Glassmaker Saint-Gobain eyes bigger share of home segment

Representative image

Glassmaker Saint-Gobain is betting big on the burgeoning home segment while reiterating that it will invest over Rs 2,500 crore in India between FY22 and FY23 in the home and construction space.

Indicating this, Hemant Khurana, Executive Director, Saint-Gobain India, said the focus of the company's Indian operations would be on strengthening its presence in the burgeoning home segment.

Managing director B. Santhanam had said in May last year that the company was ahead of the curve on the investment front and that it would be completing investments of Rs 2,500 crore in FY22 and FY23

“The home segment offers a significant opportunity for Saint-Gobain in India. With a market size of more than $25 billion and a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 8-10 percent, the segment is poised to grow even faster given the massive urbanisation that is yet to happen,” he said. “We are only 32 percent urbanised in India compared to 62 percent in China. People need a home before anything else and the pandemic has further accelerated the need to own a home. People are buying larger homes and spending more on their homes,” he added.

Saint-Gobain is hoping to generate revenue of Rs 1,000 crore from its home solutions business in the next 3 to 5 years. “Towards this, we are heavily investing in building our consumer touchpoints and opening MyHome stores. We have already opened stores in Kochi, Mumbai, and Chennai,” he added. Under MyHome, Saint-Gobain offers a range of innovative home solutions. These are end-to-end solutions for homes from design ideas to customised manufacturing to installation and after-sales service.

The residential and homes market is the largest segment accounting for more than 80 percent of the overall building construction industry. However, this has remained highly fragmented and unorganised due to several complexities.

Saint-Gobain is seeking to bring about a change in the home solutions market by digitalising the whole process from end to end. The products are manufactured at Saint-Gobain’s Chennai plant, developed with an investment of over Rs 100 crore. The solutions are fully customised -- consumers can choose from a combination of different product types, sizes, glazing, and accessories to align with the aesthetics of their homes.

“We are intensifying our efforts to grow our home solutions portfolio and also take these solutions to homeowners’ doorsteps through a large field force. We are also opening 50+ MyHome stores by the end of 2021 in the country in Tier I, Tier-II, and Tier-III cities to provide an excellent touch-and-feel experience,” Mr. Khurana said.

Saint-Gobain India is a part of the Saint-Gobain group, which operates in 72 countries.