Indian Electrical Brands: Who Owns Which, and Where They’re Made

Which electrical brands in India are Indian-owned?

Of the big electrical brands sold in India, Havells, Crabtree, Polycab, Finolex Cables, KEI, GM Modular, Goldmedal, Great White, Orient Electric, Crompton, Bajaj Electricals, V-Guard, Syska and Wipro are Indian-owned, while Anchor belongs to Panasonic of Japan, Legrand and Schneider Electric are French, Hager and Siemens are German and ABB is Swiss.

That is the short answer to the question behind searches for Indian electrical brands, and it surprises people in both directions. Anchor, a name most Indian families grew up with, has been Japanese-owned since 2007. Crabtree, which sounds English, is owned in India by Havells of Noida. Simon, a Spanish name on a switch plate, is now part of V-Guard of Kochi.

We make switches in Mumbai ourselves, so we have an interest here. That is why every ownership fact below has a public source, and why we say nothing about who makes the better switch. Ownership is a fact. Quality is a separate question with its own checks.

How did we decide who counts as Indian-owned?

We counted a brand as Indian-owned when the company that controls it is incorporated in India and run from India, and as foreign-owned when the controlling parent is headquartered abroad, which is a simple test anyone can check from a company’s annual report or its listing page.

Indian-owned The controlling company is Indian and headquartered in India. Foreign-owned The controlling parent is headquartered outside India, even if its Indian arm is listed here. Changed hands The brand has moved between owners. Misleading assumption A guess from the name, not the owner.

A listed Indian company can have foreign shareholders: in 2016 Advent International and Temasek bought the former chairman’s 34% of Crompton. We still count Crompton as Indian, because it is incorporated and headquartered in Mumbai with no foreign parent. Every entry was checked on 28 September 2026.

Is Anchor an Indian company?

Anchor started as an Indian company, Anchor Electricals, founded in 1963, but Panasonic of Japan acquired it in 2007, and since April 2019 the company has been called Panasonic Life Solutions India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic, which is headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka.

1963 Anchor Electricals founded. 2007 Acquired by Panasonic. April 2019 Corporate name changed to Panasonic Life Solutions India Pvt Ltd; the Anchor brand carried on, now sold as “Anchor by Panasonic”. Mumbai Headquarters of the Indian company. Japan Home of the parent.

So Anchor was Indian for its first 44 years and is now the Indian arm of a Japanese group. Assuming Anchor is Indian-owned is the commonest mistake we hear at the counter.

Is Havells an Indian company?

Yes, Havells is an Indian company: Havells India was founded in 1958 by Qimat Rai Gupta, is headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, is listed on the NSE and BSE, and it also owns the Crabtree brand in India, which is why Crabtree switches, despite the English name, belong to an Indian group.

Indian-owned Noida 1958 NSE: HAVELLS

The Crabtree story is worth knowing because the name misleads. Crabtree India began as a 50-50 joint venture between Havells and UK-based Crabtree; Havells later bought out the partner’s stake, and in January 2006 it bought the Crabtree brand rights for India from Crabtree UK. So in India, Crabtree = Havells. Havells also owns Standard, bought in the same period, and Lloyd, whose consumer durables business it acquired in 2017.

Ownership runs both ways: Havells bought Europe’s Sylvania in 2007 and later sold it. An English or European name on a product tells you nothing about its owner.

Which foreign groups own electrical brands in India?

The main foreign groups behind electrical brands sold in India are Panasonic of Japan (Anchor), Legrand of France, Schneider Electric of France (which now owns the former L&T switchgear business, renamed Lauritz Knudsen), Hager and Siemens of Germany, ABB of Switzerland and Signify of the Netherlands, which sells Philips lighting.

Legrand Limoges, France. Entered India by buying MDS in 1996; bought IndoAsian Switchgear in 2010. Schneider Electric Rueil-Malmaison, France. L&T completed the sale of its Electrical & Automation business to Schneider on 31 August 2020, and in 2024 the L&T Switchgear name was replaced by Lauritz Knudsen Electrical and Automation. Hager Family-owned, Blieskastel, Germany. Siemens Munich. ABB Zurich. Signify Eindhoven; renamed from Philips Lighting in 2018.

Which Indian switch brands and switch manufacturers are Indian-owned?

The Indian-owned switch brands most buyers compare are Havells and its Crabtree range, Polycab, GM Modular, Goldmedal, Great White, V-Guard with Simon, and Wipro, plus manufacturer ranges sold through dealers, such as our own KEMPS and VIZA modular ranges and the VIYONA conventional series, made at our Mumbai works.

Goldmedal Family-owned, founded in 1979 in Vijayawada as a retailer, now headquartered in Mumbai, with factories in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Telangana. GM Modular A privately held Mumbai company. Great White Great White Global of Mumbai, with manufacturing units at Haridwar and Valsad. Polycab Mumbai; sells switches and switchgear alongside its wires.

Two entries need a second look. Simon is a Spanish brand, but V-Guard agreed in December 2021 to take over Simon Electric Pvt Ltd, its Indian company, from Simon SA, and sells Simon switches in India. Wipro bought Northwest Switches in 2006, and its switches sit under Wipro Enterprises, the Premji family’s non-IT company in Bengaluru.

