Blue Star investing nearly Rs 900 cr in Sri City plant

The company is investing Rs 200 crore every year on R&D infrastructure and resources. The R&D facilities incorporate all the requisite test labs, including NABL-accredited deep freezer testing labs and AHRI-certified testing labs. It has obtained many patents and design registrations, and more in pipeline - B Thiagarajan, Managing Director, Blue Star Ltd

Hyderabad: Airconditioning and refrigeration company Blue Star Ltd has lined up a series of capex investments close to Rs 900 crore on its new plant in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. It has ambitious plans to increase the production capacity to 18 lakh room AC units by financial year 2026-27 from 3 lakh room AC units at present, B Thiagarajan, Managing Director of Blue Star Ltd, told Bizz Buzz in an exclusive interaction.

The company also has another room AC manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradesh, which has reached its full potential with a capacity of 6 lakh room AC units. In FY23, it has commissioned the Sri City plant with an investment of Rs 350 crore. The company is planning to double its current capacity to 6 lakh room AC units by next fiscal with an investment of Rs 74 crore, he said. “Going forward, Blue Star will be investing over Rs 350 crore on Sri City factory to enhance the capacity to 12 lakh room AC units by FY26, and further expand to its full potential of 18 lakh room AC units by FY27 with another Rs 100 crore,” the MD said, after launching the company’s comprehensive new range of energy-efficient and eco-friendly deep freezers varying in capacities right from 60 to 600 litres.

Thiagarajan further said: “As a leader in the field of commercial refrigeration, and with our proven domain expertise in preservation and life extension of perishables, we serve a wide range of customers covering the value chain for diverse applications - fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, aquaculture, floriculture, dairy, frozen food, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and several other products.”

“The overall market for commercial refrigeration and cold chain solutions stood at Rs 4,000 crore in India and it is growing at 15 per cent year-on-year. The company has 30 per cent market share across all segments at present, and we aim to further consolidate our position by introducing a new and innovative range of energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly products and solutions.” The new range deep freezers offer higher storage, enhanced cooling capacity and are embedded with superior technologies which ensure greater heat transfer for efficient cooling. Further, they are super tropicalised and designed to work even in 47 degree celsius ambient temperatures. The features include wide range of elegant control panels with smart eye and square design with LED light and Quadracool technology. With an extensive range of storage capacities, the company is in a position to cater to a wider customer segment for applications right from dairy and ice cream, frozen food, restaurants, convenience stores, hospitality and supermarkets, among others. These deep freezers start at an attractive price point of Rs 16,000 onwards.

Recently, the company launched its minibars range as well. Integrated Cold Room solutions envisage pre-engineered PUF insulated panels along with hermetic, semi-hermetic, and rack refrigeration systems. It has also launched inverter based-technology refrigeration units, cold chain solutions for warehousing and logistics segments and IoT systems to strengthen its portfolio in this category. The company is investing Rs 200 crore every year on R&D infrastructure and resources. The R&D facilities incorporate all the requisite test labs, including NABL-accredited deep freezer testing labs and AHRI-certified testing labs. It has obtained many patents and design registrations, and more in the pipeline. It has been incorporating the latest technologies from across the world into its new products.

Blue Star’s 2,100 sales and service channel partners are trained to sell, install and maintain refrigeration products and solutions across 900 towns. It continues to invest in capability building and upskilling of its channel partners and their broader teams. On customer service, it is the country’s leading after-sales AC and commercial refrigeration ISO-certified service provider.