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Turkish company Arcelik, which is foraying into the Indian home appliance sector in a joint-venture with Voltas Ltd, believes India could become its largest market in the next few years. This joint venture also marks the re-entry of Voltas into the home appliance category after nearly two decades.
The new company called Voltbek Home Appliances Pvt Ltd, an equal partnership joint venture, plans to launch over 100 models across refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves/ovens and dishwashers over the next three months under the brand Voltas Beko.
Hakan Bulgurlu, CEO of Arçelik, said, “India is by far one of the most-promising markets and I would expect India to become our largest market in terms of share of sales in the next 5-10 years. India is expected to see an explosive growth of the middle income households, which is one of the main drivers for growth of the appliances sector globally.”
He added, “We believe the technology we develop here in India will be applicable in many other parts of the world. We believe there is also a potential to export products manufactured in our factory here.” Voltbek will invest about ₹1,000 crore in the next 4-5 years to set up its manufacturing factory in Gujarat, ramp up its distribution, marketing and sales promotion activities.
Pradeep Bakshi, Managing Director & CEO, Voltas Ltd, said, “We have set a long-term target to clock revenues of about ₹10,000 crore by 2025 and looking to have a 10 per cent market share in the segment.”
Bakshi said that while the company is initially relying on imports, Voltbek will start manufacturing direct cool refrigerators and semi-automatic washing machines by the second quarter of next fiscal. It will ramp up this further by making small and mid-sized frost free refrigerators and fully-automatic top load washing machines.
Asked about the challenges of the currency fluctuations, he said that the company will ensure its products are competitively priced and the focus will be offering value for money.
Talking about the distribution strategy for the brand, the Voltas chief said, “We already have a large base of partners and reach of about 15,000 outlets. In the next two years, we will ramp it up to about 25,000 outlets. Our endeavour is to cover 75 per cent of the channel width in the next few years.”
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