Consumer durables firm Hitachi would enter the washing machine business by end of this year, a top company official said here today.
“We are looking into washing machines. We intend to launch seven kg and above top loading washing machines and front loading machines,” Hitachi Home and Life Solutions Vice President (sales and marketing) Head Gurmeet Singh told reporters in India.
As part of these plans, Hitachi would import washing machines from Thailand, which has the company’s largest manufacturing facility in the world.
Asked when they planned to launch the washing machines, he said, “it will not happen before Deepavali (this year)”.
At present, Hitachi has three facilities in Japan , China and Thailand for manufacturing its range of washing machines.
He said the company also planned to double its dealers to 3,000 units with focus on Tier II and III cities.
Of course this would not be the first time Hitachi washing machines were available in the UK. In the late 1980s the British built Servis ”Quartz” range of machines were being rebadged Hitachi and sold in the UK market.