The country’s booming microwave oven market is poised to see a fresh spate of action. A new player, the appliances division of Godrej & Boyce is targeting a 100-crore turnover from its newly launched microwave ovens within the next three years. The appliances division which registered a turnover of Rs 600 crore in 2005-06, is hoping to be among the top three brands in the microwave oven segment in the next three years.

Incidentally, the microwave oven market in 2005 stood at about 5.5 lakh units. LG is the largest player in this space. Samsung, IFB, Kenstar, Electrolux, Whirlpool and relatively new entrant Onida are among the other players. Godrej Appliances is hoping to capture 7% of this market within the first year of operations itself. For this, according to Mr. Bharat Gothoskar, senior manager, marketing, it has set aside an advertising budget of some Rs 4-5 crore. Speaking to mediapersons, Himanshu Jain, category head, Godrej and Boyce Appliance Division, said, “The microwaves oven category has started growing at a scorching pace, with projected sales of 7 lakh units this fiscal. Sales are expected to touch 10 lakh units by 2009.” Godrej’s new range of microwave ovens with Power Waves technology includes five models with capacities ranging from 20L to 30L.

On offer are Solo, Combination (microwave plus grill) as well as Convention (microwave, grill plus baking) models. Prices range between Rs 4,990 and Rs 12,990. Mr. Jain said, “Though the largest share in the microwave space belongs to combination segment right now, the convention models are the fastest growing category. We will be competing in these two segments, rather than the solo one, primarily used for reheating.”

Mr. Jain also said that the company’s microwaves and DVD players are at present being manufactured under arrangement with third parties. “But we will be considering setting up our own manufacturing units once we achieve big volumes, “said Mr Shivaji Sengupta, general manager, East.