Blue Star plans to set up AC manufacturing unit in South India

Blue Star Ltd is planning to set up an air-conditioner manufacturing facility, having a capacity of 500,000 units per annum, in southern India with an investment of about Rs 150 crore. The AC maker is contemplating to establish the new unit in South India, which currently accounts for nearly 47 per cent of its sales, as its manufacturing unit in Himachal Pradesh is expected to run out of capacity by the year end.
 
B Thiagarajan, executive director, and president, AC & R Products Business, Blue Star Ltd, said that the company is yet to finalise a location for its eighth plant and would take a call by September this year. Blue Star has two units each in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, and one at Dadra. The company currently enjoys a 9.5 per cent share of the 375,000 units per annum AC market in the country and is aiming to take that up to 10 per cent in FY16.
 
The company, which forayed into the room air-conditioner segment in 2011, now derives nearly 70 per cent of its sales from the residential segment, up from 45 per cent in 2013. The company enjoys a 9 per cent market share in Gujarat which is around 300,000 ACs per year and plans to take that up to 11 per cent by FY16.
 
FOR COMPLETE REPORT READ: Blue Star plans its eighth manufacturing unit down South