Business India,  February 24, 2008 pg-25

“Starting in 2006 we have grown 100 per cent in both the fiscal years,” says Kamal Nandi, vice-president, sales and marketing, Godrej Appliances Division, referring to Godrej’s two-year-old air conditioner (AC) business. Contributing 20 per cent to Godrej’s revenues, the AC market in India currently stands at 1.9 milion units, which is slated to reach 2.5 milion units by 2008 with the current growth rate of 25 per cent. Majority of this growth is driven by the urban consumers. Nandi was speaking at a launch of a new range of ACs and refrigerators. Godrej Appliances expects to achieve its target of 60 product launches by March 2008. Last year, it launched 107 products “touching almost a rate of three product launches per day,” claims Nandi. Godrej plans to reach out to its customers in smaller towns and cities and to support its customer reach programme, the company plans to roll out 200 ‘AC Advisor’ outlets to be located at its dealer premises,on the Internet and in other stores.