Indranil Sinha, the Director of Exports of Whirlpool India Limited was in Nepal recently, for the opening of two exclusive Whirlpool showrooms. He handles the international export of Whirlpool for South Asia. In an interview with New Business Age, he talked about the prospects of Whirlpool products in the Nepali market. Excerpts:

How is the trend of sales for Whirlpool products in Nepal?

Nepal has been one of the best performing markets for us in the last few years. However, I think the penetration of home appliances is still very low in Nepal. In Kathmandu, the market is good, but outside the valley, it's not much to write home about. We have been present in Nepal for the last 15 years, so we have a good network. We try to make sure that the products reach all over Nepal. Our appliances have made a good name for themselves. I wouldn't say the market is very profitable because if the prices are high, the buyers switch to other companies very easily. We are not very conscious about profitability right now; we are just trying to develop a brand image.

The Nepali market is relatively a small one. How important is it for your portfolio?

I don't think the market is really small. With a population of nearly 30 million, it's quite big. It appears small only because of the low penetration. The sale of our appliances is only around 100,000 here. In Sri Lanka, the population is about 20 million, but the sale is around 250,000. In Nepal, the market is growing and so is our market share which is about 15 to 20 per cent. As the market grows, we want to maintain or even improve on our market share. In about five years, I see the market doing very well. Therefore, the Nepali market is strategically very important for us.

How tough is the competition?

The competition is very tough everywhere today, and Nepal is no exception. A number of Asian brands, Japanese or Korean, are strongly dominating the market. But for European or American brands, we are comfortably placed at number one. All our Asian competitors are dealing in home appliances and consumer electronics like television, mobiles, laptops, monitors and other products as well. But our focus is only on the home appliances. We basically manufacture products that are used around the kitchen and make life easier for the users. You might not see flashy lights and a lot of buttons in our products, but you will get genuine benefit and convenience from them.

What are the unique features of your product? What is it that gives you an edge over others?

We have a refrigerator model in which we have used a technology that keeps food fresh even if there is a power outage for 15 hours. We discovered that generally the compartments of the refrigerators are opened every 10 or 15 minutes in a household to fetch vegetables, water and other items. The door opens and closes so many times and at the same time, hot air goes in. So the refrigerator has to consume extra power to keep things cool, which is not efficient by any means. We have come up with Proton series of refrigerators where we have separated the vegetable storage compartment in a drawer at the bottom and the refrigerator compartment remains at the centre. So, the whole refrigerator does not need to be opened all the time. This makes the refrigerator consume less power. We have applied similar innovations for other appliances as well.

What are your future plans for the market here in Nepal?

We have recently opened two exclusive showrooms in Kathmandu. This will definitely help in making our product more visible. We are specially focusing on the market in Kathmandu, where there are opinion makers and trend setters. All the latest products will be there in the showrooms in the capital. We are also offering new schemes for the buyers and will be bringing in new products as well. We have new designs of kitchen chimneys, hobs, water purifiers, clothes dryer and microwave ovens.

Is there a possibility of Whirlpool establishing a manufacturing unit in Nepal?

Right now, we don't have any such plans. We already have three factories in India and two in China, so opening a manufacturing unit here will not be economically feasible. But still, it's a probability that we may open a facilitating office here in Nepal because at present, we are operating through a distributor.