Refrigerators being an essential item of every household have witnessed tremendous growth in India. The demand for refrigerators has been driven by the hot and humid weather conditions in India. The market has improved markedly and is on an uptrend now as the rise in average disposable income of households combined with changing consumer lifestyle is helping to drive growth in the high-end segment. Besides macro-economic and demographic factors, increased promotional activities by chain stores have been instrumental in driving growth of the high-end segment. According to recently published report of Bonafide Research "India Refrigerator Market Overview", refrigerator market in India is one of the fastest growing segments of the consumer durable industry. Volume sales of refrigerator were growing at a CAGR of more than 7% over four years from 2010. Traditionally direct cool refrigerators have dominated the market. But there is a growing demand for high-end, higher capacity frost-free refrigerators now. One trend which has emerged in the local market is the growing demand for high-end and higher capacity refrigerators. In the first eight months of this year, frost-free refrigerators with capacity greater than 400 liters registered a surge of more than 25 percent in volume and 36 percent in value. In frost free segment, models with storage capacities ranging from 226 to 270 liters recorded the largest sales in the year 2014 and in coming years the capacities ranging with 271 to 350 liters are expected to be a quick growth. This trend is likely to continue, as consumers are now willing to spend larger amount to acquire high end capacity refrigerators instead of low end direct cool refrigerators. Further, rising per capita income and easy availability of finance is expected to continue driving the growth in the future. LG Company dominates the direct cool segment while Samsung India is leading in frost free models with many high end premium models. The major players are cutting their prices and launching the new models with advanced features, large capacities and new designs. Across urban India, over 300 new models were introduced in the first eight months of 2014. Nearly two out of three of the new launches were frost-free models, of which around 50 of them were above 400 litres in capacity. Among region, southern and northern India is contributing maximum sales of high end refrigerators as consumers of these regions are less price sensitive. In a move to address the fast-growing premium segment of the India refrigerator market, the latest entrant in this segment is Godrej Appliances which has recently ventured into it by launching its new range of ‘NXW’ (Next World) refrigerators. The company launched a range of three patterns; Inox, Cosmos and Platina with ‘Just the right temperature’ (JTRT) technology and the products are priced between Rs.49,000 and Rs.79,000. The NXW range allows users to customise their refrigerator by storing food in three flexible temperature zones.
