Manufacturing Smart Kitchen Appliances to Suit Customers' Usage Behavior

Chandru Kalro, Managing Director at TTK Prestige in an interaction with Industry Outlook, shares his insights on the kitchen appliance industry of India and concerns relating to circular economy, counterfeiting and more.

Rising number of nuclear families, rapid urbanization, and increasing number of women in the urban workforce are the primary drivers  of growth of the kitchen appliances market in India. How do you see the expectation of the Indian customers changing?

The kitchen appliances industry of India is undergoing a massive transformation in terms of customer expectation and demand. With a fast-paced life, the consumers are now actively opting for kitchen appliances which provide convenience and promote health, while saving time in the kitchen.

Features like easy-to-cook and easy-to-clean, etc. are driving the buying behavior of the end consumers. Today, the manufacturers are required to be on par with these broad themes to maintain brand relevance and sustain growth in the market.

With massive resource extraction and waste generation, kitchen appliances stress the environment throughout their whole lifecycle. How do you see the kitchen appliance industry of India shifting towards a circular economy from the current linear economy?

The global business ecosystem is increasingly transcending towards green practices. Each stakeholder, starting from governments to our clients and end-consumers,  is demanding  sustainable products. For example, in case of polythene bag usage for packaging, there is a set rule across multiple countries including India that  obligates the manufacturers to use 20-30 percent recycled material. In addition, the consumers are also conscious about the products that they buy and want complete knowledge about the sustainable practices.

The prevalent scenario is promoting a positive shift towards sustainable manufacturing practices. At TTK Prestige, we have  paid an undivided attention  to developing best practices that promote sustainability. For example - we run a major exchange program, wherein the team collects the old and used products from different points to scrape them appropriately and responsibly. Secondly, as a part of our ESG policy, we tend to use the recyclable materials at the maximum possible levels. From a product point of view, TTK Prestige strives to deliver the most energy efficient products to the clients.         

Kitchen appliance manufacturers are under pressure to develop products that are on par with energy-efficiency requirements. How are the Kitchen appliance manufacturers approaching to attain the same?

The rapidly increasing natural gas and oil price has massively influenced the consumer’s buying behavior. Today, energy efficiency is the most critical criteria in the kitchen appliance market, which every customer looks forward to.

Owing to this, the market is also witnessing an increasing demand for the energy efficient products like — induction cooktop, pressure cookers and more.

Looking at the manufacturing end, the brands are well aware of this growing trend, and every player in the industry is actively striving to be on par with the evolving demands. As a brand, TTK Prestige works diligently to always deliver the best. To cite an example, our current induction cooktops give 20 to 25 percent more energy efficiency when compared with other products in the market.       

Smart technology has found its way into the kitchen appliance industry. However, price of the smart appliance has been a key retraining factor, halting the growth of smart kitchen appliances in India. How are the Indian manufacturers working to minimize the customer cost of smart kitchen appliances?

In order to streamline the smart kitchen appliance manufacturing, it is imperative to identify existing pain points of clients. The smart appliances that are available in the market today do not  suit  the habits of the customer in the kitchen. The existing gap between clients' demand and available technology, in turn, has severely hampered the growth of the smart appliance market.

TTK Prestige is coming up with new innovative smart appliances that are specifically designed to reduce this gap. Our team has rigorously studied the consumer use cases to develop products that provide the most value and convenience to the clients. We are striving to come up with new technologies that help to attain unique advantages like — remote monitoring of the kitchenware, energy consumption check and more. We further desire to avail these products at a reasonable price, to acquire a lead in the smart kitchen appliance market.

Counterfeit products have been a major challenge for the kitchen appliance industry. According to researchers, the threat from counterfeit products will be a major challenge for household kitchen appliances like — blenders. How are the Indian manufacturers working to mitigate this challenge and institute traceability throughout the supply chain?

Counterfeiting has been a persistent challenge in the Indian kitchen appliance industry. While methods like private investigation and raids have helped to mitigate the counterfeiting, it was not completely eliminated. However, with the arrival of novel technologies like — QR Codes, and transparent tags, end-to-end traceability of products can now be attained. This step will also help the customers procure the authentic product.

Presently, maximum counterfeiting takes place in the online domain; wherein multiple unauthorized sellers often end up providing counterfeit products to the clients. Collaborating with the platforms and the marketplace, TTK Prestige has figured a way out to eliminate this problem. We have devised special transparent stickers that will help the customers identify authentic products, when buying from an online domain.  

Eliminating the counterfeiting issue is an extremely important initiative that will help the brands maintain credibility.

How do you see the kitchen appliance industry evolving in the future? What is the future roadmap of TTK Prestige?

With multiple technology trends, lifestyle trends, and psychographic trends, shaping the world in a new form, it is crucial to align the products with continually developing needs. In order to be successful in this market, the products now need to match and blend with the evolving lifestyle.

At TTK Prestige, the goal of convenience and relevance has driven our growth and will continue to do so, as we are here to satisfy the customer by solving their pain points. Our undivided attention has been to deliver the best value for money to our customers. In the coming days, TTK Prestige will work on four broad themes of health, time saving, convenience and aesthetics.