Taiwanese PC-maker Acer is widening its India ambitions beyond laptops, building a ‘House of Acer’ identity that brings appliances, televisions, air conditioners, luggage and eventually smart rings under its umbrella.
The company this week appointed actor Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador for all products under the ‘House of Acer’ portfolio, as it looks to leverage the Acer name to enter a wider range of consumer categories.
The move marks a significant shift for a company that has spent 27 years building its presence in India’s PC market. Acer India president and managing director Harish Kohli said the company now wants to use that brand equity to address a much larger share of consumers’ needs.
“After 27 years in India, I think we have built up enough in terms of the brand Acer, the love for it with the consumers,” Kohli told Mint in an interview. “So can we now reach any and every requirement of theirs, rather than just looking at their IT needs?”
Beyond laptops
Acer first launched the Acerpure brand for air purifiers globally in 2021 and brought it to India in 2024 with a range of small appliances including air and water purifiers, fans, TVs and vacuum cleaners.
The company has since been expanding into new lines of business. After setting up Acerpure India as a subsidiary of the Taiwanese appliance firm in 2024, Acer established another separate entity for third-party device repair and maintenance, called Highpoint Service Network India.
It is now in the process of registering an entity called Acer Fashion to sell hard luggage and eventually smart rings to track fitness.
These new businesses remain relatively small, although Kohli declined to share details. As of the latest available financials, reported just over ₹6,000 crore in revenue and net profits of just over ₹60 crore in FY25. Acerpure India reported ₹65 crore in revenue, with negligible profit. Highpoint is yet to file its financials.
“In the next three years, we are going to double than what we are,” Kohli said.
One umbrella
Acer is setting up ‘House of Acer’ as a collection of subsidiaries operating under the corresponding Taiwanese parent firms, while retaining some operational control from Acer India.
“One of the things that we have done for this is that any new company which is coming in is to connect it to Acer India in a model of an umbilical cord relationship,” Kohli said. “So there will be a country head there, and a set of people for each one of these companies separately. But we’ll have a management team member of Acer India also on the board of that company.”
For instance, Acer India’s chief financial officer Alok Dubey will set up operations for Acer’s luggage and accessories business, while C Vijay, Acer India’s senior director for customer support, is a board member at services subsidiary Highpoint.
Crowded lanes
Acer’s push into appliances and luggage comes as demand in both categories is rising rapidly—and competition is intensifying.
In September last year, brokerage firm Motilal Oswal estimated that India’s luggage market grew to ₹17,000 crore in calendar year 2024, but only a third of it was controlled by the three market-leading brands—VIP, Safari and . The market is expected to grow to ₹26,700 crore by calendar year 2028.
Hard luggage, which sells at a premium, has steadily grown over the past five years to account for more than half of the organised luggage market. A growing number of VC-backed startups are also scaling up hard-luggage brands, including Mokobara, uppercase, Nasher Miles and Assembly.
That makes luggage an attractive but increasingly crowded market for Acer to enter.
The opportunity is similarly large in consumer durables.
India’s —including small and large appliances—stood at between ₹17,000 crore and ₹18,000 crore in 2024, according to estimates by consulting firm Deloitte. The market is expected to grow to ₹3 trillion by 2029 as more consumers buy goods for the first time, while wealthier customers spend on upgrading and replacing products more frequently.
Competition is rising here too. VC-backed startups such as EDT and Nuuk have raised millions of dollars, while localised brands such as Inalsa and Agaro are expanding their small-appliance businesses through e-commerce and, more recently, quick commerce.
Foreign brands such as Bosch and Siemens, which have so far had more limited reach, are also rapidly scaling up their mid-priced premium appliance offerings.
Premium play
Acer’s broader consumer push is also arriving as Indian consumers increasingly trade up to premium products.
“The aspirational and premium segments now command nearly half of the market in India, which is further expected to grow to ~58% by 2029, as Indian consumers are increasingly willing to pay a premium for quality and features,” Mrigank Gutgutia, partner at consulting firm Redseer wrote in a note in July last year.
“While a few appliances and electronics like mobiles, televisions, mixer grinders, irons, refrigerators, and washing machines have achieved decent penetration, most other appliances remain underpenetrated with single-digit or double-digit household penetration.”