Happy sweating for cooling product makers

Accelerated sales, after two seasons of disappointment, for ACs, air coolers & refrigerators; also beer and colas

The monsoons have brought respite for many from the sweltering heat but there were some consumer goods companies which didn't mind the hot weather at all. For them, the rising mercury levels meant roaring business after two years of suffering the pangs of a cool summer.

Air conditioner (AC), air cooler and refrigerator makers saw double-digit sales growth in April and May after two years of flat or negative growth. Industry estimates peg the volume growth of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products in excess of 20 per cent in both April and May. Last year, it was 18-19 per cent. Beer makers saw sales growth of about 15 per cent this summer, higher than the 12 per cent of last year.

With much of India under a heat wave in April and May, experts say it was just what makers of products dependent on the summer wanted.

Saurabh Baisakhiya, business head for ACs at LG India, says, "The weather was certainly a huge contributor to pushing up sales this summer. We grew at 20-25 per cent during the summer months."

Voltas and LG are the top two AC makers in India, according to industry estimates. The other key ones are Samsung, Hitachi, Daikin and Panasonic. Suresh Kumar Bandi, divisional deputy managing director, Panasonic, says: "Certainly, there was a spike in sales this year in comparision to the last two seasons, thanks to the weather."

Pradeep Bakshi, chief operating officer, unitary products (which includes room ACs), Voltas, said his company saw nearly 30 per cent sales growth this summer. Daikin's managing director, Kanwal Jeet Jawa, says sales growth this summer was in excess of 20 per cent.

Smaller companies such as Haier and Carrier Midea have said they grew much faster than the industry average, though on a smaller base.

The 3.4-million unit AC market in India was flat last year and fell about 15 per cent the year before. The one-million-unit organised air cooler market was flat over the past two years. This year, however, trade sources peg its growth at 20-25 per cent in April and May. Experts say the Symphony brand, market leader in the air cooler category with a 45 per cent share, grew ahead of the industry on the back of a range of products priced between Rs 6,000 and Rs 15,000. "We grew at 35 per cent in the summer months this year," said Vinayak Sukthankar, chief executive officer, Symphony Ltd.

Kenstar and Bajaj, other key players in the air cooler market, also saw brisk sales this summer, say trade sources. While refrigerators, pegged at 8.5 million units in size, saw 10 per cent growth this summer, trade sources say it was still better than the past two years, when there was hardly any growth at all.

Shantanu Dasgupta, vice-president, corporate affairs, Whirlpool India, says the offtake of single-door or direct-cool refrigerators was better than double-door or frost-free refrigerators this summer, thanks in part to its affordibility factor. While home appliance makers attempted to maintain price lines this summer to avoid driving away consumers, the average price for a direct-cool refrigerator was Rs 10,000 to Rs 11,000 at the entry level in comparision to Rs 15,000 for an entry-level frost-free refrigerator. "The pick-up in sales for refrigerators this summer was in non-metro towns, since the penetration of this category is high in metros," said an executive at Mumbai-based consumer durables retailer Vijay Sales.