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Debdatta Das

New Delhi, July 10 Higher disposable income, greater product awareness and affordable pricing have pushed up the sales of frost-free refrigerators. The category, which clocked an unprecedented growth (50 per cent) this summer compared with the previous year, saw the Koreans emerging as the leaders. While LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd led the race, Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd was in the second position.

“The rapid growth in the high-end segment of refrigerators is also because of easy availability of finance schemes and a booming economy. Changing lifestyles and global exposure has led to an increasing preference for large-capacity refrigerators. Consumers are willing to shell out a little more to take home a higher-end product even as a first-time purchase,” said Mr Anil Arora, Business Group Head, Kitchen Appliances, LG India. According to the Consumer Electronics TV Manufacturers’ Association (CETMA), there is a common shift towards premium products in the durables and electronics category, not only in the refrigerator segment but also in air-conditioners, televisions and washing machines. This is because of a general increase in disposable incomes due to the boom in the economy and the willingness of consumers to go in for more advanced technology.

As far as the frost-free refrigerator category is concerned, it is certainly growing at a much faster pace than the direct-cool category. Frost-free refrigerators offer several advantages — they don’t need manualdefrosting, are easy to maintain, and the price difference between the direct-cool and frost-free segments has narrowed considerably, CETMA said.

According to ORG data for May, the domestic refrigerator market stood at Rs 574.11 crore in terms of value and 5.37 lakh units in terms of volume. The frost-free segment formed 28.6 per cent of the entire market, worth Rs 246.74 crore with a total of 1.54 lakh units sold during the period. The direct-cool segment stood at 71.4 per cent of the whole market, worth Rs 327.37 crore (3.83 lakh units). However, what is interesting is the frost-free segment grew at 50.2 per cent in terms of volume and 60.8 per cent in terms of value while the direct-cool segment grew at a considerably slow pace of 3.3 per cent in terms of volume and 11.3 per cent in terms of value for the month of May.In fact, the above trend was also visible in the five-month period of January-May for the current calendar year, where the frost-free segment grew at a rapid pace of 45.9 per cent in terms of volume and 53.8 per cent in terms of value as opposed to a slow growth of 6.3 per cent in terms of volume and 12.1 per cent in terms of value in the direct-cool segment.

From the industry player’s perspective, while LG emerged as the winner, having sold a total of 1.37 lakh units for Rs 149.59 crore in May, capturing a 25.5 per cent market share, Whirlpool stood a close second with 23.2 per cent market share having sold 1.24 lakh units for Rs 138.24 crore, followed by its Indian counterpart Godrej, which sold 90,900 units for Rs 86.13 crore to capture 16.9 per cent share.

In terms of segments, it was LG again that led the race in the frost-free segment for May, with 30.6 per cent market share (47,200 units, Rs 72.51 crore), followed by Samsung which captured 23.9 per cent share (36,900 units, Rs 65.88 crore), with Whirlpool in the third position with 22.1 per cent market share (34,100 units, Rs 53.94 crore). Whirlpool was the frontrunner in the direct-cool category, having captured 23.6 per cent market share, followed by LG with 23.5 per cent share and Godrej with 19.4 per cent share.

More Stories on : Outlook | Air-conditioners & Refrigerators

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