Haier India aims to become a billion-dollar company and be among the top three brands in the home appliances segment by 2020.
The company, which has completed 15 years here, says India has emerged as the highest contributing international market for brand Haier. Besides Haier, the Chinese durable major owns a cluster of seven brands including GE Appliances, Fisher & Paykel, Aqua and Candy globally.
Haier India is setting up its second industrial park at Greater Noida with an investment of about ₹3,070 crore, for which the ground breaking ceremony was held on Friday.
Eric Braganza, President, Haier India, said: “This will be one of the largest industrial parks and will give a huge boost to our production capacity in India. It will have an annual production capacity of 2 million refrigerators, which will enable us to double our overall refrigerators production capacity in India.” Nearly 40 per cent of the company’s annual turnover is contributed by refrigerators currently.
The new plant will also have an annual capacity to produce 1.5 million washing machines and 1 million air-conditioners. The plant is expected to begin operations by next year-end.
Sales growth
“We believe by next year our manufacturing facility at Pune will be running at 100 per cent capacity. Hence this manufacturing capacity expansion will be crucial for us to support our ambition to grow our sales,” said Braganza.
The company will also be setting up an R&D centre at Greater Noida. “While we have a small R&D set-up in Pune, the major support for R&D was coming from our parent company. Now, we will be investing in our own R&D centre at the Greater Nodia facility,” he added.
Talking about the company’s journey in India, Braganza said, “Our focus has been on bringing innovative products that meet the Indian consumers’ needs, whether it was bringing in the bottom-mounted refrigerators or launching the washing machines range that can operate in near zero pressure water conditions.” Besides focusing on bringing innovations in its existing categories, the company will look at making a play in the smart home automation segment next year.