Having invested ₹200 crore in its Mahali manufacturing plant, Godrej Appliances is looking to augment capacity at its Mohali and Shirwal plants to keep pace with its growth plans.

Sanjeev Jain, National Sales Head, Godrej Appliances, said, “We foresee a robust growth of about 25 per cent next fiscal and take the turnover up to about ₹5000 crore. In order to meet the growth requirements, we are in the process of finalising plans to further augment capacity at both the plants — Mohali and Shirwal.”

Interacting on the sidelines of the launch of its latest range of air-conditioners ahead of the summer season, Jain said,“Bucking the general slow growth in the market of about 6.7 per cent, Godrej is likely to close this year with a growth of over 12.5 per cent, at about ₹4,000 crore. Next fiscal, we expect 25 per cent growth.”

Of the overall appliances turnover, about 75 per cent of the revenue comes from refrigeration and AC business and the rest comes from washing machines and microwave ovens.

“And within the AC market — which is estimated to be about 5.2 to 6 million units or about ₹14,000 crore — we have a market share of about 4.5 per cent. Our plan is to take this up to 10 per cent over the next few years,” he said.

Jain told BusinessLine that the brand has more than 38 models of ACs which use eco-friendly refrigerants — R290 and R32. “In the AC segment, we expect more than 20 per cent sales growth during the summer season this year,” he said.

Referring to the increase in input costs and its impact on prices of ACs, Jain said that during the festival season it was to be hiked but was absorbed by the manufacturers. However, this coupled with the upgraded rating system has had major impact on the sector.

Mentioning about the high 28 per cent GST slab for ACs, he hoped that the industry request to the GST Council to bring it down on par with other appliances at 18 per cent would be acted upon. This will provide a significant boost to the market which is growing at just about 6-7 per cent, he said.

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