Voltas to invest Rs 1,000 crore on its home appliance foray

Tata group firm Voltas and its Turkish JV partner Arcelik would invest Rs 1,000 crore in the next four-five years to set up a home appliances plant in Gujarat, and in marketing activities, a top company official said.

The company is looking to corner around 10 per cent of the market share and to generate a revenue of Rs 10,000 crore in the next seven-eight years in the home appliances segment, which is quite competitive now.

Voltas, which has formed a 50:50 JV -- Voltbek Home Appliances Pvt Ltd (Voltbek) -- with the Turkish firm, Thursday launched their home appliances brand 'Voltas Beko'.

Voltas Beko has a range of home appliances, which include refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves, and dishwashers. Besides, the company plans to add over 100 SKUs over the next three months.

"Over all we are investing more than Rs 1,000 crore in the next 4 to 5 years on manufacturing, sales and marketing of the products," Voltas Managing Director & CEO Pradeep Bakshi told PTI.

"We have already bought a land parcel of 60 acre in Sanand near Ahmedabad, where we are going to manufacture. We have already started civil works at factory and the products would be coming out by the second quarter of the next year," Bakshi further added.

Initially, Arcelik would supply major components to the JV for manufacturing but, gradually it would increase the localisation ratio.

"Some components would be imported but, the idea is over time to localise as much as possible," said Arcelik CEO Hakan Bulgurlu.

The company would also expand its dealership network and have a 360 degree approach, which include modern trade outlets, multi brand outlets, e-commerce and many more, Bakshi added.

"To begin with, in the next two years, we would add 10,000 additional outlets," he said adding Voltas would also "add 500 more exclusive brand outlets in the next two years and taking it to over 1,000 in next three-four years".

Presently, Voltas has around 100 exclusive brand outlets and around 70 per cent of its dealers selling its range of cooling products also deal in other product categories and this network would be utilised by the Tata Enterprise.

According to Bakshi, its range of home appliances would be "Value for money" and would cater all kind of segments in metro and tier II & III cities.

On being asked about the sales projections, Bakshi said, "We are looking at a revenue of Rs 10,000 crore by 2025 and have around 10 per cent market share in the segment."