Airconditioning and commercial refrigeration major Blue Star plans to aggressively target the residential segment in Kerala with its wide range of room airconditioners.
Speaking at a news conference here on Friday, Blue Star president (airconditioning & refrigeration products) B Thiagarajan said the company had been selling room airconditioners through its sales and service dealers mainly catering to the corporate and commercial segment such as offices, restaurants, showrooms, boutiques and ATMs.
Over the last couple of years, the company has witnessed a significant demand from the residential segment in Kerala. Despite the fact that Blue Star room airconditioners were not available in retail channels in the state, a significant amount of sales came from that segment of Kerala.
The company has now altered its marketing mix to focus on the residential segment. On the product front, it has launched a new range of split airconditioners to appeal to home consumers. These will be available in 2, 3 and 5-star ratings as per the energy labelling programme of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
Apart from being energy-efficient, these airconditioners come with turbo operation, long-distance piping, auto mode, dry mode, sleep mode, elegant remote control, rust-resistant construction, self diagnosis, amongst others. In addition, it has also launched a range of smart split airconditioners with inverter technology and can save on power.
He added that the company is planning to offer these products through about 75 retail stores and is also building up a strong installation and service franchise network to support the retailers.
The room airconditioners market in Kerala has been on a fast growth path and grew about 40 per cent in 2010 with total sales of 1.75 lakh units he said.