unit in Vijayawada and that’s been its manufacturing domain since then. “Now, we are going to start off with a system of manufacturing not from what we call a full-fledged contract manufacturing in country,” adds Joseph. “We have the capacity of 1 million pieces, but we can increase that to 2 million pieces”.
At this point in time, in India, Grohe has over 300 retailers for its business and, including the direct line, it has over 3,000 outlets of the distribution network. “And that should grow over the next couple of years, that’s where our focus is right now. In India, we have two brands, we have Grohe, which is largely a fitting – showers and taps and all that stuff. In the ceramic side, we have American Standard. We used to have a brand of tiles by the name Inax, but that was a small business. In addition to that, we also have Windows division, which is a separate company of Lixil, under the brand name Coastal”
“Grohe products’ elegance and unwavering quality helps us realise our vision and elevates the overall aesthetic value of the space too,” says Jinesh Oswal, principal, architect studio, Arcon, Pune. “Bathrooms are a space where we rejuvenate ourselves and it’s critical that it is well-designed”.
“With Grohe, the sophistication and detailing of this space has been elevated to new heights of luxury,” observes Anil Badan, principal architect, Studio B”.
As to the financials, Lixil Water Technology (LWT), along with the global power brands, Grohe and American Standard, is aiming to hit Rs1,000 crore in India in the next few years.