With summers round the corner, the air conditioner market in India is hotting up and so is the competition between market players. While Samsung India Electronics has unveiled the whole new range of air conditioners, LG Electronics has come up with an upgraded version of its existing air-conditioners and the new 1.5 tonne AC in the art cool series. Even Whirpool is mulling to replace its existing series of air conditioners with new models in the near future, only to grab a substantial part of the fast growing AC market in India. The total AC market in India last year was around 1.8 million units. This is expected to cross over 2.25 million units by the end of this year, a growth of 25%.
“Introduction of new features help us in differentiating our products. This, coupled with expansion of distribution network, will help the company meet its target of 22% market share in the segment this year,” says R Zutshi, deputy managing director, Samsung India. The company expects to achieve 65% growth in AC volume this year, out of which the contribution of split ACs is expected to go up from 50% in 2007 to 58% in 2008.
Adds Moon B Shin, managing director, LG Electronics, “Leveraging on our cutting edge technologies and design aspect introduced in the new line of ACs, we plan to capture 35% of the total air conditioner market in India.”
Even Whirpool is looking at a growing market share in the industry. “We are currently selling magic cool range of air conditioners that are imported and assembled in India and we hope to replace the existing models with new products in 2008,” says Sukhpreet Singh, general manager (brand marketing), Whirpool India.
“With so many products available in the market, the consumers have a wide range to chose from, both in terms of unique features as well as prices that range from anything between Rs 15,000 and Rs 1 lakh. This has boosted the overall sales in the segment,” explains an analyst.
