KARACHI, Jan 20: The trend of buying fridge and deep-freezers before Eidul Azha continues but market reports indicate that the craze is not as intense as it used to be a few years back.

"Purchasing of consumer durables especially big-ticket items on religious festivals is hard to explain but it might have something to do with consumers' psyche," said a dealer in Saddar adding this year again there is a surge in the sales of fridge and deep-freezers but it is less than what it was even last year.

A boom in sales was anticipated on the eve of Eidul Azha that coincides with the ongoing wedding season. Many manufacturers and dealers, therefore, come up with attractive schemes about this time every year to increase their share in the business. They offer packages of gifts and a substantial cut in prices to lure buyers.

Three years back the sales of these two products experienced a boom but now it looks that the market has reached its saturation point as is shown by slow pace of increase in the sales this year. The rise is reported to be 10 to 15 per cent in fridges and about five per cent in deep-freezers.

"The sales of fridge are on rise as it requires less space, give good look to your home plus perform two functions - cooling and freezing. Whereas the demand for deep-freezers is far behind it due to its less compatibility with domestic needs," a senior official at a renowned manufacturer told Dawn.

Giving the rough estimates of sales of these two products, he said about 500,000 to 600,000 fridges and 200,000 to 300,000 deep-freezers sold out across the country during the last year and an increase of 15pc and 5pc in their sales was expected this year.

He said more than a dozen brands were in the market and due to a stiff competition a medium-sized fridge of 10-12 cubic feet was available in the range of Rs16,000 to Rs20,000. A price of a normal size deep-freezer ranges between Rs9,500 to Rs14,000.

Generally deep-freezers were being purchased by shopkeepers or big general stores for keeping ice-creams and meat items, some households also buy it before Eidul Azha to store meat.

Mohammad Irfan, the president, Karachi Electronics Small Traders, told Dawn that the sales of imported fridge has declined to 10 per cent or less of the total sales as it did not work efficiently in our tropical environment and local manufacturers were meeting 90pc demand. Major foreign brands including LG and Samsung are available at the same prices as the local ones.

In local manufacturers, Dawlance holds top position with 65 per cent fridge market share followed by PEL, while in deep-freezers Waves holds 75pc market share. Now a Chinese brand Haier is said to be giving them a tough time because of competitive prices and good quality.

About the rush in the markets, he said there were more buyers than usual days but not what it used to be three years back. When asked about profit margin of dealers, an official of a local top manufacturer who declined to go on record told Dawn that the margins vary depending on quality and capacities, roughly it could be put between Rs1,000 to Rs5,000.