We’re now seeing a strong trend of premiumization: Hindware’s Nirupam Sahay

In an exclusive conversation with Nirupam Sahay, CEO of Hindware, we delve into the company’s strategic journey across its three core verticals - Bathware (sanitaryware and faucets), Tiles, and Consumer Appliances.

Since taking over at the helm, Sahay has spearheaded initiatives aimed at driving growth, strengthening the premium portfolio, and enhancing the consumer experience. From scaling new product developments in alignment with the trend of premiumization to launching the emotionally resonant campaign ‘Hindware: Designed for Sukoon’, Sahay shares insights on the brand’s evolution, market priorities, marketing spends, and the ambitious growth targets for FY26.

Edited Excerpts:

Since taking over at the start of the year, what have you managed to tick off your to-do list and what are the things still need to be done?

It’s only been about seven to eight months, but quite a lot has happened across the three key verticals at Hindware, Bathware (sanitaryware and faucets), Tiles, and Consumer Appliances. Each business is at a different stage of maturity, so our priorities vary accordingly.

Starting with the sanitaryware and faucets segment, Hindware has a legacy of over 60 years in sanitaryware and has been a market leader, while faucets, established around 15 years ago, are still relatively new. Our focus here is on driving high growth. We're targeting 2–3x the market rate by strengthening brand differentiation and aligning our product strategy with the market’s shift toward premiumization. We’ve segmented our portfolio into Hindware (mass), Hindware Italian Collection (mass premium), and Queo (premium) to address evolving consumer preferences. Alongside growth, improving profitability through better gross margins and cost management has been a key focus. Additionally, we’ve been sharpening brand positioning. Hindware already enjoys the highest awareness scores in the industry, and our aim is to drive stronger preference by building on our legacy of trust and quality while giving it a modern, emotionally resonant identity.

Moving to the consumer appliances business, we’ve streamlined our focus to become a dedicated kitchen appliances player, covering chimneys, cooktops, hobs, built-in ovens, microwaves, and sink areas where we already hold strong brand equity and rank among the top three players. Our water heater (geyser) business, managed through our joint venture with Groupe Atlantic of France, continues to be a key area of strength. The strategic shift here has been to focus on a few core categories and win in them, rather than spreading ourselves thin. We’ve also actively expanded distribution to strengthen reach and performance.

The tiles business is our newest venture, launched four years ago, and has immense potential. Despite being in its early stages, we’re already growing at nearly 2.5–3x the market rate. Our focus here is on scaling the business tenfold over the next five years, leveraging Hindware’s strong brand recall and focusing on the mass-premium and premium segments under the Hindware Italian Collection brand. We believe that’s where design, innovation, and differentiation will drive real impact.

Across all three categories, I’m happy to say that we’ve made significant progress. In bathware, we’ve returned to growth, improved profitability, and launched new products aligned with our premiumization strategy. In tiles, growth has been robust, and in appliances, our focused category strategy is delivering results.

Beyond these business levers, a major milestone has been the new brand positioning and campaign ‘Hindware: Designed for Sukoon’ developed in collaboration with MullenLowe Lintas. The idea behind ‘Designed for Sukoon’ was to create a strong, emotional connect with consumers to position Hindware as a brand that brings calm, comfort, and peace into homes amidst today’s fast-paced, stressful world. We launched this positioning through our new campaign, starting with the Bathware segment, with films rolling out across digital, OTT, and connected TV, followed by kitchen appliances and tiles.

The campaign highlights how Hindware products embody Sukoon, whether it’s a thermostatic shower offering perfect temperature control, a sensor-based water closet with warming features, or silent IoT-enabled chimneys and elegantly designed tiles that bring harmony to any living space. Our consumer research showed that people found this emotional promise both believable and relatable. Ultimately, ‘Designed for Sukoon’ isn’t just a campaign, it's become part of our brand DNA. We’re integrating it across every customer touchpoint, from our brand stores and website to service interactions, ensuring that every experience with Hindware feels smooth, warm, and worry-free. The idea is simple: when consumers think of Hindware, they should feel a sense of Sukoon in their bathrooms, kitchens, homes, and hearts.

Could you clarify about Hindware Home Innovation and what verticals are part of it?

Hindware Home Innovation Limited (HHIL) currently houses the consumer appliances business. The larger Hindware brand, which includes the sanitaryware and faucets segment, operates as a subsidiary of HHIL. However, as of April 1st this year, we’ve announced a demerger of the two businesses to create greater strategic focus. Post-demerger, there will be two independent listed companies, Hindware Limited, which will include the bathware and pipes business (marketed under Trueflow by Hindware), and Hindware Home Innovation Limited (HHIL), which will continue to handle the consumer appliances division. The process of obtaining necessary approvals is underway, and over the next few months, the two entities will formally operate as separate listed companies.

Since you’re now expanding the tiles and appliances segments, how is the current revenue split across categories? Does sanitaryware still contribute the largest share, or has that balance started to shift?

Yes, sanitaryware and faucets continue to be our largest business, followed by consumer appliances and then tiles. This hierarchy is quite natural, given the history of each segment – the sanitaryware business is over 60 years, faucets for about 15 years, and tiles for just around four. The scale of each business is largely proportional to the time we’ve been present in those categories. While all three segments offer growth potential, the biggest upside lies in tiles and consumer appliances, simply because they’re relatively newer and smaller in size, which gives us far greater headroom for expansion.

Could you share how you’re enhancing the retail and point-of-sale experience, and leveraging Hindware’s distribution to make the products more personal and tactile for consumers?

