Luxury bath maker and kitchen major Kohler is celebrating 20 years in India with chair and CEO David Kohler confirming the brand is doubling down on the market with a fresh investment of over a hundred million dollars over the next 5 to 10 years. Speaking to ET Now, Kohler highlighted the vast majority of its products sold locally are designed specifically for the Indian consumers, blending expressive local aesthetics with global technology. He revealed that innovations tailored for India, such as specialized shower designs for women that avoid wetting hair and shower heads with built-in water filtration, are now being rolled out globally. Looking ahead, Kohler plans to expand its footprint beyond tier one metros into the top 100 cities, alongside a push into smart toilets, digital showering, and home wellness products. Let's listen into this chat to find out more.
As Kohler celebrates 20 years in India, we are now joined by David Kohler on his India visit. Thank you so much for joining us on ET Now, and congratulations on 20 years, two decades in the country. What have been the key milestones of this two-decade journey?
Well, thank you, Shivani. It's been a remarkable journey. When we started 20 years ago, we really started from scratch. We decided that the best way to really enter India was to build out our whole infrastructure and team and organization and capability here in India. So, we started with a manufacturing facility in Gujarat. Now today, it's a state-of-the-art facility. We make multiple product lines in the facility, from electronics to ceramics to faucets across finishes and colors. It's really a great capability we have here.
And then, we built a distribution across the country. So, we have 800 beautiful points of sale across the country. We have seven experience centers or studios across the country. We built an organization from marketing all the way through sales, administration, supply chain operations—so a full organization here in India. And then, of course, we built the brand. Kohler is a global brand, as you know, a luxury brand, and we built the brand into a position where it's now top-of-mind awareness here in India. We're the number one luxury brand in India. So I think you could say, looking over this period, it's been an incredible journey, and I think most important has also been developing a product line suited for India.
Absolutely, because Indian homes are way different as compared to many of the global homes that we see. We are moving towards some of the global trends and we're catching on that, but we have like a distinct style when it comes to homes in India.
Yeah, exactly. And I think key to our success in India has been our design and engineering team here in India. So we design for India, we build for India, and the tastes are a bit different, the styles a bit different, the expressiveness is a bit different. Now we bring our global design thinking as well and combine our product lines with global lines as well as Indian lines, but I must say the vast majority of our sales today in India are designed for India. Some really beautiful expressive designs and colors and finishes have all been developed for this Indian consumer who wants something with a little more personality and difference and wants to personalize their homes as really an example of their lifestyle and their taste.
Right. What is the striking insight about Indian homes that you personally thought was very interesting in this two-decade journey in India, that really took you by surprise?
Well, I think some of the most amazing homes in the world are designed and built here in India—some just fabulous estates and homes. And I think just the breadth of design and the strength of design that you see here in India, from the neoclassical, traditional, all the way through very contemporary. But these homes have the best products, the best technology, the best materials, and they're really designed exquisitely. You also have an incredible group of architects and interior designers right here in India that are not only designing these homes in India, but all over the world.
Right. And now since you finished two decades in the country, where are your big bets for the India market for the next decade? Where are you placing your bets on?
Well, we're doubling down on India. This is the fastest-growing market in the world. It's one of our best markets in the world. And really you look at the strength, it's not going away. Your capital markets are strong, your real estate markets are strong, your tech sector is strong. So, this market's going to continue to grow. So, we're investing in our manufacturing facility here, continuing to expand it, continuing to expand our product line and our commercial footprint. So, this is going to be one of the hottest markets in the world for us.
Within India, which are the growth markets that Kohler is looking at, and where do your investments lie? You mentioned that on your visit you visited Delhi, you are here in Mumbai, and you visited, of course, your manufacturing facility in Gujarat. Yes, what other markets are showing the promise for you?
Well, I think all the tier one cities—and you've talked about some of them, but Bangalore, Hyderabad, and our next studio is going to be in Kolkata—all of these tier one cities and now tier two cities are going to be important markets for us here. Also, we're expanding into wellness products and spa home and in that whole area. Wellness is one of the biggest trends in the world. This is an absolute megatrend. People want spa-like products and technologies in their home; it's merging with the bathroom. So, we see that trend very much alive here in India as well.
And I was in fact reading a report that there is a huge uptick in luxury retail in the country. So, how is that shaping your strategy for the India market? What does it mean or translate for you?
