Year ’05 has begun with a sharp skew for refrigerator makers. In the first two months of this year, Korean and Chinese brands were the only saving grace for the industry.
Latest industry sales data reveals that only LG, Samsung, Haier and Daewoo brands clocked more unit sales in the January-February period compared to last year among the top-ten brands of the industry which comprise over 95% of the total industry.
While the overall refrigerator industry saw a degrowth in unit terms of about 1.8%, market leader LG clocked growth of 26.5% and Samsung notched 36.2% higher unit sales. Chinese brand, Haier and Korean brand, Daewoo also managed to log higher volumes on a very low base.
According to Anil Arora, product head for refrigerators at LG Electronics, “What is more striking is that our growth has come from the 270-litre and above category in frost-free and 220-litres and above in direct cool which are both high-end ranges in individual categories.”
If the Jan-Feb period is considered from a value perspective, the industry has managed growth of 3.2% over the same period last year. Here, more brands reported to be in the positive territory including LG, Whirlpool, Samsung apart from smaller brands in the top ten list Haier and Daewoo.
From The Economic Times