Kolkata: Groupe SEB, Europe’s leading small appliances maker, plans to invest Rs 100 crore in local manufacturing and roll out 100 products in the country by 2016 after having acquired complete ownership of Maharaja Whiteline, top officials said.
Maharaja Whiteline, a Delhi-based small appliances maker founded in 1976, is being renamed Groupe SEB India. The brand will stay alive.”The Maharaja Whiteline brand will continue in India. All we need to do is remove the dust and revitalise the brand,” said Sunil Wadhwa, CEO at Groupe SEB India.
It will also bring in popular global brand Tefal range of cookware over the next 15 months. “We will have this dual brand strategy in India -Tefal will operate in the premium segment competing with Philips, while Maharaja Whiteline will be in the mass segment competing with the Indian brands,” Wadhwa said.
Groupe SEB, which on its website says sells six prod ucts every second across 150 countries, targets to be among the top three small appliances players in India. Bajaj, Phi lips, Panasonic and Havells are the lead ing brands in the Rs 7,000-crore small appliances market in the country.
Groupe SEB had ac quired a majority 55% stake in Maharaja Whiteline in 2011. This year it bought the remaining 45% from promoter Harish Kumar and family . It has transferred a couple of senior executives from its global operations to help turn around the Indian operations: Em manuel Serot Almeras will head marketing as vice-president while Calogera Franchina will handle operations and is in charge of modernising its manufacturing plant in Baddi that will make customised products for India.
Groupe SEB plans to expand its product portfolio with focus on air coolers, room heaters, garment care such as garment steamer and steam iron, hand blenders, juicers, mixer-grinder and rice cookers.
Maharaja Whiteline had last fiscal clocked revenues of Rs 120 crore.Groupe SEB wants it to double this year and retain this growth rate to achieve Rs 1,000-crore sales by 2017.
Almeras said the company will triple its dealership base in next three years to one lakh stores while the number of service centres will be doubled to 300 in two years. “We will launch 100 new products across categories by 2016, all designed and manufactured in India,” he said.
