Ajanta to foray into vitrified tiles

To also manufacture VCD players, digital cameras, washing machines

The Morbi-based Ajanta Transistor Clock Manufacturing Company, a leading manufacturer of quartz watches and clocks, has decided to foray into the ceramic tiles segment in a big way. It will also start manufacturing digital video disc and video compact disc players, washing machines and digital cameras.

The company expects to commission a Rs 350-crore facility at Samakhiali in the Kutch district by December. The facility will house the country's largest ceramic tile manufacturing unit.

"We will commission the Samakhiali facility by December 2004. The manufacturing facility is already 70 per cent complete and, by January next year, Ajanta will have the country's largest vitrified tiles manufacturing plant in the country. Besides, completion of the new plant will also signal the company's foray into the DVD and VCD players, washing machines and digital cameras," said Jaysukh Patel, managing director of the company.

"The Samakhiali facility will have a capacity of manufacturing 30,000 square metres of tiles per day, though we will begin with a capacity of 10,000 square metres per day," said Patel.

He added that it will be a gas based tile manufacturing unit, as the Gujarat government is in the process of laying a gas pipeline right up to Kutch. "Our ultimate aim is to be the country's leader in vitrified tiles manufacturing, with a considerable share of sales coming from exports".

Patel said manufacture of electronic products will begin in 2005 and the brand name of these products is yet to be finalised. He added that the Morbi plant, which manufactures watches, clocks, calculators and the like, will continue to function.

Patel said that the group's turnover should touch Rs 700 crore by the 2005-06 and Rs 1000 crore by 2010. The turnover was Rs 500 crore in 2003-04.

Asked if the company had any plans of going public, Patel said: "Irrespective of how much the company grows, there are no plans of going public. This company is closely held and is run by a family and will continue to do so."

Eyes sales of 1 lakh CFLs

Ajanta Transistor Clock Manufacturing Company (ATCMC), which launched its Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) in December last year, aims to sell around two lakh units by the year end.

Over the past around eight months, ATCMC has strengthened its marketing and distribution network for CFLs.

Priced at almost half as compared to other branded CFLs available in the country, the Orpat Power Saver, the CFL brand of ATCMC, is currently being manufactured in 14 varieties, based on the wattage and luminescence.

"We first launched the brand with three varieties, but have increased these to 14 now," said Ravi Iyengar, CEO of the company. He added that Ajanta is the only company that provides a one year guarantee for lamps.

Iyengar said the company plans to sell two lakh units of the product on a daily basis by next year. He added that while the company has not launched sodium lamps, it will soon launch a product that will replace sodium lamps.

Company managing director Jaysukh Patel, while admitting that Chinese made CFL lamps, which are available in abundance in the country and are also very cheap, do pose a threat to the industry, said the Chinese lamps do not actually save energy, have no guarantee and do not last long. "We assure people that the Orpat Power Savers will save 80 per cent of the energy and their life cycle (how many times a lamp is switched on off) is 6000 or more," he said.