Steelcase, a global player in office furniture, has big plans for the Indian market, as top corporate houses here are undergoing a makeover in their working environs.

Having been in India for the last few years, the $2.8 billion Michigan-based firm is setting up its first manufacturing facility in Pune to tap the potential in the domestic market. It is competing with companies such as Herman Miller and Heward.

“This will be our third manufacturing facility in Asia, the other two being in China and Malaysia. We have another facility in Japan through a joint venture. The Pune facility will be our 26th globally,” Mr Uli Gwinner, President, Steelcase Asia Pacific, told Business Line on Friday.

He was in the city to open its fourth Indian office in Hyderabad, outlining plans to move into other cities.

Without disclosing the investment or initial capacity for the Pune facility, he said it would be ready to bring out some models of the firm's portfolio in the seating segment by October this year. As of now, it will not go into its high-end products in the systems and technology verticals, which are currently being imported for the Indian market.

Its high-end technology products carry a price tag from anywhere between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 30 lakh a piece. These products connect different work stations in an office complex through technology.

Mr Gwinner estimates the Indian office furniture market in its category to be of the size of $150 to $200 million. “We are having about 16 product lines for the Indian market out of our global portfolio of about 300,” he said.

Currently, a major portion of its Indian revenue comes from high-end seating products, which have a price range of Rs 12,000 to Rs 3 lakh. It will be introducing its premium technology products as demand and awareness pick up.

>amitmitra@thehindu.co.in

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