Daikin is pursuing a shift to 100% inverterisation by 2018 in the Middle East region, the company revealed to Climate Control Middle East. This is being done to address the increasing emphasis many countries are placing on reducing energy consumption, said Tuna Gulenc, General Manager, Daikin Middle East and Africa.

“All the world is moving in the same direction, based on the same concerns – energy efficiency and energy consumption,” said Gulenc. “This is why we decided to take the lead in the Middle East to move the full product range to inverters and to shift Middle East market to inverters. Daikin’s focus is on consuming less energy and providing a better product for the customer, end-user and society, in terms of energy consumption.”

Gulenc drew from his experience in the Middle East region, before going to Turkey, “When I came back [to the Middle East], I feel the difference completely,” he said. “Now, the government, contractors, consultants and even end-users – everybody’s more concerned about energy efficiency and more interested in inverters.”

Gulenc said that awareness of the benefits of inverter-based technology in the Middle East is very low, though, especially when compared to other regions. There are a lot of opportunities for growth, he said, adding that Daikin has had good projects, because it has become easier to convince professionals, like engineers, the value of the life cycle cost of consumption. This goes a long way, he said, in battling the idea that inverter-based splits are only for high-end projects. He added that the best example of this is a recent project, where Daikin provided 8,000 inverter-based splits in a labour camp in Jebel Ali, Dubai. This was, Gulenc said, because “they are aware about the energy consumption, and we were able to explain and defend our case”.

With most sales of inverter-based splits going to projects, Gulenc said the main bottleneck is communicating facts and figures to promote better understanding among the people.

Overall, Daikin is looking to increase its market share in key regions. Ryoji Sano, President, Daikin Middle East and Africa, revealed the company’s global strategy and its commitment to increase its market share in India, South America, South East Asia, and in Middle East and Africa. “We are targeting, in each region and in each country, the number one market share,” he said. “In these four regions, we came late, so we have not captured the number one in the market, like in most regions. We need to focus on these four regions.”