With most parts of northwest and central India reeling under scorching temperatures, consumer durable firms expect record demand for cooling products such as air conditioners and refrigerators this year even as another round of price hike looms large amid rising raw material costs.
Major manufacturers also expect pent-up demand from the last two summer seasons that saw severe market disruptions because of the pandemic, and rising demand for air conditioners in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, to help them achieve a growth of up to 35% over last year.
“The pandemic as we all know had been very harsh on the business both for the industry and the brand. But as the pandemic started coming under control, things started to look up. This year we are aiming for more than 20% growth rate over 2019 for both room ACs as well as commercial ACs segments…supported by various factors such as continued trend of remote working, harsh summers and increasing purchase capacity of consumers,” Gurmeet Singh, CMD, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India, said.
