‘Market for water purifiers to grow manifold’

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Sep 27, 2013 at 1:10 AM Updated On : Nov 12, 2013 at 11:11 AM

OST Business Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Sept 27:

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Water purifier market in India is likely to grow 229 per cent in the next 4 years, up from Rs.18.64 billion in 2012 to Rs.61 billion in 2017, according to a projection made by a market research firm.

A Delhi-based research firm ‘Market Pulse’ carried out a survey among 10,000 households across 62 towns to study consumer behaviour to reach this conclusion.

The survey revealed that around 67 per cent of Indian households do not treat drinking water, says Market Pulse CEO, Ejaz Hoda .

Market Pulse is considered a pioneer in research on water purifiers and their audit reports are taken seriously by the industry leaders.

Until recently, water purifiers were considered a luxury item.But Hoda says, the fact that a whopping 4.3 million water purifiers were sold in the country at an estimated value of Rs.18.64 billion in 2012 has changed perceptions. .

The water purification industries offer three types of water purification technology— reverse osmosis (RO), ultra violet (UV) and offline or storage water purifiers. But RO water purifiers have been the biggest hits in the market, in value terms.

The RO purifier market is likely to grow to more than 3 million units valued at almost Rs. 41 billion in 2017 as against the existing 786,000 units valued at almost Rs.10 billion.

In the category of RO water purifiers, Kent and Eureka Forbes are the largest players and have a combined market share of more than 70 per cent, Hoda said.

Pureit water purifiers from Hindustan Unilever have redefined the offline category and led the explosive growth in the last 5 years. TATA Chemicals’ Swach is the other significant player in this market.

Aquasure and AquaGuard from Eureka Forbes continue to dominate the Ultra violet water purifier category, revealed a research report.

According to market reports, TTK Prestige is likely to launch a range of water purifiers in collaboration with a foreign partner very soon. Multi-level marketing companies like Tupperware and Amway have also launched offline water purifiers.

In the higher income households, competition for water purifiers comes from packaged drinking water. Almost 21 per cent of these households prefer using packaged water, sources in the market said.