By identifying a niche in the hypercompetitive Indian market and maintaining a strategy of continuous product development, Symphony revolutionised the air coolers category.
After making a public offering in the early 1990s, founder Achal Bakeri acted on the advice of his investors to rapidly expand Symphony’s product line. Ostensibly, widening the scope of their catalogue would enable them to access an increasingly broad customer base.
Instead, it drained the company’s reserves. Rather than declaring bankruptcy and walking away, Achal Bakeri remained resolute, confident that a return to Symphony’s roots was the only way forward.
Bakeri scaled Symphony’s focus back to the appliance that defined their initial success: air coolers. Differentiated from air conditioners by the use of evaporative cooling rather than harmful chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), air coolers provide environmentally friendly relief to atmospheric heat. After stemming losses and returning to profitability, Symphony embarked on a series of bold acquisitions to internationalise and began marketing air coolers globally.
Today, Symphony is the world’s leading manufacturer of air coolers. In addition to its operations in India, Symphony owns three subsidiaries in Mexico, USA, China and Australia.
