Blue Star takes up expansion work at plant in Maharashtra

Chennai, Feb 25 (): Air-conditioners maker Blue Starhas taken up expansion work at its facility in Wada inMaharashtra and expects to commission it sometime this year, atop official said on Tuesday. The company has planned to spend around Rs 120 crore fortaking up the expansion, the firm's managing director BThiagarajan said.After unveiling a new range of air-conditioners under'D', 'Q' and 'Y' series priced from Rs 31,990, he toldreporters that "It is a deep freezer factory (in Wada). Thereis also going to be a research and development unit." To a query on the company's earlier proposal to set upa plant in Jammu and Kashmir, he said they exited J and Kdue to the poor demand for the company's products. "We will be investing Rs 120 crore for setting up a unitin Sri City near Chennai in the first phase. There may bethree phases," Thiagarajan said, adding the total capacity ofplant would be around half-a-million units (of air-conditioners). To set up the facility and to avail tax benefits, thecompany may float a subsidiary in partnership with Sri City. Thiagarajan said the company would be able to save aboutfour per cent on logistics cost as Sri City unit whichis expected to commence operations in 2022, would serve thesouthern states. On the target sales for 2020, he said the company expectsto sell about 6.50 lakh units and for next year it hasprojected 7.50 lakh units. Thiagarajan said the company increased the fund allottedto take up marketing campaigns from Rs 55 crore to Rs 65 crorethis year and also hike Research and Development spending toRs 45 crore from Rs 35 crore. According to Thiagarajan, 60 per cent of revenue was fromroom air-conditioners and remaining from other commercialbusinesses. The company has set a target of reaching 15 per centmarket share by FY2024 (from the present 12.75 per cent). Blue Star Ltd recorded a revenue of Rs 5,200 crore lastyear and has five manufacturing facilities across the country. On the launch of range of new products, a new televisioncommercial with company brand ambassador and ace cricketerVirat Kohli was also unveiled on the occasion. VIJNVG NVG