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
