The Hindu Business Line : Maharaja Whiteline looks beyond home appliances

New Delhi, Sept. 25 Home appliances firm Maharaja Whiteline is on an aggressive expansion mode and plans to invest Rs 200 crore for product portfolio expansion and foraying into new categories. “Having created a name in the home appliances category over the past three decades, we decided it was time to increase our portfolio to other categories as well. We will do so through acquisitions and tie-ups with other companies, national as well as international,” said Mr Harish Kumar, Managing Director, Maharaja Whiteline. “In fact, we will invest Rs 100 crore this year and another Rs 100 crore next year to fuel our growth,” he added.

The company, that leads the segment in juicer-mixer grinders, recently formed a joint venture with consumer electronics company Beltek and also acquired 100 per cent in Gems, another electronics and white goods brand, originally owned by Kelvinator, in an effort to expand its portfolio.

“We intend to have a similar range of products, such as colour televisions, air-conditioners, washing machines and DVDs for both our joint venture with Beltek as well as those produced under the Gem brand. However, the differentiating factor will be the pricing, based on the consumers targeted for each of the brands,” said Mr Kumar. While, Beltek is targeted at the rural and semi-rural population, the Gem brand will find audience in the metros, urban and semi-urban areas.

Baddi unit

For the purpose of manufacturing the added lines of white goods and electronic items, Maharaja has made operational its new unit at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh. The unit has an area of three lakh sq ft and has a capacity of scaling up to a million refrigerators in three phases. Production has already started with the company launching its direct cool refrigerators and colour televisions. Maharaja already has a unit in Baddi which it uses to manufacture its line of home appliances including irons, mixer grinders and wet grinders.

The company is also looking at technical tie-ups in the South-East Asian and European countries as it quickens its plans to launch LCDs, automatic washing machines and frost-free refrigerators by March 2008. “We are on the look out for a minority joint venture in these areas,” said Mr Kumar.

Distribution network

Maharaja has a strong distribution network of 350 distributors and retails its products across almost 15,000 outlets across the country. “The modern retail scenario is really heating up. We already have a presence in Big Bazaar, Croma, Home Solutions and Reliance outlets. With more coming up we expect as much as 50 per cent of our overall turnover in the next two years to come from organised retail,” said Mr Kumar.

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