In the Indian building materials market, bathrooms (faucets, accesories & sanitaryware) is one of the categories with a relatively higher customer involvement in the sales process. This could be attributed to the aggressive branding that has been a hallmark of this product category, in addition to the other factors. A high customer involvement makes it even more difficult for a new name to establish itself. One such new name – Eauset today has a robust presence across India. Buildingandinteriors.com spoke to Mr.Sukrit Bansal, Managing Director, Eau Bathing Solutions Pvt.Ltd. to understand the reasons behind the rise of Eauset over a short period of time.
B&I: You have been able to carve out a place for yourself in a highly competitive bathrooms segment. What was the idea when you started and what were the challenges?
SB: A strong manufacturing, R&D and customer support have been our forte, even before Eauset was launched in the Indian market. The market is divided into 2 segments in volume terms – 50% comprising the premium segment and the balance 50% in the mid & entry level. We saw a good space to fill in the mid-segment of the market. Changing lifestyles, higher disposable incomes and an increasing awareness towards personal hygiene have made the customers move away from the unorganized to the organized market. They appreciate the fact that a branded supplier can offer many advantages over the non-branded ones. I thank my fellow competitors who have also contributed to raising the bar on the spending habits of the customers. All these factors helped us develop a good product portfolio which suited the customer requirements. We could hit the ground running.
On the challenges part, I would say that our challenges were no different to the ones faced by a quality manufacturing-backed brand would have faced. These included the very name ‘Eauset’ (a French word which almost translates into a bathroom set for water), comparison with the other players in the market, etc. Having been very familiar with the Indian building materials market, we were able to train our teams to ‘effectively communicate’ our product virtues to the channel partners. Today, our channel partners are our biggest brand ambassadors. They know that they are selling a brand that is backed by a strong in-house manufacturing base and it’s their endorsement that has made us a strong brand that is now available pan-India.
B&I: What brands do you see as competition to Eauset? What value proposition you offer for the customer over your competitors?
SB: At Eauset, we like to believe that in the Indian market, there is room for every brand to grow on a longterm and sustainable basis. For a company as young as Eauset, when we get compared, in terms of quality, with the well established brands in the country, it gives us a feeling of elation.
Our value proposition is very simple and clearly defined for all stakeholders – value for money for consumer, excellent after sales service, better return on investment for our channel partners, volume business to our vendors, career growth path for our employees, CRM program for plumbing contractors (which we will be rolling out shortly).
B&I: The Indian market has a fancy for international names. Are you looking at bringing some international brands to India?
SB: I am of the opinion that Indian brands are very well equipped to produce & deliver quality products and solutions at par with international standards.
Working with international brands in the Indian market requires due diligence and it should be a synergistically advantageous to both us and the incoming international brand. We keep exploring the opportunities that come our way but have not decided on any such alliance till now. Whenever we bring any international brand to India, we would like to look at a long-term and mutually beneficial tie-up with such a brand.
B&I: Tell us about your trade network – how many dealers/distributors you have and their geographical spread across India?
SB: Eauset Brand has Pan India presence now with a wide spread network of 200 distributors/dealers and 1100 retail outlets.
B&I: How important is project business for Eauset? What is the mode of operation for Eauset in projects?
SB: For us, every customer is important – be it project or retail. We normally do project business through our channel partners across India. In Delhi NCR, where we are based, we do the project business directly.
B&I: What challenges do you see in the project business?
SB: Project business has gone through many changes over the last few years. A bulk of the work is happening in the public sector. What is very encouraging is that the public sector has been seeing the quality of the projects improve significantly over time. I feel that the government needs to keep focusing on projects so that there is buoyancy in the project business.
The other big challenge to projects is going to be posed by Covid pandemic. With so much of labour having gone back to their respective states, I see the non-availability of labour to be a major challenge.
B&I: How do you see the role of an Architect/MEP Consultant in your brand?
SB: We see Architects and MEP Consultants as an integral part of the decision eco-system. Both of them work to make better specifications in any given project. A good co-ordination between the Architects/MEP Consultants and the manufacturer/brand ensures that the right solutions are specified and installed. Given that they are knowledgeable connect between us and the customer, we are able to suggest them our solutions that are technically and aesthetically suited for a particular project.
B&I: These days, the well entrenched players are entering into newer categories. You have Jaquar and Havells as examples. Do you have similar line of thought for your brand?
SB: Yes. We are also constantly keeping our eyes on new possibilities to get into new products/product categories. At the same time, we have to be very particular that such additions should have synergy with our vision.
B&I: How do you see the bathrooms market evolve in the post-Covid19 era? What solutions are you looking at introducing to address the demand?
SB: Sanitation and hygiene is central to a bathroom. With the Covid19 pandemic, close attention is being paid to addressing these issues even more aggressively. Bathroom fittings market will clearly move towards touch-free and programmed (automatic) solutions. Our team at Eauset has been working very hard on developing such solutions for the post-Covid19 demand. We all are quite excited about these product developments and you will soon see them in our sales networks across India.
