Organised retail to help boost Voltas' sales

To ramp up production at Thane plant.

Voltas Ltd, the Rs 2,500 crore Tata Group-owned engineering firm, is planning to grow its material-handling equipment, mining and construction products business by focussing on the organised retail, construction, infrastructure and logistics sectors.

The company has introduced several indigenously designed and developed products to cater to these sectors like forklift trucks, tough terrain cranes and wheel-mounted crushing plants, being used in the iron ore mines.

According to Sanjay Johri, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Unitary Products Business Group of Voltas, the company is all set to ramp up production capacities at its plant in Thane for an investment of Rs 15 crore during the present year. The capacities are being increased for products like forklift trucks, power palette trucks, reach trucks, narrow aisle trucks and stackers.

The company, which is the licensed distributor of dump trucks and crushing plants of Terex of US, has indigenously designed and developed a wheel-mounted crushing plants for use in iron ore mines. Its products are presently used in the mines of Bellary-Hospet region in Karnataka and, Joda and Badbill mines in Orissa.

The company presently manufactures and markets low and medium-priced material handling equipment under its own brand as well as distributes high-end equipment imported from Hitachi and BT Industries Group, a Swedish firm recently acquired by Toyota.

Voltas products are available in battery, LPG and CNG versions, from 1.5 tonnes to 3 tonnes range, and in diesel, going as high as 45 tonnes. Voltas also manufactures P&H Omega Rough Terrain Hydraulic Mobile Cranes from 20-40 tonnes.

"Considering the demand from our customers for various machines, we are planning to manufacture low-end versions of some of the equipment from Hitachi. We intend to produce some of their machines in India and is planning to enter into a collaboration with them for a technology transfer," Johri said.

While the imported equipment from Hitachi are priced over Rs 11 lakh, locally-made machines by Voltas are priced in the range of Rs 9 lakh, he said.

The forklift truck market in the country is of the order of 4,500 units or Rs 450 crore per annum. Presently, Voltas sells 1,500 units, while its close competitor Godrej sells over 1,800 units.

Voltas is looking at 60-70 per cent growth in this segment as the organised retail industry is taking off in a big way, Johri said.

He said Voltas has also started manufacturing tough terrain cranes of 8-40 tonne capacity to cater to the construction industry.

Last year, the company sold 20 cranes to Reliance for their Jamnagar refinery and has already sold 16 cranes in the first six months of the present year.

The mining and construction division of Voltas is expecting a turnover of Rs 200 crore in 2007-08, a growth of 7.5 per cent over the last year. Voltas as a whole, has seen a growth of 33 per cent in its topline during the first half of the present year.