The Mahindra group has announced its entry into retailing of solar power based home appliances, meant primarily for the rural markets.

The industrial house believes the Mahindra name is popular in rural India, where the group’s flagship company, Mahindra & Mahindra, sells its tractors.

The group has coined a new brand tag ‘Mahindra Ekosol’ for the solar products. Sanjeev Malik, Business-Head, Mahindra Ekosol, told Business Line that the group kicks off the solar products business with five product lines — lanterns, home lighting systems, inverters, water pumps and street lighting systems. All these have been designed exclusively for Mahindra Ekosol and they would be manufactured for Mahindra by selected vendors.

Mahindra Ekosol is a business division (but with a separate balance-sheet, insists Malik) of Mahindra EPC Services Pvt Ltd. The parent company is among the larger players in the solar EPC space — it builds large-scale solar power plants for others. There are other companies in the group that put up drip irrigation systems, and sell UPS machines. As such, there is a large network that Mahindra Ekosol solar products could be sold through, Malik said.

>ramesh.m@thehindu.co.in

comment COMMENT NOW