Latest news with #B.Thiagarajan
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First Post
11-07-2025
- Business
- First Post
India eyes nationwide push to replace 10-yr-old ACs with 5-star units in exchange offers: Report
The government is considering asking air-conditioner manufacturers to offer higher scrappage values for old units and compensate the difference via government incentives or through energy credits read more India's power ministry is mulling a plan to offer customers cheaper five-star energy-efficient ACs in exchange for replacing their units that are over 10 years old. According to a report by Economic Times, the reduced prices would be achieved through bulk procurement and competitive bidding, following a model similar to the Ujala scheme, which distributed 368.7 million LED bulbs through discoms over the past decade. The government is also considering asking air-conditioner manufacturers to offer higher scrappage values for old units and compensate the difference via government incentives or through energy credits from discoms that can be redeemed during the payment of electricity bills. AC buyers can then purchase new units at market rates. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Another proposal that is currently being evaluated is to allow customers to give up their old ACs to authorised e-waste partners and receive discounts on a new purchase via the discom. Union Power Minister Manohar Lal met last week with top executives from major air conditioner manufacturers, including Blue Star MD B. Thiagarajan, Daikin India MD KJ Jawa, and Voltas MD-designate Mukundan Menon, to discuss the issue. Changes to energy efficiency norms soon Sources told ET that the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the agency which is responsible for setting energy norms for electrical appliances, is planning to alter the mandate for air-conditioners from the previous three to four years to two years. 'The industry has to invest around '400 crore for each rating change, which becomes difficult to recover if there are frequent changes,' an industry insider told the news outlet. According to Thiagarajan, each change in energy rating improves an air conditioner's efficiency by about 10 per cent, but also raises its price by 5–7 per cent. The installed base of ACs is projected to grow three to four times by 2030, potentially driving a 300–400 per cent increase in energy consumption. 'Frequent rating changes need inventory planning and supply chain management. What we need is a breakthrough technology in AC to make them really energy efficient like EVs in automobiles and LED in lighting,' he added.
Time of India
01-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Commercial freezers are the hottest thing in town this summer
The demand for commercial refrigeration products such as deep freezer and bottle coolers or visi coolers in India has touched unprecedented levels, far outstripping supplies amid the quick commerce boom and cola war, said industry executives. Commercial refrigeration manufacturers such as Blue Star , Voltas and Haier said sales have been surging 25-50% year-on-year since January, after initial hiccups in the April-September 2024 period, when India adopted the quality control order (QCO) for products like water coolers which impacted the supply chain. The QCO issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) mandates companies to source and manufacture products from BIS-certified companies, encouraging local production over exports from countries like China. "The cola war by Reliance's Campa, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo has boosted demand for visi coolers, with all our capacities sold out for the next five months and demand much more than we can supply," said Haier India president Satish NS. He said overall commercial refrigeration is growing 35% year-on-year, while visi coolers are seeing more than 50% expansion. Blue Star, too, has seen a sharp increase in demand for commercial refrigeration products from quick commerce, ice cream and frozen food companies with a strong order book. "The growth potential is very high as India is underpenetrated," said managing director B. Thiagarajan. He said the business has potential to grow at 30%. Reliance Consumer Products started the cola war in the second half of 2024-25 with aggressive pricing of '10 per 200 ml bottle and expanding distribution to kirana stores. The company said on its latest earnings call that Campa had already gained double-digit market share in some markets and had expanded distribution to more than a million retail stores. James Quincey, global CEO of The Coca-Cola Co, told analysts in May that about 350,000 outlets were added in India in the March quarter and the company increased cooler placements. The chairman of PepsiCo's top bottler in India, Varun Beverages , Ravi Jaipuria, too, said the increased competition was making the industry put in place more chilling equipment. Jaipuria told analysts there were around 12 million fast-moving consumer goods outlets in India, while the company reached only four million. "So there is still so much room for everyone to add new outlets through increased go-to-market and by putting in more chilling equipment," he said. The size of the commercial refrigeration market in India is estimated at around '4,500 crore and the growth rate is faster than for any electronics products such as televisions, smartphones, air-conditioners, refrigerators and laptops. The country's largest home-grown contract manufacturer, Dixon Tech , recently announced that it would start production of deep freezers and visi coolers. Tata-owned Voltas' chief financial officer KV Sridhar told analysts that the order book in the pipeline for commercial refrigeration products reflected huge growth potential with a ramp-up of factories.
