Buoyed by growth from the residential segment, and with a new range of air conditioners for the coming summer, Blue Star hopes to garner better market share this year

Announcing the launch of the new line-up, B. Thiagarajan, Executive Director and President of Blue Star, said last year, 70 per cent of the company’s overall room air-conditioner volume, came from the residential segment. It currently commands 8.5 per cent share of the close to 4-million-unit room air-conditioner market. For the current calendar year, it targets 10 per cent share. “With expected 25 per cent growth in sales in the current year, we hope to go past this mark comfortably,” said Thiagarajan.

Besides, thanks to Blue Star efforts to make inroads in tier-III cities and even smaller towns, 35 per cent of its sales volume last year came from those markets. “Considering the product penetration is at meagre 3 per cent, we have enough and more room to expand,” he said.

In terms of technology, the company has enhanced the number of ‘inverter’ models in its product portfolio. C P Mukundan Menon, Vice-President, Blue Star Ltd, said currently these top-end models account for 5 per cent of its total sales. “Our plan is to triple this number in the current year,” he said. With shrinking price differential between 5-star models and inverter models, and growing awareness about the advantages of inverter models among consumers, even 50 per cent share is not far away, Menon added.

It also changed its tagline from ‘Get office like cooling at home’ to ‘Nobody cools better’, with an increased marketing budget of Rs 35 crore from Rs 25 crore last year.

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