Blue Star Ltd, the air-conditioning and commercial refrigeration company, is looking to focus on newer and promising business segments to make up for the loss in the segments that have slowed down, Satish Jamdar, managing director, told DNA.
The company is increasing focus on segments such as infrastructure (Delhi Metro Rail, airport projects), education institutes, hospitality and telecom ever since segments like IT and retail that were earlier leading the pack with 40% year-on-year growth, slowed down.
The company has created different teams to take care of different business segments.
From AC business the player is expanding its horizon towards mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) and fire-fighting services.
The company is evaluating acquiring a plumbing company and is also in talks for a joint venture in the water heating or purifier segment.
“We are trying to reach towards ‘total facility management’ as we expand from AC business to MEP (mechanical electrical and plumbing) services. We have the largest number of accredited engineers with us. Going forward, we plan to stick to our expertise and offer more services to customers to be in the right spot,” Jamdar said.
Blue Star anticipates the MEP and fire-fighting businesses to reach double the size of its AC business in a short span.
The company is currently doing some electro-mechanical services for a few companies in the western region and is looking to expand the service to North and South in the next financial year.
The company had two years ago acquired Bangalore-based Naseer Electricals, which gave it an expertise in MEP business.
The company has two months ago set up a factory outside of Mumbai and plans to enhance its capacity further. “If required, we will look at building another unit,” Jamdar said.
Blue Star has also started working on green projects with Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) on execution front and has created a separate execution cell within the company.
Apart from this, the company is designing and executing special projects with government and private bodies in rural markets in seed storage management, banana ripening, fruits and vegetables selection and others.
“The worst is over. Recently, there is a huge comeback in the business as the pipeline effect from the slowdown is just moving up. In the third quarter of FY10, we saw growth returning and topline is beginning to grow on like-to-like basis,” said Jamdar.
The slump in October-November 2008 in Middle East coupled with volatility in domestic business had affected business for Blue Star. But though cities showed slowdown, rural markets maintained their growth pace. “Smaller towns, or the tier 2 and tier 3 towns in states such as Punjab, Bihar, Orissa, and Jharkhand, are growing faster,” he said.
Jamdar said that the company was bullish on its AC business too as there was huge consumption potential which would be fuelled with the GDP growth.
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