Japan's Sharp Corp looks to scale up air purifier business in India
Japanese electronics firm Sharp on Wednesday said it is looking to scale up its air purifier business in India as it aims to cater to demand in both consumer as well as B2B space, a top company official said.
The company, which has received approval from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi for the efficacy of its plasma cluster ion technology to tackle toxic air pollutants, currently sells 10 models in the personal air purifier segment. The Japanese company has also started catering to institutional sales.
"We are looking to bring in various kinds of applications in the personal air purifier space and are also eyeing opportunity in the B2B space," Sharp Business Systems (India) Managing Director Shinji Minatogawa told PTI. He said the company is working to develop air purifiers with added features like the ones with function to kill mosquitoes.
"Besides, in B2B space there is demand from various entities like hospitals, offices," Minatogawa said. He said that air purifier segment in India remained small in despite several regions facing air pollution problem.
"The market remains around 3-3.5 lakh units per annum which is very small. In Japan where population is just around 120 million the market is more than 2 million units annually," Minatogawa said.
The company has around 20 per cent market share in volume terms in the home air purifiers segment in India. On Wednesday, the company came out with findings of a study conducted in association with IIT Delhi.
The study demonstrated the efficacy of company's plasmacluster ion technology (PCI) to r2move polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the toxic air pollutants. Sharp and IIT Delhi selected three types of PAHs to test the effectiveness of PCI.
"The PCI technology of Sharp is experimentally prove to be successful in eliminating particle bound PAHs from toxic air," IIT Delhi, Associate Professor Sagnik Dey said. Sharp Business Systems is wholly-owned Indian subsidiary of Japan's Sharp Corporation.
