Blue Star is poised to experience a "landmark year" in FY26, with growth expected to outpace the market, driven by increased demand, according to the company's Managing Director B. Thiagarajan.
Talking to NDTV Profit, Thiagarajan said that Blue Star will maintain its momentum of growing faster than the air conditioner market in India as it did in the second quarter of FY25.
“I had indicated that we would like to grow faster than the market. We did that in Q2, and I suppose in the coming quarters also we will maintain that momentum. It (FY26 *asked in question*) is going to be a landmark year,” he said.
While there is demand in the industry, there are headwinds, the Blue Star MD noted. However, he remained confident that his company would move forward and cope with the negatives.
“Demand holds up because this category has arrived, but there are headwinds. There are headwinds in terms of rupee depreciation, commodity prices, and supply chain disruptions. The industry is coping with this and trying to move forward and seize the momentum to rise, and BlueStar will do so,” he said.
Thiagarajan noted that while other industries faced demand issues in the second half of the current fiscal, it was not the case for Blue Star or the AC industry at large.
“While many other sectors are not doing well at this point in time, the air conditioning industry is happy that the demand continues to be good,” he said.
“Festival season, the growth was more than 30%. As we speak now, the demand is extremely good for room air conditioners as well as commercial air conditioning systems,” the Blue Satar MD added.
Demand in Q4 will also be good as the Indian consumer builds up for summer, the top executive predicted.
“I sense that despite the commodity price increase or rupee depreciation, certain price corrections will take place. I think Q4 demand also should be close to 25% as we build up for the summer,” he said.
Thiagarajan mentioned that consumers will not wait for April and will try to buy their ACs from March 2025.
“We continue to witness the consumers not waiting for April to begin to buy in March itself. So, therefore, fortunately, the air conditioner industry is doing great,” he said.
Shares of Blue Star Ltd. jumped 3.66% to touch an intraday high of Rs 2,114 apiece on the NSE on Friday. The counter was standing at Rs 2,068.95 per share at 3:15 p.m., while benchmark Nifty 50 was up 0.24% at 23,808.35.
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