Here is the story of an Indian company gaining global fame for its home-grown products

• Jaquar Group, an atmanirbhar home-grown brand, has made its mark across 45 countries.
• Rajesh Mehra, Director and Promoter, Jaquar Group speaks to us about the brand’s journey in the country and vision to strengthen its presence across the world.

Many global companies have set a strong foothold in our country, over 40,000 Foreign Companies to be precise. Jaquar Group, a home-grown bath and sanitaryware brand that holds 60% market share in India, has helped put our country on the global chart in the bathroom market. It is an Indian brand that has expanded its presence in 45 countries across Europe, Middle East, Asia- Pacific, Africa and the SAARC region.

Launched in 1960, the family-owned group today has an annual turnover of ₹3,000 crore and has maintained an annual CAGR of 22% in the last five years.

Due to the nationwide lockdown, Jaquar’s manufacturing facilities were completely unoperational. Once the restrictions began easing off, it took gradual and cautious steps to resume operations across five plants in India. Today, it is working at almost 50-75% capacity and is hoping to make that 100% soon.

On how the brand pivoted its business during the lockdown, Rajesh Mehra, Director and Promoter, Jaquar Group, said, “The practice of social distancing and safer hygiene is the way we live and operate now. Hence, ramping up advanced contactless technology products in places of serious footfall and transmission in commercial buildings – airports, hospitals, hotels/restaurants, and shopping malls – is imperative. In this context and consistent with our tradition of setting new industry trends, our latest initiative to address consumer need is themed ‘Sensor and Sensibility’ which centres around the smart usage and functionality of the bath-ware, sanitaryware and lighting solutions in a contactless manner both at homes and public places. The sensor & pressmatic technology products are touch-free or require minimum touch.”

It also launched a TVC to promote its sensor and sensibility range for touchfree bathrooms as with the pandemic, consumers have started focusing on their health and wellness.


Jaquar Group’s facilities are spread over 3,29,000 Sq. m delivering over 2.4 million bathrooms and producing over 28 million bath fittings annually across 5 plants in India and 1 plant in South Korea.

From being a faucet manufacturer, Jaquar also transformed itself into a complete bathroom solutions provider for homes and commercial buildings during the lockdown.

Sharing the idea behind venturing into light business, Mehra said, “With the foray into the lighting business, which now contributes close to 10% of total revenue, we plan to become a complete lighting solutions provider with our expanded range of products which will be on offer from the new manufacturing plant. Apart from the commissioning of light fittings plant in Bhiwadi, we plan to open a water heater manufacturing unit at Kundli by October, taking our current number of manufacturing units from 5 to 7. We will continue to invest and go ahead with our capex plans in spite of this Covid-19 pandemic.”

Many crises have come and gone since 1960. Telling us about the brand's strengths that helped it survive them all, Mehra said, “Built on strong ethos of offering the highest quality standards, building strong consumer-relations, integrity, providing world-class products and taking care of our people - this sums up our manner of doing business. Through the evolution of India and consumers across six decades, these core pillars have pivoted our growth trajectory and helped us build a formidable brand in India. Relationships matter in our business and we have invested in nurturing genuine partnerships with our dealers, partners and consumers over the years. We take pride in saying that we have never lost our customers. We are a relationship-based company. We believe in maintaining the best relations and dealings. It is simple- you take care of the customers and they will take care of you.”

Marketing strategy

Digital marketing is Jaquar’s strongest suit. More than 5 lakh monthly users come onto its website through its social media channels.

“Social media helps us communicate the range, and breadth of offerings, and define the unique feature of each component to induct consumers to the Jaquar Group’s way of life. Geo-targeting has proved to be beneficial to us with much to-do and digital is undoubtedly supporting us to reach to the end customer in a faster manner. We generate more than 5 lakh monthly users coming on to the Jaquar website routed through our social media channels.

On overall marketing strategy, Mehra shared, “Bathrooms can be one of best destressing zones of your home. Yet, when it comes to building one, it may well give you more stress than any other part of the house. Choosing the right products is extremely critical not just from an aesthetic point of view, but a longevity and durability point of view as well. That’s precisely why we endeavour to educate and create awareness among our end consumer through Jaquar orientation centers, currently we have 21 of these one-of-its-kind concept stores for the convenience of consumers, builders and architects which offers an immersive experience for everyone.”

Environmental-friendly plans

According to Mehra, Jaquar leads the industry in sustainable production with systems installed for energy efficiency, water use efficiency, rain water conservation, waste recycling and energy generation. Its global headquarters, spread over 48000 Sq. Mtr in Delhi NCR, is an eco-friendly building that has optimised day lighting, variable air volume system, thermal heating and cooling systems and an in-house solar plant that generates over 6.25 Megawatts of energy.

Jaquar has made it as a LEED Platinum rated net-zero building registered with the US Green Building Council under its Ci category. Telling us what else the brand follows to reduce its carbon footprint, Mehra said, “We have a Zero Liquid Discharge manufacturing set up with various in-house water and waste treatment systems including Sewage Treatment Plants, Effluent Treatment Plants and Multi-effect Evaporator Systems. Our advanced wastewater treatment and purification systems ensure that our manufacturing units adhere to the highest environmental standards. There is also a special focus on recycling at Jaquar Group. All the brass cut-offs are recycled and reused. That’s 4221 metric tons of brass every year. 100% of the water we use in our buildings is recycled in our in-house sewage treatment plants. In fact, we recycle over 5,00,000 litres of water every day. And our chrome recovery plant recovers as much as 8 metric tons of chrome salt annually. All these have earned our manufacturing plant the LEED Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council, a feat which only a handful in the country can boast of.”

Vision

In the initial years of gaining a strong foothold in India and across 45 countries, Jaquar focused on providing value, premium and luxury offerings. The second and third generation of this family-run business is going to focus on innovation, marketing potency while keeping consumer needs at the core.

On expanding its presence further and brand’s vision, Mehra said, “We have our plans firmly in place. Apart from expanding our capacity and production, we will be investing in growing our overseas footprint too. Our export business has done reasonably well despite the pandemic. Given the supply chain network and infrastructure we have created in more than 16 countries, and our aim to expand this segment, we expect to see exports contributing to about 25-30 per cent of the expanded business over the next five years.”