Faber India, the domestic arm of Italian kitchen appliances firm Faber Spa, said it has entered into a distribution tie-up with Whirlpool and is aiming for 30% growth in sales turnover at Rs 520 million (US$11.56 million) this fiscal year.
The company was also in the process of setting up another plant in Pune (Maharashtra) with an investment of Rs 120-150 million and the facility would be operational by 2007, its managing director Pralhad Bhutada said Friday.
“We have entered into the agreement with Whirlpool and we target to surpass the industry growth of 20 to 25%, achieving Rs 520 million topline for the 12-month period ending December 2004,” he said.
The Rs 2 billion Indian “lifestyle” kitchen market was in a nascent stage but is poised to grow as duties were coming down, he said.
At present, the existing Pune plant of the company has a combined production capacity of 15,000 units a day.
“We need to augment capacity and set up a new plant as the chimney industry alone would turn into a million units market by 2010. We have been continuously investing in our existing plant to cater to the growing domestic market where we are the only organized player,” Bhutada said.
Glen, Faber’s nearest competitor in the domestic market, imports its products, he said.
“We get the benefit of economies of scale but the going gets tough for importers due to high duties,” he said.
From Asia Times
