Carrier Aircon, a publicly listed company, 51 per cent owned by Carrier Corporation, USA, has become India's number one air-conditioning company.
In addition to compressors, Carrier's world class factory at Gurgaon, near New Delhi, manufactures chillers, AHUs, split and window room air conditioners.
Prior to Carrier's entry into India, the compressor area was a seller's market with only two players. Carrier's arrival in 1998 in the compressor arena brought in a marked change in technological benchmarking.
Carrier introduced a state-of-the-art compressor which was considerably more advanced and efficient than those offered by the competition. Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) became the benchmark for excellence in the industry and the Carrier compressors have the highest Energy Efficiency Ratio in the market.
One of Carrier's objectives in entering India was to expand the country's air conditioning market through upgraded technology and distribution support. Carrier's advanced hermetic reciprocating compressor technology forced competitors to upgrade their own products. As a result, the Indian customer has become the overall winner. He or she is now able to purchase a compressor vastly superior to what was available 10 years ago.
The competitive advantage of Carrier compressors come from the fact that they are more compact up to 35 per cent smaller and lighter than competitors; are quieter; have built-in overload protectors and pressure relief valves. Carrier compressors also come equipped with 100 per cent gas-cooled motor and can be used in split air-conditioners without modification and can operate under a wide voltage range.
Carrier also attributes its success in the field of compressors to giving personalised service to key customers in the small scale sector, and placing mobile service vans in the metropolitan markets. Other innovations that Carrier has introduced include providing test room facilities to the small-scale industrial units and organising technical workshops.
The air-conditioning industry, marked by a "luxury goods" tag and reeling under a burdensome excise duty of 110 per cent until 1991-92, has greatly benefitted from the economic reforms introduced in 1992. The government's reform programme progressively cut excise duty rates, ultimately reducing them to 30 per cent today.
In addition to the excise duty reduction, the steadily increasing disposable income o the middle class and its resultant higher standards of living has resulted in a substantial growth rate of the air-conditioning industry. The Indian compressor market, which was less than one hundred thousand units in 1992, is expected to grow to more than 10 lakh units by the year 2002.
When Carrier's operations were restructured in December 1992, the company took the important strategic decision to hive off compressor marketing and allied services and spin off these into a specialised countrywide distribution operation.
The company appointed dealers with an emphasis on those in metropolitan areas with expertise in handling engineering hardware commodities.
Carrier now has a major presence in all the major cities in the country through local offices and dealers.
The company's compressors operation, headquartered in Delhi, includes a sales force of 16 engineers and 74 dealers spread across country. All the people in the sales force are organised and trained to support the compressor dealers' needs better.
In addition to the technical excellence of the Carrier compressor, the company places great emphasis on the quality of customer service. Several dealers also offer home delivery and always maintain float stock for off-the-shelf replacement.
Carrier Aircon Limited is a publicly listed company in India, supported by the Carrier Corporation, USA, which is the world leader in air-conditioning. Carrier Corporation holds 51 per cent of the equity in Carrier Aircon. The balance 49 per cent is owned by more than 40000 Indian investors.
Carrier Aircon is part of Carrier Corporation's Asia-Pacific Operations, whose 32 companies operate in 27 Asian countries from Japan to Australia.
Carrier Corporation's direct participation in Carrier Aircon supports the continuous improvement in product quality and management systems that have catapulted Carrier Aircon to market leadership in India.
