Forbes India – August 4, 2017

at 22 percent a year in the same
period, touching 165 crore in FY17. More recently, Symphony has created the niche market of industrial cooling wherein large factories, warehouses and halls are installed with Symphony’s air cooler units as a cheap alternative to air conditioning. Also, with two overseas acquisitions, the company has every chance of making a major dent in the international market. While the company has been asset-light from the get-go, the single-product strategy was adopted after missteps in diversification led to bankruptcy less than a decade after its first summer of sales in 1988. Bakeri, a scion of realty major Bakeri Group, had started the business that year on his return to India after completing his masters in business administration from the University of Southern California. A year earlier, the family had installed an air cooler at their residence in Ahmedabad. While the cooling was satisfactory, “the product was an eyesore”, recalls Bakeri, who was convinced there’s a market for a more aesthetic product. Symphony’s first air coolers had a dream debut. Though, at4,300,
they were twice as expensive as the
competition, it was still cheaper
than an AC that cost around `35,000
(for a 1.5 tonne unit) at the time.
The first batch of about a thousand

Joshua Navalkar

W Hat makeS

it SUper

 Its unrelenting focus on only

one category of products

 Better terms of trade that it enjoys from

manufacturers and dealer partners

 Asset-light model lets company return

a high percentage of its profit as dividend

Shareholder return: 346%*

SaleS Growth: 12%**

return on equity: 43%***

* 3-year ** 3-year CAGR *** 3-year average

August 4, 2017 forbes india | 39