Voltas mulling to hike price by 3%

Voltas aims to finish the current fiscal with a volume growth of around 15% and a revenue growth of around 25%

Engineering and cooling products maker Voltas are mulling a  price increase of 3 percent on their products following the withdrawal of excise duty sops, coupled with high input costs.

According to a senior executive of the company, price rise has become necessary due to the continual pressure created by the economic conditions.

“This decision has put an additional burden on us, we will have to pass on some of the burden on to the consumers,” said Pradeep Bakshi, COO, Voltas. The government decided against extending excise duty concessions given to the consumer durable industry from December 31. The excise duty on the sector is now at 12 percent up from 10 percent.

Bakshi added that the price revision would be across all products launched in February. Voltas’ products includs air conditioner, commercial refrigeration and water coolers.

Targetting the summer season, the company has also decided to up it ante in marketing activities. It announced the launch of two brand showrooms and one shop-in-shop model in Kolkata. The brand shops will be featuring the  entire cooling appliances product range of the company. The brand shops will be opened in upmarket localities of Salt lake and Howrah. “ Brand stores are necessary for a single product company like ours  as we can showcase the products prominently,” Bakshi noted.

Citing Nielsen data, Bakshi added that despite erratic market conditions, the company has been able to hold on to its market share of 25 percent. “ Despite serious impediments, we are the market leader and are ahead of all the multinational companies in the market,” he said.

Voltas gained the  pole position in 2012 as per the market research firm GFK Nielsen’s survey for volume sale at mutli-brand outlets. The company still enjoys the leadership position in the category with near one-fifth market share in multi-brand outlets which is about 90 percent of total market. However in the survey that combines both exclusive brand outlets and multi-brand outlets in volume term the company has been in a neck to neck fight with Korean giant LG this year.

Voltas aims to finish the current fiscal with a volume growth of around 15 percent and a revenue growth of around 25 percent as compared to the previous fiscal. The company sold 1 million units of AC in FY 14.