The RK Somany Group flagship company Hindustan Sanitaryware and Industries Limited (HSIL) was eying a turnover of Rs2500 crore by 2014 thanks to strong sales in upper-middle and niche products, besides looking at acquisitions in spaces where it was currently not present.
The Rs375 crore company was investing Rs80 crore from internal accruals at its current 18000 tons per annum (tpa) facility at Hyderabad to scale it up to 24000 tpa by next fiscal.
The additional capacity would focus on products catering to the niche and upper-middle segments in the sanitaryware market.
While this segment was clocking an average growth of over 40 per cent for the last two years, HSIL's revenues from the segment grew by 60 per cent in the niche category and 50 per cent in the upper-middle segment last fiscal.
Its overall revenues grew by 26 per cent and the company enjoyed a 40 per cent market share across categories.
It had strategic tie-ups with the $1.5 billion Sanitec Group of Finland to market its flagship brand 'Keramag' here in India as well as tie-ups with leading Italian wellness products brand Tueco. HSIL had launched 250 models from its own stable in the upper-middle and niche segments in the last 18 months.
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It had three brands, 'Hindware' for basic products, 'Hindware Art' for the upper-middle segment and 'Hindware Italian' for niche segment products.
“We are also looking at acquiring brands in the segments where we are not present currently”, said N Venkat Ramana Reddy, general manager, sales, HSIL.
This apart, HSIL was planning to come up with 50 'Evoke' outlets, its retail chain brand, over the next two years with an investment of Rs10-12 crore per outlet as lifestyle stores exhibiting furniture, sanitaryware and wellness products.
It also planned to increase the number of dealer outlets in the shop-in-shop format to 500 within one year from 100 now.
HSIL had a dealer base of 1000 and a chain of 12000 retailers. It could identify some of these to develop them into 'Arcades' and 'Boutiques' to cater to the upper market segment in metros.
The company was eying a 30-35 per cent overall growth this year, and expected its niche segment to grow by 75 per cent while basic or Hindware segment contributed around 50 per cent of net revenue now.
Topline was boosted mainly by the sale of high-end products, Reddy said.
The R K Somany Group had interests in sanitaryware, furniture,wellness products, lifestyle retail chain, and Glass.
AGA Glass Pack, south India based manufacturer of glass bottles, was also set for a major expansion drive as it planned to come up with a new plant at Hyderabad with an investment of Rs 800 crore to be funded by a mix of debt and equity.
The group turnover was Rs 567 crore last year.