• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Mr Shantanu Das Gupta

Bindu D. Menon

New Delhi, Oct. 21 Home appliance maker Whirlpool of India will be investing around $15 million (Rs 70 crore approx) for strengthening its research and development. The company, which achieved a turnaround after being in the red, said its restructuring exercise and thrust on product innovations had helped it to break even.

“We will be investing heavily into research and development in the next 12-18 months besides entering high growth categories such as microwave and water purifiers. The funds will be drawn mainly from internal accruals,” Mr Shantanu Das Gupta, Vice-President Marketing, Whirlpool of India, told Business Line.

The company’s turnover for April 2007-March 2008 stood at Rs 1,971 crore and it saw a growth of nearly 21 per cent over the corresponding period a year ago. Whirlpool posted a net profit of Rs 446 crore for the first quarter of 2008-2009, a 198-per cent increase over the same period last year.

He said the company will be increasing its thrust in the high-growth categories such as microwaves, water purifiers and built-in kitchens. “Though refrigerators and washing machines will remain our bread and butter, we will focus on other growing product categories as well."

It plans to strengthen its existing business and targets a 25 per cent market share in the refrigerator segment, 20 per cent for washing machines and 10 per cent for microwave ovens. Whirlpool has three manufacturing facilities and products from the facilities are exported across the globe.

The company is betting big on design engineering and has set up regional technology centres at Pune and Puducherry for refrigerators and washing machines. A design and development centre for its global small appliances brand Kitchenaid has also been set up at Puducherry.

On the rising input costs, Mr Das Gupta said the company had undertaken a price revision in the last two quarters. “We are currently not looking at a price correction,” he said.

More Stories on : Strategy | Consumer Electronics | Research & Development

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line