Hitachi eyes 20% of A-C mart share, unveils Quadricool

Hitachi Home and Life Solutions India Ltd (HHLI), a subsidiary of Hitachi Home and Life Solutions Inc, Japan, is eyeing over 20 per cent of market share in the air conditioners market in the next two years with the launch of Hitachi Quadricool, window air conditioner in Ahmedabad on Monday.

The company with a turnover of Rs 245 crore as on March 31, 2004, is targetting a turnover of Rs 280 crore by the end of the current financial year.

"Hitachi commands a 14 per cent share of the organised market in India putting it among the top three and the largest player among the room air conditioners players in the domestic market. With new products such as Hitachi Quadricool, the company seeks to increase its share to over 20 per cent over the next two years," said Akira Kamitani, managing director, HHLI.

Quadricool offers unique advantages such as lower pull down time, lesser noise, uniform air distribution and highest energy efficiency ratio (EER) compared with any available windows air conditioner in the market.

Quadricool comes with technology that saves upto 45 per cent on the power bills. The unique air delivery system with twin turbo fans ensures corner to corner cooling at a faster rate, reducing the pull down time. The turbo fans are aerodynamically designed that reduce the air cutting noise, giving Quadricool the lowest noise levels.

The company is headquartered in Ahmedabd and its manufacturing facility at Kadi, is among the seven Hitachi room air conditioner facilities worldwide.

The company also has its OEM manufacturing units at Jammu and Parwanoo, Himachal Pradesh. The company, with 14 branch offices, has nationwide sales, distribution and service network. Over 10 per cent of the company's turnover comes from exports to Middle East and United Arab Emirates (UAE) countries.

The organised air conditioners market is estimated at over Rs 2,200 crore and is growing at a rate of over 15 per cent per annum.

Hitachi Home and Life Solutions, Inc, headquartered at Tokyo, is a leading home appliances company, which was spun off as one of the four strategic business unit from Hitachi Ltd on April 1, 2002.

Its consolidated sales as on March 31, 2003, totalled 492 billion yen. The company develops, manufacturers and sells home appliances such as room air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines, and also markets consumer electronics.