Joining the race this year, in the market's premier segment, is Japan'spremier AC manufacturer, Daikin Industries.

Daikin has partnered with the Siddharth Shriram group's flagship, Siel Ltd,to promote a joint venture company, Daikin Shriram Airconditioning Pvt. Ltd(DSAL), to manufacture and marketing the `Daikin' brand of ACs in India.Though the joint venture was formally announced last week, Daikin ACs willbe available in the country only from September. The company proposes tobring in Daikin's `Sky Air' series of split and duct ACs, ranging from onetonne to four tonnes. Later, the company will market Daikin's othermulti-splits, variable refrigerant volume (VRV) and central AC systems.

Says T Nakamoto, managing director of DSAL: "Daikin ACs will be sold at a10-20 per cent premium price over the local brands." Depending on theirtonnage capacities, the price of the ACs in the domestic market will varywithin the range of Rs 20,000 to Rs 35,000 for window and split ACs, 0.75tonne to two tonnes.

Five Daikin AC models will be on offer initially, ranging from 1.5 tonnes tothree tonnes, to cater to commercial demand. For residential use, the jointventure will market Shriram Aircon ACs. "Initially, both the brands, Shriramand Daikin, will co-exist with DSAL for the residential sector," saysSiddhrath Shriram, chairman of Siel and Siel Aircon.

"Daikin ACs will cater mainly to the commercial sector and, for theresidential sector, we will continue with the Shriram brands. And since weaim at the higher-end segment of the Indian AC market, we don't feel anyprice competition from already existing players," says Nakamoto. DSAL hasalso roped in Usha International to provide leverage to the sales of DaikinACs in India. However, Nakamoto says the company will also develop its ownsales and distribution networks.

Though the joint venture proposes to manufacture Daikin ACs here in India, NInoue, president, Daikin Industries, clarifies that the compressors forDaikin ACs will be sourced from Japan and only less important parts will bemanufactured by the joint venture. He adds that to start with, theindigenisation level will be around 25 per cent, but this may go up later to60 per cent. But the compressors will continue to be manufactured in Japanas the level of technology in India is not adequate for them to bemanufactured here. Introducing its products during a lean demand season andtargetting the first year's turnover at Rs 40 crore may not necessarily bethe right move for the Japanese conglomerate. But the Daikin ACs, with theirslim and expensive looks, efficient energy systems andsuited-to-customer-needs models, are quite simply irresistible!