Somany Ceramics, one of the leading manufacturers of a range of tiles, sanitaryware and bathroom fittings will add at least 80 new showrooms in the country to push up the total to 250 pan-India by the end of the present fiscal, according to Sanjay Kalra, President (Sales & Marketing).
The outlets named Studio, Exclusive and Grande at present account for nearly 2 lakh sq.m of display area for the range of products (both company owned and franchisee) spread across the country. A good number of the new additions will be in South India, where the company intends to increase its presence, he told BusinessLine here recently.
Somany Ceramics, the Rs 1,600-crore turnover company, is looking at a manufacturing unit in the South. However, the location and scale of investment is yet to be finalised. The consumption of tiles is quite high in South India and the company is third in the market.
Referring to the domestic market size, Kalra said it is around Rs 22,000 crore, including the unorganised sector, which forms nearly 50 per cent.
Among the organised sector, Somany Ceramics has up to 16 per cent share. The capacity at present in the three units (two in Gujarat and one in Hissar, Haryana) and of the joint venture partners is about 54 million sq.mt. Plans are to increase this to 57-58 million sq.mt by the end of fiscal 2015-16.