‘Our Products Are Silent And Cost-Effective’

Kochi-based Intelligent Smartlock India (P) Ltd offers products mainly aimed at hospitality and allied industries. They import and market ‘Smartcool’ range of products from Technocool, Muscat, a world leader in refrigeration products. Raphael TJ, general manager of the company, in an exclusive with Mary Jetry, speaks about the company, its products and future plans. Excerpts

Could you brief us about your company?
We started off this fiscal as a professionally managed marketing organisation, mainly catering to the needs of hospitality industry. We have our corporate office at Kochi and all India distribution network. We import and market ‘Smartcool’ range of products from Technocool, Muscat, considered to be a world leader in refrigeration, having ISO 9002 certification.

What are the range of products offered by your company? How are they unique?
We market a range of white goods under the brand name ‘Smartcool’. The range comprises wide stock in refrigeration and hospitality products such as freezers, ice-cream cabinets, washing machines, dish washers, minibars, water dispensers, refrigerators, cooler and warmers, air-conditioners, cooking ranges, refrigerated cabinets, vacuum cleaners, small appliances, etc. We constantly try to innovate new products for which we establish a good relationship with our clientele, try to understand their requirements and keep abreast with changing trends and customer preferences.

Our products are unique because they are 100 per cent imported items manufactured using European technology and components. The products are then assembled in Technocool company at Sultanate of Oman. The products are 100 per cent eco-friendly, thermoelectric-based and ozone-depleting-refrigerants-free.

Moreover, we go in for three different technological equipment - conventional fridge (working on compressor), products working on absorption technology and on thermoelectric technology. The minibar with varying capacities like 30, 35, 40, and 50 litres operates on absorption technology. It is cost-effective and user-friendly, having no compressor. The advantage of this technology is that there is no vibration, no noise and the energy consumption is less.

The autocooler and warmers are based on thermoelectric principle (Peltier). Again, there is no compressor and no refrigerant, power consumption is very nominal. It has got two options like cooling and warming. The product is mainly used in cars, luxury coaches and other automobiles for cooling soft drinks and beverages and for warming up of eatables and feeding bottles.

What is the target market for your products?
The Smartcool range is targeted at hotels and restaurants, coffee houses, commercial complexes, corporate offices, pharmaceutical companies and businesses associated with the same, banks, educational institutions etc.

How do you go about marketing your products?
We have a core team of professionals to market our products. We have three tier marketing system which includes a network team of sales and service engineers in our corporate office. Moreover, we have distributors and dealer networks in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Mumbai and New Delhi. This approach ensures effective marketing of our products across the country.

Capital goods, owing to their nature of use, need to be maintained from time to time. Do you provide after-sales service to ensure that the products operate efficiently?
The after-sales service requirements are being taken care of by our team competent enough to deal with the same. Our technical team is capable of understanding any rectification jobs, attending breakdowns and doing preventive maintenance with immediate effect. Apart from that, we also conduct periodic workshops and training sessions for all technicians.

What are your future plans?
We have started off well, now we would like to consolidate the business. Considering the requirements of the industry we are planning to set up a state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in Kerala, modelled on the lines of Technocool at Sultanate of Oman. This will certainly give us an edge over others in offering our services. Very shortly we will be launching a range of air-conditioners in the market.

Properties using products
Our clients include Hotel Corporation of India Ltd, Centaur, New Delhi and Mumbai; Hotel Holiday Inn, Vadodara; Hotel Midtown Pritam, Mumbai; Hotel Guestline (Ramani Hotels), Mumbai; Malabar House Residency, Kochi, Alappat Regency, Kochi, BGR Hotels Pvt Ltd, Kannadikadu, Kochi; Muthoot Hotels and Tourism Ventures (P) Ltd, Thiruvananthapuram, Hotel White Fort, Kochi, Surya Towers, Angamaly, Kochi, Hotel Pankaj, Thiruvananthapuram, Sopanam Heritage, Guruvayoor, Kumarakom lake Resort, Kumarakom, The Travancore Heritage, Thiruvananthapuram and Joy’s Beach Resort amongst various others.