Atomberg is Consulting Sundar R Iyer for Channel Expansion

• Sundar was earlier associated with Crompton Greaves as its global business head of modern-retail and e-commerce wings
• Atomberg is a four years old India based startup that manufactures and retails smart fans – ceiling, wall and pedestal fans in India

Sundar R Iyer, famous for taking Crompton Greaves’ consumer electricals to new heights via his modern-retail and e-commerce strategies is currently busy chalking out expansion plans for Atomberg in India and abroad. Interestingly, this consumer electronics startup from the country, is closing in on revenue figures of Rs 100 to 110 crores this financial, all by retailing ceiling fans alone.

“I appreciate the fact that Atomberg specialises in smart technology. Atomberg only manufactures smart fans, ceiling pedestal and wall fans which consume only 28W. It is India’s only brand to have fans which meet five star rating norms introduced by BEE! Secondly, the fact that this startup is run by young IITians excites me to the core. Just four years, and Atomberg is already making heads turn in the consumer electronics industry with its IoT enabled fans and many firsts in the portfolio. Then comes the list of awards to Atomberg’s credit. They are already giving nightmares to the competition heavyweights in the ceiling fan industry in India,” Sundar R Iyer, told EFY Group, in an exclusive conversation.

Atomberg’s missing link?

When we interacted with Sibabrata Das early this year, he had made several points about the challenges the startup was facing in India. Though the company was following an out of the box expansion approach already, offline expansion, especially in the modern and large format stores was a big challenge. Sibabrata, one of the founders of Atomberg, had said that the brand was keen on expanding its presence in India.

Today, the startup is present in over 55 cities in the country. It is to be noted here that Atomberg’s prime audience, as we could gauge looking at its product offerings, are tech-savvy millenials living in Tier I and Tier II cities. Probably one of the reasons that the startup decided to start its operations from Mumbai, Maharasthra.

Atomberg’s ceiling fans are now being retailed at more than 2300 counters in India. The number was around 500 about eight months ago. As pointed out earlier, the brand is closing in on registering revenues in the Rs 100 to Rs 110 crores window this financial. The revenue that Atomberg had generated last fiscal, was not even half of the quoted figures.

“My job is to make Atomberg ceiling fans the leader in alternate-channels like modern retail, csd, cpc canteens and exports, and make Atomber the most preferred brand. Online we are already the leader. We would be focusing on all the channels for this expansion. While competition struggles with conventional technology, Atomberg is carving a separate path for itself and the industry with its smart products and future product pipeline,” added Sundar.

Sundar’s expertise in channel expansion

Interestingly, Sundar, has only worked with two organisations in his 27+ years of professional life. Starting his work life with ABB as a graduate engineer trainee, he was promoted to the designation of a marketing engineer in the same organisation in 1995.

He rose through the ranks at ABB and served the same company as its business head and assistant vice president for power products exports. By the time he resigned from ABB, he was functioning as vice president and country head of ABB’s marketing and sales department.

Crompton Greaves in June 2012

Sundar joined Crompton Greaves as its vice president and country head for marketing and sales of consumer products divison in June 2012. He then, took over the role of Crompton Greaves global business head for modern retail and e-commerce platforms, in January 2016.

One close look to his professional life and one would know that he holds expertise when it comes to expanding a brand’s presence in all the sales channel. As a matter of fact, he has also headed exports teams at ABB.

“Large format stores, modern retail , canteen stores and exports will be of priority for Atomberg’s expansion as well,” added Sundar.

Author – Mukul Yudhveer Singh. An avid reader, Mukul finds peace in books and technology. He’s as passionate about writing as he is about cricket and Playstation. If not writing or reading, you will most likely find him drawing tattoo designs or analyzing political campaigns.