can holdover for 3 days as compared to the heavy series for 13 days. It just requires itself to recharge 2.5 hours of electricity every day.
We hear stories on spoiling of vaccines due to heat conditions in Indian rural terrains. Will these products be of help?
When the vaccines cross the temperature over 8 degrees Celsius or below 2 degrees Celsius, it is as good as water with zero efficacy. The important factors to retain the impact of vaccines are their efficacy and second is the right storage. That is what we are trying to do through with our product.
All products continue to guarantee never to freeze vaccines because of the patented technology, limit temperature variation within cabinet to less than 1 degree Celsius, have a built in intelligent temperature control and energy management. In terms of product offering, this portfolio is the best in market today.
Are you planning for any collaboration with government bodies or pharma companies?
The recent conference at Delhi has been to bring visibility to the technology and educate the stakeholders about the issues being faced in the medical refrigeration. We have been informing the government agencies about this product and the benefits coming with it.
What do you make of‘ Make in India campaign and does this product fit here?
This is the only medical refrigerator in this category that is manufactured in India. No other brand does that here. It is getting manufactured at our Vikhroli unit in Mumbai in parallel with one in Pune. While currently the number is 10,000 units, we are planning to increase the capacity of manufacturing facility to 30,000 units over next 2 years.
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There are many global players in the Indian market yet their products can’ t guarantee you the precise temperature in wake of fluctuations. Vaccines get spoiled and emphasis is on the temperature side.
Coming to the business aspects, what are the market trends including competition etc?
The market size of the medical refrigerators for vaccines is roughly Rs 500 crore in last one year. It is expected to grow exponentially.
There are many global players in the Indian market yet their products can’ t guarantee you the precise temperature in wake of fluctuations. Vaccines get spoiled and emphasis is on the temperature side.
Godrej is generally known for the household refrigerators. But now as you have ventured into medical domain, what are your detailed plans?
Since we have now moved into medical refrigeration and especially vaccines storage, we are also planning to venture into blood banking as well. Blood storage also requires precise temperature. This technology is also prefect for blood banks. We will come up with wide portfolio for blood banks. We will go to the other areas of medical sciences where refrigeration is required to safeguard products.
Is the product being used globally too? What is the cost?
Sure Chill’ s technology is being used in 38 nations and we too will be supplying the latest product there.
The price of entire range varies from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 Lakh whereas the Lite series price range is between Rs 70,000 to Rs 75,000 The re-engineering and for bringing out right efficiencies, there have been efforts by our engineers. Therefore, the price optimization is complete and we cannot go beyond this decrease. I would say this is highly affordable in this category.
How has been the response from the clients?
Wherever we have installed the machine so far, we have received the good response. For example, in the West Bengal where we installed at 38 locations, the response is overwhelming. People are happy about the display board that gives them the exact temperature inside the refrigerator. Over that the maintenance is zero and so far not a single complaint has been received about any vaccine lot getting spoiled or anything like that.
What is your expectation is terms of revenue and future outlook?
There is a huge potential. We hope to generate Rs 200 crore revenue from medical refrigerator portfolio by 2020.
I believe that we are not looking at the right technologies that could bring down wastage considerably. We must look out and use innovation to bring down the cost and improve efficacy.
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