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Godrej & Boyce (G&B) – the consumer durables major – forays into vaccine refrigeration industry with an aim to provide end-to-end solutions. The company has recently joined hands with North Welsh, UK-based Sure Chill and developed vaccine refrigerators which can maintain the optimum temperature without electricity for up to 13 days. The company is currently working on to develop passive cooling units to keep vaccines effective till it reaches remotest parts of the country.
According to Jamshyd Godrej, managing director and Chairman of G&B, while Godrej is in home refrigeration since 1957 in India, it is the Sure Chill’s technology that helped it decide to get in to the industry. The company believes, while, demand for such refrigerators are poised to grow as frequent power cuts and lack of last mile grid connectivity is a major issue in developing countries. Globally some 151 million vaccines turns ineffective due to lack of proper storage - leading to $750 million of losses annually.
Kamal Nandi, business head & executive vice president, Godrej Appliances sees “huge opportunity” in their newly ventured industry. “Globally some 1,50,000 such products are to be sold per year of which 15-20 percent demand is from India only," he explained. Currently, the durables major is producing 15,000 units in its manufacturing plant at Pune to cater to Africa, India and markets in the neighbouring countries.
“We were waiting for the right technology” before we could decide on entering this industry, Nandi said. Sure Chill – a Bill Gates Foundation backed technology developer – introduced its refrigeration technique last year. “The technology works on heavy density of water at 4 degree Celsius so that the refrigerators can maintain that temperature even without electricity for days," Marc Evans, chief executive of Sure Chill explained. Vaccines are ideally stored at 4 degree Celsius to keep its effective.
G&B has planned to sell vaccine refrigerators to 90 countries. “Our products are now approved by Unicef and WHO – who are the largest buyers of vaccine refrigerators in the world”, Godrej added.
