The Rs 5,000-crore Godrej & Boyce is looking at new innovations and services to drive its manufacturing business.

While its largest division of appliances is getting ready to launch a TV-cum-computer, the furniture division under the Interio brand is planning a new set of carpenter-oriented services under the brand name of U 'n Us.

Speaking to Business Line , Mr Jamshyd N. Godrej, Chairman, Godrej & Boyce, said, “Today all our businesses are about innovation. In the furniture business we are getting in carpenters for designing a whole range of customised furniture with a ‘family of parts', which will be supplied by us. These services will be pegged on par with what a carpenter normally charges and will be delivered much faster and efficiently under a branded service of U 'n Us.”

At present, the Rs 1,000-crore Interio division is offering this service on an experimental basis at a single store in Thane. The company's erstwhile association with carpenters for its locks division is being leveraged to bring in a network of carpenters who can now offer their services at the Interio stores.

Contracts

Besides, Interio has moved beyond home and office and has bagged contracts from the Indian Navy (for supplying ship cabin furniture) and even new hospitals and R&D laboratories for providing customised furniture. “There are new segments which have been added in the Interio division and we moved beyond home, office and kitchens,” said Mr Godrej.

Meanwhile, its Rs 2,000-crore appliances division is entering the competitive television category and innovation will be the key to survive in this segment.

“As we have entered late into televisions, we want to offer something different. Right now we are working on a television which can also work as a computer. Consumers will have the option of e-mail and the Internet through their television sets,'' claims Mr. Godrej. Currently, its televisions are being test marketed across four states.

The innovative Chotukool refrigerators (pegged between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 that can run on electricity as well as solar batteries), designed for the rural markets and currently being distributed by India Post, is also expected to have further applications in places such as cars, buses and trucks and even reach out to the urban markets with time.

As Mr Godrej says, “The eventual marketing plan for Chotukool would include the entire mobility chain as the product can be used in cars, buses and trucks. There will also be an urban market for the product but first we would be trying out the product in the rural market and also understand the regional markets before we move out of Maharashtra.”

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