New Delhi based Rs 300 crore consumer electronics manufacturer Maharaja Appliances has chalked out a two pronged strategy to penetrate the consumer market by starting first with small appliances and then going into the white goods segment.
As the Group Managing Director, Harish Kumar said distributors and retailers have expressed confidence in the brand and that is important in the business.
In the first phase, it would expand the product range of the Rs150 crore small appliances Maharaja, which sells the Whiteline brand of products.
The second part of the strategy is more ambitious as it intends to go into the bigger white goods segment competing with the Korean majors like LG and Samsung that have a strong grip over the Indian market.
The Maharaja group will launch its Gem brand of colour televisions, liquid crystal display screens, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, audio and video products through Empire Home Appliances Limited.
“We want to be present in every household and in every room in a household,” Kumar said.
Acquiring the popular yesteryear’s refrigerator brand Gem from Electrolux a couple of years back, Empire Home has soft launched refrigerators in North India with the tag line `Gem of your life.’
“Gem is being positioned as a value-for-money brand. The pricing will be close to competition but the products will offer more functionality,” says Kumar.
Empire Home has budgeted Rs20 crore towards brand promotion and has roped in television star Shweta Tewari as its brand ambassador.
The company will soon launch the first 240-litre side by side refrigerator.
Investing around Rs100 crore the company has setup a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh to make one million refrigerators and two lakh washing machines per annum.
The colour televisions, LCDs will be sourced from Beltek India in which the group has acquired 50 per cent stake for an undisclosed sum.
Meanwhile flagship company Maharaja Appliances will shortly launch products under cooling, heating and lighting appliances categories.
The company will start selling room coolers, popularly referred to as desert coolers, ceiling fans, geysers, instant water heaters, auto-ignition gas stoves, steam irons and compact fluorescent lamps.
Reaching 16,000 retailers through 254 distributors in India, Maharaja Appliances is trying to deepen its market penetration further by tying up with the two major petroleum marketing companies, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.
Under the deal, 9,900 cooking gas dealers (5200 dealers from Hindustan Petroleum and 4700 from Bharat Petroleum) will distribute small appliances from Maharaja.
