The Hindu Business Line : Empire Home earmarks Rs 200 cr for expansion

Empire Home Appliances, promoted by the Maharaja International Group, is fine-tuning its strategies to popularise the Gem brand in the domestic market. The company has lined up Rs 200 crore to consolidate the brand, besides expanding its product portfolio. Gem, originally owned by the Kelvinator group, was acquired by the company last year.

“There is considerable effort to boost our production. The multi-product facility at Baddi has been put in place keeping backward integration in mind,” Mr Harish Kumar, Managing Director, Empire Home Appliances, told Business Line.

The unit has been established with an investment of Rs 100 crore. He said Gem will be positioned in the mid-market segment and is being developed especially for the urban and semi-urban areas.

“A lot of focus is on quality, innovation and pricing,” he said, adding the manufacturing facility will have the capacity to manufacture one million products including refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves and DVD players.

First phase

In the first phase, Empire plans to launch its range of air-conditioners and LCD TVs soon. It will source the components for its LCD TVs and HD DVDs from suppliers in South Korea and assemble them at its Baddi plant.

It is also looking at technical tie-ups in the South-east Asian and European countries. “We are on the look out for a minority joint venture in these areas and may rope in partners,” said Mr Kumar. The Gem brand has been rolled out in North and West India. “We will be spending Rs 40 crore toward a branding exercise.” The funding for the expansions will be mostly through internal accruals and debts. Asked if the company is eyeing exports, he said the Empire line will be exported to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and West Asia. Mr Kumar said the company is also working aggressively on a private label strategy as also supplying to original equipment manufacturers.

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