Electrolux eyes 10% share in ACs

Electrolux Kelvinator (EKL) is planning to garner a 15 per cent marketshare in refrigerators and 10 per cent share in the airconditioners, a market it entered recently, Ajay Kapila, vice-president (marketing) EKL, said.

Hamstrung by stiff competition, EKL has been consistently losing its refrigerators marketshare to LG and Samsung, but according to Kapila the company will be ready to launch a serious offensive after consolidating its business this year. EKL currently has a marketshare of 12 per cent the refrigerators category which has come down from nearly 17 per cent in 2001.

"EKL has to be a challenger in this market, and once we acquire the price competitiveness we will shift the battleground to our strengths and grow the market," he said.

As the first step, the company has introduced a new category of 0.75 tonne split airconditioners priced at Rs 11,990 under an exchange scheme. Earlier this year Voltas too launched sub-one tonne window ACs at a price tag of less than Rs 10,000.