Symphony sees commercial air cooling segment as big growth driver in coming years

Leading air-cooler maker Symphony is looking at the industrial and commercial air-cooling segment as a major growth driver for the company in the country and even expecting it to be bigger than the household cooler category in terms of sales in the coming years. 

The Ahmedabad-based company, which has entered into industrial and commercial air-cooling space in India and sells air coolers in over 60 countries globally, is sensing a good opportunity in the commercial cooler space. It wants to target the small and medium size companies, warehouses, hotels and restaurants and institutional buyers with its 'Movicool' range of industrial and commercial air-coolers.

"We believe that the commercial air cooling category has potential to be bigger than our existing household cooler range going forward," Achal Bakeri, founder and chairman of Symphony, told PTI.  However, on being asked about the timeline, he said: " I cannot specify how long but it could be in a few years or several years but it would be. It's an unexplored market."

"As per our new vision, which is called Symphony 3.0, the focus is on commercial and industrial segment and further internationalisation of Symphony," Bakeri said. On financial performance front, the company with a gross revenue of Rs 852 crore in the 2017-18 fiscal expects to continue its CAGR growth rate of 25 per cent in coming years.

At present, Symphony is providing its commercial air cooling solution to around 20 markets globally which includes the US, Ireland, the UK, Brazil, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa.  Although, Symphony has recently started selling commercial range of air coolers here, but its Chinese subsidiary was present in the segment in the global market for the last 10 years, he added. 

"We have tested the market here after bringing the products from our Chinese subsidiary and found they have enormous market potential...," he added. According to Bakeri: "Even globally it would be higher than household cooler because its a higher value item" and would have better margins.

On whether the company is planning to diversify its offerings besides air coolers, he said the company right now intends to focus on the present segment only. "We would like to be master of one trade rather than being jack of all trades," he said, adding that the company earlier was engaged in other categories also but later decided to refocus on one single category only. 

Besides India, Symphony has manufacturing plants in China, Mexico and Australia.  On plans for more offshore manufacturing units, Bakeri said: "Not immediately, but in the future ... We are always open to it. If its make sense for us to have local manufacturing for further develop a specific market, we would be very open to do that."  Presently, other than India, Australia, Mexico, China and the US are top markets for the company.