H&R Johnson in revamp mode

Spruces up Dewas, Kunigal units

H&R Johnson (India) Ltd, one of India's leading tile companies, is ramping up its manufacturing units in Dewas in Madhya Pradesh and Kunigal in Karnataka with an investment of over Rs 50 crore.

The company plants to additonal production facilities. Both the plants will primarily focus on manufacturing niche products and exterior tiles. The products will br marketed under its Endura brand.

This move is part of the company's overall target to achieve Rs 1,000 crore turnover by March 2008.

"Our investments at Dewas and Kunigal units comes at a time when we are on the threshold of making the huge leap to become the first Indian tile company to cross Rs 1,000-crore turnover mark. The investments are part of our strategy to focus on niche and industrial products.

"The entire investmnts is financed through internal accruals. Our total capacity across all our four plants is 3.6 lakh tonne per annum. The capacity at Dewas and Kunigal will be increased to 90,000 tonne per annum. This is 25 per cent of our overall capacity." Vijay Aggarwal, managing director, H & R Johnson (India) Ltd told Business Standard.

The company is also expanding its product portfolio and will offer niche tiling solutions. Among the unique offerings to be launched include niche products for pavements and cladding applications; a specialised range for industrial floorings with anti-corrosion properties; heavy duty products with anti abrasion and anti-scratch properties as well as a specialised product range for swimming pool applications.

The company is planning an array of brand-building activities and scaling up of its distribution network to market these unique offerings. It will make an investment of over Rs 5 crore for the promotiona of the Endura brnad.

"All manufacturing operations at Dewas and Kunigal will be primarily focused at providing these niche solutions. We are building a separate distribution network which will primarily cater to the niche marketing needs of the Endura division. While the sales focus will be basically on projects as well as category A and B class towns, efforts will also be made to scale-up sales of these products in C class cities too," said Vijay Aggarwal.