Diwali Assures a Cracking Time for India Inc

It’s that time of the year again, Diwali is finally here. This period also marks as optimistic times for the strained Indian retail and manufacturing sectors. Sectors like automobiles, apparel, consumer durables and electronics (especially mobile phones, television and PCs) are expected to experience major boost in sales in the time duration leading upto and through the annual Diwali festivities.

Sales have generally been encouraging this time, analogous to the ‘Navaratri’ durations from last year. Surely, the Indian market is showing bright signs of recovery from its dramatic fall from earlier this year, and thus auto manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai will be hoping that their luck continues. Maruti Suzuki maintained an expected 10-15% increase in sales as compared to last year, while Hyundai maintained its volumes, inspite of the fact that industry sales were down 5% in the January- September 2013 duration.

Diwali has always been associated with purchases, and a time when money flows freely and businesses compete to attract the average customer’s attention through discounts, freebies and other marketing tricks. And the ideal buy for the average middle class Indian? A motorcycle! Hero Moto is viewing Diwali-2013 as a chance to better the 1.1 million motorcycles the company sold through October-November 2012. Already the promotional drive is in full swing and the target audience is responding as expected.

Diwali is also the time to buy new clothes and take advantage of the discount sales happening all around. International brand Louis Philippe expects to sell an additional 30% as compared to its haul last year, Van Heusen is taking hope from early indications of increased spending on apparel as gathered from Kerala and East India, and expects to be a strong favourite amongst the Indian youth brigade. The magic mark of 30% is also echoed by UniverCell, one of India’s premier mobile phone retailers, who expects to duplicate its 30% growth from Diwali-2011, last year. Aside from this, consumer electronics giants Panasonic, Bajaj and Morphy Richards are looking at Diwali-2013 as a means to consolidate their presence in the ever-expanding Indian market.

May luck be with all of them- and let the Indian consumer get his money’s worth.