Whirlpool of India to invest Rs 200 crore; increase production

Home appliances maker Whirlpool of India is looking to invest about Rs 200 crore in the next three years on technological innovations and to increase production capacity.

The company, a subsidiary of Whirlpool Cooperation, is eyeing a 25 % market share by 2020 on the back of new product offerings such as water purifier, air purifier, dishwasher and other small domestic appliance.

"In the next three years, we are looking forward to putting in close to Rs 200 crore, part of which will be on increasing capacity and part of it will be on energy related manufacturing processes and technological innovations, Whirlpool of India VP Marketing Kapil Agarwal told PTI.

The consumer durable firm, whose majority of revenue comes from refrigerators and washing machine is working on entering smaller cities with its wide range of products.

Right now, we are present in over 1 lakh population towns and soon we will also be offering our products in towns with 50,000 population, Agarwal said.

Currently, the company, which produces about two million fridge annually and over 1 million washing machines, feels it is running neck to neck in terms of demand.

"In the next 3-5 years, we are looking at consolidating our position and eyeing $1 billion revenue and what we are also looking at is 25 % market share by 2020," Agarwal said.

The company has two refrigeration plant at Faridabad and Pune and washing machine plant in Pondicherry.

Agarwal said manufacturing capacity will go up and the capacity related investments will happen in the next three years.

"We are expanding presence in other categories as well like dishwasher, built-in range of products, water and air purifier and small domestic appliances," he added.