Airconditioner maker Blue Star is looking at selling 2 lakh room ACs per annum soon, riding the housing and infrastructure boom. P V Rao, vice-president (room airconditioners and refrigeration products division), said, “We sell around 1.5 lakh room ACs per annum now. We should touch 2 lakh figure soon.”
While 30 per cent of its revenues come from domestic AC sales, the rest of it is dependent on commercial projects. “Although metals prices have been on the rise, we have not hiked product pricing. However, star rating is now mandatory and therefore upgrading from a non-labeled category to labeled category anyway entails an increase of 10 per cent prices,” added Rao. Blue Star has launched a new range of energy-labeled (star rated) room airconditioners. These would be available in a wide range of 2,3,5-star ratings and in multiple capacities of 1.0, 1.5., and 2.0 capacities.
The energy savings is expected to be minimum 12 per cent for 2-star and could go up to 25 per cent in the case of 5-star.