Blueair eyes 10% market share in air purifier segment by 2020

Sweden-based air purifier firm Blueair, which counts India as a priority market, expects to corner 10 per cent market share in the country by 2020, a company official has said.
The company that operates in the premium space, doubled its sales this year and expects to continue in the same vein for at least the next two years.
"Though we only operate in high-end of market, our aim is to address at least 10 per cent of the market...If we have to reach the target levels by 2020, we need to double our sales at least for the next two years," Blueair Director West and South Asia Region Girish Bapat told PTI.

He declined to divulge the present market share details of the company.
The nascent air purifier market in the country is pegged at Rs 350 crore that clocked a growth of 40 per cent this calendar year, with 28 brands vying for a share at present.
For Blueair, India is a priority market in terms of future potential and the company expects the fledgling air purifier industry to be a Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800 crore market in the next three years, Bapat said.

He added that India is definitely on top in terms of priority for Blueair not in terms of current contribution of value or numbers.

Outside India, "We are very strong in markets like China, Japan, Korea and the US," he said.
"India is top most in terms of priority when it comes to the future potential of the market. It is a question of when that turn (inflection) happens. We expect that to happen sometime in the next two to three years," Bapat noted.
In the next two to three years, India would be one of the major markets for air purifiers in the world, he said, adding that in three years, by 2020, "we expect the industry should be Rs 1500 to Rs 1800 crore, from Rs 350 crore. We are just waiting for that inflection point."

Though the air purifier market is concentrated in Delhi NCR, especially in winter, he noted that as per the qualitative indicators, the awareness levels have increased among people in the country.
The company has its presence in four cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru -- and plans to expand it to to 20 -25 cities in the next two to three years.
At present, Blueair is importing all its products and Bapat said that "manufacturing (in India) is not on cards right away because the industry is very small. In future we will definitely consider manufacturing".
The company is also planning to launch products in the outdoor category in 2018.

"The products for auto segment or in-cars, we will definitely introduce in the coming year. We have launched our masks in China, we still haven't done that in India, but that is another product that we will launch in the coming year," he said.