German battery maker enters Gujarat market

Ansmann Energy, a leading German manufacturer of batteries, battery charging and power supply technology, has entered the Indian market.

Goldstone Imaging, a specialist digital imaging company, will market Ansmann batteries, battery charging and power supply technology products across India and is already launching these across Gujarat.

"We are launching the complete range of rechargeable and alkaline batteries and chargers into India first in Delhi and across Gujarat and have started to place these products into the market," said Aparna Jain, head of marketing & finance, Goldstone Imaging (P) Ltd.

On Gujarat, Jain said,"Ansmann wants to target tier II and tier II cities and Gujarat is one such ideal market with so many of its cities meeting the company's requirements. Also the market in Gujarat is both product and price-driven and we were looking for such a mixed market to distribute the product. We are already receiving some good feedback from our distributors." The company expects a sales volume of 50 crore for rechargeable batteries alone by the end of the year.

Goldstone has already tied up with 25 distributors across the state. However, Ansmann has not specified any sales target in the agreement signed with Goldstone. All Ansmann batteries and chargers are available with at least a one-year warrantee, a first in the country.

"The rechargeable battery market size in India is estimated to be Rs 50 crore but suffers from a huge grey market. The organised sector barely comprises 25 per cent of the total market size. The organised sector is expected to grow 100 per cent year-on-year. We also expect to capture 25 per cent of the organised sector market share and 30 per cent for the mobile battery market in 2007," added Jain.

She said the sales of digital cameras itself, which was four lakh last year, was expected to touch 1.2 million in 2007.