Concepcion to launch new business in 2nd half

CONCEPCION Industrial Corp. ( CIC) will be launching a new unit by the second half of the year, which it says could have the potential to be a third core business.

The listed maker of air-conditioners and refrigerators said the new company Cortex will offer both hardware and software that will create an enabling system for consumers to monitor the electric consumption of their appliances, among others.

“So generally it’s a think tank with all our technology. It’s going to be based on using smart appliances and we’re offering it to the Filipino markets basically (to give them) an ability to have smart appliances at a reasonable cost,” CIC Chief Executive Officer Raul Joseph A. Concepcion told reporters after its stockholders’ meeting in Makati last week.

Mr. Concepcion said the first products to be released by the new company will be smart plugs attached to mobile devices. These plugs can monitor how much electricity an appliance is using, giving users the information to allow them to save energy.

“The beauty about this is the only way for you to be able to save money is to know how much you’re spending. This will have the ability for you to track, to monitor, to even modify how you use your air-conditioning to save you energy… Just the information telling you that will save you a lot of money,” he said, noting that smart appliances can give you at least 40- 60% energy savings.

The gadgets will initially be used for air-conditioning units, but the CIC chief said the technology being developed could also be used for refrigerators, washing machines, and other electrical appliances, including lights.

Asked how affordable the units will be, Mr. Concepcion said the initial price for the gadget alone will be P3,000. The consumer can get the return on this investment in the form of electrical savings in less than a year.

Should the new venture take off, CIC is looking to make Cortex its third core business, with the first two being consumer solutions and business, and industrial solutions.

“If this thing goes well, it will be a different business model for us. With two core businesses, it might be a third core business… and so what we’re looking is we’re separating it and saying this has the potential to be a third core and revenue-generating business,” Mr. Concepcion said.

The company behind Carrier air-conditioners and Condura refrigerators is targeting a 15% increase in both net income and revenue for 2017, in order to hit its target of P50 billion in revenues by 2020. Net income attributable to the parent jumped 36% to P911.83 million in 2016, as revenues likewise gained 16.5% to P12.34 billion.

In the first quarter of 2017, the company also recorded a 19% growth in attributable net income to P217.57 million. This follows a 15% boost in revenues to P3.122 billion due to the increased demand in both refrigerator and air-conditioning units during the January to March period.