Commercial freezers are the hottest thing in town this summer
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The demand for commercial refrigeration products such as deep freezer and bottle coolers or visi coolers in India has touched unprecedented levels, far outstripping supplies amid the quick commerce boom and cola war, said industry executives.Commercial refrigeration manufacturers such as Blue Star Voltas and Haier said sales have been surging 25-50% year-on-year since January, after initial hiccups in the April-September 2024 period, when India adopted the quality control order (QCO) for products like water coolers which impacted the supply chain.The QCO issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) mandates companies to source and manufacture products from BIS-certified companies, encouraging local production over exports from countries like China."The cola war by Reliance's Campa, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo has boosted demand for visi coolers, with all our capacities sold out for the next five months and demand much more than we can supply," said Haier India president Satish NS.He said overall commercial refrigeration is growing 35% year-on-year, while visi coolers are seeing more than 50% expansion.Blue Star, too, has seen a sharp increase in demand for commercial refrigeration products from quick commerce, ice cream and frozen food companies with a strong order book. "The growth potential is very high as India is underpenetrated," said managing director B. Thiagarajan. He said the business has potential to grow at 30%.Reliance Consumer Products started the cola war in the second half of 2024-25 with aggressive pricing of '10 per 200 ml bottle and expanding distribution to kirana stores. The company said on its latest earnings call that Campa had already gained double-digit market share in some markets and had expanded distribution to more than a million retail stores.James Quincey, global CEO of The Coca-Cola Co, told analysts in May that about 350,000 outlets were added in India in the March quarter and the company increased cooler placements. The chairman of PepsiCo's top bottler in India, Varun Beverages , Ravi Jaipuria, too, said the increased competition was making the industry put in place more chilling equipment.Jaipuria told analysts there were around 12 million fast-moving consumer goods outlets in India, while the company reached only four million. "So there is still so much room for everyone to add new outlets through increased go-to-market and by putting in more chilling equipment," he said.The size of the commercial refrigeration market in India is estimated at around '4,500 crore and the growth rate is faster than for any electronics products such as televisions, smartphones, air-conditioners, refrigerators and laptops.The country's largest home-grown contract manufacturer, Dixon Tech , recently announced that it would start production of deep freezers and visi coolers.Tata-owned Voltas' chief financial officer KV Sridhar told analysts that the order book in the pipeline for commercial refrigeration products reflected huge growth potential with a ramp-up of factories.
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