By CNBC-TV18 May 3, 2019 7:21:22 PM IST (Published)
Air conditioner maker Blue Star reported a twofold jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 79.84 crore for the fourth quarter. B Thiagarajan, MD of Blue Star, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the company's financial performance.
You are a cool breeze of growth in an otherwise hot area which is parched with not-so-good consumption numbers coming in from most quarters. Tell us what went right, is the improvement simply because the summer is worse?
As I mentioned in the third quarter itself, we were confident that the revival of demand will take place in Q4. Of course the summer set in only in the last two weeks of March. Our performance was more than expected basically because of the refrigeration products. Room air conditioner demand picked up, but it will peak sometime in April or May, but March changed it completely because of refrigeration products and the professional electronic segment doing well.
Have you been able to take any price hikes recently and is the worst of the margin pressure now behind us?
I do not think we could pass on the entire price increase because the competition continues to be intense. On the other hand, we went ahead with certain cost control measures including rationalisation of certain portfolios, redesigning certain products, and productivity improvement within the company.