Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals is targeting revenue of ₹250-300 crore from its newly launched super-premium brand Rhion over the next three years, Group Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy Kaleeswaran Arunachalam said.

The company has invested around ₹30 crore in Rhion so far, primarily towards product development, brand initiatives, and tools and dies. It has separately spent ₹100-120 crore on expanding its manufacturing capabilities, Arunachalam said on the sidelines of Rhion’s launch in Mumbai. Rhion marks Crompton’s entry into the super-premium segment .

“This is only the first of many products to come,” Arunachalam said, explaining the company’s decision to launch a water purifier as Rhion’s first product.

Rhion’s first product, the Water Biofier, will initially be launched in select cities across Tamil Nadu and Bengaluru. The company will use the initial rollout to gauge consumer response before expanding the product to other markets.

Arunachalam said Rhion would require a fundamentally different sales approach from Crompton. While Crompton operates as a business of scale where sales are centred on the product, Rhion will seek to sell an overall consumer experience.

This positioning will require specialised training for sales teams. Crompton’s learning and development function is working with category and sales teams to build the capabilities needed to execute the new brand strategy, Arunachalam said.

Future Energy Adjacency

Crompton is also developing Energion as a separate platform for future energy-related businesses. The company already has a presence in the segment through products such as power banks and stabilisers, although the business remains relatively small. Solar rooftop operations are also being housed under the Energion platform.

“We want to look at future adjacencies where we can use energy only as a brand to play in those segments which are relevant for Crompton,” Arunachalam said.

The initiatives form part of Crompton’s broader “Crompton 2.0” transformation, which is being supported by higher spending on brand building, innovation and organisational changes.

The company has increased brand spending to 3.2% of revenue from 1.6%, while annual innovation expenditure has risen to around ₹100 crore from ₹30 crore. Crompton is also spending approximately ₹50 crore annually on transformation initiatives, including digitising its go-to-market platform, changing ways of working, and increasing range selling and premium-product sales.

Combined annual spending on brand, innovation and transformation initiatives now stands at more than ₹200-220 crore, Arunachalam said.

The company is also building Energion as a separate platform for future energy businesses. Arunachalam said Crompton is already present in the segment through products such as power banks and stabilisers, although it remains a “very small business” currently. Solar rooftops are also being operated under Energion.

“We want to look at future adjacencies where we can use energy only as a brand to play in those segments which are relevant for Crompton,” he said.

The broader Crompton 2.0 transformation is being funded through a sharp increase in brand and innovation spending, alongside investments in changing the company’s ways of working.

Crompton has increased brand spending to 3.2% of revenue from 1.6%, while annual innovation spending has risen to about ₹100 crore from ₹30 crore, Arunachalam said. The company is also spending about ₹50 crore annually on transformation initiatives, including digitising its go-to-market platform, changing ways of working and increasing range selling and premium-product sales.

Together, annual spending across brand, innovation and transformation is now ₹200-220 crore-plus, he said.

Butterfly merger not a priority

On Butterfly, Crompton does not currently consider a merger a priority, despite the potential synergies from combining the two businesses.

“Merger at this point of time is not a priority, because eventually we thought there will be synergies that we can obtain through merger, interestingly we are getting that already,” Arunachalam said.

Crompton is already capturing backend synergies across manufacturing, logistics, supply chain and people, while the front-end operations of the two businesses remain separate.

The company had earlier anticipated a merger, but management now believes maintaining separate front ends could be beneficial because the two brands have distinct value propositions.

“Other than the legal requirements of running two listed companies and the compliance cost associated with it, we do think the large part of the benefits that needs to accrue has already been accrued,” he said.

(The writer was in Mumbai at the invitation of the company)

Published – August 19, 2026 05:23 pm IST

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Consumer durables major Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd (CGCEL) is taking its 85-year-old mass-market brand into the super-premium segment with Crompton Rhion, signalling a strategic shift as it looks to transform from a company traditionally known for fans and pumps into a broader, technology-driven home-solutions business.

Rhion will debut with Water Biofier, a premium water-purification product that the company describes as a category-first innovation., said the ₹8,000 crore company, which aims to nearly double its revenue in the next five years to ₹15,000 crore,

According to the company, which unveiled a refreshed brand identity, “biofier” is priced at ₹42,000 with introductory offers to be announced soon.

The move is part of “Crompton 2.0”, a broader transformation driven by investments in innovation and extensive consumer research, which it says goes beyond simply changing its brand identity.

The water-purification market is the first testing ground for the new brand. Crompton estimates India’s domestic electric water-purifier market at ₹5,565 crore, with reverse osmosis (RO) systems accounting for nearly 85% of the category. Despite the market’s size, household penetration remains low at around 6%, according to the company.

Crompton CEO Promeet Ghosh said the company invested ₹112 crore in its innovation centre last year, bringing its total investment to approximately ₹312 crore over the three-year period, with the spending focused on enhancing innovation capabilities and developing products aligned with evolving consumer needs.

When it found that the required technology was not available in-house, the company turned to global leaders who had the expertise, according to Ghosh.

Highlighting that it conducted an extensive consumer study involving 18,000 consumers, more than 740 hours of consumer videos and immersions, multiple home visits and over 30 million data points; Chief Marketing Officer Tanmay Prusty said the findings were used in product strategy, new-category expansion and the company’s new brand positioning.

Rhion is intended to cater to consumers seeking what management described as refined living and an elevated product experience. “When we found that there is a cohort of consumers in an aspiring India who desire refined living, an elevated product experience, we did not cater to them, so we created a brand that does,” Ghosh said.

Alongside Rhion, Crompton is building Energion as a separate energy platform, with plans to expand across the energy value chain, including generation, conversion, storage and charging.

The portfolio already includes solar rooftop solutions and energy-storage products such as power banks and batteries, while energy conversion is being positioned as a potential future growth area.

“Energion is going to be the power behind everyday progress,” Prusty said, describing the platform as one that will enable consumers and businesses through “reliable, intelligent, sustainable energy solutions.”

According to the company, Energion will give Crompton the flexibility to enter emerging energy segments without being tied to a single product category.

Crompton also unveiled Cephyr, its new master-brand emblem, along with “Amazing, Every Day” as its new brand promise. The new identity will be rolled out progressively across products, packaging, retail outlets, digital platforms and consumer communications.

(The writer was in Mumbai at the invitation of the company)

Published – August 18, 2026 08:05 pm IST