Blue Star expects 17% growth in 2017-18

Air-conditioner and commercial refrigeration company Blue Star Limited expects a 17 per cent growth in 2017-18 with its market-share expected to increase upto 12.5 per cent in the coming months.

Company Joint Managing Director B Thiagarajan told a press conference here today that the market picked up in the last one year and accelerated further in the last three months, he said.

"In the calendar year 2017, the market grew by 10 per cent even though the GST hiccup was there. There was degrowth in the first half of the year," he said.

The second half started picking up but in the last three months it is further accelerating, which means that in the 2017-18 fiscal, the estimated growth of the market is 12 per cent, he said.

As against this, Blue Star's growth is 12 per cent in the calendar year 2017. "If you take financial year 2017-18 as against the market growth of 12 per cent, the growth will be 17 per cent. So we have grown 5 per cent more than the market," said Thiagarajan.

He said the company's market share expanded to 11.5 per cent this year and is likely to increase up to 12.5 per cent in the coming months.

He said Blue Star has set a new benchmark with the launch of 40 new models of high energy-efficient 3-star and 5-star inverter split air-conditioner.

The products promise upto 30 per cent extra cooling power resulting in powerful cooling, faster temperature pull-down and extra energy saving, he said.

The company which turned 75 this year boasts of its state-of-the-art, small range of inverter split air-conditioners, which meets the 2018 BEE energy-efficiency norms and matches the requirements of all the segments.

Expecting a harsh summer this year in some parts of the country with a good monsoon expected, Thiagarajan said the market would grow anywhere between 15 per cent and 20 per cent in the next fiscal.

The focus would be to expand its base in Tier II, III, IV and V cities as most of its consumers, mainly the middle class, are from these cities, he said.

Comparing Indian products with Chinese, Thiagarajan said that of the 130 million consumed across the globe, 105 million were produced in China alone. He, however, was optimistic about the prospect of the air-conditioners.

He said "India's market size is 5.5 million units and also the penetration is just four per cent, but still it is a growing category. Whether it was demonetisation or GST - even during that time this particular product continued to grow." The JMD claimed that Indian air-conditioners are the best in the world because of its high-energy efficiency and eco-friendly technology.

"Today, we have world's most energy-efficient air conditioners. In other words, India's air-conditioners consume the lowest energy in the world. I am not talking about the Blue Star alone, but Indian air-conditioners. Energy consumption has come down, but prices have gone up. We have to manufacture a product with high energy efficiency, which requires more copper and latest technology."

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

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