Seeing some pressure on sale of ACs, says Voltas

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, MM Miyajiwala, Executive VP and CFO, Voltas says, although summer has started in several parts of the country including Western region, there has not been very high temperature across the country. Therefore, there has been some pressure on the sale of ACs, not only for Voltas, but for all the players in the industry, he adds.

Below is the verbatim transcript of his interview with Latha Venkatesh and Anuj Singhal of CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying videos. Q: As we start the financial year, what kind of growth projections can you give us for AC segment? A: Right now, although summer has started in several parts of the country including Western region, there has not been very high temperature across the country. Particularly in the Northern part of the country, the summer has not really started and there are rains across many places. Therefore, there has been some pressure on the sale of ACs not only for Voltas, but for all the players in the industry. Right now, we are running behind the volumes that we had achieved last year same time. Q: What is the market share that you enjoy right now in the AC segment? For the next financial year, what is the target? A: We have between 17-18% market share at this point of time. You will hear many different numbers coming out. But there are certain people who only look at market share in terms of retail business, some people look at the composite market share including industrial segment as well. If you look at the composite, we are somewhere around 17.5-18%. We are number two player at the moment.  Although we have internally very high targets for growth this year, a lot will depend on market conditions because of the seasonal factor, how long is the summer, when the monsoon arrives and how severe is the summer etc. But we have confidence that with the acceptability of the brand and the brand image that we have as an expert in cooling vis-