Daikin sees 20% growth in home AC sales on early summer

Enthused by early arrival of summer, Japanese airconditioner maker Daikin expects 18-20 percent growth in home AC sales this year and is also expanding its network, including in smaller cities. "If summer continues like this, then we are expecting a volume growth between 18-20 percent this year," Daikin Airconditioning India Managing Director K J Jawa told PTI. "We would grow higher than the industry average as we have an edge in terms of product innovation and technology," he claimed.Jawa said that Daikin's "efforts in expansion of distribution network" would also help the company surpass expected industry growth this year. The industry is expecting 10-12 percent overall growth this year but "if summer continues like this, it may be even 15 percent also", Jawa said. At present, Daikin's AC are sold over 3,000 counters.

It sold around 5 lakh units last year. Its inverter room ACs account for almost 30 per cent of its sales and the company hopes that the segment will perform well this season too. Besides, Daikin is also spending 3 percent of its turnover on branding and marketing focusing Tier-II & -III places.

Daikin has also associated with IPL T20 team Delhi Daredevils. The company is in the process of investing Rs 400 crore to double its production capacity of Neemrana facility in Rajasthan and Rs 100 crore to set up an R&D centre. The company will open its R&D centre in July this year.

Daikin also exports air conditioner to Sri Lanka and is planning explore more geographies after enhancement of its production capacity. "We will start exports to Bangladesh soon. Once our new plant starts, we would explore more markets," said Jawa.

On the industry outlook, Jawa said it is "quite positive". "Early summer is a big factor this year. Many companies, which had not anticipated it, have stocked out.

This year is looking quite promising and encouraging," he said.