An Indian Summer

THAT harsh drone of the genset is pure melody to some people. After creeping along at an annual growth rate of 6 to 8 per cent for nearly a decade, the genset industry is finally poised to take off at a healthy 15 to 20 per cent this year. The organised industry expects to do 40 per cent more business in markets like Delhi and Mumbai this coming summer. And market sources predict that business will be brisk in new markets like Kanpur, Ghaziabad and Lucknow and in pockets of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

"The market is flowering out," says R.P. Mehrotra, general manager, Shriram Honda, the largest-selling portable genset manufacturer. Till aslate as 1995, genset makers were still in the concept-selling stage. Except for a few adventurous buyers, customers were few. The industry was skewed 70:30 in favour of commercial establishments— small shops, traders and a few professionals— as compared to the house-hold sector. Birla Yamaha, the organised sector’s only significant player besides Shriram Honda, was in the deepred .

Thanks to rampant power cuts and to the do-it-yourself mindset of today’s consumer, the industry is now on a rise. "The generator, especially for households, has been a product bought out of impulse arising from frustration rather than a thought-out decision. This season, the consumer just has more occasions and reasons to feel frustrated, leading to booming sales in winter, usually a dead season in north India," says Sohinder S. Gill, vice-president, Birla Yamaha.

And how. In New Delhi, the year began with 10-12 hour power cuts everyday. In neighbouring Ghaziabad, doctors are performing emergency surgeries without power. In cities ranging from Bangalore and Hyderabad in the south, to towns in Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west, and Manipur and Tripura in the east, life has turned significantly darker. And consumers have given up on things improving from the government’s side. "My first big purchase of the year has been the genset. With my daughter’s board exams round the corner, I am taking no chances with the power supply," says Anita Garg, a resident of Delhi. Quips P. Ramachandran, retired government official: "The average Delhiite is more enterprising than his brethren in other parts of the country. When the public transport system failed to keep pace, he flooded the roads with Marutis. When the civic water supply failed, he dug borewells in his backyard. Now that power supply is faltering, he is setting up his in-house power system, be it generator or inverter. That’s what I call self-sufficiency."

"My sales this winter are triple that of last year," says Navin Sardana of Exim Corporation, a dealer for gensets. "We have designed 300 and 400-watt inverters this winter to fulfil the demand arising from the middle-class segment owing to the impending school exams," says Sanjay Taneja of LDS Systems. There are 200 inverter makers in Delhi alone and more are springing up by the day. Videocon launched inverters in the market last month. Birla Yamaha is soon to launch its brand. " Normally in April to August we cover 60 per cent of targets . This year, our summer began in December. We are doing as much business as we would do in peak season," says Gill.

The commercial vs household skew could be shifting towards 55:45. Significant in that with disposable incomes increasing , the household segment remains a vast untapped market where lifestyle changes are pushing the demand for inter-rupted power supply in a big way. And genset makers claim not to be worried about inverters. "Inverter buyers are usually first-time sufferers of power cuts who get swayed by lower price and convenience of the device. Once they realise the replacement cost of batteries, the running cost, the voltage fluctuations it entails and the consequent impact on electronic gadgets and their inability to cope with hours of power, they will shift to gensets," says Mehrotra. Inverter manufacturers, however, point to the noise and pollution that gensets cause.

The competition is ensuring better prices and terms for the customer. Shriram Honda is perking up its after-sales service. Birla Yamaha offers Rs 36,000 generators at a Rs 4,000 discount in interest free instalments. "Given the impulse-buying that goes into genset purchases, you have to strike when the iron is hot," says Gill. The strategy then seems to be to make hay. In this case, as darkness engulfs.