Orient Electric, part of the diversified CK Birla Group, is planning to augment manufacturing capacity for fans. The company is planning to set up a greenfield unit in South India to meet its market demand in the region.
The exact location for the unit is yet to be finalised. It already operates two fan manufacturing units in the country, one each at Kolkata (West Bengal) and Faridabad (Haryana).
The company also has three units for lighting, switchgear and other products. The existing fan manufacturing units give a combined capacity of 10-11 million units a year with an installed capacity to make 12 million units annually. The plants at Kolkata and Faridabad have a capacity to make five-six million units a year.
Even the proposed greenfield unit will be a world-class facility with five-six million unit capacity. The manufacturing plant will cater to both domestic (pan-India) and export markets. The company is exploring Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for this new unit.
The proposed manufacturing unit will also have a research and development (R&D) facility either within the unit or near the unit. Orient Electric will make a decision on the location in the next six months after evaluating the strengths of each prospective site.
The consumer electrical products company has manufacturing capabilities and presence spanning over 40 countries. In the domestic market, it has created a distribution network of over 4,000 dealers, 1.15 lakh retail outlets and a service network covering over 450 cities.