Which wire, lighting and fan brands are Indian-owned?

For wires and cables the Indian-owned names buyers most often ask about are Polycab of Mumbai, Finolex Cables of Pune and KEI Industries of New Delhi; for lighting, fans and appliances they include Bajaj Electricals and Crompton of Mumbai, Orient Electric of New Delhi, Syska of Pune, Wipro Lighting of Bengaluru and V-Guard of Kochi.

Bajaj Electricals Bajaj Group; began as Radio Lamp Works in 1938. Orient Electric CKA Birla Group; demerged from Orient Paper in 2018. Crompton Demerged from Crompton Greaves in 2015–16. Syska SSK Group. Wipro Lighting Since 1992.

Is Indian-owned the same as made in India?

No: Indian-owned tells you who controls the brand, while made in India tells you where a particular product was manufactured, and the two often differ, because foreign-owned brands run factories in India and Indian-owned brands can import or outsource some lines, so each product has to be checked on its own pack.

Foreign-owned, Indian factory Hager, headquartered in Germany, has a manufacturing unit in Pune. Indian-owned, Indian factory Goldmedal lists factories in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Telangana; Great White lists Haridwar and Valsad. Indian-owned, bought-in line Any brand can sell a product made for it by someone else. That is legal; the pack must name the maker.

We are an example of the last point ourselves. We make our switches, sockets, MCBs and LED lights at our Mumbai works, but house wire is a traded line, made for us by a partner. We say so on our house wire page rather than let anyone assume otherwise.

How can you check where an electrical product was made?

Check two things on the pack: the manufacturer’s name and address, which the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules require on every package, along with the country of origin and importer’s details for imported goods, and the BIS licence number, which is issued to one named factory for one product and standard.

Rule 6, Packaged Commodities Rules 2011 Name and address of the manufacturer, and of the packer if different. Imported goods Name and address of the importer, and the country of origin, manufacture or assembly. CM/L number The BIS licence, granted to a specific factory. R-number The BIS registration for LED lamps and drivers.

If the brand is one company and the address on the box is another, the product was made for the brand by that second company. Nothing wrong with that as long as the licence is genuine and the maker is named. No maker address at all is the thing to walk away from.

Does a brand’s ownership change its quality?

Ownership on its own does not decide quality: what decides how a switch, MCB or light performs is the standard it is made to, the BIS licence behind it, the materials inside and how the factory tests it, and those are checked the same way whether the owner is in Noida, Osaka or Limoges.

IS 3854 Switches. IS/IEC 60898-1 MCBs. IS 16102 LED lamps. IS 10322 LED luminaires. These apply to every brand sold in India, Indian-owned or not.

What ownership does change is where decisions are made and where profits go. Indian-owned means product, pricing and range decisions are taken in India. A change of owner can mean a range is renamed, merged or dropped, which matters for a modular board you expect to extend later.

Where does Vinayak Electricals fit among Indian electrical brands?

We are an Indian-owned family manufacturer, much smaller than the national names above, making switches since 1995, when we started as a single workshop, and today making the KEMPS and VIZA modular ranges, the VIYONA conventional series, MCBs and LED lights at one works in Marol, Andheri East, Mumbai.

Indian-owned Family-run 100% in-house for what we make. ISO 9001:2015 IS 3854 CM/L-7567794 for switches. IS/IEC 60898-1 CM/L-2544151 for MCBs. IS 16102 R-71026514 for LED lamps. 500+ dealers across India. 2000+ products.

What we do not make Wire. Our house wire is a traded line made for us by a partner. We do not sell online; you buy through a dealer. More on our about us page.

Why brand names don’t tell you who owns them

Brand names outlast owners, because a buyer who paid for a name keeps using it, so a familiar Indian name can sit on a foreign-owned company, a foreign name can belong to an Indian one, and a name you have trusted for years can move to a new owner without anything on the switch plate changing.

Five examples, each on the public record: Anchor Indian name, Japanese owner since 2007. Crabtree English name, Indian owner in India since the 2006 brand-rights deal. Simon Spanish name, Indian company agreed in 2021. L&T Switchgear renamed Lauritz Knudsen in 2024 under Schneider. Philips lighting sold by Signify under licence since the 2018 rename.

Judging ownership from the logo fails in every one of these cases. Checking the company name on the pack works in all of them, because the pack has to name the legal entity, not only the brand.

Why do dealers ask about ownership and origin?

Dealers ask about ownership and origin because both affect supply: a manufacturer that makes its own range in India can usually replace stock, answer a test-report request and keep a modular range running longer, while a brand that buys in or imports depends on someone else’s production and shipping schedule.

Local works Shorter lead times and a person to call. Spares for the range Matters for modular boards that are extended later. Display boards We provide them to dealers for the modular ranges. VINAYAK KONNECT Our loyalty programme for trade buyers. Import-dependent lines Worth asking about lead time before a large project.

We set out the trade side in more detail in why dealers prefer Indian-made electrical products. For the national brands category by category, see our hub on the top 5 electrical brands in India and the MCB brand guide.