Godrej Appliances on Thursday said it will invest ₹100 crore in its manufacturing units at Shirwal, Maharashtra and Mohali, Punjab by 2025 to augment air-conditioner production capacity to a total of eight lakh units. The company is also targeting a 10 per cent market market share in the AC category over the next three years.

Godrej Appliances currently has a market share of five per cent in ACs.

Over the last seven years, Godrej Appliances has invested ₹1,100 crore in capacity, R&D and technology expansion, keeping in line with the company’s ‘Make in India’ commitment, it said in a statement.

The company recently inaugurated its new AC manufacturing unit at its Shirwal factory in Maharashtra. The new AC line is spread across 1.50 lakh sqft. The company has invested ₹50 crore in capital, dedicated to machinery, tools infrastructure and backward integration for the AC category. This will add four lakh units of AC production capacity at Shirwal in 2021. Another four lakh units of AC production capacity will be added in Mohali by 2025 with an additional similar investment, taking the total investment to ₹100 crore, it said. This will take the total production capacity at both the plants to eight lakh units by 2025.

Godrej Appliances, a business of Godrej & Boyce — the flagship company of the Godrej Group — on Thursday also launched its range of its fully Made-in-India eco-friendly air conditioners which it says has an added assurance of health. “The new air conditioners come with a special ‘Nano-Coated Anti-Viral Filtration Technology’ which eliminates 99.9 per cent viral and bacterial particles coming in contact with the Nano Coated Filter surface, safeguarding consumer health and improves the hygiene at home,” it claimed. The entire new range spanning 30 models, uses only the most eco-friendly refrigerants — R290 and R32, thus offering the lowest Global Warming Potential (GWP), it further stated.

This new range of eco-friendly and healthy Godrej ACs are available in both inverter and fixed speed technology, split ACs in 5-star and 3-star energy ratings.

“Both of our manufacturing plants at Shirwal and Mohali are the first in India to be coveted with CII’s GreenCo Platinum Plus rating, for our sustainable and green manufacturing practices. We have been working towards improving our indigenous manufacturing capabilities through backward integrations, moving a step closer to being able to manufacture most of our product categories in-house,” said Kamal Nandi, Business Head and Executive Vice President – Godrej Appliances.

On the company deciding to undertake this investment amid the economic uncertainties of the pandemic, Nandi told BusinessLine : “I think all investments are done looking at the long-term perspective rather than a short-term impact or a short term challenge. So, if you look at AC as a category, the penetration levels are only five per cent as of today in the country. And if you look at any developed market like China or Japan, they have got penetration in excess of 75 per cent. And with affordability going up amongst our consumers in the country, with temperatures going up, and with electrification improving, the consumption of ACs, refrigerators and washing machines is bound to go up. Specifically in ACs, the consumption is bound to go up many folds.”

“Last summer was a washout for the AC category industry wide, but we are upbeat about this summer season and expect that there will be good demand for ACs, partly influenced by the continued work and schooling from home trend also. We also offer a very strong 2 Tr Split AC portfolio, which is being positioned as a ‘living room AC’...With this 100 per cent Made in India and Greenest AC range, we are confident of strengthening our position by growing our market share to 10 per cent over the next 3 years,” said Santosh Salian, Product Group Head – Air Conditioners, Godrej Appliances.

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