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Eveready's 120-Year Pivot: From 'Give Me Red' to Relevance
Eveready's 120-year-old brand faces a margin squeeze and a shrinking flashlight business. Revenue hit ₹1,042 crore, but debt and commodity costs limit the room to reinvest in growth.
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Eveready Industries has spent 120 years building a brand identity around a single phrase: "Give Me Red." The battery and lighting company now faces a question that older consumer brands rarely escape – whether that recognition still translates into shelf space and margin.
The company's latest quarterly results show revenue of ₹1,042 crore, up 4% from a year earlier. Battery sales, which account for roughly 60% of the top line, grew 3%. The lighting segment, a smaller but faster-growing piece, rose 7%. Gross margins held at 42.5%, flat against the prior-year period, as input costs for zinc and manganese dioxide stayed elevated.
What changed in the quarter was the mix. Eveready's flashlight and lantern business, once a steady contributor, shrank 8% year-on-year. The category has been losing ground to mobile-phone flashlights and cheap LED alternatives for years. The company has tried to offset the decline by pushing into home automation – smart switches, motion sensors, Wi-Fi-enabled bulbs – but that business remains below 5% of total revenue.