Philips: Make chips out of hot air

Who wouldn’t want to gorge on fried food without piling on the kilos? At least one company is thinking about such people and looking to make things easy. Philips India has just launched a new product, the AirFryer, which has technology that only takes away the fat content of the fried food, without compromising on the taste. Priced at Rs 14,995 the product is targeted at urban and semi-urban consumers.

“The AirFryer gives everyone the freedom to indulge without the guilt that comes with eating fried food. The product combines the latest technology with the simplest of user interfaces,” says A D A Ratnam, president, consumer lifestyle, Philips India. The gadget looks like an egg-shaped convection oven which has a pull-out tray where you will keep the food.

The product’s ‘rapid air technology’ combines fast-circulating hot air with a grill element to help fry food with air instead of oil. The maximum temperature at which you can cook food in the AirFryer is 200-degrees Celsius, and it has a timer which you can set for up to half an hour. The air-fried food, the company says, contains up to 80 per cent less fat and is a healthy alternative to traditional frying.

The launch of the new product is perfectly in sync with what Philips has been working on for the past few years — to be seen as a health and well-being brand rather than one that operates in the consumer electronics market. It is today among the top three players in the healthcare equipment market and has 25 per cent market share of the Rs 2,500 crore kitchen appliances market, according to industry estimates. Other significant players in the healthcare equipment market industry are GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare and Boston Scientific Corporation. In the kitchen appliances market, Philips faces competition from players such as Black & Decker, Braun, Bajaj among others.

The company has also led the way in launching innovative products, says Krunal Mehta, vice-president, brand management & corporate communication, Angel Broking Ltd. “The AirFryer is one such innovative offering, which has helped the brand to create new category all together. The offering fits well in the company’s ‘value for experience’ positioning,” he concludes.

A similar product — though not available in India — is Tefal’s ActiFry, which happens to be the company’s No 1 selling kitchen appliance. However, being in a new category altogether in India, Philips plans to build awareness of the product first live demonstrations at the distribution channels across cities. The digital media will form an important part of the marketing strategy.

The question, of course, is whether the food prepared in the Airfryer tastes as good as cooked-in-oil food. Philips reports a 75 per cent approval rate in blind taste tests.

First unveiled at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin in 2010, the Philips AirFryer is already available across five key cities in of the country — Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Indore. The company plans to add more cities to this list sooner than later.