Pentair, not repentair

MARKETING: Water purifier player Pentair wants to win consumer trust by refusing to oversell itself.

Executives at Pentair Water India, a fully-owned subsidiary of Pentair Inc, have a noticeable bounce in their step these days. They have a legal all-clear at last to go ahead with their water purifier business.

It all began with what Pentair had thought was marketing as usual in a high competitive market. The company had put out an ad which Eureka Forbes (marketer of market leader Aquaguard) dragged it to court for, claiming that it had disparaged Aquaguard unfairly.

But three days ago, the Karnataka High Court vacated the temporary injunction filed by Eureka Forbes against it (in February), and now Pentair is raring to make up for lost time in expanding its base of water-purifier installations.

The company has a manufacturing facility in Goa, two-thirds of the output from which is exported. Of the rest, four-fifths finds institutional use.

But while industrial, municipal and commercial installations are critical to Pentair's business (total sales: Rs 129 crore in 2005), the wider market reputation matters hugely for the vast home market "" where Aquaguard, the early pioneer, remains nearly generic to water purifiers.

Pentair's sales target for 2006: Rs 175 crore. "This will be on account of the over-40-per cent growth that Pentair Water India is experiencing currently," says Gautam Khanna, CEO, optimistic that the company's reverse osmosis technology (which claims to remove contaminants as small as 0.0001 microns) will find buyers at least in some parts of the country.

"Some" because not all tap water in India needs reverse osmosis treatment. Much tap water can be easily treated with UV purifications systems "" which Pentair intends launching in a few months.

So, for now, Pentair is being selective about markets. "Since we know not all kinds of water need reverse osmosis, we have decided not to launch our current products there "" for instance, Mumbai," says Khanna.

Pentair sells through 160 multi-brand retail outlets in Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and NCR.

The home segment of water purifiers has been getting crowded, of late. The established players include Kent, Aquaguard, Usha Brita and Zero-B, and with such a swelter of unorganised sector players, pricing plays an important role.

Pentair's reverse-osmosis systems, starting at Rs 10,000 an installation, are priced at the upper end of the accepted range. Khanna puts it down to "quality", though after-sales service could justify the expense.

But first, to have any chance at all, Pentair must have a coherent and memorable pitch to make. By way of strategy, Khanna intends to educate the consumer and win trust, rather than scare or pressurise anyone into getting a Pentair purifier.

"We also don't want to get into the gimmick of selling our products in areas that don't require RO," says Khanna.