DHAKA: The sales of refrigerators have been geared up across the country from the beginning of the current month following the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest festivals of Muslims, to be celebrated in the last week of this month.
In Bangladesh, the refrigerator sellers treat the days ahead of Eid-ul-Azha a peak season for their business as a good number of people purchase refrigerators and fridges ahead of the festival to preserve the meat of their sacrificial animals, the industry insiders said.
This year the demand for refrigerators among the customers gone up remarkably due to several reasons, including increase of the people’s income, stable political environment and sweltering summer heat, they said.
Thus, there is a boom in the refrigerator sales this year compared to the previous years, they added.
To post a record sale of refrigerators in the peak season, the country’s leading electronics, electrical and home appliance manufacturer ‘Walton’ has undertaken massive preparation.
The local consumer based electronics’ giant set a target of selling more than three lakh pieces of refrigerators and fridges during the peak season.
Eva Rezwana, chief coordinator of the marketing dept of Walton Group, said, “We increased the production of refrigerators and fridges just after the Eid-ul-Fitr as our comprehensive market research helped us forecasting about the increased demand ahead of Eid-ul-Azha”.
To capture the peak season of refrigerator sales, she said they have taken several initiatives such as releasing new models of world-class refrigerators, fridges, televisions, air conditioners and other home appliances with unique designs and colors at affordable rates, maintaining sufficient stock of the products and smoothing the transportation system.
In addition, they have cut down the products’ prices as the increased production reduced both the overhead and the fixed cost, she added.
For this year’s peak season, Walton has doubled the sales target of their refrigerators compared to sales of previous year’s Eid-ul-Azha sales, she said adding, they have already witnessed about a 30 percent growth in the refrigerators’ turnover compared to the previous year’s sales.
During the period of January to August of 2015, the sales of LED (Light Emitting Diode) televisions and air conditioners have moved up by 35 and 40 percent respectively, Rezwana said.
Emdadul Hoque Sarkar, executive director (marketing) of Walton Group, said like last year, they are hoping of posting a record in the sales of refrigerators this year too.
Although the refrigerator sales centering the Eid-ul-Azha have just started, Walton has already sold out about 2.25 lakh pieces of refrigerators and fridges during August and the first week of September against the target of selling more than three lakh pieces, he said adding, there are some brands in Bangladesh which could not sell one lakh pieces of refrigerators in a year.
Sarkar also expressed the hope that the sales target set by the company will be fulfilled ahead of the festival.
Centering the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha, the sales of other products of Walton are also increased to large scales, he said.
Offering LED TV at CRT rates and the announcement of maximum three years installment facility on Walton products except mobile phone greatly attracted the customers and thus geared up the sales of Walton products, Sarkar said.
BDST: 2114 HRS, SEPT 09, 2015
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