Briefing the media in Bangalore on Wednesday, BPL's Home Appliances Business Group division head MK Tribhuvan said Sanyo's presence as a significant equity partner with BPL in the home appliances company would facilitate ready access to cutting-edge technologies and products from the Sanyo stable including netready refrigerators, Internet-enabled kitchen appliances etc. He said BPL was also planning to introduce non-CFC line of refrigerators in the country in association with Sanyo by September.

The division in association with Sanyo was planning to roll out a series of innovative home appliances in the Indian market, he said.

The division has launched a new generation refrigerator christened Converti in India with a view to enhance its penetration in the fridge market. The company has patented the `Converti' technology which is being introduced for the first time in the world.

The new technology was expected to give the customer the option of converting the freezer space to a refrigerator and back to a freezer depending on the requirement. The technology was currently being incorporated in all the frost-free refrigerators of BPL, he said.

On the features of the new product, Tribhuvan said Converti was expected to bring down power consumption by 50 per cent over other brands.

He said BPL had taken almost two years to develop the Converti technology spending around Rs 6 crore.

Commenting on the trend in using freezers in India, he said freezer facility has a very limited use in India unlike many overseas countries. However, he added, the use of freezer was catching up rapidly keeping in pace with the modern lifestyle and food habits.

BPL currently has a market share of 32 per cent in fridge market including a 4 per cent share in the conventional segment.

The country sells around 3 million units of refrigerators a year of which 20 per cent is accounted for by the frost-free segment while the rest is conventional.

Last year, the company has sold around 15,000 units of refrigerators of which 50 per cent was of low end models, he said. BPL was aiming to sell more number of lower end Converti in the country.

He said Converti would be available in six models (ranging from 190 to 270 litres) within a fortnight and would be priced between Rs 12,500 to Rs 25,000. Currently, 240 litre (F-242 model) was available, he said.

During fiscal 1999-2000, the division was expecting a total revenue of Rs 350 crore against the projection of Rs 450 crore in the current fiscal.