Air-conditioner manufacturer Blue Star is planning to set up a unit in South India at an expected investment of Rs 150 crore by December 2016, a company official said here.
“We have seen some places in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu to set up our new production unit. We are going to choose a place by September and start work to commission the project by December 2016, hopefully,” Blue Star Executive Director B Thiagarajan told reporters here.
This will be the company’s eighth unit in the country.
The company is also thinking of manufacturing deep freezers and water coolers from the unit, he said.
The firm’s manufacturing units right now have an installed capacity to roll out four lakh room ACs annually, he said adding that the current manufacturing capacity is not sufficient to meet the growing demand of room ACs.
Thiagarajan said the demand for ACs will shoot up to 10 lakhs per annum by 2020 and that is why they want to set up the new production unit by December next year.
He pegged the sale of room ACs in the country annually at 37.5 lakh units and said they are hopeful of grabbing 9.5 per cent share of sale in the current fiscal.
Blue Star did a business of Rs 2,800 crore in 2013-14, he added.