Chennai-based Nadi Group, engaged in manufacture and export of industrial fans, and the US-based Antunes, a leading privately-owned manufacturer of filtration systems and cooking equipment, have formed 35:65 joint venture – Antunes Nadi Manufacturing India Pvt Ltd – to make and sell the latter’s products in the Indian market.
The JV will initially have an assembly operation at Nadi Group’s manufacturing campus at Madhavaram near Chennai. A new production line that has been created for the JV will be launched in the next few days. The first shipment from the unit will commence before the end of March.
“The initial capital will be small, but it will eventually be increased to $5 million. The assembly operations will initially employ 20-25 people,” JB Kamdar, Chairman & Managing Director of Nadi Group, told a group of reporters here.
Charity outreach
In the first phase, the JV will enable Splash, a non-profit organisation and an affiliate of Antunes, to expand its charitable outreach throughout India. The factory will produce high-quality water filtration systems to provide clean drinking water for children in schools and communities in Kolkata through Splash, which has installed more than 1,000 water filtration systems across the world.
Once the manufacturing stabilises, it will expand to other states including Tamil Nadu with the help of Splash and other service organisations. So, it will be more of a CSR focus for filtration systems in the initial years.
However, the JV, in the next phase, will focus on producing cooking equipment meant for commercial organisations such as QSRs (quick service restaurants), hotels, restaurants and other organisations. It has been supplying its cooking equipment to popular brands such as McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King and KFC, among others.
“Though we were selling our equipment in India through distributors or partnerships, this is our full-fledged foray into the Indian market. We are known for our custom built solutions,” said Daniel Schmidt, Director – Strategic Operations, Antunes.
Antunes has been in operation for more than 6o years, and it has a wide portfolio of food service equipment, specialising in countertop cooking and water filtration solutions.