The first of these was opened in Mumbai on 31 January 2019 and the most recent was opened in Alappuzha, Kerala
Mitsubishi Electric seems to be on an exclusive showrooms opening spree in India. The company in the last five months has opened six showrooms for its ACs one each in Karnal, Alappuzha, Chennai, Cuddalore, Noida and Mumbai. Mitsubishi is calling these as unique showrooms for its line of ACs.
Yozo Ito, director and business unit head of air conditioners, Mitsubishi Electric India (MEI) said, “These are exclusive showrooms for display and sales of Mitsubishi Electric Air-Conditioning products to encourage the customers to have a touch and feel of Mitsubishi Electric products. This will help enhance the visibility of Mitsubishi Electric as a premium Air-Conditioning brand.”
It is to be noted here that Mitsubishi, unlike many of its competitors, is still an offline heavy brand. Though it has presence in the online space, majority of its sales comes from the offline sales channel.
Yozo Ito added, “These exclusive showrooms will display the entire range of Mitsubishi Electric products which includes room air-conditioners, packaged air-conditioners, City Multi VRF systems and Jet Towels.”
AC market size in India
India air conditioners market, as per a report by Techsci Research, stood at over $4.3 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 17 per cent, to surpass $11 billion by 2023. Anticipated growth in the market is led by rising infrastructure development in the country coupled with growing demand for residential and commercial spaces.
The report read, “Moreover, constantly rising temperature along with increasing purchasing power of the consumers is further fueling growth in the country’s air conditioners market. Additionally, emergence of technologically advanced air conditioners, such as inverter technology, smart air conditioners, etc., is further anticipated to augment the demand for air conditioners across India in the coming years.”
A report titled ‘Focus Shifting to Inverters‘ by Motilal Oswal in 2017 said that Mitsubishi Electric offers lowest margins to retailers. The report read, “Voltas, LG and Lloyd Electric are very dealer-oriented and offer high margins, while Samsung and Blue Star are not equally so. Voltas provides 35 per cent margins to some of the bigger dealers and 28 per cent to smaller dealers, while LG offers 28-30 per cent. Blue Star, a relatively newcomer to the industry having entered the retail market only in CY11, provides lesser margins of 25-26 per cent. O General and Mitsubishi Electric offer the lowest margins of 18-20 per cent.”
Mitsubishi Electric now has 125+ exclusive showrooms in India
The Japan based Mistubishi Electric, after the opening of its most recent AC showroom in Alappuzha, has 125+ exclusive AC showrooms in India. Neeraj Gupta, SGM, Living Environment, Mitsubishi Electric India (MEI) had earlier said, “Many shoppers in India, still prefer to try out products before buying them. There is a whole set of customers that prefer someone to walk them through the purchase process.”
Interestingly, apart from these unique MEQ Hiroba exclusive AC showrooms, Mitsubishi has also opened a MEQ Cooling Plant in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Neeraj Gupta shared, “MEQ Cooling Planets is a unique idea because it encourages customers to visit the store, take a proper look and then make a decision. On the other hand, MEQ Hiroba provides customers complete knowledge in the field of air conditioning.”