We’ve focused heavily on creating an immersive consumer experience across all our product categories. A key initiative is the Hindware Experience Center in Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, where all our products are not displayed and demonstrated live. This allows consumers to see and interact with products like advanced showers or sensor-based WCs before making a significant investment. We complement these live demonstrations with digital simulations to showcase performance and benefits, shifting the focus from just features to how our products enhance daily life and home comfort.

Building on this, we plan to launch additional Experience Centers in Hyderabad and Bangalore within the next six to seven months, expanding this hands-on, premium interaction. Alongside, our brand stores across bathware, tiles, and consumer appliances provide a touch-and-feel experience, while our distributors and dealers ensure deep reach into Tier II and Tier III cities, particularly for bathware.

The ‘Sukoon’ philosophy is also being integrated across all touchpoints. For example, our newly launched website is premium, intuitive, and research-driven, offering features like a bathroom visualizer, store locator, and AIguided navigation. Whether online or offline, every interaction is designed to give consumers a seamless, worldclass experience and reinforce the sense of calm and comfort that Hindware stands for.

With digital taking a larger share today and your growing focus on experiential marketing, how does the split look between traditional, digital, and BTL activities?

Our marketing spends are fairly well-balanced across platforms, though digital now accounts for the largest share which is 60%. This year around 55–60% of our overall marketing budget is allocated to digital channels OTT, news platforms, search, and social media simply because that’s where our consumers are actively engaging, researching, and even making purchase decisions. Alongside digital, we continue to invest in traditional mediums like print, television, and outdoor, as well as airport visibility to maintain a strong presence across touchpoints. However, the clear focus remains on digital, given its effectiveness in reaching and influencing today’s consumers.

Hindware has a strong recall as a mass brand, but with your growing focus on mass-premium and premium segments, how is the revenue split shaping up? Do you see premiumization leading your growth ahead?

 We are very clear that we won’t give up our strengths in the mass segment. We have a solid presence in Tier II, Tier III, and even Tier IV markets. However, what’s interesting is that we’re now seeing a strong trend of premiumization even in these regions. Consumers across smaller towns are just as informed and aspirational, thanks to digital access, and they’re increasingly looking for more premium options. While we continue to cater to the mass segment, our strategic focus is on expanding the mass-premium and premium categories, where we see the biggest growth potential. In fact, we expect the share of these segments to rise steadily every quarter and every year. The task ahead is to grow these categories disproportionately, without losing the solid foundation we’ve built in the mass market.

How does this year’s consumer sentiment compare to the last few muted years, and what’s the key focus of your festive marketing strategy?

The overall consumer sentiment continues to be somewhat muted. If we look at the performance of FMCG companies over the last few quarters, it’s clear that demand has remained subdued for about three to four quarters now. This year, unseasonal and prolonged rainfall across several parts of the country such as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Kolkata, and the eastern states has further impacted demand, especially in regions hit by these weather disruptions. While there were early signs of recovery a couple of months ago, the momentum has slowed again.

However, there’s cautious optimism ahead. With the recent GST changes and the gradual end of the monsoon, we expect consumer spending to pick up in the coming weeks. The GST reductions, in particular, are likely to leave more disposable income in the hands of consumers, encouraging higher spending. So, we anticipate that the period from late September through Diwali will see a noticeable uptick in demand compared to previous quarters.

Are you expecting a stronger Q3 ahead, and what kind of growth you’re projecting for the quarter?

We may not be able to share specific numbers just yet, but as I mentioned earlier, our ambition is to grow at twice the pace of the market. Whatever the overall market growth rate turns out to be, our focus is on consistently outperforming it and maintaining that momentum through the quarter.

With your focus expanding to tiles and consumer appliances, are you increasing your marketing budget or reallocating it? How are you approaching categories where your market share is still small?

We’ve made a conscious decision to invest more in the brand as well as in enhancing the retail and consumer experience. To put it in numbers, our marketing spend this year is roughly 25% higher than last year. This increase is deliberate, aimed at driving growth, strengthening the brand, and ensuring we continue to outperform the market and gain share. Our spend is being allocated across all key levers ATL, BTL, and digital to maximize impact. While we remain very cost-conscious, we recognize that strategic investment is essential to support this multi-year growth journey. Next year, we plan to increase spending further, in line with business growth, ensuring that both absolute and relative investments in marketing are aligned with our expansion goals.

Finally, looking ahead, where do you see the business by the end of FY26?

What are the key milestones or targets you hope to achieve by then? Looking ahead, our primary focus is on moving the needle on premiumization. Everything we’ve done since January, and into this financial year, has been aimed at strengthening our mass-premium and premium product portfolio, and by March next year, we expect to see measurable progress in the share of these segments.

Secondly, we are committed to leveraging our brand platform across all touchpoints. This campaign is more than just advertising, it's a holistic brand initiative that spans retail stores, service, digital, and every consumer interaction, ensuring a consistent and immersive experience.

Finally, our goal is to gain market share across every business segment while improving profitability. We are confident that as the top line grows through premiumization and increased market presence, our bottom line will also improve. In summary, by the end of FY26, our priorities are to expand the premium portfolio, strengthen the brand across all touchpoints, and achieve measurable growth and profitability across all businesses.

By March 31st, FY26, do you see the business achieving double the market growth, essentially quoting your earlier statement is that the target you’re aiming for….

 Yes, our target is to achieve double the market growth rate, and that remains a key focus. Beyond growth numbers, what’s crucial for us is that ‘Designed for Sukoon’ is not just an advertising campaign it’s a guiding philosophy. Every aspect of our business, from new product development to customer touchpoints like the website or service interactions, is being shaped to provide ease of doing business and a seamless, enjoyable experience. Our goal is for consumers to feel that interacting with Hindware is consistently a great experience. This approach resonates strongly not only with us internally but also in consumer research, where we see that people increasingly value emotional connections with brands.