Air-conditioner major Voltas Ltd is looking at the upcoming festival season to boost sales, which have remained flat in the first quarter.

Unseasonal and intermittent rains have dampened demand, affecting the sales of not only air conditioners but all consumer durables nationwide, according to Pradeep Bakshi, President and COO, Voltas Ltd.

Currently the season is not conducive to sales as the first quarter went badly with a single digit growth rate against a double digit in the corresponding quarter last year.

However, the company is pinning hopes on the festive season, which begins with Kerala’s Onam season in August and continues for the next five months, he said.

“We are looking at a 20 per cent growth rate during the festival period through the sale of one million AC units and are targeting a ₹3,000 crore business in this fiscal year”, he said on the sidelines of a function to mark the Onam consumer offers in Kerala.

Of this, he said the company is looking at ₹45 crore from Onam sales alone, a growth of 25 per cent compared to the previous season.

As a brand, Bakshi said Voltas is performing well in South India, particularly in Kerala with a 20 per cent growth rate in the last few years. It has performed well nationally last year with a 23 per cent growth at a time when the industry was passing through adverse conditions, registering less than 10 per cent growth.

With a 25 per cent all-India market share, the company had sold 8.5 lakh air conditioners and out of this, 1.6 lakh were in Kerala, he added.

With a strong product line up of 78 variants of split ACs, including inverter range and the highest brand equity in the AC category, the company has increased its retail footprint to close to 10,000 customer touch points nationally.

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