Versuni India unveiled its new manufacturing facility at Bavla near Ahmedabad where the company will be manufacturing Philips Airfryers for the first time in India.
Formerly known as Philips Domestic Appliances, the new unit of Versuni in Gujarat will have an annual manufacturing capacity to produce 5 lakh air fryers in Phase 1. This can be scaled up to 10 lakh units in Phase 2 when the company also plans to start manufacturing 2 lakh Garment Steamers. So far, the company has been importing Airfryers for the Indian market.
“Today around 70 percent of the products that we market to consumers in India are produced in the country. We aim to increase this to 90 percent in the coming years thanks to the strategic decision to open up a new factory in Ahmedabad,” said Henk de Jong, CEO, Versuni during his visit to the new facility on Wednesday.
The unit in Ahmedabad is the company’s second manufacturing unit in India after Chennai where it manufacturer mixer grinders.
‘Crispy and Tasty’
According to Jong, Philips Airfryers were innovated in 2010 and were launched in the Indian market in 2012. “Airfryers saves you 17 percent electricity and the outcome (food) is very crispy and tasty,” he added.
The Airfryers will be manufactured at a fully integrated automatic robotic coating line at the unit spread over 23,000 square meters of land at Gallops Industrial Park at Bavla. The company did not disclose the investment figures in Gujarat. “We are going to produce the Airfryers locally, wherein 75 percent of the components are sourced locally. We want to continue on this journey and shortly we will be localising the remaining 25 percent of the component,” said Gulbahar Taurani, MD and CEO of the company in India.
Taurani said that the household penetration for airfryers in India is just 0.3 percent and for garment steamers it is about 3 percent. “We are committed in driving the penetration and revolutionising these categories,” he added. The company has about 20 percent market share in the small appliances market in India.
The company anticipates the creation of more than 1000 jobs within the community over the next three years. These positions will span various fields including engineering, manufacturing, logistics, quality control and administrative jobs.