The Hindu Business Line : TTK Prestige to invest Rs 20 cr in new facilities

TTK Prestige plans to make fresh investment of Rs 20 crore in the next two years to set up new manufacturing facilities in Uttaranchal and Coimbatore to augment its pressure cooker capacity. This will take its total capacity to 1.7 million units by this year. Apart from its main production unit in Hosur, Prestige had a small facility in the Banglore city.

The company would be relocating its Bangalore production unit to Coimbatore, which is expected to go on stream this year.

The Uttaranchal unit would be set up exclusively for producing the `inner lid' pressure cookers, more popular in the northern markets. The unit would start production in the next two years. The company has also drawn up media campaign plans to build its brand with an expenditure of Rs 50 crore in the next two years.

According to a company spokesman, the investment of Rs 20 crore would be leveraged from its internal accruals to spend on the new production facilities and for adoption of ERP solutions covering all its manufacturing, sourcing and retail chains and setting up of Prestige Kitchen Boutique and the Rural Retail Chain.

Prestige Boutique Kitchen, which is a new retail format for modular kitchens, was launched last year and is part of the Prestige Smart Kitchen chain in select outlets in Bangalore. It now proposes to establish a separate retail chain for selling a wide range of modular kitchens. "The company has already progressed a great deal in sourcing high end appliances from China. It will introduce many new categories of electrical appliances that have great potential in today's modern kitchens. These include chimneys, hobs, microwave ovens, kettles, toasters, coffee makers and grills. All of these will only add significantly to the growth potential of the company," the spokesman told Business Line.

The retail outlets would be doubled by March 2007 from the current 72 units, to be set up largely in the northern and eastern markets, where the company hopes to increase its brand salience through its lead product "Prestige Nakshatra'', the inner-lid cooker model, the spokesman said.