Blue Star is buzzing in trade after they launched a new range of refrigerators - ideal for storing vaccines. To discuss this, B Thiagarajan, MD of the company spoke to CNBC-TV18.

Thiagarajan said, “Commercial refrigeration is a very fragmented market, there are so many types of refrigeration depending on the commodity that you store. As far as vaccines are concerned the temperature has to be controlled precisely and it should be highly reliable. The market size should be around Rs 250 crore, it can scale up depending on how soon it is going to be privatized.”

“This financial year we would have received and executed orders worth around Rs 75 crore and I think we will be doing another Rs 75 crore. Our market share in this segment is more than 70 percent so we are a very dominant player there.”

On commercial refrigeration, he said, “For commercial refrigeration market size is estimated at around Rs 3,000 crore today and our overall market share will be in excess of 30 percent. 20 percent of our revenue comes from commercial refrigeration.”

On margins, Thiagarajan said, “Operating margin that we will be aiming there will be somewhere around 7.5 percent right now. But the next growth vehicle for Blue Star other than room air conditioners will be commercial refrigeration, we bet very big on that.”

“The PLI scheme for air-conditioners categories is around Rs 5,000 crore. Rs 3,000 crore is for the finished goods and Rs 2,000 crore is for the components. We will be participating in this scheme. This scheme is a very attractive scheme, it is a game-changer for the air-conditioners industry,” he added.

Watch this video for more.

(Edited by : Anshul)

First Published:Feb 11, 2021 2:30 PM IST