Blue Star setting up facility in Himachal

Blue Star Ltd (BSL) is setting up its fourth manufacturing facility in Himachal Pradesh at a cost of Rs 30 crore.

Trial production in the new unit, being established for making room air-conditioners, is expected to commence during the third quarter of the current fiscal, according to company's executive director T G S Babu.

Addressing a press conference on the occasion of the launch of company's energy-efficient Hiper Plus packaged air-conditioners here, Babu said that BSL has targeted to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,200 crore this year as against Rs 920 crore in 2004-05.

BSL has 30 per cent share in the central air-conditioning market in the country while its market share is only 5 per cent in room air-conditioners.

He said that BSL was now increasing its penetration in room air-conditioning market apart from coming out with new equipment to protect its market share as well as achieve more profitability in central air-conditioning.

The Hiper Plus central air-conditioners, designed for new economy customers such as software, BPO and telecom outfits, would use 20 per cent less power when compared to the existing ones.

With more and more IT and BPO companies setting up units here, Babu said that the demand for air-conditioning has gone up by 150 per cent in Hyderabad during the recent summer months.