Bosch group firm looks at market expansion in India

The company expects to increase its market share in the front loading washing machine segment

BSH Household Appliances Manufacturing Pvt Ltd, a part of German home appliance major Bosch, expects its share in the front-loading washing machine market to rise to 15-20 per cent in the estimated market size of 600,000 units in the segment this year.

The company, which has a manufacturing facility in Chennai, is also looking to expand its exclusive retail brand store in India.

BSH Household, which was started as a joint venture between Bosch and Siemens, is fully-owned by Bosch, as the latter chose to sell its 50 per cent holding in the JV to the partner.

According to the agreement, the company retains the brand Siemens in household appliances and is planning to categorise it as its premium product range while Bosch brand would be for mass products.

It has its facility in Pallikaranai, near here, where it manufactures the front loading washing machine, mainly for the Indian market and partly for exports.

Gunjan Srivastava, managing director and CEO of BSH Household Appliances, said, “Washing machine is our biggest category. The estimate is that the market size of front load washing machine would be of 600,000 units this year and we are aiming for 15-20 per cent of the market this year.”

Last year, it had a market share of over 10 per cent out of the 550,000 units. It started manufacturing front-loading machines at the Chennai facility in September, last year. The plant has a capacity to produce over 300,000 front loading washing machines, while the plans for the products to be manufactured in the rest of the facility is to be finalised. The company has an investment commitment of around Rs 300-350 crore for its facility in Chennai, spread across 42 acres, over a period of five years. A part of it has already been invested, he said.

The plan is to completely utilise the facility, once it knows which products it will launch in India, based on the market demand and other parameters he said.

At present, almost 80 per cent of production from the facility is for the Indian market. It plans to export to the Asia Pacific and West Asia. “We have already exported to countries like Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Malaysia,” said Srivastava.

The company would also look at a co-maker or to outsource manufacturing without compromising the quality, depending upon factors like proximity to the target markets.

It currently has a presence across over 200 cities, in India and the strongest presence is in South. It has after sales service in over 300 cities. It also has around 20 exclusive brand stores for Siemens and another 14 for Bosch.

Launching an exclusive retail brand store for Bosch in Chennai, Srivastava said that the company is looking at a total of 50 stores, including both the brand stores by the end of this year, of which a larger share would be Bosch exclusive brand stores.